Anya

MS made you pay for Xbox Live and DVD playback with Xbox 1. Harddrive was nice though.

It might be ok for most games. I'd rather have the boomerang than the Nintendo remote.

Ok that sucks.

It always happens. There is no set year. You just randomly go from one story to the next. Like the Tag Team with Eugene story ALWAYS takes place at Taboo Tuesday and Survivor Series no matter when you do it. I think there's only like 4 different stories per show too and some of the paths are impossible to lose. Like you seemingly cannot lose the royal rumble. You just try until you win, if you quit the season ends. Season mode is very limited. It's really cool the first couple of times. Once you've gone through like 3 or 4 times you start to see the same things over and over.

Right. Like with the parry in SF3 you have to decide if it's worth the risk in going with a parry. How much life do you have? If you're very low on life you can't take much more chip damage from blocking so the parry may be your only way to survive. How difficult is the move to parry? If it's just a simple fireball you'd be much more willing to go for the parry than if it was a multi hit super. What do you stand to gain from a successful parry? If you have super meter you could score huge round winning damage if not it may not be worth it. Sometimes moves come out so fast you must guess ahead of time before parrying, so you have to learn your opponent and anticipate what they will do...putting yourself at risk. Then there's all the mind games, like baiting a parry so you can counter attack or mixing it up with throws(which can't be parried). In Smackdown the only strategy is wether or not it's a strike or throw.

You might mash buttons but that doesn't mean everyone else is. Good fighters have depth, require skill, technique and intelligence to play well. That's what makes them fun. Why doesn't anyone like Just Bring It? I don't remember it being bad. I think all these Smackdown games have been better than the last. I'm going through story mode again as Randy Orton. started a new story against HHH and Flair.

Calm down. I said I like story mode. "You do seriously shit"? That doesn't even make sense. I played a few months of GM mode, thought it was boring so I started skipping everything. What's the big deal? I am not the only one to hate it. Yeah like smackdown games are not "dime a dozen"? but yes, Tekken 5, Soul Calibur II and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike are SO COOL. I guess so, but it doesn't translate well to games.

I got GM of the year by simply having it do the automated card generator thing over and over.

Both SF II and MK II are horribly outdated now. Counting all games nothing tops SF III 3rd Strike. MK II isn't even the best MK game....that goes to UMK3 arcade or MKT PSX. Me?

I haven't even played more than 20 games in two player SC3. Everyone I know thinks of it as a neat novelty for home but is still into SC2 arcade....which I am now obsessed with. Some of those old threads at SC.com have been very useful. T5 DR soon...

I just beat the new story mode. It's kind of cool. Even has Shenmue style QTE events.

Why should a big damage powerbomb be as easy to counter as a simple body slam?

The point is that there are too many counters because it's so easy to do and there's no risk involved.

No it's not. Turn based battles have something to watch and the enemy is attacking back. There's not enough going on in the GM mode. What? No it's not. It's like....4 months long. You don't even need to actually play the matches. Towards the end of one play through I stopped caring and just skipped all the matches....I won the royal rumble and won the title at the end. You get hit but you would have got hit if you hadn't tried to counter. If I just stand there I get hit and take damage. If I try to counter and do I gain the advantage. If I try to counter and fail I take the same amount of damage I would have if I had just stood there. So there is no reason not to counter. There is no risk in attempting a counter every single time you are attacked. I don't hate it that much. I wouldn't be playing it if it wasn't fun. The story mode is good and I'll play it in two player for a bit just because of all the over the top special matches and modes. Fighting on top of the cage in hell in a cell is cool even if the gameplay is too simple.

Carlito is cool. I love how he just casually strolls out to the ring to that goofy music. I don't think there is any difference in how easy it is to counter moves. Stamina is another thing that's pretty dumb. So far I haven't seen it make any real impact at all.

I don't watch wrestling but I get these games anyway(and then always complain about how bad they are). I have no idea who half these people are, except from having read about them. I've been playing as Carlito. Even though I have never actually seen him on TV I like him because of his silly hair. The GM mode is incredibly boring. I hate having to continue a feud every single week or else it ends. There's not enough fresh news either, after like a month I had seen every news piece. Setting up matches in a menu over and over is just tedius. The career mode is pretty cool but is too short and random. You just go from one story to the next seemingly at random and then it just kinda ends. It isn't even a full year. Fullfill your fantasy is horrible. What is even the point? The gameplay in this series makes no sense. It looks good but has no real depth or balance. What is the difference between the moves besides the way they look? They can all be reversed the same way. So why go for a simple weak grapple when you can do a big power move that takes off more life? Anytime I play these in two player it's kind of lame because it's so easy to counter moves. They don't take exact timing and there's no penalty for doing the wrong counter. There's no reason NOT to try every single time so like 75% of our moves get countered over and over. It looks ridiculous.

Is Daisy playable?

The author made it up. Sakura looks up to Ryu as a hero and role model. Ryu is like 40 while Sak is a teen...

I liked Lament of Innosense. Will I like this new one?

My favorited was when Kuma's "JF" Salmon Hunter was found in T4. Everyone flipping out. Because you know Kuma is dangerously close to being so broken.

It's kind of hard to take all the doom and gloom seriously since the fighting community are such drama queens. Seriously...EVERYTHING is hyped as breaking the game. Remember the talk of banning T5 Heihachi?

Tekken 3 is unplayable now. Too much has been added since then. It's too slow and limited. That is a series where each new game replaces the last.

DOA4 is December now. If PDZ actually turns out good I might get that instead. I want 3 games...

I'm disappointed DOA4 is missing launch. Guess I'll go with Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4. Is COD2 for 360 a different game than the one for PS2?

Yes let's reward Capcom for their milking instead of bringing out something new. T5 is not just the best fighter this year but the best 3D fighter overall of any year. Usually this time of year I know what is going to be my GOTY. It's going to be hard this year. Nothing stands out.