Let's Do This! Coming back to Street Fighter.

Once again I'm late to the party, but this weekend I hope to finally be playing Street Fighter 4 online...on the PC. Yes I know I'm nearly a month late to the PC release, but I had been focusing on the console versions since launch. I've been watching match videos on youtube, perusing multiple forums, and just absorbing information about the game in general. For someone who has yet to play the actual game, I've spent a remarkable amount of time just reading about it, and vicariously experiencing it through forum discussions and match videos. Unfortunately, my current financial situation prevents me from purchasing an Xbox 360, SF4 and a fighting stick. It was only recently that a light bulb lit up in my head when I realized that my gaming PC is beefy enough to run SF4. So I can snag the game and a decent fighting stick for less than $100. 

This is not my first exposure to Street Fighter. I grew up in Asia about the time Street Fighter 2 and Fatal Fury first hit arcades. I still fondly remember my dog-eared copy of EGM that had photos and descriptions of each fighter's special moves, as well as a short bio on each character. I recall acting out the special moves of every character for my oldest nephew, and describing each fighter to him. Sadly, in those days I was pretty young and was not good at understanding the finer details of fighting games. I wanted to be good at Ryu, but I didn't have the skill to do fireballs or shoryukens properly. I would often jump accidentally when trying special moves. I settled for learning Guile, because his charge moves came easier to me. And I got pretty decent against the computer, but was still a scrub against better players. I rarely won versus another player, unless he was inexperienced like me. I also played other stuff like Fatal Fury, but I would play every version of SF that came out.  Still, I was never more than a mediocre player.

I would return to Street Fighter when Capcom released New Challengers and Super Turbo. I quickly discovered that I sucked with Cammy, Fei Long and T Hawk.  After King of Fighters debuted in 1994, I gravitated to it. I played significantly more KOF for a while and started to learn proper move execution. About the time KOF 95' came out, I knew how to perform most special moves on demand. Still, my game relied on using mainly the strongest normals and special moves. I didn't use pokes, footsies, or jab strings. I was basically a player who used Hard Punch and Hard Kick for everything. I also played Street Fighter Alpha, and its sequels during their arcade release, but I was playing more KOF than SF at this point, and it wasn't until Street Fighter 3 that I finally "understood" the game. I got pretty good at SF3, nothing amazing, but I did pretty well in my local scene. Unfortunately, some time after SF3 3rd Strike was released, I fell out of the fighting game scene for many years. 

And so, more than eighteen years after Street Fighter 2 came out, I'm returning to Street Fighter, and to Ryu. Ryu has always been an iconic character, his ending in the original SF2 really affected me. I remember it to this day. He's the solid, well-balanced "basic" fighter archetype that has spawned countless imitations across the fighting game genre. Strangely, I haven't really tried to use him since the New Challengers. Even in the Versus series, like Capcom Vs SNK and Marvel Vs Capcom, I intentionally avoided using Ryu. I sort of had a mental block about using him, since all my attempts at "mastering" Ryu had met with failure. Also, he's always been a well-rounded popular character that gets picked by many players. And so in nearly every game I would use a character that was "different". I used Guy in the Alpha series, and Yun and Makoto in SF3. 

This time however, I'm gonna pick Ryu. I'm a better player now, with a better understanding of the game, the fighters and the engine. I think that now that I've gotten all this experience under my belt, I'm finally ready to use him. It's kind of a cool feeling, to come back to a character that I had originally wanted to play, but for one reason or another I passed over. I also have a different mindset now. I'm going to approach this as a learning experience, not as a way to show my "skills". I must credit David Sirlin for writing a series of articles collectively called "Playing to Win", that taught me many things. Not just about fighting games in general, but also about the mental barriers that a mediocre or "scrubby" player has to overcome in his head to succeed. Hopefully, the next time I play against someone with Ryu, I'll be playing to win, and to learn. 

KOF XII: Rebirth is Re-botched

If you have more than a cursory interest in 2-D fighting games, the release of SNK's flagship fighting series on July 24th is well known to you. However, what you may not know yet is that somehow SNK has taken the game that could have theoretically turned their fortunes around in the USA and royally screwed the pooch with it. No, I'm not talking about the graphics, engine or gameplay. I'm talking about the netcode. 

Reports from multiple websites and forum posters reveal that the online play for KOF XII is nigh-unplayable. A patch was released for the PS3 version shortly after launch to fix the lag issues, but it seems to have not had a noticeable effect as well as adding some bugs to the game. Compared to BlazBlue, or even SF4, KOF XII fails painfully in its implementation of the online experience. Players report difficulty connecting to matches, and laggy inputs when they do get a match going. Character Select lag, even. Other issues include being able to re-map the button assignments of the other player online and unintuitive menus with a lack of certain features. The poor online experience only emphasizes the poor single-player AI. The AI is so bad that players report no difference between the difficulty setting, the AI is equally stupid. So if you don't have any local friends to play against and were depending on the online play, you're currently out of luck. The patch has also been uploaded to XBL recently, but results are mixed. I wish to quote someone from the PA forums who summed up my feelings on this with a masterful post.

