AndrewTS

You're not alone about MGS2.

Austin? Lie? NOOOOOOOOO!! Remember how he said it was really about the shitty writing and that was just the final straw...and...um...he comes back to be part of the problem?

I thought it was the contra team, unless it was the same team. I'd assume so judging by Gunstar Heroes, but I remember that quite a number of names matched up on both.

I think cutscenes are fine, but you shouldn't have to watch them 10-15 minutes straight. It's kinda like a lot of musicians say--writing long songs is a lot easier than writing short ones, because you have to decide the best, most concise way of saying something instead of just throwing everything in there. Make them brief and meaningful. I personally didn't find them too annoying or intrusive in FFIX, but that game still had its share of problems. I still prefer FFIX over any of the newer titles, save for FFX which I haven't played and have no intention to. The problem is, Square considers FF its meal ticket, so they slap the name onto even unrelated stuff to try to sell a game. I hear that they'll try to make Front Mission into a comparable franchise, so maybe that's good. FFT wasn't made by Square, either, Ren. Plus, FFTA is a Squeenix effort. Kingdom Hearts I like, although I haven't played VS. I'm currently playing the FFC version of Chrono Trigger, and still love it. The story-based stuff is kept brief, the cut scenes aren't annoying, the team attacks add a great deal of depth to the fighting, and most everything else clicks with me. The battle system is mostly kinda archaic save for the team up attacks. Sadly they didn't bring a simple-but-fun battle system into Cross. While I tolerate it in older titles, I think the menu/turn-based battle system is horribly out of date and needs to be ushered out completely. Kingdom Hearts I didn't mind since it was new and worked for me. Of course, I'm into the Zelda games so keep that in mind. It just becomes extremely tedious since most fights are mashing the "fight" command constantly, and there are way too many fights. Fewer battles (including elimination of random battles), harder battles, the doing away of the level up/experience system, and more diverse gameplay (like platformer elements) are the things I'd want in a modern console RPG. Of course, if the characters/stories make me gag, it's all moot.

Well, for Bloodlines, I chalk some of it up to the system differences, and different teams. I like both though. Incidentally--a sizable number of the Super CV IV team went on to become a little company called Treasure.

I think he's too short to be truly a hoss (but JR called him one, so maybe he is), but back when he busted his BUTT in WCW he was fun to watch. Curiously, my last memory of him on WWE TV was on Velocity or something apparently working on reviving the Hugh Morris gimmick. I guess plans for that were soon scrapped, or maybe he was injured.

Other than being boring as THAT BULLY BILL DEMOTT I have nothing against him. If it was his choice though, more power to him. Still, does anyone really retire from wrestling anymore? Faarooq and Gunn have already retired once in the past year and come back anyway.

I knew Mack was really a cracka.

I'll keep that site in mind--although admittedly I'm not going to be able to mess around with the fighters for a while, since I rented a bunch of games and I'm playing them until I return 'em. Is there some trick I'm missing out on to get these combos off? Plus, that jumping HP for Kyo just doesn't seem to want to cross up for me. Auuugh, I suck.

I love me those 2D fighting games. Whether it is a classic Street Fighter installment, a more recent one, a Darkstalkers game, King of Fighters, a Versus title, Mark of the Wolves, Guilty Gear, Mortal..well, some I may be lukewarm about. I love the 2D traditional animation, frantic gameplay, wild supers, stragety, and fun characters. I love the bonuses and hidden features. I love to beat the crap out of bosses and watch the endings. Anyway, I guess I'm a good player. Maybe better than good...well, until I face the CPU and get my ass kicked on a lower difficulty of a fighting game. I think I have all the tools to be an excellent player: decent reflexes, a basic competency with most of the types of fighting game archetypes, the ability to pull most or all fighting game motions off effectively, the ability to pull off combos of moderate difficulty, and so forth. I just really lack enough and diverse enough competition to really improve as a player. CPU competition just isn't the same. Sure, I have a couple friends who I can play against, but since I have to handicap myself, I'm not really progressing any that way. At any rate, I wanted to maybe share some little tips I've picked up--either through strat guides or experience--that might help other players a bit. Much of this is probably common knowledge to skilled players, but if so then feel free to contribute to this. Most of these will be for the Street Fighter/Capcom style games, since I'm most familiar with those. Charge back... Charging back allows you to ready for a Sonic Boom, charging down allows you to ready for a Flash Kick, for instance. Charging down back allows you to charge up for both, natch. The directionals can overlap, so even if you are jump-retreating, you can be charging back/up and toss out a Sonic Boom when you land. How the hell...Somersault Justice? Pulling off Charlie's Somersault Justice, Guile's double Flash Kick, and Chun-Li's Henzan Tensho Kyaku look difficult, or near-impossible to do quickly (charge down/back, tap down-forward, down-back, up-back + kick). Tapping each direction would be a bitch normally, but if you charge down/back, then press down/forward and roll the d-pad from down/forward to up back in a quick motion, and hit kick, the move still comes out. Plus, it's a hell of a lot easier to use in combos. 360 isn't really 360... You don't have to do a full-circle motion for the Capcom command throws. All you have to do is touch 6 of the 8 directions on the d-pad in a smooth motion and hit the attack button. For instance, up-back, back, down-back, down, down-forward, forward and punch will pull off a Spinning Pile Driver with Zangief. Basically any other 6-point motions work, clockwise or counter-clockwise. Press/release If you hold a button, execute a move motion, then release the button at the point you'd normally press the button, the move comes out (I think this is called "buffering"). Useful? Yeah. A Balrog/Birdie can cancel a turn punch/headbutt by using the release to execute the directional charge instead of doing the turn attacks. More useful is the ability of some characters, (like shotos) to 2-in-1 from a Fierce. If you do the Fierce attack, hold down the button, execute the command, and release--bam, two-in-one. Works well with supers, too. Counter the Alpha Counter I'm not exactly sure how to pull this off, but a couple times I did a projectile attack that was Alpha Countered at close range, but executed the motion again and hit the attack button, and countered the Alpha Counter with a super version! May work with other attacks/supers, and is certainly worth a shot when you're down to the wire and have to save your ass. Offensive/Defensive crouches Any Zangief or Dhalsim player worth his salt knows this already, but some characters have different crouching attacks depending on whether they are done from the offensive crouch (down-forward) or the neutral/defensive crouch. Usually the difference is reach. Sometimes there's a similar thing with jumping attacks (for instance, up and Fierce for Zangief's mid-air headbutt).

