Level Up!

If you missed EVO, then you mist out, plain and simple. I got my roomate and my girlfriend to sit in on the action with me, and while watching the Soul Calibur 4 finals, a game that NONE of us really like, the three of us got hype. And if you were watching the numbers on the stream, the audience was in there too.
It was like the number of viewers doubled each day. As I tuned in, Friday there were only like 3-4k viewers. Friday night, that number broke 6k. Yesterday morning, it broke 10k before SF4 was even started. By the finals, that number more than doubled. Over 23,000 viewers were eyeballing that GREAT SF4 championship final match, on top of the estimated 4,000 people there watching live. That’s just short of 30,000 people watching you play. Talk about pressure.

Needless to say, it’s getting BIG. Kinda makes you wonder just how many people saw the games, and wanted to get in on the action, or pick up something new to learn. Its no coincidence that EVO was chosen to unveil (again) the second run of the MadCatz tournament edition sticks. This time it’ll have brand new art all over the fine-tuned goodness. Also, watching Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion on console in motion for the first time was quite awesome too.

The massive hype generated by such a huge event, in my opinion, set a huge milestone for the fighting game community. I’m absolutely sure that the combination of superhuman gameplay, and stellar (though sometimes the complete other end of the spectrum) commentary made inspiration for fighter-fans, and even some people outside the community to pick up the sticks and try a new game. Watching the event was akin to watching a title fight, the fans got so hectic, and it was just SO exciting to watch, whether you liked the game being played, or not.

For those of you who mist out, or are feeling inspired to see some of the action, you can grab some HD quality content from IGN insider, and catch up on the events that played out, though there’s nothing quite like being there, or watching it live.

Keep your eyes on the prize gamers, Level Up! will return later in the week with another installment of The EXP Boost, until then, game on!

Today, I ask, how long until the fighting game genre is placed into the limelight of the mainstream? This year has seen the release of some heavy hitters thus far, Street Fighter IV and Blazblue hit consoles, the return of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and KOF98: Ultimate Match is sure to start up some hype for the upcoming KOFXII, and Tekken 6 is coming as well later on down the road. Tatsunoko vs Capcom brought us back to our dream matches, even though most of us statesiders don’t know who the hell half the cast is, and who the hell knows what’s in store for the future?

This weekend, we get to see the best in the world compete in what is pretty much the biggest fighting game tournament there is. Everyone who’s anyone who calls themselves a fighting game fanatic knows all about that infamous Daigo vs. Justin Wong, EVO is where that went down, and this year is apparently going to be bigger than ever. As you can read right off the front page of shoryuken.com, Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono is showing up to make a special apperance, both Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Tekken 6 will be playable on console, IGN Insider will be offering complete coverage, and plenty of downloadable footage will be avilable there after the tournament, MadCats has some hidden suprise up the sleeve, and so much more will be going down.

Among that laundry list of things, the thing that sticks out to me the most is the fact that the tournament’s going to be live, streaming. Not too long ago, another major tournament, DEVASTATION, was also streaming. With fighting game fans all over the world watching, and expert commentary something akin to watching boxing on HBO, how long until the fighting game genre takes a seat next to the FPS games on Pro Circuit? I have plenty of friends that arent too into fighting games that will sit down and watch high level play, and be fully interested in watching the matches.

It’s gonna be crazy shit, kids. Now, I can’t up and make it to Vegas, but I know what I’m doing this weekend. Even if you aren’t a fighting-game fanatic like myself, check this shit out. An event powered by Capcom, Namco-Bandai, AND PlayStation 3 is definitely a big thing, and if you call yourself a gamer, you should definitely check it out.

Man…what is it with people on online games these days. Either they dont want to hear out your advice, or just don’t want to work as a team in a team based game in general.

For example, for the last couple weeks, I’ve taken up Grand Chase, probably the first MMO I’ve ever played and liked a lot. Now when people do stupid things, like try to repeatedly jump and attack a flying creature that goes higher than you can jump, instead of playing patient and waiting for it to come to them, they don’t want to take helpful advice until they’ve wasted literally 2-3 minutes of BOTH our lives striking out swinging at a freakin Harpy. In a game like Grand Chase, you can get away with the Rambo attitude from time to time, but in other games where you have to work as a team, that kind of shit really gets you nowhere.

