But, all things aside I finished in the top 20 (tied 17th) which is not bad at all. My other two highest finishes were when I placed 4th at NJIT, and 3rd at an admittedly low-turnout King of the Couch in Morristown. I can confidently say that my play has improved from last year. I don’t wake up unsafely as much I used to. I still have my issues with defense (I get grabbed easily and my blocking isn’t fully solid yet) however I have gotten better at avoiding some situations. On the other side of the coin, my offense has experienced the same growth. I am trying to make the transition from being a brawler to a more refined fighter. Yes, it’s a slow one with no real metric in which to measure your success, but I’ve noticed I have been winning a bit more in ranked matches online.

I finally made a return to Next Level for the big Two tournament series. I get there, I’m excited to play, but then, just my luck, I get to play a Spam ‘Rog and his cheap El Fuerte on stream . Overall, I didn’t do too bad, but I see that the potential here. I looked way better here than I did at Apex, but I’m still too inconsistent. I missed a few key punishes but I reacted well in some situations. If you’re wondering how I did in the overall tournament, I was blown up I haven’t gone 0-2 in a while so it was refreshing to be put down for once. That means I still have work to do, but just where do I get started?

Fortunately for me, Shoryuken has many posts on how to level up your game. I have been following them when I am in the lab, however I’ve just been playing online more to see what people are doing and get a feel of what I should be doing with my character. I just don’t feel that I have enough experience versus some characters or situations. Top players have been in some fight situations over and over again, and they just know what to do without wasting time to think about it. Me? I have to think. I’m also not able to accurately manage my meters without looking constantly. I still find myself peeking when I’m mid fight. I feel that if I can get better, more intuitive with my H.U.D. management then I can do things like make better reads on my opponent by looking at his life bar, super meter or even time with ease. I’ll also be able to mentally access my situations a bit better. I think the only cure for that is experience, so I have resolved to try and make it out to more local tournaments.

I think with more practice, I’ll build up the muscle memory required to not drop combos too often. I’ve made some progress, I just need to work out the kinks. I do not easily spook under pressure, it doesn’t affect me much, so I know that isn’t the problem. I however need to be able to take my comfortable, casual state of high-level play to tournaments. The transition seems to be giving me a hard time and I think that leads to my erratic play sometimes. I’ll keep working at it!

In any case, like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on getting better. Tweet to me guys!

“The Bandwagon Effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with “the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have already done so”.As more people come to believe in something, others also “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence. The tendency to follow the actions or beliefs of others can occur because individuals directly prefer to conform, or because individuals derive information from others. Both explanations have been used for evidence of conformity in psychological experiments. For example, social pressure has been used to explain Asch’s conformity experiments, and information has been used to explain Sherif’s autokinetic experiment.

When individuals make rational choices based on the information they receive from others, economists have proposed that information cascades can quickly form in which people decide to ignore their personal information signals and follow the behavior of others. Cascades explain why behavior is fragile—people understand that they are based on very limited information. As a result, fads form easily but are also easily dislodged. Such informational effects have been used to explain political bandwagons.”

Thanks Wikipedia <3

Note the first sign.

We’ve all seen this in action so many times before. When a team catches a hot streak at the right time everyone suddenly a fan of said team. Stadiums are full and once cheap tickets are now super expensive. If you want to see it in everyday life look at all the ‘new’ Yankees or Giants fans (sorry, I’ve never been a big football guy, but I did like the Chargers in the Junior Seau days) that pop up whenever the team is competing for the c’hip (or championship). For the purposes of this article, I’ll use three really good examples: The Miami Heat once they signed Chris Bosh and Lebron, The L.A. Clippers once they got Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups and the Golden State Warriors when they made that incredible play off run that produced highlights such as this.

After that dunk, Warriors tickets became the new thing for everyone. The Clippers are currently going through the same thing. This phenomenon is not just limited to sports, or politics, it also extends into the gaming world. Allow me to give you some background before I rage the hell out.

In fighting games picking a character is a much like picking a tool box. There are different tools in each of them for different situations, but they all serve the purpose of winning the match for your character. In most competitive games (especially fighters) people tend to pick their characters, teams, weapons, etc in usually one of three ways.

The first type of player picks by character loyalty. This means they simply like the character design so much that they play as that fighter/race/whatever for that reason alone. These people will usually use the same character over the course of multiple installments of a game. It’s like those die hard sports fans who like their team even if they’re horrible or someone who likes a band that everyone thinks is terrible. The second type of people pick their character based on whether the character-in-question’s play style fits in with their current skill level. For example, in my early Street Fighter IV days, starting off with a complex character like C.Viper wasn’t a good idea because at the time I didn’t have the execution required to play her effectively. This skill-based approach to choosing also leads them to experiment with other characters after they get to a certain level of proficiency with their main character. The third and final type are the people who pick characters because they are easier to win with, or ‘high tier’ ones, meaning they have attributes that outrank a considerable number of characters in the roster. While this may seem shameless, it is in fact a valid strategy. In the end, the game is about winning, so you pick whoever gives you the best chance of winning.

