Kiyosuki

Well is this what you look like in real life? lol I dunno maybe he thinks it sounds cool.

I have no idea. Sorry.

Your stuff isn't bad at all. You capture moments very well, those swimmer photographs are particularly nice. What kind of equipment do you use?

I enjoyed this a lot. It was so chill but exciting at the same time. There is a lot of room for expansion so I think its really the beginning of something new even if its not even 1/4 the size of E3. The publicity a public gaming event like this brings I think is going to attract more people as the years go on, but for now the size was pleasant. Especially with how underwhelming the new E3 supposedly was. Its a step in the right direction. Only funny thing is yesterday near the end of the day half the Convention Center's power went out, split right at the Brawl booth. Half that booth worked and the other didn't. lol Same with the rest of the floor but it was still great. I guess some short game impressions of what I played...this isn't everything but my memory is only so great. Brawl - Go see the thread. Its very fun. The booth was setup so that there were two player matches people could stand in line for, and one closed in area where 4 displayed could be played with 4 at each one, and the winner of each would go up to play on a big screen in front of a crowd (who were all people that were waiting for their turn) The only thing is the announcers had the most painful high pitched voices sometimes.. MGS4 - See the thread. Its awesome. The booth was small but nice, you got a training session then got to play the actual demo with surround sound earphones. There were some PSP games and DS games on Display. IGA was there for a bit yesterday. Heh, he brought a whip. Castlevania the Dracula X Chronicles - Good old fashioned Castlevania simplicity. Its great fun. Silent Hill Origins - Control is a bit clunky but it looks really nice. I'm seeing how its going to fit in the overall mythos too already so SH fans definitely want to check it out if they can. This Soccer game I can't remember - had this really funny crowd of people who got riled up for it. I guess even virtual Soccer does that to people. Portable Ops Plus - You know the drill. Guitar Hero III - If you like 70's and 80's metal you'll love this game. It goes faster and is a bit harder than previous ones though. Drawn to Life - What a weird game. Team Fortress II - You guys probably know more than I do but I think its fun. I love the cartoony visual style. I love the Scout myself. The Simpsons game - Surprisingly decent amount of people wanted to play it. I'm a huge huge Simpsons fan but even I have to admit their games suck ass, but this one is actually pretty fun. The visual style is really impressive, its one of the best uses of Cell-shading I've seen. Its literally like an interactive cartoon. The animated cut scenes complete it. Its a blast to play with two people split screen (You can play the whole story mode like that.) No constant catch phrase saying either. Don't expect classic season wit and insanely clever writing but in its own weird way I think it'll be enjoyable. Its definitely the best thing since the Arcade game. Some camera problems in smaller areas but in general I think it'll be a good game. Super Mario Galaxy - Its going to be an awesome game. I haven't been forced to use all of the Wii-Remote's features to this extent before, not even in Metroid Prime 3. Its a little disorientating at first but it gets really fun. From what I could hear of it the music is going to be a soundtrack to buy. Its really nice stuff. I think it may really follow through being the true successor to Mario 64. Rock Band - Its a cool idea but my friend and I agree that its probably going to be a rich kid's toy, and even then.. I mean unless everyone buys their own instrument and then gets together at parties a lot but its probably not toppling Guitar Hero since GH is much more easy going than setting up all that gear. And even then at that point you have to wonder why not just form a -real- band? Conan - My friend nicknamed it Conan of War. lol Thats basically it. Its decent I guess. There was this amusing controller this company was letting everyone try out. Its like this ball on some jointed arms you move around, and it allows you to feel virtual textures. Its an interesting idea.

Well remember this is a demo, this doesn't mean that this is final and that Pikachu sucks while Metaknight is destined to dominate. These are just impressions. Metaknight is cheap but he's far from unkillable, I downed quite a few. He's light. And I have to repeat again that FS of his really does kinda suck in comparison to the others. I bet you all anything they're saving Captain Falcon for last. He's kind of a fan favorite in a funny but lovable way.

