02/20/2013 - Sony Playstation Conference: Is the PS4 Announcement Upon Us?!

On Wednesday, February 20th, the Sony Playstation brand is really to announce something big. Sony announced today that a huge NYC press conference for the media and their investors will be held on Febrary 20th.The company released a small teaser video today to hype the gaming nerds up, but really do not say anything about what this announcement is or it's intentions. The video suggests it is related to the entire Playstation brand, so this could only mean one thing... right? The Playstation 4 announcement!!

After releasing this video, if the announcement really has nothing to do with the Playstation 4, I think Sony will piss off a lot of gamers out there. I honestly do not see this conference going anywhere but towards the PS4 unveiling so I think it is a safe bet we will see this bad boy shown in 20 days. I'm pretty excited to see the massive crab damage we can do this generation!

And it Came From NeoGAF: Tax Time Edition

I love to lurk on the NeoGAF forums. Some people claim NeoGAF is a breeding ground of elitist dolts and trolls, but I find a hotbed of hilarity with the occasional legit and engaging conversation about the world of gaming within it's pages. Once and awhile I find a glowing gem on NeoGAF that's too awesome not to share, so I like posting them and allowing you fine folks to experience the wonders of the GAF community. Here is a good one for you:

I literally laughed out loud on this one. The discussion basically consists of a poster seriously questioning whether or not he/she needs to claim any money made from the Diablo III auction house on his IRS tax forms. I highly doubt the IRS cares about the $1.25 you make every couple of weeks by selling that shield you scammed some poor bastard out of giving you on the Battle.net servers. The funniest thing is that some people actually use this game as a source of income, so it may be a legitimate question for the folks who refuse to work so they can bank off of drinking energy drinks and reloading Inferno Diablo checkpoints every 20 minutes of every day in order to pay the rent. Whatever floats boats, I guess.

Top Ten Games of 2012: Day Six

5. Xenoblade Chronicles

Some of my most treasured memories of my gaming childhood came from the Japanese RPG genre. The first time I leapt into a time portal after Marle in Chrono Trigger. Sitting on a ruined playground swing talking about childhood promises with Tiffa in Final Fantasy VII. Hearing that amazing overworld melody for the first time in Chrono Cross (which is named "On the Beach of Dreams" and is easily one of the most moving pieces of music from any video game in existence). The Japanese RPG long ago was the genre that helped redefine video games, changing them from being about high-scores and fast reflexes to being able to tell us a story, take us on a journey, and literally allow us to feel emotions. So why has the JRPG sort of died off in recent years? The abundance of titles have greatly diminished along with the quality and the creativity the genre once had. The current generation of JRPGs have frankly sort of stunk and have given us disappointment after disappointment. The original Playstation and the Playstation 2 carried tons of amazing JRPGs; what's the Playstation 3's excuse? Many blame the popularity of Western game design while other blame the lack of talent left in the major studios that still stand today. Who would have thought the Nintendo Wii would have given us one of the very few JRPGs to actually care about this generation?

Xenoblade Chronicles is a Japanese RPG developed by Monolith Soft, the developers responsible for the Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos series. The game is loosely based on the "Xeno" series (Xenogears, Xenosaga) but mostly stands on it's own feet as a stand-alone game and story. The game released in Japan in 2010, followed by Europe in 2011; however, North America did not see a release of the title, due to Nintendo of America's disinterest in localizing it to the American market due to the fear of poor sales. After a major internet petition and movement by the name of Operation Rainfall surfaced attempting to convince Nintendo to localize many popular Japanese RPGs (including Xenoblade Chronicles) to the United States, NoA had a change of heart and released Xenoblade Chronicles in a limited released sold only by Gamestop stores in the U.S. We have Operation Rainfall to thank because Xenoblade Chronicles happens to be one of the best JRPGs to grace a console in a long time.

Monolith Soft saw trends in vastly popular MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) RPGs and created a hybrid of sorts, bringing the classic conventions of a Japanese role-playing game mixed with the open-ended vastness and exploration of an MMO game. The overworld is large and fun to explore with literally hundreds of side-quests to complete at your own pace. The battle system sort of feels like an MMO game by allowing characters to use and switch between skills that are controlled by a timer that will allow the particular skill to be used again. The protagonist of the story, Shulk, can wield a powerful blade named Monado that can unleash powerful attacks against foes that sort of feels like your typical "overdrive" mode found in many popular action games. One of the coolest things about Xenoblade Chronicles is the feeling of freedom that does not hold the player down by too many cutscenes or warping. This is a world that the player can traverse through with little load times that make everything feel very seamless.

