I came for a Fight, and walked into a Brawl

So today I made my way to Gamestop to collect my pre-ordered Tekken 6 bundle, a package I was looking forward to for quite some time. Not only did it mark the official launch of Tekken 6, which looks like a jam-packed brawler with sweet motion blur, but it also included the wireless arcade stick, the first wireless third party accessory for the 360.

When it came to fighting games, I mostly avoided purchasing the 360 versions, as the horrendous d-pad was not friendly toward veterans of down+down-forward+forward+button mashers. The Tekken 6 arcade stick offered a sweet alternative, and was wireless to boot. The way the 360 dangles atop my TV would have made corded controllers a visual eyesore.

The game was approved by Massive Damage for review, which meant they’d foot the bill, but only on the game itself. Still, getting a chunk off of the $150 price tag was still acceptable, and I also decided to purchase a $10 used copy of Yakuza on the PS2, as I’ve been in the mood to finish it after a previous sampling some time ago.

You think the Wii-sized box bundle and the lengthy Japanese brawler would be enough to satisfy me, but along the way home I decided to stop by my local Blockbuster, which sadly was on the verge of closing.

Tragic though that may be, closing stores also mean big sales.

Well, I do have that wireless arcade stick now, so I figured why not give it a test run with some fighting games I originally put off?

For $7 each, I nabbed Dead or Alive 4 and Virtua Fighter 5. The former, I’m told, is pretty unplayable online, but since the DOA games tend to have a wealth of extra content and CG, and tend to be flashy, quick fun, I figured it was worth the price. This, of course, isn’t mentioning the massive, bouncing honkers that will no doubt take up half of my ‘45 screen. As for VF5, I’ve heard nothing but praise for its online and fighting mechanics, although in all honesty I never was a big fan of the franchise; by skipping out on any story modes or cutscenes, I never identify with any of the cookie cutter fighters. That’s considered a good thing for fans wanting to just step into the brawl, but if they really believe VF’s Akira is as memorable as SF’s Ryu, they’re seriously deluding themselves.

Also, headphones. I needed new headphones, and they were on a discount.

Man, I’ve played a lot of stuff this year.

Retroactive Reviews: Afrika, Dirt 2, C.O.R.E.

Got another batch of reviews for you guys, including my exclusive review of DS First Person Shooter C.O.R.E., a sleeper hit that stands a chance of becoming Game of the Year.

No, actually, that’s a lie. It was the worst piece of crap I had to review since Everlight of Magic and Power. The only thing that managed to surprise me about that game was that someone actually paid $13 to buy it off me from Ebay. Enjoy it, buddy.

My next review will be my biggest yet this year, which will remain a secret UNtil it’s posted, but I’m sure it’ll be a cinCH for you readARs To figurE it out in Due time. It should be up in 2 days.

And with Halloween creeping its way up this week, I plan to make a special blog post in commemoration of the season.

Anyway, gotta wrap this up since I’ve got some Tekken 6 to start playing.

Afrika

Dirt 2

C.O.R.E.

Retroactive Reviews: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Muramasa, Trials HD

Been quite a while since my last post, hasn’t it? As always, I’ve got a pretty good excuse for that, though whether you find it justifiable or not is up to you.

About two and a half weeks ago, this happened:

As if my 360 red ringing wasn’t enough, my 20gb PS3, which I’ve owned since launch day, yellow lighted on me in the middle of the night. And conveniently past its warranty too. I’ve read that many other owners experienced a timely death of their systems as well, which makes me wonder if this was some sort of timed conspiracy on Sony’s part to get people to buy their Slim model.

With no BC? No chance. Sony sent their coffin, and I quickly packed in the system. The good news was that the turn-around time for receiving the repaired system was much quicker than Microsoft’s Xbox repair. The bad news? Pretty much everything else.

What resulted upon receiving my “new” 20gb system was a string of misfortunes and repeated callbacks. This includes:

1. Bye Bye Data: All of my HDD saved data, from my saved PS3 games along with some PS2 titles (the most painful? Persona 3 FES, of which I spent 50 hours on and wasn’t even halfway done) have been completely erased. I knew this was a possibility, but I had also hoped it wouldn’t happen. I later learned that this was pretty much an inevitable outcome, because it turns out what I received back in the mail wasn’t my original system, but a brand new one (or most likely refurbished). Since HDDs are linked to the system it was formatted on, moving the HDD to another system immediately formats it.

