Tag: Xbox 360

Super Street Fighter IV Juri Could Have Been a Chubby Ice Skater

SFIV Juri

Super Street Fighter IV’s Juri is a sexy tae kwon do vixen, but she could have been a chubby ice skater according Capcom art director Toshiyuki Kamei. Andriasang translated the official Super Street Fighter IV blog and learned:

The character’s design originally started with orders from producer Yoshinori Ono to make a female Korean character. Not necessarily an erotic female Korean character, though. According to Kamei, taking all hair and clothing variations into account, there were originally some 400 or 500 ideas for the character. Some ideas included an old woman and an ice skater.

The character was originally cuter and chubbier. They gradually thinned her out, with Kamei admitting that they at one point went too far and had to revert a bit.

Having had numerous dating experiences with Korean women, I assure you that chubby-ice-skater Juri would have been as terrifying as sexy Juri. Check out Juri in action against T. Hawk in the video below.

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Today’s Poll: Which Version of Dragon Age: Origins?!?

Dragon Age Origins

I’m torn on this matter. As a longtime Baldur’s Gate fan, it feels natural to play this game on a PC. Unfortunately, I’m all laptop these days and I worry that my Nvidia GeForce 8400m won’t cut the mustard. Plus, if I’m going to be sinking 100+ hours into a game, my couch would be more comfortable than my Herman Miller Mirra. That said, I’ve been reading about some nasty bugs on the PS3 version. I’m not sure if the same bugs plague the Xbox 360 version, but I’m going to do more research. Which version of Dragon Age: Origins to buy?!? I don’t know! How about you?

[poll id=”5″]

Coffee Talk #17: PS3 vs. Xbox 360 Controller Battle!

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Ozzy Osbourne hosting Monday Night Raw, Apple possibly getting into subscription television, or the French press vs. drip machine debate, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Prior to this console generation, Sony was the undisputed king of console controllers. Then out of nowhere (at least, that’s how it seemed to me), the Xbox 360 controller took the throne. Personally, I don’t get it. I love the shape of the Dual Shock, prefer its more precise analog sticks, and hate the d-pad on the 360 controller. All that said, I understand why the Xbox 360 became so popular. It all started last console generation….

xbox 360 ps3 controllers slider

Shooters became prominent on consoles. Initially, shooter aficionados scoffed at the idea of playing with anything that wasn’t a mouse and keyboard. As consoles became more popular and PC gaming less popular, a lot of gamers begrudgingly lived out their World War II and space-marine fantasies on consoles. Eventually, the control schemes became better and more precise. A lot of shooter fans — especially Americans — preferred the larger Xbox and Xbox 360 controllers for shooting.

The Type-S controller for the original Xbox is also worth mentioning. The original Xbox controller was a giant piece of crap. The Type-S was much, much better — especially for shooters. The Xbox 360 pad is a nice evolution of the Type-S. Sony’s Dual Shock 3, on the other hand, isn’t much of a progression from the Dual Shock 2. Some, myself included, will argue that the company was right not to stray from an already excellent design. Others will say that Microsoft’s advancements give it an edge. I guess there’s something to be said about going to crap (original Xbox controller) to very good (Xbox 360 pad).

Anyway, I want to know which controller you prefer and why. Do you dig the small footprint and classic design of the Dual Shock 3? Or do you like the larger and more evolved Xbox 360 pad?

This Week’s Videogame Releases

The gaming business is entering its final push before everything is on the table for the holiday rush. This week’s big release is Dragon Age: Origins from the outstanding Edmontonians at BioWare. Music games are facing off again, but this time the battle is for casual gamers with Band Hero and Rock Band: LEGO. Is the music-game genre to saturated? Or will these games sell to a different audience?

While you ponder that, here are this week’s PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS releases…along with some brief commentary. I’ve taken out most of the garbage and kids games (unless I found them funny). As always, let me know if you’re planning to buy any of this week’s new releases.

Dragon Age Origins chicky

PlayStation 3
Band Hero — Too bad this isn’t Band Camp Hero. I’d play an RPG about this one time, at band camp.
Dragon Age: Origins — BioWare rules!!!
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
Rock Band: AC/DC Track Pack
Rock Band: LEGO
Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition — I’m pretty sure the Sith invented repackaging.

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Final Fantasy XIII Crystalium Level-Up System Explained

Japanese magazine Shonen Jump has detailed Final Fantasy XIII’s “Crystalium” system, which is used to level up characters. Using “Crystal Points” and a chart with diverging paths, the system sounds like an advancement of the sphere grid used in Final Fantasy X. The good peeps at Andriasang have translated and analyzed the info:

FFXIII WP1

As you defeat enemies in battle, you earn Crystal Points (CP). These can be exchanged for new skills and abilities, shown on a circular chart in the Crystalium management screen. As you learn certain skills, new paths on the chart open up.

In addition to earning new skills like “Fire,” you can also use this system to increase your characters’ parameters. The screenshots in Jump show options for increasing character HP.

Character growth appears to be done on a per role basis. This is my speculation based off the screenshots, but it appears that each character can be raised individually in the various battle roles (Blaster, Defender, Attacker, and so-forth).

