Monday, February 29, 2016

FPS gaming event at Fire and Dice

     Today was the first time I've ever gone to Fire and Dice for an event that was not a Smash tournament. It turned out to be super fun! My friend recommended that we go because he saw that they were having an fps (first person shooter) gaming event on meetup.com. This is the first time I've ever gone to an event that was posted on meetup and it turned out to be a pleasant experience.
     We got there around 4:30 pm (it started at 4) and there was only like five dudes there plus the three guys who run Fad. We started things out by playing some Call of Duty Black Ops II, a super good game that I've played quite a bit despite not really being much of a first person shooter fan. We played zombies and it turned out to be pretty lame. We only lasted 8 rounds lol. Not sure how that happened but once we started playing four player free for all that was when the real fun started. Because there was so few people we all got our own monitor and xbox 360 to play on, and we just played in a local lan connection game. I really shine in Black Ops II because of the Mtar, a super good assault rifle that I annihilate with. My friend won the first game by a couple kills but I wasn't far behind. I think he won again the second time. The third time I tied the game with him. And the last match we played I won by a good couple kills. It was truly satisfying defeating my friend and these random dudes I just met because my friend is a super good fps gamer that destroys most people at shooters. He's the kind of guy who's born to play shooters. He should play Call of Duty, Counter Strike, or Team Fortress 2 competitively for money, he's that good. He was once a part of a competitive Team Fortress 2 team but he's no longer doing it for some reason
     After we played Call of Duty me and my friend threw down for a large pizza with one of the guys and we ate. Not the best pizza in the world but it certainly filled our stomachs. Then we played Gears of War III horde mode. It was kind of exhausting because unending hordes of monsters isn't really my thing but in the end it turned out to be pretty fun. It was the second time I've ever played Gears of War III and I don't think I quite get the duck and cover mechanics the game has to offer. However, we were only playing on casual mode which was pretty easy. Starting around the 26th round things started to get increasingly more difficult. Keep in mind that there are only 50 rounds in total. In the end we only made up to the 30th round, which had a boss fight. At that point I was very tired and disoriented from playing so much xbox that I wasn't really trying. But it was a good experience and my first time playing horde mode on Gears.
     Later, we went to my friends house and played the Overwatch beta. I find Overwatch to be very energetic and in your face but its also kind of a cluster-fuck if you don't know what the heroes do and how to play them. I'll have to play more of it at my friends pad when we hang out. I really like the game and the whole idea of heroes having their own special abilities and ways to play. That differs heavily from other shooters except maybe Team Fortress 2, which created that idea in fps gaming. We can see today that Call of Duty tried to do something similar in Black Ops III but I don't think they pulled it off very well. It's just another generic Call of Duty really.
     Lastly, playing so well in CoD today made me realize that I'm pretty good at shooters. I should play them more often on PC. I'm interested in playing more Team Fortress 2 for sure because my friend still plays that a lot. In fact, we used to play it a lot while talking on our headsets. Also, my brother is in the beta for Overwatch so hopefully he'll let me use his account to play it. First person shooters can be a blast sometimes. It was a good day off from work! If Fire and Dice continues to do more events like this I would definitely be down to go if I'm free.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Late night gaming

      As you can tell by the times that I write all my posts I am one hell of a late night person. I usually stay up until at least 3 am everyday that I work late nights. On my days off I stay up till 2 am, and other times I don't go to bed until 4 or a 5 am. I keep late hours and that's just the way I like it. If I ever get a more organized job or a another part time job to earn more cash I would have to change my schedule drastically and go to bed much earlier. Anyways, this post is about the games I play late at night. There are some nights where I just write and watch videos and don't play any games at all. Sometimes I'm just too tired and I watch anime (thank god for crunchyroll). But when I force myself to game I never regret it. It's always a blast.
     I used to play a lot of games on my 3ds XL in the past before I fell asleep. I played a lot of Smash 3ds, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and Xenoblade Chronicles (I'm really feeling it!). I might go back to playing Mh4U and Xenoblade at some point after I finish Fire Emblem Fates. I even used to play Mario Kart 8 on my Wii U gamepad before bed sometimes. It's a super fun game and I like playing against people in Japan and Europe.
     Lately I've been playing a lot  of Heroes of the Storm at like 2 in the morning. Its such a fun game and I don't always get the time to play it during the day before work. Game queues are usually super fast even at 2 in the morning and it gives me the chance to earn that in game gold (from completing quests) so I can get more heroes. In addition, I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. I'm on Ch.10 right now and the story is just getting interesting. I would say the whole story as of right now is very convoluted and that perhaps Awakening had a better story-line. However, I never played Awakening but my brother does own it so I can play it whenever. Sometimes when I'm done playing a few Heroes games I'll play some Starcraft II for a bit. Lastly, my other go-to late night gaming session game is Diablo III Reaper of Souls. This game has the perfect evil atmosphere for late night sessions.I definitely want to get back into playing Monster Hunter at some point. It's like the perfect handheld multiplayer rpg and I really want Monster Hunter X to come out in America at some point (its only out in Japan). What games do you play late at night? Have you ever played horror games at night with the lights turned off? That seems like a great idea for a twitch stream. Stay classy readers. And stay gaming.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Music device II

     So i finally got an Ipod. Because I don't own a smartphone this Ipod is the greatest thing to me since sliced bread. I had an Ipod in the past but the button that turned it on ended up getting stripped somehow. Anyways, I'm excited to be able to listen to music while walking to work, on my breaks, and playing in smash tournaments. I'm working with 8 gigs of music so hopefully that will be enough tunes with some variety to listen to. I'm thinking 50% of it will be jazz, 40% will be rock/metal, and 10% will be just other stuff that I find interesting like classical pieces and entertaining songs. The one I got is a discontinued model. I haven't messed around with it yet but when I have the time its going to be magical.

Dealing with Frustration

     How do you deal with frustration? This could apply to anything really. It could apply to competitive gaming, work, or just life in general. One of the things that helps me deal with frustration is doing my daily routine, writing for the blog every night. Its become my go-to activity every night at like two in the morning. Another thing I like to do is put on some kind of music. Sometimes it has to be a certain kind of music that helps me deal with life's troubles. Lately, classical music just seems to soothe my soul. I find the acoustic sounds of orchestral instruments relaxing and its cool because not too many young people are into it. Yet another thing I like to do is to just play video games. It can be any game really. Sometimes I might take a break from a game that I've been playing poorly in. Gaming is just a great hobby and I don't think I'll ever stop unless I got some kind of super hot girl friend that is way better than gaming (lols). Lastly, I like to play the guitar. I used to play the guitar a lot more when I lived back in Wisconsin but I've kind of just lost my place in the guitar playing world. I just haven't been 'feeling' the guitar if that makes sense. Gaming has taken up my guitar playing time and I don't see myself organizing my time in a more effective way in order to do both. I'd have to wake up earlier, which means waking up in the morning, and for me that is downright impossible (lols).
     Sometimes life just seems to kick you in the balls and makes you struggle to catch your breath as you're lying on the floor. Lately things haven't been so great for me but when I think of other people with worse problems and see how happy they are, I can't be upset with what I've been dealt. It's easy to say that tomorrow will be a better day or that you should pick yourself back up again and deal with it but for some people its not that easy. I guess what I'm trying to say is that everybody has their own ways to deal with frustration and life's woes. In the end life's a bitch, and then you die. Better make good use of it.