I played this at E for All. The way they setup the booth was awesome, it was a longer wait than usual but thanks to the convention's lower profile since its starting out (I liked it, it was chill.) that wasn't too big a deal. They had you go into a training room first, then you got to play the actual game with stereo headphones, which was a great thing because the soundeffects in this game are unbelievably immersive. I'm a huge MGS fan and I've been following it through almost every major game but even I have to admit that MGS started to feel like it sort of found its "routine". The MGS feel. Like you get caught, you essentially know the steps and the process of what to do. Character controls similarly, you got the Codec/Radio, the side switch selections, you can crawl. MGS3 mixed it up a little more, but in this one I think they've done a superb job so far of mixing that up even more so it doesn't feel too much like previous MGS's. The elements of familiarity are there, but the feeling of immersiveness is so intense that it just feels so much more organic and natural. Thats the big thing that caught my eye is how much it puts you in the situation. There is no singular process, you can play this game in many different ways because of Kojima's theme of trying to be stealthy in an environment that just doesn't allow it too much. You have to be very quick on your feet in this game and you can choose to go out like an action hero with a gun, a stealthy assassin, or just a sneaker in general. Or do it the old fashioned way with a box or metal barrel. Its really overwhelming at first, and when you get noticed its really intense. Its the first time since MGS that I felt genuine panic whenever I was spotted. Snake's controls have been reworked. The attack button is now R1, and you either ready yourself or aim by holding L1. Its hard to get used to because I'm used to firing being a regular button but after a while you really get used to it. You can toggle auto aim by pressing Triangle. Crawling is a bit different. You can tap the button and crouch, and you can move around while crouched like this for extra stealth and flexibility. If you hold the button you'll go into a full blown crawl. You can play dead which is really useful, and fire on your back which has various uses too. Corner shooting is WAAAY different. You can press a button when prompted to at a wall and sneak around it by facing it instead of having your back to it this time. It makes for more precise corner shooting. Rations work like before again, no more hunting for food. But the Stess meter is interesting. If you get it all the way up you go into combat high which makes your performance waaay better, but after a while you'll get withdrawl and the stress level will go back to nothing until it fills up again. You get more sluggish when this happens, but like shown you can get it up again to decent levels with a girly mag or by doing certain things. Its taken from actual combat data on battlefield stress Kojima studied supposedly. There is no Soliton Radar and I say fuck it. After MGS3 I can't go back to such a mechanical way of playing. Instead you have this threat circle around Snake and little bumps will form in it in the direction of danger, and the size of the bump will depend on the severity of the threat. Its supposed to be like Snake's instinct. The new Codec looks really cool. You don't see Snake anymore but you can hear him. Its best described as a text box like before, a sound snychronizer screen to the left and one big screen where whoever you're talking to is shown. Its not just a face displayed anymore, its a full blown screen like you're talking to someone right where they are. Like you see Otacon sitting in a chair in Philantrophy's mobile base of operations. The game over screen is really cool I have to note. TV static flips in and out and Snake's entire life flashes before his eyes in a rush of images because it blacks out (of course you got the Snake? SNAAAAAAKE?! in the meantime.) I'm guessing because of Nanomachines and how digitized even human beings have become in MGS4's time its supposed to represent a mix of that and Snake's memories. All I can say is that its something to definitely look forward to. Killer ap doesn't do it justice.

He sure likes the Matrix soundtrack doesn't he?

He's a decently tall man. But he still doesn't have the chest hair of Adam Sessler.

As annoying as the console war weirdness is, having no competition between companies in any business is usually not a good thing.

Because the crowd was rather large and things went really fast I couldn't get really that much into details. He just felt like regular Mario to me. His reflect cape move thingie looks a bit faster though. I wouldn't worry about the people putting up a shitfest over the wavedashing ordeal. I'm sure there's other new complexities people will find out, its a new experience. Some gamers just don't handle change very well, it goes without saying. I bet they'll probably go to Brawl eventually anyways its all bravado. Whats funny is Wavedashing is not that big a deal. Its useful and its nifty a trick to master I guess but its not like this groundbreaking and game balance destroying monster exploit. Hell the really good players don't even use it that much from what I've seen, its a selective move. I think some people just treat the Wavedash like some easy way to make themselves look good in a crowd so thats why they talk about it so damn much. Well in the end they're complaining and making a huge claim they won't play the new game off of first hand impressions of a game thats not even officially out yet so that says everything. I wouldn't worry about it.

