In Third Person

I don't think I've ever been torn about a game like I have been for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. With this game, I can put together a fairly solid case for why I don't want it. I'm not a "Versus" series style of fighting game player. My only experience with this style of fighting game was with the XBOX Live release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. After years of wanting to test my chops in one of the most popular fighting games of all-time, I finally came to the conclusion that I'm awful at that style of game. I end up mindlessly mashing buttons and randomly doing traditional Street Fighter special move command inputs and hoping for the best. It's cool to see all the flashy action on screen, but I didn't find the fighting satisfying enough for me to commit to getting better. My only experience online with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was an absolute disaster, where I didn't win a match and at times, didn't connect a single hit on my opponent.

The game is also a Wii-only exclusive, a platform that I hardly play and kind of despise for abandoning me as a core gamer. If I were to buy a fighting game, I would much rather play it on my XBOX 360, which gives me the benefit of HD graphics, achievement points and superior XBOX Live service.

One other reason I'm gun-shy on purchasing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is that Super Street Fighter IV is just around the corner. If I get into Super Street Fighter IV like I did the original, then I won't be playing any other fighting games for the rest of the year.

To all logical people, the debate should end right there. Yet, since the moment this game came into existence, I've wanted it. Part of it is just an irrational urge to have it. But I have other personal and altruistic reasons for wanting it, too. Altruism never is involved in my video game buying thought process, so this particular case is very weird to me.

For one, the critics say this game is great. It features solid gameplay, great graphics and capable online play. They also say the game is easy to get into. I felt burned last time people told me that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was easy when I interpreted it as a weirdly complicated and difficult fighting game to follow. However, for some reason I'm starting to believe that my experience with MvC 2 wouldn't be the same with TvC. Maybe it's just the hype getting to me. If the game is as awesome as they say it is and I enjoy it then maybe it's well worth my hard-earned money.

So where does altruism fit into this? Well, for one, this game shouldn't have come over to North America in the first place. With over 12 different companies having rights to the Tatsunoko characters, it seemed like this game would never come in North America due to the legal nightmare it would have been to make a western version a reality. Thanks to fan pressure and probably some acts from a higher power from above, we're finally get the chance to get the game on our own.


On top of that, this is very much a statement game from Capcom. This is in a way, a love letter to hardcore Wii gamers who don't have that many appealing options to choose from. Heck, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is arguably the first good fighting game for a Nintendo platform since Super Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo. As a kid who was waited for the next great fighting game to come out on a Nintendo platform after Super Street Fighter II and never got it, now could be a time to close some psychological wounds and have fun in the process.

Even beyond my own personal pain, buying this game could be my part in showing video game developers that Wii owners want hardcore games. The last few major Wii games that targed the core audience, such as Mad World, The Conduit and Dead Space: Extraction flopped hard. For all the complaining core Wii owners do about the lack of core games, we haven't supported the core games we do get. If we don't show game publishers that core Wii gamers will buy core Wii games, then we'll only get the usual Mario and Zelda games along with 1,000 more crappy mini-game collections. This is a chance for me to stand up and say that I will support quality core Wii games so that companies will continue to support players like me on this system.

If there is any game I personally should stand up for, it's this one. It's a great fighting game on a system whose lineage hasn't seen a good fighting game in 15 years, and if this flops, may never get another good one again. And unlike those other core Wii games I mentioned earlier, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is even more likely to fail harder than those other games, due to the small population of fighting game players and the fact that most people in North America don't even know half of the characters in this game. Even if I pay full price for this game, I still expect it to bomb hard.

Generally, my thought process behind buying a game doesn't run very deep. If I want it, I buy it. If I want it, but not enough to pay full price, then I'll get it on sale. I don't even know yet if I want this game based on my normal criteria for why I buy games. But if there was ever a time to buy a video game to support a cause - that cause being the continued support of core gamers of the Wii - maybe it's time I plunk down some paper and show the world where my curly mustache is at.

The original Assassin's Creed was one of the most successful launches of a new IP this console generation. It was best known for having absolutely gorgeous graphics that were beyond anything else at the time, but the gameplay left a lot to be desired. While most people would agree that it wasn't a bad game, the faults I heard about the first one really killed my interest in it.

With the release of Assassin's Creed II, the overall perception of the game was much more favourable. Everyone was hyping this up as one of the best games of the year. I figured that now may be the time to check it out. It also didn't hurt that I was able to pick the game up for $30 brand new during an EB Games sale.


Not knowing much about what I was getting into, I figured that the graphical fidelity would at least be on par with the stunning visuals of the first. To my surprise, the production values of the entire experience are top-notch. I'm completely in love with the soundtrack, which totally fits the renaissance setting. The voice acting is believable and extremely well done. If you want to go whole-hog in terms of realism, you can play the entire game with Italian voice acting. What impressed me most however, was the architecture and atmosphere of the various areas of Italy. It was a pleasure just traversing across the world, seeing everything there is to see. The level of interactivity between yourself and the buildings was also extremely well done. It feels like the developers put a ton of effort into creating exciting "lines" for Ezio to traverse.