The heart of Xenoblade Chronicles is the story the game tells. Like many great RPG stories, Xenoblade starts off with a fairly lighthearted story that quickly ends in tragedy, which sort of fuels the player's determination to ensure the cast of characters see their quest to the end. The characters are all very likable and well written with voice actors that give them a nice flair due to Nintendo of America's decision to not localize the voice talent and keep the original European actors from the PAL version of the game. The mythos of the game's world is quite creative, with two entire worlds existing within two robotic creatures that are locked in a never-ending battle for eternity. While exploring the world, the game will inform the player of which portion of the body the player currently inhabits including visual aid by the beautifully painted backgrounds. Even though the Wii hardware is outdated, it pumps out enough visuals to create a gorgeous world thanks to outstanding art design.

I am still baffled and saddened by the lack of worthy titles out of the Japanese RPG genre this generation. With Final Fantasy missing the mark and many talented developers jumping ship, I felt like the genre was sort of a dying breed. Xenoblade Chronicles breathed life into a genre that gamers were graving good content from and Nintendo almost denied American gamers a chance to experience it. The game has already become quite rare in the United States with eBay prices of sealed copies shooting higher each day. If you can find a copy of this gem and want your JRPG itch scratched, missing out on Xenoblade Chronicles should be a crime. Xenoblade Chronicles is #5 favorite game of 2012.

Top Ten Games of 2012: Day Five

6. Mark of the Ninja

The stealth genre has lost a lot of steam over the years thanks to games copying Call of Duty's formula over and over again. I remember the good ole days of playing games like Splinter Cell and Tenchu, feeling like a cougar hunting his prey and how satisfying it was to take out a room full of armed guards who were completely oblivious to your presence. After the stealth game's hay day, games started incorporating and shoe-horning stealth missions into basically every game imaginable and the genre sort of died off a bit, with even it's biggest titles turning into action games. Mark of the Ninja, an indie title by developer Klei Entertainment (who also created the Shank games) came to us like a shining beacon of light from the heavens and once again made stealth games fun again.

Mark of the Ninja mixes elements of new and old, taking form of a 2D sidescroller that feels reminiscent of classic Shinobi games and mixing in advanced stealth elements from modern stealth games like Splinter Cell. Climbing walls, taking out lights, popping out of air vents, peeking through doors, using tools to distract and stun bad guys, all of those are intact here in a cool 2D world. The art style is sort of 'Saturday morning' cartoon-ish (think Samurai Jack), but the kills are still lethal and quite brutal. The story isn't really anything special, but do we really play stealth games for the story? The game also has very tight, silky smooth controls that make sneaking, climbing, and killing a breeze. Stealth kills require timed button presses to pull off properly, which mixes the gameplay up and requires a bit of skill in order to clear a room without alerting anyone in the process.

Completionists will also appreciate the collectibles scattered around each level and a point system that grades your performance, which gives the player plenty of incentives to run through previous levels again. Each mission also includes bonus objectives to complete that are optional, but greatly enhance your score at the end of each mission. One thing that always bugged me about stealth games is my perfectionist mentality that always nags at me to stop and reload the game when I mess a stealth kill up. Mark of the Ninja includes a great checkpoint system that allows the player to return quickly to a difficult area and give it another shot without having to pause, restart, hit loading screens, and backtrack through what you've already played.

The fact that Klei were able to take the best elements of classic stealth games and incorporate them into a 2D plane that work just as perfectly as it would in three dimensions is staggering. Mark of the Ninja is the first stealth game in years that brings the thrill of the hunt back to gaming. The game is well-paced, controls like a dream, and simply flat out fun to play. Mark of the Ninja is my #6 favorite game of 2012.

Apparently Flushing Game Discs Down the Toilet Magically Repairs Them.

I came across a NeoGAF discussion today about how apparently flushing your defective game discs down the toilet will pull a Merlin on an unreadable game. Now I have heard of many types of home remedies that are rumored to fix unruly discs (toothpaste, shaving cream, boiling discs in water, ect) but this method is certainly a new one. The authenticity of this trick and the odds of it actually working are pretty low if you ask me, but videos have surfaced online with 'tutorial' videos on how to properly flush your video games down the crapper. I do not actually condone flushing your games down the toilet, but I do entertain the idea of it working. I'll let you guys be the judge of this one. Maybe I will try it on my goofy copy of Astal for the Sega Saturn and see if it'll boot up properly after being drowned in my dookie water and make a video of it for laughs. Until then, I'll just leave this video here.

