It's no secret that I'm a big 360 fan. For me, it's the most exciting thing to happen to gaming in years though, and really reinvigorated a love that can so easily become jaded when you've been doing something for...pretty much 25 years none stop.
I rattle on about the machine around here pretty much
incessantly, but rightly so I feel. This is the first of the next-gen machines after all - one should
hope it to be the most interesting and lively system around right now. So even if you aren't seeing a ton of PC, PS2 or Gamecube news and reviews on these here pages and forums, well, I'd argue that kinda stands to reason.
That said, even though I've been playing a ton of games on my 360 recently, rather than detail 'em all excruciatingly and individually, I've opted for a more fast-paced round-up here. I've touched on some of the bigger titles already -
Oblivion,
Prey,
GRAW and Rockstar's
Table Tennis - but here are a few lesser known odds and sods that have been taking up my time more recently. I may sound like a broken record from here on out - singing the praises of all of these in varying degrees - but hey, you can shut right up, 'cos I think they're worth it...
Fight Night Round 3
Look, despite EA seemingly making a marked effort to improve their image and output recently, I still kinda loathe the bastards. I'm also far from a big sports guy too. So when I tell you Fight Night 3 is fucking fab, believe me when I say this is coming from the last guy who ever thought he'd say so.
| An EA Sports title that quite possibly takes the mantle as the most "next-gen" game currently out there? I guess it really is "in the game"... |
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It's strange really, but Fight Night 3 offers up arguably the most amazing visuals yet seen on the machine. The detail, the style, the backgrounds, the crowds, the amazing motion blur, the breathtaking replays - everything is not only borderline perfect, but a significant step up over everything else currently on the 360. Even the likes of Lost Planet can't match Fight Night's film-quality visual splendour. I'd never have expected that from a cross-platform title, and especially not one from EA. Fight Night 3 really is a next generation experience in every sense of the word though; it not only harnesses the system's immense power in a stunningly glorious manner, but also uses the technology for interesting and original gameplay purposes to boot. Who knew?
This game is completely HUD-less, for example. Forget 2D energy meters along the top of the screen and all that pap you're used to seeing, Fight Night has far grander plans up its sleeve. Fighters are rendered borderline photo-realistically here, so much so that you can literally tell how your guy is doing solely by the bruises around his eyes and the blood on his face. This is your "health bar" here in the next generation.
| My god, I can't begin to tell you how stunning these visuals look on the move. Squint your eyes and it looks, well, real |
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When you tire and run low on stamina, he'll even start to slouch and breathe more heavily, which naturally you'll need to note and accommodate into your fighting style if you plan on winning. The detail is so ridiculous and meticulous that it all works surprisingly well too; I never for one moment found myself yearning for the archaic sprites and meters we've always been lumbered with in fighting games of the past.
And make no mistake, this
is just a fighting game at the end of the day. Don't be put off by the same "ewww, it's boxing" mentality I myself succumbed to 'til recently, Fight Night is really just a beat 'em up when all's said and done. A damn good one at that.
Based off footage and word of mouth, I went into this thing expecting it to look amazing. Sure enough, it more than delivered on that side of things...the game practically feels like you're watching a fight on TV. I honestly wasn't expecting it to play anywhere near as well as it did though, and I have to say that's the biggest and most pleasant surprise for me here. The dual control method is surprisingly intuitive, simply mapping all your punches to different moves on the right analogue stick, negating the button bashing usually found in fighting games and subconsciously forcing you into a more tactical mind-set almost immediately.
| Boxing game or not, Fight Night's a riot to control. Slapping dudes around with mittens on has seldom been so fun |
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Sure, there's not
that much to it. Tapping provides your typical jabs, while rolling in different directions produces uppercuts, wide swings and all-powerful haymakers. Fight Night kind of accepts that a punch is a punch at the end of the day though, and doesn't try to force other needlessly complex moves and game mechanics on top that really shouldn't be there. Block and attack, that's all you need to know in Fight Night; planning when to defend and when to strike is pretty much the single skill required to succeed. This simplicity is what makes it work for me though, it's got a wonderful pick up 'n' play vibe that'll grab you instantly if you let it, yet like all the great games of this vein, it'll also take a good long while to truly master like a pro.
