Infil's "A Killer Instinct Guide for SFIV Players"

I've been talking a lot about fighting games recently, including my own thoughts about Killer Instinct and it's future. One of the big issues I mentioned in that post is the need for more community resources, more outreach, and more knowledge sharing.

Ask, and ye shall receive. One of the most active members of the KI forums has recently posted up a website that does an absolutely fantastic job of explaining Killer Instinct in a way that is relatable to anyone familiar with Street Fighter IV (which by my count is....almost everyone currently following fighting games.)

But even if you're not familiar with SFIV, don't let that necessarily scare you away. Infil does a great job of explaining the ins and outs of KI in relatively plain terms, with helpful rollover callouts for specific jargon.

It's a great resource for anyone who is interested in KI to learn more about it (and a lot of the concepts are general enough to apply across many different fighting games,) so be sure to check it out:

http://ki.infil.net/

Brawltimore 2015: Alternate Lists and Jank Tank

This post is going to round out my musings so far as a sort of dumping ground for all of the random thoughts and list ideas I've had that have a chance (please note: 1% is still a chance) of making it into one of my list sets come competition time.

Join me after the break for a look at a variety of lists. First up, Harkevich...

Unedited Footage of a Bear

Another awesome clip from Adult Swim, though this one is much less amusing than Too Many Cooks:

The Problem With Killer Instinct

What follows is a look at the current state of Killer Instinct (2013), some factors related to it's possible long term success or failure, and a cautionary note about loving something so much you slowly smother it to death.

Brawltimore 2015: 35 Point List Pair

Continuing from the last list discussion <link>, this time I'll be going over 35 point lists for the events during next years tournament circuit. Without further ado, lets get into it!

Sorscha2 vs. Kreoss3 - Gentlemen's Agreement

With the 2015 Brawltimore Season kicking off soon, I've been wanting to get in as much practice as I can before going to my first event in January. That's been tricky with the end-of-year holidays throwing off our normal gaming schedules, but happily our group was able to get together one last time before 2014 closes out.

I paired up with my friend who plays Protectorate and threw Sorscha2 into the fight to get some more practice with her and her list. Join me after the break for the full game report.

Brawltimore 2015: 50 Point List Pair

As mentioned recently, I'm probably going to be playing a lot more competitive Warmachine in 2015. There are a few "x factors" that are going to come up during the year - the inevitable debut of the official Steamroller 2015 rules, the eventual release of new models from Warmachine: Reckoning, and the looming possibility that I may snap at some point and throw myself into Convergence - but for the most part I think I can start to plan out how I'm going to approach the year.

"C'mon over! We've got enough Focus for EVERYONE!"

Join me after the break for another healthy round of list dojo and Steamroller theory.

Street Fighter V

Capcom dropped some interesting fighting game news at Sony's recent "Playstation Experience" event.

Capcom's first announcement was something players had suspected for awhile - based on the upcoming PS3/PS4 compatible Ultra Street Fighter 4 fightstick - Ultra Street Fighter 4 will receive a port to the Playstation 4. This is a neat announcement, especially since this release will come with all of the costume packs that have been included so far (and it should be dropping in time for Omega Mode to show up on the system, which will make it more appealing to a new audience).

Capcom's other big announcement was quite a bombshell: Street Fighter 5 is coming, and it will be console exclusive to the Playstation 4 (with a parallel PC release). It was doubly effective because it ended up being a leak - the YouTube release of the teaser trailer for SF5 ended up going live early, so the news broke earlier than expected and with no accompanying announcement or presentation from Capcom.

Image Source

This leak was a big bonus for the players, however, as Capcom decided to release an actual (early build) gameplay trailer in the slot they had originally planned for the teaser trailer. That gameplay trailer (which was eventually released in glorious 1080p/60fps) dropped some very interesting and exciting hints as to what players can expect from SF5.

Join me after the break for a discussion of what these reveals mean for Street Fighter - the series and the 5th installment in particular - and what it may mean for the fighting game community (FGC) as a whole).

