Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Street Fighter Assassin's Fist

Check out Mike Moh as Ryu! Unbelievable resemblance to a fictional character!! I can't wait to see the trailer, which should be out mid February.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

CastleVania Lords of Shadow2 Dracula

Here's the latest trailer for CastleVania: Lords of Shadow 2, we've seen alot of the footage before such as Alucard, Trevor Belmont, Marie (I thought she was dead), Victor Belmont, Carmilla's back....she took quite an ass whooping from Gabriel in the first game, but there is definitely some new stuff to glimpse like Satan and a new character named Raisa Volkova and another new character The Toy maker.
I need to get a new PS3 ASAP!
Oh and Krogenar....if you still have this first game, I really recommend you give it another go....it's a great game!

USFIV + YouTube

 Finally! With every iteration of Street Fighter IV we've gotten closer to this and finally I will now be able to upload my replays directly to my YouTube channel!

via Capcom Unity

Friday, January 24, 2014

Street Fighter Assassins Fist

 The hills are alive with the sound of SHORYUREPPA!!

The Walking Dead S4E9 Returns 2/9/14

The Rickocracy is scattered to the winds...only the strong will survive...will they reunite? Who will survive till next season? Will Carol return? Is baby ass kicker dead? Will Daryl make a belt out of that snake? Will Maggie turn to the dark side? Did Glenn get on the wrong bus? What is Michonne's motivation now that the Governor is dead?
Hard times ahead for the next 8 episodes...

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

This movie is based on the story of Jordan Belfort, a native New Yorker and his time in the Lime Light (no not the club)  building the Stratton Oakmont empire.
For the record The Wolf of Wall Street has more F bombs and T&A per minute than any movie I've ever seen in my life...this is definitely a guy flick!
WoWS is no 90 minute flick but for the most part the movie moves along at a good pace and you loose yourself in all the insanity going on from midget tossing to stripper parades, to beer pong not to mention all the drugs and alcohol. Going in I wasn't aware of the run time of WoWS but at the 2 hour 30 min mark and no end in sight I started to do the ol shift from one ass cheek to the other.
I gotta say Leo slammed this performance out of the park, amazing amazing job! He seemed to revel in the role and just seemed to really enjoy himself....or he's just that dam good of an actor.
The only issue I have with DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort was he made the character almost enviable, what guy doesn't want to be like that? The problem is we don't see till the last 45 mins how far gone Jordan is and how his life spiraled out of control and how it destroyed his family and how it hurt so many people....those that loved him as well as those he took advantage of to get to where he was.
WoWS has a huge list of amazing actors and Jonah Hill too.
Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Jon Favreau, Jon Bernthal (Shane TWD), and I have to say Margot Robbie's performance was immensely impressive! Margot, a relatively unknown actress from Australia not only held her own with DiCaprio but actually stole some scenes from the A-list actor!

My two favorite scenes in WoWS were the scene in the Diner where DiCaprio asks Bernthal to sell him a pen....best example of supply and demand, contrasted by the end scene where DiCaprio at a sales/marketing  lecture in Australia asks the audience to sell him a pen....it's a perfect example of NY state of mind! It might not be "legal" but it it makes money! Like the song says, "if you can make it here you can make it anywhere"
The second scene I really enjoyed was also towards the end where DiCaprio is getting off the bus at prison and says "For a minute I was scared, but then I remembered I'm rich" and then you see him in "prison" playing tennis while Agent Denham is riding the subway home....again I am conflicted because Leo makes Belfort a character we can sympathize with but the reality is he didn't give a shit about anyone but #1. And the sad fact is Belfort fucked alot of people to get his money...his power and many of us who went to see this movie are the schmucks he talks about in his motivational speeches in the movie.

I really enjoyed the movie regardless if the movie kinda glorifies the greed of Wall Street, it does show the dark side of being rich also. Money may solve alot of problems but it can also bring a whole slew of new problems that may actually be worse.
Wolf of Wall Street is a good movie, a bit long, but is worth seeing.
A-

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Free Swims 14 games for 2014



Here's my annual list of upcoming games that I feel are must have's (for me) in a rough order of most wanted to least. What are your 14 most wanted games for 2014?

1. Ultra Street Fighter IV
Simply put I have been a fan of the franchise since 91, and just enjoy the game, pure honest to goodness multiplayer that requires actual skill to be good at.









