Happy birthday PlayStation!

As with everything I do, this is slightly late. A day late to be precise, but I was busy yesterday. Anyway, December the 3rd marked the 15th birthday of Sony's PlayStation brand, and the original PlayStation in particular. Has it REALLY been 15 years?

Emerging into a market dominated by Nintendo and Sega, Sony seemed foolhardy to many (me included), attempting to go head to head with Mario and Sonic's respective parent companies without any experience in the field. I for one wanted a Sega Saturn - Virtua Fighter looked awesome, as did Virtua Racing, and there was bound to be a Sonic game. In the end though, I couldn't afford one, and my parents bought me a new stereo for that Xmas instead.

Fast forward a bit and I find myself with a wodge of cash, and working at Domino's Pizza, where the manager just happens to have a PlayStation and some games he wants rid of. I just happen to have the right amount of money, and so the deal is done, and a Mk1 PlayStation is mine, along with a memory card, Worms, and Destruction Derby. I quickly traded those two stinkers in for Alien Trilogy, Ridge Racer Revolution and Thunderhawk, and played those three games for an eternity. It really felt like the most powerful machine in the world in those early days, although looking back at the games now you'd be hard pushed to see how! Hindsight's a marvelous thing, but I was hooked, tearing round Ridge city for hours on end.

I landed a job with Gameplay not long after, which only served to feed my addiction, and my burgeoning collection. I've well and truly lost count of the amount of PlayStation games I've bought, swapped, traded, and lost over the years, but here's my top ten list of PS games/series. In no particular order mind, as that's far too stressful...

Ridge Racer - Ridge Racer Type 4 is probably my favourite of the series, with its Ace Combat skies, brake light trails, and awesomely good soundtrack, but I could happily put any of the 4 PSone era Ridge games on now and drift my way to happiness for an entire evening. Arcade heaven, and easily one of my favourite game series ever.

Soul Blade - Another Namco triumph, I waited on this for months after spotting a preview in Play magazine. When it finally did arrive it became an obsession, prompting lengthy late night bouts against my mate John, pitting his Hwang against my Mitsurugi. It was like Ryu vs Ken with swords. Oh, and who could forget that intro! TO SHINE! This is the game that made me jump ship to Sega's Dreamcast (my all time favourite console), as the sequel was announced for the DC instead of my beloved PlayStation. So basically, I owe it a huge thankyou. Thanks Soul Blade!

Wipeout - I HATED the first Wipeout, I'm not ashamed to admit it. It was too hard for my clumsy thumbs, and the way it made you stop dead for the slightest nudge against the track drove me up the wall. Thankfully 2097 sorted out the handling/stoping issues, and I was once again obsessed. Wipeout 3 is probably my favourite, but 2097 was played soooo many times with friends, so I've got great memories of it. Shame the PS2 version pretty much bummed it in the gob, but never mind.

Parappa The Rapper - A music game? A MUSIC GAME? What witchcraft is this? Arriving eons before music games became the phenomenon they are today, Parappa fused brilliant tunes with button tapping gameplay, and wrapped it all up in a paper thin 2D world of rapping dogs, kung fu onions, angry mooses and ragga frogs. Insane. If Sony announced a third game, I'd buy a PS3 in a shot.

Tenchu - I'd never have gotten this if an Activision rep hadn't brought it in one afternoon. Admittedly, it looked a bit rough, arriving fairly late into the PlayStation's life and going up against games with far higher production values, but my god, the gameplay! I've got a thing for ninja anyway, so the chance to be one and properly sneak around all stealthy like, rather than slicing everybody into pieces like Strider or shurikening all and sundry like Shinobi was enough to get me hooked. Luckily, it played just as well as the premise would suggest, and it became another late night favourite for me and John. John has ridiculous patience too, which certainly helps in a stealth game, but having seen him wait for 15 minutes to get the perfect kill, I think it's safe to say he's a bit good at Tenchu.

Resident Evil - The second game might have been better in just about everyway, but the original was so different from anything else I'd played up until that point. The cheesy acting, the choice of characters, the combination of zombie heads and shotguns, Jill sandwiches - how could you NOT like it? Late night stoner scares ahoy too, which always helps.

Gran Turismo - I've well and truly gone off real driving games these days, but when GT arrived in the office on Jap import, it was incredible. Already being a fan of crazy jap cars like Imprezas and Lancers, GT was a dream come true for me and a gew of the other lads in the GP office, and once again it became an obsession. I clearly have an obsessive personality... Tweaking the setup on a turbo charged Toyota Supra for hours on end, just to get milliseconds of a lap time became normal, and it introduced me to my current car, the Mitsubishi FTO. I loved it so much in the game, I wanted a real one, and now I do! Yay for fulfilling a dream.

Tekken 3 - Tekken was crap. Oh it was! Tekken 2 was pretty tidy, although nothing compared with Soul Blade in my eyes. Tekken 3 though, lordy, what a game! It must have been, as I paid over 75 quid for an import copy on launch week, which I'm fairly sure meant I was living on pasta for the rest of the month. Incredible graphics, loads of characters, Namco's genius CGI movies, and bags of replay value, it was easily the best fighter on PlayStation. Just a shame it's turned to utter shit sense then, Tekken 6 included.

Metal Gear Solid - Couldn't really have a PS top ten without Kojima's epic could I? Just as well I genuinely like it then, as I'm not a fan of the later games. MGS blew everybody away, with intelligent storytelling, stealthy gameplay, quirky touches a-plenty, and some truly standout moments. Psycho Mantis reading your memory card, and making the joypad move? Ninja? Any bit with Meryl? All genius. As was the music, with the game over tune always lurking in the back of my head. Fantastic stuff, and Kojima managed to walk the line between atmospheric storytelling and overblown anti-war 7 hour cut-scene nonsense, which unfortunately he's never managed since.

Vib Ribbon - I struggled to pick this last one. All the rest HAD to go in, but I had a few games left to choose from for number 10, and it was tough trying to whittle them down. Vib Ribbon will ALWAYS stick in my head though, and I've still got the tunes on my Walkman, so I guess it deserves it's place in the chart. Not that you'd know it to look at it, with its monochrome vector graphics and scratchy animation, but once you've experienced the sheer joy of Laughs & Beats soundtrack as you tumble merrily along that ribbon of white, you either understand completely, or want to leave and never come back. I understood. I have no umbrella. <3

Super Final Street Fight!

The Super Street Fighter IV new features drip-feed splurged ever so slightly this week, with not one, not two, but three new characters unveiled for the next instalment in Capcom's scrapper.

