I've started to try playing a skater in NHL 10 in Be A Pro mode. I made a center, who is supposed to be a play maker. What I think this results in is that the game expects me to make a lot of assists. Goals are good as well, of course.
Once again, I played in the prospects game to see where I get drafted. I ended the game with two goals (maybe an assist as well). This resulted in me getting drafted first. Woo! I got drafted by the Colorado Avalanche. I find this interested, because before I made my goalie, I tried BAP mode as a skater and also got drafted by the Avs. But that time it was 8th or so and I absolutely sucked in the prospects game.
I find playing a skater to be a lot harder than playing goalie. With a goalie, you have a very small area to play in, a very straight forward task and you play the entire game. With a skater, you have to do a lot more... Pass, shoot, defend, all over the ice. I never know where I should be and usually end up in the wrong place. I don't know where the right place is, but I can figure out the wrong place. There is also the problem with lines. As a forward, you have two other men on your line. I have control on when I go on and off the ice and I never know when I'm supposed to get back on. My fatigue gauge can be fine, but I don't want to force a bad change, either giving up an odd man rush or ruining a good offensive attack. I will have to work on these things.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
flOw
Late post, but I did not game much in the past week. Too much olympic hockey and curling.
On the 14th, flOw was released for free on PSN. It's hard to pass up on a free game that's fun like flOw is. It has simple gameplay, but sometimes that is all you need when you do it well, which this game does. It's also the first game that I have played that takes advantage of the six axis controllers motion sensing abilities. It's no wiimote, but I have no huge complaints about it.
flOw is based on a flash game that you can find here.
On the 14th, flOw was released for free on PSN. It's hard to pass up on a free game that's fun like flOw is. It has simple gameplay, but sometimes that is all you need when you do it well, which this game does. It's also the first game that I have played that takes advantage of the six axis controllers motion sensing abilities. It's no wiimote, but I have no huge complaints about it.
flOw is based on a flash game that you can find here.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Guilty Pleasures
I hate MUDs (multi user dungeons - think Zork, but with more people), but I can't stop trying to play them over and over. I always go in, planning on becoming a guild leader or somebody who is important in city politics, but what usually ends up happening is that I stand around a lot and sometimes explore a bit to make maps.
That's what keeps drawing me back. I love to make maps of the world. All it ends up being is a bunch of squares connected by lines from the sides or the corners. I'm not sure what I like so much, but it's definitely my favorite part of things.
My least favorite part has to be combat. It usually comes down to who ever has the better scripts to react to every single possible situation. Being a programmer, you would think that I would be able to come up with something great, but it takes a bit of time and effort and also requires one to find every possible message the game might send at you in so that you can code a reaction to it. I'm currently trying to build a decent set of "reflexes" (the word you use in game in order to stay in character), using the tintin++ MUD client. The scripting language has most features I think I need, but I can't figure out how to do a few things that I would like. If I need to, I could use it to call a script in a language I know better, like PHP.
That's what keeps drawing me back. I love to make maps of the world. All it ends up being is a bunch of squares connected by lines from the sides or the corners. I'm not sure what I like so much, but it's definitely my favorite part of things.
My least favorite part has to be combat. It usually comes down to who ever has the better scripts to react to every single possible situation. Being a programmer, you would think that I would be able to come up with something great, but it takes a bit of time and effort and also requires one to find every possible message the game might send at you in so that you can code a reaction to it. I'm currently trying to build a decent set of "reflexes" (the word you use in game in order to stay in character), using the tintin++ MUD client. The scripting language has most features I think I need, but I can't figure out how to do a few things that I would like. If I need to, I could use it to call a script in a language I know better, like PHP.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Why I Don't Like You - Part 1
As the title implies, this is the first of a series of posts. These posts will be a short discussion on what aspect of a Street Fighter 4 character that I dislike the most. Most will be the things that they do that I have trouble beating, but some may be what I don't like about them when I am playing them. There are some characters who I am not quite sure what to say about them, so these posts won't have any specific ordering or regular schedule.
Seth - Yoga Teleport and Tanden Engine
The thing I hate the most about the teleports is how he uses three or four of them in a row. It's like a ridiculous cross-up on me. Since the teleport moves can put you full screen away, half screen away, right in front or right behind, its a crap shoot on where he will be next. I should probably stop trying to do ultra's when he is doing that, because while technically I have a 50-50 chance on guessing which direction the ultra motion needs to be in, I've missed many times more than probability says I will. Also, there is the chance he will teleport again right as I finish the move and I will whiff completely.
For the other move, Tanden Engine (the one where he turns black and sucks you towards him), I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Unless I am blocking all the time, it ends up being a free hit on me. Once he gets me with it, I can't block or attack right out of it, so when Seth wants a SPD, he gets one. A interesting note about the move from eventhubs: "You want to use this move when your opponent does something stupid and is on the ground. " Story of my life.
Blanka - Electric Thunder
This move catches me every time. Not only in combos (of course. It's a combo. You have no choice but to be hit by it), but I am very good at throwing out pokes and other moves and getting tagged by it. I should be able to figure out how to avoid it. He doesn't move when it happens.
El Fuerte - Habanero Dash (pretend I have a tilde on the n)
The key to his mix-up game. Running back and forth, body slamming, stopping, sliding. It confuses me and I don't know how to beat it. I get dizzy and I think I get intimidated by his running speed. Since attacks come from the move, I'm looking for something, but I have to guess. Like the problems with Seth, guessing is not my strong suit.
Seth - Yoga Teleport and Tanden Engine
The thing I hate the most about the teleports is how he uses three or four of them in a row. It's like a ridiculous cross-up on me. Since the teleport moves can put you full screen away, half screen away, right in front or right behind, its a crap shoot on where he will be next. I should probably stop trying to do ultra's when he is doing that, because while technically I have a 50-50 chance on guessing which direction the ultra motion needs to be in, I've missed many times more than probability says I will. Also, there is the chance he will teleport again right as I finish the move and I will whiff completely.
For the other move, Tanden Engine (the one where he turns black and sucks you towards him), I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Unless I am blocking all the time, it ends up being a free hit on me. Once he gets me with it, I can't block or attack right out of it, so when Seth wants a SPD, he gets one. A interesting note about the move from eventhubs: "You want to use this move when your opponent does something stupid and is on the ground. " Story of my life.
Blanka - Electric Thunder
This move catches me every time. Not only in combos (of course. It's a combo. You have no choice but to be hit by it), but I am very good at throwing out pokes and other moves and getting tagged by it. I should be able to figure out how to avoid it. He doesn't move when it happens.
El Fuerte - Habanero Dash (pretend I have a tilde on the n)
The key to his mix-up game. Running back and forth, body slamming, stopping, sliding. It confuses me and I don't know how to beat it. I get dizzy and I think I get intimidated by his running speed. Since attacks come from the move, I'm looking for something, but I have to guess. Like the problems with Seth, guessing is not my strong suit.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Diff'rent Games
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.
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 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?
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