The Team Mechanics of Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Over the past few weeks, I have grown rather fond of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. While I still play Super Street Fighter IV with my coworkers when they are online, Marvel has (for now) taken over as my go-to fighting game of choice.

What I’m enjoying most about the game is the team element of the experience. In other vs. games, I would choose my team simply based on who I liked and/or who I was good with. Once in battle, I wouldn’t pay any mind in regards to who my opponent’s team was, either. I was just looking to beat people up for the win. But now that I’ve actually taken some time to learn this game, I’m realizing that there’s so much more to the team-based gameplay than that if you want to go far with the game.

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Early Impressions of de Blob 2

 

The revolution will be televised. Well, the colour revolution, anyway. The sequel to the highly-fun and possibly underrated Wii platformer is back; this time on the Wii, PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360. As a huge fan of the first game, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Though I’m only on level 3 of a possible 11 (that I can see on the world map), I thought I’d share some thoughts on my experiences so far.

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Pick Up Post: de Blob 2

The original de Blob was my surprise game of 2010. Though I was a few years late to the party, this sleeper hit made quite the impact on me. It was by no means a perfect game, but this joyous game was just a pleasure to play. There are very few games I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone of any gaming skill or taste, but de Blob is one of those games. If you have a Wii and have not played this game, you’re missing out.

I’m not sure if de Blob 2 will find (or exceed) the success of the first game, but I did my part and picked up a copy.

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Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review

 

As much as I love the Street Fighter IV series, it has done little to open me up to other fighting games in the last few years. Granted, I’ve bought every major fighting game since, but none of them could ever stuck with me. I’d play them for a few hours and go back to Street Fighter without hesitation.

After a handful of matches in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I was concerned that this game would suffer the same fate. As with prior vs. Capcom games, the pacing, team mechanics and execution demands felt completely alien to me. But after a few hours, some training mode time, and some online wins (!) it got me thinking that maybe things will be different this time.

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Thoughts on Blur’s Career Mode

 

I really like Blur’s Career Mode in concept. It’s designed in a way to make sure that you’re never stuck on one thing. You always have multiple races you can choose from and different goals to work towards in order to unlock the next series of races or the next rival race. Even when you lose races, you can still earn fans or new cars.

But what happens when you get stuck on every available option? This is what’s happened to me in Blur. I’m not very far into the career mode at all, but I’ve already hit the wall. Maybe more determined (or skilled) players would fight through it, but I’m going to have to disappoint Vin Diesel on this one.

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Girlfriend Gaming – We Play Saw: The Video Game

Steff is a huge fan of the Saw series. The first entries to the series are some of her favourite horror movies of all-time. Because of that connection, she’s wanted to play this game for quite some time. It’s not easy to find new nowadays, but I was able to pick it up for her duringone of my random trips to Blockbuster. After spending some time with her in Jigsaw’s asylum, did this survival horror game scare the heck out of us? Or will we turn Jigsaw down next time he asks us to play a game?
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Pick Up Post – James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game

 

Rounding out the gaming-related presents I received this Christmas was Avatar: The Game. I received it as a present from my girlfriend’s family, which I truly appreciate.  I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. As for the game? I don’t actually know anything about it.

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Pick Up Post – Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

 

As with Dragon Age: Origins, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game that is way outside of my comfort zone. Other than the fact that it is a first-person RPG, all I know is that it’s made by Bethesda, that it is/was really buggy, and that a lot of people love this 100+ hour game.

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Pick Up Post: NHL 11

 

When my girlfriend bought her PlayStation 3, she got it in a bundle that included inFamous and NHL 11. She may give inFamous a shot someday, but there’s no way you’d ever get her to play NHL 11. Hockey simulations just aren’t her thing. Instead of selling it, I offered to take it off of her hands, which I did eventually in a trade. I got NHL 11, and I bought her a copy of the Saw video game in exchange, which she’s wanted to play for a long time now.

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Pick Up Post – Dragon Age: Origins

 

Humans are creatures of habit. We stick with what we know and we generally don’t like to deviate from that. However, you’ll never know what awesome things you’re missing out on if you don’t reach outside of your comfort zone. One of my favourite examples of me reaching out of my comfort zone has nothing to do with games. Just over a year ago, my girlfriend Steff introduced me to Thai food. Mmm…

As far as games go, the biggest jump I made out of my comfort zone in recent memory was Mass Effect. Having heard so many great things about this series, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give this action RPG a shot. Needless to say, it made quite the impression on me.

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