Busting out from the original Street Fighter game and the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series is Muay Thai fighter Adon, an annoying screamer of a character who I've never got on with. By the looks of things, I will have no desire to address that situation.

More exciting for me is the inclusion of Final Fight legends Guy and Cody, who have also appeared in the SF Zero series. Guy is a ninja, so he's a guaranteed winner in my eyes, while his jailbird chum Cody is a street brawler. But you already know this. At least someone would, if anybody was reading. Good grief.

New trailer below, with the three newly announced pugilists, plus the previously unveiled Juri, T Hawk and *spit* Dee Jay.

Still hoping to see Makoto or Ibuki from Street Fighter III, but we'll just have to wait I guess. Fingers crossed!

Strobo Nights in thigh high socks

Been meaning to post up Strobo Nights to my blog for ages, as I like to have my fave J-tunes on here so I can find them easily. Decided there was no time like the present and tapped in the title to YouTube. Got the usual returned files, but something new caught my eye. And here it is.

No idea who this girl is, but she gets points for cute dancing, points for bunches, and bonus points for thigh high socks. If only the X-Factor was more of this and less shitty Mariah/Cheryl/Robbie wannabes, I might actually have something to watch on a Satruday evening. A man can dream!

J-pop earworm of the week: Utada Hikaru - Travelling

I've had a shitty few weeks, with this current one being the worst of all. House sale falling through, house purchase collapsing because of it, and a death in my wife's family have kinda sucked the fun out of life.

Luckily I've got tickets for Hikki's February London show at the Islington o2, so there's some light at the end of this particularly dark tunnel, and I can't bloody wait. I'm already mentally preparing a dream set list, but tbh as long as she does Hikari and Travelling, I'll be a very happy boy.

So here, for all the people who don't actually read this here occasional blog, they are. The video for Travelling has more than a touch of New Order's "Blue Monday" about it, but I won't hold that against it...

Mari Yakuza!

Fast becoming the ex-Momusu of choice for Japan-o-phile gamers (i.e. me) Mari Yaguchi expands further on her gaming credentials by appearing in the forthcoming PS3 title Ryu Ga Gotoku 4, or Yakuza 4 as it's known over in the West.

Everybody's (i.e. me) favourite pint sized j-starlet already provides a column for Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, and has a long running obsession with Dragon Quest on her DSi. She's also no stranger to videogames, having appeared in digitized form in the Morning Musume Space Venus game for PlayStation 2, and in chibi form in the Mini Moni Shakatoo De Tambourine and Mini Moni Step da Pyon games on PSone. For my sins, I own them all. Good grief...

This is the first time she'll play a character other than herself though, appearing as a therapist in a massage parlour in the Yakuza game. Although she's still called Mari, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for her midgesty.

Here she is in the game, and in real life. Not a bad likeness, although maybe that head is a wee bit too big...

Fortunately, it's not likely to arrive on these shores (the third instalment never did), and I don't have a PS3 anyway, so I'm safe from the wife's wrath for now...

Girls Generation + Cup Noodle X Bubble Bobble =?

The oddest combination of ingredients ever have somehow found themselves into a genuine tv commercial for some Korean cup noodles.

Girls Generation, a bunch of teen K-pop starlets (and long time favourite of this blog), are doing the natural Asian girl pop thing - pimping product. Nothing unusual about that. The choice of theme song IS somewhat odd though.

It's not one of their tunes, or a variant on a traditional ad jingle like the Aya Matsuura Pretz CM's. No, it's a crazy take on the Bubble Bobble theme. Aye, you heard. Bubble Bobble, Taito's classic bubble blowing, girlfriend rescuing, cutesy dinosaur adventure. I don't recall noodles being involved in the game. Every other foodstuff going sure, but not noodles...

Surely only a matter of time before Girls Aloud are shifting Daz with the Jet Set Willy theme, or Sugababes are selling dog food to the sound of Rainbow Islands.

Super Street Fighter IV - Juri, DeeJay and T Hawk trailer!

Typical - I go away for a week on holiday and come back to loads of gaming news and demos on XBL! Still, I'm not about to complain as Capcom have announced Super Street Fighter IV for PS3 and Xbox 360, promising to enhance, balance and generally rejig the already rather good SFIV, as well as adding a few more characters to the mix. Eight to be exact, with old favourites returning from various SF iterations as well as one or two new bods.

So far, and rather disappointingly, DeeJay and T Hawk have been announced, coming back from Street Fighter II: The New Challangers. Never liked either of them personally, and I'm fairly sure I'm not the only person who's not particularly keen. A resounding MEH from me then.

Of more interest is the first NEW character announced, a Korean taekwondo fighter called Juri. Nice to see a different style up in the mix, and more female characters are always welcome. Check out her Ultra in the vid below, from the unsettling tongue wiggle at the beginning to the too-cool-for-school taunt mid move, it's all good!

Hopefully we'll see some more characters announced soon, but the game isn't due until spring 2010, there's plenty of time. I've got my fingers crossed for Ibuki and Makoto from SF3, and I'd quite like to see some of the Final Fight crew from SF Alpha. Time will tell!

Official site: http://www.capcom.co.jp/sf4/

J-pop earworm of the week - Perfume: The Best Thing

Not done this for ages, but it was on in the car when I popped to the shops at lunchtime, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Usual Perfume rules apply, vocoded vocals, cuteness, catchier than swine flu. No video for this one, so here's a cheesy montage of random pics. Yay!

Cave cave-in!

After the recent NTSC-J only release of Death Smiles for XBox 360, coming warm on the heels of previous region locked releases, I'd given up on ever seeing any Cave shmups for my console. The announcement of Mushihimesama Futari rubbed so much extra salt into the wound, as the original is one of my favourite shooters.

Sure, I could get a Japanese 360, but they cost quite a bit to import, they weigh a ton so postage ain't cheap, and let's face it, 360's aren't renowned for their build quality. So no, I don't really want to go down that road. No Cave shmups (or Otomedius Gorgeous, or IdolMaster) for me.

Or so it seemed, until a recent poll from Cave gave me (and countless others) a direct link to the team. While they wanted to know what game Japanese fans would like to see ported to XBLA, they inadvertently opened themselves up to a swathe of westerners sending begging letters - begging letters that seem to have had a result!

Makoto Asada from Cave blogged the results of the XBLA poll this week (Guwange is the winner), and he took the time to address the Japanese only releases the company has made so far.

