White Man

Soul Calibur kind of mirrored Tekken in how the 4th installment was a train wreck, then they got things back in order with the 5th installment. At least the F2P Tekken game is kind of enjoyable, whereas I've yet to hear anyone say anything good about the F2P SC.

I need alcohol.

1000000% done

I can deal with Celica (though I don't know why we couldn't wait until BlazBlue 4 to play as her) but Lambda? What?! She is literally a recolor of an existing character who was added to justify making said character playable after she died in the previous game's story. No one on planet Earth was asking for her to make a comeback. Sorry, but I'm calling BS on this until we get an official announcement straight from ASW or some kind of media proof. It just seems too illogical to be true, and game companies usually don't drop this kind of WTF bomb without at least giving us a screencap or two.

Hm, you're probably right. It feels like they've really been cranking out new titles in this franchise lately, but maybe that's just my perception. I still mostly play Tekken 5/DR, haha.

Somebody who really wants to be an artist and possesses the drive and dedication to achieve their ambition no matter what will be able to improve their skills if you give them a pencil and a sheet of paper and smack them across the face while shouting "DO IT OVER!" every time they make a mistake. That doesn't mean they wouldn't improve their technique faster if you put them in a real class with a real instructor who can give them detailed feedback on how to correct errors in their work. If you really think repeatedly beating someone without giving them any constructive advice is the best way to teach somebody how to get better at something in a hurry, then you've been watching too much shonen anime.

Tekken X Street Fighter nope never heard of it we never announced that game it was all a dream go back to sleep honey. I suppose that was a pretty decent trailer as far as zero-gameplay-footage previews go. The part that caught my attention more than anything else was where it said "The Final Battle." This won't be the last game in the series, but it makes me wonder if perhaps Harada is planning on taking an extended break from Tekken after this. Either that or Tekken 8 will be a reboot...

Oh, so everybody has a homing attack? Interesting.

go play smash scrub A lot of people don't want to admit that crushing somebody doesn't teach them anything, be it in games or in life. That whole "sink or swim" approach to education is always, always for the benefit of the educator more so than the student. You can take the time and effort to teach a kid how to ride a bike, but why bother when you can sit them on one and give them a push down a steep hill into oncoming traffic. Maybe something will kick in halfway down and they'll reach the bottom knowing how to steer and brake; maybe they'll wipe out and leave a quarter-mile-long streak of blood into the back of a parked van. Either way, you as the teacher didn't have to do a whole lot and get to take minimum responsibility for their failure. Nobody is obligated to help strangers become better at a video game, especially one that's meant to be played competitively. But shoving some newbie into a corner and wailing on them for two rounds won't teach them jack shit, and could very well lead to them getting frustrated and quitting the game. Either make an honest effort to help new players get better or focus on increasing your win count -- don't do the latter and pretend you're doing the former.

Better yet, make that the name of a new character that uses Sol's current model and has basically the same move set except for some different specials that recycle existing animations. I hear that's a thing fighting game developers are doing now.

You have to press buttons to air dash? What??

Those models do look nice, damn. I'll take those graphics over what we got in Sen any day. Gives me hope that we'll see SamSho 7 as a 2.5D fighter someday. Good to hear SNK has been keeping busy lately. If they're making an appearance at EVO... Well, I'd rather not speculate at this point. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes and ears primed for announcements, though.

[insert Tony Stark eye-rolling gif here.] If it's honestly that taxing for you to watch something and read small amounts of text at the same time, please don't ever get behind the wheel of a car. The cost difference between a VA signed under a union contract and a freelance contract usually isn't that significant, at least not when it concerns the percentage of a project's total budget. Voice acting is expensive either way, especially when you've got a large cast (like in a fighting game) recording thousands of lines of dialogue (like in a fighting game with a fully-voiced story mode). Even once the actors are all paid, you've got boatloads of additional costs on top of that. You have to pay directors, script supervisors, recording technicians, audio engineers, studio rental/maintenance fees... Then there's the extra dough you have to shell out for programmers to actually put the recorded lines into the game, which is an entire process by itself. Dubbing ain't cheap, man. In a lot of cases, it can wind up being the single most expensive part of localizing a foreign-language game for the domestic market.

