Tournament players grip with online play.

Online play vs Offline play is a controversial topic in the fighting game community and it is still on going...let's face it, old school tournament players and new players that started offline don't like online play - latency is a bitch, players or the level of players are inconsistent, scrubs, random, and so on and so forth. However, online play is essential factor of keeping these games alive because the days of we going over by a friend's house to engage in several hrs of play sessions is not as practical as it once was due to many variables.

I grew up playing SF over by my friend's house, actually Street Fighter II World Warriors for the Super Nintendo was one of the first games I ever played on that system. I was amazed because it had similar moves to Double Dragon II --Billy Lee's hurricane kick -- and the graphics at that time blew anything I'd seen at that time. I never experience the arcade scene the way top players did; actually, it never was my initial experience with SF but the latter and I still preferred playing it on the SNES despite it being the inferior version. I didn't see the logic of spending money to play a game I owned at home.  Furthermore, I never liked playing on the arcade sticks because I always thought the default SNES controller was sufficient.

Years later, as I get older and my friends and I grew apart, finding friends to play with me became extremely difficult so I ended up playing by myself against the AI set at maxed level, 8 stars. I could have traveled to the arcades but I didn't fancy arcade stick and I had an ill mindset towards paying to play. Eventually playing against the AI got boring fast and I stopped playing SF and started focusing on other genres of gaming.

Halo 2 was my fist online experience and I always thought how cool it could be if SF had online function. Thinking about it would drive me insane because only then I could really measure myself against the top players in world and hopefully be the top player myself. Thankfully, during my experimentation with emulators I accidentally found out I could play SF online and although net code was atrocious it reinvigorated competitive spirit for fighting games.

I played all of Capcom's and SNK's greatest fighters on emulators such as Mugen for almost 2 years wishing and hoping Capcom would bring back SF with a true sequel that has online play. Soul Caliber 4 was my first legitimate online fighter and it kept me busy until SFIV was announced. I won't bother go into major detail about the many accomplishes SFIV has done for the fighting game community and the genre itself. Nonetheless, for many players like me, online play is essential because we don't have the privilege of friends to play with and others, like me, don't fancy paying to play against players. Yes the experience against offline is substantial but the online experience is substantial as well with its limitless challengers and diverse play styles.

If I were an tournament player I won't ever disregard online play but complement two - offline and online - to my training. You don't know how many times I hear top players on the stream complaining of the lack experience of said character because there is not enough of solid players that plays that particular character at their venue. Anyway, I think tournament players are warming up to the importance of playing both online and offline and hopefully we may see crossed EVO tournament match between and offline and online player because not everyone has the resources to travel overseas. Plus it would be a cool concept but that will only be realized once the internet infrastructure reaches a playable global standard.

Buggy Ass Skyrim 2011's Game of the Year...WHY?

Bethesda games, historically, always have bugs, gaming breaking bugs but yet gaming sites always giving praising their games. Go ahead google search their games and you will see that almost every game conceived from that team is plagued with bugs but yet their games are still highly praised.

Granted, I have not played Skyrim and I refuse to play it until the bugs are ironed out and the game it is discounted at a price of 20 bucks with all the DLC content. I am not buying it for the PS3, however, because sadly the PS3 is not the ideal version to have due its lag bugs, and that's a nasty bug. The lag bug is basically the game is running as low as one digit FPS instead of its supposed 30FPS and this happens once the user have multiple save files and save files clocking over 6MB. I don't think Bethesda is going to waste their resources fixing this problem, but the problem maybe resolved in the Game of the Year Edition.

I am not even getting it for the Xbox 360 either because I don't own that system and I can't stand long loading times so the platform of choice is obviously the PC version and thanks to Steam, once I am ready to buy, it will be discounted at 20 bucks or less.

Ugh...I am little off topic...I am supposed to rant on why that game get game of the year but I guess it deserves it due to massive amount of sidetracking missions and discoveries the game has to offer and the technical and graphical presentation. However, all of these merits are undermined by the game's numerous bugs and lackluster melee combat. On the other hand, despite its bugs, the game hits a chord to American players, especially the casual market and prospective players. They are the majority and the majority speaks for gaming industry these days.

I haven't played that many games this year other than Capcom fighting games and a couple of RPGs...I wish I had the resources and time to play these games but as far as RPGs goes I think Dark Souls trumps Skyrim due to Dark Souls merits.  If Dark Souls is better than Demon Souls then I am going to have an amazing time because Demon Souls was one of the best RPGs I've played in ages. It has its flaws, not technical flaws like the GOTY Skyrim, but minor flaws that frustrated me to the point for breaking my controller; nonetheless, the experience was refreshing.

This year, once again, has been a great year for fighting games and RPGs and once again the non-Japanese publishers have delivered. The Japanese Developers haven't deliver anything significant this generation and hopefully later in the consoles twilight years transcending on to next we may see another game that change the gaming industry like FF7, but for now my hats off to companies like Bioware, Bethesda, Naughty Dog, and Infinity Ward...I can't wait see what you guys have in store for us next year.

Beginning....

I am not much of a blogger as they say...but I think it is a cool diversion or a way of venting one thoughts in a liberating space where many, if they care to know, can view my thoughts. I am generally a private person and I will keep it as such but I will express my views on game related content since it is my passion and hopefully will be my profession.

Anyway, let's talk about SSFIV AE 2012...um, at first I didn't like the game because my main character, Yun, was heavily abused with the nerf bat, so to speak. I am fine with Capcom degrading his damage output and making minor adjustments to his ex lunge punch by making it more punishable on block and I am fine with the dive kick restrictions. However, why on earth they changed his ex-lunge punch properties by making it extremely difficult to combo into his ultra and his lp-lunge punch. I said "difficult" not impossible because it is possible once it is done at maxed range. Alas, my journey with weakened Yun hasn't been pleasant and it took me a while to get used to him but he's still viable and powerful character.

I won't ever say, however, he was a brain dead character because he required some skill to use properly and masses only called him such due to their ignorance to learn the match up. Capcom, should stop re-balancing the game and give it time to breath and those who are whining time to move on to other games since they are not meant to play fighters that requires one to "think."

From a business perspective I understand the company's impulse to appeal to the mass market but it comes with a price. Games that generally appeal to the lazy but casual mass market don't last long. Historically, games like....err...I won't get into this...I am getting tired typing of all of this junk...I'll type a longer blog once I am in the mood but for now I am just testing out this thing and let's see if I am consistent with it over time.