Over the past few days, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Street Fighter IV: Volt’s online multiplayer. I’ve been doing so because I want to unlock Akuma, which can be done either by playing 100 online matches or beat the game with all 18 characters. On paper, 100 online matches is easier to complete than 144 matches against the computer. Boy, was I wrong.
video games
Kirby’s Epic Yarn Review
In a world where most games strive for realism and violence, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a joyful rebellion. Everything about it, from the amazing fabric aesthetic to the way its gameplay has been designed, feels like it was strategically built to keep a smile on your face from beginning to end. I can’t speak for everyone’s experience with Kirby’s Epic Yarn, but it had me grinning the whole way through.
Street Fighter IV: Volt Review
Street Fighter IV for iPhone is hands-down the best fighting game available on iOS. You could even make a solid case for it being one of the best iOS games, period. Despite my initial thoughts that it would suck, it won me over in a big way. Up until the release of Volt, Street Fighter IV on the iPhone has been a near-daily ritual of mine.
While Capcom made a number of huge updates to the original, they’ve decided to release a new app this time around. I would have much preferred paying for this as an add-on to the original, but I can’t complain too much when I was able to get it on sale for $0.99. Regardless of what you paid for it (and/or if you have the original), is Street Fighter IV: Volt worth a purchase?
Public Service Announcement: Street Fighter IV Volt On Sale For a Limited Time
Capcom’s latest update to the iPhone Street Fighter IV series is Street Fighter IV: Volt, which is available now. If you are reading this before July 1st and have even the slightest interest in the game, buy it now. It’s on sale today for only $0.99. As for the rest of this limited time offer?
Game-Breaking Glitch Stops Me From Finishing God of War II
After my initial lukewarm impressions on God of War II, I thought things were starting pick up. Some of my lingering quirks with the sequel in regards to déjà vu and ambiguous puzzles remained, but I was enjoying the game more after giving it a second chance. In light of my recent experience with the game, I will not be giving it any more chances.
Pick-Up Post: Mortal Kombat Season Pass
One of the most recent developments in DLC is the idea of paying for a set of content up-front and receiving a discount on the set rather than buying the components of the set separately. From a business perspective, this makes a lot of sense, as it’s a lot easier to ask me for $15 now rather than four payments of $5 spread out over 8 months. It also makes sense from the player’s perspective, as we get stuff at a discount.
Case in point, the Mortal Kombat Season Pass. There are four DLC characters scheduled for release at $5.00 each. However, if you buy the Season Pass up-front, you’ll get all four characters for $15, which is a savings of $5.
Haters Gonna Hate: The Worst of My XBOX Live Message Inbox
It is unfortunately, a fairly well-known fact that the online video game community is not the most pleasant place in the world. Especially in the competitive gaming space, where there are no shortage of people spewing hateful epithets from their mouths, or sending over colourfully-worded text messages to others about others’ in-game behaviour.
During the last few weeks of playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I’ve received an abnormally large amount of hate messages; way more than I ever did playing Street Fighter. I don’t play Marvel to infuriate others, but for whatever reason, the player base seems to either really hate me, or are just a talkative bunch.
I thought I’d share some of the messages I’ve received with you just for kicks (and to expose some of these jerks who really should behave themselves). As much as I’d like to expose their gamertags, I have censored those (and any coarse language) out of respect to the message senders and to my readers. Anyway, here’s a taste of some of the worst messages I’ve received through XBOX Live of late.
Will You Ever Grow Out of Video Games?
A few months ago, my dad came down to the basement as I was playing a video game. I don’t remember which game, but I guess that’s irrelevant to the story. He said something that kind of struck a chord with me. “Are you ever gonna give this up?”
Once upon a time, video games used to be a kids-only deal. My dad used to be into games during the Atari/golden era of arcades, but he pretty much dropped games because that’s what adults did at the time. I’m well into my 20s, but I haven’t let the medium go and don’t plan on doing so any time soon. He’s still confused as to why I haven’t given up this ‘kiddie thing’.
Mortal Kombat Gets Patched on XBOX 360, Online Play Improves
The new Mortal Kombat in my eyes was a pretty fantastic game with one fatal flaw (no pun intended): crappy online play. It would take forever to get matched up with anyone and if you did get into a match, it was always a laggy mess. At Mortal Kombat’s best, it was as laggy as Super Street Fighter IV’s worst. As much as I wanted to deep dive into the world of Mortal Kombat online play, it was an unplayable mess. Without good online play, I had basically no one to play against.
If you’ve been disappointed in Mortal Kombat’s online play to date, I’ve got good news for you.
Universal Fighting Game Guide: How to Deal With Cross-Up Attacks
With fighting games experiencing an upswing in popularity, there are a lot of new players getting into fighting games and fighting game veterans taking on new games. With any new fighting game you take on, whether that’s a mainstream hit like Street Fighter IV and Mortal Kombat, or a more niche title like Arcana Heart 3, comes a learning curve that’s usually steeper than that of most other video games on the market. Playing against the computer or playing with your friends of similar skill is fine and dandy, but if your goal is to play these games on a competitive level against anyone is going to take some smart training and elbow grease.
The good news is, a lot of the knowledge you’ll learn in one game is transferable to the next, which makes learning fighting games as a whole a task that’s not as daunting as it seems on the surface. It also makes it possible for someone like me to write a somewhat-one-size-fits-all guide to fighting games that you can apply to any fighting game you play.
I’m not sure how far I’ll go with this series of posts, but for my first attempt at this, let’s talk about fighting games from a defensive perspective. More specifically, how to deal with cross-up/cross-over/cross-under attacks.
In Third Person 