P.S. I wouldn't try this with Gamecube discs. You may actually lose those bad boys to the city sewage system.

Top Ten Games of 2012: Day Four

7. ZombiU

In 2012, a new console launched worldwide that kick started the next generation of gaming. Nintendo released the WiiU, their first HD game console with upgraded HD graphics comparable to the current generation of consoles, a new tablet styled control pad, and integration with legacy Wii remote controllers, games, and accessories. The launch lineup wasn’t the strongest with a lot of ports of older games that we’ve all played before, but a couple of original titles stood out among the crowd and ZombiU was one of them. ZombiU is a first person survival horror title by Ubisoft that is Nintendo’s call to hardcore gamers. The game has been extremely polarizing among gamers and critics alike, but I absolutely loved it and I will tell you why.

ZombiU feels like Demon Souls and Dark Souls in a way. The game is very difficult and punishes you for trying to not play by it’s rules. That isn’t to say the game is frustrating though since the game indeed gives you the tools in order to succeed... if you know how to use them properly and can think fast on your feet. Ubisoft created probably the most realistic zombie survival game out on the market today and playing ZombiU is extremely intense. I remember the first time I heard zombies scream in the fog of the night, I squirmed in my seat thanks to the awesome audio design the developers brought to the table. Every inch you move may be your last, so ZombiU requires players to think fast and use their resources sparingly in order to survive it’s grueling world. I have yet to play a survival horror game released in the past five years or so that actually feels like surviving is a focus of the game. WiiU gamepad integration works really well by using the gamepad's touchscreen as a map, inventory management, and environmental scanner that allows the player to look at the screen and use the gamepad's gyroscope to seek out hidden items and clues within the game's environment.

The greatest part of ZombiU is how the game handles deaths. I can tell Ubisoft intended for gamers to die quite often while playing ZombiU, so the game has online leaderboards and modes set up to see who can survive the longest without losing a survivor. When the player does lose a survivor, there are no extra lives or continues; once you are dead it is game over. However, any progress the player made into the game does indeed save to where you can continue your quest by spawning a new survivor (who happens to be a totally different person with a different profession, age, race, and sex) to pick up where you left off. 

If you do lose a survivor, all of the items and equipment you collected along the way is lost as well, but if you can find your old, zombified self roaming around where you perished as a new survivor, you can kill the failed survivor and steal back all of your gear. If the player dies a second time attempting to kill the survivor’s predecessor, that dead survivor along with all of his or her gear is lost forever and transferred to another player’s game via online game server where another player has the opportunity to kill your failure and take your gear (it even tells the player your Nintendo ID name and how long you lasted). These features associated with the survivors and the online system are really awesome and make ZombiU an unforgettable experience. The MiiVerse (WiiU integrated online message board system) activity associated with this game also boosts the game’s appeal by allowing players to pause the game, post screenshots of areas they are stuck in, and getting advice from the community when needed.

Sure ZombiU has some flaws and some of them are not as easy to give a pass to as others, but none of them ruin the amazing experience you will gain by playing this game. The melee combat can be a bit clunky, controls are a little stiff, the framerate a little jerky, and the graphics not up to par with what you would expect from an HD console. That being said, ZombiU still holds the record for being one of the most intense, frightening, and memorable horror games to come out in recent memory. This is why ZombiU is my #7 game of 2012.

Developers Ninja Theory/QLOC Really Knows How to Port a PC Game

Late last week, the PC port of DmC: Devil May Cry, Capcom's reboot of the action franchise, released on the PC a little over a week later than it's console brethren. Typically, PC ports of console action games of this type are not really marketed well or paid much attention to due to the need of a console controller in order to even properly play it. Most gamers would simply just buy the console version and call it day. Well if you are both a PC and console gamer, buying the console version may have been a huge mistake.