Another example. Shooters. I played left 4 dead online a bit last week, and sadly, my session didn’t last long. Its like you can’t enjoy the game unless you play with a group of your friends. I dropped into a couple of random campaigns and got the assholes who like to steal your health pack, and expect you to be the grand master of all and beast yor way through the map. Or the type of asshole that likes to run WAY ahead of the group and get you mobbed with horde after horde after horde, and not care to the point where they’re slamming doors in people’s faces.

I mean, come on gamers, is it THAT hard to work as a team with people you’ve never met before? Jesus.

So I’ve decided to change things up a bit. Sunday Review is getting a promotion. This way, I can splash in reviews whenever I feel, and if I post an article on a sunday, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a game review. With a sequel on the horizon, I figure a good way to introduce you guys to the EXP Boost is to take a good hard look at Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a Action-RPG for the XBOX360 and PC, another one of those gems that BioWare put their good hard work into. Once I got started, I couldn’t believe how quickly how fast I’d lost a good thirty hours of my life. And sadly enough I achieved that loss in just a few days. Let’s get down to why you too could play this game in an almost unhealthy dosage.

Story: 5/10
If you read the back of the box, then you know what this is all about. In a nutshell, the turncoat Saren is about to unleash a genocidal evil on the galaxy, As and you, as Commander Shepard, have been appointed with the task of chasing him down, and putting him in the corner to make him think about what he just did. The good old good guy chases the bad guy down and appoints the punishment. Cliché, yes? Well, as cliché as it is, it’s not all bad.

The characters all have deep backstories, and great personalities, it’s not hard to pick favorites and kick back and enjoy. Once you’re appointed the title of Spectre, its like playing a soap opera, and you’re in full control of the outcome. The conversation wheel in the game lets you keep things short, or poke around with questions. Be a nice guy, or an asshole. Each little decision you make alters the story to the point that no two playthroughs are exactly alike, unless you sit there and MAKE two playthroughs exactly alike.

My problem with the story is that it was just too short. The story is moved on by quests that are added to your log. The main quests come automatically, and sidequests are added through conversations with people you meet as you play, or even little things you hear on the news when you ride an elevator. Now if you ignore the sidequests, its entirely possible to experience the entire story in a night. For some people this is no issue. I however, expected more. By the time I’d gotten near the end of the game, I still felt like I’d just started. For the amount of sidequests that there were in the game, there could’ve been at LEAST 5 or 6 more missions in the main story.

Gameplay: 8/10
I’ve already touched on the conversation wheel, so I’ll look at some different aspects of the gameplay here. In the beginning of the game, you have to chose a character class. There are several types to choose from ranging from the Sentinel, specializing in biotic ablities, to the Infiltraitor, specializing in ranged battle, and tech abilities. Personally I think you’ve barely touched the game if you only play through it once, that way you’re just missing out.

Now, the first time you play through the game, your level is capped at 50. The second playthrough and on, the cap is at 60. Depending on your character class, you get different catergories to allocate talent points into. The talent points can be automatically added on (not recommended), or you can place them yourself into your catergories, allowing your Shepard and crew to learn more abilities, earn stat bonuses, and even become more charming/intimidating, opening up new options on the conversation wheel.

The combat is third person, unless you’re sniping, but thats a bit obvious. When you’re on foot, for most of the game, we’re talkin like 95% here, you have 3 units in your party. You can assign them commands using the d-pad as you move around, so it adds to the level of strategy. Low on health, and your crew quite alive? Send them ahead. Enemies have ridiculous firepower? Tell them to use cover. Situation making a change? Rally up your men. Melee is done using the “storm” button, meaning you literally sprint at someone and wail on them, knocking them to the ground. It’s quite fun to use if you specialize in a shotgun.

The left and right bumpers, when held pause the game play and bring up the weapons and ability wheel, respectively. Here, you can switch your own, or your party members weapons, or use your own biotics/techs, or command the use of them from a unit member. This is where things got the coolest to me. The biotic abilities range from levitating/throwing objects and enemies, to creating a barrier that boosts the power of your shields (by a LOT at later levels). The tech abilities have to do with special gun skills, frying enemy weapons and shields, and making the range of your grenades greater. The tricky part is, most of your enemies have access to ALL of the above, and on higher difficulty levels come with immunities. And as you gain levels, your foes either grow with you or remain ahead of you depending on the difficulty. Makes for much longer, intense gunfights when you play on hardcore and above. Its QUITE fun if you’ve gotten into the game, Mass Effect is good at keeping you on your toes.

