North Carolina Thread LXIII

So far Nathan is the only one to contact me about games tonight. So it will be BBCS2 and MVC3.
@ Alice Chan, KOF13 release party sounds great!! I’ll see who wants to be there. I’m sure Nathan and me will make it. Not sure who from EZ is excited about it,cz all I ever hear about is Capcom games around there.(-_-") But I’m hyped as hell!! I played quite a bit of KOF 13 in the Arcade so, really looking forward to it, more so than UMVC3.

If you would like to do a release party at EZ on Monday night (Tuesday morning) we can work something out. All of the EZ fight club members only pay $5 venue fee ANYTIME they want to come. We are open 24/7. With MW3 and Halo CE coming out in November, we have lots going on anyway. I might be able to get some SWAG from gamestop, they are all about launch parties these days. Who knows, might even fire up the grill. We also got another big TV to use.

I might even get the gamestop by Walmart to let you play the game early at their store. It will be on 42" LCD HDTV’s that had too much lag, but still should be cool.

my interest increased x10 when you said swag with capital letters.

Oh hell yea dude I would make it to that, bring a full car pool. Although for the particular game KOF13 obviously I wouldn’t be able to get it until tuesday morning as would most other people so i’m not so sure since it’s not a huuuuuuuuuuuge release if it would get a midnight launch how we could go about getting the game early and playing it. Although I could support by bringing extra sticks/controllers/tv/consoles and stuff like that. Really though whatever works best. If monday night is no good then Tuesday night for sure. I’m probably going to get it both on 360 and PS3 so that will be good. So far interest wise I can say we have about 7-8 although man for how much you guys talked about 13 i’m surprised more haven’t posted interest for an event like this. Although 8 is def not bad.

Do a launch party I want to get pretty for it

Personally I liked DMC3 more than DMC4, but only because of the story. DMC3 dealt with so much specifically dealing with Sparda and what not. You learned about Dante’s twin brother Vergil, some more history about Sparda, and even got a cameo of Mundas. Mainly DMC3 tied into the first DMC which got me hooked on the character Dante in the first place. DMC4 was too much of a love story to me and with Nero’s arm, devil trigger, and white hair I was hoping for more. Gameplay wise it beats DMC out, especially Dante. He’s never looked so much cooler. Style switching on the fly and the ability to use Yamato. I was upset that there wasn’t more levels I could run through as Dante, but Nero still deserves his credit.

Overall I think myself, along with some others, were under the speculation that maybe there was another “son of sparda.” After seeing Nero’s DT activate and its similarities to Vergil the thought of Nero’s arm actually belonging to Vergil (or Nelo Angelo) began to arise. If they kept Nero and Kyrie’s love story and added something more to Nero like maybe how he obtain the arm then I probably would of enjoyed it more. The only issue I have with Devil May Cry these days is the reboot “DMC.” Just hate to see a cool character and franchise pooped on, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

It’s basically confirmed in the game’s plot that Nero carries the blood of Sparda. We just don’t know the circumstances. Is he Vergil’s son? Possession? Experiment gone awry? Maybe Sparda still alive and sowing his oats? IT IS A MYSTERY.

But yeah, DMC4’s plot is pretty ho-hum, not a whole lot of advancement or interesting character development. It feels like more of a side story which is basically used as a vehicle to show how badass Dante becomes in the future. Also sort of a further apology for DMC2 (DMC3 being the original apology), since that showed us a future Dante that was extremely lame.

Two parts to this. As far as “an experience”, it can certainly be a nice thing if done right so that the gameplay and story play off of each other. I tend to be relatively story minded, in some cases more than I’d care to admit. My issue is that it seems like the experiences offered are limited due to the protagonist choices. Either its someone cocky like Dante or some generic musclebound guy. While enjoyable, it often seems like designers have the same goal. Then again, there’s a number of games I haven’t played.

As far as purchases and such, pirating does sort of bug me both from a general “do unto others mindset” and from doing indie stuff and thus being on the other end. Voting with your dollars can have a greater effect than some may realize. Not gonna whine or berate people, I just have my introspective moments.

Games are generally a fantasy medium, and so protagonists will often be unrealistic ideals, and considering the target population for most games is a group of young males, well, you do the math.

I really like the XIII changes. They nerfed what needed nerfing, but gave those characters new things to work with in their place. Like, EX rayspin loses invincibility, but they give Kula a bunch of random new stuff. I’m still going to strongly dislike her I think lol D: I mainly dislike her because of how her normals work and how her combos are like, special move special move special move special move special move special move

Here’s Duo Lon’s stuff, Jon:

DUOLON

  • [Featured in video] EX Genmuken(f.AC) knocks back opponent for a longer time on a hit. It can be followed up with attacks like a fierce punch or weak Juon Shikon(qcb+P).
  • [Featured in video] EX Shakijuuryuu(qcf+P) can be canceled with specials and higher.
  • [Featured in video] Juon Shikon(qcb+P)’s frames have been tweaked. The weak version comes out faster than before so it’s easier to use for strings and combos.
  • [Featured in video] Genmukyaku(f.K) can be canceled with supers(DMs) and higher.
  • Neomax’s damage has been increased from 400>448.
    Producer Yamamoto says-
    Genmukyaku(f.K) can be used by itself and canceled into a super, and it can also be useful for hit confirming during a combo from a Genmuken (f.P > qcf+K> f.K > DM). It’s become easier to place his projectile, so try using it after a move so you can attack together with it.

