Brendan's Progress, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and Sonic Generations Music

Brendan's Progress (aka the NaNoWriMo part)

So as of time of this post, I've got 9297 words complete.

It's still a bit slow, as I don't exactly have this story where I want it yet, and I think between a combination of actually attempting some kind of character development and overall bullshitting, there's a legit explanation of why I'm not wholly excited over what I'm currently writing.

That just means that I'm not being over the top enough. Which makes sense. Other than a few bits here and there, this has been a rather ho-hum experience.

But what's keeping me going, maybe more so than the desire to actually hit the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month, is the knowledge of exactly where this novel is going. There are certain events of this story that I've gone over a ridiculous number of times in my head, especially while I'm at work, and the more I think about it, the more ridiculous I make it, and... well, it's going to be ridiculous. That's all I can say. Like, there's going to be this huge turning point in the story that makes no sense before we get to yet another turning point in the story that makes no sense, but it'll all tie together somehow because I think that I actually have a goal for the character that is Brendan. I've made him into something, and I think I may be trying a little too hard to establish to the reader what I've made him as, and throughout the course of the book, he's going to do some amazing things....

I just wish the beginning of this didn't suck so bad. But I just gotta press on. I can edit shit to be better or out completely when it's all said and done, but for now... just keep on pressing.

This is definitely a masterpiece in the making.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter

You know how you get bored one day and you decide to try something new?
Or, better for this particular piece of the blog, you get bored and you try to explore something that you dabbled in for a bit but finally decided, with nothing else to, to actually try to immerse yourself into a new experience with that dabbling?
Even better for this part... ever had access to a video game and played it for a bit, but set it to the side, and then randomly decided to give it a deeper, truer shot?

This is what happened with X-Men vs. Street Fighter. This game was on my computer, mostly to watch some epic battles between top players on GGPO. Randomly, however, I decided that I wanted to play it and actually try to get good at it (or at least as good at it as I am in Marvel vs. Capcom 1).

And man, this game is really fucking intense.
And man, this game is much better than Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Like, I'm playing this game, right? And I'm currently getting an interesting feel for Cyclops. And his combos are pretty cool, but require some interesting timing. And then combined with the rules within the system of the game, PLUS SIX ATTACK BUTTONS (that's 2.5 more attack buttons than MvC3 has), you can actually show some kind of creativity in your combo. And that creativity can lead to mad mix-ups. And those mad mix-ups can lead to you losing 100% of your life for free before you even know what happened. No X-Factor needed.

And I think that's what's really satisfying about this game... being able to pull off combos that do a shit turd of damage with your own hands, not some bullshit embedded in the game. X-Men vs. Street Fighter has rules in its game system that try to keep infinite combos out, but all it does is add to your creativity, figuring out what moves have what properties, and using those properties to either get around the rules or break them entirely.

And being able to learn this stuff is a wonderful, intense experience. Much more satisfying than any silly ass combo I ever learned in MvC3, especially when they're the only real combos that make more sense to use.

Sonic Generations Music...

...is so fucking amazing.

As it stands right now...
Here's my Top 5

5) Crisis City

4) Toxic Caves

3) Stardust Speedway

2) Vs. Shadow

1) Open Your Heart remix

I can sit here and tell you that I haven't even heard everything, so this list is subject to change.

But I doubt it.

Wait a Second... What About Apex?

Yeah..... still haven't gotten around to practicing any type of Smash at all. Between work, and now NaNoWriMo and the desire to play Sonic Generations over anything, plus WWE '12 coming soon... I'm clearly going to lose every possible set if I don't go MetaKnight...

I might have to summon my inner douche and actually play MetaKnight to get a win, too.

Also, Apex 2012 now has Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (with that new patch) and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on deck. Now... hmm, I don't think I made that post about SSF4:AE and how I had been playing the game on the low and how I don't think the game is that bad except that it's simply not SSF2:Turbo and thus I find it really slow these days, but yeah. That's kinda the reason why I'm not entering that.

But Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3... well, I may actually play that game a bit more regularly than I did its vanilla counterpart...
It solely depends on how Captain America feels when I play him. I read some of his changes... between getting his double jump back and getting his Shield Slash to OTG again, he just might feel like good ol' CapUSA from the MvC1 days.

