Here’s probably the best look so far at the upcoming Streetfighter: Assassin’s Fist Web/TV series by Joey Ansah and Christian Howard. It’s Behind-the-Scenes footage, but man- just from a look at Ken (Christian Howard, who looks like he jumped off the videogame) and Ryu (Mike Moh) makes me feel this is probably the most true and authentic Streetfighter live adaptation ever. I get a totally awesome vibe from this, and I truly hope it turns out something special.
This project started out with the short film Streetfighter Legacy several years ago (which was made as a proof of concept), and won the rights from Capcom to the SF franchise. The actual series was at first put out for crowdsourcing, but eventually private backers stepped up to finance the project. If this initial chapter succeeds, a World Warrior story may continue with Guile being taken up, according to Ansah.
Damn. This looks goddamn awesome. Can’t freakin’ wait.
Here’s the fourth Ultra Streetfighter IV New Character trailer, featuring the military nutter Rolento. The most significant aspect for me being that this means that, unless Capcom chickens out, next week should FINALLY bring to light the mysterious, all-new, 5th Character. Up to now, all we know is that this Unknown is female, has appeared at least in the SF Comics or Manga, but has never been playable before in a Streetfighter game.
We’ll see soon enough. Same time, same Capcom Youtube Channel. Heheh.
There are many, MANY video commentaries and pre-reviews on the Elder Scrolls Online on Youtube. I’ve watched quite a few- from Angry Joe, Gopher and now, SorcererDave. Why would I choose this vid in particular to watch and post here on my blog? First off, SD is one of my Skyrim LP Idols, and perhaps one of the most thoughtful such LP-ers on the ‘Tube, with awesome RP vids aplenty. The guy, aside from having an awesome English voice (totally different from another English LP-er I really like) is very astute, honest and just plain cool.
He also looks at ESO from a Single Player perspective, one that I in particular share (being The Lone Gamer after all). So far the views he and the other vids I have seen seem very similar in their thoughts about the Elder Scrolls Online. I myself don’t see it as being ‘Skyrim with Online features’. It’s not, and it never will be. It’s an MMO. Will I subscribe to it? Almost certainly not. But I do want to keep tabs on it, being an Elder Scrolls game. I do wish Bethesda success in it, for I do want them to move on and start doing the next Elder Scrolls proper sequel (although I am still deep into Skyrim).
Anyway, give it a watch if you’re thinking about ESO. A lot of serious thought went into this vid, and it’s worth a look see.
Just a few hours ago, the first trailer for the newest Batman game was released online, and boy does it look interesting. Batman: Arkham Knight appears to be separate from the previous Batman releases, albeit they still have the word ‘Arkham’ in the title. Perhaps this renews the saga after Origins, with a now-more seasoned Batman taking the fight to a rapidly-escalating criminal element in Gotham City. The trailer sports a new art style, with new versions of Harley Quinn and Two-Face taking center-stage… and where there’s Harley, you know that Mister J. can’t be too far away.
Info about the game mechanics talk of an open world, a drivable Batmobile and, most interesting bit of all, how that it’s ONLY for the New or Now-gen consoles. Yep, Arkham Knight is for PC, PS4 and XBox One only. So if you want a piece of the new Bat, you better have the new system. Wow. Well, it seems that we may have a system-seller in the making here. We’ll see. This game is set to be released within the year, so stay tuned on this same Bat-Channel. Heheh.
Nice of Tecmo to post a fully-translated version of Marie-Rose’s debut trailer, complete with all the info and her English voice acting. As mentioned previously, MR will be free but her costume will be sold as separate DLC (with a special price for getting the whole set). Looking quite good, I have to say. Can’t wait to get this mini-minx later this month.
Fighter Within certainly looks and moves great- at least, on the screen.
My Xbox One is about a couple of months old. I have two games on it, both downloaded from online. One is Killer Instinct, which I feel as of right now is an incomplete game so I won’t be reviewing it (although I do agree it’s pretty cool). The other title in my XBOne’s HD is Fighter Within.