Friday, February 26, 2016

New Music IV

     I've been listening to a lot of classical music tonight to calm down. I find the natural sound of acoustic orchestral instruments to be very soothing in comparison to the electronic stuff I've been listening to lately. Right now I'm finishing up listening to Mozart's Symphony number 40 in G minor. Earlier tonight I was talking to a smash bros friend and he was telling me how some player listens to classical music while he plays to calm down. It really does do the trick! Classical music is so good too. The harmonies and melodies just seem to sound mathematically correct (like organized equations), especially this Baroque era stuff. Baroque is music from the 1700s. My favorite classical music has always been the Baroque era stuff. My go to composers are Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven. They just seem to sound 'right', if that makes sense. Their music speaks to me in ways that jazz music doesn't. You can say its the instrumentation, the time that it was composed in, or just the straight up white European aspect of it. This music sounds like Radio Top 40 of the 1700s, its ear candy to me. It has a certain 'catchy-ness' to it and has repeated patterns, much like pop music or electronic music but the form is still complex with unique twists and changes. There was once a time where I left classical music playing in my room all the time, even when I wasn't there. It just sets the tone and atmosphere for me. I've been a hardcore classical listener before, listening to Wagner's Ring Cycle and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Firebird. The whole tradition of this music is fantastic and still going to this day. It's good to hear this music. It truly is Europe's greatest musical tradition. Let me leave you with this tune by Albinoni Adagio in G Minor.  This shred metal guitarist Ywngie Malmsteen does a sick version of this tune with a Fender stratocaster and Marshall stacks. Here, we can enjoy the piece in its original form. Enjoy. 

Fire and Dice Smash tournament 2/25

     Today was just one of those days where nothing worked out for me. Unfortunately that was what went down in my tournament matches as well. Before the tournament I was hanging out with my friends in the morning and we decided to go to some no name Mexican restaurant that wasn't very good. They messed up my order and then made me pay extra for the mix-up because my meal was more than whatever they gave me. Then later on when I got to Fire and Dice I went to this pizza place called Fretteli's and they messed up my order as well. I ordered a large pizza with bacon and pepperoni and instead they gave me a small pizza with bacon and pepperoni. In the end I guess it was ok because they decided to give me the small pizza for free and then make me my large pizza as well. I ended up sharing a lot of the extra pizza with my friends and some fellow smashers. This isn't really bad stuff but it really got to me because I was super hungry when I ate at both of those places. To put more salt in the wound, earlier in the morning my friend and I played smash and he's not better than me or anything and I just got bodied super hard, a lot of the time barely losing matches. In the last match he zero to death-ed me with Gannondorf and I just walked off the stage and left the room. I've never been that salty before to do that but there's a first time for everything. Today was just not a good day. But I digress.
      In my first set I played against Jinx, this really good Rosalina player that I saw playing doubles with Aphro. I just got bodied. He played a super campy defensive Rosalina, focusing on punishes. I don't think I played bad against him but I did sd (suicide death) in one of the games. I would say overall my neutral and spacing has gotten much better but there are sometimes when you can't do much against a more skilled player. I was playing Bayonetta in both games. It was a fast 2-0 for him.
     My second set was against Abyss, a random character player. He doesn't really have a main. He's a cool guy and we've talked before but never got to play until today. He played Lucina game one and kept breaking my shield with her side-B sword charge. I kept falling for it and getting shield broken and forward smashed. This happened three times in a row! Needless to say that game was over fast. Game two I switched to Zero Suit Samus and he went Game and Watch. This game was much closer but again, what can I do when my opponent is much more skilled than I am? I'd have to play a perfect game without any mistakes and pull a rabbit out of my hat, which didn't happen unfortunately. In the end it was another quick loss. I lost two sets in the blink of an eye. It was the worst I've ever played smash in tournament ever. I was pretty salty but I still said good game and stuff to the guys.
     My reaction to playing my worst day of smash 4? Just sitting down and taking it all in by playing some friendlies and talking to friends. This didn't help at all because I was in such a bad mood and funk that I just kept losing every game to dumb stuff. I kept doing dumb stuff and getting hit by dumb stuff. Everything was just terribad and I couldn't focus on the game at all. I'm thinking about listening to music when I play at tournaments just so I can calm down and focus. Today just wasn't fun. But there are going to be days like this and I need to accept the fact that people are just better than me at the game and that it might take be months, if not years to surpass them. I consider smash a big part of my life and I want to become good enough to get top ten at Fire and Dice but the more I go, the more I realize that it's becoming insurmountable.
     I watched a few games but I was kind of detached from everything. I saw my friend lose to a Sonic because he sd'd and lost his momentum. My friend Saladin played really well today although he sd'd in a crucial game three. One of my Simi Valley friends beat JeDi using Toon Link. I didn't really watch any of the high level players today but I saw Aphro pull off this sick Bayonetta combo where he took his opponent super high into the top of the stage and killed them. I've gotta learn how to do that if I'm going to seriously play Bayonetta. As far as all the salt goes today, after writing about it and venting I'm honestly not that upset. When I got home I played some matches on For Glory and did pretty well, until I lost a game because I was timed out by a Greninja that just kept running. In the end its just a game and there will always be players striving to be the best. Everybody has bad days. I just have to put in more hard work and effort, and just keep playing the game. Hopefully, I'll be able to take these guys out sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading, peace out. 

Monday, February 22, 2016

New Music III

      Right now I'm listening to this girl play a version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on an ancient Korean instrument. It sounds so good! One of my guitar friends from Facebook shared it. She does justice to the tune and makes it sound original.
      But lately the main music I've been listening to is video game remixes done in a dubstep and trap style. I've gotten super into it. I listen to it when I'm just chilling late at night, relaxing, and working on the blog. The music is simple and is basically just patterns of electronic noise organized into a rhythm. I would like to learn how to use Pro Tools so I could make some sick remixes like some of the stuff I've been hearing. Check out this version of Sonic's Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud (Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud) That beat is so infectious. This is what they call in rap music candy beats. You got a simple melody going on and underneath it is a crispy beat. Everything about this just oozes chill. It reminds me of playing Sonic when I was a kid. But nostalgia aside this is a great remix.
     Another one I've really liked is this one (Mario and Luigi Victory remix by Raisi K) This tune is another super chill tune with a some more candy beats. Once you start to hear one of these tunes you tend to kind of hear them all because they all sound similar. They're all electronic stuff made on computers by synthetic instruments. But I've come to really enjoy this stuff. I've still been listening to jazz here and there as well. Today I re-listened to Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, something I do quite often.
      Lastly, its always cool to find new music that appeals to you. The music I've listened to has always changed over time. Let me just leave you with this gem I heard the other day. Melee Where you at remix by HuggerMugger What do you think of vgm (video game music). Would you even consider this stuff video game music or is it more dubstep/trap/edm. I consider this stuff video game music but I think it also stands high next to any kind of modern dubstep out there. It's been a blast looking up these tunes on YouTube. The search for good music continues! I've been trying to get back into buying new jazz albums and doing reviews for them but I've just been so side-tracked and haven't gotten to listening to all the latest jazz musos. I will get to it at some point, and then I'll blog about it. Until then, stay classy readers!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Fire Emblem Fates

