Pick Up Post: Tekken 6 Limited Edition Fightstick Bundle for PS3

Back when I bought Super Street Fighter IV for the PS3, I was kind of hoping that I wouldn’t spend any more money on this game. Having two copies of the same game for different consoles struck me as excessive. However, playing against my friends has gotten pretty frequent, pretty serious, and my Dualshock 3 experiment ended with a painful left hand and sore thumbs.

Having owned the Mad Catz TEHori EX 2, Fighting Stick Wii by Hori and the Hori Tekken 6 Fightstick at some point or another, I had a good grasp of what was out there and what best suited my needs and my budget. In the end, I went with the Hori Tekken 6 Fightstick for PS3, which comes with Tekken 6 and the art book.

Continue reading

Super Street Fighter IV’s Absence On PC and the Bigger Discussion About Piracy

For all of those PC gamers anxiously awaiting the follow-up to the great PC Street Fighter IV port, you’re out of luck. A few days ago, Capcom Producer Yoshinori Ono during an interview with 4gamer revealed that there are no plans to bring Super Street Fighter IV to the PC due to piracy. Even though the original sold great, it also was a pirate favourite.

I know there are a lot of people who feel that video game piracy is a victimless crime because they feel like they’re only one person taking a product away from a faceless, multi-billion dollar corporation. However, there are consequences to pirating, and this is one of them. Not only does it hurt legitimate gamers that actually wanted to pay for it, but now pirates can’t even pirate it.

Don’t blame Capcom for this. They’re not here to just give away all of their work for us to enjoy. They run a business, and their purpose as a business is to make money. Releasing that type of game on the platform that is a pirate-haven such as the PC has proven time and time again to be bad business. I’m sure that the potential sales they lost due to piracy far outweighs the money they made on legitimate sales. To be honest, from a business perspective, I don’t know why any major companies would want to put out their big budget games in the traditional fashion on PC.

Where paying gamers can complain is the fact that Capcom doesn’t want to distribute this digitally through a protected system like Steam, which they feel is unfair to gamers who don’t have the service and limiting to gamers. Maybe someday they’ll change their mind on this decision.

Say what you will about much cheaper it is to pirate games rather than pay for them, but this is the end result of rampant piracy. The catalogue from which to pirate from will disappear and everyone loses. I sympathize for the PC only crowd that would have to buy new hardware to play Super Street Fighter IV in some form. As for the pirates that ruined everything…

Pick Up Post: I Bought Super Street Fighter IV Again?

When it comes to owning multiple copies of the same game, I’ve set this precedent for myself before. I’ve owned Mario All-Stars when I had the original NES versions. I also own SNES and Virtual Console versions of Street Fighter II and Contra III because those games are awesome.

I love Super Street Fighter IV. It very well might be my favourite Street Fighter game of all-time. When it’s all said and done, this game might even be in my top 10 for favourite game of all-time. But do I need two copies of this game? Now? My wallet said yes, but I’m not so sure I really do.
Continue reading

Mortal Kombat: HD Arcade Kollection Rumor Discussion

I have seen a number of rumors surrounding an HD compilation of the first three Mortal Kombat games. I first saw details on IPLAYWINNER, and those initial rumors are beginning to appear more valid as retailers have leaked and removed product pages for Mortal Kombat: HD Kollection.

Continue reading

Pick Up Post: Nintendo Wii Fightstick By Hori

Wii owners with a fighting game itch have very little to scratch it. While Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is awesome and there are no shortage of Street Fighter games on Virtual Console, it still pales in comparison to the plethora of fighting games on the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3. On top of that, joystick options are limited too. All Wii owners have are the Mad Catz SE fightstick packed in with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the Hori Wii fightstick and the Intec Combat Arcade Stick, which I don’t trust one bit.

I still want the Mad Catz stick, but in my country I can only get it with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom; a game I already have. Instead, I grabbed the Nintendo Wii Fightstick by Hori. My experience with Hori has been hit and miss, but after putting it through its paces, this one thankfully is in the former category.

Continue reading

Jett Vs. – Episode 1: Stay Classy, Ken Masters

Welcome to a feature I’m testing out on In Third Person that I like to call “Jett Vs.” (no relation to that Shaq show). For now, I’ll probably use this as a place to post some of my Street Fighter match videos, talk about Street Fighter knowledge and what happened in a particular match. I guess with a name like “Jett Vs.”, I can use it for basically anything related to competitive gaming. Apologies in advance the poor video and audio quality; it’s the best I can do with the on-board camera on my laptop.

For episode 1, I chose a battle I recently had with a Ken player whose cocky play cost him the match. Click through to the rest of the post to see the video and read my match commentary.

Continue reading

GODSGARDEN 2.5 Stream Right Now!

I know it’s really early on a Saturday morning (at least in my part of the world), but if you’re a big Street Fighter fan and you’re reading this shortly after I post this, you should definitely check out the GODSGARDEN 2.5 live stream, featuring some of the best Japanese Street Fighter players. Hit the “Read More” button to grab the link.

Continue reading

Street Fighter Concepts That Made Me a Better Basketball Player – Part 4: Exploiting Weaknesses

This is an on-going series where I discuss the thinking involved in Street Fighter that I’ve applied to basketball. If you want to see earlier entries in the series, hit the link: Part 1: Spacing, Part 2: Punishing Mistakes, Part 3: Resource Management

Exploitation of Weaknesses

When I play the computer in Street Fighter IV as Akuma, regardless of difficulty, I can almost always land a Raging Demon. I don’t know what the guys at Capcom did about the AI, but 99% of the time when I input that command, the computer just stands there and eats it. Human opponents in general are tougher to fool, but virtually everyone has weaknesses of some sort. When I play an opponent, one of the very first things I check is my opponent’s ability to block a cross-up. It’s a tactic that most casual players don’t understand and won’t figure out how to counteract it within the span of one match. When I notice that my opponent doesn’t have an answer for that, or any other tactic that I throw at them, I will repeatedly use that tactic until I win or until my opponent finds an answer.

Continue reading

In Defense of Fighting Games

I was planning on writing a whole post about how the entirety of Alexander Hinkley’s “Why Fighting Games Suck” post is terrible due to his ignorance and poor arguments supported with incorrect facts, but the Internet has done that for me in the comments section. Thank you, Internet.

Review – BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

If it weren’t for news of a thorough tutorial mode being included in the sequel to BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, I wouldn’t have picked up Continuum Shift. As much as this may look like a Street Fighter style game, it plays completely different and I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

A year later, it’s back with a few new characters, new stages, balance tweaks and a great tutorial mode, which I’ve already written about in great detail. However, is there enough here for new players and seasoned BlazBlue veterans alike to continue the fight?

Continue reading