Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion Hands-on Review

I am an avid fan of fighting games and sure enough, number one on my list would be the Tekken series. For those of you who are not yet familiar with it (Where the hell have you been?), the game is on its 6^th installment and features the largest roster of fighters the series has to offer. 41 characters (yep, a lot to master) would be the count (including the 2 new characters Alisa Bosconovitch and Lars Alexandersson (Alex and Andersson anyone?!?). Alisa is a fembot (female robot) while Lars is a decendant of Heihachi Mishima (probably a relative of Jun, Jin and Kazuya)

That's a lot of characters to master

Bloodline Rebellion is a game upgrade from Tekken 6 and it features new stages, new characters and new upgrades for character items.

Upon playing, I noticed the long lines that this game has been making before players get their hands on the machine. Since I am a Tekken addict myself, I don’t mind the long lines just to play this game. Anyhow, you may also notice that if you have an old Tekken 6 data card, you can import your character and ranking on Bloodline Rebellion. The moment I inserted my data card, the machine asked me if I wanted to import my character on the game which, if I agreed, then my data card cannot be used on the old Tekken 6. I have 3 data cards and I chose to import only one who happens to be Bob (yeah, the big policeman guy)

Yep, that's Bob.. kinda looks like.. nevermind

The Experience:

I have a few problems with this arcade upgrade. First would be the cards. Now, I don’t know about this but it would be cool if I can still use an upgraded card on old Tekken 6 machines. I know it may have some limitations but I do hope that they could somehow make a fix of some sort. Also, it would be best if they nerfed some characters. Sure the health bar slowly goes down, the bound system is still there, and the crazy combos but easy execution of moves that only requires simple button mashing (I’m talking about Lili, Eddy and Christie, heck you can also count in Bryan) but does a huge amount of damage is also present. I’m not complaining because of all the fighters I have faced since playing Tekken 5, these are the characters that are mostly used. Maybe reducing their damages would be the solution. Imagine being beaten up by Lili using the same combo over… and over… and over again… now that is a pain in the… BEHIND!!!

Heads up!

As usual, now on to the good stuff: Upon noticing as I played the upgrade, the graphics were enhanced because of the motion blur that was placed in the game, making the characters look as if they are moving smoothly and life-like. Also, the list of in-game items that can customize your character has been added. From Dreadlocks to shades, even a grim reaper costume; talk about fashion. Also some items equipped to your character can be used while in battle. For example, Miguel’s guitar can be smashed onto the opponents while equipping a Gatling gun to Bryan fury will result to him shooting bullets. A nice addition I may say. Also some combos have been already toned down (but not the mentioned characters before this part) giving new players little chance of survival against the veterans (I’m guessing a 2% percent survival rate) while new moves have been added to some characters.

Graphics have been enhanced and new stages are available

What can I say?

Overall, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion is a breath of fresh air to the aging series. By introducing new characters (which I’ll try to learn and see if they are worthy to be used or not), a deeper customization, and improved graphics, the game would sure eat up some money on players like me. Still, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion is something fun to play and will surely take time to master. The console version would be available (By 4^th quarter of this year). Before that happens, see you round the machines. If you happen to fight an opponent using the !26! as their name and Bob as their character, chances are, you are fighting with me.

Resident Evil Five Demo

I’ve long been salivating to play Resident Evil 5. I was a huge fan of the RE4, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this new iteration. This morning, my RE5 demo download finished and that meant only one thing – it’s on zombie-bitches! (Wait, they aren’t zombies anymore are they?)

Sheva

Truth be told, I was half expecting this game to be a RE4 clone. But being the fanboy that I am for the series, I found this to be more of a good thing than bad. To my surprise and delight, I was wrong. As far as I could tell from the demo, Resident Evil 5 manages to retain the appeal of RE4 while still adding a little (or a lot) here and there to make it feel fresh and innovative. I won’t be going into much detail about the demo itself. I’ll just give some general impressions. But before the obligatory hyping of the game begins, some flaws have to be mentioned.

