This week was one of a variety of games.
Game 1: Marvel vs Capcom 2 - Since I don't own a Wii and therefore cannot play Tatsunoko vs Capcom, which looks awesome, I purchased MvC2 from the Playstation Store. I've messed around with it a little, but it's a bit overwhelming. There's 56 characters, I need to pick 3 and pick an assist for each of them. I'm not sure how I should go about picking a team I like. There's lists of the best teams out there, such as Magneto-Storm-Sentinel, but there are other teams that are used, and since I will never be playing at a high level, playing high level teams that require great execution isn't really needed. I've found a few sites that I want to read. Team XBox looks like it has some good info. Of course there are things to read on eventhubs and srk. Expect posts on triangle jumping and other crazy things you do in MvC2. Edit: I've removed the link to the article on screwattack. It's impossible to read and is absolutely useless. I should have looked at it more before hand.
Game 2: Mega Man 9 - If you are not aware, there are a couple of series under the Megaman name. Mega Man appended by a number are games in the original series. Other series use the X prefix and random words. The last pure Mega Man game released was 8, in 1996 (technically, there was Mega Man and Bass, but that was Japan only). Mega Man 9 was released in 2008 and its quite the throwback. 8-bit graphics, 8-bit music aaaaaaaaand as hard as always. I've never played any other Mega Man games, but I know that they are ridiculously hard. The game has not let me down in that regard. I've beaten one level so far (Galaxy Man), and am currently attempting to make it through Jewel Man's level because he is weak to the Black Hole Bomb I received from Galaxy Man. Even though I'm not very good (like you didn't see that coming), what I really like about Mega Man is that the enemies move generally move in a pattern and show up in the same places every time. So while I may die to somebody, next time I will be ready for them and be able to figure out how to get past them.
Game 3: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project - I've recently acquired a working NES and a few games. TMNT 1, 2 and 3 were included in the haul. 2 and 3 are very different from the first game in that they are a pretty standard beat-em-up, like Streets of Rage or the Simpsons Arcade Game. I had a friend over and we fired up Turtles 3. I don't think my friend cared too much (though she did enjoy hitting my turtle and killing me), but for me it was some great nostalgia. I hadn't played the game before, but just having both of us sitting 2 feet from the television, sitting cross legged was how I remember things were when all I had was a NES.
Edit: I just did a quick look at the Wikipedia article about the game and found out that if I had chosen 2 Player mode B, rather than 2 Player mode A, my friend would not have been able to kill me. Oh well.
Game Noticeably Absent: Street Fighter 4 - I still like this game and I'm still trying to learn it, but I didn't play much this week. I think I have said this before, but I don't know the best way to learn and not pick up bad habits in the process, not to mention break the ones I already have. Also, I'm not so sure on how to write the posts that I want to regarding SF4. I found a blog that does a lot of what I would like to do: The Tao of Street Fighter. I like his posts, but I certainly do not want to copy it. Hopefully I can figure it out. Otherwise the next 46 blog posts are going to be tricky.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
This Isn't About Street Fighter
Hockey is the best sport ever. Unlike basketball, scoring once makes a huge difference. It's not a given than a rush down the ice will end in a goal. Unlike football, it's 60 minutes of action, not 12 spread out over 60. It's physical and fast.
Of all the games Playstation 3 games I own, NHL 10 is the only non-fighting game that gets any regular play. I started playing it on season mode, following the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks. I like the Penguins and the Canucks and I picked the Senators on a whim. I've played all the games for those three teams until January '10, but recently I haven't touched season mode.
The mode that has won out is Be A Pro (BAP) mode. I've created a goalie with my name, and he uses a butterfly style to protect the net. BAP mode lets you either play your created player in a prospects game, or immediately start on whatever professional team you want. I like a bit more realism so I decided to do the prospect game so that I would be drafted. I think I was chosen 12th overall by the Buffalo Sabres.
What's great about the latest incarnation of EA's NHL series is that you can play the AHL teams. Under BAP mode, if you aren't good enough (or if you don't start with the prospects game), you will be sent down to your chosen teams AHL team. I have yet to experience that. I would really like to play for the Syracuse Crunch, but that would require playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets (who I couldn't care less about). If this was 2007, then it wouldn't be a huge problem to be sent down for the Sabres because then I would be playing for Rochester. If I get sent down, I'm going to the Portland Pirates.