This system sounds great on paper. I loved the sphere grid in FFX. Crystalium sounds like the sphere grid taken to the next level. Even though FFXIII’s gestalt mode continues to vex me, I’m thinking (wishing?) that Crystalium will help me forget it’s there.

Source

Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski Thinks Project Natal is Amazingly Fun

Project Natal

Yesterday, you read Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski’s thoughts on OnLive. Today you get the renowned game designer’s opinion on Project Natal. In my recent interview with Cliff, I asked him what he saw in Microsoft’s motion-sensing wonder. He said:

I see an amazingly fun system that will expand the Xbox user base in a direction previously untapped by Microsoft and currently owned by Nintendo. When all is said and done, there are probably going to be “Wii Fit”-like games, more “hardcore experience”-based games as well as some that lie somewhere between the two.

I don’t believe that motion or gesture-based controls of any sort will replace the controller any time soon. They will merely enable yet another way to interact with your console, and Natal could potentially enhance classic controller-based games in many, many different and exciting ways. (None of which I’m ready to talk about at this time, so Internet, don’t go reading into this too much and start drawing random conclusions.)

What do you think of Cliffy B’s opinions on Project Natal? Agree? Disagree? What do you make of him addressing the Internet as if it were a person or a group of people? Is it a mental disorder that he developed while working so hard on Gears of War?

New Final Fantasy XIII Gestalt Modes: Bahamut and Brynhildr

Oerba summon

Square Enix has updated the official Final Fantasy XIII web site with new information and pictures on two gestalt modes. First up is Bahamut, Oerba Yun Fang’s summon. Longtime FF fans will remember Bahamut as one of the most potent summons around. In FFXIII, it becomes a…chocobo/bat machine…with a little AT-ST thrown in.

Sazh Katzroy’s summon is just as ridiculous.

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Xbox Live Avatars Get College Clothes

California Golden Bears

Disruptive Media has unveiled a slew of collegiate clothing for your Xbox Live dollies avatars. Available now, these threads will let you show other Xbox Live gamers how proud you are of your alma mater (if you happened to attend one of the 30 schools available). The company’s press release stated:

Disruptive Media Publishers (DP), a leading provider of Xbox 360 personalization content, announced the release of a new collection of avatar apparel items featuring 30 top U.S. universities. The release marks the first time users can personalize their Xbox Live Avatars with officially licensed university branded apparel licensed through The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), a division of IMG Worldwide. From varsity jackets to fitted caps, hooded sweatshirts, polo shirts and shoes, hundreds of unique university branded items are now available on Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace.

This is just smart. I know a lot of you aren’t big on Xbox dolly clothes, but this line of avatar apparel is sure to sell like crazy. Hit the jump for the full list and let me know if your school was included. Having attended a division III university with a crappy sports program, I’m out of luck.

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Coffee Talk #11: Achievements vs. Trophies — Fight!!!

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, if Lyoto Machida deserved that decision over Shogun Rua, T-Mobile’s new pricing plans, or how awesome it is to have the Yankees in the World Series, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

First off, kindly vote in the Saved by the Bell poll. It’s important…like very. Now getting back to the topic at hand….

RPad TV Achievement

Achievements and trophies. Trophies and achievements. They’re essentially the same thing — a little pat on the back for doing something in a game. In some cases, the reward is for something you would have done anyway. In others, you’re coerced to play more of a game and/or play it in a different way just to get some meaningless points or symbols. Don’t get me wrong, I love these things. I want them. (Even if I don’t know why.) What I find curious is that some gamers greatly prefer one over the other.

Familiarity might have something to do with it. Microsoft wisely incorporated achievements during the early planning stages of the Xbox 360. By introducing the system on day one, it was able to establish achievements as the norm and get gamers hooked on the whole idea. Sony’s trophies came much later and support hasn’t been consistent. This has changed, but there are some early releases that don’t support trophies. All that aside, some people prefer trophies because they rather have a symbol than a number. Personally, I don’t care either way — I want them all!!! (Unfortunately, I’ve played so many games on debug units and/or under shared accounts that my personal scores suck *sniff*)

On this fine Monday Monday (so good to me), I want to know which system you prefer and why. Are trophies your bag? Or do you dig achievements?

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This Week’s Videogame Releases

We’re smack dab in the middle of the Q4 release rush. There are lots of interesting games this week, including some excellent platform exclusives. Lots of PS3 gamers are high on Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, while Xbox 360 gamers will get their motors runnin’ with Forza Motorsport 3. Here are this week’s PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS releases…along with some brief commentary. I’ve taken out most of the garbage and kids games (unless I found them funny).

Let me know what games you plan on picking up this week (please)!

Forza Motorsport 3

Xbox 360
CSI Deadly Intent — You know Jim, sometimes the box exes you. (yooooowwwwww!)
DJ Hero — The reviews are good, but I wonder how many people are going to buy an expensive game in this economic climate.
Fairytale Fights — A lot of you probably haven’t been following this one, but it looks like fun.
Forza Motorsport 3 — Microsoft’s first-party racer makes its highly-anticipated return.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City
Jurassic the Hunted
Tekken 6 — I wonder if Tekken will do as well as or surpass Street Fighter IV.

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