"Death Smiles" was released only for Asia, but the region for "Mushi-hime sama Futari" has not been decided yet. I believe it will be decided around the time of Tokyo Game Show 2009.

We are very happy to have received so many e-mails from overseas."

I sent one of those emails, and for once it's nice to have a company listening to it's customers. Don't let me down Cave, I want to be blasting bugs come November! *excited*

J-funk-a-delic

The boy Rag' has just pointed me in the direction of another anime I might like. K-On! is the title, and it apparently features four Japanese girls starting a rock band at school and having various hi-jinx and shenanigans along the way. Sounds good, especially as it's only 13 parts, and I HATE never ending anime series. Bleach, Naruto, Gundam, Dragon Ball, whatever, if it takes four episodes of filler fighting before we get to a story, I'm outta there, regardless of how enjoyable it was initially.

Stuff like Midori No Hibi, Azumanga Daioh and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are much more my thing, and with the intro to the anime being produced by the Haruhi ending team, I was pretty much sold on that alone.

Having now become hooked on the tune before I've even seen the show, I scouted round YouTube looking for full length versions. And found this beastie. I think I need a bass guitar again...Enjoy!

Marvel x Kotobukiya range expands!

One of the first posts made on artificialconstruct was this little missive, dribbling over the dream combination of Kotobukiya sculpting, a particular X-laydee and Shunya Yamashita's design skills. I was unaware at the time that other Marvel maidens were due the same treatment, with Black Widow already available as I type, and Scarlet Witch due by the end of the year.

Rogue, the object of my Marvel fanboy lust, still isn't out in the UK, but is due to arrive at the end of August. Which is perfect for my birthday - although I'll have to buy it myself, as my lovely wife has already spoiled me rotten with a Marvel vs Capcom 2 cart for my Naomi cabinet. ^_^

Still, while it was nice to see extra additions being made to the series, neither Black Widow or the Scarlet Witch are particular favourites of mine. I've never been a huge Avengers fan, preferring my super-teams to have X-genes. Lucky for me then, that the Japanese statue buying public have similar taste, as they've recently voted on what the next two figures in the range should be - Phoenix and Psylocke!

Phoenix might be the more iconic and important of the two to the whole X-Men saga, but for this boy, Psylocke is where the money's at. Or where my money will be going, to be more accurate. Brit girl's mind in a Japanese ninja girl's body? With telekinesis/telepathy/teleportation (delete as appropriate, depending on whatever they're giving her this week)? In THAT costume? Ding dong! Preview sketch below, but in the meantime I'm setting up camp at online toy stores to get my hands on a pre-order as soon as humanly possible!

Day. Officially. Made!

More Street Figher art on the way!

Udon and Capcom have just announced SF20: The Art of Street Fighter. Yeah, I know, that'll be like the 3rd time, but there's promises of never before seen stuff. Plus, it also features more recent games not covered in previous Capcom or Udon SF art books, including SF IV and Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

Over 1500 images will be featured apparently, and looking at the images released so far it definitely looks like there is some new goodness.

Amazon are taking pre-orders at just $23.99, with an estimated shipping date of October. It's Udon, so that'll never happen, but may as well get those pre-orders in - that's a great price for what's bound to be a gorgeous art book.

More info at Udon's official page here!

Pre-order get!

Insert Coin 09 - a rare day out for artificial construct.

I don't go out much. There's inevitably other people involved. The promise of 250 arcade cabinets with loads of hardcore Japanese beat'em-ups and shmups in one room, on freeplay no less, well, that could entice me. Insert Coin 09 promised just that, and so on Saturday 18th of May at 6am, I jumped into the FTO and headed south towards Northampton for a day of arcade mania!

Arriving at the Saints Rugby ground at just before 9am, I met my brother Ross who had been there since the previous day, helping to set up the vast array of candy cabs. He'd been up since 5, and there was a mild panic amongst the organisers as they were short on kick harnesses for the huge amount of Capcom fighting games that had been brought along. One qiuck crash course later, and I'm helping my bro put together the much needed harnesses. We got finished just before 10, which was lucky as the event was due to start.

I've never seen this many cabinets in one room before, outside of Japan at least. Egrets, Astros, NAOMIs were in plentiful supply, as well as some dedicated machines such as OutRun 2, Ghost Squad, House of the Dead 2, Inital D 3 and more! The candy cabs were lined up down the centre of the hall, back to back, in one long line, and it was quite a sight! One side was primarily fighters, with the other featuring shmups for the most part. There were eight Atomiswaves linked up for Street Fighter IV, which proved to be a massive draw all day, with some great competition on display. X-Men vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3, Marvel Super Heroes, Arcana Heart, Final Fight, King of Fighters variants, King of Dragons, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and plenty more filled out the fighting game side. Only one SF3 unfortunately, but I guess I CAN play it at home anytime I like, so nothing to cry about.

The other side of the divide featured puzzlers and shmups, with Cave games getting a strong showing in particular. Muchi Muchi Pork, Ketsui, etc were busy all day, but Death Smiles was the highlight for me. Very tempted to import a Japanese 360 just for this, it's a great hori shooter, which is something you don't get so much of these days. Puzzlers included Puzzle Bobble, Puzzle Fighter 2, and a quirky puzzler based on Mushihimesama, which I could make no sense of whatsoever... >_<

Dotted around the outside where the NAOMI set ups, featuring Border Down, Ikaruga, Project Justice, Zero Gunner 2 etc, and the dedicated cabs. It was an awe inspiring sight, but it wasn't long before they were ALL busy! Time to get stuck in!

With the guys from Radio Sega playing Sega tunes over a seriously loud sound system and every game blaring away, it soon got pretty loud, but at least it wasn't smokey like a real Jap arcade! I flitted around the hall, catching up with Ross, and watching other people play inbetween trying my hand at a few games myself. X-Men CotA, X-Men vs StreetFighter, Marvel Super Heroes, and Street Fighter IV were all as enjoyable as expected, and I enjoyed giving Ross a sound drubbing on them all. He did win ONE round on CotA, but that's only cos I forgot Psylocke's moves. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Puzzle Fighter 2, Rainbow Islands and OutRun 2 were all enjoyed over the course of the day, as well as an aborted attempt on DOA2 - the counter button just didn't seem to want to work, and I got thoroughly fucked off with it.

Death Smiles and UN Squadron were the only shooters I really messed with, as every other one was pretty packed throughout the entire event. Oh, I tried Ghost Squad in Radio Sega's competition, but I was utterly shit. No big deal though, it was nice just to hang with my bro and enjoy the atmosphere.