      This was one hellova week for gamers. We got Street Fighter V, Fire Emblem Fates, and lots of games like the Division going online in beta for all users. I've certainly been enjoying Street Fighter V. Its become one of my favorite games and I actually get the combos and play-style of the game, a first for me in playing Street Fighter or any fighting games other than smash. It's so fun when you finally figure a game out. It's like taking an electronic apart, and messing around with all the parts, and crews and bolts, then you put it back together again.
      Now onto Fire Emblem. FE Fates just came out and there's two different versions; Conquest and Birthright. Conquest is about going with your adopted family and Birthright is about fighting with your real family. Both family's royals all have blood of dragons but you (Corrin, who's also in smash 4) can actually turn into a dragon and fuck shit up. Both families are at war. The real family are cool samurai type warriors and people who have tribes. The adopted family is more of a rich, evil, and war mongering than the other side. I gotta say that upon playing the game for like two hours that its an amazing game. I bought Conquest with a digital download for Birthright half off. So I only spend like $60 for both games, not too shabby. It was interesting because I couldn't just use the digital download code on the eShop. Instead I had to get past Chapter 6 and then go to this area where you can download dlc. I had to put the code in there. Very odd. That means that in order to play Birthright I would have to create a new file and then get past Chapter 6 again and then choose the option to go with my real family. Then the system will recognize that I have Birthright data installed and let me choose that option. Before that option would've been grayed out for me. A little weird that Nintendo's doing it like that but hey it makes you have to play the beginning of the game before you make a decision to play the other side.
      Games like this just aren't made that much anymore. By that I mean great rpg's on handheld devices. This is the first Fire Emblem game that I've ever played so I was new to the whole combat experience. However, I did remember that Fire Emblem on Super Nintendo had this same fighting style mechanic with a square grid and turn-based combat. Basically Nintendo never changed Fire Emblem and its always been a beloved series. I've always liked Fire Emblem as a kid because of Marth and Roy in Melee. Plus I swear that my brother and I had a Fire Emblem game on the Gamecube at one point. This game is like XCOM if it was more like Game of Thrones. The game-play is super tight and the fighting animations look polished on the 3DS. This is probably one of the best looking games on the 3DS. There are a lot of cut scenes in between chapters and you can really see the beauty of the game in those animations. I'm definitely happy with this game and I know I'll be playing it a lot. This might actually get me back into playing my 3DS. Ever since I got my Wii U I've just been playing on that and my PC. It would be cool to get back into playing the 3DS and finishing Xenoblade Chronicles and learning how to play better in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.If you have a 3DS do yourself a favor and buy this game!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Fire and Dice smash tournament 2/18

     Today was a sick smash tournament at Fire and Dice. It was a relatively small crowd this week and there were plenty of setups so I was able to get in a ton of friendlies before singles started. I met this guy named Daybreak (Falco main) from Michigan and he was pretty good. But I was able to beat him a couple times with my Zero Suit Samus. It was pretty good because he's one of those players that places top ten at locals in Michigan. Overall I played really well today although I still went 0 and 2. I can't be too upset because I played well in friendlies and I almost won my second set against my friend Fuzzballjones, a player who is way better than me. What an upset that would've been.
     My first set was against the best player from Simi Valley, DJDemon (Captain Falcon main). This guy just absolutely destroyed me. I haven't felt so helpless in a long time (lol). It was like the first tournament I ever went to and I went up against this guy Sean Pluto (another Falcon main) and he destroyed me in like twenty seconds. This guy beat me even faster than that. I'm exaggerating but he is a really good player. I can see him placing high at Fire and Dice if he keeps coming. His style is just so fast and aggressive that its hard for me to choose options to go for, and then suddenly out of nowhere I'm taking the knee to the face and losing a stock after a few combos. I don't even really know if there was anything I could've done against him that would've helped me. It was one of those sets. I went Zero Suit twice and lost pretty fast. I played him in friendlies before the tournament so I knew what to expect. I had confidence in myself because I've gotten so much better after only just a week of practice but this guy was on another level. This was really the first tournament I played in where I had a lot of confidence in my playing. It helped a lot during the second set.
     The second set was against my friend FuzzballJones. I thought he was going to go Roy so I didn't play Zero Suit because I don't like that match-up. So I went Bayo and he went Corrin. Corrin is his secondary. First game I beat him pretty convincingly. He was just getting hit by all my attacks and I just took the game. Second game he beat me with his Corrin but it was super close. Game three he decided to play Roy. He kept getting hit by pretty much all my attacks and it ended up being a close game with both of us over 100%. It was close but he ended up hitting me with some weird attack that took my jump. However, I do think I could've recovered back to the stage if I used Bayonetta's recovery a little differently. I was suppose to side-B then up-B then side-B again, I think. I'm not really sure but I still feel like I could've made it back to the stage if I had used the recovery in the most effective fashion. I don't know if I would've won but it would've been a big upset to beat Fuzzball because he's a super good player. I had it really close. I'll get him next time! He said that he thought he respected me way too much but honestly I think I've just gotten better at the game. I learned that Bayonetta is one of my strongest characters and that she's perhaps even better than my Zero Suit Samus. I'm not sure if that's true but for now I'm going to play a lot more Bayonetta at tournaments and see how I do.
     Lastly, it was fun watching the high level players duke it out. Grand finals was Zenyou versus K9 (Mario vs Sheik). At first Zenyou looked super good and was annihilating. But eventually K9 came back with a bracket reset and took the tournament. I felt like K9 was winning with the same kill move over and over again but somehow Zenyou kept air dodging and getting killed. I was secretly rooting for Zenyou but I really dig K9's Sheik style as well. Also, K9 versus Ahprho (Sheik vs Bayonetta) was a cool set. I would say that Ahprho is my favorite player that goes to Fire and Dice because he plays the same characters I do and he places high every week. I think that could be me someday if I git gud. I think today he got third. His Bayonetta took out Zork's Bowser and Zork is pretty much the best Bowser around. It was a nice little chill tournament today. I kind of prefer when there's less people because I can focus on the matches and play my best. I played really well today and I'm going to start playing more Bayonetta. I'm looking forward to next week for more tournament action!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Deadpool movie

     Today me and the lads went to go see the Deadpool movie. I was not dissapointed. This movie is terrific, action packed, and contains an origin story that leaves the watcher sympathetic to the character. Deadpool isn't really seen as a hero or a villain, he's just a guy who's out for revenge against the guy that scarred his face. He was told that they were going to cure his cancer and turn him into a super hero but instead they fucked up his face instead (they being Ajax). In the end his cancer was cured and he did have super powers.
     He decapitates guys with his swords, guns them down with pistols, and isn't a bad fighter when it comes to hand to hand combat. The cool thing about Deadpool is that he virtually can't die. There were moments like when he was fighting Colossus (from the X-Men, a cameo) and his body just got crunched and turned into a lump of meat. But then he was able to regenerate his broken bones, it was awesome! Kind of reminded me of the Pillar Men from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures if you've ever that. I guess this is Deadpool's mutant abilities at work. All I knew about Deadpool before I saw this movie was that he was a cool Marvel character in Marvel vs Capcom 3, that he liked chimichangas and Spiderman, and that Ryan Reynolds played him in X-Men first class. Now here he is with his own movie! Let me break down the movie.
     Basically the movie goes in a backwards order which reminded me a bit of Pulp Fiction because the story wasn't a linear progression. Deadpool is out to kill Ajax, this baddie that forced a mutation on Deadpool by giving him non-stop torture. Don't ask me how constant torture somehow brings out the genes for super powers but that's how they explained it in this movie. Deadpool is seen as a jokey straight up killer but he actually loves his girl friend and his whole fight in this movie was for her. The story isn't anything great but the action packed scenes more than make up for it. This is a straight up action flick with a lot going on. There are moments when people get messed up horribly but I wouldn't call this a gory movie. However, this isn't a movie you should take a young kid to. There are decapitations, torture scenes, and boobs! Haha, but seriously this is rated R for a reason. If they went with a PG-13 rating this movie would not have been as great as it was. It's great to see something from the Marvel camp that isn't just PG-13 Avengers.
     When I watched this movie there was a sense that everything just flowed well. It was like a perfect super hero movie. Although you can't really call Deadpool a super hero. He's kind of his own kind of hero ya know? I really like that about him. He's not a bad guy necessarily but that doesn't stop him from being a killing machine. Colossus even kept saying that he would make an X-man out of Deadpool yet. So there's still hope for Deadpool to turn to the light side. Things to look forward to when watching this movie; Ryan Reynolds' great acting and hilarious banter, cool action scenes, the strip club scene (which was very random), and a unique origins story. This is how you do justice to a comic book character in film form. It's just that good. Go see this movie as soon you can! 
     Lastly, I've been playing Street Fighter V and the issues that the game had seem to have been fixed. I haven't played any matches online but tomorrow I'll try to play my friend online. I've kind of found an interesting character that I like, Necalli. I thought he was some kind of vampire at first but he's actually some kind of Aztec warrior. Which seems just as awesome! He's become my favorite character just today but I'll probably play a lot of Ryu as well to learn the basics. In addition, I'm looking forward to going to a Smash tournament tomorrow. I'm going to go ham as Zero Suit Samus. I was working on my tech skill, perfect pivots and teching. I've also been working on not rolling so much. I need to completely change my style to remove all my bad habits in order to play better at the competitive level. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