Teaching them early, huh pal?

With that said, you’d think things would be pretty cut and dry, right? No, they aren’t. In fact, there is a fourth shadow group no one wants to admit they are a part of. The assholes are called the bandwagoners. These are the people who I despise the most. “But Phire”, you ask, “Why all the hate towards the bandwagon?” Simply put, for the fact that these are the same people who, to use a fighter as an example, will talk about how bad your character is, how weak/low-tier they are and how you need to switch them. However, if something changes or new tech is found, they’ll jump on that character too and talk about how good they are with everyone else. Of course, if you confront them, they will deny they ever said anything negative about them and claim that they had “played them before”. Come on. It’s like they just saw the ugly girl from High School hit her stride, become hot and they’re the first in line, claiming they always had a crush on her.

No one was there for these days in Vanilla 4 or Super Turbo.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well since I started playing the SFIV series I’ve watched my Cammy develop from an ’0-2 and out’ champion to something actually kind of dangerous. With the new 2012 patch, Cammy is no longer nerfed to hell. I remember in the original Arcade Edition when they took her dive kick I was about to commit seppuku and find a new main (had my mind set on Yun at the time) but I decided to stick it out with her, and my patience paid off becuase now, I like the way she plays. But now I’m seeing Cammy players popping up EVERYWHERE claiming to have a good one, which 90% of the time they really don’t. They lose to characters that they should be beating, and when fighting against Cammy they lose horribly. Playing online, I tend to win the mirror matches because 80% of the time I know what I’m looking for, what to watch out for, I’m not doing anything stupid, because I know how she works. This is the main problem with bandwagoners, because they really don’t understand the character they’re choosing. They will see videos, or watch some matches and say “Oh man that’s so cheap, I want to do that too!”. So they practice that set of moves, go out to try, then lose to high level players who know their bandwagon character is fraudulent or they lose via being counter-picked because they have NO match up experience.

Even he wasn't safe from Bandwagon fans after death.

Having beaten several ‘Cammy’ players far worse than I should have, in situations that wouldn’t have happened (like misjudging her drill distance) if these people actually knew her well enough to call their play style ‘unique’(which most bandwagoners do by default) we wouldn’t have this problem. I personally feel that people should just pick either what they like, or what they are most comfortable with and just play the game. I think it would make for a better game overall because we’d have more diversity rather than cookie cutter clones of a particular character and play style. Newsflash: This ultimately serves you and the community no purpose, because you aren’t choosing a character you’re invested in, you’re just trending. However, this may be part of a larger problem as a whole with players who aren’t willing to do any work to win popping up in large numbers. I’ll examine that next time.

In January of 2012 I found a game on Steam called Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon by Vicious Cycle Software. One of my friends previously owned the game on console and was raving about it nonstop, so I thought I would give it a try. Well, after trying it out for myself, let me say that I am both surprised and disappointed. What surprised me the most was how good the combat actually was. Honestly, I was really expecting nothing more than another rehashed modern day arcade shooter. Instead, what I received was a 3rd-person shooter that allowed me the unexpected freedom to navigate and shoot in a limited open-world environment. Another great thing about the game is the way the story was presented. In terms of atmosphere, one of the best things about this game was the fact that It made me feel like I was in the middle of a Science Fiction B-movie from the 60′s.

Another thing I definitely I liked about the game was the fact that it wasn’t a hallway shooter filled with 5 minutes of game play broken up by cutscenes after each objective. Each level in EDF:IA is huge, fully destructible, and open ended enough that I was able to change and go through different routes to accomplish the same goal. These three factors add more to the game in terms of tactics than any other modern shooter, making this game more than just a ‘simple’ arcade shooter.Customization with each of the classes was another thing I enjoyed. There are 4 classes to choose from: Jet Armor, Tactical Armor, Trooper Armor, and Battle Armor. Each class has their own upgrade system and weapons that can be used, with a ton of weapons for each that you can unlock by two methods: Playing the game and leveling up, or by earning credits that can be spent to unlock more weapons. Like any game with classes, each has pros and cons, so choosing the right weapon for the job is not only crucial, but the differences between them adds replay value. That plus the endless amount of color pallets and weapon combinations add so much variety that each time you play through the game, you can without looking the same way twice.

But, for each good thing the game does, there are a few equally bad things that take away from it.

