USFIV

Here's the most recent feature trailer. Most interesting to me, besides the introduction of some favorite and unique SF3 characters, is the online training mode. The retail game will cost $30/$40 (PC/Consoles) or you can just upgrade to Ultra for $15 if you already own any of the 16 versions of Super Street Fighter lol. Upgrade comes to consoles on June 3rd, while retail versions and all PC versions come August 8th.

Destiny Beta & USFIV

Since it's sometimes hard for me to catch you guys online, I'd like to use this blog (with Chronic's blessing) to ask if any of you are purchasing Destiny and, if so, for which platforms. If any of you are participating in the summer beta I would like to be able to join you. I do have an Xbox one (for now) and a 360, so those are my options.

Same goes for Ultra Street Fighter IV out in August. If you guys get it, I PROMISE to get on and play. Seriously. I play quite a bit offline - I could easily log on and play instead. I think you can buy it as a downloadable update to Arcade Edition, but I'm not sure. My vote would be for the PC version, but I will buy whichever version you guys get.

Let me know!

I hope you guys are all doing well. I just had child  #3 (WHAAA?!) and, even though it was no accident, I think I might cut off my unmentionables to make sure 3 doesn't turn into 4 :)

Oh, and Chronic, I just bought a new 23" IPS monitor with pivot just so I could run 'tate set-ups for shmups and thought you might appreciate it :) It makes them so much more fun. I will snap a real-time pic as I'm writing this just for the hell of it:

Sorry for the completely random blog post. Hope to hear from you guys! Ok, MD out!

Snowie Donked Off

A 5-Year-Old, Her Father, and a 45-Hour RPG

 

 My daughter and I are huge fans of the studio Ghibli movies (Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, etc), so when I discovered Ni-No Kuni, a PS3 game created by Level-5 and Studio Ghibli, I thought it might interest her. It's a beautifully-animated RPG that flows effortlessly between their movie-quality, 2-D animation and the 3-D, in-game engine. The story is nothing short of what you would expect out of a studio Ghibli movie. It's a rich adventure about a young boy, Oliver, who loses his mother, but discovers a parallel universe through which he may be able to bring her back to life with the help of some magical friends. Of course his journey quickly becomes much more than a quest to save his mother, ultimately finding himself to be the only one with the power to save the parallel world and its people from the evils within it. And like any Studio Ghibli story, it is packed with layers of life messages and meanings.

 

 We started the very long journey through this story many months ago, always playing together so that neither of us would miss a second of the story. An hour here, 2 hours there... slowly progressing and soaking up every bit of the storyline possible, including every single line of text and unspoken dialogue which I read aloud to her without fail. We have faced hundreds (thousands?) of enemies, made countless friends and allies, and fought close to 30 monstrous bosses, whose dramatic fights can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a full hour depending on your level. This game has made my daughter gasp, scream, and jump for joy many times over. If you ask her how we became allies with Kublai, captain of the Sky Pirates, or ask her when we first faced the evil and powerful Shadar, or where we can find the lost city of Nazcaa... she'll tell you. She was wholeheartedly passionate about this game, its story, and its characters, as if she were Oliver himself. It has been quite the adventure for both of us.

 

 Well today, 45 hours into the game, having learned the ancient magic named "Astra" and with a stockpile of  health-replenishing items in-hand, my daughter cast the last spell, "Arrow of Light," defeating the White Witch and the Zodiarch, saving Princess Cassiopeia and the world, and filling my daughter's heart with so much joy and accomplishment that she was literally in tears, unable to explain why.

When the credits came to a stop, she turned to me still wiping the tears from her face and asked, "Dad, can we start all over?"... "Absolutely."