In my first season with the Sabres, we were fourth in the eastern conference and we got all the way to the eastern conference finals where we lost to the Penguins. Maybe my second season will end better.
People ask me if its boring sitting around for half the game as the goalie while the puck is at the other end, being played with by the AI, but I have no problem with it. When the puck is in your zone, there's enough excitement. What I find most interesting about playing as the goalie is that if you lose, its basically your fault. The only time that I feel that the computer is being unfair is when I lose in a shutout. I have no control over the skaters, so it's basically the computer deciding that I'm not allowed to win. My other biggest problem is when the computer decides to pull me from the net. A lot of the time, its will 10 seconds left. By the time I get to the net, its 8. It's stupid when my team has the puck in the offensive zone for 30 seconds and I haven't been pulled.
One thing I need to stop doing is quitting a game halfway through if I don't like how it's going. I've only done it three or four times so far (out of 40ish games), but still, it is cheating and its me being a sore loser.
The title of this post isn't entirely true. In my previous post, I made a comment on how to do a cannon strike that is barely off the ground. I was wrong in my idea of buffering the jump during the back dash. What you do is perform the quarter circle back first, then jump forward and kick. That is all.
Of all the games Playstation 3 games I own, NHL 10 is the only non-fighting game that gets any regular play. I started playing it on season mode, following the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks. I like the Penguins and the Canucks and I picked the Senators on a whim. I've played all the games for those three teams until January '10, but recently I haven't touched season mode.
The mode that has won out is Be A Pro (BAP) mode. I've created a goalie with my name, and he uses a butterfly style to protect the net. BAP mode lets you either play your created player in a prospects game, or immediately start on whatever professional team you want. I like a bit more realism so I decided to do the prospect game so that I would be drafted. I think I was chosen 12th overall by the Buffalo Sabres.
What's great about the latest incarnation of EA's NHL series is that you can play the AHL teams. Under BAP mode, if you aren't good enough (or if you don't start with the prospects game), you will be sent down to your chosen teams AHL team. I have yet to experience that. I would really like to play for the Syracuse Crunch, but that would require playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets (who I couldn't care less about). If this was 2007, then it wouldn't be a huge problem to be sent down for the Sabres because then I would be playing for Rochester. If I get sent down, I'm going to the Portland Pirates.
In my first season with the Sabres, we were fourth in the eastern conference and we got all the way to the eastern conference finals where we lost to the Penguins. Maybe my second season will end better.
People ask me if its boring sitting around for half the game as the goalie while the puck is at the other end, being played with by the AI, but I have no problem with it. When the puck is in your zone, there's enough excitement. What I find most interesting about playing as the goalie is that if you lose, its basically your fault. The only time that I feel that the computer is being unfair is when I lose in a shutout. I have no control over the skaters, so it's basically the computer deciding that I'm not allowed to win. My other biggest problem is when the computer decides to pull me from the net. A lot of the time, its will 10 seconds left. By the time I get to the net, its 8. It's stupid when my team has the puck in the offensive zone for 30 seconds and I haven't been pulled.
One thing I need to stop doing is quitting a game halfway through if I don't like how it's going. I've only done it three or four times so far (out of 40ish games), but still, it is cheating and its me being a sore loser.
The title of this post isn't entirely true. In my previous post, I made a comment on how to do a cannon strike that is barely off the ground. I was wrong in my idea of buffering the jump during the back dash. What you do is perform the quarter circle back first, then jump forward and kick. That is all.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Indestructible
The week started out strong in my attempts to learn. The end of it, not so much. Also, Indestructible is a terrible song and I want it out of my head.
I still jump in too much and am still really bad at 236s. It's frustrating. I'm not quite sure what the best way to stop sucking is. Practice obviously, but what's the best regime? More practice on execution I suppose. Trying to break the bad habits.
I think when I play, I am jumping in less, but still do at stupid times. I was playing, got hit with an ultra and then immediately after I regain control, I jump in. Of course I got dragon punched out of the air. It wasn't even that I was thinking of trying to do a combo. My hand immediately pushes up-forward. For a good article on when to jump in (hint: have a plan), Chapter 5 of the Street Fighter Footsies Handbook on sonichurricane.com is worth the read. All those articles are great. Start at the beginning if you are confused on what footsies are.