As much as I enjoyed it, one thing I found disappointing was the overall length of the game. At 3 chapters long, I was done with the entire game in 5 hours and it left me wanting more, especially since the game is a bit light on the story. To the average player, 5 hours might not seem long enough, but one play through of a level takes about 10-20 minutes depending on how good you are at the game and the difficulty chosen. These missions have no checkpoints to speak of and rely on your lives, so as long as at least one partner is alive you can revive each other endlessly. If all team members are dead, that is Game Over and you have to start from the beginning of the mission. On top of that, reload times tend to take a bit longer (even with the fast reload option) so if a weapon you are using has only 5 shots, then you need to make sure you can find some cover or dodge long enough to reload and start firing again.

Some people may consider the AI of the enemies to be too easy, but it’s the sheer amount of them (numbering in hundreds) that makes them a daunting enemy. Another disappointment from the game is the online play, and while you can read what ExpertPenguin thought about the console version, I am not sure how populated it is at this moment. I do know that right now, it is difficult to find a game online, and with some games having cross platform play, it makes you wonder why the creators didn’t consider it an option. Starting a co-op game from scratch, I was able to make it through the entire first chapter without running into anyone else. Perhaps having the option to search for other players on the 360/PS3 can make its way into the sequel?

All in all, Earth Defense Force : Insect Armageddon is a fun fast paced 3rd person shooter that brings a bunch of new ideas to the table in the shooter genre. It has a ton of action, high replay value, and is one of those games you can play with several friends in local or online multiplayer, as long as you have a spare pad laying around, or were lucky enough to bump into a few soldiers online. Happy gaming!

Rating: 7.0

I played the first EDF and I lamented at how weak the mulitplayer was in that version. It supported no online play of any kind, but as a local split-screen game, it was just the type of simple, arcade fun that you would need between days of grinding out combos in Street Fighter, or just from dealing with any other similarly complex titles. My first look at this game was during PAX East and I was instantly excited for its release. I instantly fell in love with the new Heavy armor class, as large machine guns and explosives are a fast way to win my undying love, and the new online multiplayer, supporting not just two, but up to four players at the same time Most of the details about the game have been covered in the previous review, so with no further ado we’ll jump right into my thoughts on the multiplayer experience!

Seeing how I received this game pretty late in its cycle, a couple of my CL teammates already had the game and were up for blasting some bugs with me. This is great, as the game seems to come alive when you’re not dealing with some AI drones. When you can instead coordinate attacks and focus your combined firepower on the same target things become a million times easier. The only thing I don’t like is having multiple players use the same suit in battle. I feel having two battle suits walking around detracts a little bit from the overall experience because the armors share a similar control scheme, but have different play styles that can be useful on their own. It creates a situation where you’ll have two players playing the same way, with the same weapons, and with no real new techniques being shown off. The weapon balance is spread between the classes like this on purpose to encourage variety, and sharing the same weaknesses makes some stages a bit harder to complete than others. If there’s any problem I really had with this system, it’s like Geekboi mentioned earlier, that the checkpointing system is a bit unforgiving. Most of these levels take 20-30 minutes to finish, and if all players are dead, it requires a start to the very beginning of the stage. If anyone on your team is ill equipped, it can make the levels feel tedious at best and an endless grind at worst.

The net code seems solid for the job as well. As my team and I ran through the campaign, we weren’t thrown off by any slow down, and there were no hiccups to speak of. Survival mode is where we started to encounter problems though, and with 3 players in the room, things became a little bit dicey as the screen filled with enemies. we experienced some slowdown as things got hectic, but other than that? They hammered themselves out just fine.I also experienced a strange bug regarding how the game saves itself. I have backed out to the loadout screen from the pause menu more than only to have all my progress lost. It happened even when I quit to the main menu as well. I don’t know if this was a glitch they’re planning to patch or what, but going solo through 5 levels in this game tough enough. To lose it and start all over again is needlessly frustrating.

Overall, I give this game an 8 out of 10. The save hiccups were annoying and there were some slowdown issues, but it wasn’t enough to make the game unplayable, or any less fun. This is definitely worth a playthrough.

Rating:8.0

With Darksiders II almost here there’s some pretty impressive swag being released. SOTA Toys has released a Samuel statue which is pretty bad ass.

While I am a fan of collectables this bad boy given away during a Twitter contest takes the cake.

I would wear that out on dates.

Welcome to the breakdown of the latest Character Trailer which not only displays a bunch of new faces, some we expected but didn’t anticipate them ever being playable, as well as mention the all new game play mode ‘Heroes Mode Multi-player’.

Heroes Mode will be a 4v4 formatted adversarial mode featuring the classic cast of heroes and villains that were present during the Resident Evil 2 & 3 time lines. Similar to the Death-match modes of RE:5, players will have to multi-task their objectives of eliminating the other team by any means necessary while simultaneously staying alive during the viral zombie outbreak.