 2. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zero's/The Phantom Pain

This is another favorite franchise of mine, chronologically Ground Zeroes takes place after MGS Peace Walker, which was a great game that unforunately flew under many gamers radar. I got stuck at the extra ops Gear Rex Strikes back on the deck of Mother Base...my MSF forces were very strong but regrettably I couldn't finish all the extra ops because none of my friends had the game do do the missions in co op. From the info I've heard MGS V will continue with the same game play style.
I'm really more excited to see more of the story of Big Boss unfold.





3. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD remaster
I began playing Final Fantasy with VII....I was hooked after that! FFX was an amazing game with a powerful, emotional story. I never played X-2 so I'm looking forward to reliving my adventures in Spira and playing X-2 for the first time, and getting  those trophies.....yeah I'm a trophy whore.









4. Final Fantasy XV
I've been waiting for this game for what seems like forever! When I first saw the trailers for this back in 2009, when it was VS XIII I wanted it more than FFXIII but then it faded into obscurity and many feared the worst, that is until last years E3!














                                                                                                            5. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
I loved the first game, regardless of what people said about the game's engine being similar to God of War. The story was inspired,  the environments and sound effects were gorgeous, and the voice acting was also quite impressive with the talents of Patrick Stewart. The bosses of LoS were amazing especially the Stone Golem!
This is another franchise I've enjoyed since the NES original!






6. inFAMOUS Second Son
I got into inFAMOUS a little late in the game but like Sucker Punches other series staring Sly Cooper, the inFAMOUS series has improved with each new title and inFAMOUS Second Son looks amazing!














7. Watch Dogs
The game looks to bring sand box multi player to the next level...it looks like it could be a game changer with the hacking mechanics altering things throughout the city....we'll see come April.














8. Destiny
I'll admit an MMO/ FPS/ RPG in space sounds amazing and having Bungie and Activision working together how can this game fail!?















9. Mighty No 9
Meet Beck the spiritual successor of Rock...aka Megaman. Since Capcom has pretty much disowned the blue bomber it was great to see Inafume san using kickstarter to keep the legend alive!










10. Mirror's Edge 2
I bought the first Mirror's Edge years after it's original release, it's a FPR (First Person Runner) and is unlike any other game I've ever played, it's also not easy! I really like the visual design of the game...this is yet another example of a new unique type of game that most gamers didn't give a chance because it wasn't a FPS.
Parkour of the roofs of skyscrapers....something I'll never do and have no interest in trying out side of a video game.








11. Walking Dead: Season 2

Episodic games done right...that is all.









12. The Order 1886

I have a good feeling about this game, I know next to nothing about it but it's coming from Sony Santa Monica Studios (God of War) and Ready at Dawn (former Naughty Dog members). The story sounds interesting!









13. Kingdom Hearts III

God how many years have fans waited for this sequel! I'd get this one for my wife and son.
















14. Evil Within
This truly looks like the best scary game since the original Resident Evil! The trailer was very disturbing, it reminded











Monday, January 13, 2014

Street Fighter Assassin's Fist

New pics from Street Fighter Assassin's Fist! Looks like Gouki has Gouken trapped in the "corner"...wake up Senkugoshoha!!


My Thoughts and Impressions of Sony's CES Press Conference

Let me just say I really enjoyed with Kazuo Hirai's Sony CES keynote presentation, it started well with Kaz talking about romper room and cookies! Then segwaying to some of the most prolific products Sony has made from the Walkman, the Disc man and it was great how he brought up the Beta max and how not everything Sony creates is embraced by consumers. But he masterfully used an ad for the Betamax with the tag line whatever whenever which would resonate throughout the conference.
I'll admit he kinda lost me when he started talking about the benefits to the health and agriculture industries...
But then Kaz switched gears to something I'm much more interested in than when my peaches are ripe, entertainment! In particular video games.....C'mon Kaz tell us about the GaiKai!
Nope we were treated to a relaxed chat with Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton and creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan. Now this could've been an epic fail like Michael Bay's meltdown but it went rather well.
Ok moving right along, lets get to gaming! Ughh Media Molecule WHY...I'm so not interested in LBP or tearaway....sorry :/
Ahhhh here we go Kaz is introducing Andrew House....c'mon tell us about Sony <3 Gaikai!!!
After Andrew drops the impressive numbers for the PS4 sales and goes on to talk about the PlayStation Network...interestingly saying the future of PlayStation....which goes hand in hand with What Kaz was mentioning about making products that free the consumer from the conventional bonds.....going back to that tagline of whatever/whenever/whereever. This also reminds me of Sony's E3 conference when Jack Trenton mentioned building worlds without boundaries...
Sony is ever so carefully positioning themselves strategically for a possible console-less future.
Ok so lets get back to the CES presentation, Andrew House mentions That Sony is working tirelessly to bring the awesomeness of the PSN to as many people as possible via THE CLOUD! Even if you don't have a PS3 or PS4 Sony wants you to be able to enjoy the benefits of the PSN powered by THE CLOUD, Sony and Gaikai will bring movies, music, PS games and TV (more on that in a bit) to smart phones, tablets, TV's and eventually PC's.
The new service is called PlayStation Now and PS1, PS2, and PS3 games will be streamed to these devices similar to how Netflix streams movies and TV episodes....getting back to that, Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) is going to offer a cloud based streaming media service that will combine Live TV, Video on Demand and DVR capabilities....sounds like Sony is going to try competing against the likes of Verizon, Cable vision and Dish....quite ambitious!

