Season's Beatings: Velocity -- Oct. 14th - Oct. 16th

Just thought I'd make my obligatory, annual post about the best damn fighting game tournament on Earth. Well, at least in my eyes, and I wear glasses, so that's like four! This weekend in Columbus, Ohio the sixth installment of the Season's Beatings fighting game tournament will be held at MoMo's. I will be holding a MadCatz stick in one hand and a DSLR in the other. If you can weed through the 700 hundred-plus, attendees, say "Hi!" I promise I'll greet in return.

*Disclaimer: I owe a great deal of credit to Godlike Entertainment and the Season's Beatings events, because it made me realize where I wanted to go with my writing. It made me value the fighting game community. So that's why this is especially important to me.

[After the break: Weekend Schedule, Live Stream link, and Photos]

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Commercial Break: Battlefield 3 Griefing

Supposedly this is a semi-close to gold release of the Battlefield 3 game. Not the beta that everyone [including myself] has been complaining about. I do enjoy a good greifing session. Apparently, the user had time to play the multiplayer mode with DICE employees prior to the game's release and decided to record himself annoying his teammates. This is all speculation, but judging by the map and the way the game looks, I'd be willing to believe this is true.

However, if there was a DICE employee that called the player the n-word. Yo bro, dat ain't cool. Hopefully the game is as fun as the griefing appears to be. Arthur over at Joystiq is dispelling rabble-rousing gamer's beliefs that the beta is a direct reflection of the finished product.

Props to Mike Nelson for finding this vid and BF3 Grief for posting it.

Commercial Break: Ecco The Dolphin-type Mutant Sea Creature

Yup, this video confirms it. Ecco The Dolphin may as well been based on actual aquamariner happenings.

Speaking of Ecco The Dolphin. You should check out Player One Podcast's Greg Sewart's Ecco The Dolphin: The Tides of Time. A game that was so difficult I actually threw the game CD away. Yeah, it's hard, but a great game that I wish I kept.

At this moment it appears I am the only one whose commented on his post. Really regretting dry-snitching on my bladder issues as a youth, but f**k it. It's the internet. And I still, to this day, classify Ecco The Dolphin and anything related to it [this includes the sea itself] as a nightmare factory.

Thoughts On My Colony Wars Article Reception

These guys are cool, you should check them out. Tell them I sent ya.

[Update: 10-3-11 11:34pm. Mike Anthony of Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops and Lead Programmer of Colony Wars & Colony Wars: Vengeance is now up on Gamasutra. This is probably the last of what I'll write about one of my favorite franchises. Enjoy]

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EVO 2011 -- What Does It Feels Like To Throw A Fireball For $10,000

As of me typing this little entry, we are about a week out from the events that transpired at this year's EVO. A great deal of joy and surprise was had by all that were interested. For those who filled up my Twitter feed with, "What's an EVO?" Go here for the full history.

There seems to be something strange happening in the fighting game community. The level of recognition and genuine interest has been hard-fought over the past decade. Within that time, fighting game makers: Namco, Capcom, Aksys, have helped and hurt the culture. There was an obvious feeling of rushed games or just too many to play at one time. Games around the turn of the millennium were having a renaissance genre-wide. During the era of Third Strike, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Guilty Gear, there were so many iterations of fighting games, it was almost like, Guitar Hero.

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Games Are[n't] Worth It?

You didn't know you wanted it, until you saw it on the internet.

I guess I'm ready to write about games again. I got this screen cap in my inbox this past weekend. I'm actually having a hard time expressing any shred of thought about said image, other than a muted chuckle. Okay, that and mild shame for finding it hilarious.

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Commercial Break: Classics Of Games = Amazing

The youtube channel Classics of Games has been keeping me company this morning while I sift through angry e-mails and comments about how, 'I'm gay for not liking inFamous.' Yup, this is how we are spending our Fourth of July morning folks.

Let's put a positive spin on this. Classics of Games is a collection of [perfectly sized] excerpts from video games, that kind of encompass the constant struggle between what makes a game useless and what makes a game stand the test of time. [I dare you to un-see the Jackie Chan fighting game]

After the jump are a select few that made me smile on a day where I'm supposed to be telling mom about, "how gay I must be." Yeah, let's put that one on the refrigerator.

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Infamous 2 -- If You Liked The First One, Then I Hate You

Here we see the main characters in Cole McGrath's story. It's up to you, the player, to choose who he's totally gonna hook up with.

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E3 2011: The "This Could Be Good For Gaming" Edition

Papo & Yo [Minority Studios]

[Update: 6-19-11]: I guess it's been noted on several sites that the creator of the this game is making it as it relates, allegorically, to his life. The creator, Vander Cabellero, was raised by his father who was an alcoholic. The game is centered around a young man raised in Columbia [like Cabellero] who goes to this world of fueled by his imagination, when times get tough in his personal life. The young man befriends a rhino-like beast named Monster. Monster is addicted to frogs. The young man must alter his world via puzzle-solving tactics, but he must feed Monster frogs for his help. The penalty is that Monster turns belligerent when fed too many frogs. That's all I'm willing to know and write about this game. Really can't wait.

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E3 2011: The Unsurprising Corporate Edition

E3 attendee resting his eyes during the Nintendo's press conference. -- Photo by Janine Dong

Full disclosure: My day job is currently requiring I work longer hours and do heavier lifting. I'm currently writing this after imbibing one hell of a riesling and several cupcakes. Don't judge, but recognize that I may not be at my sharpest.

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