Some notable changes were made in terms of character design. Some well received due to some characters looking for the most part remaining unchanged while others were more ill received due to some unwanted face lifts. However, players should keep in mind that the timeline the game is set in is technically well near 20 years ago graphically, all of our beloved characters’ models debut on the Playstation all looked pretty young back then. Outside of cosmetics, if the starting campaign roster can be held as any indication as to player behavior, we can expect the line-up in Heroes Mode to also have character unique abilities and buffs that set each apart. Since no official word has been dropped as of yet, lets just take a few jabs at what can be seen from the trailer.

Leon S. Kennedy – For the most part remains unchanged from his Resident Evil 2 model outside of the obvious graphical updates. Leon seems to be the more balanced and well rounded player, we see him doing a little bit of everything without seeming over powered in one area over the next. Unique abilities must revolve around a team leader setting as he clearly is the most vocal of the bunch.

Claire Redfield – She hasn’t seen much action in the RE universe since Code Veronica X so her model is mostly unchanged. She seems to hold a bit more ‘capable’ and hardened persona compared to her RE2 counterparts, such is reflected in her small bio & weaponry reflects this. A good guess would be more of a support character role, specializing in buffed first aid spray and support type weaponry.

Carlos Oliveira – Carlos’ appearance hangs tight on the fact that he is likely the most equip for the outbreak in the group. He’s clearly got on a bit more mass to help a possible ‘tank’ persona and game play style and his weaponry doesn’t suggest anything other than that. His buffs and abilities could quite easily lie within heavy weapons and high damage output. Possibly extra grenade slots and more fluid control over the bigger guns for the more threatening B.O.W.s.

Jill Valentine – Easily the most notably changed character on the roster, Jill seems rather young compared to…well… any other previous models of herself. She surely doesn’t seem a day past 17 so this will easily be a large hit or miss with her fans. Jill seems to be highly capable with side-arms as well as CQC and dodging abilities, making her strengths seemingly focused around an agility theme.

Hunk – Not much change here, but that’s definitely not a bad thing, Hunks suit has always been bad ass from the start so a graphical update just makes it even more sweet. Of course we aren’t looking at the suit here though, it’s the disappearing act of the suit that’s caught our eye. Mr. Death seems to be part of a highly unique Stealth class which no doubt will make him even more of a fan favorite once again. His appearance is short but we can note that he might have some rather brutal CQC kills to compliment his shadow lurking. How effective that will be in these unstable environments will have to be seen when he gets more screen time.

Nicholai Ginovaef – Probably the one, if not the only, character not many of us remember. Nicholai was the backstabber from RE3:Nemesis, player decisions determined his fate on several occasions but mainly in the later portion of the game. We can note two things here, sniper rifle usage as well as equipment such as explosive traps. Nicholai looks to be the gadgeteer, possibly best at setting up defensive perimeters and fortifications against the infected.

Lone Wolf – A debut character. Lone Wolf’s bio suggests that he his most effect with firearms and tactical combat which put him in the range of a balance type character. However his appearance of a thermal suit mixed with flak jacket and multiple sightings of flame based ammunition suggests that his specialties might be more heavily focused in eradication of zombies as well as a serious threat to human hostiles.

Ada Wong – Ada definitely seems a little more Americanized each time we see her. Not much can be gathered from her, having I believe the smallest clip out of everyone. Based on the little given, she looks to be best suited with small arms and sub machine guns and similar to Jill in terms of speed and agility. A small guess could be made that one of her starting items could be the serum to the T-Virus upon infection, which we see her administer to herself during a break in combat. If that guess it right, she is perfect for supporting roles in the thick of battles against the infected.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is scheduled for a release in March, 20th 2012.

Brink (not reviewed)

Brink came at a somewhat surprise to me. I had a gut feeling that this Bethesda release was going to disappoint on some level, though I never expected it to disappoint me on every level. Poor textures, meager animations and a queasy art style overall did not help the first impressions out, but the further I delved into Brink, the closer I can to the brink of raging out. Not only was the online broken at the time (I hear it’s been long stabilized, only no one ever plays it online now) but the mechanics as a whole were completely broken. Enemies took too many shots to fell, yet too few would do the player in. Weapon selections that underwhelmed. Just an overall sense of uselessness from the AI. Not one thing worked out for Brink, and it was a crying shame, since it had such an immense potential that it ultimately failed to ever realize.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (Rating: 3.5)

The action-RPG genre is a particular weakness for me. I can easily find myself engrossed in even the most mundane of experiences for quite a bit of time (Sacred 2) or fascinated for months on end with what I feel are the most pinnacle of console action-RPG’s (Champions of Norrath.) But Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale? There’s almost no helping this one out. Stale and dated visuals, lack of enemy variety and crippling bugs all but put an arrow into the knee (first and last time I’ll ever use that stupid joke) of what could have possibly been the action-RPG to play in this generation of gaming. This was a planned trilogy of releases as well, in which the level cap raises ten per release, but with how abysmal this initial release was, I’m hoping a cut and paste approach isn’t used to release each new installment from here on out.