Definitely gonna go again next year, and the entire thing was good enough to convince me to lay down the cash on a Marvel vs Capcom 2 cart for my forthcoming NAOMI setup. Well, I won it on ebay, but Jodi paid. Early birthday present get! ^_^

Scarlet Widow!

Marvel movies are notoriously unreliable for their quality. They're even more unreliable for their casting in my opinion, and never more so than when it comes to the laydeez of the Marvel Universe.

Anna Pacquin as Southern Belle and all round hottie hardcase Rogue? Not buying it. Famke Jansen as super hot(in more ways than one) mutant mentalist Jean Grey/Phoenix? Not a chance, she's too old for starters. Kirsten Dunst as the fittest girl next door ever, Mary Jane Watson? Get out of town, the girl just doesn't cut it, at all. Jessica Alba as blonde bombshell Sue Storm? OK, she's tidy, but she's not blonde, and looks far too latin for Mrs Fantastic.

Basically, I HATE it when they cast the wrong look/type for a part. Rogue was arguably the worst, especially as they didn't let her become anything like the comic character, leaving her as a whiny bitch who couldn't do anything useful, rather than an invulnerable flying tank who could scrap it out with just about anybody.

Then, out of the blue, comes Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Oh my stars and garters, what a quality bit of casting. She's got the lips, the eyes, the front and the back, and plenty of it to fill out the catsuit. Coupled with a top notch redhead hairdo, the girl IS Natalia Romanova - she even looks like the Shunya Yamashita Bishojou figurine for god sake! Whether she can manage the sultry hard faced bitch shtick we'll have to wait and see, but at least she looks the part.

Well done Marvel, and well done to the Iron Man team. The first film was great fun, if a little bit lightweight, so hopefully we can see some more action, more Tony in suit combat, and plenty of frisson between the tincan alcoholic and the leather wrapped can. Looking forward to it!

You're so pringles! Marvel vs Capcom 2 hits XBLA & PSN 29th July!

Quite possibly my all time favourite Dreamcast game, Marvel vs Capcom 2 hooked me in big time back in 2000 when it was released in PAL land. Ridiculously over the top three on three action with a massive cast of fighters, it was incredible fun. And still is, thankfully, as Capcom are punting the insanity onto XBLA and PSN on the 29th July! Yay!

To celebrate, Capcom have been pushing out some new trailer featurettes, so here's part one for your viewing pleasure.

J-pop earworm of the week - Perfume: Dream Fighter

Perfume's third album is out this week, and it's winging its way to my house as I type. Here's hoping CD Japan can be as on the ball as they were with the advantage Lucy album they managed to get to me in just over 24 hours last week.

In the meantime, here's Dream Fighter. I was gonna post the version of the Japanese guys doing their own dance routine to it, as it's guaranteed to make me laugh, but I'd rather have ladies on the blog. Easier on the eyes. ;p

Free 2D Japanese beat'em-up!

It's called Vanguard Princess. It's by an ex-Capcom employee called Tomoaki Sugeno. It looks bleeding lovely. It's free to download on PC. What a fantastic idea.

More new free 2D games please! 360 compatible preferably...

Meh, Onimusha NOT on the way.

It's a bit of a Capcom bad news double header today. First off, the teaser site that many assumed to be hinting at the return of the Onimusha series is actually for the 3rd in the Sengoku Basara/Devil Kings franchise - which tbh, I don't care about in the slightest. Dynasty Warriors is dull, so why Capcom decided to copy it is beyond me. Oh wait, there's cash to be made, and DW is HERUUUUGE in Japan.

Worse than that though, Milla Jovovich confirmed a 4th instalment in the stinky as old meat Resident Evil movie series. Just let it die!

Me am cry.

Chainsaw mouths, machine gun tits, and bloody arses? Yup, it's a Japanese film....

Robo Geisha to be precise, another gonzo gore, guns and more gore cinematic mindfart from the creators of Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police.

It looks completely batshit, so it's probably going to rule. Still not got round to watching Machine Girl which I picked up on DVD the other week - that's this weekends entertainment taken care of. Presuming I can stop rewatching Lost for long enough...

New Onimusha on the way?

A teaser site over at Capcom Japan certainly seems to hint that it is. Three 16th Century dates appear on screen before being crossed out, followed by the final date of 1600. The first three dates tie in with the first three games in the series (let's not bother with the fourth game, it was shit), so the new date looks likely to be the timeline for a sequel.

Xbox 360, PS3 and PC knowing Capcom, but you never can tell these days. Just don't put it on WIi please, wavey controls are not required.

Capcom.co.jp 1600 teaser site.

Time travel delivery service from CD Japan

After posting about the Advantage Lucy stuff last Thursday I managed to track down a couple of albums, one on ebay and one on CD Japan's website. Bought them both, as I was feeling flush.

Check my emails yesterday, and noticed that the CD Japan one had despatched at 5.13 am, with a note stating delivery was usually 4-12 working days, but could take up to 8 weeks. Fair enough I thought, as I HAD gone for the cheapo budget delivery option, and I was in no rush.

Fast forward to today, and guess what turns up? Yup. One CD Japan package, containing advantage Lucy's "Tobitatta 7 To no Cho Tachi" CD. It arrived here before 12 noon. Halfway round the world in just over 24 hours. And all that on the budget delivery option. Why can't it be like that with UK companies?

Next time, I'm picking their full express service - I imagine it will arrive before I finish placing the order. Got the next Perfume CD on order with them, so hopefully it will be just as speedy!

Good stuff CD Japan, you is highly recommended.

One day we'll all have one...

Coffee making Japanese super cute robots are coming to take over the world! NEEEED!

Kõhii o kudasai robotto-chan!

Jangly j-pop double header of the week - advantage Lucy

Last year I went to Tokyo with my lady, and we wanted to see some small local gigs to try and get some local flavour. After scouring the thoroughly useful Tokyo Gig Guide website, we found a small gig with 4 bands we'd never heard of playing on a night we had nothing else to do.

Buying gig tickets in Japan is weird. We got ours by finding a Lawson combini (convenience store) in Asakusa near where we were staying, then using instructions printed out from the internet, we used their bizarre interactive machine. Entering the correct code brings up the bands name, then you have to select the venue and date you want, then enter in your details and phone number etc. THAT bit we blagged :D This then prints out a voucher which you then take to the counter, where the nice lady (or man presumably, but it was a lady in this instance) scans the voucher and prints out your tickets. VERY strange, but ever so Japanese, and it was a mini adventure just doing that!