SF V Launch Issues

     Street Fighter V launched yesterday and I thought it was going to be a great experience buying my first Street Fighter game on the day of its launch. But things didn't run as smoothly as I expected.
     First of all, the servers were going in and out constantly. One second you're on and the next you're disconnected. They sort of fixed that problem on day two (2/17) but there are other issues at hand. First of all, I can't create a room and invite my friend to play. When I tried creating a room it just kept giving me the same error over and over. Day one it didn't do this so this is a another newer issue that just came up. The other issue is that when I was searching for a match, it didn't find anyone for me to play. My friend told me that he waited a long time but eventually he got into two matches, eventually having to quit because it disconnected him. The other thing that's bad is that there is no story mode. I know story mode shouldn't be that important for a game but I'm new to the Street Fighter scene and I think having some background information on some of the characters would be interesting.
      They have an outline of that in what is in the game now. They have this thing called story mode which is just four fights with each character, with a basic anime style pictures and some text (although they speak too). This seems ok at first but when you realize you dropped $60 on the game it seems like everything done went bad with this game's launch. I'm not surprised because this happens all the time when a game is first launched. I'm sure that by next week all the issues will be sorted out and the game will run like smooth buttttta.
      In terms of the actual game-play the game is top notch. This is probably the best Street Fighter I've ever played other than Street Fighter II Turbo. I think the combos are much easier for me in this game than they were in IV Ultra. Maybe its my fightstick, a Qanba that is totally bad-ass. It's a pro gamer top quality type of fightstick. I'm still trying to learn most of the characters but I can do Ryu's specials no problem and I've got this one really good combo down with Ken. The other characters will take some work getting used to. I'm going to go into practice mode and learn all the specials for all the characters, hopefully that will give me some sort of foundation to learn on. My friend was going to teach me the basics through showing me and talking to me through the headset but since the lobby system doesn't work we haven't been able to play. It'll be more fun once they fix all the issues. This does tend to happen when games are first launched. Unfortunately it seems its turned into a trend.
Lastly, I got invited to a beta for this game called Gigantic, a free to play shooter MOBA coming to pc and xbox one. I'll give it a try because I'm definitely a fan of MOBA's. I'll let you know if they fix SF V. Until then I'll be labbing in training mode.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Street Fighter V

      So we're two days away from Street Fighter V being released. I'm planning on picking it up for PC on Steam. I couldn't get it on any other system because its only on PC and Ps4, and I don't own a ps4. I'm not sure if me or my brother will get an xbone or a ps4. However, fighting games on the PC have always been great fun. At one point I bought Marvel vs Capcom 3 and was really digging into playing fighting games (real fighting games, not smash). Later, I got Street Fighter IV Ultra (these are the xbox 360 versions) and gave that a try. Well, now I'm gonna play Street Fighter V. I hope its much better than IV Ultra was. I'm super hyped for this game and I even bought a fightstick (gaming pad with arcade buttons made for fighting games) just to get more into the actual feel of a fighting game. You really can't play a fighting game made for fightsticks with a regular xbox controller. Its just not the same. Plus the fight-stick is easier to play on than a controller, at least for me.
     A lot of my friends at work are all going to pick it up for ps4 and I'll be able to play with them because sf v is going to be a cross-over server game (ps4 and pc users can fight each other). This will be a first for the franchise and in my opinion will ensure that the game's community never dies. I can't wait till this game comes out! One of my friends said he will even help me out to learn the game and teach me how to play while giving me instructions via headset. It'll be great playing with friends and learning other fighting games other than Smash. I was playing Rivals of Aether and Skullgirls for a while but I haven't played Rivals in a while (since then they've released a new character). Also, I had to give my friend his fight-stick back and I don't like playing Skullgirls without it. I've heard that there's a little controversy in the community about Street Fighter V. Hopefully this one is better than IV. Definitely check this game out. It will be released on February 16.

Pocket characters

      I played my friend in Smash today as I regularly do (on WiFi) and instead of picking my mains (Zero Suit Samus and Bayonetta) I was playing all my pocket characters. A pocket character is a character that you don't main and perhaps don't play a lot but you occasionally like playing that character. My pocket characters are Fox, Mario, Shulk, Kirby, Metaknight, Diddy Kong, Veria Suit Samus, and Sheik. Those are all super good characters if you know how to use them but they aren't exactly top tiers (except Sheik). However, I think Fox, Diddy, and Mario are really close to top tier characters. Its a blast playing characters that you don't normally play. Lately I've been so focused on just improving with Zero Suit and Bayonetta that they're the only characters I've been playing. I've been very successful with them on For Glory and against my friends I play well. I need to improve my neutral. That's like the main thing I need to focus on but its pretty hard when I'm playing against people that aren't way better than me. I feel like I could improve so much more if I was able to train with some really good players. Other characters that I would like to pocket include Zelda, Luigi, Rosalina, Peach, Bowser, Bowser JR, Ike, Marth, Lucina, and Donkey Kong(so many!). It would be great to start learning those characters. I think I'm going to start doing just that. Its fun learning new characters and figuring out all their combos. Who are all your pocket characters?