Mindjack (Rating: 3.0)

What depressed me the most about Mindjack was the legitimate fact that there was a wealth of untapped potential deeply rooted into the poorly structured game. The intriguing aspect of jumping from mind to mind seemed like a strong gimmick to launch a new IP off of. Sadly though, my whole time playing Mindjack made me wish I could jump into another characters mind, just to spare myself from anymore torture. A PlayStation 2 game on an Xbox 360 disc, Mindjack was a step backwards with every facet. How ironic that the single worst game I’ve played all year was one of the first new releases of 2011. I’m just happy that the whole year had stellar releases after Mindjack, to help wear away the pain that it gave me.

As with last year, I’m going to take this time to reveal what my personal favorites were for 2011. It was a rather challenging ordeal though, as there were quite a few that I absolutely adored yet didn’t feel like they should make my list, and there were a good number I have yet to get my hands on (most notably Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.) I won’t categorize anything either, so iOS titles, XBLA titles and console retail builds will all be considered equally. Again, this is a personal reflection and not a collaborative effort with the rest of the Chocolate Lemon staff.

Honorable Mentions:

Homefront (not reviewed) – While it had its share of flaws, I still feel that the story was legitimately worth being invested in, outside of the ending. The multiplayer portion was shockingly addictive as well, and gave a more gratifying sense of accomplishment with each kill. I wholeheartedly recommend this to FPS enthusiasts more than Modern Warfare 3 or even Battlefield 3 (seriously.)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (Rating: 9.5) – What I still feel as the first true reason to purchase a Nintendo 3DS, Ocarina of Time 3D didn’t try to cram in anything unnecessary gameplay wise (the gyroscope archery aiming was actually a brilliant addition), but simply put a fresh coat of paint on the visuals to help give the 3D effect a more glorious and appealing sheen. It was the highest rating I gave a game this year, though I feel it just barely misses my top five. Plus, I’d rather keep the list to new releases and not so much a re-release, regardless of how fantastic it was. An honorary mention would suffice.

#5

Orcs Must Die (Rating: 8.5)

The only reason I ever knew about Orcs Must Die was based off of the PAX East preview that ForteWally provided us. My fascination for the tower defense genre had started to pick up quite a bit of steam, and the notion of third person gameplay thrown into the mix had me anticipating this one for quite a while.When I finally did get my hands on it, was I ever enthralled by the trap setting mayhem that I had unleashed on the legion of orcs. Orcs Must Die excelled at creativity, where setting up combos with your traps produced not only a better reward on a currency manner, but in a satisfaction sense as well. With each level conquered, a new skill or trap is revealed, and with each level completed gives a rating, which is another form of currency that can be used to purchase a one time upgrade for each skill or trap. With a modest number of levels to complete, a difficulty that steadily grows with each passing level, and the myriad of methods to dispatch the incoming horde of enemies, Orcs Must Die is not only my fifth favorite game this year, but just passes Bastion as my favorite downloadable game of the year.

#4

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Rating: 9.0)

For a series that last saw a sequel back in 2003, Deus Ex: Human Revolution made quite an impact on its return to the scene. Definitely for the more patient of players, anyone going into this one with a “run and gun” kind of mentality will be quickly taken down, as the stealth approach will almost always net the best results. The amount of customization allowed through leveling up helps players stave off the strictly stealth approaches as the game goes on, though sticking to the shadows and picking off a guard always feels like the more exhilarating choice of action. Though it had a number of annoying blemishes (excessive load times, emotionless protagonist voice acting, overbearing difficulty early on, the laughably easy last boss) the experience, stealth and story overall were more than worth the price of admission. Even if you turn your nose at any game that contains a predominant amount of stealth to its gameplay, I still recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Have a bit of patience with its blemishes, level Adam Jensen accordingly, and the game becomes quite exciting.

 #3

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Rating: 9.0)

Skyward Sword didn’t reach every plateau that I was hoping the next big Zelda release would, but it nailed an aspect that helps immerse player into the franchise like never before – just about full control over Link’s sword. A radical departure from the industry standards of “press the attack button to hack and slash away”, motion controls gave a more profound sense of life to Link, enabling players to slash where they wanted, with little restrictions. on top of that, the narrative manages to suck you in from the very beginning, giving the story, while still as cliche as possible, more heart and presence. If Nintendo’s stubbornness ceases on the fully vocalized portion of the audio, removing the inane grunts, moans and “duh!” sounds, Skyward Sword could have made an even more significant impact in a year of solid gaming. It may not have been my favorite game this year (even after anticipating it for years before its release) but it’s still constructed in a way that has it superseding most every other release in general.

