Friday, July 30, 2010

Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)

So, if anyone reading this knows me, you know I've been completely against the whole Street Fighter franchise for years upon years. I've always thought it was sluggish and boring and too hadouken filled for my liking.
I was also of the opinion that it didn't take any skill and that Daigo was just some kid who got lucky. Yes, I know, blasphemy.

And then, along came Super Street Fighter IV.
Now, I dabbled in vanilla Street Fighter IV when it was released (I mained Blanka), but I just really didn't enjoy it. It just wasn't for me.
However, I was caught in a good mood and agreed to go half for Super and played it the majority of the night. Immediately I screwed around with Blanka to no avail. An hour later and done with Juri, Cody, Ibuki,  and a slew of other characters, I settled on El Fuerte. Yes, the low tier jumping bean that everybody knows and loves.

I had never had so much fun with a Street Fighter game in my life.

Graphics
 Now, to be honest with you, I'm slightly biased and have never been a fan of Street Fighter graphics. I absolutely HATED the way Vanilla looked. Super, however, is absolutely beautiful.
The intro to Super Street Fighter IV is one of the most impressive fighting game introductions I've ever seen. The first minute of the introduction is a beautifully animated fight between Ryu and Ken done in what looks to be a comic book style of drawing. It's absolutely amazing. The style remains the same throughout the entire intro and never ceases to amaze me. The rest of the animated scenes are just as impressive. It's actually refreshing to see well animated cut scenes in a fighting game. They've become few and far between in recent years.
Gameplay graphics are definitely a few steps above any other Street Fighter game that's been released. The characters don't seem as heavily outlined and they seem to move better than previous installments in the series. It makes Super a pretty game to look at if you're sitting on the sidelines. The most impressive thing, though, would have to be the Ultra animations. El Fuerte's Super Flying Giga-Buster is absolutely amazing to see! As is Guile's Sonic Hurricane and every other ultra in the game, both new and old. It's quite obvious that a lot of detail was put into the animations and the work truly paid off.
You can also tell that the character designs are fairly unique. Yes, Ryu, Ken, Cody, and Dan all seem to have the same body.  But, look at Juri and Rose. Look at Blanka and Rufus. You can't deny that all of them are pretty unique characters in design.
My only complaint? Everyone's just beyond buff. But, hey, it's a Street Fighter game. It's normal.

Gameplay
Okay, so here's the big crowd pleaser. The gameplay aspect of Super Street Fighter IV is absolutely amazing. I find myself enjoying it more and more with every match. There are 35 playable characters the moment you pop the disc into your PS3, so there's probably a character or two to fit just about everyone's play style. Not only are there the 25 characters from the original SFIV, we're given an additional 10 characters including two that are brand new to the series.
Returning fan favourites: Dee Jay & T-Hawk (Super Street Fighter II); Adon (Street Fighter); Cody & Guy (Final Fight and appearances in Street Fighter Alpha); Dudley, Ibuiki, Makoto (Street Fighter III).
New: Juri (a South Korean Taekwondo fighter) and Hakan (a Turkish Oil Wrestler)
If you take into account that there are 35 characters and that there's a challenge mode and story mode for each one, you have hours of single player play available to you. Not to mention the return of the car and barrel bonus stages from Street Fighter II and Final Fight!
Each character also has two ultras, a la Street Fighter III's Super Arts, one from SFIV and one new one. You can only pick one, so be sure to choose the one that best fits your play style. Don't pick a counter ultra if you don't like to play up close and personal and don't pick a projectile if you like to be in your face. It's simple.
Then, there's challenge mode, which proves surprisingly helpful in learning those tough links we all run into no matter the character we're playing. It's great for first time players or anyone wanting to improve.
Another fantastic aspect of SSFIV is the online play. I can't get over how great online play is getting. Everynow and then, you'll run into one of those Ryu players who wants to spam hadoukens all over the screen, but for the most part, you get some pretty great practice from online play. SSFIV introduces what's called "Team Battle" and "Endless Battle", both of which are pretty neat.
Team Battle allows you to play with up to 8 characters on your team and you play in a virtual round robin. One of your players loses, the next steps up to the plate and so on. It's actually quite beneficial. You can pair yourself with some pretty great players who can give you some pretty great advice on the character you're playing. Not only that, but it gives you a chance to see how other players handle certain matchups. The only problem I've come across is there's a little more lag than in a typical online match.
Endless Battle allows up to eight players to enter a lobby with the top two players in said lobby going at each other until one wins. At this point, the winner sticks around and plays the next person in the lobby and play continues as such. The loser goes to the bottom of the rotation and gets another shot at being top dog. These matches don't affect your Player or Battle points, so you can stick around as long as you like just to have fun and kick some ass. Seems pretty great, right? I think so. It puts the arcade feel back into play. I mean, I know I personally get tired of running into that Ryu/Ken player who just doesn't know when to quit. But, with Endless Battle, it's like putting a quarter into the slot and seeing how many rounds you can go before you're knocked off the joystick!