Graphics: 7/10
I had a love hate relationship with the graphics. Most of the time, I found the game beautiful. The environments are just..incredible. The level of detail put into the galaxy map. The dark, glowy look of everything as you run around the Normandy. The lush look of the citadel, the barren terrain of some planets, and how others are just green EVERYWHERE. I spent quite a bit of my time in the snow, or avoiding driving my rover into molten lava.

Now it was the character models that bothered me at times. While there are times where I loved them, there are just some characters that look…awkward. Like Jenkins (boy did I get a laugh out of THAT guy), or Kahoku. I also griped about how when characters are done talking, they just…look off to the right, and walk off after being a little awkward. As nitpicky as I am about that, I can’t say it ruined the graphical experience for me, the game still looks awesome.

Music: 4/10
Simply put, I found the music just…boring at times. Boring and repetitive. For my first couple playthroughs, I listened to a lot of metal instead of the normal soundtrack just because I got tired of hearing the music. Theres also a lot of times where there’s just ambient noise, wind blowing, the hum of the mako’s motor and…the occasional voice clip. Not too good for keeping me playing and not asleep when it gets to be like 5 in the morning.

Replay Value: 9/10
I said it before, I’ll say it again here. You just cant experience Mass Effect by playing it just once. Like, the second I got to the end of the game, I reloaded my shepard, and started from the beginning. Theres just something…different about playing the game when your enemies are level 5 versus your enemies being 52, there isn’t that reload and blow through half the game, especially if you up the ante and raise the difficulty. Not to mention there’s more than one ending, and I personally am usually not satisfied until I see more than one ending, in a game with multiple endings.

Overall Average: 6.6/10
Honestly, I feel like this game deserved at least a 7 or 8, but the story and music really killed it for the average. Now dont let the score fool you, you can easily get wrapped up in traversing the galaxy, and solving every other person’s problems, because as much as the story will let you believe that there is this race against time to stop Saren, the rouge Turian will patiently wait for you to come stop him before he fully puts his diabolical plan into action. And for all the Council cares, you were combing the galaxy for their beloved proof, not the noble gases. Its definitely a game that’s well worth getting into, especially with the upcoming release of Mass Effect 2, where you can play through the game with the SAME SHEPARD, and keep your Spectre story rolling. Put on your seat belt cowboys. We’re gonna Level Up in freakin space.

More importantly of course, Metal Gear.

My goodness.

After delay after delay, after issue after freakin issue I’m back. For real this time. And quite a LOT has happened, with E3 going on in my abscence, so I have quite a lot to catch up on and cover. I figure a good place to start upon my return, is the return of Metal Gear.

We’ll start with Metal Gear Solid: Rising, marking the return of Raiden, and the introduction of the series to the XBOX360 console. The game is also in production for the PS3 and the PC. There’s not much info out there about the game thus far, just a teaser trailer, and news of a brand-new gameplay engine. Kojima will be working just as a producer on this game, sharing the spotlight with Kenichiro Imazumi this time around. Hopefully Kojima not having 100% input won’t put a damper on the game. I’d hate to see a Metal Gear title be a sorry game, that would be quite heartbreaking…

As the time moves on I notice that more and more franchises are leaving the exclusivity behind to get their games out to more fans. Either that, or the more likely reason, money. But I’ll go ahead and sugarcoat things and say that they actually care about us fans. Final Fantasy, Tekken, and now even Metal Gear have forsaken the Sony-only habit they’ve had thus far, and icons are popping up on systems they’ve not been seen on before.

However, I digress. There’s another piece of metal gear coming to us for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. Kojima calls Peacewalker a true sequel to the series, and he’ll be writing the script and producing the game. Peacewalker will be set in the 70s, starring Big Boss, taking place in Costa Rica. In this story, we’ll find out more about the creation of Outer Heaven. There’s news of an update to the CQC system, and the ability to move while crouching is retained from MGS4.

2010 is only about a half a year away. Metal Gear’s coming back in full force.