I must say another aspect of this game that I absolutely worship is the career mode. The ability to create your own character from scratch, adjusting facial details, hair colour and even individual taunts to your heart's content is great fun, and results in an eerily realistic counterpart to yourself with which to then take into the ring and batter your adversaries with (boxing Diggler is a fucking bad ass, I tell ya). I'm really into this excessive customisation which games are starting to utilise more and more these days, and it adds a wonderful extra layer of immersion to actually control, well, yourself for a change. That's escapism at its finest.
| Fight Night also includes a pleasing roster of famous fighters from over the years for you to play around with. Not that I'd know |
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The career mode's great 'cos the customisation doesn't stop there either, there's a humungous, almost daunting selection of boxing gloves, trunks, trainers and even gum-shields to purchase and unlock as you progress, as well as an in-depth stat system that you can refine and level up via fun little training mini-games too. It works fabulously as an ultra-light RPG side-game that's interspersed between all the fighting, and adds some pleasing depth to what could otherwise just have been two dudes smacking each other around the face over and over. There's just so much more to it here.
Of course, there's also an online mode to sink your teeth into, and I must say, this is an all too rare game that Dig absolutely rocks at. Games have been completely lag-free and enjoyable thus far, with online Fight Night totally indistinguishable to its offline mode, but with an extra dollop of fun thrown on top that can only be gained from smacking around real people. I look forward to many a future victory beating down teenagers like Michael Jackson's dad, but I do have to say that a "winner stays on" mode would have truly perfected the online feature-set.
All in all I love this game though, and regret the fact that it took me almost six bloody months to get around to buying the sucker, despite unanimously positive word of mouth from pretty much everyone in the world. Fight Night 3 really is as good as they say though, and certainly one of the most cutting edge examples of the 360's ridiculous power in action. I'd also say it's a definite improvement over the demo that's been floating around on the Marketplace, feeling tighter, deeper, and adding a ton of awesome features that really bring it to life.
And I hate boxing.
Burnout Revenge
First thing's first, if you owned Burnout Revenge on the PS2 or Xbox, move on. This is a spruced up version with revamped visuals, some new crash levels, and a much improved multiplayer mode, but beyond that it's the same exact game at heart. As a result, it's hardly worth a double dip, especially at 360 prices.
| Car crash porn |
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If however, you never got around to firing up Burnout Revenge previously, this is another absolute must-have I'm pleased to say. Burnout's a crazy experience unlike any other really; a racing game cross-bred with a fighting game, as interpreted by kamikaze pilots. It's one of the most thrilling, fast-paced and over-the-top gaming experiences ever, and as far as arcadey racers go, certainly one of the most fun too.
It's the online mode that really brings this particular title to life though. For its 360 incarnation, Burnout's been rejuvenated from the ground up. Joining a game enters you into a mini league you see, in which you and five adversaries compete in numerous games sequentially, racking up points along the way until a winner is crowned. Seeing as Burnout is just as much of a smash 'em up as a racing game though, some fabulous additions have been inserted regarding the "takedowns" this time around.
The game keeps a constant tally of every single person you play against you see, noting how many times you've crossed bumpers and taken each other down. On paper it might not sound like a big deal, but slaughtering some scumbag who knocked you off a bridge 10 times last month amidst the heat of a 200mph race, adds a whole new dimension to the game; you're not only contending with crossing the finishing line, avoiding obstacles and monitoring your boost meter, but now you're also dishing out revenge on those who've wronged you in the past (while of course avoiding those gunning for you too).
| Burnout's been adorned with a pleasing visual upgrade over the previous gen. On an HD-TV, it's kinda breath-taking |
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It's a wondrous idea, and adds a great new dimension to the genre that we've never seen anything vaguely like before. Needless to say, the Gamerscore achievements tie into this whole setup rather brilliantly too, giving you further incentive to really explore the aggressive angle and mash up your competitors to the full extent of your mad skillz.
Visually, this is a definite cut above the original game, and in HD, is kinda glorious to behold, blazing along at 60 FPS and offering up some truly stunning detail in its mammoth pile-ups and explosions. The deforming cars are particularly fab, as is the scratched up paint-work each vehicle so proudly displays at the end of each race. In standard definition I can't imagine it coming off quite so jaw-dropping however, an unfortunate side effect of its origins as a previous generation title.