Hm--so the ad lied? Well, judging from those screen shots the bgs look almost exactly the same, so it might not be bad. Is that actually Yuri?! My, how she's changed...she actually looks Japanese for once. Ryo looks like...uh...Ken now. Hm. I honestly don't think I like the Terry art you showed in the original post. It's good to see that Terry has changed clothes instead of wearing the same stuff again, unlike a certain person who has been wearing the same stinky old gi for 20 years or so. Of course, I don't know what the in-game sprites will look like, so probably it's just premature bitching.

*points to Sakura* SHE STARTED IT!! Anyway, it's not so much that she states her opinion as fact anymore, but that I think she's wrong AND inconsistent. I know your opinion is set in stone about the newer ones, but I believe you said yourself that the NES titles (and even the Origins upgrades) were unplayable today, or at least one of them was. If I'm mistaken and you didn't say that, I have four words for you, m'lady: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Back on topic, since I think Square knows its audience, I'd be shocked if the original song w/ subtitles wasn't included in some form--maybe as an option or maybe a secret. After all, they're going to be re-releasing this version in Japan as International anyway.

That's laughable. Excuse me while I -- I agree with Flyboy and Damaramu--what's this world coming to?! Yer soooooooo wrong, Sakura, yet again, I.M.H.O. Plunderin: Hey, at least it's not Xenosaga, which is far worse in that aspect.

I'll give WWE credit for not putting the belt on Carrot Top--I was scared when he was massaging Steph in those commercials that he'd be holding a top title.

The order of matches doesn't matter. I've seen a match take place BEFORE the Velocity fireworks and still make the actual Velocity show.

Well, that's exactly what happens when you ask the devil Vince McMahon for something--you wish you'd never asked. You want new talent pushed? You get the OVW greenies. You want Jericho as champ? You got 'em, booked like a dogshit-cleaning pussy. You want Eddy to get a push? You got it--but revolving around HUMAN shit. You want old-school Taker back? Fine, but the top heels and title holders have to job to him to set him up for Vince to beat in a buried alive match. You want HHH to lose the title? You got it, but to Goldberg, who gets the crap beaten out of him by one of HHH's lapdogs to set up an immediate rematch despite HHH not even having to go through the formality of a #1 contendership match.

Well, from a storyline standpoint, it's more of a case of a green guy making a mistake than a deliberate attempt to injure, although they could still play if off that way with Angle being apologetic about it and Holly being bitter about it still.

Yes, they have. Spoiler (Highlight to Read): Bringing back Nathan Jones and putting him in the SurSer match. I rest my case.

Choken: Broken arm and being dropped on your head are completely different things--nevermind that it was really Holly's fault in the latter and Angle's in the former.

We don't know how much Morgan sucks yet. Holly's mediocre but as long as he's not going any higher than this it's fine. APA at least are over and have some decent-looking and believable offense. Jones I won't, and even if I tried couldn't possibly, defend, though.

Depends on whether or not they'll actually let him wrestle--excuse me, "wrestle," in the match. I expect some humorous house show reports where Jones fucks up some basic human movements, gets tangled in the ropes, and injures Bob Holly again. Jesus, that pile of shit makes Test look like Ric Flair circa 1990.

Did JR tell you this? Good and ready like John Hossenfeffer? (™ Andrew) *bows* By the way, WWE's done some retarded things before, but there is NO FUCKING JUSTIFICATION ON THIS PLANET for ever letting Nathan Jones step into the ring again.

Well...you could try selling it.

Oh joy, Torrie AND Nathan Jones return? Whoopie-f***ing-do.

Sakura: Well, the very early titles are that way, but the later ones, like Super CV IV and Bloodlines, are much better. Still, yeah, a lot of the early CVs were too damn hard and the control was muddled on them. Incidentally, here's a picture of three of the most important members of the current CV team: Michiru Yamane (left) the music composer, IGA the director (front), and Ayami Kojima for character designs and art (right) Man, what a grumpy puss on IGA, despite working with such beautiful and talented coworkers. He actually looks far scarier there to me than ANY form of Dracula.