Dec 24, 2013
Life With Imaginary Power Ups #24: It's Christmas Time!
*Our local FGC for both Namco (Tekken, Naruto) and Capcom (SF, Mahvel) sides is thriving and I just hope it continues through next year. Hopefully other communities for games like Guilty Gear and KOF start showing up and build up, too. Represent!
*Speaking of Naruto, I recently held my first Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 tourney... And let me you...Kids get crazy when they get ridiculously competitive. Hype compares to Mahvel Hype. No joke.
*Namco just recently released that vampire babe Eliza into it's free to play Tekken Revolution. I immediately noticed she can add her fireball into her combos...I see you Namco, testing it out for TekkenXSF..:)
*For gift giving during Christmas, I always try to give out quirky and sentimental gifts. I assume that the person I'm giving it to makes them think that I am a deep, meditating person who has gone through the effort of getting them something worthwhile to remember. If that fails, fuck it, give them shoes. Or shirts. #xmassolved
*Practice really does pay off. One of my achievements for 2013 that I am so happy about is that I can now do plink combos in SF4. Sure it do miss it at pressure moments (unavoidable, still :( ) but at least I understand it to a point where I can teach it to others. Helping me to helping you. Win-win.
*One of these days I am gonna find the time to do a Ghibli marathon. Respect for Hayao Miyazaki's work.
*I just watched the annual Holiday Adventures of Gooteks and Mike Ross 2013. Christmas complete :)
* Fun Filler Facts:
=I posted this issue on December 24, 2013!
=This issue of LWIP is my age, too!
=It's also Kobe Bryant's current Jersey Number.
=Irish singer Jem has a song called '24' in her Finally Woken album. Pretty good.
ugghh...what else...
=It's the number of hours in as single day!
=When you add this two numbers, you get 6!
=It comes after 23...and apparently, comes before 25!
Hahaha I'm out peace y'all! Happy Holidays!
-Chady
My Personal SSF4AEver2012 Tier List: In the land of Vortexes and Unblockables
As 2013 draws to a close and the new iteration of SF4 (Ultra!) looms closer, I am posting my personal tier list for Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition version 2012 (Whew Capcom, why so long?). Now again, this is my personal opinion and I am not trying to jam this in anyone's face. I did this as a kind of reminder for future me as he looks back into his time of AEver2012. This iteration of SF has become one of my most favorites (next to 3rd Strike.) and it would be interesting to see and compare my concepts then and now. I have played around with most of the roster and I've already watched a gajillion match vids both local and international and this is what I came up with.
Top 5 S Rounding out the top 10 A
Akuma Adon
Cammy Sakura
C.Viper Yun
Fei Long Ibuki
Seth Rufus
Upper Mid Tier
Abel, Ryu, Sagat, Gen, Makoto, Balrog,
Oni, Juri, Bison, Zangief
Mid Tier
Dhalsim, Guile, Cody, Ken, Rose
Somewhat Lacking in a certain Department Tier
Yang, Guy, Blanka, Gouken
Bottom Tier
Honda, Fuerte, Dee Jay, Dudley, Hakan
Low Tier
Evil Ryu, Chun Li, T,Hawk, Vega, Dan
-Chady
Nov 16, 2013
Forced Hiatus
Yolanda hit pretty hard.
As of right now, we don't have electricity at home and electricity in the city is so unstable that we only have spur amounts of power ranging from two to three hours (five hours max). It's gonna be hard posting stuff so this site is going on break for awhile.
Hopefully by next year when power returns to a somewhat normal state then this site will come back. Till then, adios amigos.
Peace out
-Chady
Oct 31, 2013
Life With Imaginary Power-Ups #24 : To Add At Least One Entry to October Edition
Just in the nick of time! Sorry I have been busy as of late what with all the ruckus in Bohol (earthquakes and all) and the gaming world (New Arkham, New AC, New Battlefield).
*I cannot imagine why I skipped on playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The game is so much fun. Now I cannot believe why I can't stop playing MGR... Gotta start on that new Arkham :(
*Bohol's local fighting game (FG) community's skills is vastly improving...and I'm stuck here playing 3rd Strike. Don't care. #PutUrieninUSF4
*Speaking of Third Strike, it's always a pleasure to parry an impossible move then quickly follow up with a punish. Most satisfying. Get on my level!
*It's always a pleasure to hang out with your friends and play a friendly game of Bomberman --said no one ever.
-Chady
Sep 29, 2013
Character Loyalty Part 2: Street Fighter: Xian and Gen
Next up for the Character Loyalty stories, I'd like to tacke Xian first and his Gen because I have been on the Street Fighter binge recently and me and a friend have been trying out Gen just for kicks.
As always, let's breakdown Gen:
My Personal Opinion: Gen is a rather difficult character to use because you need to keep switching between his two stances to bring out his full potential. When you can get the hang of that, you can now take advantage of how effective his normal moves are. The ability to pick the right normal for the right situation is key to a Gen player's success. Pair that with his above average movement speed , you can know start applying his strong crossup game (one of the best in the game).
What makes Gen bad is his low stamina and stun, his damage is not really amazing outside of FADC combos and he only has one really dependable reversable (EX Up Kicks)
On paper, Gen is one of those characters that will get you wins if you can take advantage of his huge movelist. Knowing what normal cancels to what special, what pokes can be kara cancelled, which moves are the most effective are all essential to securing your win with Gen.
At this point, you can start to understand that in order to win with Gen, you have to PRACTICE and LEARN all his shit. Not only that, you have to start getting creative with the applications of his crossups and mixups because opponents may start catching on. That's where Xian comes in.
If I remember correctly, Xian was maining Yun in the Arcade Edition of Street Fighter 4. To the unfamiliar, Yun (along with his twin Yang) was crazy godlike in this iteration of SF4 and crowd's worldwide would hate and taunt the player whenever either of these two characters were used. Xian was getting affected by the crowd's reactions whenever he played so he chose another character. This is where he started to pick up Gen.
Xian practiced with Gen tirelessly and when he started to bring Gen out to tourneys locally and worldwide, the results were...just a little short. Sure he could beat Singapore's best (Leslie, Gackt, etc.) and as well as international players (Daigo, Riceata, Dieminion, etc.) in a few long sets and finish in the top 10 of most tourneys, it was rather hard to keep consistent when combos kept dropping at the most important times, when setups would weirdly not work anymore and worse, people were start to see your tactics. So Xian went back to the lab...and My God, the results are amazing. Xian not only knows Xian's moves inside out, his inputs are always on point and he has made his own despicably confusing setups and crossups as well.
Which is my point for this whole article.
Early in the AEver2012 build, Gen was assumed to be a low tier character. This was because it was seen that Gen had a hard time with divekick and grappler characters and his low stun and stamina always posed as a major problem. As Xian came along, Gen is somewhere in mid tier nowadays (theory and paper wise).
Let me point something out here: Remember the fact that you have to keep switching Gen's stances and have good memory of which and what move to use so that he can be truly effective? Xian was one of the few Gen players to be consistent with this requirement and because of this, people began to see (and acknowledge) that if you knew what to do, Gen always has an answer to what the opponent could do. With regards to setups and crossups, it was assumed that in order to get an effective mixup, Gen had to jump. Xian introduced that you can get mixups (as well as resets) from FADC combos and from counter focus tactics. If you can make a significant positive change to a character with your performance alone, that's truly amazing. Xian not only learned everything there it is to learn about Gen, he even took the time to create his own tech. That's just amazing dedication.
I'm not entirely sure of how many major tourneys he's been in but for the first half of 2013, Xian has won a majority of the tourneys he has been in...including EVO 2013. Just goes to show much Character loyalty can take you.
Although Xian has already said that he's gonna drop Gen when Ultra Street Fighter 4
News here
it's still amazing how much effort and sacrifice he put into the character to win a lot of tourneys.
