Last Monday Japanese gaming site Famitsu posted part-1 of an interview with legendary fighting gamer Daigo “The Beast” Umehara. The interview was specifically about Daigo’s new book “Willpower to Keep Winning” and additionally a few things about the author himself. For anyone who has competed in fighting games or have had the privilege of watching any of the footage, you know that Daigo is seen as a mysterious, god of fighting – seasoned, aloof, and scarily focused, able to pull off some of the most amazing wins and comebacks ever.

If you are able to read Japanese and want to see the actual interview, check it out here: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201205/07013942.html

But if you are an English speaker like myself, who has to sit and wait for the book to be translated and re-released domestically, here are some of the notes from his interview (all credit due to http://beastnote.blogspot.com):

• There are stories within the book that reveal things that Daigo has never told anyone even close friends.
• The book details his mentality and focus, and the reason why he is obsessed with gaming.
• His book has already sold over 28k copies and has been an eye-opener to his family.
• Daigo still plays at the arcade 363 days a year and about 6 hours a day. He used to play for 10 when he was younger.
• He hates losing, but never cries.
• As a 5^th grader he lost 30 times in a row to an old man’s Blanka, burning up all of his money to where he had to walk home after.
• He learned Mahjong by watching a master play for 10 hours. Daigo is a skilled Mahjong player but refuses to enter it professionally.
• When he only finished top 8 in 4 of Capcom’s official national tournaments (1998, 2000, and 2002) but didn’t win, he ate nothing but noodles and lost a ton of weight which affected his health. He didn’t go to the arcade for 6 months.
• He thinks pros should have a sense of pride and back it up through action.
• Outside of gaming he has no plans right now but doesn’t put age on moving on to new things (Editor’s note: what an awesome outlook this man has).
• He won’t be repping Yun in EVO 2012, he has tried him and Akuma but decided that Ryu is who he will use.
• Daigo plays games because they are fun, not because he’s a pro. If the game is no longer fun for him he will stop playing.

As you can see, there is a lot going on under the surface of the stoic Umehara, and we at 3GK can’t wait to get a copy of his book to read it and learn more about the biggest champion in Street Fighter history.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

As we know, movie studios love to take liberties with our comic book stories in order to make them palatable. We’ve seen the hack job they did with the X-Men, we’ve laughed at the Fantastic Four, and we have seen the worst of the worst in Daredevil and Elektra. To say that fans were fed up with the failures is an understatement and as gamers we know all too well what it means to see a story you love get changed into ruin on the big screen.

Not till Iron Man did we have trust in the theaters taking our heroes and making them real. With this new Avengers movie we see a script that is so close to the genuine article that it is a wonder that it ever was used. This is a movie that not only kicks ass, it sends a clear message to studios like FOX that audiences can take the actual stories without need for watering down characters or changing them completely.

The shining stars for the cast of The Avengers were The Incredible Hulk and Captain America.  Who would’ve thought that of all the Avengers, The Incredible Hulk would be the one stealing the show? I am going to chalk it all up to the charismatic Mark Ruffalo who takes over the role that Edward Norton left behind in that of a very likable Dr. Bruce Banner… a likable, witty and quick Banner who can even volley barbs back at the egotistical Tony Stark(Robert Downey Jr.).  Speaking of the creature, those special effects and CGI on The Hulk were top notch.

Chris Evans really showed some promise in the role of Captain America, I mean you HAD to like the Captain. This was the Captain America I grew up with; all balls, chest out, taking charge and throwing that shield like a wraith. It was such a different Captain America than the origins movie that I was very happy with Evans.

“We Have A Hulk!”

While it’s been established that Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark, the best scenes for the Iron Man were those coupled with The Captain. From the 2 men arguing, to teaming up to destroy bad guys, Stark and Rogers was a match made in heaven. Sure the new Mach 7 suit was amazing to behold but even Tony Stark couldn’t go it alone in this movie and the humbling of the Invincible Iron Man was very real.

Thor is toned down a tad to allow the mortals to shine but Chris Hemsworth reprises the role wonderfully, making for the ladies in the audience to feel his thunder. Scarlett Johansson does the damn thing as super spy, femme fatale Black Widow and chemistry between she and Jeremy Renner was something powerful and creepily real. Can I have a Hawkeye/Black Widow movie please?

