Toronto Top Tiers – organizers behind T12, and Toryuken – are back! A few days ago, they announced the that they will be hosting T13, Toronto’s second major fighting game tournament of 2012; set to take place in October. This year, they’re planning on running 13(!) different games, which would make it the biggest tournament lineup I’ve ever seen. Click through for the full list of games, and some of my initial thoughts!
Fan Expo is in the books. It was an eventful one for Steff, and I. Here’s some notes from the show!
Canada’s ComicCon North begins this week in Toronto! For the third year in a row, Steff and I have tickets to partake in all four days of Fan Expo. Some of the things I’m excited to see/do at the show include:
– Levar Burton. Reading Rainbow for the win! Also, Star Trek.
– ZombiU will be there. Not too hyped about that game, but its presence means the WiiU should be there in some form.
– Buy all sorts of nerdy stuff
– Enjoy the sight of mostly well-done cosplay
– Be one with my fellow nerds
Though I have yet to figure out how I’m going to document our adventures, I’ll think of something. Also, content will continue as scheduled, so don’t worry about a dip in stuff to read.
Not sure if it’s too late to buy tickets, but you can learn more at the Fan Expo Canada website. If you’re coming out, maybe I’ll see you there this weekend!
Over the past few days, Mike R and I have been discussing a number of things relating to the fighting game community. As a means of bringing some of these conversations to the forefront, he’s provided me with some questions that I’ll answer in this post. Read through for some insight regarding the FGC!
Currently, I’m in the midst of reviewing Persona 4 Arena for Splitkick. Yes, I did end up caving, which should a surprise to no one. Though I have a clear idea of where I want to go with my review, I wanted to see how others approached reviewing this RPG/fighting game mash-up.
While the general consensus is positive, reviewers are coming at this game from wildly different perspectives. Sites like Shoryuken, and 1Up are putting most of their emphasis on the fighting game aspect of it, while others like Giant Bomb, and Joystiq are focused on how this progresses the franchise’s lore.
A few days ago, I picked up Bulletstorm. It’s clear that the developers behind it really wanted to push the bounds of what a first-person shooter could be. Everything from the weapons, to the level designs, and the enemies themselves, have been tuned for you to pull off fancy juggle combos, and kills that would make Devil May Cry jealous. However, it’s also clear that their single player innovations don’t work within the context of traditional multiplayer deathmatch. Instead, the game offers its own version of horde mode that feels like a throwaway mode meant to to meet check multiplayer off as a feature on the back of the box.
Though the game was a critical hit, the it didn’t live up to sales expectations, and its sequel was shelved. Did Bulletstorm fail as a commercial product because of it’s de-emphasis on multiplayer?
I’ll never forget my first few hours at Toryuken, Toronto’s most recent major fighting game tournament. Scrambling for someone to partner with me for Street Fighter X Tekken, I was repeatedly rejected by dozens of players, all of whom claimed to not play the game. Inside the main room, not a single station was running the game. As the tournament was nearing its start time, one of the tournament organizers got on the mic and asked the community if it was alright if they set up a Street Fighter X Tekken station, and the crowd roared with boos. Though I’d seen a number of negative comments about the game by players in blogs, and message boards, seeing the hate manifest in that way made the sentiment really hit home for me.
Players have had no shortage of reasons to dislike this game, from its on-disc DLC, to the inclusion of the controversial gem system, to its garbled mess of gameplay systems, one game-breaking glitch, and then some. Starting now, however, Capcom is hoping to take steps to reinvigorate this under-performing title.
I’m currently in the process of enjoying Trine 2. It’s a neat puzzle platformer that I don’t think will ever gain any sort of mainstream traction, but I’m glad that it exists. After putting in a few hours into it, I realized that the game was published by Atlus.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Without your support, the site wouldn’t have crossed this milestone (and crossed it with style). The site continues to grow in terms of popularity, community and content. Based on my projections, site content is on pace to be viewed over 80,000 times this year. That’s mind-boggling to me as someone who started this as a secret passion project who never expected anyone to find it. I’ll keep making this worth your while with more great posts and discussion going forward!
Cheers!
Jett
Last weekend, the Super Bowl of fighting games took place in Las Vegas. If you missed out on the action, or are looking for someone else’s point-of-view on what went down, I encourage you to check out my EVO 2012 wrap-up on Splitkick.com!
In Third Person 