Street Fighter IV Review

Capcom’s anticipated heavyweight is back for another go and ready to take on all challengers.

The Good:

Street Fighter is back and just as good as it ever was. In this installment you’re free to choose from any of the original 12 characters plus 6 new characters (more on them later) for some toe to toe with your friends, the AI, or a stranger online. By completing arcade mode with different characters you can unlock some other familiar faces, such as: Cammy, Fei Long, Dan, and more. The fighting system has been reworked and now includes the powerful focus attacks. These attacks are unblockable, and if landed successfully, will knock your opponent to the ground. Also new to the game is the revenge meter. This meter fills up as you take damage, allowing you to unleash a powerful special attack on your opponent when it is full. Basically it acts as a contrast to the EX meter, which fills up as you land successfull attacks on your opponent. Things like hadoukens are also much easier to pull off than they ever were before. Despite all these new additions to the battle system it still feels like classic Street Fighter, so veterans won’t be left in the dark.

There are plenty of great modes this time around, inlucding the classic arcade mode. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it seems to be the mentality here. You play through a random selection of characters, eventually facing your rival (which differs depending on your fighter) and ending with a battle against Seth (who is unlockable). At the beginning and end of arcade mode you are shown a video shedding some light on your chosen fighter’s reasons for entering the tournament, their situation following the tournament, etc. These videos aren’t very long or story heavy, but since when were Street Fighter games story heavy anyway?

Street Fighter IV’s online play runs very smoothly. I had no problems finding an opponent and experienced no lag whatsoever from either side. Players can adorn their online profile with various titles that read everything from “Go Easy On Me” to “Merciless”.

This game looks beautiful. From the character models to the stages they fight in, everything is visually pleasing. There are even some familiar stages such as Guile’s airbase and Blanka’s Brazilian jungle. Character models have an almost cel-shaded look to them which works out very nicely combined with the detailed muscle tones.

The Bad:

Where the hell are the bonus stages?! I was looking forward to engaging in a car smashing frenzy in between battles, but this feature is sadly nowhere to be found. Another sorely missed feature is the tournament mode, I have heard something about it being available in a DLC package somewhere down the line, but if you ask me it should have been included with the game.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably stick to the classic characters because the new ones are pretty ridiculous. I wouldn’t consider a luchadore wrestler who has a knack for cooking to be on par with characters like Vega or Akuma, and Rufus just seems to be a joke character more than anything else.

It is possible to set-up arcade mode in a way so that players can challenge you on XboxLive as you play through your single player game. This is a great idea, but, you have no choice but to accept every single challenge. This makes playing through arcade mode with this feature on pointless, because you will be receiving back-to-back challenges. A good concept, but would be much cooler if the option to decline were present.

It's Super Dynamic Cooking Time.......

The Ugly:

That intro theme, I don’t think I’ve ever came so close to bludgeoning my own head before.

The Verdict:

Street Fighter IV doesn’t dissapoint. This game will please fans and newcomers alike. However, Capcom have this way of releasing revised Street Fighter game after Street Fighter game, and that makes me a bit weary about buying this game. Although, with the emergence of DLC onto the gaming scene this could change. We’ll have to just wait and see until then.

Grade: A

Resident Evil 5 Preview

The 5th installment of one of the video game industry’s most respected franchises is to be released next week, let’s take a look at what’s in-store.

How Does It Work?:
Based on my experiences with the demo, it’s safe to say that RE5 handles more or less the same as RE4 did. We are given the same 3rd person over-the-shoulder view, and the aiming appears to be the same as well. The enemies this time around are much smarter than in previous installments. Capcom have continued to stray away from the stereotypical zombie and opted to go with mind-controlled humans (as in RE4) instead. This means your foes will be able to run, and possess a wide array of melee weapons. New to the series is the co-op mode. Players will be able to team up with friends online or offline in order to play through the game as a team. I played co-op with the A.I. in the demo, and my experience was not a positive one to say the least. Hopefully Capcom will improve the A.I. for the full game so those who wish to play solo will not have a stressfull time.

What Does It Look Like?:
RE5 look stunning. Both cut-scenes and gameplay look very realistic. One can even see the veins buldge in Redfield’s arm (see above photo). The shadows, the landscape, the enemies, everything looks well-polished and it looks just as good if not better than Resident Evil Degeneration did.

Who Is In It?:
Players will be controlling a familiar face in RE5. The main protagonist is none other than the first installment and Code Veronica’s Chris Redfield. Chris has joined the Bio-terrorism Secuirty Assessment Alliance, which sends him to Africa to investigate some odd occurences. His partner will be a new character by the name of Sheva Alomar. Sheva will be the character controlled by the 2nd player in co-op mode. Also returning is antagonist Albert Wesker. Wekser will be joined by a woman named Excella Gionne, and it is also said that Ozwell E. Spencer will be introduced.