Off we popped off to the gig, half an hour outside Shinjuku station in the suburbs of Tokyo , and after a really cool wander through some twisty little streets packed with arcades, Mister Donut emporiums and various eateries, we found the venue. We almost missed it though, due to a street festival taking place right in front of where we needed to go! What a day to forget the camera.

Anyway, I digress. The first band were terrible, an American guy and a bunch of Japanese kids playing really wanky sub C86 crap. Second lot on were an acoustic trio, with percussion performed by a woman sitting on a box and hitting it, occasionally adding in some chimes. They LOVE chimes it would seem - we kept seeing them after that. They weren't bad, although the English lyrics made me laugh "I love my job, although my job is hard" ^_^

Next up came advantage Lucy, and things took a dramatic turn for the better. A four piece, who it turns out have been going since the mid 90s, they were totally my kinda thing. Jingly, jangly, shimmery soft indie pop, with plenty of 60's overtones and cool guitars all round. Me likey.

I've not yet been able to track down an album, although I think there's some on ebay so i might just have to stump up the cash, but here's a video with two songs on it, both of which are lovely. So enjoy, or else.

Oh yeah, the last band on were fucking shit. Worst female singer EVER. Someone clearly had no ears when they decided they could release an album and headline the gig. Mad, mad fools.

Still, never mind, the evening ended fantastically with another wander through a delightful Tokyo suburb, in blissfully cool drizzle, and a stop off at Mister Donut for some honey and Strawberry Glaze, and a few Custard mucky ones for Jodi. Yay!

Ridge Racer ear worm of the week -

After months of Street Fighter devotion I suddenly have a new obsession - Ridge Racer 6! Been tearing round Ridge and Rave City with and without the boy Rag`, and it's soooo nice to be back.

One thing you can rely on with the Ridge series is the that the music is always good, and never more so than in Ridge Racer Type 4 - Kohta Takahashi and his cohorts at Namco's sound team came up with quite possibly the best selection of tunes in any game ever. Hell, even the menu music is memorable. The intro is one of Namco's PSOne classic FMV's too, with Reiko Nagase acting all bashful as she walks round a race track in heels, before hitching a lift with one of the drivers. I assume that the extra weight and the positions lost by stopping for her were compensated in some form. The flirty tease.

Anyway, enough waffle - here's Lucid Rhythms, a thoroughly chilled slice of drum & bass from RRT4 OST.

Farewell to arms. Well, legs really.

And so it comes to pass. I've had enough of Street Fighter IV for now. Online mode is making me slightly unhinged, and I fear for my mental health if I play much more!

It's been enjoyable and excruciating in equal measure, and I'm sure I'll come back in a few months, but in the mean time I'm out. I've got up to G2-B rank, and I totalled that offensive German Blanka player to get there, so I can't complain too much.

I'll miss Ms Li no doubt, but I need to step away. Ridge Racer 6, Beautiful Katamari, and Project Sylpheed are all beckoning.

One last time... KIKOUSHOU! :'/ *sniff*

Kick, punch, it's all in the mindgames

KIKOUSHOU! Chun Li and me are riding the G2-C wave now, and we've got another replay up against a 14000 point Abel! That felt good.

Unfortunately, my skillz seemed to dry up after that, as I've been taking some serious beatings from allcomers, and some of them really shouldn't be causing me so much grief. Got properly tiger-spammed by an uber cheap Sagat today, much to my annoyance. I just couldn't work round the shots to get in, and when i did break through, I got a standing HK for my troubles. Meh!

New areas of trouble for me are El Fuerte and Bison. Bison is usually a fairly easy match, but I've had a few demonically good ones recently, including a humiliating Perfect defeat, and it's really made me nervy fighting them. Mindgames, and they're all of my own doing!

Fuerte on the other hand, jesus... If he gets you down once you can expect to get Tostada Pressed until eternity. Apparently Chun Li can only hope to Focus then dash out of this, and so far, I've not got the timing at all. My usual "fuck off ya bastard" tactic of EX SBK is useless against Fuerte's splashes, so I'm gonna have ot get some practice in. *sigh*

Ah well, maybe a break away from online is in order. Some training mode shenanigans, some FADC practice, a few beers and a couple of rounds in single player might just get me back into it.

Either that or it'll convince me to pack it in once and for all and get on with something more important. Like cleaning the bathroom. >_< *plugs in 360 and gets stuck in*

E3 Shmee 3

So if you have any interest in videogames at all, you can't have failed to notice that E3 is on. Between slathering packs of forum fanboys watching live keynote speeches from the platform holders and publishers, and every games website under the sun reporting on the slightest bit of heresay and rumour (MGS IS 360 exclusive! No, wait it's not. Oh hang on... Um? AAARGH, it's unavoidable.

Worse than that, it's kinda tedious. Endless promises of "megatonz" and incredible exclusives rarely match up to the hype, and the ones that DO actually surprise are often not what anyone actually wanted.

MS have gone first so far, announcing a motion sensing camera system called Project Natal, which everyone from Spielberg to Molyneux seemed to believe was the second coming.

To me it looked impressive, but it WAS a tech demo, not final product, and having been stung by the EyeToy previously, I'm less inclined to believe that it will work in every living room with bad light, smaller than ideal floorspace, etc. Still we'll see.

Speaking of Molyneux, the goblin king of half finished ideas has created a virtual boy called Milo for use with the system. Or girl, if you aren a equal oppurtunities saddo. In the video shown, Milo responds to a girl in the real world talkingto him, and reacts to her voice pitch to tell if it's a question or a joke or whatever - not exactly REAL AI, but still eerily interesting. The way the screen reacts to human movement was impressive, but it doesn't look like much of a game to me... Again, time may be the decider on Milo's actual impact, but it didn't particular interest me.

If they could make a robotic voiced Japanese girl who'd tell me that my life isn't a waste of time and that honestly, I look better bald then they might get a sale. Until then, no dice.

Elsewhere it was business as usual - More Halo, more Need for Speed, more Assassins Creed, more Tom Clancy shite. Yawn. Guess they can't win with me tbh - the new crazy stuff is all a bit emperor's new clothes, and the popular franchises are not my thing. Still, there's a rumour of a new Tetsuya Mizuguchi game, possibly a Rez sequel called Project Eden. That's got me excited. And Lost Planet 2 looks loads better than the dull first outing. Roll on the demo!

Nintendo are live now, but I've got better things to do. Like write this for no-one to read. Fuck me, my priorities are WELL out of whack. I need that Japanese girl robot virtual thingy more than I ever realised...