Speaking of Ezio, I felt that he made a great main character. It can be really difficult to humanize an assassin, but Ubisoft Montreal did a great job of developing him outside of his ability to shank guys. The game starts off with Ezio as a free-wheeling young adult and chronicles his spiral into the assassin life. What keeps him from devolving into a heartless assassin is a clear and personal motivation that goes beyond killing people for the sake of killing people. He is backed up by an amazing supporting cast (which includes many real historical figures, including Leonardo Da Vinci) and one of the most interesting plots I've ever experienced in a video game. When you get to the end of this game...all I can say is, "Wow."

Depending on how you play the game, it can take you a while to reach the end of the Assassin's Creed II. There are a lot of great side quests to do and items to collect if you're an OCD gamer. Normally, I'm not. What makes collecting better in this game is that there are good tangible rewards for collecting the statues, raiding all six tombs and finding all of the glyphs to uncover "The Truth". Having done most of the collecting portions of the game, I felt like the overall experience began to drag and I ran out of motivation to do any more side quests. If you play the game straight through, you should get your fill no problem.


I really enjoyed this game, which is why it stings for me to mention the few things the game stumbles on. My biggest beef with the game is in the controls. In general use, I think handling Ezio across rooftops is fine. However, there are times during stalking missions or temple raids that require precision handling that just don't work. The game makes you feel like you're trying to colour in a drawing on a piece of paper using a paint roller. During my time raiding the temples, Ezio would constantly jump the wrong way or not respond the way I want him to, which would lead to probably two hours of frustration if I add it all up. The fighting engine of this game I can see being very divisive. While I think it worked as is, I wish it was a bit more involving when you get surrounded by guards.

As it stands, I thought Assassin's Creed II was an excellent game that easily stands tall as one of the best games of 2009. A few nit-picky gripes hold it back from reaching its full potential, but its definitely worth the price of admission. When the third game comes out, I'll be happy to pay in full to see where this story goes.

As I write this, I'm trying to shake the glaze off of my eyes. In the last two days, I've put in a good 15 hours into Borderlands. I played for about 7 hours today; only stopping because my brother and I felt physically sick from the non-stop Borderlands marathon.

This game has been a huge surprise to me. Nothing about the game's pre-launch hype grabbed me at all. I didn't care that there were 17 million guns in it. I didn't care that it was sort of a mix of Fallout 3 and Diablo. I didn't care much for the cell-shaded art style either. It's pretty, but it doesn't make my jaw drop or anything like that.

But then the reviews came in and were pretty impressive. Then the game at launch sold out everywhere. I found myself talking a lot about a game I had no interest in trying just because the game was so hot at the time. What ultimately pushed me over the edge were my old co-worker and brother committing to playing this game co-op with me should I choose to join.

I received the game as a Christmas present. At first, I wasn't so high on it due to the game starting out kind of slow. It was also a bit jarring making the transition to this after beating Modern Warfare 2, as Borderlands is a completely different experience. However, the moment I hit Sledge's hideout, the game grabbed me tight and has ceased to let me go.


What was it about Sledge's hideout that made the difference? Not much, really. It was though at this point where the game all came together for me. My initial indifference towards the vast arsenal of guns in the game quelled when I found myself in Sledge's hideout, finding awesome gun after awesome gun. I wanted to take them all with me while keeping my current stash, but my backpack size wouldn't allow for it. From then on, the game becomes a constant hunt for bigger and better weaponry. You'll pour over stats and constantly think about which guns to keep, which to sell, and which to ditch in order to make room for the next thing.

It was also here where I told my brother about how the game came together for me at this moment. He too was cool on the game until we went back and played through Sledge's hideout. From then on, I've played most of the game along with my brother. Having split-screen co-op has made the experience so much better for us. With many games foregoing split-screen completely, it is awesome that my brother and I can play through this game together. For those who don't have the luxury of couch co-op, there is four-player online co-op you can take part in as well.

Since then, my brother and I have become completely absorbed in the world of Pandora. We're having a lot of fun playing through all of the main quests and side quests. There are so many many different quests and quest types that I don't see this experience ending anytime soon. Having spent about 20 hours on this game thus far, I'm only about half way through the main quest. On top of that and all the side stuff, the game includes a "playthrough 2", which lets you play through the game again which things changed up. To get through all of that could take you easily 100 hours of play time. Should you want to get really deep into the game and beat it with all four character classes, you could easily drop a few hundred more hours into the game.