-Chady
Sep 12, 2013
Life with Imaginary Power-Ups #23
*The only group activities I actively share with my friends nowadays (besides eating) is Diablo 3, Dragon's Crown, Bomberman Live and Cloudberry Kingdom. I ain't even sad :D
*Fun (or awful, depending on the result) prank: After watching a horror movie with friends, download the signature sound effect from said horror movie (Forbidden Siren's Siren, The Conjuring's Toy Box, The Grudge's Girl Moan, One Missed Call's ringtone, etc.) into your phone, wait for your chance and do either of these things:
a.) When your friend is off his/her guard (Sleeping, drowzy, drunk, busy with a report that needs to be passed the following day, etc.) play the tune. Hilarity ensues.
b.) If you have +5 Ninja skills, steal your friends' phone and if the phone has this capability, assign your name with the customized ringtone. Otherwise, just change the call ringtone and wait for the appropriate time to prank him/her. Imagine calling someone at exactly 3:07am with the Conjuring ringtone. Evil lolz.
*Speaking of horror movies...Insidious 2 is coming. Fuck yeah/Fuck no/Fuck this.
*I've already said goodbye to a few of my friends today. I won't be seeing them for a couple of days. Maybe months even.... GTA:V, I'm coming, baby.
-Chady
I unintentionally keep screwing up the universe's attempts to get me to meet "The one" because somehow I keep missing to see the little, intricate things and details I like in the woman I'm supposed to end up with and eventually someday, make me say 'I do.'
It's been awhile since I posted a short story. I have to say though that this one is completely irrelevant to anyone's life.
*You can go to another page now...*
To those who are still interested (yey), This was a silly thing that happened in my arcade late August 2013 and I only wrote this for a couple of friends to share a laugh but seeing that it turned out to into a full story, I
thought it would be a waste not to share to you guys. Again, read when you completely have nothing else to do. It's just about me and the universe attempts to get my shit together.
When I was rewriting this story for the blog, It was hard to give it a proper title and because it is funny to think about and yet kinda sad at the same time and also infuriating (mostly funny, really) but I'm still gonna do it...because this is my blog.
"I unintentionally keep screwing up the universe's attempts to get me to meet "The one" because somehow I keep missing to see the little, intricate things and details I like in the woman I'm supposed to end
up with and eventually someday, make me say 'I do.' "
Let me set the venue: My Arcade. Only a few people around. There was me, a good friend and one of my attendants. It was a rather slow day and both my friend and the attendant were playing games to pass the time while I was focused on my laptop, headphones on, oblivious to the world.
and then suddenly, out of the blue...in comes this girl.
Kidding, kidding, That's not the girl (google search: kawaii bangs) but that pic is pretty close to her...um, "features":
Looked kinda Japanese, well trimmed Bangs, Wearing a Victorian-esque dress(Like Lili's default costume for Tekken) and (as my friend pointed out) faded and worn out Chuck Taylor Hi-cuts.
The last part is important because I've always been a fan of people who proudly wear their old, tattered Chucks because the more worn out it is, the more you get to think about how much history it has with its owner and the things they have went through together (Much so that I even wrote a whole different story about it lolz. COMING SOON!) and to this day, I keep thinking HOW COULD I HAVE NOTICED HER SHOES...OR HER SENSE OF STYLE...OR HER :( ... but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Oh, and also, I am apparently COMPLETELY BLIND to flirting nowadays. FUCK. MY. LIFE.
The latter part you will get to understand right now.
Before I continue the story, though. Let me explain that this part of the story is told from the perspective of my friend and the attendant because I wasn't fully aware how she came in because I was distracted by my 'work'...By work, of course, I mean watching two series' at the same time while reading blogs as well.
NOTE: Their story may have exaggerations.
A black, sleek, luxury car comes up and drops this girl off. She looked so beautiful that nature gave her a gust of wind to give her a dramatic look. She was shining as the sunlight hit her.As the car drove away, She walked up to the door and took off her headphones. She popped her head in, looked around with her eyes sparkling, smiled and asked "Is Sir Richard around?". We could not reply at all because we were still surprised by her sudden appearance and all we could do was point at you and she replied with a bubbly "Thanks!". She steps in and..."
I'm going to switch to my version now because their version gets weirder by the minute...
She politely waves in my line of sight (I was wearing headphones, too) to catch my attention. I see her hand and I look at the hand's owner...which was beaming with a smile. As I take my headphones off, I noticed she was slightly red and as I take a glance outside, I said to myself must have been the heat (Yeah, the heat -_-..).
Before I could ask what I could do for her she suddenly blurts out, "Hi sir! I'm May/Mei, from *cannot
remember exactly but I did hear*, Dumaguete. I am only visiting for a short while and I would like to ask you.." She suddenly pauses, looking at me with her anime eyes. I took this pause as an opportunity for me to
reply but before I could say anything, she launched into a barrage of questions regarding if I could hack PS3s,Fix PSPs, physical and digital copies of games for the PS3 and/or the PSP...she was a fast talker -_-
As she continued talking, my first immediate thought was wow, a gamer girl. Normally, I don't get a lot of
legit gamer girls in the arcade and normally, this would have been the start of a wonderful conversation that would lead to what could have been a date...but for the life of me, I could not understand why I replied so blandly to her questions. Maybe I was surprised that she understood the stuff that I was saying even though some terms I was using was pretty technical na. Maybe my use of the laptop to present visual aids to her prevented me to notice that she was looking at me during my explanations. Hell, maybe the monotony of my often repeated explanations have caught up to me and my personality has turned off to strangers.To my every reply though, she kept nodding enthusiastically...accompanied with an occassional 'aaaah' or a
giggle.
Finally, she decided to copy some of my games for the time being and as she was swinging around the table to hand me her hard drive, she tripped on one of the wires and I, who was sitting in an office wheel chair at the time, quickly slid to her front side and grabbed on to her hip and right boob (lolz boob) to prevent her from falling face down on the floor. Needless to say, there was a moment where we locked eyes...and did ya know how I followed it up? Gave her a smile? Flicked her hair? or maybe, *gasp* gave her a kiss? Fuck no. I said and I quote"Be careful, miss" and I stood her upright... -_-
BE. CAREFUL. MISS.
Universe, if you're reading this, I apologize for Past Chady.
For the next 10 minutes, she just sat in the chair opposite me, clearly embarrassed of what happened. She was twirling the cord of her headphones with her head down as she waited for the transfer to finish...while I slid back into my laptop and put my headphones on. I did not notice that my friend, who was the sole witness to the whole tripping fiasco, kept signalling me to ask her something to which I kept replying...with le middle finger. Honestly, I would have (should have) attempted to talk to her again but I can barely make out her face as she was facing down.
When the copying finished, I stood up and gave her the hard drive, I was just happy to see that when she looked up and asked for the price, she wasn't crying or angry... she was still smiling. Of course, it wasn't the same beaming smile she wore earlier (probably because I held her boob but that's just me) but she kept her demeanor ba...Now this is the moment where my brain suddenly functioned and thought up an important
phrase:
"Dude, this girl..."
As she handed me her payment, the car arrived. I just noticed that it was also heavily tinted so I could
not make out who was driving. As I crouched down to get her change, I noticed she stood up and proceeded to walk towards the car. I thought "Hmmm..she must be in a hurry" so I quickly counted her change while crouched down. My friend later told me that when she stood up, she walked to the door and signalled the car to "wait", she immediately turned to me, took a step and stopped, as if expecting a huge surprise. As I stood up, she had this face...this face of anticipation like you were about to get something good. You know what I thought? "Wow, she must really want her change now, huh?" I give her her change and happily say in a sing song voice "Your change, miss!"
* Insert your FACEPALM here ples*
She replied "Thanks..." rather unenthusiastically na and my end reply to all this? "Come back soon!"
