The Curious Case of Persona 4 Arena Reviews

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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.

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Bulletstorm Review

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Toting an electric whip, a mean “Sparta” kick, and a potty mouth that would make Howard Stern blush, style is the name of the game in Bulletstorm. Taking heavy cues from Devil May Cry, you’re constantly encouraged, and rewarded for creatively dispatching your foes. In one minute, you could be lassoing enemies towards you, kicking them in the air, and shooting them in slow motion as they fly away. In the next, you could be steering sniper bullets around obstacles to hit enemies in the butt – a 50-point feat that the game aptly calls “Rear Entry”.

Though style is at the forefront of the experience, there’s more to Bulletstorm than its overboard machismo. In fact, it’s this excess swagger that’s gotten everyone in this mess in the first place.

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Out Now: Persona 4 Arena

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Over the past few months, Persona 4 Arena has been building a lot of buzz in the hardcore fighting game community. Created by the same team that brought us Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, the early word-on-the-street has been very positive. I have no prior experience with the Persona franchise, but I’m always interested in trying out a good fighting game.

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The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day Review

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Zombies, as depicted in almost all forms of fiction, are simple creatures. Featuring great strength, limited intelligence, and (in most cases) limited mobility, their sole objective is to consume the flesh of the living. For this very reason, I don’t find zombies themselves all that interesting.

It’s what happens around the zombies that creates fictional magic. From The Night of the Living Dead, to Abraham Lincoln: Zombie Hunter, to Plants vs. Zombies, creators have found a number of different ways to leverage their simplistic traits into amazing experiences. For The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day, the zombies are a catalyst for a far more interesting tale of human survival under apocalyptic circumstances.

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Check Out My “Cure for the Summertime Blues” Now on Splitkick

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It has been a slow summer for new releases. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, waiting for Borderlands 2 to ruin my life, I’ve been playing a bunch of backlog titles. Though some of these have been duds, I’ve played some awesome titles that I would have missed if I was jumping from one hot new release to the next.

In my latest Splitkick article, I highlight a few of these bright spots I’ve come across, such as Bullestorm, Trine 2, and Asura’s Wrath. If you’re interested in learning more about these titles, how I’m working through these slow summer months, or want to discuss how you’re spending your summer gaming time, head over to Splitkick!

Check out “Cure for the Summertime Blues” on Splitkick.com!

Bulletstorm and the Economics of the Single Player First-Person Shooter

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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?

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The Long Road to Redemption for Street Fighter X Tekken

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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.

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Kudos to Atlus

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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.

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Celebrating 3 Years of In Third Person

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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

Initial Ninja Gaiden II Impressions

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Save for the most recent installment, the modern-day Ninja Gaiden series has been held in high regard among critics and the gaming populous. Despite the positive word-of-mouth, I hadn’t played a Ninja Gaiden game since the Ninja Gaiden II on the NES. I’ll never forget how brutally hard the NES games were, and I heard the new games were equally challenging. As someone who isn’t much of a masochist when it comes to video games, this just didn’t sound like something up my alley.

However, when I came across Ninja Gaiden II for dirt cheap at a Blockbuster closing down sale, I decided to outside of my comfort zone to give this one a shot.

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