Not one for owners of the original then like I say, but certainly one of my fave Live games yet, offering up a simply wonderful group experience that never grows old. Revenge is a pleasing entry point for what is bound to be just one of numerous Burnout titles we'll go on to receive on these next-generation platforms from Criterion. Heck, it even makes up for
Black.
Top Spin 2
As I've mentioned before, the first Top Spin was one of my favourite games ever released on the original Xbox. I've always been a big fan of tennis - both of the virtual and real varieties - ever since Super Tennis rocked my world as a kid. Top Spin managed to take the same addictive fun of that classic Super NES game and mould it into an original, beautiful, silky smooth modern update to die for.
Top Spin 2 doesn't stray too far in comparison. It hardly falters next to its predecessor, but it doesn't better it either; it merely maintains. This is the same old Top Spin doing what it does best. That's fine I guess, I was just hoping for a lot more here on a new system though.
| Top Spin 2 is pretty similar to the original game, but with some minor gameplay tweaks and an ever so slightly improved graphics engine. That's about it |
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Sure, it has a slightly improved Fight Night style "create your own toon" feature, and the career mode has a wee bit more depth involved, with training, levelling up and even e-mail messages, but when all's said and done, the tennis itself is borderline identical to the original Top Spin (arguably even down to its visuals). I think the single major disappointment for me though is how the risk shots assigned to the top triggers have been ever so slightly re-jiggled. They're a fair bit harder to pull off now, so much so that I pretty much avoid them entirely.
Negativity aside, what can I say? I still get a buzz from thwacking balls around on a screen, and Top Spin's just as much of a blast to play as always, particularly online. I love the feel of this game more than anything else; the way your character handles, the satisfaction of the hit, and the sheer pleasure of nailing that winning slice from the net after a tense rally that you felt was gonna last until the end of time. I've always preferred this series to Virtual Tennis for these reasons, and the added depth and increased range of shots doesn't hurt either.
Even though I was hoping for something just as brand new and revolutionary as the first game in this sequel, the Top Spin series is still where it's at for top class multiplayer tennis shenanigans if you ask me.
Ridge Racer 6 (Take 2)
| True, RR6 offers far from the most detailed of visuals, but the views still please if only in their scope |
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Okay, it's time to eat some words. Back in January I
chatted about Ridge Racer on these here pages, and pretty much called shenanigans. A poor alternative to Project Gotham Racing, I called it. So it's with my tail between my legs that I come crawling back now, announcing that Ridge Racer has since taken up at least three times as much of my time as PGR has. Sorry.
Don't get me wrong, PGR is the textbook example of a next-generation driving game. That thing still looks absolutely mind-blowingly amazing to this day, evidenced wondrously by the amazing new photo mode the devs recently
patched in. That alone has given it a new lease of life among pretty much my entire friends list right now.
But as much as I enjoy an evening on PGR, blazing through Cat & Mouse mode with the lads while gargling beer, it's Ridge Racer I forever reach for when they all log off and call it a night. It's my dirty little late night secret, where I toss realism out the window and indulge my more arcadey dark side. As a racer it's super fast, over the top, and pretty damn non-sensical...but it's Ridge Racer! There's really nothing else quite like these games. Unfortunately that name alone may have become little more than a punch-line at this point, thanks primarily to Kaz Hirai, but fuck the haters because between its 360 showing here and the amazing PSP title before it, Ridge is currently top of the racing pile for me.
| This is what it's all about, sirs. Ridge Racer's wild corner drifting is so piss easy to get to grips with, yet months and months on it's still yet to grow old. Too much fun |
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It's all about the drifting man. Sorry PGR, I love ya buddy, but fuck you and your breaking at every corner, I'll take the demented full-speed skidding at 90 degrees of Ridge any day. It's exhilarating and fun, in that one area where most racers are, to be blunt, pretty bloody annoying.