A SCRIPTED RESPONSE. I gave her a leaving a restaurant outro. FUCK.
On the plus side though, she did smile again as she got into the car, moving away, never to be seen again :( When she left, my friend gave me the most disappointed, what the fuck is wrong with you face . For lack of a real picture, this dog will demonstrate what face my friend made.
As I think of that scenario over and over again, there could have been a million ways I could have done it better. A million ways I could have turned it in my favor. But maybe, just maybe, this wasn't for me. I know it's what I can only say now because of my rather shitty performance but maybe this was my wake up call. I have noticed I have been avoiding social interactions outside my circle as of late. Just hanging around the office/shop, twirling around. I've always been a hopeless romantic and I believe in those fated meetings, destiny and whatnots. Maybe it's my reminder that in order for this to happen, I have to do my part pod. Because somewhere out there... She is there. Waiting for me. :)
-Chady
*You can go to another page now...*
To those who are still interested (yey), This was a silly thing that happened in my arcade late August 2013 and I only wrote this for a couple of friends to share a laugh but seeing that it turned out to into a full story, I
thought it would be a waste not to share to you guys. Again, read when you completely have nothing else to do. It's just about me and the universe attempts to get my shit together.
When I was rewriting this story for the blog, It was hard to give it a proper title and because it is funny to think about and yet kinda sad at the same time and also infuriating (mostly funny, really) but I'm still gonna do it...because this is my blog.
"I unintentionally keep screwing up the universe's attempts to get me to meet "The one" because somehow I keep missing to see the little, intricate things and details I like in the woman I'm supposed to end
up with and eventually someday, make me say 'I do.' "
Let me set the venue: My Arcade. Only a few people around. There was me, a good friend and one of my attendants. It was a rather slow day and both my friend and the attendant were playing games to pass the time while I was focused on my laptop, headphones on, oblivious to the world.
and then suddenly, out of the blue...in comes this girl.
Kidding, kidding, That's not the girl (google search: kawaii bangs) but that pic is pretty close to her...um, "features":
Looked kinda Japanese, well trimmed Bangs, Wearing a Victorian-esque dress(Like Lili's default costume for Tekken) and (as my friend pointed out) faded and worn out Chuck Taylor Hi-cuts.
The last part is important because I've always been a fan of people who proudly wear their old, tattered Chucks because the more worn out it is, the more you get to think about how much history it has with its owner and the things they have went through together (Much so that I even wrote a whole different story about it lolz. COMING SOON!) and to this day, I keep thinking HOW COULD I HAVE NOTICED HER SHOES...OR HER SENSE OF STYLE...OR HER :( ... but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Oh, and also, I am apparently COMPLETELY BLIND to flirting nowadays. FUCK. MY. LIFE.
The latter part you will get to understand right now.
Before I continue the story, though. Let me explain that this part of the story is told from the perspective of my friend and the attendant because I wasn't fully aware how she came in because I was distracted by my 'work'...By work, of course, I mean watching two series' at the same time while reading blogs as well.
NOTE: Their story may have exaggerations.
A black, sleek, luxury car comes up and drops this girl off. She looked so beautiful that nature gave her a gust of wind to give her a dramatic look. She was shining as the sunlight hit her.As the car drove away, She walked up to the door and took off her headphones. She popped her head in, looked around with her eyes sparkling, smiled and asked "Is Sir Richard around?". We could not reply at all because we were still surprised by her sudden appearance and all we could do was point at you and she replied with a bubbly "Thanks!". She steps in and..."
I'm going to switch to my version now because their version gets weirder by the minute...
She politely waves in my line of sight (I was wearing headphones, too) to catch my attention. I see her hand and I look at the hand's owner...which was beaming with a smile. As I take my headphones off, I noticed she was slightly red and as I take a glance outside, I said to myself must have been the heat (Yeah, the heat -_-..).
Before I could ask what I could do for her she suddenly blurts out, "Hi sir! I'm May/Mei, from *cannot
remember exactly but I did hear*, Dumaguete. I am only visiting for a short while and I would like to ask you.." She suddenly pauses, looking at me with her anime eyes. I took this pause as an opportunity for me to
reply but before I could say anything, she launched into a barrage of questions regarding if I could hack PS3s,Fix PSPs, physical and digital copies of games for the PS3 and/or the PSP...she was a fast talker -_-
As she continued talking, my first immediate thought was wow, a gamer girl. Normally, I don't get a lot of
legit gamer girls in the arcade and normally, this would have been the start of a wonderful conversation that would lead to what could have been a date...but for the life of me, I could not understand why I replied so blandly to her questions. Maybe I was surprised that she understood the stuff that I was saying even though some terms I was using was pretty technical na. Maybe my use of the laptop to present visual aids to her prevented me to notice that she was looking at me during my explanations. Hell, maybe the monotony of my often repeated explanations have caught up to me and my personality has turned off to strangers.To my every reply though, she kept nodding enthusiastically...accompanied with an occassional 'aaaah' or a
giggle.
Finally, she decided to copy some of my games for the time being and as she was swinging around the table to hand me her hard drive, she tripped on one of the wires and I, who was sitting in an office wheel chair at the time, quickly slid to her front side and grabbed on to her hip and right boob (lolz boob) to prevent her from falling face down on the floor. Needless to say, there was a moment where we locked eyes...and did ya know how I followed it up? Gave her a smile? Flicked her hair? or maybe, *gasp* gave her a kiss? Fuck no. I said and I quote"Be careful, miss" and I stood her upright... -_-
BE. CAREFUL. MISS.
Universe, if you're reading this, I apologize for Past Chady.
For the next 10 minutes, she just sat in the chair opposite me, clearly embarrassed of what happened. She was twirling the cord of her headphones with her head down as she waited for the transfer to finish...while I slid back into my laptop and put my headphones on. I did not notice that my friend, who was the sole witness to the whole tripping fiasco, kept signalling me to ask her something to which I kept replying...with le middle finger. Honestly, I would have (should have) attempted to talk to her again but I can barely make out her face as she was facing down.
When the copying finished, I stood up and gave her the hard drive, I was just happy to see that when she looked up and asked for the price, she wasn't crying or angry... she was still smiling. Of course, it wasn't the same beaming smile she wore earlier (probably because I held her boob but that's just me) but she kept her demeanor ba...Now this is the moment where my brain suddenly functioned and thought up an important
phrase:
"Dude, this girl..."
As she handed me her payment, the car arrived. I just noticed that it was also heavily tinted so I could
not make out who was driving. As I crouched down to get her change, I noticed she stood up and proceeded to walk towards the car. I thought "Hmmm..she must be in a hurry" so I quickly counted her change while crouched down. My friend later told me that when she stood up, she walked to the door and signalled the car to "wait", she immediately turned to me, took a step and stopped, as if expecting a huge surprise. As I stood up, she had this face...this face of anticipation like you were about to get something good. You know what I thought? "Wow, she must really want her change now, huh?" I give her her change and happily say in a sing song voice "Your change, miss!"
* Insert your FACEPALM here ples*
She replied "Thanks..." rather unenthusiastically na and my end reply to all this? "Come back soon!"
A SCRIPTED RESPONSE. I gave her a leaving a restaurant outro. FUCK.
On the plus side though, she did smile again as she got into the car, moving away, never to be seen again :( When she left, my friend gave me the most disappointed, what the fuck is wrong with you face . For lack of a real picture, this dog will demonstrate what face my friend made.