The release date for RE5 is March 13, 2009, so save your pennies. Based on my exeperiences with the demo, this will be rent at first for me. Althought I don’t doubt that I will buy the game afterwards.

Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage Review

This is long overdue, so let’s get to it:

The GOOD:
The Alaskan landscape looks simply incredible in this DLC. It’s a nice change of pace to go from barren wasteland to beautiful Alaskan mountains and terrain, and Bethesda pull this off well. The combat that takes place on this terrain is very fun. Bethesda have succeeded in capturing a World War I-like experience, complete with trenches and all. There is a ton of new weapons/equipment in this installment, which is probably one of my favorite things about the DLC. We are introduced to the Winterized Power Armor, Chinese Stealth Armor, and Gauss Rifle, among many others all available after completing your objectives.

The BAD:
One question you really need to ask yourself is if 800 Microsoft Points is an appropriate price. The DLC does not take very long at all to complete, I clocked in at about 3-4 hours. Maybe it would take a bit longer if the game weren’t so easy. There is no more need to hunt for ammo and medical aid, both of these have been replaced with machines that automatic refill one of the two for you an unlimited amount of times. These machines are all over the place, and having everything just layed out for you dulls down the gameplay a bit. Also, for those of you who loved the roleplaying aspect of Fallout 3 (which I’m assuming is a great percentage of people), you will be dissapointed. The content relies heavily on combat and stealth, leaving very little roleplaying at all. Overall the game just doesn’t feel like the Fallout we all know and love, the looting and RPG elements just aren’t there. It isn’t a bad game at all, but it just feels like something is missing.

Grade: C

Street Fighter IV Preview

It’s that time again. That time that only comes once every 8 years or so. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for a new Street Fighter installment.

How Does It Work?:
Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono said that this installment will be more akin to Street Fighter II than the third release was. After hinting at the possibility of having Street Fighter II-like bonus stages (car smashing goodness!), Ono and his team decided against this for the arcade version because they believed this would cause arcade operators to lose too much money. Notice they said nothing about the bonus stages not being in the home versions, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. The new ‘Focus Attack’ feature allows for players to block a move by their opponent, and unleash a powerful counter attack. Ono says the reason this has been implemented is to give the game a feel not unlike boxing, rather than button mashing chaos. Also new to the series is the ‘Ultra Combo’. This takes the Super Combo feature from the past, and turns it up a notch. When players are hit by their opponent their ‘Revenge Gauge’ will slowly fill. Once it is full players can unleash a flurry of punches, kicks, or what have you on their opponent, complete with cinematic camera view.

What Does It Look Like?:

The 4th installment of the series boasts beautiful 3D characters and backgrounds rendered in 3D. However, gameplay will stay remain in 2D due to, as stated earlier, the team wanting to keep that Street Fighter II vibe.

Who Is In It?:
Street Fighter IV will contain many of your past favorites including: the original 8 from SF2, the 4 ‘boss’ characters from SF2, Akuma, and 5 new characters. The home version will include 8 extra characters not available in the arcade version such as: Cammy, Dan, Fei-Long, Rose, and more.

What’s In It For Me?:

So what exactly are all the things the home version is going to have that the arcade didn’t? Let’s have a look.

- The choice between English and Japanese voice acting

- Animated opening and ending sequences for each character’s story

- Bonus stages/DLC

- ‘Challenge Mode’

- A ‘Collector’s Edition’ release containing: a guide done in comic book style, a disc with the animated short The Ties That Bind as well as selected trailers, the game’s soundtrack disc, a Ryu figure for PS3 owners, A Crimson Viper figure for 360 owners, and five downloadable character outfits.

So there you have it, Street Fighter IV out on February 17, 2009. I’ll be playing it, will you?

The Gamers Den featured on the couch mercenaires gamer’s room podcast

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Oh, EA Sports, Why Do You Neglect Us So?

Back about 9 years ago my family received our first PC. I can’t remember much, but it was a shitty Packard Bell or something like that. At around this time I was a very big hockey fan, so my parents thought it would be a good idea to get me NHL ’99 for Christmas. I instantly fell in love with the game, playing it day and night. I later purchased both NHL 2000 and NHL 2001 for the PC the following years. I took a break from the PC side of the NHL series with the 2003 release, which I got for the PS2. Now NHL 2003 wasn’t a bad game by far, but it was just missing that feeling that the PC series always had.

I returned to the PC with NHL 06, and I fell in love all over again. I eagerly bought NHL 07 and…had to check to make sure I hadn’t loaded up 06 by accident. There were very few improvements, which left me dissapointed, yet I was still able to enjoy the game. I then purchased NHL 08…and yet again I received NHL 06/07 with minor improvements.