There's just so much game here too, it feels almost never ending. The single player "World Explorer" mode piles literally hundreds and hundreds of different races, modes and courses upon the player, that it could quite conceivably last forever. It starts out simple enough, with you blazing through race after race as if engaging some sort of god mode, but slowly and surely it starts to ramp up the difficulty hugely, forcing your skills to improve dramatically in the process, with by the end of the campaign, you finding yourself a finely chiselled mountain of leet-ness who could drift-race his way out of the North Pole. As simple as Ridge seems on the face of it, there's actually a whole lot to learn and take in as you progress through this mammoth journey too, with a fair bit more depth than I think it ever really gains credit for.
| The more recent Ridge Racer's have really emphasised the nitrous boosting, a feature arguably err, "inspired" by Burnout |
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And yet again, it's another 360 game that has a whole other world to explore in the form of its online features when you're done with that. Online Ridge may lack the depth of Burnout, or PGR's choice of modes, but even as just a more bog-standard 14 player online racer, it still holds its own. It's also pretty much the only 360 game out there in which you can regularly play alongside Japanese gamers (although trust me when I tell you, these guys are fucking hardcore).
Visually, it could never match up to the aforementioned titles. Ridge is big, chunky and simplistic one might say, but its liquid smooth framerate never falters for one moment, despite the epic, wide open views on offer, and at the end of the day that vintage Ridge Racer art direction remains just as beautiful and stunning as it always has. It's another title that might not particularly impress on your bog-standard television set, but on HD...wow. Just wow.
And with that, I apologise to you, Ridge Racer 6. I talked down to you many moons ago, and hereby renounced my actions and proclaim you a wondrous fountain of sliding racy nonsense that has eaten up almost as many hours of my life as Geometry Wars. I heart you.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Battlefield 2 is of course one of the greatest (if not
the greatest) online FPS games ever to grace the
PC, but its more streamlined console cousin often gets left out of the limelight by comparison.
| Despite sharing the odd model with its PC brother, Modern Combat is an entirely new game when all's said and done |
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Indeed, I had little to no interest in playing the bugger myself back on the original Xbox and the PS2. How could a console game ever match up to the exquisite brilliance of the PC original, I thought? And true, it doesn't.
But it's when you stop drawing comparisons and look upon Modern Combat as its own, unique game that it starts to shine in its own way. Much like GRAW, the console take on Battlefield is a completely separate entity to its PC equivalent. I'm talking different levels, weapons, missions, and even entire modes. It makes me wonder why these cross-platform developers insist on whoring out the same name among all their titles, when so often they differ hugely between systems.
Disregard everything you know about BF2 on the PC then, because Modern Combat really is its own beast. For one, it actually boasts a real, genuine single player experience. In fact, this aspect of BF2 is surprisingly enjoyable.
Doing away with the command post capturing, respawning nonsense of the multiplayer game, the single player mode in Modern Combat opts for full-on, linear missions and an on-going storyline. It still retains the Battlefield trademarks of jumping in and out of vehicles, along with a wide variety of classes and weaponry for you to pick between, but finally offers proper, focused and decently plotted scenarios to go along with them. It results in the first real single player experience of the entire series thus far.
| Metal Gear Battlefield |
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One level for instance, sees you attacking a humongously sized enemy bridge, planting C4 along each of its weak points and finally evacuating before its immense detonation, all under the fire of enemy troops, gun emplacements and hovering choppers in the sky. Another involves taking out a massive tanker at sea via constant strafing runs amidst huge dollops of anti-aircraft fire aimed squarely up your arse.
My favourite of the bunch though comes early on in the game, in which you play a sniper tasked with clearing out a small town of enemies. Unlike the multiplayer mode, there's no tickets or such here, you simply have a small 3-man sniper squad stationed on different rooftops, and once they all die, it's game over. The atmosphere and tension created as subsequent members of your team get knocked off one by one is amazing, and in my case ultimately ended up with me running out of sniper ammo, moving to street level, and taking out entire waves of remaining troops with nothing but a silenced pistol, while sticking to the shadows like a nerve-wrecked Solid Snake. Missions like this are an amazing wake-up call for me I must say, a guy who since the dawn of time has always yearned for some proper single player Battlefield action. Well, turns out it was right here all along in Modern Combat.
| Despite using some assets from the Xbox 1 game, Modern Combat still comes across as rather gorgeous thanks to beefed up special effects and some rock solid performance |
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As for multiplayer? Yeah, it's not up to the sheer brilliance seen in the PC version, that goes without saying. That's an online game borderline perfect if you ask me, a title that continues to withstand the test of time, and ain't about to go anywhere any time soon. Modern Combat on the other hand, is merely good old fashioned fun, but something I fear many won't be playing this time in a year.
