After having a solid couple of weeks with Smash Bros. Brawl, I figured I'd weigh in on the new perspective. Formerly, while playing Melee I found character imbalance to be fairly disappointing with well-established character tiers. Not that it's something out of the ordinary in fighting games...it's just slightly depressing when the good folks at Nintendo(or SNK or Capcom) bring you a good 20+ characters to play as and, in the long run, only around half of those characters are common in competitive play. It's something the fighting genre in general has become accustomed to.



However, with Brawl, the character balance has been shuffled a bit. No longer do matches consist of Sheik, Fox, Marth, and the like, but character usage is now further spread out. Certainly there are still characters with advantages, but the playing in Brawl feels a bit more even. (These comments disregard the use of items and final smashes given the obvious advantages)The removal of exploits such as wave dashing and l-canceling provides a more even playing field for experienced players.

So how does this new smash bros. stack up next to tradition? I believe it's a radical improvement. Granted the style is generally the same, I'm glad the balancing provides more character variety and tactical options. Also, the gameplay flows much more than the more mechanical traditional fighters. I'm sure that as time goes on we'll develop a much more distinct tier list. But until then, I'll enjoy working with the variety.

[matt]

In my social circle, small as it may be, it has become commonplace to associate typical college procrastination with MMOs, especially WoW.
However, this is where I immediately find myself the odd man out. Being the game connoisseur that I am, I should be able to play often, and enjoy World of Warcraft. I have no reason not to. It has its massive world, player base, and community. I have plenty of friends who play and, most importantly, I'm not paying for my subscription. But in some strange irony, I simply can't find the impetus to play. The game tends to become dry and dull within each hour I spend on the game. So now I must investigate this anomaly; why do I find this game boring when, for all intents and purposes, it should keep me moderately entertained?

The only theory I can find is the fact that since I'm not paying for it, there's no real obligation to play. I'm not really wasting money by not playing so I feel no remorse for it. I figure, I shouldn't let something like this bother me. I should be glad I'm not addicted and the game will always be there if something drastically changes and I need to play the game.

I'll just stick with my Team Fortress 2

[matt]