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Saturday, May 29, 2010

It takes a real man to wear sunglasses on a night operation

The completely irrelevant title out of the way, here's some creative writing to keep myself entertained. It'll probably finish abruptly when I go have lunch and forget about it.

"Reports have come in indicating the Chinese military has tripled its investment in Metagross cavalry, showing the rising tensions as they match the US army. The UN has come out saying it will do everything in its power to prevent a world war, but the opinion polls show the people don't have faith. Silph Co. has also commented on the tension, saying it promises every and all developments will be released globally, and they're not taking sides in the conflict. This was sparked by rumours they would only sell their military developments to the Asia-Pacific countries, which would hinder NATO forces should a war outbreak. More news on the rising tensions at 11." It was easy for everyone to see that this pseudo-war had gotten everyone nervous, but nobody could admit it. You could see in the reporter's eyes, even through a television set, that he was scared, and that he didn't want to believe what he was reporting, but he had to.

What happened to this world? Poaching is at an all-time high while the Rangers fail to stop it. Wild Stantlers and Staravias are being shot, stuffed and mounted faster than the species' can reproduce, and its going to show, but nobody can stop it. The smarter Gengars are eagerly taking sides with thieves and petty criminals, just waiting to cause some chaos in the system. If someone doesn't stop the crime rings soon, the economy is going to hit a depression purely from the banks being broke. Rumours abound that the Russian Spetsnaz are employing Ghost Squads, equipped with not only sleeper agents, but trained and armed Scizors and Salamence. The government promised that Mewtwo doesn't exist, and no such genetic experiments were done, but you can almost feel the lurking threat of Mewtwo and his army, ready to make a new world out of Earth. What is the world going to do about something that can deflect anything you throw at it, and snap your mind in half when its done?

The world could be doing so well, too. The new wrestling leagues are great, with Machamp and Heracross that can actually do the fighting the old pro wrestlers had to act, and its plain to see for anyone that they enjoy the competition. The communication industry is booming, with the old Magneton satellites being replaced by the new Magnezone ones. The Olympics is going to be on soon, as well, with the extremely popular Charizard riding finally getting its first shot as an event. Maybe all the laughter is just a way to avoid the oncoming destruction nobody wants to talk about.

Leaving my apartment, and stepping out into the cold air, it looks exactly like a world on the brink would. Everything's grey, and everyone walks briskly down the packed sidewalks, ignoring everything except their destination and the pokemon at their side. Everyone's got a Scizor with them these days, to protect them from muggers, though they're not as necessary after the government outlawed public usage of Garchomps. Still, everyone wants to feel safe, and the crime lords are hardly going to listen to the law now. Its funny how, despite all the negative abuse by the Soviet Union in the days of old, Scizor is probably the only thing holding this world together.

Not many people can notice it, either, but its possible to pinpoint the day the world started this slide down. The day the two Deoxys entered the atmosphere, the day the government abducted one and began research on it, and the day the original Deoxys virus was released into the public by accident. Its mostly hidden from the public eye, but Deoxys was a virus corrupted and mutated by falling through the atmosphere, and the the people of Earth just weren't well equipped enough to handle the plague when it came. The other Deoxys released the virus as part of a defence mechanism to get its comrade back, but the secret government refused to release such a great tool. The other Deoxys is still out there somewhere, maybe with Mewtwo, maybe with Russia, maybe on its on, but I can guarantee its not going to sit down and cry about it. The plague crashed everything, sending millions of people sick and overloading the hospitals. Hundreds of thousands died, and are still dying today, as the plague still continues its way through Hell's Kitchen. I can't even imagine how the world'd be today if we never tried to control Deoxys.

That's what caused the Mewtwo Insurrection, as well. We couldn't use Deoxys, so we decided to make something better with the research from Deoxys. Mewtwo was too smart, too good, though. When Deoxys just died, Mewtwo got enraged, and destroyed the research facility, taking the other test pokemon with him. We don't know where he is, now, or what he wants. I joined the army to help the people, but how am I meant to help when the world is infected with greed?

