Amazon recently announced it is going to dive into the used videogame market long-time dominated by beloved gamer-store and hangout, GameStop. As a gamer, I love this move by Amazon. Not because it will be particularly advantageous to Amazon, but because it provides some much needed competition for GameStop. Realistically, Amazon does not pose much of a threat to the mighty gaming leviathan, GameStop. Gamers demand instant gratification, perhaps more than any other consumer group (Before you deny it, think about how angry you get when load times take “forever”, aka 30 seconds). Die-hard gamers will sacrifice a few extra bucks to get games days sooner and the advice of the GameStop employees. Amazon is not going to take that away. However, it may motivate GameStop to pay consumers more for trade-ins or lower the price of used games. Plus, Amazon will be able to make a few extra bucks along the way. That translates to more games for all; hard core gamers and the casual players as well. A win/win!
That’s just my opinion anyway. And, although mine is the only opinion that matters, I am curious to see what the rest of the gaming community has to say about underweight Amazon strapping on the gloves and going toe-to-toe with GameStop (remind you of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, anyone?). Do the world a favor and leave a comment or two with your thoughts.
I was told by a game insider that the new Killzone was very well made. The professional compared the experience of playing the game to a "fellatio party."
Killzone 2's multiplayer is fantastic. The best description I can possibly give for it is to say that it is Halo meets Rainbow Six. If you know me on any level, or what games I have spent the most time on in the past, you will realize what high praise this really is. To break it down, Halo meets Rainbow Six is in the top 5 for game descriptions I can give a game; others include Doom meets Tetris, Starfox meets Battlefield (Warhawk), Mortal Kombat meets Zelda, and the highest of all is Tribes meets fellatio party (note that this is actually a trick comparison as Tribes was a fellatio party, so my highest honor is tribes meets tribes). KZ2's multiplayer takes the speed and frantic action of Halo, combines the importance of movement and controlled firing from Rainbow Six, sprinkes in the class elements from Team Fortress, and wraps it up with the intensity (obscure reference) of Delta Force 1.
I'll start with the Delta Force element since it is probably the least played game on this list. The weapons in DF were startlingly accurate, allowing you to be killed from anywhere on the map. While this specific element is not replicated by Killzone, the intensity and sense of terror from DF are present here. Because of the importance of movement and tactical decision making (the R6 element), combined with the pace of gameplay (Halo), Killzone forces you to not only be perfect in both your weapon usage and the choices you make, it forces you to act quickly since every second you don't act will likely result in the death of you and your teammates. Intensity is the best word to describe Killzone's multiplayer - it perfectly captures the feeling of having really powerful weaponry while simultaneously being extremely fragile.
I enjoy the random screaming in that video and I think it gives a solid, albeit tame demonstration on what the combat is like in KZ2. The class-based gameplay is ingeniously implemented as it forces you to earn the different classes you play as. This has two effects: first it ensures that there is a steady stream of people playing as the default soldier, avoiding a Team Fortress scenario where everyone is using grenade launchers and no actual fire-fights can break out; the second thing this mechanic does is that it forces people to play as the new classes they unlock as they progress, ensuring a steady stream of medics and engineers. As the game is still new, the online matches have a sort of embryonic soup element to them as the majority of players are low in rank so the advanced classes are rare and mystifying. The exciting element about playing now is that so many tactics are being discovered and the proper use of the classes has not been realized yet.
There is also a demonstrable difference in how the larger maps function relative to the smaller maps. Larger maps typically result in very tactical, fire and movement scenarios where a team can win if it has better knowledge of the objectives and where to surprise the enemy. Smaller maps resemble 1942 Stalingrad, often when pursuing objectives you will have a lifespan of under 10 seconds depending on where you spawn, and it is your sole desire to advance the position of your team a few feet before going down in a blaze of glory. Also ingenious is the rotation of game-types: each map turns into a competition of seven different game types from team deathmatch to capture and hold for approximately ten minute increments before switching it up, resulting in more competitive games as a team can stage a comeback if it gets trounced early in something.
The game is fantastic and I really like the fresh ideas being brought to multiplayer, it's still insignificant compared to:
It just dawned on me that here we are posting really great articles and features and videos for you all, and you know almost nothing about us. So I figured I would put these short features out for everyone, to really get a look at the nitty gritty inside baseball world of TurboButton!!
MEETINGS: Fun and Informational
The real work behind this site comes from our intense brain storming sessions. Sometimes we will stay up until 1 or 2 Am trying to come up with the ideas for new features for the site and new ideas that we should be following. Most importantly we really like to get the flow of the atmosphere going, so we toss out all the old stuffy business hierarchies out the window in favor of the fastest and most creative way to the solution. BUT HEY, its not all work, we like to have fun too and some of the best ideas come when we are just kind of shooting the breeze enjoying a rousing game of Jumanji. Later we will generally get smoothies and high five each other, hey so what is Shadowman spent the whole time playing Q Bert, but hey fuck it, thats how we roll.
I recently received a letter on the subject of our business model and stress at the office and my ski doo.
Dear Matt, First off let me say that I am a huge fan of the site (mostly your articles. And I was wondering, how does one get paid for being so awesome! At my place of employment at M & M Mars, we are under constant stress trying to come up with the next big thing to crush those Hershey commies. If a co-worker steps out of line my boss would flip out. With all the pressure of running a website on cutting edge humor and entertainment do you have such problems?
Best of luck with buying that Ski Doo
Your friend in our lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
James Jeefry Johnson AKA Triple J America's Greatest Polymath
Well Triple J, thanks for the interest and keep up the good work with M&M Mars. We here really maintain a fun and free attitude, even when we are "working" we like to keep the atmosphere easy, because we feel that fun attitude at work shows up in our product. But hey bro, take a peek at one of our budget meetings a couple of nights ago and see for yourself.
Evening. Street Fighter Four has been out for almost two weeks at this point of its life cycle. We here at Turbo Button feel this is an appropriate time to give an actual grown- up perspective on the online system and the burgeoning community that are developing around the game. Its fuckin maniacal to get the game on day one, play three rounds and jump on gamefaqs and say how "broken" the online system is and how every "asshole" Spams as Ken, and how Zangief was accidentally left in the game as "unbeatable" and then encourage everyone to buy a real game like Persona 4. BUT wait too long, and you end up missing out on getting any message out to a community beyond the hardcore, who don't want to hear what you think anyway. So in the next hopefully less than 100,000 words I will attempt to analyze the Technical Merits, the Online Community, and some general comments about Capcom's Online choices and where I hope and think they should go with the system.
Lest you think that I have no qualifications to speak about Street Fighter, a revered franchise with a long lineage of excellent players and an extraordinarily robust yet fiercely insular community, feast your eyes upon a short montage of my greatest fights so far.
I hope that settles any discussion. Before going on I want to address things about Fist of the North Star, why it is great and why it actually relates to Street Fighter
(1) Kenishiro fucking rules. There is really no badder assed anime character than the seven scarred man himself. He touches people, says some crazy shit and they explode. The show is insanely violent, to the point that you feel bad for the bad guy having to deal with Ken
(2) I have it on good evidence that one of my fellow contributors to this site absolutely hates Fist of the North Star, and I simply can't get enough of it.