As you can tell The Avengers was firing on all cylinders. From beginning to end you are locked in to the struggle of earth to fight a supernatural power and how it takes a few “super humans” and one demi-god to defend humanity against it. For those of us who remember how terrible a job the 3rd X-men did of this, some huge appreciation was felt for this movie. As far as bad guys go you can do a lot worse than the charming Loki played by Tom Hiddleston… dare I say I was almost rooting for the horned god?

To think that keeping The Avengers as weird and nerdy as it was in the comics (with the exception of Ant-man and Wasp being in the team) would actually work as one of the highest grossing movies in American history. The Avengers is making money beyond our wildest beliefs and it is due to the brilliant writing, the wonderful lead-up movies and the excellent direction of Joss Whedon.

GOD KING GRADE: (A)   ★★★★★

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

Can you recall which game sucked you in the hardest (if you’re the type that actually cares for reading)? For role-playing gamers the answer is probably a hard one – because you have options, but for the casual gamer it may take some thought.

Recently I was disheartened after learning that the majority of Mass Effect and Dragon Age players were skipping through the dialogue to get to the end. Knowing that we are in the age of “tl;dr” I really shouldn’t be surprised but being that those games are totally story-driven, the metrics confused me. I reflect on the best stories of the past that I have witnessed through games and I cannot imagine their impact would have been so meaningful if I had skipped through the dialogue.

So what game is your choice for “greatest story ever”? I’ll list some that stick out immediately:

• Dragon Age: Origins
• Panzer Dragoon Saga
• Xenogears
• Metal Gear Solid (full series… especially 3)
• Batman: Arkham City
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Mass Effect (full series)

Are any of the ones I listed in your top 3? I have played my fair share of RPG’s and I can almost guarentee that I at least hit one in your list. Have I missed out on any epics? Let me know in the comments.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

Episode 1: “A New Day”

So the guys at Telltale Games have released their latest game following in the same footsteps of Back to the Future and Sam and Max. By releasing episodic titles, the players are definitely in for a real treat with their latest endeavor The Walking Dead. Based on the comic book by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead: A New Day is the first of 5 episodes that will be released on a monthly basis.

Okay so I am a huge fan of the television show and being that I have not had a chance to experience the comics, I must say that this game really rocks! Not in the sense that I want to go on a “WALKER” killing spree, but because the story draws me in just like the TV show. Telltale Games give the player a great presentation while immersing you into the post apocalyptic world of the undead.

In “A New Day”, you play from the perspective of a man named Lee. Not much is known about him at the beginning but as you engage in conversations, you will learn more about him piece by piece. That’s the real draw from The Walking Dead. I felt the same experience playing this game as I did with Quantum Theory’s Heavy Rain. The characters keep sucking you in to the point that you start to really care whether they live or die. What is amazing is how these emotions weigh heavy on your decision making and is incorporated into the gameplay. You immediately feel the connection of the characters as the story unfolds. If you complete certain tasks you are given more pieces to your character’s story.

The gameplay can be described as “minimal” when compared to most games that involve zombie killing. If you are looking to own hoards of zombies with rocket launchers and Molotov Cocktails then please look elsewhere. The Walking Dead is all about the choices you make and how they affect the outcome. As a result this is what happens when you take Mass Effect along with Heavy Rain and they decide to bump uglies. You are only given a certain amount of time to make your decisions so certain scenes can become frantic and stressful. Telltale Games promise that based on your decisions, your story and characters will be different from your friend’s progress.

The graphics in The Walking Dead are amazing and can be compared to the cell-shade style found in Borderlands. The developers seem to do a kick ass job of maintaining the visual integrity of the comic books. All of the characters seem to animate well and really match up with the excellent voice acting. The sounds really setup the various scenes that your characters interact with. I found myself cringing at the repeated bludgeoning of the undead. The game isn’t without flaws, but these instances are few and far between. It certainly does not put a damper on the gameplay. If you really love the Walking Dead, there is no reason to pass this game up. Look for the next episodes in the following months to come.

GOD KING GRADE: (B)   ★★★★

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

One of these days I am going to be able to bring up an MMORPG in conversation and it won’t descend into a discussion on Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, or Ultima Online.  I really, really wish we could bury these fossils and leave them out of conversation when dealing with newer games on the horizon.

