E3 Thoughts: Microsoft

I haven't been on here in a long time. So I decided to jump back on, since I have more spare time. Most of the articles I have written have been about fighting games. And although that is my favorite genre of video game, I do enjoy video games in general. (I'm a male who is 21 after all.) And so I decided to watch the G4 network's coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 the largest video game developers conference in the world. I will go over all three major companies (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) and talk about what I liked, didn't like, and what surprised me. For this article I'll cover Microsoft.

Microsoft XBOX 360:

Microsoft brought the heat this year just like they always have. Microsoft offered a lot of cool games, a couple surprises, and one huge announcement.

I'll start with something that will surprise my friends. I don't particularly care for the Halo series. It's not a bad game, but it never did anything special. I don't care that you could have a bunch of people playing at once, gameplay wise it never did anything special. With that said, and I can't believe I'm actually saying this; I am excited for the new Halo game, Halo: ODST

Halo: ODST is a game set in between Halo 2 and Halo 3. In this game, you do not play Master Chief, or any Spartan for that matter. You play as an "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper" (hence the acronym) who gets separated from your unit during your mission's orbital drop (think WWII paratroopers). You have to get back to your unit. This is a simplified story summary since I can't recall exact details.

Why am I excited for this game? It's different. First, since you are not a Spartan in this game, you don't have all the super soldier powers that Spartans do. Therefore, you have to be a little more strategic and stealthy, and pick your battles as opposed to just running in guns blazing. However since you are not a Spartan, you have gadgets/abilities Spartans don't, like noise suppression for your weapons.

Second, and probably the most important change; it's an open world game. That's right screw that linear BS, ODST goes where ever he wants. Ok I'm not sure how open it actually is, but it is still better than basic level progression.

And as icing on the cake, you have the Halo 1 pistol again. Keep it real homey.

They also revealed a teaser trailer for Halo: Reach. It was just a teaser, so no one knows anything more than that it exists.

Second thing I found really awesome: Left 4 Dead 2. The first game came out only a year ago, and already they are working on this. They even had a demo. New things include more weapons and campaigns (obviously), but also different weather/environment conditions every time you play. This time enjoy blasting a zombie's jaw off in the day time! They also include close combat weapons, like fire axes, frying pans and CHAINSAWS!!!!!! It's not a good day to be a zombie.

This next one was a big surprise. I don't know if I'll start playing this game now, but I know Matt will like it. The Metal Gear Solid franchise is no longer exclusive to Playstation. Playstation lost Final Fantasy XIII first as an exclusive, and now this. Great Job guys! They revealed a new game in the series, called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It will probably be for both PS3 and 360. It stars Raiden (the new cool one, not the old gay one) and is said it will be more of an action game then the previous stealth based games. Supporting this claim, is the subtitle "Lightning Bolt Action" where traditionally it said " Tactical Espionage Action" If it is an action game I will play it.

The last thing, and the craziest, is Project Natal. Natal could be an entire article unto itself, so it would be easier to just watch the video I put up. But it is state of the art. Nintendo is in trouble with Microsoft's answer to their motion control. The video doesn't actually show the creators of Natal, but a group that developed a game using Natal. The game looks really gay, but try to look past that and see the innovations and what this could mean for the future of video games.

I'll put up additional thoughts on Microsoft after E3 is over. Tomorrow I'll cover Sony. Until then.

"

Video Games | Lionhead Milo Project | E3 09: Milo Tech Demo HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Preview: Dragon Ball: Evolution

.....................................................FAIL!

Preview: JCVD

I have no words for this. Just watch the video.

Evolution 2008 Part 5

Well, since JK is back, then so am I. As you may have noticed I haven't written anything for a while since when JK stops writing, I do too. Most people probably don't come across this anyway, so it's usually JK and Matt who reads this. I'll start the new season of writing by finishing something I started a while ago. My Evolution 2008 articles.