Story
Okay, one of the few lacking points in the majority of fighting games is a decent story. I will give SSFIV it's credit at actually including a story.
However, I'm pretty sure the story is meant to be a mockery of the fact that no fighting game story ever really makes sense. None of the story modes really come together in one ending and most of the rivals don't really have a reason to be a rival. I mean, Ibuki's story just centers around the fact that she'd like to go out and meet a decent guy and all she seems to find are creepy old men and fat guys.
No matter how bad the story line of this game is, though, it's definitely amusing to watch and read which made it pretty enjoyable. Just don't go in expecting a Final Fantasy story that all falls together in the end. You'll be sorely disappointed.

Music
I, personally, find the SSFIV soundtrack to be MUCH better than the Vanilla soundtrack. Maybe it's the fact that the intro song is no where near as annoying and is actually a lot of fun to listen to. Or, maybe it's the fact that the fight music is quite catchy, I'm not sure.
Either way, it's a great soundtrack for a Street Fighter game. Definite thumbs up.

Extras
So, with the addition of internet to gaming, off course there's going to be a lot of extras available. The DLC costumes are actually pretty amazing, especially Blanka and Akuma's Dragonball Z-esque outfit. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Not to mention Ken's cowboy outfit, Dhalsim's firebreather get-up, and Dee Jay's sterotypical Jamaican costume. The DLC costumes are definitely worth your while. Personally, I'm pretty excited about Mecha-Geif!
I wouldn't suggest buying them all separately though. The complete pack for Japan was just released and is due out fairly soon for US consoles.
In-game, you have the two mini-games that were introduced in Street Fighter III and Final Fight, which, are actually pretty awesome to play. In one, you beat a car until it can't be beaten anymore, and in the other you attempt to bust every barrel that wants to land on your pretty little head.
There are also your typical unlocks (costumes, personal actions, trophies, icons). It's pretty standard for a Street Fighter game but also gives you the initiative to play more and more with each character.
Oh, and did I mention that there are talks of DLC characters? Two in the works at the moment are Rainbow Mika (Street Fighter Alpha III) and Hugo (Street Fighter III Second Impact). How awesome would that be?

All in all, I'd more than recommend Super Street Fighter IV to anyone who's already into fighting games and to anyone who's interested in learning the basics of a fighting game.
It's fun, it's competitive, and it's great to look at. You have a soon to be increasing amount of characters to choose from and gameplay choices to allow you to become a better player.
It's definitely a place to start!

 

Friday, July 2, 2010

How to not Have an Opinion

So, today, I decided to poke fun at a friend about the new Avatar movie. Not the one with the tall blue people, but the one with really cool air/fire/element bending techniques. The Last Airbender. Yeah, that's it.
For the past few months, or ever since M. Night Shyamalan's name has been attached to it, I've been fairly convinced that it was going to turn into a terrible movie, not to mention the fact that Jackson Rathbone is one of the stars (Sokka) of the movie. Yeah, that's the guy who plays Jasper in the Twilight series. Yes, that's the one who has absolutely no lines in said Twilight series.
So, between friends, we constantly poked fun with each other. He thought it was going to be amazing, I thought it was going to be complete crap.

Guess who was right.

So, today, on Facebook, because Facebook is serious business, I posted a status: "For those who were sorely disappointed by Avatar: The Last Airbender...*cough*...I TOLD YOU SO! >.> Anything Shyamalan's name is tacked on now turns into complete crap. Sorry guys."