It lacks the more memorable maps of PC BF2 for one, while the action is a fair bit smaller and more focused too, lacking the truly epic scope of those stunning 64 player showdowns. The amazing depth added by the likes of commander mode and the squad leaders is completely done away with too. Instead, Modern Combat comes off playing more like the "classic" Battlefield games of yester-year; straight up command post capturing, amidst huge splutterings of vehicular action and many a big arse explosion.
I would argue though, that as a game, it's still a very nice accompaniment to the PC title for fans of the series, and the single player mode also adds a huge chunk of bonus value that even one-ups its personal computer counterpart rather spectacularly. In these large scale war games, only last year's
SW Battlefront 2 beats it in this area for me.
| The single player game boasts some fabulous chopper-centric missions, which I must also add handle particularly nicely on the 360 pad |
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Oh, and as is always worth touching upon when discussing FPS games on a console, the handling is by all means perfectly adequate in Modern Combat. It needed some minor tinkering in the sensitivity sliders before I was able to hit my sweet spot, and I wouldn't say it quite matches up to Halo in this area, but I find the handling suitably responsive and more than accurate enough, whether it be engaging in epic long range sniper duels, or tense close combat pistol spam-fests.
The guns feel meaty and satisfying to fire, and thankfully look rather splendid too. Modern Combat's seen some fabulous visual upgrades over its earlier inception, now utilising stunning motion blur and gorgeous depth of field that really impresses for what is essentially still an Xbox 1 game buried underneath.
It's no match for GRAW of course, but I'd argue is the next best thing, and much like Burnout, if you never picked up the PS2 or Xbox incarnation it's another one worth adding to your shopping list. Now come on EA, give us a proper single player Battlefield game on the PC ya mongrels...
Street Fighter II - Hyper Fighting
Is there anything one can say about Street Fighter II that hasn't been said already? Sometimes it feels like the most popular video game ever made. On a more personal level though, it was the game that not only defined the Super NES for me, but also the long-lost world of arcades on top. Hell, it's the game that pretty much defined my entire teenage years if I'm honest.
| Hyper Fighting is essentially SFII Turbo, minus the boosted speed modes. It lets you play as the additional four end of game boss characters which vanilla SFII never did |
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Sure enough, amidst scanning late night cable TV for scrambled porn channels, drinking cider on park benches at 4am with my mates, and of course that unforgettable moment of (finally) popping my cherry at an all too tender young age, I have to say the many battles waged within SFII still remain among the most prominent and cherished memories from those befuddled years of pre-adulthood. Thus is the life of a gaming geek I guess, but at least it should put my love for this game into some kinda crazy, warped perspective (dragon punches over titties? Say it ain't so).
SFII still retains the honour of holding the longest gaming marathon I've ever maintained in one sitting actually (a hefty 9 hours if you're wondering). The winner-stays-on sessions enjoyed with my buddies as a young whipper snapper were what multiplayer gaming wet dreams were made of though, a feeling and atmosphere that in all the new machines, system upgrades, next-gen technology and swishy bump-mapped FPS engines, really hasn't ever been matched if you ask me.
Or has it? By launching good old SFII on Live Arcade here in 2006 - for 800 of your Microsoft credits - Capcom are striving to bring the good times back. Yeah, there's been one or two online renditions of Street Fighter released in the past, but there's something special about this particular release that's had us Xboxers salivating at the testes for months upon months now. It's vintage Street Fighter, it's on Live, and it's on the 360...a match made in heaven?
| Fireballs can be a little fiddly on that 360 pad... |
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Well, sorta. This is pretty much an arcade perfect port on the face of it. Whether it be the frame-rate slow-down of a Ha-Do-Ken making contact, or just the site of that one guy blatantly whackin' off in the background of Ken's stage, everything you'd expect is present and correct here. Unfortunately though, SFII is ultimately let down by one or two (albeit small) niggles that almost ruin what sounds like an otherwise perfect game on paper. Let's run through 'em shall we?