I originally was going to have two more parts, one covering Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection, and the other covering Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But I got lazy, and since then Evo has come and gone. So I'm going to combine the two and briefly touch on each game. I will not go into the history of the games, since both are recent enough that most people have a good idea of the games' respective origins (especially for Brawl).

Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection is an update to Tekken 5. Aside from tweaking the balance it adds three characters. One is a returning character, Armor King, the Jaguar Masked wrestler who trained King (although the AK in this game may not be the original). The other two are brand new. They are Sergei Dragunov, a Russian government agent who uses combat sambo, and Lili, a wealthy young girl who uses a unique fighting style.

T5:DR is not the most recent game, since Tekken 6 is out for arcades. But Evo is a console tournament, and there is no console version yet. Also, this year's tournament had low numbers for the game. T5:DR can be purchased for download from the Playstation Network.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl had a lot of controversy surrounding it this year, since Evolution adopted a new rules set that was uncommon for the game. Traditionally, Smash is played with no items. However, a number of players who played Brawl said that many of the items were good for competition. The tournament organizers then charged the players on both sides to test the items and provide video proof as to whether items were broken or not broken. The "pro-items" players tested items extensivly, and found that most items could be countered effectivly, including poke' balls, assist trophies, and final smashes. Most "anti-items" players merely objected to the ruleset and took no effort to test the items. Instead they opted not to show up. Despite the "boycott" (I'm using quotes like crazy) there was still a large turnout for the game.

One other thing to note, was this year's tourney had four games that are coming out soon, and gave players a chance to ....well play them. They were Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix (It got pushed back, so the tournament used the original ST), Street Fighter 4, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and Blazblue. From what I have heard, it was great this year.

There is another blog, by a mister James Chen, that writes about Evolution. It's a good article, mainly because he was actually there. I reccomend reading it, since it shows what the community is all about.

I'll end this article with a video, the Evolution 2008 mini-trailer, also made by James Chen. Look out for a new column that I'm going to start called Comix Zone, where I review comics, graphic novels, and manga. And yes, I did name it after the Genesis game.

Later.

Motion Picture Magic: Iron Man

Since this is JK's blog, I figured I would use his title for movies. This is my review for Iron Man.

Iron Man is based on the comic book of the same name published by Marvel comics. Its about a weapons manufacturer and dealer named Tony Stark. His company, Stark Enterprises builds weapons for the U.S. military. The basic plot (I won't go into details, because that is called spoiling) is that Stark goes into the middle east to demonstrate his latest weapon to the military. After his demonstration, he leaves with the military back to the base. The vehicle he is in is attacked and he is the only survivor, although he is badly wounded. The terrorist group that attacks kidnaps, and then puts an electromagnetic device in his chest to keep him from dying, because shrapnel is slowly moving into his heart. He needs a device for the rest of the movie to keep himself alive. But in the meantime the terrorist force him to make weapons for them. Instead he builds a crude suit of armor (crude but still high tech given the materials he had to work with) and escapes killing most of his captors along the way. When he returns home, he changes his ways and stops building weapons. He then makes a more advanced armor and becomes the hero Iron Man.

Of course theres a little more to it then that, but I try not to spoil movies. Anyway, I must say that Iron Man is the best Marvel movie I have seen to date. Better than X-Men 2, better than the Spider-Man series, it just blew me away. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect in the role of Tony Stark. I don't think anyone else could have pulled that off. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, Tony's love interest, and Terrence Howard plays Colonel Jim Rhodes his best friend. They both play their parts very well, although surprisingly Howard's character isn't featured that much. (Though you'll probably see him a lot more in the sequel.) Jeff Bridges is excellent as the villain Obediah Stane, who becomes the villian Iron Monger. There is not weak link in the cast.

The battle scenes were amazing. They really got the feel of Iron Man down. When he flies he is like a human jet. The effects are just off the hook. (yeah I said it.)