The Achilles’ heel of the Resident Evil series has always been its controls, and it has returned to RE5 in full force. I don’t know why, but it seems as though the controls too a step-back in this iteration. I have not heard anybody complain about the controls from articles I’ve read, so this took me by surprise. But then again, it might simply be because the controls are different, and they always are when it comes to Resident Evil.

Chris Redfield

I noticed the controls for the knife first. You use the L2 trigger to ready the knife, and use the R1 trigger to swipe. While that doesn’t sound too bad, it becomes problematic when you note that L1 readies your gun and R1 fires it. While it does make sense conceptually, you have to note that hardly any other game (at least those known to me) uses this kind of control scheme. Developers usually don’t map the “ready kind of weapon” to two different buttons. It’s the “fire kind of weapon” buttons that are separated. To my point, take game such as Call of Duty 4, Dead Space and Metal Gear 4 just to name a few. One button readies your weapon, then you choose between two buttons that fires your primary or secondary weapon depending on your preference. You have to admit that this makes much more sense than what RE5 does, because pressing two different buttons and switching between them is much easier than holding two different buttons and switching.

The pain doesn’t end there. The running is also broken. While the fixed camera controls of yesteryear’s Resident Evils has come and gone, it still doesn’t make the mistake they’ve done forgivable. For some reason, they’ve decided to map the run function to the “X” button. Again, at face value that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. But remember, you move with the left-stick and dolly your camera around with the right-stick. How the hell will you be able to control both sticks (which you usually do in third-person games) and still be able to press the “X” button? Grow a second thumb on your right hand?! Granted, the camera in the game is indeed very well done. Turning sharp corners while running was very smooth. However, when there is a horde of crazed zombie-like creatures charging you, it would be nice to have more control over what you’re actually seeing in the game. Oftentimes I found that my peripheral vision in the game was lacking, and true enough since I often get axed by a zombie that’s right at my side.

These two glaring control problems are exacerbated by the fact that there is no way to change your controls to anything more intuitive. Why can’t they just allow you to customize the controls? I have no idea.

But, as I am a self proclaimed Resident Evil fanboy, the benefit of the doubt has to be given. Perhaps Capcom really wanted to heighten the sense of fear and suspense by intentionally impeding your movements within the game. Yeah, that sounds about right. Right? (Man, that’s exactly what I said after playing the original RE.)

As bad as those problems are (to me personally at least) the game still manages to be a worthy successor to RE4, a game widely regarded by critics (and myself) as one of the best games of all time. That’s saying a mouthful right there. It takes what RE4 did well, and adds to it. Thankfully the additions are not just cosmetic or tacked-on. They truly do affect the gameplay and make it much richer and more panic-ridden.

The first thing I noticed is the absence of the beloved menu screen. Now all your reloading and item usage must be done in real time, ala Dead Space. This adds to that sense or urgency a survival horror game really needs and it also allows you to “stay in the game” creating a very seamless and cohesive experience.

Next, and far more note-worthy is the addition of co-op play with Sheva. We’ve seen pseudo-co-op play from RE before. However in previous installments it was more like you used one of two characters at a time in two different places. With the addition of Sheva however, you have a walking and talking companion to help you plow through the endless waves of zombies. (I know they’re not zombies, but it’s shorted than saying virus-infested-villagers.) Good thing too, because as far as I can tell, the zombies never do run out. (Think Left 4 Dead with a lot less bullets and with two less companions.) This addition it itself makes the game feel very modern and innovative. It creates a combat dynamic similar in appeal to what RE4 did but is so different and deep that it truly makes for a new experience.

So fine, I talked about the negatives in more length than the positive. However, I will say this. It looks like Resident Evil 5 is well on its way to living up, if not surpassing, Resident Evil 4. Enough said.

The Sims 3 Delayed: Fans would have to wait a little longer

Fans of “The Sims” series are waiting for February 20. Why you ask? Because this will be the release date of the third installment of the Sims, called Sims 3. This game has been shaping up as one of the anticipated games of 2009. Unfortunately, fan of the series would have to wait a little longer.

Yep, the new release date of Sims 3 will be on June 2, 2009. This was early posted on the The Sims 3 website. Unless another delay will be announced, this would be the specific date to watch out.