My walk to the free clinic is as normal. The sky looks sickly and black, and has done ever since people tried to control Kyogre and Groudon. If Rayquaza was still around, maybe we'd be able to fix the weather, at least, but nobody knows where it went. We knew it could block our radar with its air lock, but no planes we've sent to scout have reported anything. Why Rayquaza is hiding, I can't begin to fathom, but a nagging part of me says it can't bare to look at what's happened to its beloved planet. Its the same thing with the old temples. The Regi guardians that stand guardian to the temples won't allow any people in, and are prepared to die rather than lay down their arms. As far as the records show, the only thing inside was a giant statue that resembled the Regis, with no value in a war, but if they're worth guarding, there must be something else inside.

I don't know what I was expecting, but the sight of the free clinic being packed to the brim again fills me with sorrow. The Deoxys Plague can mutate like the common cold, so even surviving it once isn't a safety. There's a vaccine in the works, but even when its finished, its so expensive it'll only be administered to the 'important' people, and these people in the slums, the ones who can't escape its death grip, will never even hear of it. I'm lucky, because the military wanted a test subject for it, and I obliged, so I could help out here. If they're lucky, they'll die now, and won't have to go through the disease again and again until they do die. The Chanseys and Blisseys can help with the pain, but the way these people are screaming, I can't imagine they can do enough. If only Celebi or Jirachi were more than just old legends, then they could help everyone here.

The Church of Arceus is calling this the End of Days, because we've sinned, and Arceus has sent his divine retribution in the form of Deoxys. We tried to control what we shouldn't, and so now we die. Seems like an ample punishment to me, given the circumstances. When you need armed guards, teamed with Garchomps and Wobbuffets protecting a free clinic, its obvious something needs to change. Maybe a war would be best, if it ended right. Or maybe it'd end wrong and everyone would die, or Mewtwo would succeed in his genocide, or Deoxys would finish the job and get his revenge. Still, I need to keep my mind on the job at hand, and start handing out the painkillers to the people crying in the halls.

"Recent evidence discovered by the police indicates that the child kidnapper in Brooklyn isn't a human, but a Hypno. It is yet to be discovered whether it is working for a trainer, or is acting alone. This interview was recorded with the chief investigator on the case earlier today," The same reporter from before caught my eye on the small CRT hanging in the corner, as it cut to the interview. "It is a known fact that Hypnos need to feed off dreams, but we've never had an outbreak like this where a Hypno would kidnap anyone in a suburban city just to feed. We're currently assuming a trainer is bribing it with the dreams to get the children." The officer looked afraid as he said that, almost wanting to blurt out that it was more likely the Hypno was acting alone, but couldn't.

A scream from outside broke my train of thought, as I dropped everything and ran to help. "Wooooobuffet!" was the only noise I could hear over the two armed guards chuckling to each other, as the man lay helpless, almost catatonic, on the ground. "Idiots don't know when to quit, do they?" One of the guards was muttering to the other, before turning to the crying man. "How's the Shadow Tag feel?" The guard continued, laughing as he spoke. "Have you ever been Shadow Tagged, sir? Do you know the horrible mental agony it puts you through?" I yelled at the guards, doing my best to help the civilian. "This man attacked us, so we responded with non-lethal force. Or would you rather my Chomp tear him to bits?" The guard sneered, as his Garchomp roared with anticipation. "Everyone's in a panic right now. You could've just tasered him, you didn't need to Shadow Tag." I replied, helping the man to his feet into the clinic. The guards continue to laugh, and as I turn to reply to them, something catches my eye. In the sky, for barely any time, I could swear I saw Ho-oh, before it rose back through the smog-like clouds. I decide not to yell at the guards, smiling with hope as I walk back into the clinic. Maybe this world can be saved.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

PPPP Revival~

Take a look, hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as the last two. :D

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Because I'm not black enough, fo'shizzle

So, with the sequel to the world's most hype game ever coming out, I'm sure every one of you is wondering the one question: who will be on the roster? The crossover series really lose their hype if you don't know enough of the characters, but at the same time, only the same mainstay characters everytime can hinder the hype, causing a mix of the mainstay and obscure to be required. Basically, with Marvel and Capcom both picking their individual characters with much discussion, I'm sure they'll make the perfect roster, but here's some stuff that I'm still hoping for in complete and utter false hope.

Starting off with the Capcom hopes leads the mighty 4chan hero, Fanman from Megaman. Fanman basically represents 4chan in that he blows away anyone he's ever cared about, and is quite sad and depressed and lonely...in their fanfiction. In the actual game, he has next to no backstory, but is still quite badass in that he fights with a fan. Maybe he'll get in as one of Dr. Wily's summonable assists (ala Doronjo in TvC or the zombies for Jill in MvC2), but realistically, he won't be a playable character. Still, if they're going for fanservice and want to draw 4chan in, maybe in some parallel universe far away, Fanman is playable.

