Zen Pinball 2 / Star Wars Pinball - Heroes Within (PS3/PS4/PS VITA)

Zen Studios continues to release the greatest arcade pinball games to this day. The tables always look stellar, and virtually feel smoother than any other pinball experience outside of them. In the latest pinball set we are given the opportunity to nab with our hard earned money some of the best Star Wars themed pinball tables yet. Just when I thought Zen Studios could not outdo what they've already done they go, and prove me wrong again. This latest set known as 'Star Wars Pinball - Heroes Within" contains four distinctly new tables that each take on some fan favorite subjects. You have a table dedicated to the rough, and tough Han Solo. you have a table dedicated to the Jedi Masters, and Sith Lords. You have a table designed after everyone's favorite droids, and you even have a table themed after the fourth episode in the original Star Wars Trilogy. Each table comes jam packed with intricate detail designs, 3D interactive objects/models, a ton of on-table mini-games as well as plenty of scoring opportunities. It's truly Star Wars pinball at it's finest!

Let's Talk - "Going All Digital pt.2"

Yesterday I don't think I made my message entirely clear. The header of yesterday's article, which was appropriately titled "Let's Talk - 'Going All Digital'" was meant to reflect exactly that. The point I was trying to make at the core of it all is that not all digital practices are bad, but that the ones in which you pay full price just to have the rights to play the games, or use the online services are. Not only that, but I also stick by the possible scenario in which gaming companies could go under in the near future. The fact that modern-day consoles are wholly geared towards online usage greatly limits their offline functionality, and in doing so presents a huge problem should a gaming company lose interest in providing their online services. Consoles these days, in comparison to retro consoles often times will not fully function without the support of the applied online network. Whether it be Sony's PSN, Microsoft's Xbox LIVE, or Nintendo's whatever you will be hard pressed to re-download, and use past purchased digital content, or games in general once the online services are void. In retro days with retro consoles we did not have this issue, because those consoles were grounded, and fully functional in the offline scenario.

Let's Talk - "Going All Digital"

It's midway into my day, and I just got word via +boogie2988  on Youtube that Gamestop is basically shutting down it's gaming business for a business venture in mobile phones, and tablets. While that's a whole clusterf*ck in itself I want preach a sermon on something else that relates to the mobile gaming industry, and the digital practices it entails. This is a lesson in "Have & Have Not", as it were. Some of you in this world may be thinking this very day about the future of entertainment, and that going all digital is not a bad thing. WELL YOU'RE !@#$% WRONG! Let me explain why. In this world we live in today the stock market is dwindling, paychecks are harder to come by, consumer spending is at an all time low, and damned if gaming companies, and companies in general aren't going under one right after the other. What I see in the midst of the monetary maelstrom is a bunch of people trying to grasp for substance, and people who are trying there hardest to get that one thing that ensures a decent living. This "thing" is known as money. The root of all evil. Companies these days have turned to various greedy practices to get as much of this money as possible. Individuals themselves are even hacking accounts and scamming others to do exactly the same. Money is on everybody's mind. It's what makes the world go round.

'Skullgirls Encore' Free For PS+ Subscribers in May!!!

Putting aside all negative feelings for 'Autumn Games', 'Lab Zero Games', and their fanboy fighting game community I will admit that "Skullgirls Encore" is a decent fighting game experience. It offers a beautiful art style, amazing music, unique fighting game characters, and mechanics that try to right the wrongs of many generations of fighting games. The initial project was truly ambitious in it's own right, and in a slight way has prevailed in it's endeavor despite it's many ups, and downs. Players of the "Marvel vs Capcom" series will be glad to know that the developer has taken some inspiration from MvC, and has even applied some features from other well known fighting game series (color palettes, etc., ...).

Aside from the similarities of other fighters the latest edition of the game "Skullgirls Encore" continues to take in account infinites, and continues to apply the anti-spam mechanic that made it's namesake notable. It is this anti-spam feature that will enable the player to escape from repetitive combos should they get caught up in them. With that being said though the game is still not flawless, and there are ways to extend, and exploit combos by slightly altering hit patterns. As such combos in the 100's can be achieved if you can time your inputs just right. With all of it's good, and not-so-good points though the developers behind this fighting game creation continue to patch it, release new in-game content, and release new character DLC for their diehard fans.

Castlevania: LoS2 - "Revelations" DLC (PS3)

In this latest "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2" DLC release titled "Revelations" Konami aims to test your mettle, and your patience with a handful of ridiculously hard boss fights, and only a small amount of level based platforming puzzles. The main protagonist this time around, who will be going along for the ride is none other than the weakling vampire Alucard, and I stress the word weakling. During Dracula's, and Alucard's last encounter we found (assuming you have beaten the game) that these two lead vampires had fooled Satan with a plot to end the dark lord's return. All Dracula wanted was for his eternal life to end, and all Alucard (aka, Trever Belmont) wanted was for the family's suffering to end. Just before the final fight with Satan Alucard let Dracula (aka, Gabriel Belmont) in on the secret between them, and in doing so had shed some light on the events that had taken place prior to their current day reunion. The sword placed in Dracula's still beating heart was no accident, and the near fatal wound was merely part of the ploy to get Dracula in good terms with a certain enemy (Zobeck). Together the two vampires thwarted Satan's plan ultimately killing him, and his demon spawn off for the second time since the beginning of this all inclusive mini-series.

An Open Letter to Fighting Game Developers

It has come to my attention that the fighting game genre, in general has been adopting some very bad mechanics, and character rosters that cater to the worst sorts of players. I firmly believe that fighting game developers have become so desperate for money that they are reaching out to the "CoD" community with fully exploitable features intact for the sole purpose of appeasing such gamer types. There's simply no other viable explanation. Take the latest release of "BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma", for example. The game is so broken in structure that it's damn near impossible to get into a fair fight. In the game the blocking, and recover mechanics are so severely limited, because of a special meter that it leaves you open to infinite attack strings with no way out. The character roster in BBCP is another thing that does the series a huge disservice. Most of the characters have exploitable projectiles, or have zoning attacks that make the "in & out" tomfoolery a piece of cake. Characters like "Izayoi", and "Arakune" who have the ability to phase in, and out of existence make landing combos, or hits a trying ordeal, especially when the gamer using them is playing a heavy keep away game.