My one pet peeve, and only because I am a comic nerd, is that they made Stark's butler Jarvis into a computer program. I would have rather seen a guy play Jarvis like in the comic. Its not a big deal, and the general audience won't care.

One more thing. You may have heard about the special scene after the credits. Well depending on your knowledge of comic books will determine whether or not its worthwhile to see it. I am a comic nerd, so the scene made me crap my pants. But it might not mean much to the general public.

Anyway this movie rocks. If you can see it on the big screen, it is completely worth it. I'll leave you with the trailer to get hype. Peace!

5 out of 5

Evolution 2008, Part 4: Capcom vs. SNK 2

Been a while since I typed something. I guess I'll continue my coverage (if you really want to call it that) of Evolution 2008. (Refer to my older articles if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

The next game I'll talk about is Capcom vs. SNK 2. Yeah, there is only two games in the series, and yet it has a rich history behind it.

When Street Fighter 2 came out, people were blown away. And when something new and popular comes out, others try to capitalize on it. So began the fighting game wars of the 90's. Many clones came out, not being so successful. But there a were a few that managed to be popular. In the U.S. it was Mortal Kombat (as terrible a game that is). Everywhere else, it was the company SNK.

SNK is an acronym for "Shin Nihon Kikaku, which translated stands for "New Japan Project." They rose to challenge Capcom's hold on the fighting game market. They never actually beat Capcom, but many of their games rivaled Capcom and stood up very well. Particularly their series "Fatal Fury", "King of Fighters", and "Samurai Showdown." Fatal Fury did well in the U.S. and Samurai Showdown was extremely popular in the U.S., while King of Fighters caught on in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Eventually SNK went bankrupt, but revived as SNK Playmore.

So being Capcom's greatest rivals, people started wondering what if would be like having Capcom's characters clash with SNK's. In 2000, that happened with the release of Capcom vs. SNK. People picked their characters, with each character having a "ratio" score attached them. You could pick characters that had their ratio score equal up to four. Four example, four ratio 1 characters, two ratio 2 characters, a ratio 1 and ratio 3 character,you get the idea. Then you picked a super meter based on Capcom or SNK, called Capcom groove or SNK groove.

The game was different, as Capcom opted to mix the Street Fighter and King of Fighter play styles into a hybrid system, and only using four buttons. This was strange to many players.

The next year saw the release of Capcom vs. SNK 2, a more refined game. They changed the system to the traditional six-button style. Also players could now pick from six different grooves, each based on a system from different Capcom and SNK games. The C, A, and P grooves and the S, N, and K groves. (See what they did there?)

The community for this game is sadly dying out. There are very few top players, and no new blood seems to be showing up. Its always the same named in the top ten. This year may be CvS2's last hurrah. As for who I think will win, no idea. But it won't be anyone new.

I'll leave you with a match video. This is a casuals match from Evolution 2006, between the players Buktooth and Gene Wong. Enjoy!

Evolution 2008.......wait no, this is about something completely different.

Here is a shocker.....I'm not writing about fighting games for once. JK has suggested that I do the Evolution entries once a week to dilute the topics, and I agree it should be done. I'll post on the next game sometime this week when I have free time. But today, I'm discussing something else, something I have just discovered only 2 hours ago, and something I fell in love with instantly.....racket ball.

Tonight, me and three friends of mine went to the campus gym and played racket ball. It was my first time ever. Now for those that know me, I am not an active person. I'm not exactly inactive (though at times I can be), its just that most physical activities don't interest me. Not baseball, football, hiking, kickball, etc. But racket ball has captured my heart. Its frightening having a ball potentially hit you in the face and bust your nose (and my case break my glasses and get glass in my eyes.....yikes). Hell it could be worse than that (my balls). And yet the game is just so fun, hitting that ball off walls. Not to mention that when the four of us split into teams, its team Joe versus team Cobra, thats just funny to me.