Not the most pretty status in the world, but, hey. It's an opinion.

Fairly quickly, I received responses agreeing with the statement and I didn't think anything more about it. That is, until I refreshed my profile and had 6 comments on it all attacking each other and me.
"If you liked the series, it's not Shyamalan's fault that you didn't like the movie", "He was picked because he helped create the series" (For the record, Shyamalan is listed on no credits I can find of the series itself, I could be wrong, but I don't think he helped create it). 
I blew it off and just kind of responded explaining why I was upset with the movie. I mean, it does leave out a lot of important key events and character development.


Within minutes I was told I was too bent out of shape about the movie not being exactly like the series and that I needed to get over it because Facebook criticism is stupid because no one of any importance is going to see it and change it to fit my desires. The same person then proceeded to tell me that neither me, nor my opinion of the movie, mattered one bit and that I should just shut up and get over it because life is better without critics. When I then told her that I was entitled to my opinion and never once got over zealous in defending it, I was told that she was "not trying to make [me] mad" but was tired of it clogging her newsfeed.
I promptly told her that I wasn't mad, just frustrated that my opinion had been torn apart and blown off as a part of nothing.

I figured things were over and done with until a post between her and another friend showed up in my newsfeed: "You know, people like Haley shouldn't have a facebook. All she does is start arguments about shit that doesn't matter. It's not like anyone really cares what she has to say. It's not like anyone notices her thoughts anyways".


At that point, I was mad. But, it also made me think.



Since when did people decide that no one is allowed to have an opinion?
It's an issue that's been growing for years. The minute someone states his or her opinion or belief, they're attacked by someone who disagrees and made to feel like what they're saying doesn't really matter.
It's not even just among peers anymore. It happens in the news all the time. When you have anchors like Bill O'Reilly who can't seem to understand that not everyone agrees with them, how are you supposed to feel like you have the freedom to believe in anything?
Just the other day, I saw a recording of one of O'Reilly's newscasts in which he compared homosexuals to Al Qaeda, during a LIVE BROADCAST. 

Don't believe me? See for yourself.

In a full version of the video, you see him explaining to the woman that she's wrong and ignores it when she calls him out on other hateful comments and politely disagrees with him.

Actions like this seem to be fairly common in today's world.
It's sad that we can't seem to have our own opinions, and if we do, we risk being attacked or killed. Take the boy who was murdered on a bus years ago for saying that Megadeth was better than Metallica. He was KILLED for disagreeing with his peers over something so small.
People are being physically attacked for not liking Twilight as well. Go to the forums at twilightsucks.com and you'll see personal stories from girls and women who were beaten because they weren't fans of the franchise.



It seems we really are turning into a nation that no longer supports Freedom of Speech. Is this really what we want. Is this really how we want to live?


It's beginning to get scary.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Westboro Baptist Church

So, it's been forever since I've had a chance to write in this thing and now that I'm back in an environment I seem to enjoy writing in, I feel bad that my first post back is going to be demeaning, rage filled, and probably fairly rude and not safe for children.

Now, for those of you who read this and know me to any extent know that I tend to avoid the topic of religion during discussions because, honestly, I don't see the point in arguing for hours and hours with someone who 1) Can't change my views, 2) I can't change their views, 3) Probably isn't going to respect my opinion, 4) Is probably going to shove their opinion down my throat, and 5) Typically won't realize that I really don't care about your view on the subject if you're going to do more than just discuss it. So, it may come as a shock (or not so much a shock) that I despise Westboro Baptist Church and everything it stands for. 

I myself am extremely pro-gay rights. For that reason alone, I find it extremely disrespectful and very "unchristian-like" for a "church" to have the home page of "godhatesfags.com". Don't believe me? Click the link and see for yourself.
Now, when you click the link, you'll see a counter that counts up every second and claims that "# reprobates have split hell wide open since you loaded this web page." Beside of it, the page goes on to explain that the "church" has held 43, 581 peaceful demonstrations.
Tell me, does it seem truly peaceful to hold a demonstration at a soldier's funeral, for all of his grieving family to see, holding signs that proclaim that "God hates soldiers" or "Soldiers go to Hell"? Does it truly seem peaceful to picket at elementary schools and highschools simply because they support equality for all races, genders, sexualities, and religions?
And does it seem peaceful to claim that your "peaceful demonstrations" are for "opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation destroying filth".