(3) Fist of the North Star was on for like Thirty - years (and I think is still on) and spawned like four live action movies (three Korean and on Australian) showing its mass - appeal and staying power.
(4) If you watch enough of the early Fist of the North Star you can really see atype of incestuous relatinship between the art and cocnept design of Street Fighter. (Kenishiro looks EXACTLY like Fei Long from SFII Turbo and of course the Street Fighter II animated film
(5) The focus on the exact nature of Kenishiro's moves,and how they fit into a style and how the show likes to describe teh eaxct name of the punch just used and what it does named them and how his main opponent and BROTHER Yagi countered them with an the same style (like Ken Ryu type shit or really Ryu Akuma) looks like a connection to me.
Ok Before getting into the review lets talk again about "Reviews"
As Doug has pointed out, our reviews and “looks” like this will not have any number based rating system of stars, fruits or rupees. We believe philosophically that such determinations (1) Are meaningless, particularly coming from a mysterious and generally anonymous internet observer (2) Unfairly categorical to the particular product type that a game presents, for instance while something like a car many clearly objective features with which to analyze [handling, braking, acceleration, mileage, cost etc) and few subjective features making a number system a reasonable approximation of such important objective features. Providing a number to a product like a videogame, which has few objective factors (does it work, is it a game, camera maybe, controls maybe) is kind of silly. It would be like walking up to the Mona Lisa and giving it a 10 and then walking up to a sweet picture of Wolverine and give it an 8. What the hell does that teach us? More importantly, it does not give us any viable information with which to base our purchasing options. Perhaps your tastes are more wolverine than Mona Lisa. Instead we will try to give you as honest a claim as we can about our experience with the game, and let you decide whether you jibe more with games I like, games Doug likes or games the Shadowman likes.
For the purpose of fun, and in light of the great videos I have been finding, I will rate elements the way Kensihiro rates lives, by giving them a number of seconds left to live, more seconds = better less seconds = worse. And remember this is Kenishiro we are talking about.
Technical Merits
Technical Issues
(LAG) – Although all online games suffer and the experience is ruined by the presence of laggy internet connections (I can’t explain how maddening it is to be in a great game of L4 dead only to find yourself running in place inside of a dumpster.) The presence of lag in two dimensional fighter could be disastrous. Particularly in a game like Street Fighter where the elite players, and the make believe elite players like myself, have based their strategies on the number of frames of animation a move would take to connect, or how many frames to recover, frames of impact etc. etc. and you get the picture that if Capcom dropped the ball on online lag free play, like Ubisoft did with the previous Rainbow Six game, the hardcore fan-base would leave and go back to Street Fighter II HD remix or join me and like five others playing Third Strike. Even the amateur or casual player would be endlessly frustrated if their fireballs took three minutes to connect or their hadouken or shoryuken, and then found themselves battered by moves that merely appeared.
Thankfully in my nearly 200 ranked matches, dozens of player matches and the several dozen private matches, I have only experienced one really laggy game. Capcom has implemented a strict connection speed system for joining matches, matches are made based on an assessment and equalization of connection speeds, and the bandwidth is shared between the two. This system works very well indeed. The movement is crisp, the in game animations are as precise online as they are off. Even when my wireless connection is weakened due to idiot neighbors, I am paired with equally impaired players, and this is all described to me as I begin any online adventure.
As far as lag goes, Kensihiro gives the online lag control
60 seconds to LIVE
(Matchmaking/Lobby System) Much has been said about the current match making system that is currently employed by Capcom, most of it negative. In essence the syetem employs two different avenues for your online gaming pleasure. (1) the traditional lobby system, in which the player selects Xbox Live or PSN battle, ranked or player [playa] and then selects a player name with a description of his connection speed and battlepoints if ranked. (2) the Kleva Kidd Arcade request system. This system allows you to set your “status” prior to beginning some single player arcade good times. The status setting informs the game what type of match you are searching for, ranked/playa and what is most important o you, connection speed, language, or similar skill. Then you simply begin arcade mode normally and the game will match you up and you will be thrown into an online battle.
The major problem with the matchmaking is that the traditional lobby system is broken. Strangeley joining a lobby is the slowest way to an online match. Capcom has announced it will patch the lobby system soon with its Tournament Patch coming later this month, and believes that he lobby system is having difficult due to the extreme popularity of the arcade request system funneling online resources away from the lobbies. The waiting time to get into an online match via lobby is too long, particularly when you are all jacked on “thredrenaline” to fight the internet. Although its not Gears of War 2 long, it is certainly too long.
However, all is forgiven by the arcade request system. Capcom correctly marketed this as one of its key sell features with good reason. For one the system does feels spiritually similar to standing in an arcade only to have some rapscallion plunk two quarters into the machine to challenge your leadership. The announcer wildly announces that a new challenger has entered the ring and all normal arcade play is stopped, if Capcom could also include the old sound effect Street fighter 2 used when quarters were plugged into the machine (I used to count to ten between quarters to bust balls) it would be a perfect recreation. Particularly where you are requesting ranked matches, and your battle points are on the line, it really does feel like the old rush of the arcade, and is a pleasant change from looking at some dope’s awful gamer tag with x’s in it, while the game loads. Also positive about this style of online matchmaking is that between arcade and the online challenges you are constantly fighting. This is good for two reasons (1) It allows you to kill two birds with one stone, getting online achievements and offline at the same time and (2) Serves a purpose similar to batting practice, where you can work out all your kinks and strategies against the AI, putting you in a solid rhythm to take on the webz.
(Some closing thoughts on matchmaking) In looking at the online matchmaking as a whole I would have to say that I eagerly anticipate the additions and fixes in the coming tournament pack. Athough the arcade request system rules, at tmes I feel as if I am just going through the motions in the arcade to wait for a match, its like being forced d to play something twice at times. Similarly the addition of a nice arcade bracket system is always awesome. Street Fighter 2 HD showed that when something as small as cartoon fireworks is on the line each game is more intense. If this could be integrated into a larger structure of tournaments, perhaps with Capcom or Xbox Live hosted online tournaments (wit the winner getting a special icon or emblem etc literally keeps me up at night.) I would however also like to see the ability to create a “room” in player matches. Much like Street Fighter 2 HD and most of the games out there, including Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter and Mortal Kombat v. DC. If you have more than one buddy online at a time, the need to start a match, with one, quit out then create a new match room to start another is odd and makes such playing choppy and not fun. A simple room system with a 6 person max and the ability to view the matches ahead of you would be great.
Kenishiro thinks deep thoughts of heaven and earth and gives the matchmaking system
30 SECONDS TO LIVE (he wants a room system and tournament play) Give it to him or he will do this
Man that was intense. Back to the review.
(Ranking) Being the Best is one of the driving forces behind the fighting game genre. Since the advent of X – Box Live, most fighting games have had some sort of ranking system. The Third Strike was insane, giving you a world all time rank and a weekly rank and a player rank. Street fighter 4 Implements the Battle Points system. I like it. In ranked match you gain BP for winning with style, added BP for beating a player out of your league. You lose BP for losing. That is all. It’s a clever and simply integrated system, and it does in fact put you in a place. Much like a credit score, some days I am great and some days I blow so I find myself right now at a steady 800- 1000 BP. If I could ask for one thing it would be to show the player’s Battle Points constantly as a part of their Xbox Live Gamertag or when you join them in a match. If I could ask for two things it would be culling the numbers onto a list so I could see what 800 points means in terms of overall rank.