video they mention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ma_QoLwmM_Q

Very interesting to me here is how Maxima can cancel his autoguard into specials now. D:

Oh I understand that and I actually sometimes feel like I’ve got the wrong mindset for some games. Still it seems like even within the “18-35, middle class male” demographic there could be a splash more variance. I tend to associate with “do not mistake my kindness for weakness” and notice a lack of the kindness part of that statement. And as stated, I probably need to expand my game playing a bit since there’s a fair amount of stuff I haven’t played.

Yeah blake hit the nail on the head, just comes down to the fact that most gamers are teenage boys. This isn’t a group reknowned for scholarship. Yet still, even if they’re not staggeringly intellectual works every now and then you get something special. A few games that are a little more sophisticated in terms of their scope that I’ve played and enjoyed :

Planescape: Torment
Silent Hill 2
Catherine
Persona 4
Final Fantasy 12
Deus EX HR
Vagrant Story
New Vegas*

In general though, yes-- as games stand right now this isn’t the medium you really come to for that, but you can still have perfectly worthwhile storytelling even without those kinds of ambitions. Final Fantasy 8 and 9 aren’t intellectually demanding games, but they’re rich and nuanced stories and IMO there is definitely a level of sophistication or intelligence involved in depicting these kinds of complexly human/emotional stories in any kind of convincing or involving fashion.

edit: Jon can step off because if Saiki isn’t legal than Duo lon is mine.
edit 2: If you really want to get your mind blown, try reading some Thomas Pynchon

Thanks Brent, those are all good buffs, no nerfs at all. I was actually hoping his fireball got better and sure enough it did. I have some nasty reset ideas with that I wanna test when the game comes out.

Oh yeah, Brent, you asked me today what I thought of the K’ changes in XIII. I can’t really make an accurate assessment as to whether or not he’ll be vastly worse or better, but I noticed that most of the nerfs affect the tactical usability of moves (ie moves that recover more slowly aren’t as safe to use or might not help in transition to offense), while most of the buffs seem to be more combo-related, though none of the buffs are worthless. Those types of changes make me somewhat uneasy in a general sense, but I can’t say anything definitive yet. Like, increased recovery on Trigger and followups. How much increased recovery? Is Trigger at least safe on block, or will I get thrown/punished? Can I still do meaty Trigger on someone’s wakeup in the corner for frametraps? Does the increased recovery on followups mean that I will get punished on reaction for even attempting them, or will I still be able to cobble together some sort of long range mixup/mindgame between Second Shoot and Second Shell? Stuff like that is what I’d like to know, but won’t be able to answer until I get my hands on the game.

I actually like his slowed down projectile, he can use it kind of a like a gunflame and it has two hits. I don’t think he’ll be bad by any means though, he’s still got lots of things going for him.

Yeah, I like the EX Second Shoot quite a bit. Basically a free ticket inside. I don’t think he’ll be bad necessarily, but the way rankings work out isn’t based solely on whether or not the character is good/effective, it has a lot to do with matchups. Even if K’ ends up a strong character, if he has bad matches against other characters who are accepted as being strong, he won’t see that much action. That being said, SNK’s approach to XIII has been to give people strong stuff, so I don’t feel that uncomfortable. Shen still looks ridiculous as well. There are a lot of characters I like in this game, so I’ll probably be able to come up with an effective competitive team regardless.

Yeah I’m thinking about running the original 2003 team, Ash, Shen, Duo-- but if the console characters wind up being tournament legal who knows. Birry canne looks like some fun times to me.

YES KOF 13 RELEASE PARTY!!! Yo I’m all over dat!! Anyway I can help I will. I’m gonna buy 50 copies of the game myself just to support SNKP!!! jk
But really, great Idea SNKP needs our support, they put their heart and soul into KOF13 and almost all their games. Can’t let them go bankrupt again. I’ll be there with bells on. My team so far has been Takuma, Yuri, and Ryo. I also like Shen and I wanna try a lot of the cast. It just feels good to have a real new KOF in my hands after sooo looong. Hopefully the KOF13 scene stays alive with the advent of UMVC3 and SXT and all those other games comin soon. 2012 is gonna be crazy!!

Gah, I’m so excited for this new era of games.

Sorry if I’ve been inconsistent on gatherings, it seems like we get different groups of people and there’s no central focus on any particular games and lots of people that play lots of different stuff. Don’t worry though, I plan to get back into things full swing once this new wave of KOF / Marvel hits. In the mean time, Dark Souls and Arcana gatherings (cause I damn well ain’t gonna practice arcana once this stuff is out lol)

No rides goin to fayeteville, guess I’ll miss this EZ ranbat, sorry. =/

I’m thinkin about jumpin straight to KoF and skippin ultimate lol