Ok get ready for lots of impressions. I'll try not to get too explanation trigger happy. Overall - Its an upgrade of Melee, which is pretty much what we want so in other words its coming together very well. It sounds like its going to have some great music. Characters. Mario - He's Mario, not much to say. His FS is basic but really powerful. If you're caught in the fire blast you're basically dead. Pikachu - Pikachu seems similar too. Really not much to say. His FS is powerful but its kind of easy to avoid and block. Very few Pikachu's ever did well. Donkey Kong - I never saw a single person use him, ever. Peach - She's as annoying as ever and I feel like the umbrella makes you float even more. Her FS I know is controvertial but if it really does change with moods I think it goes with her intentionally irritating style pretty well. Fox - God people are such whiners. He was not nerfed -that- much. In fact he's still very good. He feels balanced. Landmaster Tank is a fun as well FS. Samus - The Missile got boosted a bit, it goes much faster now though it starts slow. Okay her FS is pretty awesome, it does much more damage in game than videos make it look and its very impressive looking. When she turns into... Zero Suit Samus - She becomes a total stun/bitch hit tactic keep away character. She's pretty much as she should be I think, a survivor. She's swift but she feels nothing like Sheik so she's definitely not the "new Sheik". Her style is quite different. When she gets a smash ball her armor comes back and when it does a shockwave comes out and damages everyone around her. Its pretty decent itself. The system may turn out to be kind of a novelty I think but its really fun. Yoshi - Bread and Butter Yoshi. Even his FS where he grows Angel wings and shoots fire is kind of plain, but its effective. Metaknight - Cheapness in a bottle. He is soooooooo cheap. He can do the thing Kirby used to do in SSB where Final Cutter can act as a Meteor Smash. He swipes so fast too that its hard to do anything. I saw a lot of cheap deaths thanks to him. He floats pretty well too. However to make up for it I think he has the most underwhelming FS of them all so far. It looks epic at first but it ends up being just one big giant slash. Is ok...but its not very impressive. Ike - As I said Ike is a monster. He is really good. He has noticable startup time for his smashes, which is good because if he had Marth like strike speed he'd easilly be broken. Everything else Ike does is extremely damaging, and he has insane priority and reach. A lot of his moves swipe in huge arcs. His speed is also decent and his Final Smash is awesome. Swipes, and if the swipe connects to an opponent he knocks them in the air and does a pretty epic looking auto combo. Camera even pans out to show it. Big screen sized slashes. Afterwards he does one final strike right down to the ground again with the opponent, anyone who's in the way of it gets sent flying too. Think of Omnislash but with lots of fire. Its a really good FS. Oh and he does have counter too. His Up B is a combination of Dolphin Slash and Final Cutter...he throws the sword up then jumps up to catch it then comes down again. As a recovery it takes some getting used to. Pit - Pit is excellent. He is such a parasite to get rid of because his floating ability is superb. Those arrows are annoying as fuck, and when someone knew how to use him his attacks were very swift and flowy. His FS is as epic in the game as it looks in the shots, and its very very powerful and effective. Its my favorite so far. Sonic - Oh man...Sonic is deceptively fast. He starts out decently speedy and swift, but if you run or do a spinattack that changes in an instant and suddenly you're going almost too fast. He can run across Eldin Bridge in literally 4 seconds, his running is that fast. I killed myself a lot with him because it takes some getting used to but I think he has a lot of potential. People already started getting good with him. He can predictably chase down smash balls with ease so expect to see Super Sonic a lot. Super Sonic is pretty good too. Not an apocalyptic move but it'll shake things up. Link - Shadow Link color is awesome. Black clothes and they even got the red glowing eyes. Anyways he's same old Link but he feels a little less clunky and a bit speedier. Still a lockjaw as far as thats concerned but its noticable. Can't say I know much else about him but his Final Smash is pretty cool. You've all seen it by now. How it ends after the combo is he slashes across a good deal of the screen. Anything in the way takes damage. The new Boomerang is really fun too, I bet people are going to get really creative with it. Diddy - He's quite fun to use. Not too much experience from me personally but many others used him. He seems like a good beginner character because he's speedy but solid. His FS is like Sonic's, not apocalyptic but its solid. Bowser - He'll still need practice but I feel like his mechanics were retweaked a bit. He seems the same but he landed hits a bit easier so I think his special move startup speed got a bit of a boost. Doing Koopa Twirl near an enemy does a lot more damage and knock-off than before. Koopa Klaw is his coolest new feature. It catches a bit easier, and instead of that wussy bite/shoulder he does a full blown spinning piledriver. Its very impressive looking and it can be followed up with another move it looks like. I need to play him more to see how he turns out. Giga Bowser is really really impressive when playing with a crowd. If he flicks you it sends you flying, he's that powerful. But the problem is even catching the opponents, I think it'll take practice too but its very fun. Stages Norfair - Think Brinstar but the "lava" comes from the sides as well, and one big wave comes and a small little safety section appears you can go into (complete with Metroid doors.) Bridge of Eldin - Long. Middle breaks and rebuilds at random. Thats pretty much it. Pretty Del Fino - Its like a less chaotic Rainbow Cruise. Its decent. Animal Crossing - Kind of a plain stage gameplay wise, it'll probably be more of a novelty stage thanks to the day/night thing. Castle Siege - Its three stages that switch back and fourth. Its decent but the music sounds -godly-. Its Fire Emblem after all. The Halberd - Very exciting stage. It amy seem like one platform but it changes as the ship comes around and you board it. The music sounds pretty nice. Big Laser comes out and shoots a targetted opponent. I bet this would be a fun stage to fire Samus' FS. Lylat Cruise - Its pretty plain. The background looks cool, thats kind of it. Pokemon Stadium - Looks almost exactly as it did in Melee, the stuff on the arena just changes to new environments. All the characters have intro animations again!