And that's where the fun begins... Cap, Zero, Strider, anyone?

I may throw Vergil in there somewhere though... or Dormammu... I've been fucking with his firestorm shit... it's too funny to see 36 random hits come from changing the color of my hands.

All of those characters would have much more fun gameplay if they were in XvSF's system...

Hello.

This blog has been sitting in the warehouse for mad long now. I guess I might as well just post it before I leave for work... *silence* @ work.


Amy Winehouse and Mega Man


So Amy Winehouse passed away recently... I might come off as an insensitive bastard for this, but honestly, I feel more pain in the idea that Capcom might not be making anymore Mega Man games due to his creator, Kenji Inafune, leaving Capcom on terms that aren't in fact the greatest than Amy Winehouse's death. Why?

1. Amy Winehouse had it coming. She didn't even wanna go to rehab. And then had the nerve to make a song about it. (You could argue that Mega Man, as Inafune's creation, had it coming as well, as he was doing some questionable things over there at Capcom...)
2. Mega Man has contributed much more to my life than Amy Winehouse. There's Mega Man 1-4 (never beat 4, actually), 7 and 8, Mega Man X 1-7 (never played 8... what the hell), and Mega Man Xtreme on the Game Boy Color. Not to mention his showings in the Marvel vs. Capcom games.
3. The death of celebrities just don't shock me anymore... my father passed in 07, my grandmother in 09, and my aunt in 2010. I've had friends deal with family deaths in similar impacts, and you can feel them struggling to maintain and trying to keep their heads up with that initial absence. So yeah... could hardly care. I haven't even heard any one of her songs. I only know of the rehab song via facebook statuses...

Work is Killer, Man.

These assholes... they fire someone without the proper manpower to replace him, so let's shuffle the fuck out of everyone's schedule. My schedule keeps me from doing any SCW shows (at the moment... maybe it'll change? I don't even know), and I worked a ridiculous 6 consecutive days since last Thursday, and only had yesterday off since. The fact that I'm still here is nothing short of a win in my book.

And yeah, that's why I hardly blog as much as I used to... it's getting ridiculous. I really need to mark a plan to get the fuck outta there. Interestingly enough and partially unrelated, I see a number of friends in interesting predicaments that have them making interesting decisions... it will be interesting to see how our futures' play out. 

Did I mention that I openly talk to myself with no remorse? Yup. Totally lost my sanity.

Did the Overall Quality of Entertainment go Down Drastically?

So about a week or so ago, I was randomly talking to my brother about how terrible the TV show "House of Payne" is and how the only character that's worth anything is Curtis Payne and how if you remove Curtis Payne, you have nothing. My brother responds on some dumb shit like you only need one good character... like, why would you need more than one funny character? So then I break down how sitcoms like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the Cosby Show had more than one really good character, and how even if you remove the main character, you could easily write a funny show involving the rest of the cast that would obviously still be lacking, but still be watchable than House of Payne. And he's like, that's not good, cause then you're expected to laugh all the time... and I'm like, is that not the point of a sitcom?

So then he says some shit like, "what if the WWE had more than one John Cena?" 

Once upon a time, they did. Undertaker, Steve Austin, Rock, HHH, etc... what happens when you have more than one John Cena? You get a bit of unpredictability, where anyone of those good wrestlers can take the title, duh.

And that's when I think to myself... has the overall quality of entertainment gone down? And have people learned to appreciate this terrible quality of entertainment?

Which brings me to my next point...

I Think the Movie Industry is Out of Ideas...

Transformers

Green Lantern

Captain America

Chipmunks

Smurfs

Spiderman (again)

There's more... I just don't feel like going through it all.

Now I know, there are original movies. And I'm willing to bet that when I was young, there were remakes and such... but am I wrong for believing that new ideas are just running on fumes these days?

MvC3 > 10 months > UMvC3

So I was gonna do a blog about how this is stupid, about how Capcom did this with Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 3 and how it's different from doing this with Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 because of the technology available and stuff... and then I stopped caring. 

10 months, however, isn't unprecedented, however. The gap between SF2: Championship Edition and SF2: Hyper Fighting is something along the lines of 8 months. The gap between SF3: New Generations and SF3: 2nd Impact is something along the lines of 9 months. Of course, the big difference is being in an arcade vs. being on consoles that are damn near computers and shit.