As I think of that scenario over and over again, there could have been a million ways I could have done it better. A million ways I could have turned it in my favor. But maybe, just maybe, this wasn't for me. I know it's what I can only say now because of my rather shitty performance but maybe this was my wake up call. I have noticed I have been avoiding social interactions outside my circle as of late. Just hanging around the office/shop, twirling around. I've always been a hopeless romantic and I believe in those fated meetings, destiny and whatnots. Maybe it's my reminder that in order for this to happen, I have to do my part pod. Because somewhere out there... She is there. Waiting for me. :)
-Chady
Sep 3, 2013
BER months of 2013
So we've entered the BER months now and I am not gonna greet anyone a 'Merry Christmas!' because that's clearly in December guys...seriously.
The purpose of this post is to let everyone know (and to remind myself ) the topics that I will be posting in the following months to come. They are:
- Chuck Taylors: The Love
-More Life with Imaginary Power-Ups
-My Wake Up Call to Finding the One (is the working title)
^This one has been retitled to "I unintentionally keep screwing up the universe's attempts to get me to meet "The one" because somehow I keep missing to see the little, intricate things and details I like in the woman I'm supposed to end up with and eventually someday, make me say 'I do.'"
-Revisiting: Kartia
-Character Loyalty Parts 2 and 3
This are the ones I can confirm that I am gonna do. Stay posted though if I can add anything else.
Till then,
Peace Out
-Chady
Aug 23, 2013
Life with Imaginary Power-Ups #22
*I always enjoy the replayability of old Street Fighter games like Super Turbo or Third Strike. It's a shame that no one in my area shares this interest. :(
*Ramona Flowers will always be one of my dream girls. Minus the evil "ex-boyfriends" *wink, wink*. Winking because fans of the series will get what I mean.
*Tobuscus, Miles923, DMJared, Emily Hart, Domics, Caddicarus, Tomska,jacksfilms,egoraptor and Jontron. Just a few of my favorite Youtube personalities and my inspirations.
*I recently started biking again to add to my exercising regime. One of the main reasons for this is I am also currently watching a playthrough of GTA: San Andreas and that game had bikes as well. Thanks CJ!
-Chady
*Ramona Flowers will always be one of my dream girls. Minus the evil "ex-boyfriends" *wink, wink*. Winking because fans of the series will get what I mean.
*Tobuscus, Miles923, DMJared, Emily Hart, Domics, Caddicarus, Tomska,jacksfilms,egoraptor and Jontron. Just a few of my favorite Youtube personalities and my inspirations.
*I recently started biking again to add to my exercising regime. One of the main reasons for this is I am also currently watching a playthrough of GTA: San Andreas and that game had bikes as well. Thanks CJ!
-Chady
Aug 3, 2013
My experience on running my First Ever SF Tourney
I recently ran my first SF4 tourney last July 21, 2013. Unfortunately,many 'expected' contestants were no shows because of various albeit bogus reasons (had other things to do, rain, didn't know where to go,
etc.) but nevertheless, we pushed through with the tourney.
We had 8 players joining in and as usual, double elimination brackets were used. The variety of characters used in said tourney was a wonderful sight (most of that I can attribute that to Francis, though...using a buttload of characters lolz.) because I don't know about you but SF4 is all about the matchups. This is what I was also told to expect (and enjoy) in SF tourneys, the chance to see the combination of theory and experience and what people do in real pressure situations. Sure, It's easy to apply the safe jumps and option selects in casuals but seeing them in action in tourneys is a different thing. Actual tech being used. It also goes to show how much a person knows the game and what he'll do to counter the opponent.
Seth Killian said it best: "One of the keys to winning at the tournament level is to do something surprising in order to put the other player in an unfamiliar situation, and then capitalize on that confusion. The best players are the ones that can recover from those situations, and begin to fight back immediately without losing their cool."
Overall, It was a great tourney. I'll try my best to run some more in the future. I just hope the community tries to get involved more.
Peace Out.
-Chady
Life with Imaginary Power Ups #21: Bioshock Edition
I've always been a fan of the Bioshock series and just recently, Irrational Games announced new DLC for Bioshock Infinite, combining the two worlds the characters of Columbia and the world of Rapture. Taking advantage of my ecstatic glee, I made some posts that hit close to the Bioshock-verse.
-The only time I ever feel compelled to deal with quantum physics is whenever I listen to Rosalind Lutece's explanation of tears and the principles of quantum mechanics in Bioshock Infinite.
But then again, shit is hard, yo.
-I have a love-hate relationship with the fashion of Columbia and Rapture (1912 and 1960's, respectively) Love because it's so cool and fashionable and hate because I look ridiculous when I try them on.
It is currently on my #3 reason why I should lose more weight. Damn cravats.
-Whenever I see the old or new atmospheric diving suits, there is only one thing I can think of: Big Daddies. Damn you Rapture.
-If I ever get to chance to court a gamer girl and I have prior knowledge that she has played Bioshock or she is familiar with Bioshock lore, I'd be sure to insert a "Would you kindly...go on a date with me" pick-up
line somewhere. Andrew Ryan would be proud. (Although Jack maybe pissed at me...)
-Chady
-The only time I ever feel compelled to deal with quantum physics is whenever I listen to Rosalind Lutece's explanation of tears and the principles of quantum mechanics in Bioshock Infinite.
But then again, shit is hard, yo.
-I have a love-hate relationship with the fashion of Columbia and Rapture (1912 and 1960's, respectively) Love because it's so cool and fashionable and hate because I look ridiculous when I try them on.
It is currently on my #3 reason why I should lose more weight. Damn cravats.
-Whenever I see the old or new atmospheric diving suits, there is only one thing I can think of: Big Daddies. Damn you Rapture.
-If I ever get to chance to court a gamer girl and I have prior knowledge that she has played Bioshock or she is familiar with Bioshock lore, I'd be sure to insert a "Would you kindly...go on a date with me" pick-up
line somewhere. Andrew Ryan would be proud. (Although Jack maybe pissed at me...)
-Chady
Aug 1, 2013
A Collection of some of the best Two Sentence Horror Stories
Reddit had this subforum for awhile now and I enjoy reading them all, real ones and trolls. Here is a collection of my favorite ones:
-The heart attack came and went, knocking Mike into unconsciousness, and as he awoke he could hear the graveside service around him. Somehow the casket was translucent to him
and he recognized some of his friends, but his body would not move and he realized with terror what death really was.
-After working a hard day I came home to see my girlfriend cradling our child. I didn't know which was more frightening, seeing my dead girlfriend and stillborn child,
or knowing that someone broke into my apartment to place them there.
-My daughter won't stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. I visit her grave and ask her to stop, but she doesn't.
-You hear you mom call you from the living room. And then you hear her in the bedroom screaming, "Don't go! I heard it too!"
-She doesn't exist under your chair, to your left, to your right, or behind you. But don't look - she doesn't like that.
-As I glance at the mirror, I am shocked to what I see. My reflection is nowhere to be seen and someone is behind me, breathing heavily.
-The last person in the world was sitting alone at home. There was a knock on the door.(Such a classic that it appeared multiple times)
-She had the most beautiful eyes you could ever imagine. I still keep them on a shelf somewhere.
-I was on Skype with my girlfriend and she went to the bathroom. A masked man in black came from the closet and followed her.
-When my parent's killer is being dragged out of the courtroom, he laughs a terrifyingly high pitched laughed.
Ten years later, that same high pitched laugh wakes me up alone in my house.
-Don't let her know you're reading this. If she finds o
-Most laugh tracks were recorded in the early 70's, and most of those people are dead now. That means the dead are laughing at us.
-I only need one sentence. I just saw my reflection blink.
And of course, the trolls :
--I opened the fridge. There was no food.
-I have the most scariest story to share. Now I'm sad because this is my last sentence.
-I turned on my computer one morning and screamed and fell to my knees from the horror I was faced with. "Unable to connect to the Internet."