Worse yet, I figured at the very least I could download copied saves from Gamefaqs on games I had finished, but hadn’t obtained all the Trophies for. No can do, because it turns out that using a copied save that isn’t your own will negate you from obtaining further trophies. So even though I legitimately finished Batman: Arkham Asylum and collected all of the Riddler’s riddles, I’ll have to do the whole thing over if I want to collect the remaining trophies. Not that I have any real problems playing through Batman again….but I was really hoping to achieve a 100% completion the first time out.

I was “recommended” to do a back-up of my data before shipping in my system, but that was impossible since I couldn’t turn the damn thing on. Of course, I should have taken the time to back up my data to my PC when I had the chance, since I was experiencing some warning signs about a month prior, when the system would freeze or turn off on its own. That’s not even close to the biggest mistake I’ve made during this whole mess….

2. -100 GB: Once I started re-downloading my PSN games and DLC, I was given a message that my hard drive was full, and this was before I reclaimed even half of my stuff. To my immediate horror, I discovered that the 120gb HDD that I included with the dead system had been replaced with a generic 20gb one. Panicked, I called up Sony, who told me that they would have to call the warehouse (aka “graveyard”) where my dead system would be boxed in, see if the 120gb HDD is there, and then ship it back to me.

This one is partly my fault, since I should have left a note that I had replaced my 20gb with a 120gb. Despite that, I thought it would be obvious enough if they opened up the system and looked at the drive. And of course, I’m kicking myself for not having the foresight to just swap the drive with my old 20gb drive, which I still keep packaged and within viewing distance.

At least there’s good news in this case. I was informed that the HDD was found, and that it’s scheduled to arrive at my doorstep on Monday. Good thing too, since Uncharted 2 is out this Tuesday.

3. Maximum Shares Reached: So I have no problems admitting that I’ve shared my account with other people online, so we can download and share each other’s PSN games. It’s not illegal, and it’s something Sony’s aware of.

Unfortunately, since I had shared my account up to four times out of the maximum five, since I had received a new PS3 and logged in my account information, that meant that I had filled out that final slot, thus keeping me from re-downloading any of my games. Worse still is that Sony can’t or won’t de-activate those systems linked to my account, not even the one from my now dead system. They said that was the reason for the five limit in the first place.

Fortunately I was able to get a hold of one of my shared users, and have him de-activate my account from his system. Just having one free slot lets me resume my downloading, but I still have to get a hold of the other guys I shared games with and decide if I should sever my ties with them as well.

What sucks is that with that one dead PS3, I’ll never have a full 5/5 sharing like I did before.

4. $150: And yet despite all these setbacks, I still have a $150 bill to look forward to for repairing my system. I tried to see if I could get a discount since I am, with no exaggerations, a member of the gaming press, but nothing doing.

Well, at least there’s been some good news from the last couple of weeks. I signed on with Massive Damage as a reviewer, who provide games by having me physically purchase the copies, and be reimbursed the cost through Paypal upon review. I actually prefer this method, as it gives me a bigger chance in requesting a particular game to review, plus not having to worry about shipping delays that ultimately result in a late review. In fact, MD demands that I have most reviews ready within a week of purchase. Again, not a bad requirement, since it’s a good test of my ability to meet deadlines as well as retain the feelings I get from a week’s impression. I just better be careful not to request any RPGs though.

My debut title for them is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for the PS3, and my next title will be Afrika. I’ve also been approved for Tekken 6 on the 360, my second most anticipated fighting game this year after the recent Street Fighter IV.

I’ve got two other reviews that have been put up, with a couple more recently submitted. Also plan to have my review of Dirt 2 to go up soon, which was unfortunately delayed due to my PS3 going kaput (plus the disc was stuck inside the damn system, though it was shipped back to me without a scratch).

More good news: I managed to order a full version of Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store for just $30, using my college e-mail address. I’m also currently using Windows 7 on my laptop as I type this, which I installed using a purchased activation key from Ebay for $12. Not exactly the most secure way to install a new OS (and probably not too legal either), but it’s worked great with no problems. Speaking as a Vista user, you definitely want to make the jump to 7, which is much faster and more convenient than anything that was released prior.

Anyway, on to the reviews.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Trials HD