Kenishiro gives the rating system a solid… 50 SECONDS TO LIVE (he then looks away wistfully into the sunset)
Captain Intangibles
(Community) One of the most intangible elements of any online gaming experience, and arguably the most important is the community of gamers that support it. For example, I believe that the Gears of War Community Ruined what could have been a fun online experience by overly exploiting the shotgun roll part of the game, making it a fundamentally different game online than the fun tactical shooter it was offline. On the other hand, in a technically bad game, Shadowrun, was improved by an active and good community. The community of gamers showed a genuine dedication to supporting the online game play and always sought to reinforce the fun team based elements of that game by constantly organizing specialization of classes on each team (extending to the messageboards where organized team play was discussed sans bitching ), to get to the best parts of the game play experience. So far the Street Fighter 4 Community is GOOD with some reservations.
For the most part its always exciting to get in on the ground floor of a new over vamped fighting game engine, where you can observe the actual development of skills and techniques in the community. Street Fighter 4 presents an enormous potential for such new development by simply retaining the basic formula and adding ultra moves to balance game play and the focus attack which could open up years of future development. In my matches I have seen an enormous amount of truly skilled technique, showing a dedication to the form and allowing others who want to actually observe and learn. More importantly, in the player match especially its fun to see a variety of good players who USE A VARIETY OF CHARACTERS. The game is built on a rock paper scissors format and the different characters add the dressing to this simple base.
In ranked matches, having a bunch of different characters is very rare. Although this is a cause for complaint on EVERY FORUM on the internet. Looking at it logically yields logical results. Ken and Ryu offer low barriers to entry to the game and an extremely balanced skill set, that is why 90% of the net uses them in ranked matches, and it gives most players the best opportunity to win. However, 80% of the internet uses Ken and Ryu wrong, making it too easy to win most ranked matches. BUT when a solid ranked match comes along, particularly with someone using a different character, it is a treat and it give sthe game that intense on the edge feeling it should have. Please note this is not a complaint if this think called “Ken Spamming” (doing the fireball over and over again or doing the fire shoryuken over and over again) these techniques really should not work, but if they do why wouldn’t you do them over and over again. Seeing a good Ken is still fun though. Player matches are different animals all together, winning, and the repetitiveness of ranked matches is thrown out the window at times to explore the fighting system and the new characters, and have been pure fun while ranked matches feel more like work, not necessarily higher competition. For the record I main Sakura. Shadowman (and admittedly nubile young girl when it come sto strtee fighter minas Sagat) And America’s Son Doug Masters mains America’s other son KEN Masters, which is fine since he also has a pretty good Balrog these days.
What’s also good about this game is the gem of running into a player who gives you a gentlemanly “good game” message or an anguished complaint that I was “wayyy cheap”, which is what I imagined Live would be when it was invented. The boards around this game could truly be improved, I can’t stand fighting game talk about spamming, it literally makes no sense, its not an exploit if you can pull a move off many times in a row, its hand eye coordination (unless you rock the turbo button). Lets talk about good games and bad games and lets organize some goddamn tournaments. I have but one actual complaint. When you select your character select your character, don’t leave the cursor on them until time runs out. I don’t know if that’s what all the kids do these days ( i broke balls back in the day but face to face) but its embarrassing, and somehow I always imagine that person as being Soulja Boy, whom I wish only aids.
Kenishiro gives the community
45 SECONDS TO LIVE (cut the shit with the character select screen)
I’ll see you on the webz Gamertag RenMckormack
And I'll give you seven seconds to live, take that time to think about your sins…
GameStop recently came under fire for one of its instructional videos training GameStop employees to deal with female customers during its “sharpen the mind, shape the body” promotion. Sure it’s a bit sexist. It insults female consumers by assuming they don’t understand video games or foreign things like gamer-jargon (Wii, nunchuk, PS3, controller, game, experience, etc.). However, people are overlooking the bigger issue. A female narrator (English, to establish credibility and expertise) appears throughout the video explaining to its viewers (doubtlessly comprised, at least in part, of tiny-minded women) what is going on while TIME IS STOPPED!
Now, some people have held this power in the past. Most notably, Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell, but he was a clean cut American boy with a dream. He would never use his power for personal gain (except in that instance he froze time to reposition Slater’s fist to hit Principal Belding instead of himself). Never before has a British person wielded such awesome power (the ability to control time and space). No wonder America is in terror alert level yellow (elevated). Plus, with Zach Morris having dropped off the face of the earth, we have no one to counter this madwoman.
We know this women is evil – she used her powers to assault a GameStop employee – and amoral. She was willing to do anything to appease her corporate masters, including forcing an employee to shill GameStop “sharpen the mind, sharpen the body” Wii games he didn’t already think to peddle. Who’s to say she won’t one day cross the line and begin working for terrorists? Be fearful, gentlemen and feeble minded ladies. Be on the lookout for this woman. If you see her, run (if you can).
Now the only thing that stands before us and certain destruction is time. Soon, Great Britain will use this power to try to retake its former colony. Think of the potential consequences: we will have to relearn how to spell words like “colour”, “favourite”, and “nationalise”; toothbrushes will be made obsolete; we will abandon our nation’s pastime, baseball, in favor of cricket; and give up coffee for tea. Pray to whatever god you call your own. It may already be too late.
In our effort to raise autobot awareness, we present Trailbreaker with the following passage from Wikipedia: Trailbreaker (Glouton in Canada, Tuono in Italy) was portrayed as a light-hearted joker, who often acted a morale booster for his comrades. Deep down, however, he considers himself a liability due to his high fuel consumption. Because of this he has a low sense of self-worth, he often asks to be left out of missions. Despite this, the other Autobots know he is a valuable addition to their ranks.
Wikipedia also lists him as a defensive strategist.
What I'm finding most fascinating/awesome is how much these wikipedia posts read into old transformer cartoons to the point where they provide insight into the specific feelings of the autobots. Also the name Trailbreaker was clearly seen as being too hot-button in Canada so Hasbro changed his name to Glouton.
