For the loyal readers out there...

Merry Christmas! :D

Street Fighter Fail!

The console versions of Street Fighter IV are just two months away, and it sounds like everything has come full circle for Capcom. But did you know that there are some things best left untouched?

America certainly personifies this, when back in the day, back when the Street Fighter franchise is rolling, they have decided to create a cartoon of it. A cartoon. In the US. Really?

Me blabbing about this whole thing will not give this cause justice. But if a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then this is just as good as the Bible.







Some things are best left untouched. Double goes to US companies. And this could be the greatest shame Capcom has ever developed, a good reason to feel sorry for them for prolly being pushed to do something like this.

Spore = Most Pirated Game of 2008... and ever?

Spore definitely has the tools to top all the Sim-type games in history, with all the hype carrying it for many, many years. It is a dream Will Wright fought for it to be a reality, and was responded with tons of positive feedback. All the advertising, marketing, and previewing hype came to fruition as it being one of the best offerings 2008 has to offer, and in many ways, a mainstay that has now set a bar as to how Sim games should be done. It is so successful that they have now followed it up with an add-on for your creatures, as you may be able to locate in various gaming outlets.

But with all the hype and the success, there has to be some sort of price to pay. And unfortunately, it came as nothing short of a surprise.

Spore at top of the piracy charts


As THE BBC will tell you, along with many other news sources, Spore has topped another list: the most pirated. In fact, it is SO pirated that in hindsight, EA has lost 1.7M units worth of potential sales, a nightmare caused by the ever-so-unpopular DRM issue, wherein the original version allowed three times for it to be activated. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find out how frustrating that can be. And to say the least, the rest is history.

This is one of the rare cases when the game is so amazing and stellar in its genre, but thanks to certain issues in other business aspects like marketing, copyright issues, and basic PR. It's such a sad case really, but it could've been worse. Hey, EA is still the biggest game giant in the world right now, so I'm pretty sure they'll be able to recover to some extent. But wow, what a way to screw up the plans of Mr. Will Wright, yes?

And let's face it, piracy is an all-too-common issue that is basically connected to the way our economy works. Gaming, TV, music, movies, prawn (you get it, right?), you name it. It's all thanks to the screw-ups of the economy (or rather, the ones who played around with the stock market, the mortgages, and anything money-related) that people are forced out of their hands to search for cheaper / free means of entertainment. So yeah, everything is generally a crash based on circumstance, not by free will. Had they offer cheaper and easier legal means to obtain such sources of entertainment, especially in certain third-world countries, then it is easier to handle this situation, right?

Here's a little tidbit for you economics / finance majors out there: you may consider Meredith Whitney, financial analyst and current wife of John "Bradshaw" Layfield of WWE RAW, a goddess for being the one woman who has actually foreseen the global economic crisis even before it was even declared when she predicted the rough fall that the Citigroup would experience. Oh, how right she was, and how we hope we would have listened to her back then.

See, the world is in a bad state, and it won't be a surprise that now, people will find more means for free (and illegal) forms of entertainment. This is a time when game companies must step up to ensure their own survival in the long run, as well as find better means to distribute their offerings to their customers easier and cheaper. Times are changing, especially right now when the economy is not in the right condition. I'm also pointing at you, World of Warcraft. I love the game so much, but I think it's time to reconsider adjusting your prices further, don't you think WoW?




Sorry, Bumbaloobygigantumama, but you're technically a pirate too. (Source of pic: BBC)

Seth Green, Robot Chicken, and gaming = WIN

If there's anything Seth Green should be thanked for besides the fact that he portrayed Oz in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Scott Evil in the Austin Powers trilogy(? - as of this point in time), a comic book store owner in the third season of Heroes (he virtually SAVED The Eclipse parts I and II), and voices Chris Griffin in Family Guy, it's the fact that he is co-creator of one of the greatest shows ever made that will never see the light of day here in the Philippines: ROBOT CHICKEN.

And not only that, but like Seth MacFarlane, he knows where to give respect where respect is due. Thankfully, based on some of the shorts they did over many seasons, he has the love of gaming to boot. It certainly shows in the following vids below:



GRAND THEFT MARIO FTW!

I was gonna post their parody of Final Fantasy VII, but... *poof* in lieu of this, here's something to hopefully cheer you up!