But this made me realize that there are a few physical activities I do enjoy, but that I just don't get the opportunity to do because of school and other commitments.

My second semester I played floor hockey. No I'm not the fastest guy nor do I have much endurance, so I played goalie. That was a blast. I was terrible in the beginning, but as my skills grew I grew that much more attached to the game. Hell my team placed second in the inter mural tournament. Unfortunately, many of my former teammates are gone to different schools or I just don't see them anymore. Not to mention that on Tuesday nights I have radio club meetings, so it's a no go.

Dodge ball. Who doesn't love dodge ball. I am terrible at this game but I love it to death. I recently played with other members of WNTE, the campus radio club, in the annual Communications dodge ball tourney, where all of the communication clubs battle it out. And since I ride and die for WNTE, of course I had to play. Again we placed second (damn T.V. club!)

Ping-pong. JK will appreciate this one. For a big guy like me, ping-pong is very physical. Since I have terrible accuracy with power shots, I rely on good foot work for a strong defense. And footwork is very physical. So I huff and puff after each game. But I love it. And as JK said in an earlier post, we do our best thinking during pong.

Volleyball. Not only is it fun, but I am decent at volleyball. I have the best endurance in volleyball, simply because I don't move around that much. I also have fond memories of volleyball. I have played it with my friends in youth group, my family during my sister's birthday party, and with friends here at college. And I always cherish memories such as those. Memories. Thats a good topic, but for another time.

And last, but certainly not least, is martial arts. I took Tae Kwon Do for about a decade. I am a certified 1st degree black belt. But I had to bust my ass to get it. Of all the physical things I have done, that was the most demanding. Hell, there were nights I would start wheezing, and I had to stop, nights when I felt I would vomit and my teacher had to check up on me. But I loved it. Martial Arts was my first true love, and she never broke my heart. I have very fond memories of those days. Sadly from what I hear in passing, my teacher is a shell of his former self, and one of mentors is effectively gone....

But racket ball. I love it. And me and the guys are going to try and play about three times a week. And next semester I'll be studying Judo with the Judo club. It's exciting.

Evolution 2008, Part 3: Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Wellllll I have noticed that my articles have basically called forth a fuck-ton of fighting game/Street Fighter ads to this blog. So once this series of articles is over, I will take a long break from speaking about fighting games (this will be the 3rd game out of six, so we're half way there; hang in there my friends). Besides, even I have other interests and topics to talk about.

The third game I will talk about is Marvel vs. Capcom 2, or MvC2 for short. Ahhhhh MvC2, one of my favorites. I've chosen this one to break up some of the monotony. Because while this game shares the six button layout of Street Fighter/Capcom fighting games, it is very different from the others. In fact, it's totally insane. Seriously, every aspect of this game is nuts, from the game itself to the community that plays it. Plus, it has characters from the Marvel comics line (which you probably guessed), and I love comics.

First, the history. MvC2 is part of a series of games known as the "VS." games. They all share some characteristics: high speed combat, chain combos out the wazoo , limited aerial combat, and then some. However, the first game to introduce this style of playing wasn't a cross over at all. It was called X-Men: Children of the Atom. You can guess what kind of characters were in this game.

After that came Marvel Super Heroes which had all sorts of Marvel characters including X-Men. Again while not really a crossover game, it had many of the early mechanics to be found in the VS. series. The first true crossover in the series was X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Aside from the original mechanics, it also introduced a tag team system, so it was two against two, with the ability to switch characters on the fly. This was followed by Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and then Marvel vs. Capcom, which introduced the idea of being able to summon an assist character to appear and strike the opponent.

Then in 2000(?) came Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which let you pick from teams of three, and you could call out your teammates to strike like you could the assist characters in the previous game. Not to mention it's an insanely fast game.....with Spider-Man.

