I slept all day, what do you want me to do!? :(
I think it may come as no surprise that I'm not much of a journalist. Let's not mention the fact that
CTZ and
TopGear already covered most of the
juicy tidbits of information in their respective posts. Sooo, rather than attempting to give you a half-assed recap of every game, I will simply link you to the
pertinent information! (Hint: Commando3 comes with SF2 HD beta.) Instead, I can provide you with a recap of the event from my perspective as a gamer. I will try to give you as much information as I can about my two favorite parts of the spectacular
Capcom Digital Day. (Hint: eating food and playing games)
So, without further ado here is my recap for any of you other fellow night-owls/vampires.
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After a terrible 2-hour drive from Sacramento to San Mateo, let it be known that I am now absolutely terrified of Bay Area traffic. When I pulled into the parking lot of Capcom HQ, I let out a sigh of relief and took a moment to thank a number of various deities for allowing me to live to game that day.
As I walked in the front door I immediately noticed the cold, grim, calculating stare that the guard at the front desk was giving me behind his thick glasses. I knew, one false move... and I would be forcibly removed from the premises. I timidly walked up the the table where they were presenting name badges, apologized for being late, and was shuffled off into an extremely crowded room to catch the tail end of the presentation.
THEN IT WAS ON!!!
I grabbed a cup of orange juice, downed it like I had been walking through a desert for the past two hours, and took a much needed leak.
THEN IT WAS REALLY ON!!!
I dashed back to the room as quickly as I could and of course by dashed, I mean walked briskly, and hopped on Street Fighter 2 HD right away! As I'm sure many of you have probably been reading everywhere else, it was sooo damned pretty! The characters and backgrounds all looked extremely well done, if that's not enough top it of by the fact that it was running in full widescreen 1080p glory. The game played exactly how you would expect SF2 to play and in conjunction with the amazing new visuals and sound/music, that is honestly a very good thing!
To my surprise, there was no one else playing. I grabbed the closest person and challenged them to a match. It happened to be a fellow from GameSpot. I got the chance to play against a guy from Capcom as well, of course he kicked my ass most rounds.. but nevertheless, it was pure win! Apparently GameSpot was capturing footage via live feed the entire time, so if you watch their newest footage... well anything but the black or orange colored Ryu and Ken is probably me. ^_^
Needless to say, I was the most excited to finally get my hands on SF2 HD, but there were a lot of other great games being played at the event as well.
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I would have to say that my favorites were definitely the new 1942 and Commando 3 for XBLA. I got the chance to play 1942 with a guy who I think was the Design Director (of course, don't quote me if I'm wrong.) while GamerTV took some gameplay footage and did an interview. I was also fortunate enough to try out Commando 3 with the same guy as well as the Art Director while
Gamer.TV interviewed them.
Both titles were very solid co-op arcade experiences. 1942 definitely seemed to stick true to its roots. For those of you that may have never played it before, it is a WW2-themed vertical scrolling schmup in which each player controllers one of a few various planes. One of the key differences that should be noted was that the game is now presented in full widescreen which definitely adds a new level of challenge to maneuvering your plane through the stages.
Commando, a series I was completely unfamiliar with prior to playing Commando 3 at the event, was a 3-player co-op vertical scrolling schmup. There is definitely less bullet-dodging and more straight up action than a game like 1942. The game focuses on 3 soldiers on the ground, so you can imagine the gameplay experience is still going to be quite different even though it is essentially the same genre. I saw all the staples, weapon upgrades, super powers, and even an awesome boss fight were all implemented in the build that we played. Even vehicles were present in the game and could be operated by all 3 players at once allowing them to mow down everything in their path with relative ease.
For my short time with each of the games I actually had a ridiculous amount of fun and will most definitely be picking them up when they hit XBLA later this Spring/Summer. Of course, it helps that Commando 3 will be including a beta for SF2 HD! :D
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For fear of dragging this post on too long and because I didn't get enough time to do an honest recap of some of the games I will refer you to CTZ's reviews for the rest of the games.
Lost Planet: Colonies
Bionic Commando
Plunder
Mega Man Star Force 2
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So, to wrap it up. It was an awesome fun time. I was so lucky to be invited out for the event and it was well worth the nightmarish two-hour drive. I got hang out with and meet a lot of awesome people, play games before everyone else, and even eat free lunch. Capcom was so considerate, they even had some pretty damned good cheese sandwiches for those of us that don't consume flesh of the living.
Until next time kids,
Azereki (Ass Ricky)
(Pictures stolen from TGG)
Azereki's blog
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