Second up is Tron Bonne from Megaman Legends and her own spinoff, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. She is the anti-hero inventor of the Servbots, who now also exist in Frank West's world in Dead Rising as a bunch of toys. Nonetheless, she was a playable character in MvC2 (a well designed and creative one at that, might I add), and is a good way to get the well known Servbots 'playable'. Also, I play her on Team Z, so, y'know, she's cool. But alas, she's in the background of the Megaman Legends stage (indicates Megaman Volnutt is back, btw), though fanservice is supposed to abound in this game, so maybe all the stages are really 'interactive'. Possible, but unlikely for a character that's (now) as obscure as Tron. Oh well, still hope.

Turned into a god after being born from a genetic control program by a virus designed to interact with you, then assimilating another plague would probably make you perfectly zany for the Versus series. This, of course, describes the mighty Resident Evil villain, Albert Wesker. With his super strength, Ouroboros tentacles, guns, and whatever else you could possibly dream of, Wesker is probably a good chance for MvC3, given that Chris got a rather large spotlight, indicating a like of the RE franchise for MvC3. So, hopefully Wesker'll make it in.

While charge characters tend to be fairly bad in Mahvel, it wouldn't be too hard to redesign the mighty Bison to fit in with the new insane speed. The whole 'kneel before my psycho power!' thing gives him alot of room to move in, since you can pretty much make him do anything. With cinematics supers, as well, Psycho Punisher could be a fairly cool redesigned ultra. Nonetheless, the main reason I want Bison in is because, if and when Marvel make a crossover comic series, Bison teaming up with Doom would be the coolest evil partnership ever. No, seriously. They'd inevitably backstab each other, as well, so it'd be amazing. Even better than Bison and Magneto was in MvC1.

To alot of people, Darkstalkers simply doesn't exist, and even if it does, they see it as 'Street Fighter with monsters', even though they play nothing alike. Such is the curse of the casual. The fact that Morrigan and Felicia are already in indicates no more, but I'd still like to hope the big bad Jedah makes it in, given his popularity in the series, his position as a big villain (though you could argue Pyron or Demetri are more important), and his playstyle would be unique. Plus, he's another Capcom character you could give flight to, which are pretty slim in numbers. Given that Tyrant isn't going to be due to gruesomeness, however, I doubt Jedah, with his disconnected hands rising up from a pit of blood sweep, has much of a chance. As with the others, though, hope is a virtue.

To finish up Capcom, we've got a character who, to alot of people, represents the Marvel series. With the new Capcom directive, I can see the mighty Captain Commando being left out, and that kinda scares me, because he's such a nice tie-in to Capcom's past, and such a badass hero. Seriously, he's a commando ranked captain who can summon a ninja commando to help him. What more could you want? The fact alot of people wouldn't recognize him at all, let alone immediately, is a threatening prospect for him, though.

Onto Marvel now, and let's start with everyone's favourite anti-hero, stripper devouring, symbiote-wearer, Venom! Venom had a great, unique design in MvC (though, as with some other characters, noobs will go 'hurr spiderman clone' because they don't understand the game), and I'd really hope they'd continue him through into MvC3. He's probably one of the most well known Marvel villains, up there with Doom and Magneto, and I can't really see Marvel leaving him out. The lack of a Spiderman silhouette is frightening, though, since I can't see Venom without Spidey, but time will tell.

Even though its probably him in the sillhouettes, Dr. Doom is also another villain who's gotta make it in. He's well known, fights pretty much the entire Marvel mainstay (not many villains can really say they've done that), and has his unique MAGICCC playstyle. Also, this ties in well with my Bison summary, since, again, Bison and Doom would be an awesome evil cabal partnership.