Saturday, February 13, 2016

BB King and guitar music

     Today was a long day at work but on my lunch break I turned on PBS and there was a BB King documentary on. It was fitting for me because lately I've been listening to a lot of great guitar music. And in addition, its black history month, and who better to celebrate than BB King. We just lost him recently in 2015, he's safe, and he just might have been the greatest blues musician of all time.
     What I really like about BB is his guitar playing. His vibrato sings so sweetly and his guitar tone is so light, smooth, and jazzy. He's the most jazzified blues guitarist I've ever heard. He adds a lot of chromatic notes into his lines and its more interesting stuff than what other blues guitarists were doing. It sounds like BB listened to a lot of jazz at some point. For one thing he plays a semi-hollow body Gibson guitar and that gives him a big round tone that is more typical for a modal jazzer than a blues man. It was great to see a documentary detailing all of BB's accomplishments and seeing that his memory is still with us. Long live the King!
     Lately, I've been listening to a lot of great guitar music. John McLaughlin, Eric Johnson, and Robben Ford. This guy that comes to my work also told me to check out Mark Knofler's live version of Sultans of Swing .I'll have to check that out sometime but I've heard that Knofler is a phenomenal guitar player. I gotta say that I really dig Robben Ford's guitar style. He seems jazzy yet he plays such simple sounding stuff at the same time. Its a very interesting style where he never overplays. He's an interesting picker and at one point early in his career he played with Miles Davis. Listening to John McLaughlin has been a blast. I heard a while back that he had an album called Black Light that just came out but I haven't gotten it yet. I will get it because I'm tired of just listening to stuff on youtube, pandora, and soundcloud. I need new albums! I've already got a super big collection full of great stuff (mostly jazz, rock, and metal) and it wouldn't hurt to get more.
     In addition to guitar music, I've been listening to a lot of game music. I love the music selection from Smash 4, its just awesome! I particularly love the music from Metroid, Fire Emblem, Midgar stage, Legend of Zelda, Mario Bros themes, and Dream Land stage theme. I love it all really haha. I really like the idea of playing video game songs and turning them into jazz standards with interesting chord changes and voicings. Think of how awesome that would be to play that live!  Music has always been that one constant in my life. As Frank Zappa said,"music is the best."

Friday, February 12, 2016

Smash tourney at FAD 2/11/16

      Today's tournament ended up being hype! In the beginning it was very slow because there were very few setups but later on there were a few more added. I didn't really get to play too many friendlies because of the lack of setups but the friendlies I did play I did so-so in. I played this Mario that beat me in tournament last week and I almost beat him (taking him way beyond 100%). It was cool because a friend that I met through my brother showed up and brought two friends and we ended up hanging out, talking, and playing friendlies. My tournament matches were losses but they were to really good players. I'm proud to say that I played much better against them than I have in the past times we played. I lost to Fox players. There are a lot of Foxes in SoCal.You can check how stacked this tournament was here, take a look at the bracket-http://challonge.com/fad_WE6.
     The first guy I played is this guy Mattman (Fox). He's beaten me in the past but back then he two stocked me. This time I played much better but still lost. I just kept making bad trades, you don't want to trade with Fox as Zero Suit. After he beat me he told me all about how I can improve and what I did wrong. He said the biggest thing I need to work on is my neutral, which I think is what I need work on the most. In all honesty I don't think I played bad against him considering last time he two stocked me doing nothing but up-air shenanigans. This time I at least took a stock both games and at least put in some work with a few combos. Its funny because I was super salty when I lost to him and when I lost the first stock game one I was really upset. First time I've ever been upset at a tournament. I felt extra salty after that set. But it went away after I realized that last time we played I did much worse. I'm improving!
     The second opponent was Fox16, another Fox player. I've lost to him twice in tournament so far but I have taken a game off him with my Samus once in the past. Game one I was playing super well and he was missing all his confirms (missing a lot of up-smash). I feel that when Fox starts missing its easy to punish him and start up combos. I took the first stock game one and I was feeling super confident. Then, he did a back-air and it was tied up. You could say that I choked because even though I had a percent lead, (small as it was) he brought the game back and won. Then game two he switched to Wario and again, it was pretty even first stock. Then he took the first stock and I kind of just fell apart. Its one of my biggest problems in tournament that when I'm playing really well and have a lead I just panic and start going for bad options when I should be playing patient and switching it up. Again though, I can't be upset with losing to Fox16 because he's a great player and I actually played really well against him today. I'm proud of how well I played today but I know I can get better. Those two guys I played today were technically better than me but that doesn't mean that I can't pull a rabbit out of my hat and slay them. That's my plan in the future if we face again, and knowing how many times we've played I know we will play again.
     One of the guys my friend brought was this cool black guy that played Mario. In friendlies he went around beating like ten people in a row before losing. But when it came to his tournament matches he didn't play so well. Its weird how good players lose in a tournament setting but annihilate in friendlies. Maybe it was the nerves that got to him. I feel like he did a lot of random smash attacks and didn't really play much of a neutral game but he made it work so well that it didn't matter.
     Anyways, some of the high level sets were great to watch. My favorite was winners finals-K9SBruce versus Larry Laur (Sheik vs Corrin). Larry went all Corrin this tournament and I think in the end it was the reason why he lost. I really wanted to see his Fox when he was losing to K9. However, there ain't no shame in 2nd place at a local. But its not like Larry played bad or anything, he played great! I think in the end it was 2-2 and K9 won in game five. The crazy thing about it though was that K9 reset from losers, what a comeback! It was a great ending to the tournament and they both played well. At some points it looked like Larry was dancing as Corrin with all the combos he was doing. He made Corrin look a lot better than she actually is. I don't think I'll ever see a Corrin play that well for a long time.
     Then there was Aphro versus K9. That was a fun match-up (Bayonetta versus Sheik). I really dig Aphro's style because he's a Zero Suit main like me and I've been playing Bayonetta pretty much exclusively too. After my matches today I felt like I should have gone Bayonetta considering the fact that I've been playing her nonstop for like two weeks now. Too bad I didn't play her when I lost a match. Maybe I could've brought it back with her because she's still new and people aren't used to her combos and style yet. Also, my Bayo's pretty decent. I've been playing great with her on For Glory and against my friends. I even played a match as her against my friend with a level 9 on his team and I almost won! Haha, but seriously next time I need to bring her out and try my luck. Aphro also played an amazing set versus this young kid that's a friend of mine, named Dynamo (Sheik). It was 2-2 and in game three Aphro was like at 130% and Dynamo had one stock and was at like 60%. Dynamo was close to timing Aphro out (it was at like 22 seconds) but Aphro just got in these up-air combos and just brought the game back. He ended it with an up-smash. It was a pretty sick comeback but he got super lucky that the timer didn't run out and that Dynamo didn't camp him out hard enough.
     Also, there was a great battle with this guy named Exeed (something like that), some guy that came from the Brawl days. He played a good Corrin against Larry but he ended up losing. It was sick seeing a Corrin ditto in tournament. That's a first for me because I don't watch a lot of tournaments. I prefer to see high level players play in person but maybe I'll start tuning into more of the competitive scene from other places and see what their players are like. I know SoCal is one of the best regions. Fire and Dice is such a stacked tournament setting, especially for a player like myself who just started committing myself to the game. Zork, Rich Brown, Aphro, K9, Nicko, Jwest, Zenyou, and CharlieDaKing were all there. It was a great tournament and I look forward to going to more. The guys running the place said next month they are going to start doing tournaments on the weekends, which I am hyped for. They also said they're going to start a points winning system for how many wins you get at the tournaments, you will get your entrance fee paid to go to Evo. Not bad, Fire and Dice. Not bad at all.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Smash full time

