Jer

Yeah, it came with a reasonably high quality soft pad. Not nearly as good as like an Ignition pad, but serviceable.

All I saw of Bruce was some masher playing him. I think I saw his d/f+1,2 hit both hits and not launch. It could have been some other move that looked similar, though. I'll probably play with him a bit tomorrow. I only played as Kuma once, and didn't see for sure how he acted. I'd think he probably would have big character properties, but I don't know for sure.

Yay, we got the second set of TRCs today! Played a little Wang. He seems cool. Lots of his moves were reanimated, which is nice, makes him feel more different from Julia. I wasn't expecting him to be there, so I didn't have a movelist or anything, so I still need to try most of his new stuff. Played Kuma once accidently. He looks good, but he feels as sluggish as usual and has deceptively bad range. Poor Kuma. Unconkable's Raven FAQ is really good if you want to learn him. I was really glad to see that a top player had made a FAQ for him. It's a whole lot easier to learn that way than to try to dig through a bunch of strat threads with contributions from people who may or may not know what they're talking about. I use ff3, 1, b+2,2,3 off of wr1 and 1, b+2,2,3 off of ff3, they're both easy and decent damage. My juggle off of launchers into BK is an awe-inspiring 4, heh. Need to work on something better there.

I'll do these for as many games as I've actually played, which really isn't that many. Categories Action: 20) Metal Gear Solid 3 – PS2 01) Halo 2 – Xbox 12) Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes – GC Adventure: 03) Ninja Gaiden – Xbox 04) Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Director’s Cut – Xbox 09) The Suffering – Multisystem Mystery: None Driving: 01) Burnout 3: Takedown - Multisystem Role-playing: Amazingly, none this year. Simulation (Full List): None Sports: 18) NFL Street - Multisystem Strategy: None Sub-Categories Fighting: 02) Street Fighter Anniversary Collection - PS2 01) Dead or Alive Ultimate – Xbox Platformer: None Shooter: 01) Halo 2 – Xbox MMORPG: None Alternative Sports: None Pure Sports: None Wrestling: None Massive Hype: In terms of how much hype they got? Even if I haven't played them? 02) Halo 2 - Xbox 05) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Multisystem 04) Fable - Xbox Best Awards Worst Game: None Best Software Company: 06) Konami 09) Capcom 02) Mircosoft Best Sound: 05) Halo 2 - Xbox 04) Burnout 3 - Multisystem Best Graphics: 03) Ninja Gaiden - Xbox 05) Halo 2 - Xbox 04) Metal Gear Solid 3 - PS2 Best Gameplay: 02) Halo 2 - Xbox Best Soundtrack: 02) Katamari Damacy - PS2 05) Halo 2 - Xbox Best Plot: 03) Metal Gear Solid 3 - PS2 Best Villian: 02) The Boss of Metal Gear Solid 3 - PS2 05) Liquid Snake of Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes - GC Best Hero: 03) Master Chief of Halo 2 - Xbox Best PS2 Game 2004: 10) Metal Gear Solid 3 03) Burnout 3: Takedown Best GC Game 2004: 08) Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Best Xbox Game 2004: 01) Halo 2 09) Dead or Alive Ultimate 04) Ninja Gaiden Best GBA Game 2004: None Best PC Game 2004: Stepmania, always.

Pump It Up Exceed and Beatmania IIdx 8th Style...

Roger Jr seems cool, but I haven't seen anyone use him effectively yet. I wonder how good he actually is. From what I've seen of him (admittedly played mainly by scrubs), he's got some range problems. Baek seems really solid though, and he looks badass too. Still waiting for the second batch of TRCs here. I really want to play Wang. I love his 1P outfit in that pic, and some of his new moves in Catlord's video look awesome. Until then, I'll mess around more with Raven. I'm really liking him so far. His crouch dash mixups are soo good. I agree that Kuma needs to be top tier sometime. He's been held down for far too long.

I haven't tried any TRCs yet. We don't have the game within two hours of campus, so I can only really play during breaks. My last day of finals was today, though, so I'll get to play it tomorrow, and then all during break. Yay. Namco did more or less rip off Sega's concept, but they're the first ones to bring over to the US. Only Japanese VF4 cabinets had the cards.