Many have already given their say on this ‘fighter’, and a lot of it isn’t very good. In fact, it’s perhaps one of the most panned games on the XB1 Lineup. But still, I got the game for my next-gen console wholeheartedly, and without regret. For starters, since my console comes with a Kinect2 out of the box, it gives me a reason to use the motion control device. Then there’s the other reason, which I will get into later. Anyway, let’s move on.
THE GAME.
Fighter Within is ostensibly a mainstream fighting game, but with a BIG caveat- it’s a KINECT fighting game, and that should pretty much be a big flaming sign to beat ‘em up fans that reads, ‘ABANDON ALL HPE, ALL WHO ENTER’. Also, this is from Ubisoft, whose first foray into Kinect-based fighting was the similarly-named Fighter Uncaged (heck, FW is probably the spiritual sequel) which was, to put it nicely, a piece of shit.
ANYWAY, at least Fighter Within is a mainstream fighter-esque title, whereas Fighter Uncaged was a sausage fest MMA sports thingie, which made it about as sexy as, well, real-life all-male MMA. Ugh. That means at least FW has female fighters, more exciting moves than just punches, kicks and man-hugs, plus it has license to have a chopsocky story aside from the generic rise to the championship plot. Streetfighter this ain’t- it’s a martial arts title more into melee, close-in combat with no fireballs or super combos, putting it more in line with Virtua Fighter. That being said, comparing this to VF is like comparing a deep dish pizza to a piece of toast with some ketchup and bit of Cheez Wiz.
You get thirteen fighters (one you unlock after finishing Story mode) to use, all of which LOOK unique, and can play through either Single Player modes or multiplayer with a friend. Like all fighters, the object is to beat your opponents until they don’t get up no more, with whatever way you can involving your chosen fighter’s body parts, the odd stick lying on the floor, random poles to swing off of, and the arena borders- outside of which are apparently rigged to render anyone stepping outside them unconscious.
Who will prevail, blonde or brunette? Only their iron will (and your flapping arms) will decide!
GRAPHICS
Giving the game credit where it is due, the game looks quite good. The graphical highlights of the game are of course the fighters themselves with large and very detailed character models. Costumes are well-done with realistic textures and nice flappy parts, even if design-wise a lot are on the generic side (bought that from the Lin Kuei Ninja Shoppe, eh?).
Fighters boast of realistic skin, and they get sweaty or bruised depending on hits they get (this is no MK so it never gets too bloody). I particularly like the way the characters have a bit of an edge to them- such as Van, the cute Chun-Li female who is pretty but still looks like she can kick your ass.
On the other hand, some characters are a bit too over the top, particularly the kilted Faergas who looks so brutish I think he came from Mordor instead of Scotland. The stages in the game are also very well-detailed with tons of clutter to smash into, adding once more to the gritty feel of the fighting.
Animation-wise, characters move well and smoothly, and the special techniques and attacks are well-animated and pretty much the highlights of the game’s action. Regular attacks, specifically kicks, look kinda awkward though as they follow the movements of the player- who is most probably flailing about like crazy. So in short, the game looks quite good- a bit on the generic and derivative side, but good.
SOUNDS
Every stage has a musical score that more or less fits the environment or sets the mood. Character voices are decent, I guess, as well as the yelps and grunts. Most of the voice work in the game is in the story scenes during the Story or Initiation mode, which is fully-voiced. What can I say? The VOs are decent. Not amazing, not too over the top, but decent. Sound effects of hits and punches are also properly hard-hitting.
The worst part of the sound part of this game? The Announcer. Yeah, he’s not really BAD, but since the characters don’t shout out their attacks, the announcer does it for them. Ad he does it a lot. Couple that with the fact that there aren’t so many attacks anyway, you’ll be sick of the phrase ‘HIGH STRAIGHT COMBO’ very quickly. No, he cannot be toggled off.