As I said last week, I was going to look at my inputs and I found some interesting problems. While practicing my super motion (236236) I had a lot of 236233 and 2362366. The second one seems to cause spiral arrow come out (a singular 236K). I also practiced that motion. While it would still come out, I did not like that I had a lot of 236K9. I was going too far on my motions. I wonder if some of my problems with jumping a lot is due to that. I want to walk and instead my hand goes past 6. I made a point about move shortcuts as well last week. I examined inputs and found that my DP input was never a pure 623. There was always a lot more thrown in there. I was curious about this and put Blazblue, another 2D fighting game, into my PS3. I did the same DP motion I had been doing and it registered it as 623. It makes me wonder on if Street Fighter is being overly sensitive or if Blazblue doesn't care as much.
Goals for next week: More 236 and super motion practice. More walking around. Cannon Strikes. I watched some videos of Sanford Kelly playing as Cammy. It seems that when he jumps, he usually does a Cannon Spike. This makes sense I believe. It launches you towards the ground, lessening the time you are in the air. Cannon Spike requires you to be jumping forward to do the move, but if you use the EX version, you can also be jumping straight up or backwards. From the videos I watched, it looks like that you can also do it after a backdash. I need to examine this. I'm probably wrong. Santhrax is probably just so fast that he is pulling off 9214K at inhuman speeds. Though I wonder if perhaps he is buffering the jump during the backdash?
I still jump in too much and am still really bad at 236s. It's frustrating. I'm not quite sure what the best way to stop sucking is. Practice obviously, but what's the best regime? More practice on execution I suppose. Trying to break the bad habits.
I think when I play, I am jumping in less, but still do at stupid times. I was playing, got hit with an ultra and then immediately after I regain control, I jump in. Of course I got dragon punched out of the air. It wasn't even that I was thinking of trying to do a combo. My hand immediately pushes up-forward. For a good article on when to jump in (hint: have a plan), Chapter 5 of the Street Fighter Footsies Handbook on sonichurricane.com is worth the read. All those articles are great. Start at the beginning if you are confused on what footsies are.
As I said last week, I was going to look at my inputs and I found some interesting problems. While practicing my super motion (236236) I had a lot of 236233 and 2362366. The second one seems to cause spiral arrow come out (a singular 236K). I also practiced that motion. While it would still come out, I did not like that I had a lot of 236K9. I was going too far on my motions. I wonder if some of my problems with jumping a lot is due to that. I want to walk and instead my hand goes past 6. I made a point about move shortcuts as well last week. I examined inputs and found that my DP input was never a pure 623. There was always a lot more thrown in there. I was curious about this and put Blazblue, another 2D fighting game, into my PS3. I did the same DP motion I had been doing and it registered it as 623. It makes me wonder on if Street Fighter is being overly sensitive or if Blazblue doesn't care as much.
Goals for next week: More 236 and super motion practice. More walking around. Cannon Strikes. I watched some videos of Sanford Kelly playing as Cammy. It seems that when he jumps, he usually does a Cannon Spike. This makes sense I believe. It launches you towards the ground, lessening the time you are in the air. Cannon Spike requires you to be jumping forward to do the move, but if you use the EX version, you can also be jumping straight up or backwards. From the videos I watched, it looks like that you can also do it after a backdash. I need to examine this. I'm probably wrong. Santhrax is probably just so fast that he is pulling off 9214K at inhuman speeds. Though I wonder if perhaps he is buffering the jump during the backdash?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A Weekend with Cammy
Note: Throughout this and other posts, I will be using numbers to indicate how a move is pulled off. If you are confused, consult your num pad. All numbers will be from the first player position.
I'm not very good at Street Fighter 4. I know I'm doing things wrong, but have no idea how to fix it. I'm trying to get better though. I've decided to make Cammy my main for no real reason. After I pick her up to an extent, I want to learn a charge character, either Dictator or Honda.
I've found that after a few tries, I can get through the normal level challenges pretty easily. It took me a while to realize that to cancel a punch into a Cannon Spike (623K) I needed to do a forward punch, then the down, down-forward, kick. I don't know if its possible to punch, and then do forward, down, down-forward, kick and still get the moves to cancel. I don't think so. My next biggest failure is probably the Quick Spin Knuckle (62314P) juggle with ultra. I think a lot of the time my 236's are too early. I need to figure out when I should start the motion. More importantly though, I need to stop sucking at 236s. I can do 214s just fine (works when I'm on the right side of the screen), but I have real issues with 236236.