So with PlayStation Now gamers can opt to rent by title....but wait there's more! Mr. House didn't really mention what the more is but it comes via a subscription...not sure if this subscription is PS+ or a separate subscription.
The PS Now beta begins later this month and they plan to launch the service in the US some time this summer.
There are still many questions I have regarding PS Now, Security, Stability being my two most nagging questions followed by price and finally perks.....there was recently a new Sony patent that was made public that showed a method to add new content to classic PS titles, obviously this along with trophy support added to classic titles would definitely help entice gamers to check out/revisit those classics like Crash Team Racing, Twisted Metal 2 or War of the Monsters!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

I don't think I've ever seen Mary Poppins and it doesn't matter!  Regardless if you've never seen Mary Poppins you'll enjoy this film!
There isn't a more bankable actor in Hollywood than Tom Hanks, and once again he does a fantastic job, the thing that makes Tom such an extraordinary actor is no matter what character he is playing you don't see Tom Hanks you see, in this case, Walt Disney, or Forest Gump or Victor Navorski or Chuck Noland or Captain Miller or Jimmy Dugan...
Emma Thompson plays P.L Travers, the author of Mary Poppins struggling financially, as well as struggling to sign over the rights of her story to Walt Disney.
The movie examines P.L Travers and her almost neurotic attention to detail regarding the story of Mary Poppins and her stance against Walt Disney's vision for the film based on her novel.
I found certain parts of this movie very hard to watch, surprisingly enough they were mostly the scenes with Collin Farrell! And when I say hard to watch I mean that in a good way, I got chocked up watching this little girl loose her childhood innocence to a loving father that was losing a battle against his own demons....it reminded me a bit of Angela's Ashes.
Good performances all around even from Colin Farrell!
This movie is worth the price of admission
B+

Friday, January 3, 2014

RIP 80gig PS3 Feb 2008 - Jan 2014

Uncanny timing, I'm writing my recap of the games I've played during the 7th generation...mostly PS3 and BAM YLOD strikes like lightning....at first I thought the controller died, but alas the dreaded light showed next time I tried powering up the console.
This wouldn't be such a catastrophe if I didn't have 8 years of game saves for over 50 games!
I have stated previously that I will not be getting a PS4 until Christmas 2014 or beyond ;) because I have plenty of gaming left to do on my PS3....but this had me seriously considering just moving on, but something keeps nagging me, I won't be able to play these brilliant games on the PS4 and the games I bought on the PlayStation Store via the PS3...digital games mind you from the SAME PlayStation store as the PS3 are not playable on the PS4.....WHAT THE DEUCE!!!??
So I have made up my mind to buy a new PS3....now comes the challenge....a challenge I fully embrace!
One does not simply swap out a 2.5" WD SATA II 500gb 5400rpm HDD from a dead PS3 to a new PS3.....to simple!
I must collect a new PS3 ($199) a new 2.5" WD SATA II 500gb 5400rpm HDD ($40), a hair drier with a cool air setting ($???), and an extra Ethernet cable...
Once all supplies are in hand I will attempt to resurrect my YLOD PS3 and perform a data transfer to the new PS3...May the Force be with me!
I'll post the results of my endeavors soon...

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Street Fighter Assassin's Fist

Here's the first poster for Street Fighter Assasins Fist!
















Looks familiar???

Nice homage to SFA!!
For a better idea of what Street Fighter Assassins Fist is all about check out this interview from back in August with Joey Ansah and Gamereactor here: Street Fighter:Assassin's Fist interview

Happy New Year

To all my family and friends best wishes in 2014!