Now after this I came across a demo for NHL 09 on the 360, and wow, this was what I was waiting for. Amazing graphics/animations, an awesome control scheme, the new “Be a Pro” feature, this game had it all. This time I rented the game, knowing better than to put my full trust into EA Sports again. I brought the game home and began to play. Not long after starting the game, I was greeted with “Can’t read this disc. It may be scratched or dirty. Clean the disc with a soft cloth and try again.” So I followed the orders of my 360 and checked for scratches. No scratches, and oddly enough no dirt either. Still, I cleaned it and re-inserted it into my 360 hoping for the best. I managed to play for a little before, yet again, getting the same message. In frustration I hammered my inquery into google, hoping for a solution. I found that this had happened to many people, and for some cleaning the cache worked fine. So, I cleaned my cache and loaded up NHL 09 again. Guess what happens next, yeah, I got that god forsaken message again. It then donned on me that maybe saving the game to my HDD would work. Believing myself to be a genius I watched as it installed until about 37%, which is when I got the message again!  This happened with every copy I tried, and I soon gave up. To this day EA Sports has still not released a patch of any sort to fix this problem.

So my question is, what the fuck EA Sports? I can understand the PC versions of the NHL series falling behind due to piracy, but why this? What is your explanation for shipping a large amount of broken games over 4 months ago, and still not having a patch? Why is it that you just try to ignore the problem as if it will go away? This is pathetic, I don’t know what you have planned for this coming September, but if it’s anything like the previous installment in the series, you will be losing a longtime fan. In fact, many longtime fans. I can’t be the only one.

PS3 Who???

I got my ps3 july after launch, and just recently got my 360 (about a month). I now find myself playing 360, more over my ps3, by more I mean a lot. I’ve been on my ps3 roughly 3 times, and that was just to play call of duty with friends. Now i began to ask my self why?, is the hardware better? NO, are there better games? No, the reason why its more compelling is the software. Its a step above ps3′s software, ps3′s menu while organized is boring and bland, the friends list pales in comparison to the 360′s. They don’t have a party system or private chat. The psn store, while it looks good, still doesn’t match up to the marketplace and qore, while it does have cool things like theme’s and demos, still isn’t as nice and easy to use as xbox insider. What can sony do to fix’s this? Revamp the menu and get rid of the psp style, use the avatars you make on home to represent you and your friends on the friends list. Make a party feature as well as private chat and turn qore into its own section on the menu. Split the psn store with the movies having their own section in the menu and as well as games. With these problems fixed my time, spent on my consoles could end up only decided by the games they put out. What do you think please leave comments, we would like to hear from you! 

Cheers, SpennyT

Woopsie

It has come to our attention that we made a mistake in our recent podcast. Spencer and I had received some misinformation that only PS3 users could not keep on playing Fallout 3 after beating the game. I have discovered that this is in fact not true, as regardless of what system it is being played on, Fallout cannot be continued once it is beaten. We apologize for this blunder, and any confusion it might have caused.

The Gamers Den podcast #1

The Gamers Den podcast #1, click the link below to listen.

In this episode we discuss: Halo Wars, movies based on games, Bethesda shafting PS3 owners, our developers of the year 2008, PSP-2, and more.

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Skate 2 review (360, PS3)

The good, the bad and the ugly!

The good: They kept the winning formula with good add-ons that don’t hinder the superb controls. The add-ons include: getting off your board, moving objects around, invert plants, footplants, fingerflips and ollie variations (boneless and no comply). The new game modes this time around are Thrasher’s Hall of Meat mode which can be accessed online and off, and online co-op objectives. The bruises you get from falling and dirt that builds up on your shirt just adds to the realism of this game. The pro rider line up in this game is the best ever in a skateboarding game, you get classic skaters like Ray Barbee and new comers like Braydon Szafranski. The photo challenges are improved as well with your character is able to do frame by frame photo captures. The way you get a board sponsor in this game is better than the first as well, at anytime in the game after you get your first board sponsor you can call up a pro and ask for his affiliate company to sponsor you no questions asked. The addition of Cougar Mountain is also very good, all you speed demons out there, you’re gonna have a ball.

The bad: Getting off your board, while it is good, the animation is too clunky which is bad. The story, it’s unoriginal, you get out of jail, San Van is rebuilt, and you have to rebuild you’re reputation and save San Van from the evil Mongo Corp, who has placed caps on the great skate spots. The ‘rebuild your reputation’ plot is ripped straight from T.H.U.G (Tony Hawk’s underground). I guess I was just looking for a better story but this really doesn’t hurt the game. The customization is a step up but then again a step back, there are less products to be bought but more options in how to wear your equipment.

The ugly: EA Blackbox the developer of skate recently had to dissolve, we miss ya Blackbox.

Score: A-

Check out the gameplay vid below.

1love, Peace