I guess that's the largest problem. My execution is terrible. I wish you could turn off the motion shortcuts that SF4 has. If I mess up a motion, I either don't want the move to come out because I was sloppy, or I don't want a different move out. There are times where I know that certain moves should not be used. Cannon spike against a crouched opponent? Probably not going to work. I need to work on this. I think this next week will be spent in practice mode, doing moves over and over, looking at what inputs I'm doing. I'll do this versus a standing opponent, but then against a CPU controlled dummy. It seems that I can never get any special moves out when I'm actually fighting. Also, no jumping. I need to get out of that habit. It's terrible and I only do it because I want to get closer faster. I'm playing Cammy. She's one of the fastest in the game. She's not Zangeif. I could be able to use dashes and walking to get where I want.
I'm not very good at Street Fighter 4. I know I'm doing things wrong, but have no idea how to fix it. I'm trying to get better though. I've decided to make Cammy my main for no real reason. After I pick her up to an extent, I want to learn a charge character, either Dictator or Honda.
I've found that after a few tries, I can get through the normal level challenges pretty easily. It took me a while to realize that to cancel a punch into a Cannon Spike (623K) I needed to do a forward punch, then the down, down-forward, kick. I don't know if its possible to punch, and then do forward, down, down-forward, kick and still get the moves to cancel. I don't think so. My next biggest failure is probably the Quick Spin Knuckle (62314P) juggle with ultra. I think a lot of the time my 236's are too early. I need to figure out when I should start the motion. More importantly though, I need to stop sucking at 236s. I can do 214s just fine (works when I'm on the right side of the screen), but I have real issues with 236236.
I guess that's the largest problem. My execution is terrible. I wish you could turn off the motion shortcuts that SF4 has. If I mess up a motion, I either don't want the move to come out because I was sloppy, or I don't want a different move out. There are times where I know that certain moves should not be used. Cannon spike against a crouched opponent? Probably not going to work. I need to work on this. I think this next week will be spent in practice mode, doing moves over and over, looking at what inputs I'm doing. I'll do this versus a standing opponent, but then against a CPU controlled dummy. It seems that I can never get any special moves out when I'm actually fighting. Also, no jumping. I need to get out of that habit. It's terrible and I only do it because I want to get closer faster. I'm playing Cammy. She's one of the fastest in the game. She's not Zangeif. I could be able to use dashes and walking to get where I want.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
52
In case you weren't sent here by a great post by The Blaggernaut over at Everything Except Chickens here's the deal: I have been taken up a quest, sometimes called a New Year's Resolution. Every week I will write a post here and maybe mirror it someplace else. Not only will I write a post, but I will also comment on Everything Except Chickens. I think it's a great idea. Now you all must be wondering what I shall write about. For a few days after this idea was decided upon, I was too. I figured it out though, because I am pretty smart.
It turns out that I'm pretty bad at video games even though I play them a fair amount. After sitting in the dark all day, I usually come home and play games. Once I leave work, I'm done, so I don't feel guilty about playing them. I have fun, even though I am bad, so it works out.
What sort of games am I the worst at? Fighting and strategy. What are my favorite types? Fighting and strategy. I don't play those genres exclusively, but a fair amount. This blog will be a chronicle of what games I'm playing and how I am progressing in them. Since there will be a lot of discussion about fighting games, I will also write about how I'm practicing, my mains and things like that. Since I am not in my desert abode and that is the location of my Playstation 3, I am unable to make a post of much substance tonight.
It turns out that I'm pretty bad at video games even though I play them a fair amount. After sitting in the dark all day, I usually come home and play games. Once I leave work, I'm done, so I don't feel guilty about playing them. I have fun, even though I am bad, so it works out.
What sort of games am I the worst at? Fighting and strategy. What are my favorite types? Fighting and strategy. I don't play those genres exclusively, but a fair amount. This blog will be a chronicle of what games I'm playing and how I am progressing in them. Since there will be a lot of discussion about fighting games, I will also write about how I'm practicing, my mains and things like that. Since I am not in my desert abode and that is the location of my Playstation 3, I am unable to make a post of much substance tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)