The Lost and The Damned expansion for GTA4 is awesome, which many of you probably realize because it is currently setting records for number of downloads on xbox live. I enjoyed my experience with TLAD more than the bulk of GTA 4, but that is not to necessarily say that TLAD is "better" than the main arc of GTA 4. The primary realization I had while playing through TLAD is that the game stars Johnny Klebitz, but is not about Johnny Klebitz, just as GTA4 stars Niko Bellic but is not "about" Niko Bellic. The main character of GTA 4 is Liberty City. TLAD and GTA4 provide different interpretations of the same city, but it is the city, in the end, that is the focus. This realization really sets in during the (never thought in my life I would say this and probably should get my head examined) the best ending credits I've ever seen, which juxtapose scenes where Johnny and Niko were in the same place at the same time. The significance of the credits is that it shows how the individual experiences of Johnny and Niko are as complex as the experiences that tie the whole city together (here's the clip without music, it admittedly kicks much more ass with music; also a side note - my other favorite ending credit sequence belongs to twisted metal black):
The thrust of the argument I am trying to make here is that arguing that TLAD is "better" than GTA4 is impossible because TLAD is GTA4 insofar as the games are about Liberty City
Specifically discussing TLAD, I enjoy it so much because it functions on two levels: one as a straight Western; and the other is that the game seems to have been created as a weird, meta interpretation of Jon Bon Jovi's fascination with cowboys. Beginning with the Western themes that pervade TLAD, we have a band of outlaws, a power struggle within than band, a band stays together because of a code of ethics, constant skirmishes with law enforcement, and a finale that culminates in a prison raid/shootout - I'd argue you could find any 3 of these in a majority of the Westerns out there. More specifically, the Lost ride motorcycles and fight primarily with shotguns - all but basically slapping a blue star on their backs and calling them cowboys. The game functions as a western set in the late industrial revolution, where the antiquated rules of the west are slowly being eroded by modernity - the Lost set up operations in the 60s/70s and are ultimately coming to the realization that their way of life is unsustainable in the modern age. Even the multiplayer suggests this - involving lost vs police while the lost are trying to make a raid on a police bus which could just as easily be a horse-drawn wagon.
I also don't think it's a coincidence that "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi is on this soundtrack, the lyrics of which basically describe a modern cowboy who rides a motorcycle instead of a horse. Whether I am correct or not, I picture this game as the literal embodiment of this song as well as his other songs focusing on cowboys, and that makes this game absolutely hilarious to me because these songs are awesomely/ridiculously self-serious and describe a reality that noone has ever been a part of (save for Jon Bon, who still owes Philadelphia a free concert after the Soul won the Arena Bowl, but thats an issue for another day).
"The Lost" is a perfect name for Johnny's gang - the principles on which they were founded have totally eroded and have left the gang as a marauding group of criminals who don't know what their purpose is anymore. (Shitty Pun Alert) The only thing not lost is this game's story which is tight as hell and as fun of a game as you can get for $20. I have to make up for that pun...
So the forums are finally ready to go and are as fresh as the driven arctic snow, just waiting to be trod upon by the first few brave explorers.
I think I speak for the other contributors to this site in admitting that we are each individually have been members of several boards in our lifetimes. BUT NEVER BEFORE has any of us had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and really muck around in it.
The board has the basics, but with a twist that I particularly enjoy.
The board allows general discussion on games, movies, anime, booze and tech. And will soon have particular discussion on making fighting sticks, Street Fighter 4, Wild Turkey or anything else that seems to get everyone hyped up.
The Board also contains THUNDERDOME.
Having been a member of many boards, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that if I see a fight break out in a thread I get a little pumped. BUT I am always depressed that there is never a definitive winner, and moreover, no way to separate the winners from the losers. SO these boards are implementing the "Mortal Verbal Kombat Forum"
the rules are simple (1) Don't like somebody in a thread? Did someone besmirch the great work of Tommy Tallrico in the Earthworm Jim games that got you mad as a wet hen?
(2) Reply to the thread that you believe the offender is a "brigand" or an "Uncouth Fellow" and challenge them to Verbal (I guess typed is more appropriate) Kombat
(3) The poster accepts your challenge by replying "have at you"
(4) An Admin/Mod Must approve of the fight by posting his official blessing
(5) The two fighters enter Thunderdome and start a new thread in the "Mortal Verbal Kombat Forum" with their names and the date as the title.
(6) TWO DAYS of Slobberknockin fussin and a fightin (generally anything legal is allowed) post videos pictures nasty phrases and witty comments about your opponent.
(7) The winner is decided via lil Kim in You got served, and the scoring is "Straight HOOD" with the other members voting for the winner in a poll.
(8) SHAKE HANDS AND SIT DOWN. After the fight is over and the winner decided all claims are considered settled. No reprisals against the winner, no kicking the loser when he is down.
(9) To the winner goes the spoils. The winner is granted by the admins the ability to edit his subtitle with his win record in fights and any manly moniker he chooses.
The other vital element of Thunderdome is my personal favorite portion of the entire board. I can't even count how many times I have been browsing a thread when some ass hat claims that the competition on the internet is terrible that he "dominates anyone he plays" and that he and is "clan" are ranked worldwide or that he or she engages in Major League Gaming. My response to any of these common statements is a blend between sadness and amusement.
At Turbo Button we ask that you don't overwhelm us with difficult to prove and frankly hilarious credentials, but instead actually prove yourself. If any poster becomes incensed by another posters braggadocio he may post "demanding satisfaction" from the offending poster. The braggart will be forced t o back his stuff up by replying "en garde". AGAIN the fight must be approved of by the Admins by their posting of approval in the thread.
The two combatants then move their fight to the thread in the "Get on the Sticks" forum, with their names and the game being played as the title of the thread. Then get on Live or the PSN and make it do what it do. Winners and loser must report back with the honor code. Again to the winner goes the spoils, and they will be granted a special moniker and a ticker of their wins as a testament to their prowess and their inherent warning not to be "fucked with" Videos of the actual game play would be awesome if at all possible.
SO that’s that.
I really think this could be fun, get in their start posting. God knows the three of us will be in their posting like idiots to get everyone into it. It should be a good time.
Grow with us....
(I was actually looking for "She's a Virgin by the Awful Band Typical Hawaiian" For this clip, which would have really changed the tenor of my invitation to the forums from a friendly consensual thing to weird sexual innuendo with new members taking our board's virginity.
GoodEvening. This is the first in a series of posts that I will handle concerning my view of the more technical aspects Street Fighter. With the arrival of Street Fighter 4 and other top tier fighting games already out there like Virtua Fighter and MK v.DCU I am hoping this becomes the year of fighter. There is no other genre of game where you are truly weighed directly against your competitor brain v. brain reflexes v. reflexes mano v. mano? The other really great thing about Fighting Games is how goddamn deep they are. You can enjoy the top crust of the game for years without even realizing the deeper core of game play and technique that the game offers. since a A good fighting game like Street Fighter allows for the greatest player freedom in experimenting and discovering which techniques work better in which situation and allows for a type or artistic free style when putting all of these different strands of thinking together, its kind of like playing a musical instrument.
I learned mostly everything I know about street fighter from days in the Showcase Cinema's in Revere where i would dominate and be dominated standing at a machine placing quarters in a slot. At any moment, if I was paying attention I could watch the next guy get on the sticks and show me something new, and then try to use it against him. As time wore on, some techniques began to form a core of any good player's repertoire in that they, when used at the correct moment lead most often to winning. Now, with the fall of the arcade and the lack of an arcade machine at every pizza place movie theater the fighting game is driven on to x-box live. You cant just sit next to a machine and watch someone, they just come into your living room, beat the shit out of you and disappear into the ether. Unless you are some kind of savant you really can't take anything from these sessions, and the chances of playing the same player from a line that is "as big as the internet" is rare, so you don't get prolonged exposure to good techniques/strategies. There are some great sites out there that really get in depth on these strategies, including all the forums on www.shoryuken.com. However, at times these boards are pretty intimidating. It's kind of like asking a NASA engineer how to change your oil, and that engineer is really pissed all the time about changing oil since like 100 other goofballs already asked the same question, and he can't talk about space shuttles with his fellow NASA friends. So we are going to smash through the glass ceiling, feminism style, here and lay out the basics, that start as the foundation for any good Street Fighter player. In case you don't get the picture. IF YOU LEARN THESE MOVES THE LAKERS WILL SHOW UP AT YOUR PLACE AND WAVE TOWELS AT YOU AND SAY RAD SHIT LIKE OHHH NO HE DIDN'T
WHAT IT BE:Crossup The crossup is one of the most basic moves in the fighting game repotire. In plain English a corssup is an attack that actually lands behind the opposing character, thereby connecting with the opponents back, behind his block. It looks kind of bizarre, but it has been around since Street Fighter II.