J-pop earworm of the week - Capsule: Starry Sky

I've had the entire Capsule discography sat on my PC for months now, since I discovered that the chap behind Capsule is also behind Perfume's electro-pop techno racket. Never actually listened to it though, until yesterday when I was walking to the shops for some picnic snacks. Starry Sky burst out of my earphones, drilled straight into my brain's "repeat, repeat, REPEAT" node, and set up camp for good.

Shame there's no proper video, so this'll just have to do...

A missive from the front lines....

Progress is being made in Championship Mode. Slow progress, but progress none the less. I'm currently slogging my way up the G2 ranks, sitting midway in the D bracket. My win ratio is staying constant, and my skillz may be getting slightly better. I'm certainly picking up new tricks anyway, and my blocking game is improving.

Sagat is no longer the big bad for me, I've got a whole bag of Chun-Li tricks to make him suffer. Ken and Ryu still give me grief with the EX Shoryuken, but I've learned patience and some jab mind-games that can usually draw a whiffable SRK out of over eager Kens. Then a nice throw followed by some cross up EX legs to really ruin their day. Yay!

The current hassles for me are Blanka and Vega. Vega shouldn't really be able to give me so much grief, as he's a great big nonce, but the flying around all over the screen screaming like a girl just totally throws my game off. Mincing shit weasel that he is. Got some tactics working against him, but as he rarely comes up amid the sea of Shotos, it's tough to get any decent practice in.

Blanka on the other hand is a fucking pain. An utter green skinned, spiky haired, turtling, ball throwing fucker. I know that charge characters will turtle a bit by their very nature, Balrog, Guile, Bison etc, but Blanka just seems to have some kind of edge in his defence. Either that or EVERY player I've come across has been godly with him, and somehow, I doubt that...

Still, what really pissed me off this week was playing a German Blanka, who did the whole turtle back "come get me" thing. So I did the same. Faked him out a bit with some dashes, then went in for the attack. Kept my distance as much as possible as I don't fancy an arse full of electricity, but in the end he gets me with an Ultra and it's round one to him. Second round he does EXACTLY the same, so I have to do all the work again, and once again I'm winning and he catches me in the air with his sodding Ultra. Fair play, he wins, but I made him work for it. Annoying but them's the breaks right?

2 secs later I've got a message "FUCK YOU RUNAWAY LAMER". Um, whut now? I'M the runaway? You started it sunshine. And you won, so why the need for the shitty PM? I don't get it, but never mind. Won't be playing him again.

Once more into the breach... KIKOUSHOU!

Cosplay calamities

Gah. It's the bank holiday weekend and thanks to work I've got to spend it at MCM Expo in London, "covering" the gaming side of things and reporting on the general vibe.

Now I might be a geek, no denying it, but there's something terrifying about expos, cons and whatnot. It's the cosplayers I think, that strange little army of oddballs so obsessed with their chosen game, anime or manga that they feel the need to express their love through the medium of dressing up. Like a massive tit.

It wouldn't be so bad if they could do it properly, as some cosplay can look VERY good indeed. Omi Gibson is internet famous for being hot and good with a needle and thread, and she can seemingly become any character she chooses.

Unfortunately, it's not all tidy oriental ladies in skimpy clothes. No, there's a certain type of cosplayer who always chooses the wrong character for their face and body, and that cosplayer is the fat chick. No offence meant to larger ladies, I'm not exactly Jonny Depp whippet thin myself, but I have the sense not to go outside as Mark from BotP, dressed head to toe in skin tight white leather and boots.

These girls don't seem to inhabit the same reality as the rest of us, for some reason thinking that their portliness will be hidden by dressing up as Jill Valentine, or that their flabby rolls will be transformed into sexy curves with the donning of a Felicia getup. Human eyes should not be forced to endure this. Do they not have any friends to tell them they look fucking awful?

It's not just girls either, blokes seemingly have no qualms about dressing up as a character they can never hope to emulate too...

Ah well, each to their own I suppose, but the fact is I'm gonna be stuck in an exhibition hall with these crazies, so i can't be held responsible for taking pics and mocking you mercilessly next week. You nutters.

Vocaloid X SC5 - the ultimate mashup

I love vocaloids. The weird vocoded sound they have. The fact they're not real but some Otaku treat them like they are. And the Strobo Nights tune by vocaloid Miku Hatsune, surely the catchiest bit of computer gen'd singing ever.

Sega are working on a vocaloid game for PSP, which is fairly interesting in itself, but I no longer have a PSP. This however may need to change, as a new screenshot from Sega shows Miku Hatsune in full Ulala Space Channel 5 atire. This is a good thing. A great thing

Not only does the game feature Ulalal dress-up, but you can design your own dance routines too. My inner gay is dancing a tiny camp jig. And squealing excitedly.

I now need a PSP again. Pray for me, I've got get this past my missus. A divorce based on my clearly questionable sexuality may be on the cards...

MS repair centre in remarkably efficient shocker!

Judging by the torrents of abuse and anguish spouting from every single games related internet page ever regarding the trials and tribulations of returning a RROD'd 360 to Microsoft, I was expecting a bit of a saga when mine packed in the other week.

How wrong could I be? Very is the short answer. The chap on the phone was polite, courteous and went through the entire registration procedure with me, and promised me my UPS labels would be with me within 24 hours. They were, and when I booked my collection for the following day with UPS online, they arrived in the time slot allocated.

The entire procedure was trackable on MS's xbox.com website, and i could see when my console had arrived, and when it was repaired. Once it was despatched to me (yesterday) they even auto supplied a tracking number, and I now know my 360 will be back with me on Monday.

Red Ringed on the 5th, collected on the 7th, repaired and back to me by the 18th if all goes well. No hassle, no kicking and screaming required, no mix-ups or rebooking collections.

I GUESS they have had enough experience with all the borked consoles to perfect the process, but hey, for once I'm impressed, so well done MS. Let's just hope you've fixed my box...

J-pop earworm of the week - Perfume: One Room Disco

Disuko! Disuko! Wa-an Rooom Disuko!

I was trying to pick someone else this week, as Perfume were chosen last Friday, but their latest signle has drilled it's way into my skull. Not a patch on previous stuff, but still catchier than herpes, One Room Disco has some nice synchronised dancing and a catchy chorus. Not sure on Nocchi's hair though, as it appears to be morphing into a helmet...

Tiger? TIGER!