-I was alone in the house and there was a noise coming from the other room. I opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur. (HIGH FIVE IF YOU GET THE REFERENCE)
-Chady
-The heart attack came and went, knocking Mike into unconsciousness, and as he awoke he could hear the graveside service around him. Somehow the casket was translucent to him
and he recognized some of his friends, but his body would not move and he realized with terror what death really was.
-After working a hard day I came home to see my girlfriend cradling our child. I didn't know which was more frightening, seeing my dead girlfriend and stillborn child,
or knowing that someone broke into my apartment to place them there.
-My daughter won't stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. I visit her grave and ask her to stop, but she doesn't.
-You hear you mom call you from the living room. And then you hear her in the bedroom screaming, "Don't go! I heard it too!"
-She doesn't exist under your chair, to your left, to your right, or behind you. But don't look - she doesn't like that.
-As I glance at the mirror, I am shocked to what I see. My reflection is nowhere to be seen and someone is behind me, breathing heavily.
-The last person in the world was sitting alone at home. There was a knock on the door.(Such a classic that it appeared multiple times)
-She had the most beautiful eyes you could ever imagine. I still keep them on a shelf somewhere.
-I was on Skype with my girlfriend and she went to the bathroom. A masked man in black came from the closet and followed her.
-When my parent's killer is being dragged out of the courtroom, he laughs a terrifyingly high pitched laughed.
Ten years later, that same high pitched laugh wakes me up alone in my house.
-Don't let her know you're reading this. If she finds o
-Most laugh tracks were recorded in the early 70's, and most of those people are dead now. That means the dead are laughing at us.
-I only need one sentence. I just saw my reflection blink.
And of course, the trolls :
--I opened the fridge. There was no food.
-I have the most scariest story to share. Now I'm sad because this is my last sentence.
-I turned on my computer one morning and screamed and fell to my knees from the horror I was faced with. "Unable to connect to the Internet."
-I was alone in the house and there was a noise coming from the other room. I opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur. (HIGH FIVE IF YOU GET THE REFERENCE)
-Chady
Jul 24, 2013
A More General Guide to learning fighting games
This is kind of a follow up to my previous post on how to learn a new character.
I say kind of because:
1.) It covers more of the general stuff that you need to play fighting games. I know the play online part is pretty hard in our part of the world but hey, the advice written here is what I did when I started out myself.
2.) This article isn't by me, it's a link to Shoryuken.com's
So you want to learn how to play fighting games…
http://shoryuken.com/2013/07/23/so-you-want-to-learn-to-play-a-fighting-game/I was gonna write one myself but you know, hehe...This one came out first. (*Reasons*)
Peace out.
-Chady
Jul 18, 2013
Revisiting SF4:AE Part 2: Learning Sakura (and a new character in general)
As I continue my training with Sakura, I would like to post some of my thoughts and insights:
First...
WHY SAKURA?
Honestly, Sakura wasn't really my first choice. Looking at forums, tier lists and tourney results, the most logical choice would be to learn top tier mofos like Akuma/Cammy(vortex heavy with godlike combos), Fei Long (Rekkas, A dependable focus attack and amazing normals) or even Seth (just about everyone's good normal and specialmoves but with a minimum health bar/stun meter tradeoff) but the feisty schoolgirl has always had a special place in my heart ever since her introduction in SFAlpha2.
When I first got a hold of a copy of Super Street Fighter 4 and tried Sakura for the first time, I immediately came to one conclusion: THIS BITCH SUCKS. Sucky normals, high execution requirement with no payoff and no damage. Mind you that was around 3 years ago and much has changed...except the high execution requirement part which is fine because that was one of the reasons I chose her. Sakura is one of those unique characters that have combos that require your execution to be always spot on.
When you do get the hang of her combos, the potential mixups and crossups you can do after knockdowns can lead to yet another combo that often leads to dizzy...which hopefully leads to a win. This is the second reason why I chose Sakura. Setups. I've never really played a setup heavy character (outside of Venom from Guilty Gear) and it would be really interesting to see if I could pull them off in actual matches and see how people would react to Sakura setups. Street Fighter has always been a game that needed research and reading and I'd like to see if I could effectively apply them in actual matches. This is the first part you have to undergo if you've chosen and try to learn a new character:
PART 1: HIT THE BOOKS
Visit sites like eventhubs and shoryuken read up on their forums. Watch match vids of top players. Take note of tutorials. Ask around. We are living in the age of the internet where information can be accessed with a click of a button. Back then it was impossible to learn new stuff if you didn't go to arcades or ask the usual arcade people about what 'advanced' stuff they were doing. Take advantage that you have the internet.
By practice I am a Marvel player and combos mean everything in that game. A drop could mean the game for you and that's something you always try to avoid. After defeating an opponent, you now have to plan and execute mixups that will obliterate the opponent's incoming character. That concept is heavily imprinted into anyone's Mahvel game and if I could adapt the same mindset whenever I play SF with Sakura, I should be
fine. More or less...as long as I hit those execution-heavy, ridiculously long, 1 frame link plink combos.
Execution heavy means plink combos...and I like me some plinking.
One of the things I've noticed ever since I started playing Street Fighter 4 is plinking is hard as fuck in this game. For the uninitiated, Plinking or priority linking is tapping the buttons in rapid succession to allow 1 frame links to turn into 2 frame links. Plinking applies FOR EVERY effective COMBO Sakura has. The amount of practice it takes to perfect this combo is amazingly high and practice always makes perfect.
That's the second thing for people learning new characters.
PART 2: PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE: After you've gathered the necessary intel, Go into training mode and take the time to repeat again and again the things that you will keep repeating in actual matches like setup situations and long combos. It's that simple.
Speaking of actual matches, that's the next thing you need to do.
PART 3: SEE (AND SUPPORT) YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY:
Once you are confident in your execution, time to see if you're ready. Play with local players and share what you can. You can develop faster if the competition around you develops as well. Help them to help you. I've noticed in our little community that only a few apply the use of plink combos, especially the few Sakura's I've heard of. Now I'm not forcing anyone to adapt and learn plinking but they are not maximizing the potential they have and their characters. I want to showcase Sakura because not only do I want to show the proper usage of the character, but to show them the rewards for optimal plink combos.
And finally,
PART 4: BEGIN THE ROAD OF THE WORLD WARRIOR
(or maybe you know, a national warrior first before the world). In order for you to fully develop your game and make you realize where you stand and what you need to do, you have to travel outside your local comfort zone and fight everyone. You'd be surprised how different communities have different perspectives and playstyles. When you go into other territory, your ability to adapt and apply your own tactics will make (or break) you. It is pretty challenging and along the way, you'll get new friends/rivals/enemies, respect (or hate) and even more technology to use and be familiar with. By far, this is the most rewarding part of fighting games and I think this is what makes it special. The camaraderie.
That's what I think are the most important things I would like to point out.
Peace out
-Chady
Jul 11, 2013
Life with Imaginary Power Ups #20: The Lazy Celebratory Edition
Heeey guys, so as you know (or may not know), I'm reviving this series and it has come to my attention that I've already made 20 of this posts. That is quite an achievement for me.
CLAP FOR ME, DAMMIT.
Anywaaay...
So what do I do to celebrate this achievement? Review them and pick out my favorites. You are welcome to pick your own as well (Shameless attempt to make you read through my blog lolz) and if that doesn't work, you can share your own...jerk.
Now some of this are edited to fit with the times and to correct some grammatical errors. I hope you all enjoy this shit as much as I do. Here's to hoping I don't forget about this again or run of material...again.
*You will know you're hanging out with someone young when you sing the Pokemon Cartoon Show Theme Song and they don't recognize it. It also makes you feel very old.
*When I was ten, I tried ordering an official strategy guide for Final Fantasy VII on the phone. FROM THE USA. I almost bought one... if I had access to a credit card. All because I couldn't get a Gold Chocobo. Kid frustrations.