HOW YOU DO DAT? The crossup is most simply executed by using any of the character's medium kick attacks after reaching an apex over the opponents head. If the crossup lands the opponent will be wide open for a combination, likely leading to stun(dizzy).
HOW YOU DO DAT (IN PARTICULAR) Crossover/Cross up - Is what it sounds like. You begin doing something to get your opponent focusing hi sattention one way, then you fake them out by quickly jumping up and over (preferrably someone will run out into your game area and wave a wight towle at you and scream out that celery stix is the shit). Since the main point of the crossup/crossover is going over the opponent's block, he must first be induced to block, otherwise he would be able to back flip out of the way or use an anti - air attack like a shoryuken/tiger uppercut etc. This is usually accomplished by poking the oppnent with short low jabs or light kicks to induce the opponent to block low, then quickly jumping over the opponent and landing the kick on top of his head.
DONT FORGET The rationale of the move. (1)Induce the opponent to block (2) Jump on top of opponent's head, medium kick/other reliable move that creates medium damage and medium knock back so as to set the opponent up for further combination without knocking him out of range. (3) No matter what people will eventually figure out whats doing if you fall into a set pattern. You can cross up out of a variety of moves or scenarios, so long as your opponent is blocking and you can get over them quickly. Practice, get into as many scenarios as you can. The most important thing to remember is that no amount if technique can tell you "when" to utilize a certain move, only experience, pick a character and get good with it.
BEWARE Since the Crossup has been around since 92' most player will know that its coming if the move is obvious. Without properly inducing the opponent to block or getting him off balance in some way, you will be juming in like an idiot totally exposed to any anti air attack or super/ultimate attack. Also beware, some individuals believe that this move is "cheap" but fail to describe why it exists in the game. American Hero John Runyon, center on the Philadelphia Eagles, and like 39 Time Pro Bowler will gladly punch people in the testicles at the bottom of piles, to get an edge, to help his team win, becaus someone else would gladly punch him in the testicles to get to McNabb, which would be a failure for Runyon who does not know how to fail. There is no mysterious code of honor in games or life, other than winning and realizing that you are involved in a zero sum game where all is chaos and there is no over riding moral authority to bind your actions. To not do everything available to you is ridiculous, you can't just say that there is a code or a rule when there isn't, its like a mad man putting a hat on a fire hyrdant and screaming that it is the "A Number One Duke of New York."
SAMPLE MOVE: (I will try to do all my Sample Moves with Ken, although Sakura is my number one, I couldn't tell you the names of her moves. PLUS Ken Rules and everyone, with some rare exemples, uses him wrong. Ken is also super balanced, and is a good archetype for the large class of quarter circle forward characters.
"Safe Jump/Safe Sash" in (this is its own thing, needless to say its pretty self explanatory) so that you are out of range of the other charcter. A good principle is to eyeball two caharcter lengths between yourself and the opponnent. I like to run fiece dragon kick, the opponent sees it coming and should block, if he doesn't block you're going to hit him anyway. Once block is enabled and after the third spin, immediialt go into a low crouching foot jab with light kick. THis sould initiate low block (AND LOOK AT ALL THE CHIP DAMAGE YOU ARE GETTING) when you feel ready tap up, at the apex of the opponents head huse medium kick, which will land for a charcter space and a hal, this sshould impact with the opponent's back, behind the block. Once back there do your thing, i like to round house into EX spinning dragon kick. Butu feel free to do whatever.
In case my explanation made no sense, here is a video. This is of SFA3 but its the exact same mechanic in SF4 (crossups start at minute 3 Link up is basically light punch int medium punch combos, keeping the opponent close with lighter moves so you can get more hits in rather than gettig knocked back)
Just watched this video and it got me totally fired up for Killzone. The irony of this situation is palpable - a video about a person that runs around throwing out health packs gets me juiced for a game called Killzone. In every other kind of game I can't stand playing as healing classes - traditionally when I play a game it's balls-out reckless fuck defense time (BORFDT) - but FPS games, which are primarily about BORFDT inspires me to play as guys that are devoted to keeping other people alive.
The more I think about it though, the more it makes sense. My favorite types of characters to play as are offensive juggernauts with poor defense. FPS medics traditionally take alot of damage because they can make up for it with their healing capabilities. Offensively they usually are on par with the primary damage dealing class. So we have a class with moderate offense and no defense. I think the kicker comes in with regard to the total exposure a medic has when reviving other players - so there is a rush present in medics that isn't there for other classes, running into the middle of a fight totally exposed to revive someone to selfishly boost my stats. Bringing me back to BORFDT.
The needle in return to castle wolfenstein was more kick-ass though than this revive gun.
Two weeks ago I purchased the MadCatz Standard Edition FightStick after months of anticipation. I began my search last summer when Soul Calibur was released and instead of buying the Hori Ex sticks that were available, I opted to defer my purchase until winter when the MadCatz sticks would be released. To speed this story up, I bought the sticks two weeks ago and although there were some problems with the stick sticking and buttons not registering (basically chasing a pig through the streets screaming "It's still good, it's still good"). After 3 days the stick stopped responding entirely, so I promptly returned it, cursing myself for buying a MadCatz product after swearing off their garbage products years ago.
Because I'm not entirely rational, I thought the only way to actually stick it to MadCatz would be to return their product and buy a more expensive one from their rival Hori, so I purchased the Hori Real Arcade Pro Ex, which has worked like a dream. I spent as much on the Hori as the MadCatz tournament edition stick, even though the TE has better buttons, for two reasons: 1. I can easily upgrade the buttons on the HRAP EX, which I intend to do and will potentially post before and after shots of my new stick with NWO Black and White artwork on it (Horace Hogan and Stevie Ray likely involved); 2. Hori has a better reputation than MadCatz, so six months from now when the third rate innards of the MadCatz fail, I'll be left standing.
I'm really just trying to push my anti-MadCatz agenda, I included a video of that time I was in space with James McCloud:
So, I got out of work today and had a gang of shit to do, and have not had access to the video game related parts of the internet while I was at work, so when I turned on the old 360 at around eleven tonight I was genuinely surprised and excited to see that Capcom had a "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" about a game they were releasing. (By the way, this also shows how good the new 360 blade/NXE works since this info was literally shoved down my throat before I could get to Street Fighter).
