Anya

The Cyrax/Predator thing isn't a coincidence. John Tobias admitted he ripped off Predator. Check out Cyrax's self destruct fatality.... He also admitted Kabal is a "tribute" to the Tuskan Raiders in Star Wars. A lot of MK is inspired by other stuff. The whole idea of the original was a take on movies like Enter the Dragon and Big Trouble in Little China. And Cage's original design is based on Jean Claude Van Dam from Bloodsport, who was going to actually play the role(but he ended up turning it down). The K in Kombat is just to have something unique for their brand name, I guess.

Yeah, I can't prove it, but I've been convinced for years the difficulty settings are meaningless(especially in the MK3 games). The AI is all based on patterns. You jump, they do an air fireball. You throw, they throw you back. And so on. It's really annoying. You can take advantage of it though. With enough time you memorize all the patterns and can predict how the CPU will react. You get this "feel" for it that makes it a lot easier. In the MK3 games there's a lot of little tricks you can use. One of the best is getting just a little outside sweep range and just walking back and forth slowly. The CPU will follow you, back and forth, back and forth, forever without ever attacking you. It's hard to explain but once you get a feel for it you can do it every time. They never learn. You can just let time run out and win. It's funny to see. I use it whenever I get mad at the impossible endurance matches MKT has. MK4 and DA's AI is actually not bad, especially DA.

No, but I really want that for the Midway Arcade Treasures with 1-3.

First off, it's just a new version of MGS1. It has nothing to do with MGS2. I don't know if it's worth buying it or not. I don't regret it, but then again I really love MGS. If a new take on the cutscenes and better graphics sound interesting to you then check it out. But I wouldn't recomend it to anyone expecting a full on remake. It's weird, I'd give the game like a 9 and put it over as one of my favorites....but at the same time I'm kind of disappointed or not impressed by it.

I just beat Twin Snakes. Some thoughts.... It's more of a port than a remake. The gameplay is like exactly the same. You can hang from railing and all that, but that stuff almost never come into play. 90% of it plays just like the original. The only thing really new is first person shooting, which is nice. The new voice acting is good, but I prefer the originals. I don't understand why they rerecorded it. The action scenes are straight out of the Matrix and are incredible. Like the coolest action cut scenes in any game. It's kind of weird though because the actual in game stuff doesn't really match it, you can't go into bullet time or do all the insane dodges while playing. They're really cool, but don't feel right..they don't fit in at times. After beating it I'm not really all that hyped about it. It felt just like regular MGS. The new cutscenes where a nice novelty, but are not enough. The game just isn't that exciting. As a remake it fails to be interesting and I don't see the point of it as a port. I don't know, MGS is like in my top 5 favorite games of all time, but this just isn't a big deal to me.

I got Ultra Vortek, this MK clone for Jaguar today. It's pretty weird. There are "Poopalities" where you turn the opponent into a giant steaming pile of shit.....

3rd Strike has new characters, new stages, new endings, new moves, gameplay tweaks, and so on.

New Generation and 2nd Impact stages. A couple of new characters would be nice too.

All of the old stages would be nice.

So far I'm unimpressed, but the Snake vs. Ninja fight after Ocelot is INSANE.

Why make generalizations like that? How do you know why people like the story? I'm playing Twin Snakes now...

I like the story. Don't care if you think that means I have bad taste, but there's no way yo ucan claim the press swayed me.

Beyond Good & Evil is a good Zelda style game. Splinter Cell is like MGS but much harder and with a bigger emphasis on stealth. Not much talking or cutscenes either. Just straight up gameplay.

I for one like MGS and am not swayed by the press. Also, I hope you never get on my case about not adding IMO ever again...

If it has anything new I'll import it.

You said yourself you're biased against 3D. What 3D stuff DO you like then?

MK II's juggles are either really simple 2-3 hit stuff or need a corner to work. MK3 is more juggle friendly so you see far more of them. I see like 3 times as many "real combos" in MK3 than in MK II. The dial-a-combos just add to the game, they don't make juggling any less prelavant. They don't overshadow or replace juggles because they often start in different places or have different purposes. If I'm robot Smoke and I hit you with a jump kick what good is a dial-a-combo going to do? Or after Reptile's Forceball or after Kitana's Fan Lift? The chains and juggles are too different to overshadow each other, they're both an important part of the game that you see all the time. There's also the chains that launch the opponent in the air and lead to a juggle. Stryker, Kabal, Reptile, Ermac...a bunch of characters have some crazy, skill based stuff after them. MK3 has a much greater emphasis on "real" combos than MK II. If you don't see a lot of them you're just not playing anyone decent. Why wouldn't punches and kicks drain your life meter? MK3's running isn't lousy, it's just really simple. They did exactly what they set out to do with it. MK3 isn't very deep, but it's still a lot of fun. So it doesn't suck. Besides their BMX gear and hair, the robots are also cool for a number of reasons. I like their voices. When they lose and are dizzy they look really cool. The whole chest compartment thing is funny. All of them have entertaining movesets(and all of them have bread and butter strats that involve juggling....). The MK3 robots are the best robots in fighting game history!

I guess it'd be ok. As long as there's space for air to get in so it doesn't overheat and explode. "I don't like anything but old 2D games" = bitter and old.

Andrew is a bitter old man.

"Final Fantasy reject with his little androgynous look" isn't a bad thing to some people.

There's plenty of "real" combos in MK3. In fact there's more options for juggles in MK3 than II. Wait..are you saying...OMG.....Mortal Kombat isn't deep!? I had no idea! What's next? Sub-Zero is blue??? You're preaching to the choir. I think the idea behind the run and block buttons are to be simple. It is weird, but oh well. It's not like using a button for it is hard. That's right. Don't forget their funny hair made of wires.

MS claims they used "focus groups" to design the controller. I don't know how "focus groups" told them to make it REALLY fat. I guess it was a group of hosses.

Yeah, Liu is dead. No one is really the main hero anymore. Well I guess you could say Kung Lao is since he was Liu's friend and fellow monk. MK4 roster: 1. Liu Kang 2. Johnny Cage 3. Jax 4. Scorpion 5. Sub-Zero 6. Raiden 7. Sonya 8. Reptile 9. Fujin 10. Kai 11. Jarek 12. Tanya 13. Quan Chi 14. Reiko 15. Shinnok 9-15 are the new characters. Also Goro is subboss and is playable with a code. Noob is a hidden playable character too. MK Gold, the upgrade to MK4, adds Kitana, Mileena, Baraka, Kung Lao, Cyrax and Sektor to the roster. Cyrax got his soul back and has free will but he's still a robot. Sometimes he fights without his mask, but he's still got the yellow armor and bombs and all that. He works for Jax and Sonya's Special Forces now, as a good guy.

I don't hate Raiden either.

Edit: ...triple post. Fun Fact II - They had plans to turn Kitana heel in MK4 but decided against it at the last minute.