     Lately I've been playing tons of Smash. I haven't even been going on my computer all that much these days. Even when I'm bored of playing Smash that just means its time to go to work. I've been working a lot of hours lately as well but I've also been getting in tons of great practice. My main practice partner is my friend that I play online with a lot. He's a Yoshi main with some great fundamentals but I can see where his skills differ from mine. He's one of those players who will just throw out a lot of smash attacks randomly, a tactic that doesn't usually work too often. I've learned when to shield and when to punish very effectively against him. Him and my other friend play the same way its actually very interesting how they both play like that because I don't. Anyways, I've been labbing Bayonetta a lot and I love her! She's like my favorite character other than Zero Suit Samus. Although I've been playing Bayo 24/7 tomorrow at the tournament (at FAD) I'll stick with my main-Zss. Last tournament I did pretty well taking a game off a Mario player but I feel like everybody knows Bayo now and knows how to counter her. The only good Bayo I've seen is Nairo's and last night on stream he got bodied by Mr.R's Cloud pretty good. What's it like dedicating all your free time to Smash 4? Well its great. I've already seen improvement and its only been a week of solid practice just focusing on Smash. In time I will only get better.
      Also, when I was at work a friend came by and we talked about Smash for a second. He told me that the game was just broken and that he didn't like it, and that it wasn't a 'real' fighting game.  He did make me question the game a little bit when he said that the game is broken. Sometimes when I'm playing certain match ups against people online I do feel like the game is broken. Today I was playing a skilled Roy while using Bayonetta and I felt that the match up was heavily in Roy's favor for some reason. However, in the hands of a master any character against any match-up is viable. For example, today I was playing against my friend's Link and he had 2 stocks (with very low percent) and I had one stock while I was Greninja. Somehow, I started going hard in the paint (getting super close to Link and not giving him room for projectiles) and I just bodied him. I did a whole bunch of grabs, threw him offstage, and punished every get up on the ledge. And I've never played Greninja in my entire life! It was glorious. When things like that happen I know that the game is all about skill (natural or otherwise) rather than the game being rigged. Just a thought.
     I'm excited for the tournament tomorrow, it's become my favorite thing to do during the week. I usually win at least one game in my sets (but not always) but in the end I always choke. I've even taken a game off Fox16 with my Spamus Samus and he's a pretty good player. Also, I've beaten Jedi with Zero Suit at least once in friendlies. So I do have potential to beat good players, I just have to tap into that 'hidden power' just like Gohan did when he fought Cell. Can't wait till I get good enough to slay these kids like its nothing. Wish me luck!

Monday, February 8, 2016

Focus on Smash

     Until further notice, the only game I'll be playing seriously (competitively) is Smash. I'm already decent but I have a lot of work to do. I have to put in my 10,000 hours as they say and chip away at it until I've become great. By great I mean that I want to be able to place top ten (at least) at the local I go to. In addition, I want to start going to more local tournaments and trying my luck there. I think if I just keep playing everyday I will improve and just annihilate people in tournament eventually. My practice routine includes a weekly tournament, online with friends, and for glory. I also practice against cpu's and in training mode too. I'm going to focus on playing Zero Suit Samus of course, but also playing Bayonetta. I'm not sure yet if I want to pick her up as a secondary or if I'm just having fun playing as her all the time recently. It's a tough decision but the point can be made that Zero Suit and Bayonetta are very similar in their move-set and play-style, therefore it makes sense for me to play both of them. Don't get me wrong. I won't be completely quitting other games. I'll still play some PC games (on my laptop after work) like Heroes of the Storm and Diablo III but I definitely won't be as much of a PC gamer as I have been. I'm giving all that up for now. It seems like PC gaming takes too much time and console gaming just seems so much more 'natural', if that makes sense. I guess I've turned into a console guy and a Nintendo fanboy! It's been many a winding and twisting roads to have gone from being a PC gamer into a console gamer again. I believe in the end it will be worth it and better for me because I'm better at Smash than I am at PC games and the smash scene is so much more chill than the PC gaming community. I came to Smash 4 super late in the scene, I just got my Wii U in September 2015 and I didn't start going to tournaments until fairly recently. I'm tired of watching great players play on streams and YouTube. I need to be the one playing on there. Who knows maybe I can become good enough to play with a crew or team, or at least get noticed on a stream sometime when I finally become good enough to go toe to toe with great players. Time to 'git gud'!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

New Music II

     I've been listening to a lot of new music lately. Stuff that I don't normally listen to. This includes j-rock (Japanese rock music), edm (electronic dance music), dubstep, nu-metal, jazz (always listening to jazz), and video game music. As I'm writing this I'm listening to the new Dream Theater album. Let me say that this album is heavily orchestrated (even has symphony work), full of emotional ballads, technical (but soulful), and has so many unexpected twists and turns in the music. Its trademark DT but I can't say that its very good or enjoyable. It just sounds so generic, like they could've made this album at any time and didn't put too much work into it. Basically it sounds like all the other American metal music out there, it just sounds like the bands' same old tried and true musical sound and composition style. These guys aren't ever going to change their style and I think in the end that's going to ruin them because they've become boring and predictable. Kind of like Slayer and Megadeth (two of my favorite metal bands). Metal heads need to learn to adapt to change within their music. I like the direction where Opeth is going from their death metal roots into more of a 70s progressive rock style. It's awesome. 
     Anyways, I've gotten really into j-rock mostly because of anime. In the beginning of every anime episode there is an opening theme song and at the end there is a closing theme song. These songs are always sung in Japanese and usually have a female vocalist. The tunes are mostly uptempo, kinda punkish, and have a major key tonality. However, there are slow ballads as well that I like too.  I feel like Japanese rock music has certain rules and key changes that American rock music doesn't adhere to. Its like completely different worlds even though its all rock music. Japanese metal music is usually different as well. Usually the Japanese like their metal to be more on the melodic side and love to play ballads. I would say the main j-rock song that got me super into this genre is the One Punch Man opening theme. You can listen to it here-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoVMwDjJCw. As you can see its melodic, catchy, and is uptempo. The guitar playing is excellent as well as the heavy metal drumming. Another great opening theme song that I love is this-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_t47BVtPuE, the Gurren Lagaan opening theme. This one is more my style. The guitar playing is top notch and super catchy, as are the vocals. The chorus just kicks so much ass! This is probably my favorite anime opening theme song although there are plenty of other great ones. There are times when an anime has such a good opening and closing theme that I have to watch it on every single episode. However, there are some themes that I prefer to skip because they aren't that good. Japanese music is so good! I can see why Marty Friedman(former guitarist from 90s era Megadeth) moved to Japan to play Japanese rock and pop music, its completely different there and more interesting than what the Americans are doing with music.
     In addition, I've been listening to a lot of edm music. I only listen to edm when I'm streaming on twitch because its one of the main genres that twitch will allow you to stream because there are strict rules on streaming music. You can check out my twitch here-twitch.tv/megaman1597. The main edm artists that the Twitch Music Library has on Soundcloud (what I'm using for streaming) is Monstercat. I feel like Monstercat is a great artist but his music is a little generic, like a lot of edm music really. I've never gotten super big into the genre because it all sounds cliche to me even super big artists like Skrillex and Diplo. A great edm song I like is Bangarang by Skrillex. I just like how catchy it is. It seems super easy to make a song like that. All you really need is a laptop and a basic music program and you're set to make it big. I am oversimplifying it a bit but creating edm or dubstep music isn't as complicated as playing a jazz standard or writing a metal tune. I could be wrong but that's what I feel to be the case.
     Also, when I stream there's also a metal channel on the Twitch Music Library. I would classify the metal they have on there to be indie metal but also nu-metal because it doesn't fit the generic metal-core sound that most popular American nu-metal bands sound like. I've heard some interesting tunes. A lot of the metal on there has rap mixed in with it so it usually reminds me of Linkin Park, which isn't a bad thing. I look forward to hearing more interesting metal music while streaming.
     I'm always listening to jazz in one form or another. Even when I listen to video game music, its usually based on jazz. A lot of video game music has jazz instrumentation or jazz harmonies, its actually pretty similar. Some video game music is technical and exciting to hear. Just the other day I was watching a Smash replay on Youtube and the person who made it had a great version of Fly me to the moon playing over the gameplay. It was amazing and inspired me to change my blog name to that song name. It's such a standard jazz tune that everybody that's anybody has heard it and if they don't know jazz they've probably still heard it. I've been also listening to the music on Smash 4 and I've been really feeling it! My favorite tune on Smash 4 is undoubtedly the Final Fantasy theme from the Midgar stage. The tune just brings my childhood to life because I played a lot of Final Fantasy 7 when I was in elementary school. I've also been checking out a lot of music streams on twitch and I've seen some great musicians who like to play video game music on piano and guitar. Rich Brown (pro Brawl/Smash 4 player) has a great twitch channel where he plays solo piano music. He focuses on playing video game tunes but he's also a talented jazz musician too. Check out his channel sometime http://www.twitch.tv/rich_brown/profile. And then there's the super guitar bros-http://www.twitch.tv/superguitarbros/profile. Those guys are great acoustic guitar players that focus on playing video game tunes. Its been great listening to new stuff lately. Sometimes jazz gets a little stale and I need to take a break and listen other stuff. I feel like jazz is America's greatest musical art form but sometimes its hard to find the best jazz because the whole scene is cluttered with crap (like smooth jazz). I guess its like that with all music though. You have to weed out the bad stuff to get to the great cutting edge music. In the end, even if you only find one artist that you like, it will always be worth it.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Dream Theater Images and Words