Finally, as a way of saying advanced Merry Christmas :D

Comparing and Overviewing Couture/Lesnar and De la Hoya/Pacquiao (in celebration of UFC 2009 Undisputed)

The following is in celebration of the soon-to-be-released game that could finally end the sucky MMA gaming stereotype, UFC 2009 Undisputed, and the fact that Manny Pacquiao won. Cheers, chief!

My good friend, MJ, told me last night about how the fight between Oscar and Manny would end up being Couture/Lesnar once again, in which case it was easy to side on that prediction based on premise and reputation.

And that got me thinking: how do you put these two fights in perspective?

(Oh, and if anyone thinks I've lost my touch, you may want to reconsider)

Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar

- At first glance, and honestly speaking, I was going to root for Couture based on the fact that Lesnar was getting it too easy. When I saw Lesnar's first MMA fight overseas many, many months ago, he was dominant on the basis of size over a Korean MMA opponent, and the fact that he's basically filler. So for Lesnar to get this much hype based on the fact that he's an NCAA champ in 2000 (RESPECT) and a former WWE Superstar could doubt many MMA fanatics. Then again, it's also hard to argue how much he is improving. Case in point was Heath Herring's decimation andhim being able to merely hang with Frank Mir in his first true big MMA fight.

Couture, more than a year ago, was on a phenomenal roll (frankly, to note all of his accomplishments is like telling a story). He beat (and basically did us all a favor by getting rid of) Tim Sylvia for his nth UFC Heavyweight Title and beat Gabriel Gonzaga in his first defense. However, due to certain financial and contractual conflicts, Couture and Zuffa (company handling the UFC) cannot reach an agreement to settle for virtually a whole year. So yeah, consider the ring rust and his age, which is certainly not ripe in any MMA environment, he had quite a disadvantage already. But it is still difficult to doubt Randy Couture in any case.

Fight night came, and we all know what happened. Still, Brock won, give or take (or even, by luck).

But let's give these men credit. After all, in Couture's 4th MMA fight / UFC fight, he won his first UFC Heavyweight Title. In Lesnar's 4th MMA fight, he won his first UFC Heavyweight Title. So for what it's worth, don't judge Lesnar because he was kind of "spoon-fed", since at the very least, he did prove himself. But winning the title is one thing, and defending it is another. Lord, please let Nogueira win his fight against Mir.


Oscar De la Hoya/Manny Pacquiao


- I won't get too much into detail here, since virtually speaking, tomorrow's other reason why it is declared a holiday is because of Pacman's victory. Those who did watch it (and spoiled it for us) would have told you that Pacman pretty much dominated the whole thing like he did before in his other fights, despite the odds against him in both size and betting lingo. Let Yahoo! be your guide, yes?


So in a way, two different situations were dealt with Brock Lesnar and Manny Pacquiao in two different professions. Brock is deemed as the perfect heavyweight in MMA considering that it's hard to basically bring down a guy who's also quick as a cat. Pacman is, on paper, the smaller one, but he still pretty much raped De la Hoya. But they DO have one thing in common: AGE. They're young and can carry their respective professions in the long run, which deserves more credit than anything. However, what if they thought Randy Couture or Oscar De la Hoya in their prime? Could you imagine that? But I guess we'll never know. At least there's still guys like Mir, Nogueira, and Hatton around.

Still, kudos to Manny Pacquiao! Now, he has one more opponent to deal with: The English language. Again, what is Manny Pacquiao's favorite number 1 shampoo?





(and the promised entry on what men can't do, coming real soon!)

Men should never do splits. EVER.

This is a bit of a preview for my next blog topic coming up. I'll say this much:


Women can do many things that men cannot do. This is just one of them.

(And the Bazonkers do not count =P)

This guy should be in this season's American Idol!

If there's anything I love besides the typical and usual games, it's playing unique games that involve lots of action. Some time ago, me, my cousin, and some friends friends played Rock Band (with me as the vocalist, apparently =P). If you can go through Rush's Tom Sawyer, then you can prolly go through any song =P

Then, while reminiscing, I came upon this video. Then I thought, "this gifted piece of talent is someone who TRULY deserves to be in American Idol, seriously".

Really, with a voice like this, why not?



Oh yeah, if you don't know, he's Scooby Doo's long lost Japanese cousin.