I guess I just don't understand the mentality of someone who would refuse to play a video game solely because the character dialogue is in a different language. It's like people who get all excited about seeing a new foreign film that got great reviews and won a whole bunch of awards and is regarded as this marvelous piece of cinema, then find out it's subtitled and instantly lose all interest. If that's their attitude then they probably wouldn't have enjoyed the thing no matter what language the actors were speaking.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I kind of hope Xrd doesn't get dubbed. It feels like an unnecessary feature designed to cater to the kind of people who got furious over that Coke commercial where people were singing America the Beautiful in different languages.

I don't know if this is always the case, but I think a large part of coming up with the really elaborate combos you see in videos involves picking apart frame data and using math to figure out what the engine will allow you to get away with. Example: Attack X puts opponent in hit state for 18 frames and has 7 frames of recovery; Attack Y has 5 frames of startup; 7 + 5 = 12, which is less than 18; thus Attack X will combo into Attack Y. You do that for every move in a character's arsenal, then factor in things like hit stun decay and damage proration and write out combo trees on sheets of paper until you've reduced the entire game down to a mathematical formula and sucked every last bit of fun out of it.

Valid point. The opinion of someone like Mike Z might carry a bit more weight due to his background, but ultimately things like the feel of the gameplay being right or wrong and whether or not a title is "fun" are subjective statements that speak to an individual's tastes. Regardless, these are topics nobody should be commenting on either way unless they've actually played the game. That's debatable. Deeper gameplay is generally considered a positive in this genre, yes, but a greater number of systems don't automatically make a game deeper. As far as fighters go, Street Fighter II is probably the best example of depth in simplicity. Would SF2 be a deeper game if they added EX attacks and parries and cancels that consumed varying amounts of meter? Would AC+R have been a deeper game if they'd added dodge rolls and tag mechanics and multiple planes ala Isuka? As for more characters equaling a better game, Ultimate MVC3, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, and some of the later DBZ Tenkaichi games all offer evidence to the contrary.

That's a shame. Every new GG player should get to have the experience of landing Tyrant Rave for the first time and having their speakers nearly blow out. Much as I love this game's soundtrack, I have a feeling I'll be cranking the SE volume quite a bit higher than the other levels.

The update patch as well as all the other add-ons for the game (character picture packs and whatnot) were still available via the Xbox Live marketplace when I checked earlier. Are you sure your friend was logged in? The XBLA marketplace won't show up if you're not logged into your account and connected to the internet (obviously).

Tier lists that don't come with any data to back them up are utterly useless for anything except jokes. Lists that get put together after specific events are the worst because they tend to be based on emotional reactions to unique performances. All it takes is one or two people having an unusually good/bad day at the arcade and suddenly their characters jump/drop two tiers. It's so stupid.

The lose/win information always comes up at the end of a match. It is slightly awkward to have the info come on screen the instant the final blow is delivered, though. It'd be better if they delayed it at least a couple seconds, especially in the case of an IK where the cinematic sequence isn't even finished yet.

Oh man, I feel like getting drunk and setting off a bunch of fireworks all over again to celebrate this game coming to our glorious, glorious country. U! S! A! U! S! A!

That was going to be my next question: How far apart are the top and bottom tiers in this game? I'm not too worried about who's the best/worst as long as everyone is viable.

Welcome to DL my man. That's some seriously festive artwork there. I dig it!

Despite being one of the least surprising character reveals in history, it's cool to have official confirmation that Sin will be playable in the home version. I'm still hoping for another newcomer (possibly as DLC), but I can honestly say I'm pretty satisfied with the roster as it is now.