But like I said... I stopped caring. At least they'll be making the game "better" unlike what they did with SSF4: AE... SSF4 was arguably the most balanced SF game since Street Fighter Alpha 2, and they just destroyed it. How exactly is beyond me because I don't play the game enough. Some say is because they nerfed the fuck out of everyone that isn't Makoto and Fei Long. Some say is because the twins are just too good. Personally, I don't give a fuck.

MvC3 needed an update. (Personally, I think MvC needs to hit 4, already, but I digress) The game was getting stale, the X-Factor was too powerful, and outside of X-Factor, strategies were leveling out to exactly the same shit to the point where the beginning of matches in the same set were starting to look exactly the same. UMvC3 looks to add more new moves and shit, nerf that with which was considered stupid shit (like Sentinel and Phoenix), and ultimately, provide the illusion that this will be something awesome.

And I'm still backing the shit out of SFxT. Yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets a new edition in a year or so. That's the Capcom way... I remember when SF4 was first announced that I said it would have at least 3 versions. With SSF4, I thought I'd be wrong, but... you know.

I promise you that I have, like 10 blog ideas...

... just waiting to be written. But... you know... work and shit... maybe someday.

Even more about work...


so I've decided I'm not putting out a 100% effort until they make things right. Nothing works, and I'm out here busting my ass, but if I put in less effort, I get the same amount of money anyway, so there.

I swear, there's a beautiful relationship waiting to happen here, but I got no chance in hell to make moves because when I'm not working, they're working and when they're not working, I'm working. Awesome turn of events.

This blog in and of itself....


Has been written in like, 3 different parts, differing from three different days. The reason why I'm actually about to post this is because I'm totally lacking the fuck out of posts right now. I'm also noticing that if I make blogs about video games, they tend to get hits.

But then again...


My DBZ post got the most hits ever... and I definitely have at least one more DBZ related post to put up. You can thank a friend named Kyle for that.

And now I'm just rambling off...


but you know what? I am one sexy muther fucker. Even if I don't have the look of a waiter.

Yeah, like at my job... and I'm willing to bet that this is in most places... you can't really be a cashier or stuff like that if 1) you lack a vagina and 2) you don't have the "look." Oh, you're a dude looking for a job? Oh, you look like that? Here, take this labor bullshit.

I am not a laborer. I am a thinker, a creator. I am also a damn hard worker, and that strength is weakness... I get abused... BUT NO MOAR!

I see a lot of people at my job have, like, another job. Apparently, this one on its own doesn't cut it. Crazy... people have become slaves to the dollar. Even my schedule has attempted to make me a slave to the dollar. For the two days off that I have, they are started by a late night which usually results in my waking up late and followed by an early morning which would require me to sleep early. Meaning my actual day off is cut off.

Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

Fuck that. I'm dethroning this muther fucker. I REFUSE to allow my life to get ruined by this job... at least for the summer. When it gets cold and there's no interest in being out there in 40 degree weather, then it's whatever. But now? Naaaaah... it's too hot outside to be "relaxing" on days off. Naaaah... I gotta be out doing shit.

So I'll relax this once... this last once... and then from here on in? Bugging out on my days off for the rest of the summer. My job is just going to have to put up with bullshit performances... bullshit performances is better than no performance, no? I mean, I don't think they can afford to fire me. They're already low on dish washing man power as it is. Like yesterday... if I didn't show up (which I was thinking about doing due to our new attendance policy and how the 1st of each month provides a god-like loophole type maneuver), they would have been fucked. In the ass. No lube. Except the blood.

Evo was/is this weekend.


I followed it more than I originally thought I would. Well, then again... I'm lying... I only watched it practically all of Sunday. Saw the MK9 finals, Tekken 6 finals, MvC3 Top 8 and SSF4AE Top 8. Congrats to the winners. Lol @ 3-4 Phoenix teams in top 8 in Marvel. Lol @ 2 Yuns, 1 FeiLong, 3 Vipers, an Akuma, and a Seth in Top 8 in AE. MvC3 obviously had more "variety" than Marvel 2 last year, but I'm gonna have to see what exactly happened with last year's SSF4. If I remember correctly, there was the Ryu, a Honda, an Adon, maybe two Akumas, a Zangief, and two other characters. But yeah Capcom. Good job fucking up the balance. Viper did surprise me though, only cause I hadn't been following the game, but Viper definitely fits in well with the new AE metagame.