Heh, but you can never underestimate the stupidity of the populus. Yeah, it's completely obvious that a coin is not supposed to go there, but every arcade that me or my friends have been to has at some point had the machine shut down because of quarters jammed into those things. It's not Namco's fault, though. People are just really stupid. Does anyone know how the ranks work after 1st Dan? Is it still experience based but more experience between ranks, or is it like VF4's nonsense where you have to beat 5 people of the exact same rank to move up? I'm really hoping it's still just experience based, because otherwise it's going to be really hard to find people of the exact right rank once you get to 3rd or 4th Dan.

Graphics stopped mattering when they stopped effecting gameplay. Games now don't play any better than games did on the DC, and there's no reason to think that'll change with the next generation. And on top of that, it's going to be more and more true that almost all developers can't even afford to make games that take advantage of the new hardware. Even with this generation, the vast majority of games aren't pushing the hardware to the limit, at all. I wish they'd just stop releasing new consoles and let me save money, heh. The screens do look nice, though. I wonder how many games will actually look like that.

I haven't actually seen it, but in general I'd say no. Whore that shit. Make them learn to deal with it. They'll be better for it in the long run. I want people to whore shit on me now, so that I don't lose to in a tourney.

It doesn't, heh. It's just as bad as SC2's conquest AI. I was watching "my" Julia play, and she went two rounds without a single elbow, and most of the moves she did I hadn't done once in the 100 or so games I'd played with her. Given that half my moves are elbows, it didn't seem like it would be that hard to emulate. Blah. Namco really sucks at making AIs. Still, I guess I'm just a mark for stats and customization, even if it's kind of stupid. I mark out for things like being able to buy Julia a dumb anime-looking squirrel, heh. I do wish that you could eject your card after a win, though. Being locked into a character for an entire streak sucks, especially when the game is new and you want to experiment with different people.

What PS2 controller aspect? You can use them at the arcade, just plug them into the sides. No mapping the top buttons though, so you'll actually have to do the multiparts legitimately. It sounds like the only mag that's really had concrete info on the console release is GamePro, and I wouldn't touch GamePro with a ten foot pole, so I don't know much. I did hear that Namco is planning not to wait as long as normal, so I'd expect Spring 2005 for the Japanese release and Summer 2005 for the American release. I'm pretty sure that everyone that was in T4 is in T5, except for Combat and possibly Heihachi. Raven, Asuka and Feng are new, Bruce, Kuma, Anna, Devil Jin and several others are going to be time released, but no one knows the exact time release list yet. So yeah, Ling is back. Steve was unquestionably top tier in T4, probably number two overall, and he probably had a favorable matchup against Jin. They neutered Jin in T5 but didn't weaken Steve, so it's no real surprise that he's near the top again. Marduk and King's juggle throws are both new, and pretty badass.

All I've seen of Jinpachi and Devil Jin was that Korean video. The machine I was playing at over Thanksgiving break hasn't been empty long enough for someone to play through the game on single player yet. A nerfed Jinpachi seems like he could be a pretty nice character. Jinpachi in his current form would obviously be banned from tournies, heh. I love all his ridiculous blockstun and that like instant backdash into fireball. Fun. Online play would be fun, but not having it is no big deal. Someone likened it to playing at the arcade, but with graphics that randomly skip, buttons that randomly don't register and an off button that either player can push at any time, heh. It not being there won't hurt the tourney scene at all.

Heh, most reviewers shitted on the interactive levels as a ripoff of DoA, so I don't think they'll mind losing those too much. I think T5's reviews probably depend the most on whether there's a tutorial mode to spoonfeed people how to play. If there is, the mags will rave about all the "new" features that they just didn't know about before. If there's not, it'll still be "all about ten strings and multiparts". Lack of online play won't help though, and from everything I've heard it's not going to be online. There are machines at Springfield Mall, Ballston Commons Mall and City Place. All Metro accessable, so go play.

People were making a big deal out of Raven's u/f4,4 and qcf3+4 being broken during the beta, but while they're still strong, they didn't seem all that overpowered. I haven't really heard anyone talking about Raven being broke since the full version came out. If people are complaining about anyone right now, it's Steve. But yeah, it's way too early to talk tiers, especially with the new characters. How people do against them is going to change a lot once people start to recognize their move animations.