The PC port of DmC: Devil May Cry is actually pretty spectacular. Even on mid-range builds, most PC fans should be able to run this game at 60 frames per second easily, and even a high possibility of running it at 100 frames or more! Due to the fast-paced nature of the gameplay and the need for quick button presses, the console's barely 30 frames per second framerate was kind of a letdown. Not only will the PC version run beautifully on most modern video cards, but a slew of graphic configurations like higher resolution textures, anti-aliasing  and shadows will make the console version look like a PS2 game. The difference the higher framerate makes on the gameplay is quite an eye-opening experience, and I highly recommend players with good PC rigs play the game in this manor rather than on a console.

Developers Ninja Theory and QLOC really knocked it out of the park with DmC's PC counter-part, and may easily be one of the best PC ports of a console game I have ever seen. I myself am not a big fan of this series, but I ended up enjoying the console demo and wanted to see how Ninja Theory portrayed the story and character of Dante. Love it or hate it, DmC exists and I for one really enjoy what Ninja Theory has done with the series. It may not be as difficult or over-the-top as the previous entries, but the game plays great and boasts from fantastic art work and level design. Give the game a shot, PC gamers!

Mad Catz Tournament Fight Stick Pro (Street Fighter x Tekken) Unboxing

My Mad Catz Street Fighter x Tekken fight stick came in the mail today. This is my very first arcade stick I've ever own, so I'm pretty excited to have it. So excited in fact, that I decided to make an attempt at creating my very first unboxing video. It isn't too exciting, but I had fun doing it since I always enjoy watching these sort of videos for some odd reason. I hooked the stick up to my PC and played some Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition today and performed much better than I expected for my first time on an arcade stick like this.

So without further adieu, enjoy!

Top Ten Games of 2012: Day Three

8. Assassin's Creed III

The Assassin's Creed series is not a franchise I am a fan of. I have been pretty vocal about how overrated I feel the series is since it has existed. It isn't that the games are really that bad, actually they're not bad at all. The original game in the series has always left a bad taste in my mouth due to the respective nature of the gameplay and the dull mission design. Assassin's Creed's successors have greatly improved upon the original game, but I still could not connect with the story, characters, nor stick with the game long enough to finish any of them. Assassin's Creed III changed all of that for me... kind of.

Now that Ubisoft has taken the franchise somewhere new and interesting, my interest in the series returned, giving Assassin's Creed III a shot. Taking place in America in the late 1700's before the Revolutionary War, ACIII introduces a new character named Connor, a Young Native American boy who trains in the arts of the assassin to avenge his mother's death, yet gets tangled into a much larger ordeal. This time around, the characters are much more interesting, have better motives for their actions, and get involved in much more interesting situations than ever before. I personally connected with Connor more than I ever did with Ezio or Altiar from the previous two games. The player does not even see the main protagonist of the game until roughly three or four hours into the single player campaign, in which the player takes control of a whole different character completely. Normally this would be an odd decision for a game, yet Ubisoft pulls it off greatly by giving the character plenty of backstory on this mystery character who plays a huge role in the story, thus making the game's story even more grand and epic in scale.

The story and setting really are the heart of Assassin's Creed III, because the gameplay has changed little from the past game. You still travel from mini-map beacon to mini-map beacon, stealth killing and sword fighting goons in your path and ultimately assassinating some major player in the story's plight. In order to uncover the full map, the game requires you to still climb on top of towers to get a view of the surrounding environment, and then jump into a hay pile. Aside from the new hunter/gather mechanics in the forests outside of towns, this is still the same ol' Assassin's Creed. Normally this would have turned me off, but the story and characters are so strong here that it kept me going through the game to see what happens next, and rarely are you disappointed. The game's multiplayer hasn't had any kind of drastic overhaul or anything, but it still includes a fairly unique multiplayer experience that some will love. The multiplayer really did nothing for me personally, though.

Assassin's Creed III is an odd choice for me, because the game still includes the same gameplay intact that always put me off in the past. However, this is not a game that I can scoff at lightly due to how well Ubisoft tells a story and sets the player in situations that allow me to forgive any issues I have with how the game plays. I honestly believe any Assassin's Creed hater should still give the game a shot regardless of how they feel about the series. Ubisoft has attracted what seems like many haters with this title, but maybe whatever they changed that turned people off on this year's game are the changes that got me on board. Assassin's Creed III is my #8 game of 2012.