And that's a wrap.


I think that it all that I've had on my mind over the past era... well, all that I had on my mind that I would want to put this blog and wouldn't get me killed or something like that. Hopefully August will be better for this blog, but with my work schedule... I don't even know.

I did notice that blogs with pictures get more hits than blogs without pictures... so I'll look into that in the future. This blog suffered with post numbers, but still got an interesting number of hits...

Random Talk about Capcom

Mega Man Legends 3 was cancelled.

The following might get a lot of heat. Good. I love the heat. (really though, summer is my favorite season.)

I'm glad that Mega Man Legends 3 got cancelled. I never liked Mega Man Legends. I didn't like the look and I didn't like that it was an RPG. Still, I eventually tried it. Still, didn't actually like it.

I didn't like Mega Man Ballnutz. I was overly upset when he made the TvC roster. Sure, I have no problem trying new things, but what the fuck. Shit was terrible.

Seriously, when it comes to Mega Man, they really only need Classic and X. MMZero is okay, but that shit just got overly ridiculous after a while. Fuck NT Warrior. Fuck Ballnutz. Classic and X. That's all you need.



Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is coming.
It's supposed to have 12 new characters.

But it's still going to have X-Factor, and that's where the game fails for me. X-Factor is such a flawed system... maybe if they nerf it then I'll have less of an issue with it, but then the game's button format is clearly still going to bug the shit out of me. And let me not dare mention the "lol random presses = super" execution requirements.

So yeah. I think it'll be another 3 days of hype, and that's about it. I guess I can see why people still play the game, as it has kinda leveled itself out, but X-Factor is still too very stupid, literally allowing players to make comebacks that they shouldn't have made otherwise. I'm really surprised how all the MvC3 players can sit there and love that game to death, but then have the nerve... the gall... the audacity to call Smash a party game... muthafucka, what you think MvC3 is?



I honestly haven't played much Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition. Still too busy playing Tetris Attack, actually. What I am hearing, though, is that the game is relatively balanced without the use of Yun and Yang, and that the only reason Fei Long and Makoto are part of the top 4 is because they do significantly well against Yang and Yun. I don't know how true any of that is, but whatever. They nerfed the shit out of Rose like Rose was goddess-like or something.



I'm still waiting for some Street Fighter X Tekken though. I haven't seen too much of it, but I do like what I'm seeing so far. And I'm definitely gonna attempt to rock the team of Bob Sagat. Like, how can you not play that team at least once?

Trollcom Strikes Again (aka the reason Bob is in Street Fighter X Tekken)

BOB SAGAT?
Capcom obviously knew what they were doing.

Shoutout to Luke for showing this to me.

Games I Wanna See For Nintendo's Next System (aka Project Cafe)

So with Project Cafe coming soon (Nintendo has some amazing code names for their systems... Revolution, Dolphin, Project Reality...) I figure I might as well tell about some games that I would like to see on Nintendo's next console...

Mario & Sonic NOT at the Olympic Games


Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was fun. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter games was more fun. But now they're going back to the Olympic Games again...

Yeah...

It's not 2001 anymore guys. Sonic showing up on a Nintendo platform isn't a shock anymore. Mario's been in a game published by Sega, Sonic's been in a game published by Nintendo. We know you bastards are on good terms. We know you bastards are capable of making the Mario & Sonic game that everyone wants to see. We know you bastards can make the action platforming adventure that combines the best of both world. Stop trolling and make it happen.

Nintendo X Capcom


I feel like the Smash Brothers series is played out (because Brawl killed it). Sure, if there's a Smash 4, I'll play it and I'll probably enjoy it, but if it's going to be like Brawl rather than Melee or Smash 64, my guess is that it'll be short lived.

The interesting thing about Melee is that the game was unanswered for 7 years, and people were playing it both casually and hardcore right up until Brawl's release. But most of the casuals seem to not care about Brawl, despite the game being designed for said casual audience. The market's been flooded with a whole bunch of casual games surrounded by new technologies, so yeah, I can see why it would be that way.

But fuck it. Ono said that he'd love to work on a Nintendo X Capcom. Don't be gay Nintendo. When Ono calls, pick up the gotdamn phone.