With a new movie coming up (well, two, if you count The Avengers, which better be hype as all hell, btw), and being a pretty big badass, Thor is yet another probable shoe-in. Plenty of possibility for unique moves with Mjolnir, and plenty of room for lightening being thrown in every direction. Also, if he makes it in, all the important (sorry Yellowjacket) founding members of the Avengers will be in, which would really be perfect for Marvel's history. I mean, I'd also like the complete founding New Avengers to be in, but I can't see Luke Cage making it, alas.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Utopia, Part 2

To finish up Street Fighter 4, I figured I'd mention some one more character who the outside community wouldn't know (partially due to him being new). Here, we have Rufus, the ultimate American stereotype. Fat, arrogant, yet surprisingly quick and strong, Rufus is a hideously good rushdown character. He has the highest amount of combos into ultra in the game, though Ryu's are easier to setup. In addition, because of his size, he plays footsies rather well, and his dive kick lets him actually approach aerially (god forbid). In addition, he has the mighty EX Messiah Kick, which is probably the best move in the game due to its great startup invincibility and ability to FADC into ultra. To finish up his rushdown ability, good tick throws and blockstrings let him do things regardless of the opponent's blocking ability.

Here in this video, we have Justin Wong repping his Rufus against Chris Hu's Ryu. While Hu does miss a few FADC ultras in the video (due to nerves, stupidity, whatever), he still shows he's a high calibur player against Wong's Rufus, while Wong shows off Rufus' potential at such a high calibur in this game. There's not much in particular I can comment on here, because its all done so well.


Friday, March 5, 2010

Utopia

So, in the interest of making a better world, I've decided to link some videos and basic info about some characters to various fighting games that aren't Brawl, since we all know only Brawl players and Weng actually ever read this, and I doubt anyone except Trav reads it anymore. Oh well, what the heck.

Street Fighter 4:

To start things off, we have the most popular fighting game in the world at the moment. I would've done it chronologically, but Super Turbo is probably too indepth to start people off with, and thus may have bored people away from the rest of the article. Street Fighter 4 is the newest game in the most played fighting game series, the one that started off the genre, and this popularity is shown by the fact everyone and their dog knows Ryu. The main new mechanic in SF4 is Focus Attacks, activated by pressing/holding medium punch and medium kick at the same time, replacing Street Fighter 3's Universal Overhead. The Focus Attack (abbreivated as FA, or SA sometimes, as its called Saving Attack in Japan) is a move which can be charged up while the buttons are held, can absorb up to one hit from any non-armour breaking move and the damage from the hit will slowly be restored. In addition, FAs can be done to cancel a move, by focus attacking as the move hits, which consumes half your super bar. This is particularly well known on Ryu's Shoryuken, as it can then combo into Metsu Hadouken, his ultra, for damn nice damage.

The flagship character, Ryu, is well known in the SF4 community for being able to do anything he wants. Hadouken, his signature projectile, is fast to recover and has nice speed, allowing him to turtle it up, using a crouching Shoryuken (a shoryuken done using the shortcut motion of down-forward, down, down-forward, allowing you to wait until the invincibility frames of the shoryuken will dodge anything they use) to defeat any aerial approach easily. His pokes are great, with good range and speed, allowing him to play footsies easily. In addition, due to the FA cancels (commonly abbreviated FADC, to mean Focus Attack Dash Cancel), he can have free shoryukens, as an FADC'd shoryuken is safe on block, and if it hit, then you can land Metsu Hadouken for great damage, letting him play the offense game as well. However, he doesn't suffer from the typical 'jack-of-all-trades, master of none' curse, as he can do any of them so well its landed him at second in the tierlist, below only the Muay Thai tank, Sagat.


This match, though old, is probably one of the best of Daigo Umehara (also known as The Beast, current reigning world champion of Street Fighter 4) playing his Ryu, and writing the book on 'how to read Justin Wong'. The fact Daigo missed the Shoryuken link early on in the first round is surprising, but that could be summed up by the American crowds being vastly different to Japanese crowds, in that they get hype. Daigo is also a great exhibitor of the fact that Ryu can play however he wants to, as he takes up quite a few stances in the video. (If you want to watch any of the videos linked in this article, they'll all be in their respective playlists at www.youtube.com/user/PetesCappucino)