My fellow keybinders, can we please change the song on that broken jukebox already? Come on we all know the pattern and the tired dance we go through with every title that gets announced. If you don’t recall what I’m talking about, let me remind you:

Step 1: New game is announced.
Step 2: Gamers rush to analyze the hell out of the official site and apply to beta test.
Step 3: Although it is a beta test, players accept it as a finished product and blog about it.
Step 4: Company takes time to tweak game as MMO base looks for it to be the next coming of Jesus.
Step 5: Gamers build themselves up to think: OMG this new game is going to be PERFECT! Yayyyy!
Step 6: Gamers complain about the current game that they are playing and announce how they can’t wait for new game to launch.
Step 7: New game launches and the servers are overblown with MMO hounds and skeptics.
Step 8: Gamers realize the game is nothing like Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft or Ultima Online so they become bitter.
Step 9: Gamers quit new game to return to older game and complain about how new game sucks.
Step 10: Go back to Step 1 and repeat.

I’m not saying that people should not complain about bad games, but if the only argument we have is to compare it to the good parts of very flawed older games then how will newer, more casual players understand? We older MMO players are used to a standard that may never return and we must accept it or move on.  They say that the best sign of insanity is for someone to repeat the exact same thing over and over expecting a different result. So why do we look for the return of a game that has been long gone for years… with every release?

I came to peace with the old games being gone a long time ago… It is why I still play my fun Sith Warrior alt in Star Wars the Old Republic. The classic MMOs will always have a fond place in my memory and saved gallery folders on my external hard drive… but I have come to terms with them being exactly that: Classics, like an old model T Ford. Let it go my friends and accept newer games on their own merit – either you like a game or you don’t. Thanks for reading.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

Wow, now this is cool – Charles Lushear of The Bohemian Workbench has crafted a coffee table that looks like an NES Controller! Wait before you go nerding out and hating with feedback like: “big deal” and “seen it before”, there is a TWIST! The damn thing is functional! Check out the pic of the hawte playing Tetris above. Last time I checked the table was going for $3,500 at Etsy.com so you better get on it.

Some more Details:

Nintendo NES controller coffee table. Made from maple, mahogany and walnut with dovetail joinery and mid century modern legs.

This table fully functions as a Nintendo NES controller and can be used to play games with the glass removed. The cord is retractable from underneath. The demonstration video is currently being produced and will be posted soon on youtube and bohoworkbench.com.

Dimensions: 42″ length x 18.25″ width x 18″ height.

So… how hardcore are you nerds? Can you imagine inviting people over for Street Fighter and you’re all just chilling in front of this boy with a bowl of cereal? Ya, you’d be the man indeed.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQFig_258A

Medal of Honor Warfighter picks up where the last game left off but will feature something different that has most of us fans excited. The multiplayer will no longer be using DICE’s engine but instead utilize a unique build (the same engine as the single-player) which means that it will be a new learning curve for everybody jumping in. Warfighter’s single player is inspired by the real Tier 1 Operators from  the United States Armed Forces. The team that we took through hell and back in the original Medal of Honor is back, if names like “Mother”, “Voodoo” and “Preacher” ring a bell.

From MedalofHonor.com: “Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warfighters are called on when the mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators. They are real, living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. And they exist on an international level for various nations around the globe. In the U.S., their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds.”

Medal of Honor Warfighter is set to launch on October 23, 2012 and it looks promising.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (RE:ORC) is the latest piece of Resident Evil canon published by Capcom (notice I say PUBLISHED, not DEVELOPED). The game was created or developed by Slant 6, the people who created SOCOM Confrontation (PS3), Fire Team Bravo and Tactical Strike (both on PSP).

The game was not received well by the community with a preview/review by IGN essentially calling it garbage, and other gamers who got a hold of early copies calling it sluggish, and weak. One of the biggest gripes that the online community continually repeats is that this game does not have the Resident Evil atmosphere that millions love.

