Ultra Street Fighter IV (PS3)

By now many of you have likely seen me ranting & raving on Twitter about this particular fighting game upgrade. While I have had some issues with the offline of "Ultra Street Fighter IV" the core of my complaints revolve around the online experience. With the freshness of a new fighter, and the growing popularity of the fighting game genre amongst the hacking community it has made for a mostly unpleasant encounter online. I get that that most people doubt my fighting game credibility, and that they believe most of my opinions aren't justified, but what I have to say has a solid grounding in reality. Not only do I know the online state of the PS3, and what goes on when it comes to hacking incidents due to prior personal encounters with hackers, but I also know fighting games. Believe it, or not I've spent a majority of my years as a gamer playing fighting games. It's the one genre besides RPGs that really captured my attention, and held it. I have personally played at least a dozen fighters in my time if not more, and have spent quality time learning each one. One fighter amongst all those titles though will always have a special place in my gaming history, and that game series/franchise is "Street Fighter".

USFIV Hackers: "Fact or Fiction?"

It bothers me when people do not take me for my word about Street Fighter hackers. There have been hackers, and lagswitchers in the game since the vanilla SF4. In fact I remember having to call up Sony personally to report a hack when I had my first PS3 (before the infamous hacking incident). The player who had hacked the match I was in in SF4, took total control of my PS3, and forced me to spectate a mirror match in which I had no control of my Vega. The real sh*t kicker was that he had even changed the color of my Vega's outfit before making me spectate the match. Needless to say hacks, and hackers do exist in fighting games such as that of the SF4 series whether you want to stay ignorant about it, or not. Today while playing some USFIV (Ultra Street Fighter IV) I noticed something odd pointing to the presence of such hackers in the ranked lobby I was trying to join. I'm here today to share some photos that I took of the lobby to let you decide whether, or not hacking was involved. As for me I personally think the coincidence definitely points to hacking. That is me though.

Hyperdimension Neptunia: PP (PS VITA)

The Loli girls of Hyperdimension Neptunia are up to their generations old shenanigans once again. This time around though they are trying to thwart an otherworldly threat that comes in the form of Pop Idol sensations 'MOB48". It seems that other gaming CPUs (Goddesses) are no longer the only threat to the shares (fans) that Noire, Vert, Blanc, and Neptune are facing. With MOB48's popularity far surpassing that of the CPUs, and their respective lands they are forced to come up with a plan to combat the escalating situation. In the midst of some girly brainstorming the four CPUs ultimately come to the conclusion that it's best to beat MOB48 at there own game, so-to-speak. Instead of turning  into their dominatrix style HDD forms, and whooping a whole lot of !@#$% these Loli gaming Goddesses aim to become Pop Idol sensations themselves. Unfortunately for them they have no producer to train under, and must find one if they hope to become successful enough to defeat the opposition. To solve this issue they all combine their powers in HDD form, and summon a producer from the outside world. This of course ends up being you, a gamer with no real Pop Idol training experience whatsoever. Luckily for you though you do have some skills in playing Pop Idol video games.

Monster Monpiece: "Network Mode Explained" (PS VITA)

Due to the severe length of my main review I opted to leave out a detailed description of Monster Monpiece's "Network" mode. Being the thorough journalist that I am I felt bad in doing so though. As such I'm going to take the time in this follow-up article to explain what the "Network" mode entails, and how battles actually function online (Wifi 3G). Keep in mind I will not be able to go over the local Ad Hoc multiplayer though as I have no friends, or family who own the game. Once again I do apologize for the lack of this info earlier on, and hope you can forgive me for not giving you all of the details the first time around.

Monster Monpiece (PS Vita)

Idea Factory, and Compile Heart team up to bring us lucky US citizens a mature, and unique card battle experience like no other. This game that bares the namesake, "Monster Monpiece" deals with the judgment of mankind which was dished out in two punishment phases via earth penetrating pillars known as the "Hammer of God". In the first punishment phase God unleashed monsters upon Yafanir to kill off the human race entirely for their continuous misdeeds, and in the second phase of punishment the monsters who were sent to do God's bidding in the first place were ultimately trapped inside some of the human's bodies forcing them to live at less that full power, because of their disobedience.

The story contained within the game's main campaign also takes in account the coexistence of the two races who were once mutual enemies. It addresses the joining forces of the monster race now known as "Monster Girls", and the remaining humans who try to withstand God's wrath while finding a peaceful understanding. In order to once again make merry with the man upstairs the gifted human students join forces with Monster Girls of different academies to right the wrongs which their races have committed via a special card battle system. In teams of two these human girls, and their monster girl partners battle against the "Lost (Evil Monster Girls)" on a 7x3 grid with HQ (Headquarters) on either side. It is in this virtual battlefield where victory means everything, and failure is not an option.

GameStop PowerUp Rewards - "Mystery Grab Bag May 2014"

For those of you GameStop patrons who still shop at the store, and still redeem your PowerUp Rewards points for prizes I have a little sneak peek just for you. During my latest amassing of rewards points I chose to get the "Mystery Grab Bag" prize for May 2014. I've seen the Mystery Grab Bag offered for quite some time now, and have been dying to see what such a prize entails. I was curious as to if the prize cost would be equal to the prize point value of what was contained inside, or if it would be a much better deal. I'm sure some of you were wondering the same thing, so without further adieu let us get into what May's Mystery Grab Bag has gifted me ...