Ever since Street Fighter IV hit the home console scene I've had something of a love/hate relationship going on with it. I love the game to bits, don't get me wrong, but the online play and more specifically the online players drive me to distraction.

For a long while it was endless Ken spam, and it grew very very tiresome, to the point I gave up Ranked play and just messed around in Player matches. Things here were much better, with a greater variety of players enjoying actually PLAYING, rather than just picking a character they can spam high priority and powerful moves out of.

Then the Championship pack appeared, and warily, I dipped Chun-Li's delicate virtual toes in the online pool. Things were good - the new double blind character select stopped people picking JUST to counter you, and ended the pointless "you pick first" mentality that 80% of players seem to have online. Character variety was good, with a lot of different characters finally getting some use. It couldn't last though...

Within a week a new and insidious tactic had emerged - Sagat spam. With nearly every other match being against a Sagat, it didn't take long for his shit to get soooo tired. The fucker is super powerful, with a ludicrous priority on his Tiger Knee and Tiger Uppercut, and coupled with his high/low Tiger Shots, he soon becomes an utter pain in the arse. Not because he's particularly difficult to get round with these tactics, but because it's as boring as fuck. YES IT IS.

Add in an easily combo'd HUGELY powerful Ultra attack, and christ almighty, everyone is suddenly a Sagat convert. Lame. I enjoy winning, but I won't pick a character JUST to win. I'm sure there's plenty of long time Sagat players out there, and there are also plenty of damn fine Sagat players, but unfortunately at the moment he just looks like the spam chara of choice. Even my wife laughs when she sees yet another Sagat appear in Championship mode.

So, I took a week off, as it was starting to really really get on my nerves, and things have slightly improved. There's still a fuckton of Sagat's giving it the old Tiger? Tiger! treatment, but there's plenty of other stuff mixed in there as well. Shame most of it's Akuma, Ryu and Ken, but whatever. I've finally had some Chun vs Chun matches, Sakura pops up occasionally, and I'm starting to develop a decent game agasint Vega/Balrog/Guile, who I never got to fight before.

So after a break away going cold turkey, I'm back and more hooked than ever. Despite the anger, despite the infuriation, despite the endless cries of "TIGER", I'm still playing, still battling away, still going for "Just one more bout" before dinner/the dishes/work/bedtime.

I just can't quit Street Fighter IV. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could step away. It's easily the best game of this generation, and it's got me by the balls.

Ouch.

THREE. RED. LIGHTS!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

I should have known. I should have realised. It was all going so smoothly.

It's been at least 18 months since I've had any Xbox 360 issues, with my latest HDMI enabled model soldiering on like a trooper. Or like it was made by SEGA. THEY knew how to build hardware to last.

So I grew complacent, almost forgetting just what a poorly designed, cheaply made piece of shit the 360 actually is. I bought a fuckton of Live points. I bought OutRun Online on Saturday, and got stuck in. Space Invaders Extreme was due this week, and Marvel vs Capcom 2 is about 7 weeks away. All was good...

...and then the fucking RROD struck, without warning, without cause. One minute I was playing OutRun, then I switched off the console to make dinner. The next it wouldn't turn on, just grinding noisily and flashing it's fiery red ring at me. The bastard.

Called the dreaded Xbox 360 help line, and to my surprise they were helpful and fairly efficient. It's getting collected tomorrow, and should be 2-3 weeks turnaround. Which is fair enough as it's out of warranty, and it's getting fixed for free, but it still leaves me without access to most of my current favourite games for a few weeks. Looks like me, my DS Lite, and my Jap PS2 will be getting re-acquainted. I'm NOT playing the sodding Wii.

If MvC2 comes out before my 360 is back, I think I'll explode. Time is ticking MS...

J-Pop earworm of the week - Perfume: Polyrhythm

After slowly weaning myself off Girls Generation's ludicrously catchy Gee, I've found myself dragged back to my usual J-Pop fix of choice - Perfume. Specifically "Polyrhythm", as it's just a perfect slice of computer generated vocoded future bubblegum heaven. Enjoy!

A NEW new age of heroes!

It's coming. IT'S COMING!

http://www.tu4ar.com/

Capcom linked site counting down to... something. It's got a big 2 behind the countdown. The site name is "tu4ar", which as my esteemed colleague Rag` points out, stands for "Take you for a ride". As in the crazy character select music from MARVEL VS CAPCOM 2! w00t! Looks like it will be ending at midnight on 29th of April too, so not long to go!

Right now I'll take a straight XBLA port with online play. I'd also LOVE it to be HD remixed, but given that it took Udon forever to jazz up 12 characters with fairly limited frames of animation, and MvC2 has over 50 more intricately animated fighters, I think that's probably unlikely.

While I'm dreaming, I'd REALLY like to see an announcement for a 3rd game in the series, using the SF4 engine. With Dante, Viewtiful Joe, and Samonosuke filling out the Capcom side, and Daredevil, The Thing, Human Torch, Silver Surfer etc added to the Marvel line-up. PLEASE Capcom?

Still, whatever it is, I'm jazzed. Time to dust off the old team-ups on DC in preparation methinks.

GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE! *TRUMPETS*
GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE! *TRUMPETS*
GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE! *TRUMPETS*
GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE! *TRUMPETS*
*repeat to fade*

Shit New Wii Fitness Peripheral Shocker

Do you live in a sterile environment? No carpets, no wall hangings, no lighting, no coffee table?

Does your family all stride around barefoot, despite the freezing floor?

Is your wife an automoton? (she's wearing socks to cover her android toes)

Have you spawned Joe Fucking Pasquale?

Do you all want to make playing games more difficult, less fun, and feel the need to waste 25 quid on something you'll use once and never again?

Congratulations, jOG (jesus christ...) is for you. The latest pointless add-on for the Wii, jOG (man, that's sooo annoying) allows you to control your on screen movements by jogging! Yup, Wii Fit mania has finally turned the nation's shitty peripherals purveyors completely mad.

Who the fuck wants to play Madworld by running on the spot? No-one does. Not even that little shit in the jOG (AAAAAAARGH) promotional imagery. Or his slightly demented looking sister.

Wii games are already a hassle to play with their floaty imprecise controls, so why on earth would you want to remove the one part that generally worked - ie, the directional stick controlled movement - and replace it with something else imprecise and aggravating?