At first I saw my menz Jun with a Raccon City Police Department jacket on. Then he said a "new game" that the fans had been demanding would be revealed TONITE IN THIS VERY VIDEO! Immediately my mind raced with thoughts of my dream game which chronicles the adventures of Barry Burton Jill and Chris as they crusaded around the world on a boat hunting down Umbrella remnants. OHHHHHHHHH maybe it’s another Resident Evil light gun game to clear up all of those "loose ends" from the other light gun games or maybe it’s a straight up Hunk adventure game where you find out why you "cannot kill the death" or why the "death can't die." I was literally frothing at the mouth. BUT THEN he takes off the jacket and says oh no. This Jacket has nothing to do with my announcement. Holy shit.
THEN when the jacket comes off i see underneath the jacket, a v-neck sweater with a turtleneck? I stopped for a minute and thought about it. My initial disappointment that a new and possibly old school style version of Resident Evil wasn't coming out was then overwhelmed with new Joy that the sweater and the turtleneck were another obvious hint. Jun was dressing as none other than Roy Bromwell the famous American exchange student who helps out his friends at the Taiyo School only to go on and later be elected president in the great game Rival Schools! It must be a call out to a rival schools sequel. FINALLY. Enjoy the kick ass J-Pop.
Also Enjoy From Wikipedia the Bio of Roy Bromwell
Roy Bromwell is a character first introduced in Rival Schools: United By Fate. A rich foreign exchange student from the United States, he is often portrayed in the games as main character Batsu's rival. He is also an American football player, with a number of his in-game special moves named after elements of the sport. In the first game, he is ordered to investigate the school kidnappings by his father, with Tiffany and Boman joining him. During their investigation, the American trio is defeated and brainwashed to the service of Justice High, but eventually is freed thanks to Batsu and his Taiyo High compatriots. This causes Roy eventually rethink his ideas about Japan and its people. His ending in the game has him return to the United States determined to change the way of thinking in his home country, and 30 years after the games take place, he is elected the President of the United States. [FUN FACT Taiyo HS is the same HS that Sakura from the Street Fighter games goes to, she also makes an appearance in the rival schools games.]
That’s a pretty great announcement. Sadly in reality it turns out that the game is in fact Lost Planet Two. I kind of enjoyed Lost planet One, but I feel like it is was so forgettable. Although the game play was frenetic, and actually has a really nice old school arcade shooter feel, with some interesting multilayer components including the grappling hook stuff, it didn't grab me. I think the problem however was the main character, because generally I love a mech game and love shooting stuff, and it can't be denied that even as an early generation 36o Game LP One looked tremendous, and moved smoothly, and your little dude aimed well and they gave you lots of awesome robots to play with.
My main issue with Lost Planet One is my problem with most Third Person Action games. Ina third person game, unlike a first person, the character really needs to stand on his own as an interesting well developed thing that you indeed care about. The difference really comes from perspective.
In a first person game it doesn't really matter who your "character is" since the player is actually the one directly interacting with the world, holding the gun, flipping the switches, it’s actually better if the game does not force a personality onto that character since it would be psychologically like forcing an emotion or ambition on the player, which the player may not have. Instead, the player must gain ambition from his perception of the world as it unfolds around him, make things happen to the player that make the player feel personally involved, that any slight against the HUD is an attack directly at the person holding the controller. (Which is why the ending of COD 4 is so great.) The proof is in the pudding, some of the best First person shooters have literally a milk toast know nothing say nothing machine SEE Gordon Freeman, and all the nameless dudes from call of Duty, all the way back to the DOOM guy and the Wolfenstien guy. Indeed, even if a first person game has a character with personality like Duke Nukem or Master Chief, that personality is communicated to the player subtly via quips or muttered lines.
A third person game puts the player next to or behind the on screen character. Due to this perspective the player is not interacting with the world, but is in a position more akin to watching a film. The character must stand out in the overall context of the story. Take Max Payne or my favorite character Jack Slate from Dead to Rights. BOTH of these character play compelling corny action heroes like any good Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie, complete with weird back stories, kick ass lines when they kill a bad guy and unique looks. The Resident Evil Games are the best example of doing a third person game "right." Capcom has spent so much time and care on the development of their characters in crafting huge over arching story lines and individuals with such depth and personality that characters like Chris Redfield can be re-introduced nearly 7 years since his last appearance with a full mythology ready to accompany him into battle, a mythology and a motivation which the player genuinely care about as they watched Chris and Claire and Jill and Barry and Steve and Billy etc. etc. etc. work out the mystery like a great soap opera or wrestling angle. For example, Resident Evil: Code Veronica (you can get it for the PS2 for like ten bucks, and it is likely one of the finest Resident Evil Games.) The first art of the game develops slowly with Claire Redfield, Chris's sister, trapped on an island, attempting to resolve its mystery. The whole game Claire, whom the player has already met in Resident Evil Two as the plucky fighter who dealt with the police station, is still searching for her brother Chris, whom we know as the baddass who killed a plant, a tyrant and punched Wesker in Resident Evil One. When Chris Finally shows up midgame in a tank to save Calire, after Claire has been flown off the Island, the player, due to the cut-scenes and the revelation of the story genuinely cares about Claire and is now pumped to see Chris loaded up like NATO ready to go after Wesker. To the Player this "has to happen" the mythology is so built up that this moment is "destined"
The third person game is a movie and without proper character development and attention it is a soulless movie. Even when we are talking about cheesy movies the difference between something like Leslie Neilson's Naked Gun and the film abortion called Meet The Spartans is gargantuan. Although both films are similar genres and similar "quality" the extra time that Leslie Neilson took developing Frank Drebbin makes his movie more memorable and funny to the audience than anyone in the soulless Meet the Spartans (or any of those movies by those assholes, even if Kevin Sorbo I think is in Meet the Spartans, Kevin Sorbo is the figure head for my religion.)
Lost Planet's character is Meet the Spartans as Jack Slate is to Naked Gun. Both games technically shooters indeed with time, Lost Planet is a more proficient shooter. BUT I don't give a crap whether or not the guy in Lost Planet lives or dies or finds his dad or whatever the hell is going on. Which is why I still own Dead to Rights and not Lost Planet. Game designers should take note of this and really try to make their characters memorable, even if that means they come off as "over the top" underplayed and reserved characters are ok in Akira Kurasawa movies but have no place in a video game, and no game designer is Akira Kurasawa so let’s cut the shit. Most game makers could be John Singleton though so let’s at least try. No one cares about a character who could be THE MOST cookie cutter character ever. Let’s count the ways (1) Amnesia (2) Is more than what he appears/is the king/is the best mech pilot (3) Looks like the lead singer from hoobastank.
I reserve judgment on the new Lost Planet so far since it looks like it is about the "Ice Pirates" and pirate kick ass. So let’s hope my warnings are noted, and the Ice Pirates are interesting in some manner. However, the fact that this game is not called Lost Planet 2: Ice Pirates or Lost Planet 2:Revenge, is unforgivable.
Also Jun. Next time you take off your jacket to reveal another jacket, let's make sure it looks more like this.