MGS3 for me. I'll probably buy MGS3 and GT4, but I'm much more excited about MGS3. Hopefully they don't pull some lame bait and switch this time, heh. I loved MGS2 anyway, but Raiden was pretty lame.

Game Informer is the perfect example of how gameplay isn't even a factor in mainstream fighter reviews. One month after they gave MKD that insanely high review, there was a quote from them that people posted on SRK and GameFAQs that was something to the extent of "Capcom let Street Fighter die by never releasing new games and just releasing constant minor upgrades like SSF2T and SF3ts, while Midway turned MK into something fresh and different". Acting like SF3ts is some minor upgrade over SF2 pissed off all the hardcore people, but that's how mainstream people see it. They don't see gameplay changes, no matter how good or significant, unless there's some sort of total graphical overhaul. Which is why I agree with Anyanka that T5 could very well get bad reviews, since to the casual gamer it's not going to look different enough. SVC Chaos was horrible, heh, 6.5 is generous.

Blah I didn't know it was one character per card. That's pretty weak, but definitely makes sense financially. I'll probably end up getting a card for Julia, Raven, some Mishima and maybe the random character, so that'd be $20 right there. Yikes. At least they'll make cool looking placeholders in the DDR quarter line. Did they say how far the release got pushed back, or are we just kind of waiting for machines to show up? I haven't found a date anywhere recently...

Yeah, I can't wait. We won't be getting a machine in town, probably, but I'm totally ready to drive to wherever one is. Everything they're doing with it just sounds great to me. I'm even excited about the card system. I'm glad they did a long beta test too, hopefully that means that the release version won't have as much bullshit as SC2 version A did. And compatability with PS2 controllers is like the best thing ever. No more suffering because drunken morons destroy controls when they lose, yay!!

Heh, I haven't bothered with it. I have friends to play in real life that are better than 99% of the people online, so I really don't care about X-Box Live support. Its only use to me would be to beat on GameFAQs scrubs that think they're the shit, heh. So to me, it's just a graphical upgrade on DOA2, which wasn't a good game, so this won't be a good game either. The press' obsession with online play is really funny to me. Take a blah fighter, give it online play, and it's awesome and innovative. But what can you expect, it's not like any of them actually understand any fighter well enough to know what changes from sequel to sequel. T4 overhauled the whole TTT engine (for better or worse), but if all you did in TTT was button mash and do ten strings, you won't notice. Button mashing and ten strings still "work" in T4, so it must be the same game, right? Still though, as ridiculous as it is, I hope Namco takes notice of what the press looks for. No reason for them not to add online play (as laggy as it might be), stupid one player modes, a training mode, character customization and all that other stuff the press drools over since they don't know enough to actually evaluate gameplay.

Eh, that's only true at top level. Marvel's fun to watch; I don't really understand the psychology though, since I don't play. Top level 3S is more interesting since I can understand it enough to really be impressed by it. Are they going to put the grand finals up? I want to hear the crowd reaction to Justin finally being taken down.

Katamari Damacy River City Ransom SF3: Third Strike Soul Calibur 2 Tekken Tag Tournament Various DDRs

How bad are the problems? Is it something that an ordinary person would notice, or just something that a hardcore fan would notice? It's pretty pathetic that Midway can't deliver a perfect port of a ten year old game, but if it's just little things here and there and gameplay is basically okay, I might buy it anyway. I need good versions of MK2 and MK3. Is it at least better than the SNES versions?

I played it at some demo kiosk at Penn State on Saturday... It was pretty when it was static but felt kind of jerky and sluggish in motion. Not much more to say about it, since I only played it for like ten minutes. Not my type of game really, I need depth, and this doesn't have it. It was pretty conceptually cool though, I definitely saw a lot of the people standing around marking out pretty hard for some of it. Edit: Out of curiousity, has anyone tried playing it online, and if so, how is it? I'm always curious to know how online play for fighters is going, in the hope that one day we'll see online Tekken or SC without so much frame drop that it's unplayable, heh.

Omg online Twinkle Star Sprites for PS2?! Holy shit that would be the greatest thing ever. Too bad there's no chance in hell it would ever get a US release.