How can you claim that you're doing right and yet teach your children words of hate? How can you dare to teach your children "fags" and the idea that the jews are the enemy and should be dealt with? How can you teach your children that the Holocaust was just and needed to destroy those that you do  not agree with?

You're a truly disturbing bunch. You harbor hatred and hostility.
As I scroll through your picket schedule, I have an overwhelming feeling of nausea.
In two days, you'll be in Park Hills, MO to picket the funeral of Lance Cpl. Michael C. Bailey just to remind everyone in attendance that there is a hell and surely this man who fought for freedom and for you to have the ability to hold these disturbing demonstrations will join countless others there.
The same day, you are sending other members of your cult to Colorado State University to picket against homosexuality, premarital sex, abortion, and the military. You seem to believe that every student in every non-christian institution participates in homosexuality or over indulge in sex. You seem to believe that we're all out to get pregnant and have an abortion.
Not only are schools and funerals of serviceman targets, but Jews as well. You feel the need to condemn them for a crime they did not commit. You seem to believe that they are inhuman. You see, there's a word for people like that, Neo-Nazi's. Do you not realize that you're supporting the mass murder that was committed during Hitler's holocaust.

Oh, wait. You're picketing at the Dallas Holocaust Museum on July 9. Silly me. Let's see, why are you picketing them? Oh yeah: "to remind the Jews that the Lord their God caused the Holocaust. They broke His Commandments, despised His laws and crucified the Messiah. For these sins, the Lord cast them into the hands of evil men to do with as they pleased."
Does the bible not also say that one of the commandments is "Thou shalt not kill"? Wouldn't that mean that it wasn't God who tempted man to kill mercilessly but was actually Satan himself? Wouldn't that mean that you aren't actually supporting the God that you claim to follow, but are in truth supporting the being that you claim soldiers, homosexuals, and Jews are going to be joining?

You and your obsession with religions that vary only slightly from yours: Jews, Catholics, etc. Yes, there have been cases of Catholic Priests raping boys. That doesn't mean that the catholic church supports rapists.

Does your bible not say that you are to accept and respect all as God would? Does God not say to judge no one for that is his job?

I also find it greatly amusing that you're more than willing to picket at the concert or memorial of musicians: Ronnie James Dio, Adam Lambert.
Your goal is to get people to frown upon them, yet you're giving them more and more publicity. You're doing the opposite of what you claim to be out to do.

While you sit with your signs and fight for America to stop its support of military and homosexuals and music, there are thousands of men and women fighting for your right to pollute the minds of our nations children.

Congratulations.
You have become the most hated people in America.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Sometimes I Feel like I'm Going in Slow Motion

I finally broke down and decided to have a real blog. Not one of those things just thrown together on Facebook or Myspace, but a real blog. Something to just pour myself into sometimes and something for thoughts, questions, answers and everything in between and around all of it.

Since last August I've learned a lot of things that kind of convinced me that a blog might be a good idea.
You see, I started college. That alone is a lesson in and of itself.
College seems to present you with opportunities to expand your opinions and form new ones about things you never imagined having an opinion about. It also gives you the chance to change your opinion...something that seems to have happened more times than I count in the past nine months.

Then there's that undisputed fact that college provides you with the chance to start your on life. For the first time, you're truly out on your own and it's your world to take as you please. It's your chance to run and live your own life. It's your chance to make the mistakes that are going to provide you with the foundation of the rest of your life.
And believe me, when it comes to mistakes, I've made plenty this year.

Guinea pig math class, third year History for majors and second year British Literature in the same semester, going too hard for too many things, letting my boyfriend use my meal card for lunch one too many times (lol)...Well, I guess that wasn't so much a mistake as it was a realization that the normal meal plan is enough for two people to eat for an entire semester---minus exam week.

Anyways, you get the idea. College has been a wake up call for me. It's been kind of that alarm I needed to go off so that I could realize that I have my own life.
I've kind of learned that only I can really make this work, so I have to do it my way. Sure, I'll take some advice, but I'm not taking orders on how to live.

Right now,
I'm just going in slow motion so I don't need to press rewind and hoping that fast-forward is never needed.