*During my senior year of high school, we get to do our final exams first before anyone in the school does so that we can practice our graduation rites. Now after the exams, teachers would mostly leave us alone to sing songs and do pointless shit. Me, on the other hand, would skip most of the graduation rites practices and go home or not go to school at all. Most of my classmates thought I was getting sick or I was avoiding someone but all I did was finish a bunch of RPGs. Twas time well spent.
-Chady
*During my senior year of high school, we get to do our final exams first before anyone in the school does so that we can practice our graduation rites. Now after the exams, teachers would mostly leave us alone to sing songs and do pointless shit. Me, on the other hand, would skip most of the graduation rites practices and go home or not go to school at all. Most of my classmates thought I was getting sick or I was avoiding someone but all I did was finish a bunch of RPGs. Twas time well spent.
*Of all the retro RPGs I could remember, one always stands out and that's Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu for the PS1. Nothing beats playing a little more manly version of Pokemon.
*When I was old enough and started to grow a beard, I bought my first pack of cigarettes. Now I don't smoke. I just bought them for a friend and I wanted to see if I looked old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes.
*I had this friend who borrowed Disc 4 of my Legend of Dragoon because his disc was broken. Now bear in mind, I still haven't reached that part of the game as I was still stuck at Disc 2 but I lent it to him anyway because I "trusted" him. When I was done with Disc 2 (and 3) I asked for my disc back but he broke it as well. To this day, I have not finished Legend of Dragoon and I don't know how Legend of Dragoon ends. Even now, I refuse to look at Youtube playthrough's because it's too painful to remember. And yes, we're not friends anymore.
*When I was old enough and started to grow a beard, I bought my first pack of cigarettes. Now I don't smoke. I just bought them for a friend and I wanted to see if I looked old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes.
*While I was working at Cebu, I blow off steam from a hard day's work by playing at an arcade. Problem was, this said arcade was located 20 minutes away from my workplace and 30 minutes away from my home. That's almost five hours of lost sleep (estimated overall time) but I didn't care. I usually end up going to work a little drowsy by the next day.
*Last time I checked my original FFVII save file, I logged in at almost 198 hours. It took me that long (I was 13...I think.) because I went through all the trouble to level up all my characters above 90 and collect all the game's materia, items and weapons. That's almost 8 days. So if you have a week and day off, THIS is what you should do.
*When I was a kid, I broke my leg due to a freak biking accident. At the hospital, I was told to take a break to let it heal. Everyone was telling me that everything's gonna be alright. All I could ever think about was that I can now finish Final Fantasy 9 for sure. Sweet.
*The PS3 currently has some of the most best games in terms of graphics and gameplay. Games like Killzone in 3D and Call of Duty:Black Ops. Right now, I'm playing...a remake of Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Nothing beats the classics. "Big Apple, 3AM!"
*A few years back, I was playing Pokemon Blue on Gameboy Color. I got a Master Ball and used it on a Fearow to "test" if it worked. Six days later, I realized I needed the same freakin ball to catch MewTwo. It was also the day I saw a Gameboy fly.
*I never realized how much of a dick I could be until one time, a fight broke out between two of my closest friends over a game of Tekken 6. Friend1 got a lucky counter hit that obliterated Friend2's health. Blind with rage, Friend1 threw the controller at Friend2's chest and it almost turned into a fistfight. During those tense moments, all I could think about was "My God...Is my controller alright?!"
*The PS3 currently has some of the most best games in terms of graphics and gameplay. Games like Killzone in 3D and Call of Duty:Black Ops. Right now, I'm playing...a remake of Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Nothing beats the classics. "Big Apple, 3AM!"
*A few years back, I was playing Pokemon Blue on Gameboy Color. I got a Master Ball and used it on a Fearow to "test" if it worked. Six days later, I realized I needed the same freakin ball to catch MewTwo. It was also the day I saw a Gameboy fly.
*I never realized how much of a dick I could be until one time, a fight broke out between two of my closest friends over a game of Tekken 6. Friend1 got a lucky counter hit that obliterated Friend2's health. Blind with rage, Friend1 threw the controller at Friend2's chest and it almost turned into a fistfight. During those tense moments, all I could think about was "My God...Is my controller alright?!"
Life with Imaginary Power-Ups #19!
*Whenever anyone says "Behold!" (especially with grand often unnecessary hand gestures) The follow up my head subconsciously hears is "Optic Blast!"
*You can always tell what recent (or favorite) third person action-adventure video game a person has played when a group of this people hang out together and they play a new action adventure video game. For example, the new Tomb Raider game. Whenever someone suggests to the player that he should use
Lara's 'Survival Instinct' attribute, that person will call it by the corresponding name of said attribute in the game they've played.
Scenario 1:
Bro: Dude, you should use Eagle Eye to find out where the salvage is!
Dude: The what, bro?
Bro: EAGLE EYE Baaa..you know, like the one from AC...
Scenario 2:
Bro: Duuuude! Use Instinct, use Instinct.
Dude: You mean 'Survival Instinct', right?
Bro: Same thing, bro...*rolls eyes*
(Note: Instinct comes from the Hitman: Absolution game)
*As a follow up to the post above, it's amazing how many action adventure games (and a few First person shooters) employ the "eagle eye" button from Assassin's Creed. on the top of my head there's Batman: Arkham series, the new Tomb Raider, the new Hitman and Red Dead Redemption to name a few. Wonder how much use it would be in other games like puzzlers or fighting games...
*I admit I am only familiar with the original 151 Pokemon. I would also like to admit that those 151 are the only that matters to me. Bulbasaur for life yo.
-Chady
Revisiting (with a commitment): Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition ver. 2012 Part 1
Street fighter is FINALLY getting the attention it deserves around our community and I'm very happy with the steady flux of new people joining in. New people means more money lolz but seriously, new faces can mean a lot of good things for the community.
What I like to talk about now is the appearance of new characters.
At first, Shotos were the only ones that keep appearing and naturally, it became boring pretty quick because nothing but Hado,Shoryu, FADC>Ultra all day. Nowadays, there are Dictators (whew...), Fei Longs, some Abels, a Claw...Warms my heart everytime the Character select screen appears and I don't hear "RYU!". Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate Ryu as a character (You can't hate on the original world warrior lolz) but facing four Ryu's in a row with little to no change in playstyle can kinda get repetetive. Sure, there are still those who are loyal to Ryu but I'm happy that they've learned to use him efficiently. A good Ryu always leads to a good match of Street Fighter.
I've been playing Rufus for SF4 since Vanilla (Fun Fact: I also had a Dee Jay in Super because I was a fan of Dee Jay in the Turbo days and after a few weeks with him, I remembered "Oh shit, I can't do charge characters) and honestly, I am in no way in the same level of Justin wong, Ricky O, chobixinco or Sir Mael Creampie. In fact, these are the people I look up to and most of my Rufus tech is copied from them. I have only recently reviewed my safe jumps, option selects and advanced combos that I can say my Rufus is somewhat competetive now, albeit a little better than before. I have always enjoyed and felt comfortable using Rufus because he has a divekick, a good selection of combos that are relatively easy
to do in an actual match and he can be a bit of a crowd pleaser. (U1 yooo.)
But since everyone is starting up on their own I'd like to follow suit. So I'm learning a new character too! Now, I haven't settled for anyone yet because I have been jumping around all the characters but I think I'm going for the fiesty schoolgirl Sakura.
This ends Part 1.
Part 2 is where I explain why I chose Sakura (community reasons, personal reasons, a show of respect, a challenge for myself, etc.) and hopefully I can follow up soon.
P.S. I am not dropping Rufus. I still love em Bobo combos lolz
Peace out
-Chady
I should be "Revisiting" this and Getting another "Life with Imaginary 1-ups"
I've been reviewing my blog recently and I have forgotten I have two perfectly good write ups that I should continue... namely "Revisiting" and "Life with Imaginary 1-ups".