slash000 wrote: 

Yeah, I mean, SNK has always had a kind of small but strong following over the years. They've always been niche.  This was their opportunity to kind of re-invigorate their main franchise, and bring in new (or returning) fans.  And they dropped the ball, big time. Seriously. This was their opportunity to go from a tiny hardcore fanbase to expanding to at least the more broad fighting game market (which itself is still small honestly).  But all this game has done is made everyone who took new interest, or renewed interest, in the KOF franchise, and basically made them feel like a shmuck for taking interest and having renewed faith in SNK and paying $60 for the game. Even those among the big longtime SNK fanbase are getting pretty sour over this. It's a major problem. Not only is this going to completely turn off a large portion of would-be potential fans, but it's even starting to wear down on fans that have followed SNK for a long time. What could have been a rebirth for the series both in appearance and style AS WELL as market appeal is turning out to be something that is doing more damage than good, possibly with greater negative effects in the long term.

He's completely on the ball here, I'm saddened to say. I love KOF. I've played it since its inception in 94'. But this really sucks. It sucks even more because the game itself is very good! The art is beautiful, the engine solid, and the animation is breathtaking. I don't even care that Mai isn't in this game, I just want it to be playable online! I know that it's not too late, perhaps a miracle patch is being worked on as we speak, but I really hope that if they do manage to fix this, that the damage done to KOF and SNK's rep isn't irreversible. 

Random Anime Recommendation

This is probably very old news to many people, but I recently discovered the Gundam series The 08th MS Team. I stumbled across it in a random topic in a modeling forum I frequent and thought I'd give it a shot based on all the positive comments it was getting. I was blown away. 

Compared to many of the more recent Gundam series like 00 and Seed, 08th MS Team is a breath of fresh air to me. Of course, I realize that it is a significantly older series and that I'm a Johnny-come-lately to all this, but it still kicks ass in it's own way. To paraphrase one forum poster, where something like Gundam Wing is "invincible robots doing killing ballet in outer space", 08th MS Team is gritty, dirty, and real. Instead of super-sensors spotting enemy units from large distances, the 08th MS Team relies on their hovertruck sonar, and a teammate skilled in listening, to pinpoint the enemy. Large amounts of time are spent in preparation for any upcoming conflict, which includes outlining the plan of attack, getting into position and listening for the enemies' advance. In other words, tactics. Once visual confirmation is made, the fights are over in a very short time. The terrain plays a large part in combat as well. The mobile suits aren't super-machines either, they are mass-production models, effective in combat, but nothing like say the Wing Zero Custom. For example, one episode shows an MS being temporarily sidelined because sand gets in its gears!

No "ace" pilots here either, just new-ish recruits and some seasoned veterans. If anything the only real ace in this series would probably be Norris Packard, on the Zeon side. Most characters are competent, effective pilots, but nothing like an Amuro Ray or Setsuna F. Seiei. Characterization is another plus, and it's consistent throughout the series. Shiro is a bit green, but talented. Sanders is serious but a bit haunted by his past. Karen is a bit harsh, but an effective pilot and officer. Eledore is extroverted but dependable in a fight, and Michel pines for his girlfriend, but is perhaps the most empathetic of the team. On the other side as well, the Zeon soldiers and officers are portrayed as real human beings, not faceless cogs in the military machine. The humanizing treatment given to all the characters really makes us feel for them. We empathize with the valiant Feddies, and feel for the injured yet brave Zeon. One truly sees how even opposing sides in war are made up of people who are essentially the same. It's a cliche sentiment, but one that's very appropriate here.

If anything, my only complaint would be that the love story subplot is a bit abrupt and perhaps not fully fleshed out. But considering the setting of said love story, it's not completely illogical. I would really recommend that you pick this up, especially if you do not have much experience with the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam series. And of course, after watching this I'm itching to pick up a kit of the RX-79 [G] when I get the cash, heh.

An Epiphany

I had an epiphany the other night, whilst lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. For the first time in many many months, I realized that I finally understood why I've been without motivation to pursue many of my hobbies. I'll talk about model building, since it relates the best to what I'm trying to explain. This passage from Gunota.info pretty much sums up what I've been suffering from:

Do You Have It? AMS –  Advanced Modeling Syndrome;  is a condition that is characterized by a modeler’s obsession or continual pursuit to outdo his own capability & standard, resulting in the inability to complete a model kit. In the worst possible scenario, the modeler can suffer burnout and become incapable of doing any model kit for long periods of time.

The root for causes are many but can be typified by the some of the following examples below;

• adding Metal thrusters, Spikes, Tubing, Grooves covers and also LED lit beam sabers to model kits,
• adding mobility mods and making proportion adjustments,
• surfing the internet for references and research on similar builds before embarking on the project and
• many more.

All these itsy-bitsy things will trip-up a modeler, potentially reducing his/ her production levels to near-zero and leave them in depression, despair and remorse.