Now on to the game's community. Mannnnnnn where to start. This community is insane. The best parallel I can make to these guys is rappers who have beef with other rappers, or maybe pro wrestling. Seriously, there are a lot of ghetto ass dudes who play this game, and usually there is some kind of beef that gets settled with a money match which makes for great entertainment. You'll hear things like "Yo Sentinel is a bitch!" or "Yo you think I suck! I'll money match you man, first to ten baby!" The hype these dudes make for the game is what keeps it going despite being eight years old.

But not everyone who plays it is some guy from the hood. In fact, the most dominate player in the scene is an Asian kid (JK holla at him) named Justin Wong. He has won something like 3 or 4 consecutive championships. He only lost recently, last year to a player named Yipes. (I may be wrong about this, but he did lose)

So there you have it. With the conclusion of this article, we are half way done. I'll leave you with a match video from Evolution 2006 of top players Sanford Kelly vs. Duc Do. This is the eighth game in a series of matches for like 5 grand (I'm not kidding).

Try not to have your head explode. Enjoy!

Evolution 2008, Part 2: Street Fighter 3: Third Strike

Now I will introduce the second game in my self fulfilling articles about the Evolution Fighting Game Championships. That game, is Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (3S for short) was released in the arcades in 1999. It was the third revision of Street Fighter 3, the first two versions being Street Fighter 3: The New Generation and Street Fighter 3: Second Impact.

The SF3 series had three notable differences from past SF games, two of them aesthetic and the third a game play change.

The first difference was the graphics. SF3 ran on the new (at the time) CPS-3 hardware, which allowed for sprites that were much more fluid. In fact, the sprites graphics were so good that they held up against newer 2-d graphics until just recently.

The second difference was the cast. SF3 had all new characters like Yun and the new hero character Alex. Only Ryu and Ken returned from the original cast. In Second Impact, they brought back Akuma, and in 3rd Strike brought back Chun-Li. Other new characters were introduced in the later two revisions like Hugo and Twelve.

The third difference, and probably the most important difference since it's a game play difference, is the introduction of parrying. To parry attacks, you must press forward right when your opponent attacks to parry his attack (for low attacks you have to press down to parry it.) Parry not only stops the attack, but gives you an opportunity to strike back (as you would expect from a parry) There are other game play features not in the original SF series, but parrying is the biggest.

When it first game out, 3s was a commercial failure. Casual players missed the old characters and hated the new ones. Tournament players thought the game was bad, and didn't like the parry. Some people still don't like the parry, because it goes against SF's traditional emphasis on spacing games, since you could parry to lessen or neutralize the spacing game.

But then in 2004, two major events happened that would boost 3S's popularity within the fighting game scene.
The first, was the U.S. vs. Japan 3S 5 vs. 5 team battle, where as you probably guessed, 5 U.S. players went up against 5 Japanese players. Here is the short version of what happened: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA GOT RAPED BY THE JAPANESE IN STREET FIGHTER 3: THIRD STRIKE!!!!!!! For the first time, people saw how much more the game had to offer, and saw how far behind we were the Japanese. U.S. players wanted to get as good as the Japanese, and so strove to become better in the game. (While the gap isn't nearly as big as before, I think the Japanese are still better so far).

The other event happened at Evolution 2004. Instead of telling you, I'll just show you. Here is the famous "parry incident" from a match between Justin Wong (playing Chun-Li) and Daigo Uhmehara (playing Ken)




Basically what happened is that after this happened, everyone who saw this got the game (which was released on the PS2, another thing that helped the game grow), and wanted to be like Daigo, trying to parry Chun-Li's super. Of course, that isn't going to happen for most people (including me) but regardless, despite that many of the new people playing may be scrubs, the video helped the game grow.

As for the 3S scene, it has to be the most popular in the U.S. because of the said events. If it isn't it's at least the most popular at the tournament, since it usually gets the most players.