In the next few days, I should have one (or two) for each segment.
I just hope I just don't run out of material aga....
-Chady
DO NOT MASH LE BUTTONS: A Ruleset for Bohol Arcadium.
PLEASE DO NOT MASH THE BUTTONS
By Chady Araneta and the staff of Bohol Arcadium....but mostly, Chady Araneta
REASONS:
1.)SANWA parts do not come cheap and when they get broken, replacements have to be ordered from Japan and delivery could take awhile and they do not come cheap. I cannot stress enough how important this fact is. Have a little consideration. (NOTE: THEY DO NOT COME CHEAP.)
2.)To avoid unneccesary return-to-menu complications. When you’ve chosen your character, wait patiently, check your phone/notes/dick/etc., talk to your friends/enemies/self, change the music on your mp3 player...ANYTHING just don’t press the damn buttons.
3.)As you might have noticed, SANWA parts are very sensitive, will react to your slightest touch and they give you the best arcade experience possible. With that being said, do not get angry and ham out at the buttons/stick when the move you want didn’t come out. I can understand this frustration (We’ve all been there.) but please refer to rule #1 and the first sentence of this reason. I would like to write down suggestions though on what to think about when you, the player, is put in this situation:
• Maybe it’s an off night for you and you just didn’t do the move correctly.
• Blame the console/tv/monitor. Lag issues man. They exist.
• You can also blame your friends and your surroundings. Outside factors can be very annoying.
• Maybe it was a setup you weren’t familiar with and your reversal didn’t come out. Good tech is good tech. You can’t beat that.
• Maybe God/destiny/karma/whatever your religious and superstitious belief may be (We don't judge hehe) didn’t want you to win that match.
And by far, the best reason I can think of:
• Maybe you just suck and you’re being a whiny little bitch. Stay free and get bodied all the time.
But if you bring your own controller/ arcade stick...then by all means, MASH AWAY.
I'd be happy to fix anything you break...for a price :D
4.) This maybe the most out of context reason ever but as you all know, the Arcadium was made to provide not only as a place to play games but it’s also the place to develop and improve the Bohol Fighting Game Community (FGC). Basically, we try to emulate what made the arcade scene so successful before the explosion of the internet and online games and that was the unique atmosphere it gave out and the sense of camaraderie that develops among players. Mashing not only makes you look like a scrub (Unless it’s Mahvel and you need those extra hits) but it just shows you’re just play for the heck of it (which is wrong), you make us look like morons for spending hours learning any fighting game and you just press all the buttons to make “something happen” and those hollow victories don’t mean anything to you because most of the time, you have no idea what’s going on. That’s just sad. We try our best to teach the neophytes of fighting games, the do’s and the don’ts, and we tend to discourage mashing because “it ain’t right.”
Do your part.
IF THE MANAGEMENT FINDS OUT YOU BROKE SOMETHING, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK YOU A “DAFUQ MAN...” FEE TO REPLACE THE BROKEN PART.
Peace out
-Chady
By Chady Araneta and the staff of Bohol Arcadium....but mostly, Chady Araneta
REASONS:
1.)SANWA parts do not come cheap and when they get broken, replacements have to be ordered from Japan and delivery could take awhile and they do not come cheap. I cannot stress enough how important this fact is. Have a little consideration. (NOTE: THEY DO NOT COME CHEAP.)
2.)To avoid unneccesary return-to-menu complications. When you’ve chosen your character, wait patiently, check your phone/notes/dick/etc., talk to your friends/enemies/self, change the music on your mp3 player...ANYTHING just don’t press the damn buttons.
3.)As you might have noticed, SANWA parts are very sensitive, will react to your slightest touch and they give you the best arcade experience possible. With that being said, do not get angry and ham out at the buttons/stick when the move you want didn’t come out. I can understand this frustration (We’ve all been there.) but please refer to rule #1 and the first sentence of this reason. I would like to write down suggestions though on what to think about when you, the player, is put in this situation:
• Maybe it’s an off night for you and you just didn’t do the move correctly.
• Blame the console/tv/monitor. Lag issues man. They exist.
• You can also blame your friends and your surroundings. Outside factors can be very annoying.
• Maybe it was a setup you weren’t familiar with and your reversal didn’t come out. Good tech is good tech. You can’t beat that.
• Maybe God/destiny/karma/whatever your religious and superstitious belief may be (We don't judge hehe) didn’t want you to win that match.
And by far, the best reason I can think of:
• Maybe you just suck and you’re being a whiny little bitch. Stay free and get bodied all the time.
But if you bring your own controller/ arcade stick...then by all means, MASH AWAY.
I'd be happy to fix anything you break...for a price :D
4.) This maybe the most out of context reason ever but as you all know, the Arcadium was made to provide not only as a place to play games but it’s also the place to develop and improve the Bohol Fighting Game Community (FGC). Basically, we try to emulate what made the arcade scene so successful before the explosion of the internet and online games and that was the unique atmosphere it gave out and the sense of camaraderie that develops among players. Mashing not only makes you look like a scrub (Unless it’s Mahvel and you need those extra hits) but it just shows you’re just play for the heck of it (which is wrong), you make us look like morons for spending hours learning any fighting game and you just press all the buttons to make “something happen” and those hollow victories don’t mean anything to you because most of the time, you have no idea what’s going on. That’s just sad. We try our best to teach the neophytes of fighting games, the do’s and the don’ts, and we tend to discourage mashing because “it ain’t right.”
Do your part.
IF THE MANAGEMENT FINDS OUT YOU BROKE SOMETHING, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK YOU A “DAFUQ MAN...” FEE TO REPLACE THE BROKEN PART.
-Chady
Jun 21, 2013
Character Loyalty Part 1: Tekken: Ling Xiaoyu and Gogoy
For today's topic I would like to talk about how much a player's determination, creativity and (character) dedication would often lead to winning, be it in casuals or in tourneys. I'll also note how this changes people's opinion on their character of choice and some other players who are effective with the character highlighted.
In order to for me to explain and elaborate this concept,I'm going to highlight and breakdown three players (and their respective characters) from three fighting games:
>Cebu's Gogoy(Xiaoyu) from Tekken,
>Bullet Hell Maestro and reigning MahvelKing Chris G for Marvel3
>Xian with his godlike Gen for SF:AEver2012.
First, let's cover the character, Ling Xiaoyu:
In my personal opinion, she's got good pokes, her moveset is diverse and gives her easy and many ways to access her launchers and lows, has practical movement options both for evasion and for offense and she has one of the most nastiest setups/mixups in the game.
From what I've said up there, you could automatically assume Ling is top tier when in fact, she is not.
Looking at the character on paper, Ling is a counter hit/trick character. She gets her damage by confusing her opponent. One mistake would often lead to getting hit by either a launcher (which leads to juggles) or a counterhit (which also leads to juggles or guaranteed hits) and she does this very well by poking the shit out of you, accompanied by her ability to avoid certain attacks with her Art of Phoenix (AoP) stance or back turning.
Now in order for Ling to be able to do that, the player using her will need to use all of her moves and not only use them, the player should know when and where to use them. However, if the opponent knows what the Ling player is doing AND can anticipate what she will do, she's pretty much fucked. She lacks anything overpowering or really abusable, her movement is dependent on how well you can transition from her stances to standing (and back again) and you often need to commit to your moves with Ling which means she cannot be top tier. Korean and japanese tier lists often list Ling under the Mid-Low tier because of this very reasons. Trick characters can only go so far in fighting games.
This style of play is really dependent on the player using Ling. This is where Gogoy comes in.
I have played with Gogoy quite a few times already and my God, it is annoying as hell to go up against.
You going for a throw? >Lol AoP
Trying to hit with a tracking mid to the right? >Lol back turn
Playing defense and waiting what I'm going to do? >Lol confuse you with all my stances and end in AOP then punish.