GAMEPLAY
Did I say that this game was kinda like Virtua Fighter? I lied. It’s more like the original Mortal Kombat in that about 80 percent of moves are shared by EVERY SINGLE FIGHTER. This means that everyone punches and kicks the same, whether they’re a kung-fu chick from Vietnam, an American MMA fighter or an Haitian Voodoo priestess. They all fight like kickboxers. The difference is in that every fighter has their own unique ‘Power Slam’ or ‘Power Attack’(more on that in a bit) and some attacks are accessible to only a few. So females can do agile, female-type attacks like swing off poles and flip kicks, while the hard men can do headbutts. Not many moves means the fighting is actually pretty basic and you’ll see everything everyone can do in a while. A bit more moves really could have helped this game’s depth or replay a lot.
To KO an opponent, you use punches and kicks, but the most powerful moves in the game- such as the Power Slams and special techniques- can only be done by charging up your Ki Meter (done Dragonball Z-style by striking a charging-up pose IRL). The funny thing here is that the meter doesn’t charge up in any other manner- unlike in more quality fighters like Streetfighter or Soul Calibur. So really- there is no reason for any fighter with a brain to NOT charge up as soon and as often as you can to finish the fight quickly and interestingly.
Yes, Charging up leaves you ‘open’, but there’s really not much an opponent can do save punch or kick you, while the attacks you can do with Ki are far more devastating. So a fight between human players invariably turns into who charges up first, does their attack, they the other guy retaliates, until one is KO’ed- rendering fights into cutscene slap-matches (and that’s basically what special Ki techniques are- cutscenes).
This basically means that Fighter Within really isn’t a serious fighter since it lacks depth, technique and a good system that you can learn and master. It’s all pretty dumb, system-wise.
REPLAY VALUE
Single Player content is more pronounced in this game, with an Initiation mode (Story) where you play through a lengthy plotline as Matt AKA Mr. Generic. The story is told through fully-voiced talking head screens with static character art- man, it could have been tons better with at least real-time animated cutscenes, but nope. The story isn’t bad, but it’s a bit silly and a bit too long. Once you play it once, you’ll never need to play it again.
Then there’s Duel Mode, where you can set up a fight between your chosen fighter and any other character in the roster. Arcade Mode lets you play through a string of fights as any of the characters, but no endings await at the end.
So what replay is there? Not much, just the kinda-cool animations of the attacks and finishing moves, which actually are pretty well-done and worth seeing. That’s about it.
THE WRAP-UP AKA THE VALUE WITHIN
So, with all that, IS there any value to this Ubisoft-made Kinect fighter? Well, at least- it actually controls well. Get used to the Kinect and pressing buttons on the screen (just leave it to muscle memory) and you’ll at least get this game to do what you want. Fighters will indeed respond relatively well to your gestures, from punches to kicks and special techniques.
I’ve heard or read some talk online that this game would have been salvageable IF it had an option to be played WITH a regular Xbox One controller instead of the Kinect2. I say, NOPE. As it is, playing this with a controller would be pretty boring and basic, and would negate the game’s best aspect- that playing it makes you SWEAT.
What ultimately saves this game for me- no actually what makes me happy that I got this game is that it gives me my money’s worth from the Kinect2 attached to my XBox One… and in doing so, it gives me a really good workout.
If you’re a gamer like me who doesn’t get to regularly do outdoor sports or go to the gym, this is probably a great way to work up a sweat. Play through the Arcade mode or do some Duel Matches and you’ll be sweating up in a while. Do that regularly and you’ll probably shed some pounds while pounding on the CPU enemies’ faces.
It’s perfect for me since I hate Rhythm games and can never be caught dancing if my life depended on it. But beating in someone’s face? I’m game.
So this game may be a crappy fighting game mainstream-wise, but it can be something that gets out of shape gamers the exercise outlet they need. With that considered, I say that if you get an Xbox One (which has Kinect2 included anyway), Fighter Within should be a MUST GET. The only hurdle there is that instead of it being packaged in the box, it’s a separate title you have to buy (and admittedly the full price of 59.99 is pretty steep). But look at it this way- you get healthy and the investment in the pounds shed playing this game is worth that little amount.
So that’s why I say, while Fighter Within will never be a serious beat ‘em up, it’s also probably the single fighting game around that can get you healthy! Play this regularly and you’ll get live AND play more games longer- great deal if you ask me!