Top Ten Games of 2012: Day Two

9. X-COM: Enemy Unknown

The turn-based strategy genre is not a genre that generally interests me. I have dabbled in many of the RPGs in the genre (Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Shining Force) and the combat games in the genre (Advance Wars, Valkyria Chronicles) and I could never fully grasp the gameplay nor have fun trying to learn. I blame this mostly on the fact that these type of games have little to no tutorial to ease the player into the mechanics, so I sort of get lost and confused and quickly give up. All of that was until I got my hands on X-COM: Enemy Unknown for the PC, a turn-based science fiction strategy game by developer Fireaxis. I have not played any of the previous games in the series, but the rave reviews and cool story the game sports had me curious to at least give it a try. I'm glad I did.

The best thing about X-COM is that my major complaint with turn-based strategy games has been addressed by Fireaxis; give the player a tutorial and teach us how to properly play! The first couple of missions consist of fun and engaging tutorials that fit naturally into the campaign rather than making the player wish they would be over as soon as possible. During these training missions, the player receives a good amount of story to set up X-COM's tale while also actually teaching the player how the rules of a turn-based strategy game works. When I'm playing X-COM, I do not feel like the game is smarter than I while also feeling like I am wrapping my head around a game of chess, yet I'm still spending a lot of time strategizing and thinking before I act. Thank you Fireaxis, because this is definitely the kind of game I needed to ease me into a game of this type.

One of the most surprising elements of X-COM is the squad building tools. You can name and edit each soldier in your squad, promote and level them up if they are able to survive combat, and add classes and loadouts to each one. The funny thing is that you start getting attached to your squad when you successfully make them survive each alien attack, so when you lose one of them in battle you will literally feel horrible afterwards. I remember the first time I lost a soldier that I had with me throughout the start of the game, I felt like I failed the mission before I even completed any objectives.

X-COM also boasts a huge base-building, research mechanic that allows for cool upgrades and new units/gear to become unlocked that also adds to the whole strategy and play style elements. The gameplay can be easily grasped by any player after the tutorials and the game stays challenging while also staying fun in the process. The core gameplay is fast with camera angles that keep the player into the action and on the edge of their seats. Controlling the game is a cinch thanks to great keyboard and mouse controls that are very easy to use and offer a wide array of commands that allow the player to make the best decisions possible. The PC version of the game runs very well on many types of system builds and includes very little bugs out of the box. Multiple difficulties exist as well for players new to the genre and veterans of the X-COM series so no one should feel left out here.

I am a huge sucker for science fiction stories and alien invasions, so the premise alone is what caught my attention with X-COM: Enemy Unknown. The fact that Fireaxis can take a gamer who cannot enjoy turn-based strategy games and make a fan out of them is a huge achievement in my eyes. X-COM sports a cool story, awesome gameplay mechanics with great tools to ease the player into them, and very deep upgrade and squad building tools that allows the player to tailor the game to their liking. The game also includes an awesome multiplayer suite for players to go head to head against other players, but honestly I have very little interest in this personally. Even if you cannot appreciate this genre, I highly advise everyone to give the game a fair shot. This is why X-COM: Enemy Unknown is my #9 favorite game of 2012.

Wasting Time: Week of January 23rd

Anyone who has taken a peek at my Backloggery page will easily see how massive my backlog really is. Adding any new major games to my collection isn't a great idea right now due to how many games I have to still finish. The issue here is that this week the highly anticipated PS3 exclusive, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, released with universal praise. It seems that Ni No Kuni was released in low numbers and has been flying off of store shelves fairly quickly, so I fought temptation to buy yet another big game and easily lost due to the high demand and the anticipation I've had for this game. So this week I have quite a bit on my plate. Lets take a look:

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

The current generation of consoles have not been too kind to the JRPG. Many that have released have failed both critically and commercially and many others have been massive disappointments. The only two to have seem to make any sort of impression on gamers this generation are Lost Odyssey (an Xbox 360 exclusive by Final Fantasy co-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi) and the Wii-exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles that US gamers literally fought to have ported over state-side. With the current generation about to fizzle out, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch comes out to give the JRPG genre one last hurrah and attempt to give fans a game worthy of such classics as Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VIII.