Surely not many of us sane gamers would. Unfortunately however, as proven by Wii Fit's incredibly tenacious grip on the top of the UK's gaming charts, there's plenty of casual gaming lunatics who like anything remotely capable of attaching to their Wii so they have an excuse to dust the bloody thing off once every three months, so I fully expect jOG (KILL KILL KILL DIE DIE DIE) to do horribly well. And then sit wretchedly unused and unloved alongside the Balance Board and the console itself until Christmas, when the advent of Wii Babyz Party Fun Dance Petz Sports-a-thon: FIT! gets the console out again so everyone can laugh at Aunt Maude falling over the couch after two sherries.

*sad face*

Girls Generation Allowed

For my sins, I can't get enough of cheesy girly j-pop. Morning Musume and Mini Moni started it, but seeing as Momusu are a shadow of their former glory and Mini Moni are no more, I've got to look elsewhere for my "more oriental girls than you could shake a stick at dancing in unison and singing in cute voices" action. And Perfume can't do it all on their own, even with songs as good as Polyrhythm, Ceramic Girl, and Electro World. Enter Girls Generation...

Or SNSD as they're sometimes called, they're a Korean bunch, so I suppose K-pop is a more accurate description. They all appear to have been cloned in some kind of leggy, slim, perfect hair girl making machine, which is something I need to get myself. They also seem to share a hive mind, such is the unity of movement on display. I fear for the world if they ever get military upgrades.

Regardless of anything though, they're a fuckton better than Girls Aloud. There's no Geordie Pop Princess Racists for a start. Not one of them looks like a lesbian Vulcan. And there's not a single pasty white and ginger Paul o'Grady look-alike. Thank god.

Anyway, I'm currently on about my millionth listen, and I think I may have affected my cognitive processes. My brain may well be leaking.

GEE GEE GEE GEE!

Ridge Racer Real

So it was first truly nice sunny day of the year yesterday, and I had an errand to run out Bradford way. Perfect excuse to go for a run in my beloved Mitsubishi FTO.

Running along nicely, tunes on, window down, warm sunshine thawing out my frozen winter bones, and soon enough I'm coming up to Bradford airport.

Now, for those of you (again with the pretending that anybody reads this...) who don't know it, Bradford airport runway goes over the road from Harrogate to Bradford, so you have to drive under it through a tunnel. This is my favourite bit of the road, as it temporarily splits into two lanes as it passes under the runway, allowing me to: A) gun it past any slow moving vehicles, and B) hear my 5Zigen A-Spec exhaust make a proper racket as it reverberates off the tunnel walls.

Just as I'm coming up to the roundabout before the tunnel, a jet takes off from the runway. The sun beams through a cloud. Samurai Rocket from Ridge Racer V kicks in on the stereo (OK, so I lined that up myself, but still...). I thump down two gears and thunder past a caravan and a Volvo, rocketing through the tunnel and making a very loud noise.

PURE Ridge Racer. If I'd managed to drift it round the roundabout beforehand, I'd have probably died of a happy overdose there and then.

So, this has me thinking, what other real life videogame experiences can I have? I certainly don't fancy re-enacting Call of Duty, and Resident Evil would scare the shit out of me. Street Fighter's out, as I don't like being punched. Hmmm...

Jill's alive!

And I've just rescued her ass!

Hurrah for me. Hurrah for STARS. Hurrah for Capcom. They didn't kill the master of unlocking after all.

Sandwiches all round.

*happy*

Dirty Ken

I'm sure it's been said a million times on a million forums by now, but fuck sake, Street Fighter IV online is awash with a sea of backflip/Hadouken/Hadouken/Shoryuken/Jump heavy kick/Sweep/Shoryuken spamming Dirty Ken playing shitbeetles.

Out of over 30 matches yesterday, nearly all where against Ken. Those that weren't were Ryu. Or Sagat. The tactics remain unchanged. Fireball, fireball, fireball, oh you're close enough for a leg sweep/uppercut, rinse and repeat.

While it CAN be beaten, it's not much fun - there's no chance to learn to play against any real skill or tactical ability, and there's certainly no chance to try and learn how to fight the new contenders, or anyone other than the Shoto brigade.

Sometimes you might get really lucky, and you'll get stuck with an Akuma player, convinced that the Raging Demon himself is all they need to beat everyone online. He's generally not, at least from what I've encountered, with spammy jump back air fireballs attempting to chip away at you from afar. If you DO damage them and they get an Ultra Charge, nine times out of ten you can enjoy the sight of Akuma standing in a corner, jiggling like a hyperactive child as they vainly attempt to spam out his Ultra move. You can see it coming a mile off. *yawn*

Capcom really shouldn't have bothered redoing all the classic characters in 3D, or adding the Alpha brigade for the home version. The new characters barely get a look in either, and those of us desperately seeking a game with a bit more tactical play, balanced combat and less shoto-spam are left having to stick to playing a few friends.

Chun Li wants to play, but not with Ken. He's a scrub.

It has arrived!

The postman has just been. Bearing gifts of enormous joy. Yup, my promo copy of Street Fighter IV is here, and I'm now the happiest miseryguts in all of gameville!

Why did it have to arrive the day before Valentine's though? Conflict ahead!

I'll just have to Shoryu Reppa the wife. Or buy her some flowers and gifts and a nice meal, althought that takes time out of my day when I could be playing. Choices, choices...

See you online!

Capcom strike a low blow - Street Fighter DLC

Capcom announced the DLC packs for Street Fighter IV yesterday. As you'd expect there are costumes for the characters. As you'd expect if you were a cynic who doesn't really like this whole DLC malarkey, there are multiple packs of costumes, each costing about £3!

4 different packs in fact, at £3 each, adding a not exactly cheap £12 onto the game price. Considering you only get 5 costumes per pack, could they not have just stuck them all into one bundle for a fiver? Or only had two packs at the £3 pricepoint, meaning fans don't have to stump up quite so much cash for stuff that really should be on the disk already - it's announced, they've got screenshots and the game's not out yet so chances are you're paying for an unlock key rather than actual digital content not already included on your copy of the game.

To be fair, they've bundled them sensibly, with all the girls together, and all the shotos together for example, so you CAN practically just buy the ones for the characters you like the most, but it's still a bit steep.

They have knocked up a free add-on called the Championship pack though, featuring new modes and other stuff, so that takes some of the sting out.

I know this is the way games are going - micro transactions are a fantastic revenue stream for games publishers, offering decent rewards for little effort - but I don't have to like it. And neither do you.

Unfortunately, I'm such a SF sucker that I know I'll end up buying them all. I mean, who can possibly withstand the allure of Blanka in a safari suit? And that, I guess, is precisely what keeps the DLC debacle rolling.

Yup, it's my fault.