#2

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Rating: 9.0)

Truth be told, this was an easy selection for number one. A gigantic game world filled with life (eventually you’ll see more of it a few dozen hours into your adventures), numerous quests, sights, sounds and everything in-between. It’s just a shame that my actual number one selection was released just over a month later, or else The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would have ran away with it all. That doesn’t diminish the fact that its addictive nature and much more refined gameplay, inventory system, skills and so on, are just a small fraction of why it’s nearly impossible to put the game down. In terms of console releases, Bethesda probably released the single best title in this young decade, with more incentives to march forward than any other game released since January 1st of 2010. If you haven’t got your hands on this hot seller yet, check out my review and then go out and get lost in the world of Skyrim for the foreseeable future.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (not reviewed)

I’ll be the first to say that this is the latest release I’ve played into a year, and the first that ever impressed me so profoundly. While the review is still some weeks away (I’m not going to throw out a review two days after launch like some people), I have spotted some flaws with The Old Republic, but they are not enough for me to bump it behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bioware managed to do something that no other MMORPG has ever done in such a successful manner – provide a storyline that will grip players in and make them remember their adventures as much as they remembered their trek through the first two Knights of the Old Republic titles. Many of the MMO nuances have been simplified or streamlined some, though never feel excessively dumb down and borderline skewed to preteen casuals. As of this writing, it remains to be seen what kind of end game material will be available (I’m a level 46 Sith Juggernaut) but the journey thus far has kept me hooked harder than any other MMORPG that I’ve played since the one of the grandfathers of the genre, Everquest. While Imperial classes will intertwine in terms of content and side missions, as the Republic side does the same, just following the main storyline and finding out what happens next is gripping enough. The Sith Warrior > Juggernaut plot takes predictable turns here and there, yet they come about at unexpected times. From engaging combat to an engaging soundtrack, the complete package thus far of Star Wars: The Old Republic manages to peep its head above a plethora of high caliber releases that gamers have seen this year. For a game released midway through the final month of a year, that’s quite a spectacular feat.

Here are the five worst characters to have on your tail as a video game villain. NO THE GODDAMNED BATMAN IS NOT ON THIS LIST, HE IS A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER WITH A VIDEO GAME.

5) Sonic the Hedgehog/Link

At number 5 it’s a tie between Sonic and Link. Sonic is a hedgehog with super speed that can destroy most object by simplify JUMPING OR ROLLING into them. You build this amazing robot death machine only to have a blue hedgehog jump and roll it to death. To make matters even worse he can become a super hedgehog capable of destroying things just by touching them and he can breathe in space. They only thing that could stop this hedgehog is not having any rings (which the world seems to have an abundant supply of), drowning him (but you’d have to make sure there’s no cracks so air can leak or or have a completely underwater fortress and risk drowning yourself if Sonic does come through and beats the snot of out of your base),trying to crush him or trying to get him to fall into a pit(both of which are completely random). And no matter what you’re planning to do Sonic will always find out and show up pissed about it.

Link is equally annoying. Think about this you have this amazing power from the Triforce, you’re immortal and you are overall bad ass. Then all of a sudden a kid in a green tunic shows up and ruins everything. The most screwed up part about it? It’s a different kid almost every time. So you’re immortal and doomed to having a kid in a green tunic just tear you up all because it’s a tradition to give every kid a green tunic at a certain time. Why don’t you just kill off all the children in every village? Then you won’t have anyone to rule over. Catch 22.

4) Ryu

So you are holding a fighting tournament to try and find a new body for yourself? You’re an inter-dimensional being that just happened to be threatening two worlds at once? Are you the most brutal Muay Thai fighter ever and have no challengers? Well it sucks to be you because Ryu is probably going to show up and punch you in the face. Even if you’re just a regular fighter he’s still just going to punch you in the face. The man wanders the world LOOKING FOR FIGHTS barefoot no less. He has fought everything from aliens and giant robots to super heroes and demons. What makes it even worse is that in the chance you actually may be winning, he’ll tap into some hidden energy reserves and go evil making him even more dangerous. His moves are always so basic but they are insanely strong. Now that he has the Soul-Glo in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 this makes him that much more powerful.

3) Megaman

He doesn’t look like much. He looks like he’d be at home in a toy chest.If you are a robot that’s gone evil or renegade, then he’s the worse thing ever. Not only does he keep coming back if you defeat him. He has probably killed your allies and took their abilities to use on you or he is going to kill you and use your ability to kill your allies. What makes him creepy is that he always shows up without saying a word and just stares and blinks at you,later in the series he talks but for a few years he was a silent killer. And to think all this started because two old guys had problems with each other.