Ni No Kuni is a Level-5 (Dark Cloud series, Dragon Quest VIII) developed JRPG that partners with Japanese animation mega-giants Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) to create a new yet classic styled JRPG to the Playstation 3. The game has achieve high praise among gaming critics and fans alike. It seems as if Ni No Kuni may be one of the best, if not the best, JRPGs in recent memory. I could not pass up on the opportunity to play this game so I picked it up and put about two hours into it so far. I have not played enough to really determine how good it is, but at the moment everything seems pretty fantastic. The visuals are gorgeous, the story and characters thus far are very strong, and the music is fantastic. Ni No Kuni has quite possibly one of the best overworld themes I have heard since Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. My only concern is that the battle system will wear out it's welcome and rely too much on grinding in order to proceed further into the game. I fully plan on making this game my primary game to play and will report how the game fairs as I dive deeper into it.

Persona 4 Arena

In anticipation of my arcade stick to arrive, I have been grabbing cheap fighting games as I come across them. Persona 4 Arena has gotten a lot of praise last year for being a very unique and fun fighting game and I had the opportunity to grab it very cheap recently. I popped the game in and played through the tutorial (which was more helpful than most fighting game tutorials) and a bit of the arcade mode. The game's fighting mechanics are fairly unique and require a lot of button combinations to memorize, many of them requiring three simultaneous button presses on the face buttons. Seeing as many of the counter and evasive moves require these intricate button presses, I am going to wait until my arcade stick arrives before I really learn how to play it. That being said, the game has some gorgeous 2D graphics and some impressive animations. The game has quite a deep story for a fighting game and takes place after the events of Persona 4 (which I'm currently still playing so I do not understand a lot of it). The game has found it's place into many gaming tournaments lately and the online play is suppose to be strong, so hopefully the online community stays afloat.

X-COM: Enemy Unknown

I have not played the previous editions of the X-COM series, and I typically do not play turn-based strategy RPGs due to not quite grasping the concept of them very well. X-COM: Enemy Unknown, the revival of the classic series, has found it's way on many "game of the year" lists and the reviews have been fantastic across the board. I gave the demo a spin and was quite impressed with what I played. I was able to snag a copy of the PC version cheaply so I started playing the game over the weekend and can easily see what the fuss is about. X-COM simply eases the player into the gameplay mechanics and gives you all the necessary information to properly play and understand the game before the game stops holding the player's hand. The missions are fast and fun, which makes the game a fantastic choice when you want something to play in small bursts. I'm only four or five missions into the game but I can honestly say I may have finally found a game in this genre even I can love. We'll see how it goes as I play more.

That is all this week!

Renewing My Love of Fighting Games

One gaming genre that I have always liked and respected but do not put a lot of time into or purchase a lot of games from is the fighting game genre. When I was a kid I loved playing Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat on my Sega Genesis. I remember when Super Street Fighter 2 released on the Genesis I was so excited to get my hands on that game. Even though I didn’t play fighting games with my friends often, I loved playing against the CPU regardless. Where did my love go for the genre? How come I didn’t get excited over the Street Fighter Alpha series, or even Street Fighter IV for that matter? My excitement over fighting games simply died after the 16-bit era and I’ve only had a very mild interest in the genre since then.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have definitely played and enjoyed fighting games since then. I remember playing quite a bit of Tekken 3 on the original Playstation, the Soul Calibur series (which is probably my favorite modern fighting game series) starting on the Dreamcast, Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360 and most recently the new Mortal Kombat -- which happened to land a spot on my Top Ten list in 2011. Most of my interest in the genre lies in 3D fighters, since 2D fighters like King of the Fighters, BlazBlue, and Guilty Gear really didn’t do anything for me. It was not until Super Street Fighter IV that I started to regain interest in 2D fighters and the genre as a whole. I have found myself recently watching live streams from professional competitions like EVO and SCR (Southern California Regionals) for fun and keeping an eye on professional players by seeing how they play.

To return to the original question, why have I lost the love for the genre? I think part of it stems from not having anyone to really play and practice with. Playing a fighting game online is a frustrating chore since the majority of players are too highly skilled to have fun playing against and latency issues plague many online fighters. The biggest reason behind my lost love for the genre is the lack of an arcade stick. Even though some professional players use gamepads, it isn’t very many and using the standard controller is a pretty big handicap for many. Pulling off intricate combos and moves are much easier when using an arcade stick, but a good stick can range anywhere from $200 to $300 if you want one that performs well right out of the box. Some players will buy cheap arcade sticks and mod them using high-end parts from companies like Sanwa and Seimitsu. Due to the pricey nature of these controllers, I sort of ignored most fighting games since I know the cost of getting good at them can be pricey.