New Super Mario Broskis


This series is plenty of fun on either system, still holding true to Mario and being playable by ANYONE, not a given demographic. Anyone with half a brain can pick up NSMB and know what you're supposed to do... go to the right. And you'll have fun doing it. No matter how much you deny it, or claim that Mario is for kids, you had fun bitch. Don't lie.

For NSMB to not show up on either Cafe or 3DS simply seems silly to me, and I would guess that it will eventually come up... but hey... guesses and such.

F-Zero


Mario Kart is a given. It's also a given that it's probably going to be the item-rape train that it was in Mario Kart Wii. Whatever. I will easily accept Mario Kart being like that if F-Zero makes a return. If what I hear about Nintendo trying to recapture the "hardcore" audience is true, then an F-Zero game in development would be something to help prove it.

Knowing how today's players work, Nintendo would probably have to remove the concept of "lives" in the game, and replace it with infinite continues. The concept of "lives" is what adds thrill, intensity, and suspense to the speedy, futuristic, well-designed courses of the F-Zero Grand Prix in the first place, but if "lives" have to go to bring F-Zero back to form otherwise, I think that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Star Fox


I'm not even that big of a Star Fox fan, but it has always nice to have someone with a Star Fox game around. And I'm not talking about an "Adventure" either. I mean vintage, Arwing strapped Star Fox.

Protip: If you still refuse to put him in the Arwing, make the game action oriented, not an "adventure."

No More Heroes (or something equally as amazing)


No More Heroes is pretty much done. I'd love to see a new game that doesn't ruin the series, but knowing the laws of unintended sequels... still, sword games that are awesome didn't see much light of day on the Wii. If the next Nintendo system keep motion, I'd love to see a new title that plays just as good, if not better, than No More Heroes.

Contra
At this point, I don't think that "hardcore" gamers are as "hardcore" as they claim to be. How do I know? Because a Contra game seemingly has no place in the current video game market. I wanna see a brand new Contra game. And I wanna see people beat it.

And personally, I don't care what system it's on. But if Nintendo is sure about wanting to capture the hardcore audience, asking for a Contra game is sure to scare everyone away. lol (what am I even trying to say here? REF!)

What About Everything Else?


Zelda's missing, Metroid's Missing, Sin and Punishment is missing... a number of stuff is missing. But the seven franchises that I pointed out here are the franchises that I want to see either happen/have a revolution or return. Merely my opinion... I'm not speaking for everyone else.

That said, I'd love to hear your opinion... what game(s) do YOU wanna see on Project Cafe?

Quick Review: Super Street Fighter 4 EZ... I mean, 3D Edition

So a friend of mine copped a Nintendo 3DS with SSF43D. I played it for a bit and I can tell why people are calling this the best launch title, even though its a port of a game that's been out for about a year now.

The game is beautiful, 3D mode for Street Fighter is awesome. There's actually two ways to view the fights; in normal mode, which is the standard way to view fighting games, and in dynamic mode, which turns the camera to a behind the fighter type of angle that's literally kind of like what you seen in the commercials (if you've seen theme). Chun Li fans, rejoice, she looks amazing in Dynamic mode.

Still, this is not a game for serious competition at all... you might as well play it on the consoles if that's what you're going for. The d-pad works fine, I guess, and you're definitely going back to the SNES setup when it comes to mapping your buttons and whatnot. But the easy mode buttons? That changes everything, and is essentially the reason why the game can't be taken seriously in my opinion.

I had read an article about how this is the first step of how Ono, the producer of Street Fighter, wants to reduce fighting games to a casualized attack fest (well, that's not what he said exactly, but that's clearly what he implied). Talk about a first step... anything you ever seen anyone ever do in this game, you can probably do it. If you're Sagat, you can set a button for EX Tiger Uppercut, set a button for a Focus Attack, and set up a button for the Ultra. Then you can do the combo with no problem... all you gotta do is know how to dash.

Don't even get me started on Guile... Sonic Boom and Flash Kick without having to charge?

All in all, it's a fun experience, which is what I guess they were going for. But it's seriously too easy to take seriously... so simply put, your ability to enjoy this game will be in your ability to not care about being competitive.

And remember, according to Ono, this is the future of fighting games..........