After getting my feet wet, and dropping some zombies and Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.Ws), I have to agree with the general consensus of the online community.  If you’re expecting that dark eerie feel where you pee yourself a little bit when a licker snatches you up, this is not it. For the die-hard RE fan, you will be disappointed and probably have the game up on Craigslist within 15 minutes. RE:ORC does nothing to set you up into that familiar atmosphere where you become paranoid and freak out at every single sound you hear in game.

Another aspect that I you will hear amongst the community, and I strongly agree is how weak the AI in the game is. Actually I’ll rephrase that, how weak your team AI is. Progressing through the missions, you will find enemies will bring their A game (playing on Professional Difficulty). They will hide behind cover, provide suppressive fire, and coordinate shooting. Your team will not. Your team is as tactical as a 13 year Call of Duty player arguing with his mother past his curfew yelling at her to get him some chocolate milk. Literally they suck.

I have had instances where they bunch up in the open and become bullet sponges, just soaking up the tracers. Other times, when trying to progress to the next area, they just stop and refuse to move. I actual had to shoulder charge all three, one by one, into a room in order to continue the mission.

My one last gripe is the gameplay. The controls are your standard 3^rd person shooter, but in RE:ORC there is a “cover” mechanic, that could have been fleshed out better. First, in order to hide behind cover you have to run up to the object you want to hide behind.  Now for those that played Gears of War 1, 2, and 3 you’ll wish there was a cover button. Just makes it easier. While behind cover, you can blind fire, but cannot lob grenades. Let me clarify this, when you’re behind cover and want to toss a grenade, you leave cover, stand out in the open, and then toss the grenade while taking fire. Kind of defeats the purpose to tossing/lobbing grenades using the cover mechanic if you step out just to be met with the heavenly caress of enemy fire.

With all these gripes, I’m sure that many gamers will say “Forget It, not worth my time”, but the game is actually fun. Something about running co-op with three friends, and just mowing down zombies and B.O.Ws all in the name of Umbrella is fun. That is one mechanic I will praise Slant 6 on is that there is no lack of action. Whether your fighting a horde of zombies, a B.O.W, or a squad of US Special Forces, there is plenty of action, guns and bullets to go around. Coordinating, Flanking, healing, and reviving your friends really raise the value of this game, and this is just Campaign Mode.  Outside of Campaign mode there are the Versus modes: Survivor, Biohazard, Heroes, and Team Attack (Team Deathmatch).

Team Attack aka Team Deathmatch is just your normal team vs. team mode, but you have the added dimension of zombies and B.O.Ws stirring up the pot.  The stages that the matches are set in are big and have plenty of places to ambush opponents to keep things fresh and interesting.

In Heroes mode, one side plays as the iconic heroes/heroines from the franchise such as Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, and Leon Kennedy, while the opposing team plays as Resident Evil antagonists such as Ada Wong, and Hunk. The goal is to kill all four heroes/heroines, while some will argue that Heroes mode is just a beefed up Team Attack, the mode is fun nonetheless. Heroes are beefed up with extra life, but when one is killed they come back as a regular operative character from the US Special Forces. Besides having the extra life, Heroes cannot be melee executed. One of the mechanics in the game allows characters to execute opponents if they’re stunned (usually a 2 hit combo, then pressing the execute button works well). Other than that, Heroes mode offers nothing else than what Team Attack offers.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is definitely not the game that some die-hard RE fans were expecting. This is more for those with a need for a 4-player coop action fix. Granted with the flaws, I still find the game enjoyable.  It will leave you craving for a “Real” Resident Evil game, but for those that don’t mind a weak story, and mediocre gameplay with plenty of action will definitely enjoy the game.

GOD KING GRADE: (D)   ★★

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

If you’ve been playing MMORPGs for as long as I have, you know that The World of Warcraft, while being the most successful of the genre, managed to set a hard rift in the timeline of MMO games. What do I mean? Well prior to WoW the MMORPG standard was one way, then after Blizzard changed the game to cater to a more casual crowd – well most developers since have tried to adopt a similar model. Well the problem has been that there is only one World of Warcraft and while many other games have had their share of nice elements, the comparison checks have led to a lot of bitterness from the player base, most of which are the older players who consider WoW to be a game-changing poison.

Recently I had a chat about this very thing with my buddy Cadillac Colins, he being a new school WoW MMO gamer and myself being of the old school Elitist bunch. Since this is a conversation that is brought up quite a bit, I am reposting some of it here in hopes that it will answer some of the questions that you new-schoolers have with us bitter old men of the SWG days.