Wanted to do my first review on a game I've completed for a few reasons. First, like a book or a movie, it's impossible to review something that you have not yet completed. But that issue feeds into a larger point on game reviews with something that I'd like to do with this site and all subsequent reviews. It takes a long ass time to really complete a game and fully experience it's multiplayer if applicable. With that said, a game, unlike a book or a movie, is more about the process - you are actively engaged and competing against the game in a way that is not applicable to other mediums. I'm not using this as a "GAMESRTHEBEST" argument, rather it's a fact that in about an hour section of game you can almost always have a full impression of what the rest of the game is because the rest of the game is built from the same technology and by the same people as those who created that part of the game you have already played. So while a review may not be complete if its done before you actually complete the game, it can provide a relatively accurate forecast of what the final review product would be. SO with that long winding diatribe out of the way, I think the way the site should do reviews going forward is in installments as we complete the games - the initial review will be a solid first impression of the game and the subsequent updates will provide a more in-depth look at a game than you could likely get from just reading a review that was based on a person who had to rush in order to beat the game before a release date. A game is meant to be played over time and not in a few sittings, so this review structure will accurately reflect that, which is a luxury we are afforded because people who want to use a review to tell them what to purchase will likely just use one of the thousand commercial sites already available.
That was far too long and uninteresting, we need a new song:
Resistance might be the most puzzling game I've ever played. I loved the first game's single player and this plays, more or less, identically. The reticule is the same, most of the guns are the same, but there is something absolutely disconcerting about the single player experience, and I think its our old friend exposition. R1 used still frame black and white shots with narration to advance the story - not the best means of doing so by any means, but it is serviceable and it does tell a story. R2 on the other hand replaces those still frame shots with full motion cutscenes (either in-game or out of game) - so far so good. The problem is that these scenes convey no information at all, and just totally left me bewildered as to what had just happened and what I was doing now. Normally I can live with no exposition, I fucking love Doom and Contra, but when you try to tell a story, forget what you're talking about, and then talk to me as if what you had just said was both coherent and enough to convince me to proceed to the next objective, I immediately begin hating you for insulting my intelligence. I don't need a "why" but if you offer one to me it should explain something rather than spilling soup on itself and passing out in a cocaine induced fury.
The biggest problem with the story is that it wants to be half-life. HL games are great for their subtlety by keeping you in the eyes of its protagonist while slowly feeding you information that is withheld from you from the beginning. R2 witholds information from you, never presents it to you, and is as subtle as a shirtless Pat Burrell. Apparently this super intelligent alien race thing that was on earth came back to earth and made more super intelligent aliens that are also stronger, better organized and have far superior technology to humanity; this game takes place in America 2 years after the aliens invaded. Humanity apparently was slaughtered except enough people exist to form a standing army that is apparently strong enough to stop the invasion except they're not? That's the extent of information I gleaned from the story. The story also pulled a half-life 2 and gave you all powers during the ending sequence, but it was more hilarious than anything at that point after watching the story happen.
I'll calm down now. I actually had fun with the game I just want to punch the story in its stupid face. The competitive multiplayer is fun, I didn't get into Co-op because I don't know enough people with PS3s. The ending was good though, check it out:
I am a Street Fighting “newb”. Back in my glory years (early ‘90’s), I played Street Fighter II here and there in arcades, but my true love was Mortal Kombat. There was something magical about a listening to a little Nirvana and terrorizing all of Outworld as a partially decomposed, resurrected ninja whose hobbies include throwing spears at people and burning them alive. Watching Ryu and Ken vie for status as world’s top fighter by throwing identical fireballs at one another just didn’t cut it for me.
Today though, I am caught in quite the quandary. My love for Mortal Kombat is in question. The folks at Midway released a number of uninspired Mortal Kombat games (for the record, Mortal Kombat Vs. DCU was a step in the right direction, but they have some more ground to make up) and have paid the price for their betrayal, recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the gentlemen over at Capcom have developed generally high quality games, such as the Resident Evil franchise and Dead Rising in recent years (zombie games kick ass) and perhaps the most exciting arcade game of all time, 1942, in the past.
Street Fighter IV continues in this tradition of awesomeness in many respects. The combat (with a “c” and not a “k”, unfortunately) is good, the 3D look of the characters is new and eye-catching, and the anime intros and conclusions are a great touch (even if there are, at times, shameful gaps in the story). My one complaint – I don’t feel connected to any of the characters. None of them stand out to me. Consequently, I have been unable to integrate one of them into my being (I typically spend 3+ days in a self-made smoke lodge in a secluded section of a wooded area somewhere, abstaining from food or drink, before a character bonds with me – it’s a religious experience). When I play Halo, I AM Master Chief. When I play Soul Calibur, I AM Mitsurugi. Unfortunately, when I play Street Fighter, I am NOT Sagat. I merely control his movements. My kicks lack emotional content. Maybe that is because I did not grow up playing Street Fighter. Maybe that is because the story sucks. Maybe the characters are unoriginal. Maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Still, I am not going to give up. I’m going to keep playing. Maybe the next player I unlock will be The One. One thing I do know is that I will never play this game online against people I haven’t met. If I have to play idiot after idiot playing as Ryu and only Ryu any more, I think I may just give up on video games forever. Learn a new guy, Internet! Seriously. Still, that's a subject for another blog.
Wheeljack is the scientist (and warrior) of the Autobots...
Wheeljack is described as the mad scientist of the Autobot forces as he is always inventing new weapons and gadgets. These weapons and gadgets, while derived from the desire to benefit the Autobot cause, often bring great danger and introduce unpredictable elements into critical situations. He is the most accomplished driver (while in car mode) among the Autobots and enjoys displaying his skill level through various road stunts. Wheeljack possesses the ability to fly for relatively short distances (800 miles) using solid-fuel rockets in his arms. From his shoulder mounted cannons, Wheeljack can shoot magnetic inducer, shrapnel-needle, and gyro-inhibitor shells which can disrupt a target's sense of balance. He is often his own worst enemy due to the explosive and potentially damaging nature of his experiments.
According to this description, Wheeljack has all fucking powers and is both (as the parenthesis above note) a Warrior and a Mad Scientist - Why the hell haven't I heard of him.
Spoiling the hell out of the plot and ending to Prince of Persia but it's necessary. The plot of POP has the protagonist and his lady-friend purging the corruption from a kingdom in order to seal away the dark power that created the corruption. A number of twists and turns occur throughout the story and you find out at the end that purging the corruption results in the death of your special lady. It is at this point that the protagonist realizes that if he brings the corruption back he can save his special lady friend, which he proceeds to do and the game ends with him carrying her off; as seen here: My initial reaction, like many people, was one of disgust - "if i just undid everything I spent the last 12 hours doing, what the hell was the point." It soon dawned on me that I was being insane - what do you ever honestly accomplish when you finish a video game, if I get mad that I didn't "accomplish" something when the prince let the corruption back out, shouldn't I be equally upset when Master Chief wipes out the flood, the degree to which either of those things actually impact my life is minimal to non-existent.
After clearing my insane "what did I just accomplish" hurdle, I realized the game had one of the best endings I've ever seen. The Prince was himself at the end of the game - given the plot and everything that was learned throughout the course of the game, we come to the understanding that even if the corruption is gone, there is no land left to save - its inhabitants have left, and it is only protected by a temple whose strength is rapidly waning. By choosing his special lady, the prince made the only choice available to him - he could either live in a desolate land alone or he could live in a corrupted land with her and fight the evil together. The land, to him, is still corrupted if it claimed her as a victim, that is why he made his choice and that is why the ending is awesome.