As for who takes it, it will probably be a Japanese player. Unless I wasn't paying attention before and missed something, I am pretty sure an American has won (we have had some people close, but no cigar) Hopefully the U.S. wins one this time.

Well usually I end with a video, but since I already put one up, Ill just say see you next time.

Evolution 2008, Part 1: Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix

I originally wasn't going to write about the same or similar stuff each entry, but with the Evolution tournament around the corner and many new fighting games coming out, I am just too excited to write about anything else besides fighting games. So bear with me for a little bit.

I have decided to delve deeper into the Evolution tournament by looking at each of the tournament games. I'll look at what makes them different from each other, the communities that support the game, and if I have a good idea I'll say who is a top contender for the title.

And so the first game I will talk about for today is Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix. I will refer to the game as HD Remix or Remix for short.

HD Remix is actually the 7th version of Street Fighter 2. The previous versions were Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior, Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition, Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting (known as Street Fighter 2 Turbo on the Super Nintendo), Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and finally Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST for short) was the last revision for a while. The game has many concepts that are found in all modern 2-d fighters, most notably the super meter used for super moves. Although the concept of the "Super Move" was around before ST, ST was the first to make super moves correspond to a meter. The meter was filled a little every time you used a special move, and when it was full you could execute an extremely damaging super move. ST was/is the best version of Street Fighter 2 , and is still played in tournaments till this day.

Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition (AE for short) was released about 3 years ago. In this game, before you picked a character, you picked what version of the character you would use based on the previous games. For example, you could pick World Warrior Ryu (the original), Champion Edition Ryu, etc. If a character did not appear in a version of the game, they were unselectable. So if you picked World Warrior mode, you could not pick from the four boss characters (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison) or from the New Challenger characters (Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay, T.Hawk) since the bosses could not be played in the original and the New Challengers did not even exist in the original.

Unfortunately AE was not well received because it was terribly imbalanced. Champion Edition M.Bison is just too good, and players scrapped the game.

And now under the guidance of game developer and former SF champion David Sirlin, comes HD Remix. It's called this because the old sprites have been drawn over into HD sprites. Also the game has 2 modes of play. Classic mode, which has the original game play and Remix mode, which removes the glitches in the classic version and balances out the characters more. This game is not released yet, but will be out in time for Evolution, and will be a downloadable game for Playstation 3 and X BOX 360. They will be using the Remix mode for the tournament.

Whoo, that was a lot of background on the game. Now I'll focus on the community of players.

The biggest difference between the ST community and the others, is the level of skill among the players. ST is the oldest SF game played competitively and it's because of this that while small, it's also the toughest. Almost everyone who plays ST has been playing it for years, some even since the days of the arcade. There is no such thing as an easy pool in ST, every opponent is tough. Weak opponents in an ST tourney are as rare as diamonds. To hang in ST you have to be really, really, good. Anything less, and you might at well let your opponent have his way with you.

That being said, it must be remembered that the classic game is not being used here. It's the Remix mode the tournament is using. And while the fundamentals of the game will still be there, many differences will be noticed. Therefore, I can't really predict who will win the tourney. I doubt any new names will be in the top placings, but it's still hard to tell. If I had to pick a player, it would be John Choi. Choi is one of the OGest of the OG's, so if he enters the tournament he would have a good shot. (I'm not exactly sure if he still plays, although he really hasn't gone missing either. I'm pretty sure he entered the last tournament).

Well, that will do for now. I'll leave you with a demo video of HD Remix. It's not exactly pro level playing, but you will get to see the new sprites in motion.

Enjoy!

-Judd

Evolution 2008 Fighting Game Championships

I think as my first post with an actual topic, I'll start with my love of fighting games. If you read my first post (and if you are cool you will) you know that I am a big fan of fighting games. Well Evolution is the big North American tournament for fighting games. Players from around the U.S. and other countries like Canada and Japan come and compete in their respective games. For people who love and play fighting games, this is our Super Bowl.

