I don't know, to be honest, how many people on D-Toid are into fighting games seriously (and by serious I mean serious enough to travel for tournaments), but another big tournament is just months away. Trashday 4 will be taking place in one of my least favorite cities in the union—Houston, Texas—on April 12, 2008. But it's still more than worth going. One of the big tournaments for Tekken since its inception, there will be a cool grand going to the winner of the Tekken 5:DR tournament.

There's also going to be a lot of 2d tourneys as well, including Guilty Gear, Marvel, 3S etc. The only downside is that it's in Houston, which may be fine for some people but wow I don't like that town. However, I'm planning on going anyway, because Texas has a good scene for the game and a lot of big-name players are going to be there. It'll be my first Tekken major, and although I'm probably going two and out tournaments are always fun. Plus, the University of Houston has a nice campus with a decent arcade (at least it was decent a couple years ago when I was there Texas Showdown).

Here's a link for anyone who's interested:
Tekken Zaibatsu

Here's a quick list of the games being played: DR, Soul Calibur 3, MvC2, CvS2, Third Strike, Guilty Gear AC, Smash Bros. Brawl

Maybe Scotland has that figured out. With the BBC reporting that the Scottish government will be spending 10,000 pounds (roughly 20 grand American) on in-game advertising focused on anti-drunk driving messages, I'm a slight bit more positive about the whole concept.

Sure, I still think that in-game advertising is a exploitation of a captive audience, which also furthers some people's hatred of corporate culture and the rise of multinational corporations. It manages to take any realism it could have added to a certain title and flushes it because I'm pretty sure Brand X doesn't own every billboard and signage in major metropolitan areas.

I'm also pretty positive that no one here in America or in other countries really pays attention to the anti-drunk driving message. For years America (and other countries) has been using scare-tactic advertising to sell teens and adults on the merits of avoiding drunk driving, but while I don't have numbers to back up the assumption that it really isn't helping, the amount of people I have known since my early days in college who drove drunk is (to my mind) fairly astounding.

However, this new campaign seems like a fairly decent idea on the government's part. In an ever-changing technological world where governments and political action groups seem more and more disconnected from young gamers (and, really, teens and earlier adults in general), somebody finally had the bright idea to meet them on their own terms. Sure, I bet many gamers will be annoyed by the loss of the new Brand X ad from Need For Speed: Carbon, but to my mind lessening the consumerist bent that's being put into games these days is a good thing. Plus, maybe one or two people will make a better choice from it.

You'll get $20 toward the purchase of Metal Gear Solid 4 when it comes out for 360.

In the realm of true, GameStop is opening a 4000-foot tournament-focused store in San Jose. The first tournament will be Madden, and take place this Saturday with the grand prize being a $1000 GS shopping spree.

That's a hell of a haul for being good at Madden, but this seems nothing more than another big business attempt to crush local businesses (in this case gaming centers) at worst. At best, it's a good PR move by a company that no one believes cares about its customers.

According to the blurb on Gamesindustry, "the local tournament events will occur most weekends, with system-wide tournament finals occurring at least once a quarter."

What that means in terms of format is anyone's guess. Obviously the giant prize for this first tournament is a one-time offer, but I wonder what kind of prizes will be handed out in subsequent tournaments. Will it continue to be worthwhile prizes, or something ridiculous like $5 coupons to GS (shit better not give them ideas). A better question, I think, is what kind of entry fee GS will be charging for these tournaments. If they have any kind of decent prize support it's not going to be worth it to GS unless money is coming in, whether in one way or another.

That's my impressions from the news and rumors of the day. While I'm excited about the prospect of another 2d SF game, the graphics in the screenshot(s) are nothing that special in comparison to Street Fighter 2: Turbo HD. Is Ryu a skeleton or something in that picture? Because I can't figure out how else anyone's chest could have nothing but muscle and bone. No skin definition, nothing. The background does look nice though.

As for the game engine, if Blogeek is right I'm excited about a game without parries. A lot of people like parries, but I for one hate them. I think they're a bad thing for several reasons, actually, but most of all because liking them or hating them has squarely divided fighting gamers into two distinct camps. Thus, if parries were/are included, I know there are some people who simply will not play SF4 (and I might be one of them if they aren't changed from how they functioned in Third Strike).

I'll be interested to see how many characters this game ends up having, because Tekken 6 is already going to boast the largest roster in fighting game history (I'm pretty sure at least) and I don't think Capcom would try to challenge them. However, it would be nice to see some more classic faces (Guile etc) mix it up with characters from games like 3S.

As always, we'll just have to wait and see.


peace

links
1up Wow is the cover of the new EGM ugly as shit.
Blogeek

Amidst all the rumors and hearsay surrounding the Gerstmann controversy, David Jaffe brightens my day by announcing a "new" Twisted Metal game. Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition is more than simply a port of the PSP game that all of seven people played when it released two years ago. Instead, Jaffe hopes to make it something special:

"But then we started talking and thinking and wondering: what if we could make it so much more? What if we could just stuff the thing to the brim with bonus features and new levels and updated graphics and really give the Twisted Metal franchise a fantastic send-off on the PlayStation 2? And when we thought about it like that, we got really excited.

And so that became our mission, our goal. And while ya’ll will - as always - be the final judge, we feel we’ve succeeded."

Featuring four levels from the unreleased Twisted Metal: Black 2, along with updated graphics and a new level for the original Head-On and cool bonus features like a documentary and never-seen live-action end movies for the original Twisted Metal, Head-On: ETE sounds like it could be everything TM fans have been hoping for.

As a fan of the Twisted Metal series, I'm pretty happy. I haven't played a TM since Black, which I think is an underrated game, and since I know very few other people who own a PSP, let alone TM: Head-On, that's been a no-go as well. Hopefully this will fill the Twisted void in my soul come Spring.

photos up on Flickr

Cheers,
Paul