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Monday Gaming Diary: Mortal Kombat X Comics

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Mortal Kombat X comicsLast Friday was my birthday, and a dear friend of mine gave me a gift certificate to Comixology with the recommendation for the Mortal Kombat X comics.

Wait.

Wait.

Stop.

There are Mortal Kombat X comics? Are they as awful as the Injustice: Gods Among Us comics? How is the art? How is the writing?

About this time my friend told me to shut up and read the first comic for myself. It’s a weekly comic series, which I think Injustice was as well, and it moves incredibly fast. Since there are so many characters in the game, the story arcs jump around a lot, but they’re able to get away with it and keep it cohesive because it is a weekly subscription.

Long story short, I ended up buying all 30 comics available in the store, and I didn’t play any games over the weekend because I stayed up super late every night reading the comics. I haven’t gotten through the entire series yet, but suffice to say, I’m hooked. In fact, it’s taking a lot of willpower to stay in my office today and work instead of reading the rest of the comics.

Once I do finish reading them, I want to replay the story mode of MKX. The comics really fill in the gaps that the story mode mentions of past events, and they help fill in missing pieces for people like me who haven’t been MK faithful in many, many years. The stories do get a little dark and deep, the art is absolutely gorgeous, and it pokes fun at the franchise in all the right places. I even texted Chris late on Saturday night to order him to look into the MKX comics.

And I recommend the same for every other MKX fan, even if you aren’t that into comics. Grrrr, it’s going to be really hard to finish working today when I know those comics are just a tablet away…ready to read…

The Corner of Randomness: Prepping for Gen Con 2015

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gen-con-logoGen Con is a convention held every year in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is four days of nothing but countless hours of tabletop gaming, total nerding out, and having crazy amounts of fun with friends. I get very little sleep. I spend too much money on games. I drink a lot of beer. I have a great time!

This marks my 13th year of going. Let me put that into some sort of perspective. Over the last 14 years (I missed one year and it makes me sad) I have moved to four different states, and who knows how many times I’ve moved within each state. I have been divorced once and remarried once. I switched jobs six times before finally setting out on my own. I have owned four different vehicles. I have bought and sold three houses. I have downed countless amounts of beer. Yet, every year I look forward to my annual pilgrimage to Gen Con.

This year is no different. I have my badge bought. I have five other friends sharing a hotel room with me. The jokes have already started flying thanks to Facebook and email. Plans are being made for where to eat and what to do. It’s all coming together and I couldn’t be more excited!

Gen Con is an experience that you really have to witness in person as no words or photos can really do it justice. When I first started going, attendance numbers were barely pushing 30,000. Now, however, attendance numbers reach well into the 60,000 mark. It has been nothing short of amazing to see this even grow and watch Indianapolis embrace the gaming crowd with open arms.

So, next week I embark on my annual trip. I’m already packing for it. Indy, here I come!

Monday Gaming Diary: Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi Memories

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287490-dbztI watched A LOT of EVO 2015 this weekend. I streamed the Ultra Street Fighter IV and Super Smash Bros. Melee pools most of my work day on Friday and then watched Mortal Kombat X pools Saturday as well as the MKX semifinals that night. Right after church on Sunday, I got prepped for the MKX finals, and I was blown away watching someone from the losers bracket come back and win it all in the grand finals. Watching these guys master juggling opponents is a beautiful sight to behold, and I saw more Brutalities than I know I’ll ever see in my own gameplay days.

Granted, these guys practice and train with their preferred characters about as many hours as I work during the day, so yes, they have worked hard to get where they are. Watching them, though, reminded me of how many hours I put in back in the day when I was hardcore into Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi, the original one on the PS2.

Even if there were professional gaming tournaments for DBZBT back then, I wasn’t good enough to get very far in any competition. However, I did put in the hours in that game to master two characters (Vegeta and Trunks) and learn all of their secret moves–a/k/a the ones that weren’t in the instruction manual–and no one would play that game against me. I would even offer to play as a character I normally didn’t fight with, but still no one would play against me. I don’t know if this game supported online play, but the PS2 wasn’t that great for online anything back then. Some games utilized it, but not many, and it wasn’t great enough to warrant even bothering running CATV to the PS2.

I loved DBZBT so much that I purchased the sequel, and even though I loved the cel-shaded visuals ten times more than the 3D graphics of the original, I never put in half the hours into DBZBT2 as I did the first one. By the time the third game came out, I was over DBZ as an anime and had gotten into the world of RPGs. My fighting game days were pretty much over.