Sagat is slowly becoming more and more well known to those who don't play SF, because his position on the tier list and the large amount of scrubs who like to whine have made him seem vastly overpowered or even broken, when in reality he's not -that- much better than the rest of the cast. Its fairly obvious to most, even at first when you see his walking speed, that Sagat is meant to be an immobile tank, just throwing Tiger Shots and Tiger Uppercuts to stop you coming in. If you get in, he has to get you out, he can't just run away. Sagat's power in SF4 that wasn't in Super Turbo (I'll use ST later on) comes from two things. First of all, allowing him to kara (cancel before the move comes out to gain distance) his uppercut and his knee off of his forward + heavy kick (under common notation, its f.hk or f.rh), which gave him great distance on both, made him more mobile than the immobile tank is supposed to be. If you jump anywhere on the screen, there's a good chance Sagat can uppercut you now. Tiger Destruction is the other reason. Easily jugged into via the well-known combo of Tiger Uppercut FADC f.rh > Ultra, it does great damage, equal with Zangief's ultra for most damage in the game. Even if FADC > Ultra combos where an oversight by the developers, surely they could've realised that an anti-air f.rh comboing into the highest damage ultra in the game was a bit over the top. Its lead to Sagat being able to KO most people easily if he's losing at that point in time, which, of course, is a bad thing for the already best character in the game to have.


Mago is probably the best Sagat in the world at the moment, and (though this video is relatively old, again) it shows off Sagat's defensive strength so well, in addition to the Tiger Knee blockstrings and tick throws (blockstring being a 'combo' on their block to pressure them, while a tick throw is a throw done after a quick, safe on block move that'd normally be followed up by another blockstring). He also lands a Tiger Destruction from an FADC Upper, which shows just how much damage Sagat can do if he feels like it.

To change things up from the two fireballers above, we have a character that hates fireballs, Zangief. Though most people assume Zangief to be a godlike rushdown character, he's more often that not the turtle, because why bother approaching rushdown characters if they're going to have to approach you, and they die when they do? Nonetheless, against fireballers, you're going to have to approach with a combination of Lariat (because spinning in a circle let's you dodge fireballs, obviously) and Focus Attacks to absorb them. The first method generates more super meter for EX Glove (a move which lets him punish poorly spaced fireballs, to put it plainly) and Focus Attacks give him more Ultra meter, to land his 0 frame grab of instantaneous death. Zangief's signature move, his Spinning Piledriver, allows him to win all mixups when the opponent's best answer is grab, because it'll go right through their grabs, and pretty much their anything as long as it isn't a jump and doesn't have invincibility.



Though he may not be the best player in the world, UltraDavid is a favourite of mine, and the only player in America I know who consistantly reps Zangief, which he compares to a drug ('if you don't use, you'll only lose to the guys that do'). Gootecks is also a fairly good Boxer, and though this is a good matchup for Zangief, its not that much in his favour (6-4, since Boxer can camp. Obviously if Boxer approaches, he dies). He shows how a Zangief is meant to be played much, much better than I do (i.e. he doesn't SPD at all possible times).

Since I'm not going to go through all the characters individually, if anyone has any requests of basic summaries, ask and I can provide. If you want more indepth, ask Weng :P. Obviously just three videos would be a copout, though, so here's some more links.


More updates coming later.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Pete's Sigs

So Alzi's a lazy fuck who probably wouldn't have done a good job anyway, so I decided to work on my sigs in GIMP. Previously, I'd done courses on using photoshop and done quite well (top of the class, since I worked out of spite). However, this was counteracted by the fact that GIMP is completely fucking useless. Anyway, I tried hard enough, following a fairly simple formula for the sigs, and here they are:

Dudley (Street Fighter 3/Super Street Fighter 4)
Dudley
Q (Street Fighter 3)
Q
Eddie/Zato-1 (Guilty Gear)
Eddie
Hazama (BlazBlue)
Hazama
Morrigan and Lilith (Darkstalkers)
Morrigan and Lilith
Robo-Ky (Guilty Gear)
Robo-Ky
Hisui and Kohaku (Melty Blood/Tsukihime)
Hisui and Kohaku
Olimar (Pikmin)
Olimar

Comment on what you like, what should be improved, etc.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

DUDDLEEEEEYYYYY

DUDLEEEEYYYYYY


LOOK AT HIM. LOOK AT HIS GENTLEMANLY-NESS. SURE, HE'S NOT HOLDING A TEA CUP YET, BUT YOU KNOW HE WILL.

HOLY FUCK HYYYYYPPPEEEEE. YOU'LL GET A SERIOUS POST LATER WHEN MY BLOOD-SUGAR LEVEL IS LOWER AND THE INSTANTANEOUS HYPE IS DONE. HYPE BEING THE GRADIENT OF AWESOME AND TIME.