Meanwhile, the release for the other platforms of the game (PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch and mobiles) is still up in air, as the announcement is only applied to the PC version of the game.

The Sims 3

Patch for Mass Effect Coming Soon

Rejoice for Mass Effect PC gamers out there who are waiting for an update for their beloved game. Recently, it was hinted in the Mass Effect community forums that an update patch would be available. No further dates were announced as to when the update will be available but rest assured that they addressed the different problems present in the game. The update patch will be available on all versions that were released on the PC (Retail, Steam and different distribution versions) we’ll give you an update as soon as it is available.

Mass Effect

Magic World Online Review

If you frequent game related websites, you might have come across an ad for a free MMORPG named Magic World Online. I know I did, and not only that, I’ve played it! So those of you who is a bit curious on how good the game is, here is the Squared review of MWO.

To start off, let me just say that their choice of game title sucks. Magic World Online? Who are they trying to entice, kindergartens? But hey, since I’m stuck with this ancient computer, might as well play a free MMO that it can run. So I visited their website at http://mwo.enjoymmo.com/index.php
You can register an account for free and download the entire installer. I would recommend using the torrent download as it is a much faster way in my experience.

And so I registered, I downloaded, I installed, and I played, and here is what I can say about the game.
First off, I was surprised that my generic forum password was given a weak password rank by the registration form. So I tried my generic NT password which includes capital letters, small letters, numbers and !@#$%^&*(). It was given a strong password grade. So after the slight problem with registration, I am now able to play.

There are currently four servers available: Odyssey, Aurora, Genesis, and Daedalus. Of course, if you have been following my personal blog, there is no question on which server I would join. After choosing your server, you would then pick on which side are you on, Dynasty or Empire; I chose Empire. After that is the creation of characters.

Character Selection

There are four classes for MWO, Warrior, Archer, Summoner, and Mage with male and female variants (I picked a male Warrior). You will then be transported to a novice town where you will be given instructions on how to play the game. Different classes transports you to a different location so as different allegiance.

World Map

Empire allies as far as I know are in the southern part of the map, Dynasty is in the northern part. Leveling up like most MMO, is a grind. You kill and kill until you gain a level then the amount of experience needed increases and you’ll just have to kill more monsters. MWO, though, provides two more ways to speed up or lessen the grind for you to level up. The NPCs provides a number of quests which can gain you a lot of experience. Some quests gave me 10% to level up not counting the experience that I got while performing the task.

Bot Setup

The other one is that MWO provides a built-in bot that you can setup to do the leveling for you. Though not as customizable as the popular Ragnarok Online bot, Openkore or the GE crazy of Granado Espada, this bot, with the proper setup, can help you gain level while sleeping.

Gameplay

Much of the game is like Diablo 2. You cannot rotate the camera, there is an inventory and a personal stash (which you would not be able to use to give items to your other characters), and weapon/armor durability. Sockets and forging are also present in the game as well as pets which can grow into mounts.

The feature that I liked about the game is the Growing Weapon. At a certain point of your adventure, you would be given a quest for a growing weapon. You can imbue this to a weapon that you have, and the weapon becomes a growing one. The growing weapon can now ‘eat’ another weapon of the same kind to merge their abilities and increase the damage that the weapon can give. Take note though that the merging can only be done safely for a number of times, after which, there would be an increasing chance of breaking per eating. The game also features several job changes. Right now, I’m a level 33 Templar Knight.

Grand Theft Auto 4 Patch 1.2

Rockstar Games recently released a new patch for their game Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PC. This patch updates the game to 1.2

This could be the patch PC gamers are waiting for. As we all know, GTA4 for the PC came with some notorious bugs. As a player myself, I do hope that Rockstar already addressed the said bugs in the game and this patch will somewhat make the game less buggy.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Some of the fixes that this patch offers are the following:

Version 1.0.2.0
GRAPHICS FIXES / ADDITIONS:

Graphics Menu:

• Added “Water Quality”, “Shadow Quality” and “Reflection Resolution” sliders in graphics menu.
• Added “Definition” and “VSync” toggles in graphics menu.
• Rendering optimizations.
• VSync optimizations.
• Nvidia 7000 series
• Mirrors fixed

Download the Update patch here