Descent: Journey Into Darkness Second Edition - Impressions

Our gaming group has been switching things up a bit over the past month or so. Instead of bouncing between different wargames we decided to break out one of the many interesting board games that have come out in the past few years. One of us picked up the Second Edition of Descent: Journeys Into the Dark and we decided it might be a fun change of pace to play through it's campaign (we played the First Edition version a few times but never consistently.)

We recently hit the halfway mark of the campaign, so I wanted to share my impressions from this version of the game. Join me after the break for those impressions.

Brawltimore 2015-2016 Season

Warmachine as a gaming hobby has been interesting for me over these past many years. Initially, we all started out playing it because it was an interesting new game system that seemed like it'd be a welcome change of pace from the games we were playing at the time (40K and Fantasy.)

Years later, the game has grown in ways I could never have imagined. One thing that still surprises me (in terms of how widely successful it was) is how much Warmachine has proven to be a strong, interesting competitive wargame. We're at the point where there are numerous huge tournaments happening across the U.S every year, the availability of internet communication is showing similar growth and competition in many other countries, and there are even multiple multi-national events every year (with the World Team Championship being the premier example for the past few years.)

If you would have told me 6 or so years ago that I'd be looking forward to what amounts to the Warmachine Olympics every year, I probably would have laughed. Now, I'm not even sure that'll be the biggest yearly Warmachine event in the next few years. The community continues to grow in amazing ways.

Join me after the break for some more musings, and what is apparently an early New Year's Resolution.

Pocket Rumble

After the initial flurry of Kickstarter madness passed, I've been very leery of investing in any more. A big part of that was my choice of projects to back - miniature wargames are finicky products to get off the ground, taste is very subjective, and its hard to always communicate intentions.

An area that I feel much more comfortable investing in (even though I haven't done it much) is in contributing to video game projects that catch my eye. I always had a nerd dream of developing video games, so I want to support those who have the gumption and drive to do so, but may be lacking the capital.

Some amazing games have come out of Kickstarter in the past year, and that trend doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon. One such game is nearing the end of it's funding, and although I usually don't feel the desire to schill for these things I wanted to put the shout out for this one:

Pocket Rumble by Cardboard Robot Games

This game is looking pretty slick, and the idea is great: a new game in the vein of the "blink and you missed it" excellent Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting games. The developers have some excellent ideas for how to create a portable fighting game that maintains the feel of playing a mechanically sound game, while also abstracting out what is necessary to allow it to play well with the often more limited controls on portable systems.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they're going to hit any of their stretch goals so there won't be any 3DS or Vita ports for it promised right out of the gate, but I have a feeling that (considering it's kind of the ideal market for it) these guys will push for either or both of those platforms as soon as they can. 

So if you dig fighting games, portable games, or somehow shockingly both (the Venn diagram on that one is pretty narrow) check it out. This looks like a game to keep an eye on.

EDIT: And it's funded! Sadly they didn't get much beyond the base funding level, but at least they'll have enough to get the project off the ground. Hopefully future fundraising/PayPal donations/etc can give them some more capital to work with. The team has mentioned that they really want to get Story Mode implemented (and that goal wasn't far off,) and they've listened to backer feedback about various features (such as a 3DS port getting higher priority.)

We'll see how this project turns out. Hopefully by this time next year we'll all have a rumble in our pockets.

Er...

Yeah.

Why I Love: Etrian Odyssey

As is the case every year, my wife and I made the trek down south to spend a week or so with her family for Thanksgiving. Also as is the case every year, I brought along a game or two to keep me occupied. This time of year usually syncs up perfectly with the release of an interesting portable game, and this year was no different: Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth was set to release that week and with it being a mash up of two of my favorite games - modern Persona and Etrian Odyssey - I figured it'd be a great way to fill any down time.

In anticipation of this new game, I decided to fire up the latest Etrian Odyssey (Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan) to get back into the swing of the formula. I greatly enjoyed playing through it when it originally released and I thought it would be fun to take another crack at it with a different party.

Turns out, it was so much fun that I just played EO4 the whole vacation! I was really surprised at how much the game gripped me, especially since I've played through it once before (clearing everything short of the post-game dungeon.)

Having rediscovered my love of Etrian Odyssey, I wanted to take a look at what makes the series so appealing and endearing to me. Join me after the break for those musings.