2) Snake

This includes the original Snake the one that the current Snake is cloned from. This man is a combination of spy, special operations soldier and mercenary commando from a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear which is usually a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha which is another word for giant robot. Usually Snake has to deal with people with ridiculous powers or armed with incredible skills to do so. You know he’s out there. You’re doing something that ridiculous you know that he’s going to be there and he’s not coming to negotiate anything with you, ever. While you’re trying to get your plan to completion, he’s either killing your allies or hes tranquilizing them and taking pictures of them in compromising positions, who knows what else he’s doing to them. You know what that’s going to be your fate too. This man has taken down so many organizations, robots, people in robots, ninja robots, vampires, ghosts, etc. that anything you can come up with he’s ready for. How do you stop a man like that? You don’t, you just pray that he kills you.

1) Belmonts

At the top of this list sits one family, the Belmonts. If you’re a citizen of the night this name strikes terror into your heart. If you’re a vampire and have a castle it’s even worse. These asshoels will show up at your front door, destroy everything in your house, steal your treasure and money, kill your tenants, find you in your panic room, beat the hell out of you and then sink your castle or destroy it. They ALWAYS show up and they more than likely will bring a friend or two. There’s really no way to get rid of them and they will always lecture you on morals and why what you’re doing is wrong. What if you’re not a creature of the night but have a castle? All it would take is one rumor from the towns folk and you’ll have them sniffing around in no time. I don’t think they even ask questions they just whip the hell out of everything and leave. And to top it all off they WILL be prettier than you with better hair and look cooler (in some cases) than you ever will.

What’s your top 5 ? I’d love to hear it tweet it to me or post on the Facebook!

I got 9th place out of 27 people. It’s not bad considering I just started playing this game a bit more serious. Some of the things I’ve noticed is that I tend to drop combos. Talking to Megaman Steve he told me that I should practice combos in different situations such as training dummy crouching and jumping since the hit scaling is different from the standing states. I’ve been doing vs crouching opponents in AE but not Marvel. I feel that Marvel while combos are easier there’s way more memorization and muscle memory involved because things can drastically in a combo all based on what you do to start off the combo. In the tournament I was sent to losers by an 8-bit Dojo regular, Baydo. I did ok in losers but I dropped crucial combos with every member of my team at different points. Eventually I would have had to fight Baydo again in losers if I wasn’t such a scrub.
I think he probably would have beat me again seeing the fact as if he looked like a man possessed when he took third place.

In AE there were 32 fighters and I took 4th. Not bad for my first time out of the dojo in a while. There was obviously some rust and some combos dropped abut I did my best and played solid. I didn’t do too much crazy stuff but I did do unsafe things. I fought bad match ups all day such as Guile, E.Honda and Balrog. I had to be moved away from Sol Lekz in the second round though. I ended up playing a pad Blanka with a throw macro, while not illegal it’s sort of silly and generally frowned upon because it removes some of the actual skill involved, and lost (later the dojo told me what I needed to do to win against this). I fought well in losers and I avenged my PAX demon by defeating a Chun Li when I need to. I did pretty well till I ran into Chad Viper, who defeated me with his alternate character Ryu. To be fair Ryu is a 50/50 match up due to the fact that he’s so balanced you’re going to have to out play him to win. I should have won that match up because Ryu is the most common character you see online, so at this point I should know what the situation was. The match between us is going to be available sometime on the net.

Looking back at the match I could have done so many things differently. Part of that I’m sure was tournament nerves, the other part of my loss was execution. I had Sol Lekz in my corner coaching me not so much on the game but to keep my focused at the task at hand and not let me get too wild with the things I do. He even gave me a shout out on his facebook.

“As we progress, I continue to realize that Phire is no where near the “old man” status that he claims. He has the ability to absorb knowledge as well as execute. Coaching him is fun because as a player, although not as experienced in fighters but has coached a lot in FPS, knows what needs to be done but lacks the execution to do so. As to where Phire simply forgets at times but when you stay on top of him, he stays on top of the game as a whole.”

What’s next I’m going to try my hand at Savage Saturday this weekend and then Apex next month. I have to get ready for EVO 2k12 and do better than I did. I also have to run more 8-bit tournaments because I know you miss us.

Want to spar or tell me how free I am tweet it and expose me as a fraud.

It’s no news to anyone that the true stars of Jurassic Park are indeed the dinosaurs themselves and the models and coloring of the animals are just about the best things to look at in this game. While various areas of the game do seem to become more and more bland as your eyes venture into the distance, the dinosaurs look as lively as one could hope in a Jurassic themed thriller. Sadly this is about as good as visuals go here, while the characters themselves don’t seem exactly up to par with the modern style character models that provide the sizzle in the steak to mainstream line up of games we enjoy today, they aren’t exactly terrible either. What the game does tend to suffer the most from visually however is the random choppiness in the middle of the more action focused scenes, which there happens to be plenty of.