      This isn't a jazz album or something that I listen to all the time. In fact, I haven't been listening to any rock or metal music lately at all, preferring to listen to jazz-free jazz mostly. But this album is so good! Within the last two days I've listened to it twice. The highlight of the album for me is the very beginning, a song called Pull Me Under. This song is so heavy and so catchy at the same time. Its like a progressive metal Beatles band. They're all so skilled as musicians that they're almost as talented musically as jazz musicians. The guitar and keyboards really stand out the most. John Petrucci (guitar) is known to all guitarists and has such a mastery of the instrument. Being a guitar player myself, I see how great of a musician he is. His guitar playing really puts a stamp on the band and I can tell that he's one of main composers for the band. He's a complete shredder with these insane solos but his rhythm is really good too.
     There are a lot of rock ballads on this album. I see it as a good thing though because if everything was just super fast and technical all the time it would get old fast. Even though this album was made in 1992 it has all the rock music cliches that the 80s had, especially with the harmonic vocabulary from the band. They were probably reaching out to a bigger audience at that stage in their career. They were a super young band at that time and  this was the first album made with singer James La Brie. I can tell how great a singer LeBrie was when he was a young man as opposed to being an old man now. The more recent Dream Theater still has plenty of musical theatrics from the singing just isn't so great. From what I've heard of the band this was their most commercial album thus being their best selling album.
     I just thought I'd mention this album because its getting me back into listening to rock again. I'm a big jazz guy but before I was a jazzer I was a rocker. I've kind of come to not see rock music as being all that great but when I see great musicians like Dream Theater I can see the greatness in rock. If you've never heard of Dream Theater you should definitely listen to this album first. It's a great opening to their vast output. I have their most recent album but I wasn't really too thrilled with what I heard. But this album is great! Give it a listen and see for yourself.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Smash tournament at FAD 2/4/16

     So I went to yet another tournament at Fire and Dice. Fad has become a home away from home and its been a blast going every week. I actually played really well overall today although in my tournament matches I didn't play at my best.
     My first match was against this Mario player, really young kid. I thought I had it in the bag because I'd never seen him before there and I usually crush newcomers. Instead of picking Zero Suit Samus (my main), I went for Bayonetta and played a great game. I beat him game one and I was feeling super confident. Then in game 2 he went for the usual Mario shenanigans (uptilt, grab, upsmash). He took game 2 and then it was all to be decided in game 3. At that point I should've realized that I wasn't going to win with Bayonetta but I chose to stay her. I don't really remember the game too much except for that it was a really close game. I lost to the usual Mario stuff. I wouldn't say he was better than me but he still won.
     My second match was against this guy that was friends with a friend of mine. He played a mean Mewtwo. I brought out Zero Suit Samus and he took me out no problem game 1. It was not even close. Game 2 I switched to Fox and I started annihilating him. I took the first stock pretty quick but then somehow he started to adapt. He started blocking pretty much all my attacks and instead of switching it up or grabbing him I kept attacking him over and over again. He eventually took my first stock and continued doing the same thing. In the end he ended up winning. I should have really switched it up because I had that game in the bag. One of the things I need to learn is to change up my game plans mid match and not get tilted whenever someone counters it. I felt like I had the advantage too. Although this guy was a way better player than me I still feel I had the advantage because Fox just annihilated Mewtwo (imo). He played great overall tonight and I think he ending up getting 7th place or something. That tells you that he's in a different league than I am, yet I played so well against him that first stock! Oh well, next time I'll do better.
     Before singles started I played a bunch of friendlies against some random guys I'd never met. They looked like newcomers to the tournament and I asked them if this was their first time here. They said they were regulars. When we ended up playing I ending up slaying them pretty badly. It was a lot of fun! One of them played Yoshi. His Yoshi needed a lot of work but it seemed like he had the basic fundamentals down. I already know how to play against good Yoshi's because one of my best friends mains Yoshi. Every general Smash bros player plays Yoshi, he's super popular, like Mario. The other guy played Mewtwo. He beat me once. I'm beginning to see the inner power within Mewtwo because of all the good Mewtwo's I played tonight. I saw Rich Brown in action (a super good smash player from Brawl), the guy who beat me, and this random guy I met that I was playing friendlies with. They all played super good Mewtwo's. I never really took Mewtwo seriously until tonight because I saw how great he actually is. Anyways, in the friendlies against those guys I played amazingly with Corrin and Bayonetta. Later, I played some friendlies with some super good players that were friends of mine. Although I sometimes won because of suicide deaths (sd's) I did beat them in fair fights where they didn't sd, just not very often. To me that's a good day. I've definitely improved at Smash. I'm pretty proud of myself and plan on working harder to keep improving.
     Also, this was the first time at a tournament that I really enjoyed watching the top level players play. It was exhilarating watching K9SBruce (Sheik) play against Nicko (Cloud). They were going at it and it looked super even but K9 eventually took the set, but not before losing two games. Super close set. I'm not sure but I think K9 took the tournament.
     Then there was Dynamo versus Brandon (forgot his gamer tag). This was a super close Sheik versus Captain Falcon set. They both won two games and had to settle it in game 5. I'm not really sure what made Dynamo take that last game because earlier in the set he was having trouble. I'm glad he won though because he deserves it. And its great that Brandon is competing because the last time I talked to him he said he doesn't enter the tournament probably because he's unsure of his skill. I've played some games with him before and I never got close to beating him. He's a monster who will probably place higher at the tournament in the future.
     The best set though hands down was Rich Brown versus Nicko. They played and it was awesome. Nicko's cloud is super aggressive and heavy on aggro and Rich's Mewtwo kind of had to attack and counter attack a lot to stop Cloud's momentum. Nicko ended up beating Rich pretty convincingly. I think Rich got sent to losers but he won all those games and made it back to play against Nicko again later.
     This time Rich Brown knew what to do. This is probably what separates a top level player from a great player. He adapted so quick and knew exactly how to handle Cloud this time around. But it was still super even. They both won two games and it was all settled on game five. Rich switched to Olimar and he was doing work. I think Nicko lost because of one fatal mistake that cost him his stock. They were both over 100% and Nicko had limit charged up to full. I guess he felt like this was his last chance so when he hit Olimar off stage he jumped off stage and used his limit cross slash, missing Rich because he was above instead of where Nicko thought he was going to be. So Rich just spiked him and won the game. Nicko was really upset, understandably so. I've come to realize that when top level players lose they get super mad, sometimes even making a scene. The thing is that Nicko played great. He just messed up with that limit attack. It was super cool to see a high level Olimar player in action. It was like he throwing pikmin 99% of the time lol. It was kind of insane to see Olimar go toe to toe with Cloud and do so well. I guess Olimar is a much better character than I previously thought. Also, Rich Brown is just a great player. He's definitely one of the best players at Fire and Dice.
     All in all this was probably the best tournament I've been to in terms of how much I enjoyed everything. I played a lot, watched a lot, and learned a lot. I'm going to keep going and keep getting better at the game.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The optimal way to play Diablo