* * * *

Cadillac: Most pre-wow people I talk to went from EQ toWoW. So yeah I guess there was some sort of disdain from SWG players against WoW?

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ I went from EQ2 to WoW then went right back to EQ2. The playstyle of WoW doesnt appeal very well to people who played traditional MMOs, it’s not hardcore enough basically. WoW worked because it simplified everything… people who are used to doing things the long way saw it as insulting – that’s why I say its elitist.

‎‎Cadillac: The long way?

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ Crafting, grinding xp, not sure if you will get this unless you played the old titles but WoW is extremely light compared to SWG and EQ, we got bored.

‎‎Cadillac:‎‎ You mean grinding xp and crafting took longer?

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ That and it took more, crafting as an example: You had to hunt for skin, spend time making skin into leather, take time to get ingredients to tan the leather, make strips from that leather and then forge ore into metal (sometimes combining metals) to make pieces which in turn you sew together to become a piece of armor. In WoW a crafter could do the same thing in 3 steps. Not being literal here but that was the difference.

In older MMOs a person could get by as being 100% a crafter and nothing else, people liked the complexity. So when it got dumbed down no crafter was cool with that setup. But that’s my point, WoW simplified everything. Shinzo could probably explain it better but we hated WoW.

‎‎Cadillac:‎‎ Yeah they put more emphasis on killing things.

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ Older MMOs emphasized roles: You were a  warrior, mage, rogue, cleric, or you were a crafter, or an entertainer. If you were hardcore you could mix it up but that took a lot of time out of everything else you specify in. See that statement you made is why people are so bitter about new MMOs. Killing things is seen as a part of the sandbox, not the point of the sandbox. New games made it the focus… which took the independence away from us players.

‎‎Cadillac: What was the endgame to being an entertainer?

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ There was no end game in SWG it was like a Sim game where you ARE an entertainer, I can explain: Lots of girls would play for the social aspect of the Cantina, they would dance, play music (there were tons of moves and songs). So these entertainers would do it for social reasons, then their dancing healed mind wounds so us warriors would pay them to dance. That’s how they made a living, people also loved to decorate so they would pay dedicated architects and crafters for new paintings and home décor.

Entertainers bought their dancing gear from tailors and they could mix in a combat art to come PvP with us and chill in the camp to dance for the wounded when a doc draggd them off the battlefield. The camps they danced in were built by Rangers… so my point is roles, everyone had one.

If all you did was kill shit… you were merely a soldier, you still needed a camp, a doc, and a dancer to keep you in the fight. New MMOs don’t make it that complex, so people who had this are instantly turned off.

‎‎Cadillac: You view it as less complex, but it’s merely a different type of game.

‎‎Greg Dragon:‎ Nah I view it as barebones. I know I didn’t stick around for new WoW but vanilla was vanilla… a standard table top RPG with multiplayer: warrior, rogue, mage and healer working together to kill stuff; you do quests to level up and you can raid -  Everquest Lite. It’s fun but under the surface it’s just too basic for us.

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com

I have been a fan of the KOF series for some time – KOF 97 being my favorite. I, like many others was very disappointed with King of Fighters XII but I am pleased to say that this new installment makes up for the mistakes that KOF XII had.

I have only played about three hours and so far I am pleased with what I am seeing. I have only beaten the arcade mode once using the Ikari Warriors team. The game play feels just like I’m playing 97 again! The controls are smooth and it’s easy to make the characters do their moves. SNK has taken a page from Capcom and used an EX system where you press two punches or kicks together and do a special move, which then makes that move do more damage.

There is a story mode that I have only watched for thirty minutes and this mode gives you a rundown on what the characters are doing when they receive the tournament invite. I also played a little of the challenge mode, but only in the mission mode with Takuma. In this mode you complete a series of moves which gets more difficult with every level. As far as the way the game looks the characters were updated in XII so it looks like the same sprites. SNK has not done any drastic change to the look and feel of KOF like what Capcom has done with the Street Fighter series.

From what I have seen so far KOF XIII looks like it will be a great game and I am looking forward to playing more of it.  

Originally posted at: 3GodKings.com