Just like the visual faithfulness to the original film itself, the soundtrack and ambiance of the island are all pretty praiseworthy. Sound clips from the film were used for creating an authentic feel for your stay on Isla Nublar, mainly in the most key areas of the game such as music, sound cues, the various sounds of each featured dinosaurs, footsteps and even mysterious ruffles of the bushes and tree’s in tropical terrain. All the island bells and whistles are well placed and on point and then there of course are the voice acting. The cast seems to range in different skill levels of vocally bringing their characters to life, Heather Judson does a great job of portraying the tween aged Jess Harding in addition to Nika Futterman (Nima) plays a very believable Costa Rican local with her heavy accent and memorable Spanglish dialogue. Sadly others like Yoder and Oscar come off more as ear splitting and often times straight annoying, causing you to only wonder “when is this person going to get eaten already?”, leaving the rest of the cast members passable.

The story is chopped up into 4 chapters that span roughly 20-30 minutes over an hour depending on how many blunders are made. While it won’t win any Emmy’s, it does deliver a pretty solid fictional perspective of the remaining staff members who wasn’t so lucky to have made it to the chopper with the survivors of the film and ride into the the sunset. Along the way are some decent nods to background and foreground elements of JP, minor plot hole questions are addressed and expansions on ground knowledge of the park are made. Episode 4 specifically brings the player into a underground portion of the park never before explored, featuring some prehistoric marine life, part of a work in progress aquarium style attraction for the tourist groups. The cast aren’t exactly lovable nor with they spark any other interest of connection with the player but they do actually make sense in the sandbox and don’t do anything that stretches the plot to feel unbelievable or outlandish.

A heavy bit of irony is placed within the title as Jurassic Park: The Game is actually quite far off from the actual experience and where the game suffers. Actual game play takes a backseat in favor of a much more heavily cinematic adventure where the player will spend roughly 80% of the game watching the story unfold. The only control given to the player is through quick time button prompts which either control the characters point of interest and dialogue options, both of which move the story along, or action sequences in which the player must help the characters survive given a number of allotted mistakes allowed before causing death. While the action sequences are fairly well executed and at the very least engaging, lack of a difficulty level difference will either leave this game unplayable for those with poor hand-eye motor skills or rather predictable for the more advance skilled gamers.

A comparison to Heavy Rain would almost be proper in describing this game if it weren’t for the absolute lack of control over all of the characters. You never get to control actual direction or movement, you simply help move things along and the dialogue options would provide a much better feel of involvement to the player if it weren’t for the fact that 90% of what is chosen will still lead to the same conversation. Leaving out the ability to actually explore the world is what hinders this game massively from being anywhere close to the potential of a blockbuster dinosaur game. Thankfully, at the very least, these QTE’s are evenly spread throughout the cinematics, in decent variety, giving the player something to do without too long of a pause between the action and story telling and maintains the level of interest.

In conclusion, Jurassic Park: The Game will come down to either a complete hit or miss depending on the gamer. If your a fan and knowledgeable of the Jurassic Park films and lore, there is enough content here to heavily appreciate the attention to detail and keep you satisfied all the way through. However should you just be looking to pick up a fresh dino adventure then it really come down to your tolerance of heavy, and I mean HEAVY, amounts of cinematics. Unfortunately both crowds will share the same complaint, satisfied or not, that there simply isn’t enough actual game play here to consider this anything more than an interactive movie. Telltale has done an overall impressive job with the JP world but the oversight of a major actual gaming element keeps this from living past a minor cult following.

Visuals: 7 The dinosaurs are very life like, accurate and motion captured very well, even more so than the humans. Isla Nublar and the park itself look very convincing but there are so random frame chops are happen a bit to frequent in a game that is pretty much on rails especially.

Sound: 8 Sound clips from the original movie compliment this game extremely well and are all placed properly without too much recycling.

Controls: 7 The on screen prompts make sense according to the action unfolding on screen. Joystick movements and button commands mimic the characters movements on a consistent, sensible manner.

Gameplay: 4 There isn’t any actual gameplay. Quicktime button prompts move the ride along but at the very least are responsive and accurate.

Replay: 2 Once your done there will be little urge to go back and do it all again unless you’d just like to collect a few achievements/trophies that were missed.

Not exactly a terrible game but for sure an acquired taste. Too many variables stop this title from reaching it’s full potential. A gameplay expansion on a sequel would leave a much longer lasting impression should Telltale want to keep this ball rolling.

Rating: 7.0