For starters, this proves the first and only real game where the 360's controller lets it down. Ironic that for all the racers, first person shooters and even RTS games which this wondrous pad from the heavens has handled with ease, it's a mere 2D beat 'em up which outright stumps it. Playing SFII on the 360 feels much like playing it on the PSP though; it works, but it's never quite perfect. The analogue stick is too sensitive for cranking out fireballs and sonic booms at high speed, and the D-pad, while far more appropriate, isn't a patch on the old SNES pad from back in the day either. It's useable, but takes a good long while to get to grips with I'm afraid.
| Witnessing amazing scenes like this online is a bit of a boner moment for me |
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Secondly, the sheer difficulty of this fucking game is astronomical. Trust me, I was a grade A SFIIer who could perfect his way through hard mode on the SNES with his eyes welded shut, but I guess sensing that there may well be quite a few of us old time champs out there in this day and age, Capcom opted to go with the more hardcore difficulty found in the arcade version here. As a result? Just playing bog-standard single player mode in this game is
Ninja Gaiden difficult I tell ya. It seriously kicks my arse constantly, even on the default setting, with the hardest mode absolutely physically impossible to even look at, let alone play. Hell, even the super noob easy mode puts up a worrying fight.
Fuck all that though, it's the online features which have drawn such huge hype for this game, and rightly so. Not only does SFII offer up ranked and unranked 1 on 1 games, it also enjoys a fantastic new "Quarter Match" system designed to emulate the previously mentioned winner stays on games from the arcade (much like the one seen more recently in Dead or Alive 4). Two peeps battle it out while spectators watch, then they take it in turns to knock him off his perch and subsequently take his place.
This almost works perfectly, but is let down only by the fact it supports a mere four players at once. Still, to dominate three foes over and over, headsets in tow, provides quite the nostalgia trip I must say, and really captures that classic multiplayer SFII atmosphere that it sets out to. There's word of lag going around in the internet's more vocal sectors, but I was genuinely surprised to see how latency free it's been thus far at this end, with matches against fellow UK players handling pretty much identically to games experienced offline. US matches offer up a tiny delay in comparison, but it's always remained totally playable at all times for me, and to be honest, is way better than I was expecting considering the split second pixel perfect timing required of SFII's intense blocking and delicate fingering.
| I was never a huge fan of Hyper Fighting's more garish colour palette next to the original |
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It's a bit of a bummer then, that with such air-tight online action, to find the front-end absolutely abysmal. Getting into games is borderline impossible, due to 90% of all match-ups responding with "timed out" or "unable to join". I'm not exaggerating, pretty much every single join request likes to splutter up an error message in return. The only tried and tested way to get a reliable match is to send and receive invites solely on your buddy list. One presumes this will be fixed over the next week or so, but it sours the initial wow factor of finally getting our hands on some quality online Street Fighter action.
Also, and this is hardly a fault of the game, SFII's online community is already drowning in Neanderthals. You'll regularly battle foes for instance, who endlessly repeat E. Honda's thousand palm slap over and over, or repeatedly engage Bison's stupidly powerful leg skid manoeuvre, in an all too easy attempt to beat you down with as little skill and effort required as possible. Turn the tables on them though and win, and you'll more often than not be called a "fucking gay cheater" or given negative feedback for your trouble. It seems to be primarily an American teenager thing right now, but it pains me to see such a classic, beautiful game overrun by dick-holes.
Still, for ?6.50? This is probably the biggest bargain on Arcade yet, and minor niggles aside, still manages to sit alongside Geometry Wars and Bankshot Billiards as top of the rung XBLA winners for me. 'Cos it's Street Fighter. And it's online. And I rock at it.
The Future
| You can read a brief verdict on the Ninety Nine Nights demo over on the boards if you're curious |
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Elsewhere in 360 land, we have the long-awaited Dead Rising out in the US next week (with a UK release to follow a month later). Ninety Nine Nights will join it around the same time, as will the surprisingly solid Saint's Row, which between them should last us rather splendidly 'til Splinter Cell 4, Crackdown, Too Human and the almighty Gears of War touch down in the lead up 'til Christmas.
The next-gen war is finally starting to heat up it seems. Exciting times, I tell ya...