There are a lot of different elements to Borderlands that make the game so fun and engaging. I almost feel like if they had nailed this execution perfectly, this game has the potential to be one of the best games of all-time. I'm not even into this style of game, but I can see a ton of potential in this game. Before I drown myself in hyperbole though, I can't talk about Borderlands without bringing up some of its glaring and fundamental faults.

A few days ago, I posted an entry about some of the glitchy elements of Borderlands. After spending a lot more time with it, I still feel like the whole game is kind of janky. The shooting mechanics don't feel quite right. You never really get a sense of impact when you shoot at anything. There have been a number of spots where my character gets weirdly stuck. Twice in the same day I was completely immobile and had to quit the game in order to get out of it. Since then, there have been a few more instances where my character will be stuck for a few moments and I don't understand why.

Speaking of glitchy, there was one point in the first Circle of Death mission where the final skag ended up clipping through a wall into an area he couldn't attack me from. I could shoot it with bullets through the wall, but explosives did nothing to it.

The AI of the enemies also leaves a lot to be desired. Most enemies will simply run at you or attack you with very basic patterns. Sometimes, enemies won't move at all, which allows you to just stand still and shoot them until they die. The level scaling of the enemies does cover up some of the AI's faults, but in a lot of games this level of AI is inexcusable.

While I am thankful for the inclusion of split-screen co-op, the way the menus work out in co-op are awful. Instead of scaling the menus down to fit the split-screens, they keep all the menus at original size and force both players to manually adjust their view to see whatever part of the menu they need. It's an embarrassing oversight in my opinion, especially for a game where navigating menus is such an important part of the experience.

The frame-rate during intense moments does dip below 30 frames per second, which leads to brief moments of choppiness. It never really gets in the way when you play by yourself. In split-screen, intense moments of action make the game chug more. At one point specifically, we thought the game crashed because everything just froze. In fact, it was just the frame-rate dropping to single digits.

Way-points are another sore-spot for Borderlands. For most of the game, following the way-points will lead you exactly where you need to go. However, a number of quests don't work this way. Instead, the way-point will just lead you to a general area where you'll then have to figure the rest out for yourself. Not knowing this can leave a player annoyed to no end. I've had items I need to find end up upwards of 100 yards away from the way-point. Next time around, way-points should always lead you exactly to where you need to go or give you a general idea of where to go. Never both.


Traversing across different zones is also problematic. While the game does give you the option to spawn vehicles and warp from certain points, the game does a poor job of telling you how each of the worlds are connected. When you pull up your map, it only indicates "transitions" from one zone to another without telling you which transition leads to which zone. If you don't memorize what each transition is for every zone and don't know exactly where you need to teleport to get to your destination, you could find yourself needlessly walking or driving through three or four different zones while wasting 15 to 20 minutes of your time in the process.

Reading this, you're probably wondering how I could one minute call this a game with the potential to be the best game of all-time and then immediately follow-up with a number of faults with it. Does my initial sentiment still stand? Yes. In spite of its flaws, Borderlands succeeds where it matters most: fun-factor. The feeling I get from playing this game is a feeling that only comes out when I play something really special. You can easily drop dozens or hundreds of hours into this game and have a blast the entire time. With over 2 million copies of the game sold, it's almost inevitable that a sequel to Borderlands will emerge at some point. If Gearbox can match the game's fun-factor with equally awesome production values, the sequel has the potential to be phenomenal.

Until then, my brother and I are going to be spending a lot more time in the world of Pandora.

I still vividly remember the moment I learned that Scene It was coming to the Xbox 360. I was watching the E3 live stream when it was revealed and I burst out laughing when I saw the ridiculous big button controller being pitched as a revolutionary step towards gaming for the masses. In my head I thought two things:

1) That controller looks awful and stupid

2) Those controllers are a complete rip-off of the Buzz controllers on the Playstation


While I still think the controller looks like a reject Fisher-Price toy, the demo of the original Scene It for the Xbox 360 did a lot to change my mind on the game. As someone who rarely ever watches movies, I didn't think this game would be up my alley at all. However, after just one play-through of the demo with my brother, we knew we had to get Scene It on our 360 someday.

Years later, I finally picked up last year's game, Scene It: Box Office Smash for a measly $20 with four big button controllers.

As a party trivia game, Scene It rocks pretty hard. There are a number of different question types and they're all very easy to understand and play immediately. The packed-in controllers also add a lot to the experience, making the process of buzzing in and answering questions a piece of cake. The only thing I don't like about them is that they're not truly wireless, which means you need to be constantly aiming your controller at the sensor. My other gripe is question repetition, which seems to be a problem with any trivia game that isn't updated online. I've already begun to see repeated questions, even though we just got the game.

Having owned this game for all of three days, I've already played it a bunch with friends and family and we've had a blast every time. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy a Scene It Xbox game for full price, but I would gladly pick this and any future iterations of the series up for $20 should I come across them. If you have any penchant for trivia games or movies, I'd definitely give Scene It a look.