Watching these professional fighting game tournaments has inspired me to get back into the fighting game genre. I would love to finally be able to practice and become good at some of these games, like Tekken Tag Tournament 2 or Super Street Fighter IV, so I took the liberty of finally jumping the gun on an arcade stick purchase. I faught with myself all weekend on whether or not spending the money on an arcade stick would be a worthy investment, but now is probably the perfect time to splurge on one and Mad Catz (one of the top manufacturers) will typically have big sales on arcade sticks during major professional tournaments. Since SCR 2013 occurred this weekend, Mad Catz indeed had a nice sale on fancy arcade sticks, so I purchased the Street Fighter X Tekken Xbox 360 Tournament Fight Stick (originally $160) for only $100. I figured since it will be awhile until there are major sales like this again, now was the time to go for it. I am now patiently waiting for the arcade stick to arrive hopefully sometime this week so I can start learning how to properly use it.

Now that I am an arcade stick owner, I plan on picking up a few new fighting games to test it out. I recently picked up Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition for the PC on the cheap (thanks GreenManGaming.com) and I plan on grabbing Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Persona 4 Arena, and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 soon. Wish me luck, and if anybody needs a sparring buddy let me know!

Backloggery Collection Complete

I have finally finished my Backloggery collection via Backloggery.com. A link resides on the right side of the page under my updates if anyone is interested in checking it out. I have some quick statistics to share.

- Currently own 441 games across 21 different platforms.
- I have only beaten 22% of my games. Yeah, that sounds about right.
- I own the most games on the PC (142), followed by the Atari 2600 (35) and the PS2 (32).
- I've beaten more games on the PC (26), followed by the Xbox (16) and the Xbox 360 (10).
-According to the statistics, I REALLY need to get on finishing PS2 and original Playstation games!

Gaming Hauls: January 19th, 2013.

Went out on another classic game hunt today and scored quite a few PS2 games I've been wanting to add to my collection for pretty cheap. Also grabbed an Xbox 360 game that I really need to revisit and finish. Here is what I snatched up:

Devil May Cry (original casing, used) - $2.00
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (used) - $2.00
Onimusha: Warlords (used) - $2.00
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (used) - $3.00
Kingdom Hearts (GH version, new) - $12.00
Kingdom Hearts II (GH version, new) - $12.00
Lost Odyssey (used) - $10.00

Total spent: $53

I played through the original Onimusha on the Xbox, which was actually one of the games I bought alongside my Xbox when I bought it. I loved that game to death and been meaning to revisit it, so I grabbed the PS2 version on the cheap. I never got a chance to finish any of the other games in the series (even though I've played them all except for the final one) so I grabbed Onimusha 2 as well and will look out for the other two next time I go on a game hunt. The Devil May Cry series is one I've always wanted to get into, but just never could due to the difficulty of the series. I figured I would try again with the original. Kingdom Hearts I could never get into and I have not played the sequel, but I figured I would give the series another shot. Maximo is a game I dabbled in when it was first released but I didn't get too deep into it, so I've been wanting to revisit it as well. Lost Odyssey I rented during it's release and loved what I played but never got around to purchasing a copy, so now is the time to hop on it. Thanks it for now!

Gaming Collection Project

Have you seen those crazy guys on the internet with the whole rooms filled top to bottom with video games? The folks who’s gaming collections are thousands? Well yeah, that is basically what I inspire to do. I currently have my nerdy man-cave setup as a video gaming mecca, complete with framed gaming art covering the walls and gaming memorabilia filling bookcases and shelving units. My personal video game collection has grown greatly, but it is nowhere near where I want it to be. I find myself every few weeks or so scouring thrift stores, flea markets, and second-hand gaming shops looking for treasures to add to my collection. I have recently decided to categorize, catalog, and database my gaming collection using a website called Backloggery and an iPhone app created by a NeoGAF user (Kevin Gudgeirsson, AKA Avengedsd) named Game Vault to keep track of my collection.

I will post the completed Backloggery database as soon as I am finished, which I will use to show viewer my current collection, progress, and gaming trends associated with my collection. My collection primarily focuses on retail physical copies, but games that are only available in digital form (like Steam games) I will add for progress purposes. I plan on hopefully posting the completed collection very soon. I will also blog about my current finds and purchases as well.

This should be a fun project and I’m hoping to hit my goal of 500 physical games this year. I better start stockpiling up on spare bookcases!