Street Fighter 4.......................

Street Fighter 4, oh how I have waited for this game for years. It is finally upon us, and it's pretty good. I'm just not sure it's a 5. Let's jump right in and talk about what I don't like about this game instead of what I did like. Let's start visuals, the visuals are descent, not great in anyway. I did expect a little more/something different. The characters seem to lack in every way, they aren't ugly, they just aren't done impressive, not what you would expect after a 9 year wait? I don't care for a lot of the characters faces or their in game facial expressions, it seems as though Capcom doesn't want to take their own game to seriously, and that's fine, I get that. But it wasn't my preference. There is almost a comcial look on each characters face when they are struck. One character I really can't stand is Blanka, he looks TERRIBLE. He looks all blocky and and pixelated.

Next, backgrounds, I hated them. There is a volcano spewing lava all over, and you are fighting right there. I didn't think we were playing MK with over the top cheesy stages to fight at. All of the level in general are really pretty terrible I'm sorry. They aren't even dedicated to a character which annoys the shit out of me. I think fighting at the certain level against that certain character is highly addictive. That is something you don't forget, and keeps you wanting more. I haven't played one level more then once for a single character, they are always in a different spot, that doesn't even make sense. Why even keep the trademark street fighter map of the world at the title screen?

One thing that drives me crazy is why won't Capcom give us some real stories for our fighters? I know there is a ton of fighters, and that would be a ton of work, but this is about the same fighting system we have had for years, so they aren't spending years on the gameplay, they just keep fine tuning it and adding in elements to make it even better, if possible. The stories/cutscenes are terrible anime, and they are flat out cheesy, and aembarressing. Capcom needs to step up and give us stories for our characters that are engaging, and not paper thin, and actually give us some cut scenes.

Gameplay, the gameplay is great. It's obviously makes street fighter. It's just as deep as ever, actually deeper, yet simple. Anyone can play, and have fun with it. To take it a step further, you can learn more and advance your skills. Parrying is gone, thank god. I was never huge into that. One new element added in is the revenge attack, a great way to shift the balance of a fight if you get behind early. There is online play, and it's awesome. You can customize the fight you want. You can even add titles to your character, you can add icons. You earn coins and titles from fighting. There are a ton of acheivements, the game is deep. It will keep you coming back for me. Overall a good game, but I was left wondering why they didn't do a few things differently. For my money the recently released SSF2THD, is a better game, thought not as deep, but the game is much sharper visually, and a thrill to play, and it's only 10 bucks. GREAT DEAL AND GAME!!!

What a waste

Where to start with Army of Two? I'll start with the controls. My cousin purchased this game and beat it over the course of 2 days. He said it was "ok", but that it would be "fun with 2 players". So we started chipping away, hoping for an improved experience, as we all know computer partner A.I. is usually never up to par. Together you can revive, kill enemies, and it works fairly well, but I really can't get over how bad the controls are, he and I both. It is a very very tedious experience. Nothing is smooth, and everything is a chore. Picking weapons is hell. You cannot just click over and use one button, in the heat of battle this kills you. You have to use a combination of 2 buttons. It's not huge, but over the course of the game, you hate it. Melee in game is non existent, you use your fire button at close range I believe, but it never works, we are talking a 1 in 5 chance. You are trying to melee, and you are sitting there firing at the ground, extremely frustrating. That and it is a tedious experience just to get your guy to crouch. The controller layout just doesn't make sense. This game could have been way better had they just refined the controls. This is a very poor mans version of GOW. Enemey A.I. what a joke say you are in a fire fight with one guy, when you aim it him he ducks, realistic right? Yeah, but while he is ducked, if you look away, he automatically knows you aren't looking, even if he wasn't looking to know he doesn't have your attention. Also, the enemies just seem to know that you are locked on them, say you have your gun aimed just waiting for them to peak out, they won't. They magically know you are waiting, the second you look away, they pop up. It is complete utter shit, this is the PS3, and the 360. It is completely annoying. Graphics, the graphics are ok. I would give them a 3.5 of 5. They are done pretty well, but are limited in texture and detail. They are quite bland, and repetitive. The cut scenes, are done well, but yet again suffer from detail. And you have no consistency, one person looks way better then another, and so forth. It's a little bit of a head scratcher. Overall, you have a pretty descent game, but add in the poor controls, lousy A.I., bland story, and a whole bunch of flaws, and it just isn't that good. Couple that with the short nature of the game, and you have a rental for a couple days of frustration. The game itself is fairly easy, but you will run into some controller problems, upgrades are nice, but can't save this flawed title. This is not worth 60 dollars.

PS3

The PS3 has proved to be a very average at best machine. I'm sick of Vicous Sid supporting it blindly. He tries to do whatever he can to get every gamer to adore it. I know he gets paid by Sony to endorse the piece of shit. But give me a break. He says that Resistance is equal to GOW. Everyone in their right mind knows it isn't true. He keeps putting his foot in his mouth along with Sony. The sysem itself is average. It doesn't dazzle anyone and it is 600 dollars. Sony needs to hurry and put out some games, and make people believe in the PS3. They need to prove it is capable of all they say it is. And they need to do it fast. Time is not on their side.