Today’s post may sound a bit preachy. Even a bit parenty, but some of us gamers still need to hear this out. There are just some things that you should do as a gamer, no matter what your attitude or competitive level is. Etiquette is a rather important thing when it comes to gaming, and we get some jerks out there that just seem to flat out ignore it. So today, I’ll hand you a couple pointers to keep your manners sharp.

-Respect the rotation.

Man, I HATE it when someone loses a match in a game and doesn’t want to pass the sticks, so they pull a bullshit card and call for an immediate rematch. So what if you lost? What makes YOU so special? Say we have 3 people in line waiting to play. Now, the loser calls a rematch. To be fair, all three of the people in waiting should get a rematch too, right? Now the last guy in line has to wait TWICE as long because you couldn’t handle losing one casual game, and instead of learning something from the loss, you run right back in like the freakin guns of navarone and play another game and make everyone else suffer from your attitude. Let us all be adults and not be like that. And if someone tries that rematch bullshit with you right before it’s your turn to play, don’t condone that shit, make them pass it up.

-Keep the violence ingame.

I shouldn’t even have to say this, but on I’ve seen fisticuffs break out over a video game before, and that’s just childish as shit. I love trash talk. Never wanted to hit a guy/gal in the face over petty things, and you definitely shouldn’t start. If I’m not mistaken, that IS common sense, right? Keep your hands to yourself and whatnot, and you should be alright.

Most of the things you should keep in mind about the subject at hand are completely common sense, and if you’re not a dick, you shouldn’t have an issue keeping up with such things, but there are some things that a few of us could use some work on. Level Up with a bit of practice, and I’ll be back with a followup. Later days, gamers.

I haven’t forgotten about you readers, I’m just out of internet due to moving. Level Up! should be back in full form starting this Friday, when my much better, faster internet gets installed at my new humble abode. In the meantime, feel free to fill my email with things that you guys want to hear about. Keep on gaming, and see you guys soon!

Earlier this week we fighting game junkies recieved some wonderful news. It’s been confirmed that Tatsunoko vs Capcom will be coming to our shores.

Obviously fan demand is a VERY powerful thing, and developers should definitely keep this in mind, as it is CLEAR that Capcom takes care of their fanboys/fangirls. And if you feel that they don’t/didn’t before, it’s undeniable that they’re trying to change your mind. When’s the last time you heard of a game that was never supposed to be released in America, suddenly being slated for release, ONLY because the fans wanted it that bad?

Damn sure didn’t work for the Kingdom Hearts fans, you guys got boned out of Final Mix, TWICE.

The best thing about firsts happening like this, is that when it happens, everybody starts doing it to not get left behind in the popularity contest. This is a pretty ballsy move on capcom’s part, because Tatsunoko vs Capcom wasn’t coming because of the intense liscensing issues with the Tatsunoko half of the roster. Looks like the customer is always right. Looks like Capcom is just going to deal with the liscencing and give the fans the game so the people who don’t want to risk their Wii modding it can play.

I love getting news that makes me excited for the future of the gaming industry. Let’s see how many people grab a Wii AND an arcade stick.

No, I have NOT run out of extra lives.

Sorry about dropping off the face of the planet for a few days, just had a crazy weekend away from the usual daily banter, and I return to a spot of computer trouble. I probably won’t be able to update as often, until I basically rework my writing schedule, or get my PC fixed. Whatever comes first.

In my time away, I’ve picked up Radiata Stories, and Skate 2, so do expect to hear some things about those games. I also intend finish out that Leveling Up trifecta I’ve started. Later tonight I’ll be updating about on the fact that Tatsunoko vs Capcom is headed stateside, due to fan demand alone.

Breaktime’s over kids, it’s time to get back on the ball and Level Up!

Hideo Kojima is generating some buzz. This makes me excited.

A Kotaku post piqued my interests today when I was browsing the page, and some E3 hype is getting generated. There’s been a print ad in Famitsu that reveals…nothing. No reveal date, no game name, just a picture of a grassy knoll, and the day is overcast. This website is also linked in the same post, and it doesn’t reveal too much more.

At any rate, its time for Metal Gear fans to get excited. Solid Snake may have retired but Hideo sure hasn’t. Looks as though we’ll have to wait for E3 to see what he has in store for us.