In the end my friends and I buckled down and went at the last minute. We were glad we did, it was great I thought. Snake crashing the Frogger game was funny as hell and remember Sephiroth's sword breaking in the end? lol One Winged Angel might as well be a national anthem at this point, its played so much. The Halo instrumental and the instrumental of Hikari were both really good, and the Video Game Pianist was great too. The Contra rock out was a blast, my favorite one for some reason though was the Sonic one just because thats music you really never hear or expect to hear orchestrated. God I would give anything for an mp3 of that track, especially the Green Hill Zone rendition. Bioshock was a beautiful one too. I was hoping the Metal Gear song would be the medley from the 20th anniversary CD instead of the MGS2 opening again, since that one's been played to death. But what can you do. Oh the song you're thinking of is Lament of the Highborn. I have it in mp3 form. I've never played WoW but i thought it was a really pretty song. Especially cool since Sylvannas(sp? Its been years since I played III)'s voice actress actually sings it, and its a song apparently the character sings too. God I really hope Akira goes through with his statement and we see Silent Hill music in this thing next year. David Hayter was actually sitting in our row, we got a picture of him after and I brought a drawing-pad that just happened to have this caricature I drew of Snake and he signed it. That was a great finale to the whole thing. The Screw Attack guys were in the row in front of us too, they're the ones that poked fun at Fatality (or however the player spells it.) I think.

You guys who went to E for All. Is Ike a monster or what? Fuck...I didn't expect him to be that good. He dominated so many matches.

The line for this game at E for All tomorrow and Friday (days I'm going) is probably going to be insane. I'll probably have just one chance to play it, its going to be tough choosing which character I want to test out.

whoa......

For you guys who are curious...the stuff he said to go to the Japanese site for. The coin on Meowth's head is a Koban. Its on those Maneki Neko good luck cat statuettes. Apparently though according to someone I know it has a second meaning for Meowth, which is the phrase "like a koban to a cat" (猫に小判, neko ni koban) (from Wikipedia of course.) Its basically the same meaning as Cast Pearls Before Swine.

lol

Yes, it does look very cool. Bowser was just begging for a more dynamic auto grab move, but I just hope it has good speed and priority this time around. To make up for his slow speed I think Bowser's moves really needed higher priority than they had.

I'd love to go but I probably won't be able to make it. :/

I heard that Peach's FS actually varies depending on the mood she's in like in Super Princess Peach, but I can't confirm that.

It does have huge radius but its still pretty low damage. And it doesn't look like its impossible to avoid either. Sonic looks pretty damn fast and hard to avoid as SS too. It still seems a bit funny to me considering all the things using her Final Smash brings onto herself. The kickback is pretty good though, its just something that requires that much afterwork I'd imagine should be nothing less than doomsday on the field. I'm going to E for All so I'll check out the move and see for myself.

For those of you who have seen it in action via videos etc, does anyone else think they really need to tweak Samus' Final Smash a bit? From the videos I've seen with her using it, it looks very impressive but its damage is surprisingly low, 40-45%. Normally I'd think this isn't that big a deal but when you consider that Samus actually has a penalty of sorts for using her Final Smash I think it warrants that move doing a little more damage than that. Sure Zero Suit Samus may turn out to be a pretty badass character but when you consider that when Zero Suit Samus gets another Smash ball she just turns back into armored Samus, that pretty much means that not only does using Samus' FS change her into another character but it also may deny her the use of one more Final Smash move unless her turning back into Samus is some sort of attack too. I don't think its unreasonable for that thing to do at least 80%, maybe even a flat out 100% considering all the consequences. I mean...she has to go through that for a really cool looking move that does 44% while Super Sonic does 20% damage per hit. It doesn't seem too balanced to me. What do you think?

Another thing that makes me go "whaaa" is this big controversy Filipinos are throwing over this comment made on Desperate Housewives apparently. I don't watch the show but the comment went something like this. Okay before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? 'Cause I would just like to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines. A friend of mine is in San Francisco right now and he came across a huge protest in front of a Disney store over it. Apparently it pissed people off in the Philippine government as well. Its understandable to a point, there is a lot of pretty nasty stereotyping out in the media and medical staff brought in from the Philippines do quite a bit. Well they got an apology from ABC but this is where I start to go "whaaa". Apparently thats not enough. Wiki Copypasta... "However - several Philippine representatives demanded further reprimands, and Philippine senator Rodolfo Biazon and congressman Bienvenido Abante Jr. stated that they wanted to take the show off air in the Philippines. The Philippine Medical Association, on the other hand, wants an aired apology before the start of the next episode and to remove the controversial scene for future airings and for DVD." I mean...isn't that going a bit extreme over a TV show? Not to mention the fact maybe all this sensitivity could accidentally create another stigma ironically, as well as the fact all this controversy will probably just give the show more ratings even more ironically.

50-75 bucks..

So is anyone here in LA and considering E for Everyone?