Tecmo just posted this trailer above announcing the upcoming console release of Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate’s new challenger, the seemingly-underage Gothic Lolita Meido, Marie-Rose. Despite appearances and mannerisms though, this petite practicioner of Russian Martial Arts is actually 18 years old and a lot more formidable than you’d think. She’ll be FREE DLC available for PS3 and Xbox360 later this month (March 25), so everyone will get her as a new playmate. On the other hand, Phase 4, the hooded Kasumi Clone, will be for now arcade-only. Well, everything comes to those who wait.
For now, enjoy the trailer and Marie-Rose’s antics.
Gopher takes us through another needs mod with quite a few features.
iNeed is yet another mod that once again extends and deepens the single-player world of Skyrim, in both gameplay and roleplaying elements. As like similar mods (Realistic Needs and Diseases), iNeed enables your character to get hungry, thirsty and tired- needs which will have big repercussions and debuffs unless satisfied. The difference here are several new options- like the option to enable eating/drinking animations for followers, so that when your character dines, they’ll join him/her as well (always cool for roleplaying). You can also enable actual need effects for followers as well, so that you’ll need to provide them with food and drink as well as equipment, weapons and armor. Neglect their needs and their performance in combat will suffer as well.
The follower options are interesting, to say the least. I want to try out this mod, even though I already have RN&D installed. I like the idea of having my followers join me when I dine, and the actual need to feed them food and drink will have a definite effect on gameplay AND roleplay. If I do so, it may be a while until this actually reflects in vids since I have recorded quite a few chapters in advance. We’ll see!
The new fighter for the roster is… another Kasumi clone?
It is positively awesome that up to now, Team Ninja is still supporting Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate with new content and DLC, penny-pinching be damned. According to Famitsu, the new Loli character Marie Rose will be released (at least in Japan) this coming March 25. Marie-Rose will be FREE DLC and will come with the upcoming 1.05 patch.
Also revealed are some screenshots and images of the now-confirmed new fighter- named apparently Phase 4. As mentioned in past rumor, this Hooded Kasumi Clone appeared in the ending (and in the game’s story mode as well) and was a sinister loose end at the end of the game. Perhaps now she’ll be back and continuing the evil plans Donovan and Rig have in store for the DOA fighters. For now, Phase 4 will be arcade-only, but I expect she’ll come to consoles later this year.
Anyway, there may be many disappointed in the identity of this new character, but if she plays differently from Kasumi or Alpha-152, that will be awesome. Then there’s Marie-Rose, who will surely be something fresh to play with in this now-veteran beat ‘em up.
The support’s been good and all, TN, but I do hope you guys have plans for Next-Gen, okay? For now though, check out the new screenies and images over at Famitsu.
So cat’s out of the bag- hapless hero Vryll Lytharn has finally realized his recurring nightmare wasn’t some alcoholic pipe-dream, but a real memory. Apparently somewhere between him fleeing his stricken caravan and stumbling in half-dead and half-sane in Riverwood, he got mixed into the Imperial Ambush alongside Ulfric Stormcloak and Alduin’s debut into Tamriel. Well, thankfully the past few days of adventuring and becoming a lot stronger than he was when he started in Skyrim has allowed the alcoholic Elf to muster his courage, realize that the people of Riverwood are in danger and that he must act immediately.
The agenda- get to Whiterun posthaste and warn the Jarl of the scaly, fire-breathing threat, and perhaps get some guards to be posted in Riverwood. After that, who knows? Maybe Vryll can take a break, see about exploring some nice Dwemer ruins far, far away from the nearest dragon. Right? RIGHT. Heheh…
I’ll be trying my best to upload more often, perhaps twice or even more vids a week (maybe shorter vids per episode?). I’ve actually recorded a lot of gameplay that’s ready to be edited and done up, and I just want to PLAY a lot more of this character and get him kicking ass. Well, we’ll get there soon enough. Please check out the vid, Like, Comment and Subscribe. Later then!