 I cleaned up the above a bit, but the gist is clear. And it's exactly what I've been going through. I've always had a bad habit of putting off doing stuff, because I always want to be perfectly prepared for the project I'm going to be starting "soon". First it was that I had to get a compressor and airbrush, then I needed a specific paint, then I ran out of primer, and on and on... Before long, nothing ever got started, and all the while I was planning three or four kits ahead! Pretty dumb now that I think about it. Instead of starting a kit I currently owned, I'd fixate on some new one, and I couldn't start anything until I purchased the new one. And like clockwork, when the new one came in, I'd lose interest and start fixating on something else. I had this problem with games too. While playing WAR, I'd get soo wrapped up in raising my Renown Rank that I started to dread logging in to play my "required" amount of scenarios instead of just paying attention to my current options and trying to enjoy just playing the game. 

Same deal with my drawing hobby: I'd plan a piece like a poster type illustration, start my  preliminary sketches and never get past that point. I'd plan and sketch and plan, but I would never start the actual piece.

Now that I've recognized this mental block of mine, I've begun making a concerted effort to actually start and finish a model kit. I'm trying to just sit down every night for a decent chunk of time and get something done. Even if it's just assembling/sanding one part, so long as some progress is made. I'm really happy about this new state of mind and I hope I'll be able to show you a completed project before too long. I'm actually looking forward to this. It's been a while.

I'm back. Now what?

Yes, after many months of inactivity, I return to this blog. However, I am not returning to my previous theme and subject matter.

I burned out. 

After months of hype and excitement, both with Warhammer Online and my blog, I began to hit a wall. It became harder and harder to come up with content, and I was logging in less and less. It became less fun and more work. In hindsight, of course it's easy to realize that getting buried in WAR and everything related to it was going to burn me out sooner or later. And just like most people, I didn't see it coming at the time. And eventually, I just stopped logging in and playing, and I stopped writing. There were other factors, of course. My fiance and I just moved to a new apartment, we had a minor car wreck, our wedding date is fast approaching, etc, etc.

So yeah, a bunch of stuff has been happening in a relatively short time, and it is only now that I feel caught up enough to try and start writing again. Since I'm no longer playing WAR, I will be re-orienting this blog towards my other interests, while still including video games. I've been getting back into plastic modeling, mainly Gundam models, as well as anime and manga. And of course some PC and console gaming. 

Luckily, my blog name is still relevant to the topics I plan to post about and the name will stay. If you are reading, you have my thanks. And I hope that what I write will still be somewhat interesting to you. I'll see you next post.

We All Knew It Was Coming

And here it is. Good thing, too. I did hope that Mythic would have come to this conclusion sooner, but I'm glad it happened at all. Nice to now have token rewards for the warcamp rvr quests as well.

Also, I apologize for the recent lack of posts, I've been very busy with that demon known as real life and my playtime has suffered as a result. However, I hope to be getting more gaming in these next few weeks. I'll see you guys in RvR.

My First Dungeon Runs.

Yep, that's the truth. I had never done any instanced dungeons in WAR until last night. This is mainly because I was unable to settle on a character until the Slayer was released. Now, with Khazgar at 4/5 Annihilator, I felt ready to start doing Sigmar Crypts or Skaven Tunnels. Luckiy, I'm in a guild that is ready to run newbies through dungeons, and we have a good group of players that are now massively overgeared for the instances. This is probably why the runs went so smoothly. The group was composed of myself, another newbie Slayer, our Guild Master was the single tank, with an Engi and two Runepriests. Yes, an all-dwarf group. For some reason our guild is composed of over 75% dwarfs. Go figure,

Anyway, the run went smoothly, we hit Crypts first, with my GM laying out basic strats on vent along the way. We got all the way to Twin Lectors without a hitch, and after the strategy was explained, we went to it. It was surprisingly easy, even with one tank, but as I said, my guildies were overgeared for this run. We downed them without a hitch, and the Sentinel Leathers dropped! My roll karma was strong and I won the chestpiece! I was stoked, and they don't loot half bad either. At least they aren't bugged and actually show up on my character, unlike the Annihilator chest.

After this we headed out to the Blowhole Tavern and hit the Tunnels. This was a first for me as well, but it seemed to go by quick. The tank kited the Grey Seer Boss while we ran around like headless chickens beating on the boss. Grey Seer went down like cake and not only did the Sentinel War Shroud head piece drop, but I won that roll as well! I honestly felt kind of bad for the other Slayer in the group, but I'll pass on both next time til he gets them should they drop.

Doing these runs gave me a better understanding of the Ward System and how one is supposed to start progression through the endgame. I now know exactly when I can start doing Bastion Stair on my next alt, and I'm gonna make a concerted effort to get at least one character through Lost Vale.

Speaking of Bastion Stair, why don't more players run it? It seems like a pretty doable dungeon, especially considering you can start getting your lesser wards regardless of your Renown Rank. I mean, considering the relative difficulty of getting certain pieces of the Annihilator set, doing BS sounds like a more reliable method.