     So lately I've been playing a lot of Diablo III Reaper of Souls. Pretty much all my friends on battlenet have been playing it. Playing it a lot. The game just got a recent update that pretty much changed the game. Blizzard is constantly updating Diablo and it just keeps getting better and better everyday. Its amazing that a gaming company can do that and still impress you time after time. Blizzard is definitely one of my favorite gaming companies and I pretty much play every single Blizzard game.
     My main memories of playing Diablo was just me running around in parties and just slaying stuff with a team of random players. Its fun, don't get me wrong but its not the best way to play this game. The best way to play Diablo is in a private game just by yourself. You'd think to yourself that this is super boring and why would I ever do that but as soon as you do you find the true inner greatness within this game and everything it has to offer. I find playing solo just a joy. Its becoming one of my favorite games to play late at night when I just want to chill. Its become the perfect game.
     I was even streaming it today on my twitch channel (twitch.tv/megaman1597). I was playing on Torment IV and it was giving my barb a little trouble but I was able to handle it. I did die two times though so there were some super powerful enemies that were hitting me hard. Basically I do about 7,000,000 base damage but with Frenzy and the increase dmg rune I'm doing 1,000,0000. Its not bad but I need more damage! If I want to keep going up to higher Torments I gotta get more damage. The fun thing about playing barbarian is that its a very physical type of play style. In order for my barb to survive he basically has to just get in a few hits to get health per hit. Barbarian has been my favorite class to play in any rpg game and I've always felt like barbarians in Diablo has always been one of the stronger classes.
     So its been great discovering how to really enjoy Diablo III. This is the most fun I've ever had playing it and Blizzard is just keeping the updates coming. Now if you excuse me I have to go slay some demons.

Monday, February 1, 2016

My favorite Smash 4 players

     When its super late at night and I'm really tired I watch a lot of Smash videos from tournaments that may have happened like a week, two weeks, or even a few days ago. Its a blast and I've learned a lot from watching high level players duke it out. I've seen some of these great players in action at the local weekly tournament that I go to. Here's a list of some of my favorite players. Some of them are from right here in SoCal.
     It goes without saying that ZeRo is arguably the best Smash 4 player probably of all time. In 2015 alone I heard he won something like 52 national tournaments in a row, which is an insane record for a pro gamer! He's put in so much time and work into this game that working another job just isn't an option for him when he can make money playing Smash. ZeRo is definitely one of my favorite players. Also, he used to be a regular at Fire and Dice, the place I go to tournaments at every week. It would've been great to see him in action at a small local like that. I feel like ZeRo's come from a very humble upbringing from Chile and now he's made it as a pro gamer in America. Its kind of like the Korean Starcraft pros moving to America and becoming household names as players here. It's a beautiful thing. The thing I like about ZeRo is that he used to be a Diddy Kong main and he was so good with Diddy back then before they nerfed him. Now he's a Sheik only kind of guy but that's ok. I do get tired of the fact that pretty much all the top players in SoCal play Sheik (that's kind of boring) but hey, Sheik is the number one character in the game so playing her definitely has its advantages.
     Although ZeRo is a hype player with mad skill my favorite player is Nairo. I don't know too much about Nairo but he mains Zero Suit Samus and absolutely annihilates with her. His combos and overall style is so fun to watch. He's not a SoCal player but he's beaten ZeRo before. In 2015 he beat ZeRo at MLG, probably one of the first times ZeRo lost a national tournament. Nairo is the best Zero Suit Samus player (imo) but there are others who represent ZSS really well in big tournaments.
     Mars is one of those players. I don't know much about Mars but I saw a mirror match (Zss vs Zss) against Nairo and it was one of the best sets I've ever seen in Smash 4. They were going off!
     I also have to mention Dabuz, a super good Rosalina and Luma main that really took it to ZeRo at Genesis 3. That set was so hype. Dabuz even two stocked ZeRo in Game 1! Again, this was one of the better sets from 2015.
     Now time for the locals. Zenyou is one of the first super good Smash players I met at my first tournament. His Mario is absolutely amazing. Uptilts for days and combos that will make you automatically eat 70% in one string. When I went to my first tournament he talked to me and gave me great advice about my playing and just overall what its like being at a tournament and stuff. He's a great guy and gives back to the Smash community.
     Next, Larry Laur. Larry is a great Fox, he's a space animal legend. He places really high at big tournaments as well as locals. I used to main Fox so I really dig when high level players main him. Because Fox is a fast faller I feel like he gets combo'd super easy and his recovery can be punished pretty easily if you don't mix it up a lot.
     In addition, my favorite local Smash player from SoCal is definitely Jwest, or Jweast. He's a Samus main that is absolutely amazing. People always talk trash about Samus about how she's a garbage character but when Jwest plays her he absolutely crushes people. I saw a set where he actually took a game off ZeRo, it was super hype! I've seen him play at the local I go to and hope to see him in action again. I feel like he can go super far with Samus. I don't even think Esam's Samus is as good as Jwest's quite frankly, although I could be wrong. I just love Samus but I'm always too afraid to play her in a tournament match. Maybe one day I'll just go all Samus instead of Zss and see how I do. I feel like I've learned a lot about how to play Samus from watching Jwest.
     Also, I see great things from this guy Dynamo, a Sheik main. He's super young and he's already good at Smash, doing really well at the local. He's one of the first people I met at my first tournament and he always gives me great advice. Whenever I lose a match he can explain to me what I did wrong and how I can improve next time. Then there's this other kid CharlieDaKing, a Fox main. He'll go really far in Smash 4 as well, he's already a super good player. I've played both of these kids and it was like I just couldn't do anything against them, they were that good. Sugoi.
     I have to mention Saladin because he's been a great friend that I've made through Smash tournaments. He plays a mean Rosalina too! Then there's GaryB (Fox main), another friend. Also, there's FuzzballJones, a Roy main that is really good. I feel like he could one day go super far with Roy at a tournament if he puts in the time and effort.
     I feel like SoCal's Smash 4 players all have a hidden history and persona that nobody really knows about because our region just isn't as popular as like Tri-State and stuff, despite the fact that we probably have the strongest region in America. I hope I shared at least a little bit of cool information about them. Most of these people are just regular people who just happen to be really good at video games. It's been great getting to know some of them and watching them in action.

New Year, New Me, [Not Really]

Hello Universe ,  How is it going out there in the free world ? It's a new year, happy 2024! It's time for all those happy go lucky...