If I could put in that many hours into MKX again, meaning that I play nothing else but MKX and what I’m reviewing for work (which also means no more Platinum Trophy hunts or replaying RPGs or even starting Final Fantasy XIV), then perhaps I could have a brave enough face to show up at an open tournament. Although, I have a feeling that I’m past my prime with fighting game tournaments anyway, just with age and hand-eye coordination falling as sub-par compared to a 20-year-old.

Even if I was 20, though, I still wouldn’t focus that much on one game. I like playing so many different games, and I like my stupid Platinum Trophies. But I really like watching these guys, and I really like how they motivate me to play the game more to try out different combos, attempt Brutalities, and try to master a character as much as I personally can. It makes me wanna go DBZBT all over again.

The Corner of Randomness: Happy EVO 2015

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evo-logo-176pxEVO 2015 is  upon us, which makes me both super stoked and terribly sad. I’m sad because I am traveling this weekend. Thus, I’ll have to catch replays of the matches next week. I’m stoked because this is the biggest weekend in fighting game tournaments. Hundreds of players gather to test their combos, timing, and luck in their favorite fighting game(s). It’s just stupid crazy to see the amount of skill these people have.

This year is also really odd. I mean odd enough that I fear demons are building snowmen and having snowball fights in Hell right now. I say this because Keri is actually watching fighting game streams right now. KERI IS WATCHING TWITCH AS I TYPE THIS! Yes, the end of days is upon us.

If you’re into fighting games at all, now is the time to tune in. You don’t necessarily need to know all the lingo to enjoy the madness about to grace your screen. You can check out the EVO schedule site to find out when various games will be streamed. It’s a damn good time! Now to end this babbling and go fire up Twitch!

Monday Gaming Diary: SDCC Style

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I attended the madness known as San Diego Comic Con last week, and despite having a rough start on Thursday, I ended up having a great show.

I did haul my PS4 all the way to California for nothing, as I was too tired every night when I crawled back to the hotel room to even crack open my GAEMS case. I did, however, download and play a lot of LEGO Jurassic World for the Vita so I could use the strategy guide for that as well. The guide covers both versions of the game, and well, I felt the need to be able to review the strategy guide completely. That and I wanted to see if the handheld versions of the LEGO games were as awful as they have been lately. I am happy to say that they have reverted back to their original formula for the handheld LEGO games. There aren’t any game over states due to death, so none of the chases or crazy dodging puzzles are overly complicated and stressful anymore. TT has still kept the weird challenges as a way to earn gold bricks, red bricks, and minikits, but they aren’t the beating they have been in the past. The game reminds me a lot of LEGO Batman 2 for the handheld, which is a very, very good thing.

At the show itself, I got my hands on only a couple of games, as SDCC didn’t have much that I did not already see at E3. I did play more of Transformers Devastation after interviewing voice acting legend Gregg Berger, however. I can’t get enough of that game. This time, Activision had a timed demo on it, so no one had to kick me off the booth.

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But my big surprises were Street Fighter V and The Division. I went in to both expecting to be rather meh about them all, and I really enjoyed what I played. I haven’t touched a Street Fighter game in years, so I was expecting a rather steep learning curve with the fighting system, similar to the one in Mortal Kombat X. But at least with MKX, I had some frame of reference for the fighting techniques, whereas with SFV, I have nothing. I played on a friend’s NES or SNES back in the early 90s. That’s my only experience. However, Capcom has reworked their entire combat system, so newcomers to the series can step in and learn along with the pros. The fighting system is fun, and the game is absolutely gorgeous to boot. I can’t believe I’m seriously entertaining picking up yet another fighting game.

We all know I’m a newbie when it comes to MMORPGs. I have FFXIV, but have I found time to play? Oh hell no. I have a serious problem when it comes to this stuff. So I got my hands on The Division fully expecting me to suck at it and have an awful time. I wasn’t great at the game, but I wasn’t terrible either. I had a ton of fun, and I’m considering picking it up if I can find two others who will be willing to do the same. You play in teams of three, and I really don’t want to find new friends online. That has never appealed to me, despite the fact I have met a lot of my good friends online via Twitter. Don’t ask why I’m so weird.

Moral of story? Don’t hate anything until you play it first. I encourage educated hate, people. Be educated about what you dislike.

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