Evolution hosts a number of games each year, some are staples and appear yearly, others come in and out. Basically what determines if a game is ran is if it's new and good.(Good as in has strategical depth. And yes I know that could be different to different people, so if a large number of people think it's good, it'll be there.) So for example, when Virtua Fighter 5 came out, it was ran at Evolution 2007. But as said before, it also has to be a good fighting game, so don't expect the next Mortal Kombat to be in the line up anytime soon (except for the off chance it is actually good.)

That criteria is used for it's initial run. But for it to stay in the line up, the game must not only be good, but it must have a strong player base so that the turnout is good. Unfortunately even though it's a great game, Virtua Fighter is just not that popular enough to have a good player base, so it is not in this year's line up. Obviously if a game is returning, it's not new anymore so that criteria does not matter.

This year there are six games being run. Those games are: Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (3s for short), Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (MvC2 for short), Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix (ST for short and by god does it need a shorthand name), Capcom vs. SNK 2 (CvS2), Tekken 5: Dark Ressurecction (T5DR) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB).

As you can see, it centers a lot on Capcom's older fighting games. This is because the tournament in it's early days was a Street Fighter only tournament. Later it changed to accept other fighting games based on the criteria I mentioned earlier. But this is also because of all the fighting game communities, Street Fighter is the most popular (keep mind this doesn't refer to mainstream popularity.)

On an interesting note, one of the staple games has been dropped this year, the 2-d fighting game Guilty Gear. Apparently many finalist were late for finals because they took a 30 minute break even though they knew finals were happening. The tournament staff saw this as (rightfully so) a slap in the face, and decided to drop the game this year. It will probably be back next year, since CvS2 is a dying game.

Evolution has incredible amounts of hype, just as any big sporting event would, and like sports has it's own set of "celebrities". These guys have been playing for a long time and have practiced their asses off to get as good as they are. And no, I am not saying video games are like sports. But just as my friends like to get hype for the Super Bowl, I am hyped to see match videos from this tournament. If I had the finances, I'd go participate.

If you have more interest in this, go to EVO 2008 Championship Series

Now to give you a taste of the hype, I'll leave you with the DVD trailer to Evolution 2006. Two things you'll notice is that Dead or Alive 4 is on there, which was quickly dropped and Smash Bros. is not on there, since it was added last year.

Enjoy!

It has Begun.........

Wellllllllllllllllll, it looks like I'm the first guest poster. Now some of you may know me, but others of you reading may be JK's friend's at college or complete strangers. Either way, you wouldn't know me. And some of you, although you know me, maybe haven't seen me in a long time. Basically what I'm saying is, it's time for some introductions, and in some cases, re-introductions.

I'm Judd, the baddest motha fucka this side of the Mississippi.

I am 20 years old and I attend Mansfield University. It's not the biggest school around, but it's still a good school especially if you're a communications major like me. I am the hip hop director of the school radio station (although I am giving up that title next year.) I also have a radio show Mondays noon to 1:00. I hope you enjoyed that shameless plug. I am close friends with Jeff and another guy named Nathan (who I hope will also post on here.)

Aside from the usual interest like movies and music, I also like stuff like anime. I don't think I get as much out of it as Jeff, as I simply just like watching good television. Most t.v. shows are utter crap these days, that's probably why I watch anime more often than not.

I also like video games like the typical young male, but I especially like fighting games. Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, Virtua Fighter, Super Smash Bros., you name it. Basically if it's a good fighting game with deep strategies, I'll play it.

Probably where this interest in fighting games came from is my love of martial arts. I am black belt in tae kwon do, and if it weren't for financial and health problems, I'd have trained a little longer before college. I also enjoy MMA and Martial arts movies as a result of this.

I'll leave it at that. You'll all get a better idea of who I am through future posts, so this is probably a decent start. To get a better feel of who I am, what better than to leave you all with a youtube video starring yours truly. Later