Unfortunately Ubisoft is releasing a downloadable epilogue to the game, that ostensibly appears to put a more satisfying conclusion to the story; pandering to those who couldn't process the meaning of the ending. As far as I'm concerned, the story is over.
The POP ending is good, but its not as good as
So the ending would have been better if the prince flew away on a helicopter from an exploding island, but the amount of closure would have been the same.
So Circuit City is apparently going out of business. Was never really a huge fan, generally always found myself at Best Buy and more recently Microcenter for my PC/electronics needs. BUT I do love a good deal. Everything at the local circuit city by me in fabulous Saugus Massachusetts on the glamorous Route One North is 80% off. SOOOO. I purchased a bunch of CDs.
There they are lined up on my desk. It is probably a good idea that this is my first post for the site because it will show the apparent differences between myself and the other two gentlemen who are currently running this site. I called both of them and told them the CD’s I had purchased, and was greeted with confused silence from and what can only be described as the sound of someone throwing up in their mouth (except when I mentioned the Fast and Furious Soundtrack, which one of these people, guess, had downloaded on Itunes about a year ago). Soooo how about some quick reviews/thoughts.
Bullet for my Valentine "Hand of Blood" Regularly $10.99 Circuit City going out of business price $2.99
I am kind of torn on whether or not I actually like this band. They sound a lot like the new metal hardcore + melody bands that have been popping up recently (Lamb of God. Killswicth Engage. As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wear's Prada etc.) This is becoming a trend where all bands are starting to sound kind of like all the new WWF entrance music for WWF, with really technical guitars, loud double bass drums and screaming vocals, but then BIG SOARING CHEESY LYRICS that are SUNG not screamed. I kind of really got into this a few years ago, especially with Killswitch and As I Lay Dying, but I am nervous that it is becoming the dominant trend in metal to the extent that it makes Avenged Sevenfold (a band full of assholes and shit dicks that plays garbaggge music) look to the outsider or general public like as the premier sound for metal. That worry aside, these guys really do the metal/harmony thing pretty well. They got a solid dark vibe to all their songs and I even kind of dig the anime inspired cover art. The best song off the album is probably Track 1, "Words to Choke Upon" starts out with a great guitar lead solo and opens up with some really hard vocals, and it retains the type of anthemic (anthem - like is this a word?) quality that is so great about this brand of melody/hardcore. MY RECCOMENDATION (download 4 Words to Choke On off the album P.S. watching the video with all the younguns makes me feel old)
Dillinger Escape Plan "Ire Works" Regular Price $13.99 Circuit City Going out of Business Price $5.00
I have been a fan of this band for a while, ever since I was a skateboard kid in high school. My buddy had their original EP in 97 "Calculating Infinity." I bought their later self-titled album and I think I still have "Irony is a Dead Scene from 2001. I kind of fell off with this band. It’s hard to describe what genre they fall into, they really are a genre defying band, the sound is heavy and fast and the focus is heavy guitar, but often they will cleverly sacrifice consistent sound for crazy experimentation, random dissonant piano notes, feedback and I think a lot of circuit - bent sounds appear on this CD, sometimes it works and feels chillingly jarring, sometimes it sounds just like noise. For instance, in the track "Dead as History" is full of eerie sound effects from an old cowboy movie, accompanied by haunting and soft vocals as opposed to the screaming vocals of the first tracks. The album is really a great example of letting a CD wash over, as opposed to skipping through the tracks to get to the hits as each song builds upon the last becoming more complex and intense. The first track "Fix your Face" is the exact way the hardcore punk scene that this band defined should sound, screaming vocals and machine gun fast double bass BUT by the time you get to the last track "Mouth of Ghosts" you really hear a band that’s growing up and developing, complex vocal arrangements and a softer sound with an almost blues groove to it. I feel like the CD is going to grow on me. Actual music critics really seem to like it. SOOO If you you like a little progressive experimentation in you hard core then buy this CD. Its one of those CDS that goes really great with video games. The crazy experimental sounds in conjunction with genuinely driving metal riffs and screaming vocals (no melody hear) really seem to make everything in a game seem more frantic. I have had it going playing SF4 for the last few minutes and its becoming a hair - raising experience. MY RECCOMENDATIOn (Show your hardcore metal friends and the hot pretentious/artsy chick that you have a deep and eclectic taste in music and appreciate progressive ideals BUY. Especially listen to "Milk Lizard" The video is below, try to spot Mike Patton, Metal legend lead singer of course Faith No More, Tomahawk, Fantomas and Mr. Bungle who took these guys under his wing years ago. Also look for Mike Patton as the voice of monsters in my favorite games "The Darkness" and “Left Four Dead” [he's the voice of the zombies and seemingly can do anything with his voice]
LAST ALBUM
GRAB Your ANKLES
and KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE
Fast And the Furious Tokyo Drift Sound Track Regularly Priced: Respect Circuit City Going Out fo Business Price: Mad Respect
If you don't like this CD or Films then you have no soul and must leave this site.
The site to go when you got nowhere else to turn. The three Gentlemen, and I stress the word "GENTLEMEN" have decided that the internet is empty of proper game/video/life/comedic feature web sites. Although that is in fact not true, what is true is that these sites often get taken over by what can only be described as "nerd bulllies" so into the topic that they lose sight of the point of the whole thing. TURBOBUTTON allows the ramblings of the earth's most premier experts on random shit and provides a place for anyone to comment upon and talk about said shit without fear of being out "nerded" by others. If other internet gaming sites are like a fine wine that requires a sophisticated pallate and allows for snobbery this web site is more like fried-baloney and High Life.
HOW IS Turbo Button
There are TWO Main Systems for Reviews
(1) Video Game Reviews do not have numbers/stars/hats/foir gras ratings
There is no reason to have a number associated with a game that you review. It tells you nothing and is not helpful. It is a random term assigned to a description taht does not capture the product or experience beneath. our reviews thus have NO rating. They will however be descriptive and will condense all relavant opinion on teh subject. If we don't like it you will kjknow, if you fdind you like the things we like you are in good shape. For the sake of banality we will assign a random ammount of things to any review. The worse/better the thing the worse/better the game.
(2) Movie/Film/TV/Anime Reviews
Also do not have numbers. See above. ALSO they are easier to rate since we can just gather clips and shows them to you with our snappy commentary.
FEATURES FEATURES FEATURES
This site will also host and operate as a dump for any sort of random thought that comes into our well groomed heads. The feautres will be sepearately listed as such and will most likley be on teh folliwng topis "Philly Sports" "90's Anime" "Metal" "Radio" and/or "Booze". This will further operate as a dump area for pictures and video.
Forums
(1) We personally are members of a few video game related forums (2) They grind on our brains because people can't act civil to one another and often use Japanese phrases when talking about Streetfighter despite the fact I know they live in Nebraska (3) Our forums will have none of these things in them. They will operate mostly as a meeting place for people who read the site to either. Further talk about/share the articles OR to rip us or one another. But if we see one person refer to M. Bison as Dictator we will lose it. (4) In reality the forums will be like the Wild West, so man up and get in there. (5) We also really like the idea of a community so If this thing ever gets going the forums will be the place to organize community events.
PODCASTS (Under Construction)
We will do a podcast every Sunday night which will include the ability to call in and will mostly be based around video games/news/movies/scrapple EMAIL US