Going on the offensive and dash right in?> Lol use CH b+1 to BT3 and juggle you to death or anticipate your move and
use AOP to avoid it then use AOP u/f3+1 and juggle you to death.
This are just a few of the mindfucks Gogoy does and they always haunt me in my dreams BUT this writeup is for him and Ling, not for my frustrations. That's in another article :D ...
Getting back to the topic and switching over to their (Ling player) side:
I feel Ling players must control the mid part of the screen so she can take advantage of her moves that transition to stances to always keep in motion and her good choice of moves that on counter hit, leads to insane damage. With Gogoy, he does this all so effortlessly and his ability to be able to think up different tactics on the fly and apply said tactic to the current situation when he either initiates the offense himself or when the opponent decides to rushdown or play a close game.
Now let me be honest here, I don't use Ling at all because I tend to avoid trick characters in Tekken and characters with large movesets so this concept is solely based on my experience going against her. Hell, the last time I actually made an effort to learn Ling was with DR Xiaoyu (right about the same time Gio, a good friend of mine as well as Gogoy's, was learning Xiao) and back then, even I noticed how she was both better from her T3/TTT/T4 incarnations and not to mention, more fun.
For her Tekken 6 version, Namco added even more tools, and there were ALMOST no places that I feel they really messed her up. These ALMOSTs though made me stop using her regularly altogether. What I'm referring to was the decrease of advantages from some of her pokes that leave her somewhat weak on the uptake and her godlike AOP stance is several frames slower and gets even hit by a well timed jab or some special mids like Bruce b+2. Namco also took away her cartwheel :(. I admit that this are very minor things and some of this issues were even addressed in BR as well as in TTT2. That's what makes Gogoy and Gio the good players that they are. They adjusted to the timing and the changes in AoP and her pokes, learned and adapted new ways to address Ling's shortcomings and they basically reinvented their style of play to suit the new engine for T6. That's just admirable dedication right there.
Here's where I would like to point this out: Character loyalty.
For fighting games nowadays, we are given huge character rosters to choose from. Players try out the whole cast and as the game ages, players tend to stick to the strongest characters available for easy winning and other characters tend to get left out. Players who truly love their characters always stick it out to the end and always bring out the highest potential of their chosen character and themselves as well.
In a game like Tekken where tiers don't necessarily matter because it's "actually" balanced well, it's always a nice breath of fresh air to see Xiao hanging around with the Mishimas and the Larseses.
Gogoy's Ling should serve as a basis on how trick characters should be in Tekken (or in any fighting game, for that matter.) As I said before, In order for a trick character to be effective, constant motion and spacing is required to keep the opponent guessing. Gogoy does this by always taking advantage of her stances, AoP and back turn. This not only give her more options to counter, some moves can be evaded completely and lead to devastating damage. Familiarity and knowledge of the character's movelist and having good judgement on when and where to use them is also a plus for trick characters. This is where Gogoy truly shines. Not only does Gogoy know every good move that Ling has, but usage of moves like CH b+1 to BT, WR3 to AoP, d/f+1 to BT is so spot on that opponents always have a hard time reading his next move.
Even a backdash to raw BT leads to problems because you have to guess if he'll be doing:
BTb+3+4 for a juggle
BT roll twice to grab
Roll to AOP
maybe sidestep then BT3.
Now bear in mind two things: One, I am writing this from the comfort of my own chair and it's easy to think up what options he has but it's very difficult when you're actually facing him in a match because he moves so fluidly with Ling. Second, the options that I have listed come from the top of my head and I am sure there are tons of other options besides that.
As I mentioned, another good Ling player is Gio. These two are actually close friends and their playstle is quite alike. These two players are perfect examples of how rewarding character loyalty can be and how far a good amount of practice and dedication can take you.
Overall, Xiaoyu on paper is a good all around character with good points in evasion and trickery and she relies on counter hits for damage but in a game where movement (Mishimas) and powerful, dependable moves (Feng WR2, Lars u/f+3,etc.) seem to be the biggest key to success, I can safely write that Xiaoyu comes up a little shy and say she is mid tier because in high levels of play, I see her losing because top players are familiar and already have knowledge of her trickery.
However, in the hands of Gogoy, who is able to be play Ling in nearly any way he pleases, can evade most of your moves and has two to three different setups and mixups for almost every situation , I'd put her into lower high tier because of his abilities. It's all in the player yo.
Next up I'll try to cover Chris G's Morrigan.
-Shoutout to Gogoy for letting me cover his Xiao.
Peace out
-Chady
Jun 16, 2013
One Motto at a Time
Coin?Step?Press? Arrghh...
I cannot decide what the main theme of the rebuilding of Bohol's FGC is... I know this can be very simple as to pick any of those words but this is a huge thing because it could be very well the thing that makes this project make it or gulp, break it.
Your opinion would really help.
Thanks in advance. Peace out.
-Chady
Bohol Arcadium Reopens!
So I just 'reopened' my little arcade back. I still have one arcade per se (with an Xbox 360 system) but I also still have my PS3 with my dependable arcade sticks. As expected, business is starting slow but mostly because I still haven't 'really' to spread and advertise the shop as much as I want to. I want to see if how far rhe local "word of mouth" will get me because back in the day, this is how arcades grew to be popular. The place with competition and great atmosphere always gets attention and attention means customers.
Yes, I know I am a hypocrite for saying this (Chard, we have the internet, and radio...and phones or Chard, you are the only one that has an arcade...or any interest in fighting games whatsoever) but meh, I'm trying to do things old school. An arcade, like any other business, is dependent on it's customers so what I'm trying to see here is if the current FGC (or Fighting Game Community for the confused, like Olivier) of Bohol has any interest of expanding their borders out of and on their own. Besides the current FGC, I would also like to see if there are new faces willing to join Bohol's FGC.
I know I will get to advertising soon enough but it's always a pleasure to see when a person's interest, drive and passion for fighting games (or just gaming, in general) causes him to come over and not only play, but share this love with other gamers like us.
So come on everyone. Hog singko are.
One Step at A Time.
Peace out.
-Chady
May 3, 2013
Le Recovery Guide to Breakups
I've always wanted to put this here but I always thought it wouldn't be necessary and who am I to give advice on this kind of topics but then again, you grow up, mature a little and begin to acknowledge that shit really happens in real life and the experience you get from this moments will benefit others...even in the slightest bit. Besides, this is just my lame ass excuse to post a new topic here so read on.
Lastly, keep your head up. And the best thing? Your significant other is out there, still waiting for you. New possibilities! Don't be sad and be excited on this fact.
-Chady
First is acceptance. And dealing with that shit. All breakups are painful. You'll feel a whirlwind of emotions and sometimes, they will come out and when they do, let them. Be as emo as you want. Just don't go overboard and post random shit on your Facebook wall like "So alone, want to die" (or worse, hurt yourself. That's just dumb.) It will feel awful. It will feel bad. That is expected. It is important to let yourself feel all these emotions (aka 'the feels') to help you heal. I know this sounds cliche but this will make you stronger overall. Once you've accepted this then you can begin getting rid of things that remind you "strongly" of your ex (like pictures and personal accessories) I don't know if it will speed up your recovery but I'm pretty sure it will help.
Second: Distractions. Keep yourself busy to disrupt your minds' thoughts. Work can be one thing but what I really mean is drown yourself in your hobbies. If you don't have any, then it's the perfect time to think of one or if you're bored with your hobbies, time to take up a new one. Do these things to keep you
Third: Support. Look to friends and family for support. I don't know how to stress this enough. A simple hug, tap in the back or long talk goes a long way. This people will always be there for you (I hope) and will help you in any way that they can. If you have neither (or just looking for additional hugsies), then this place helps http://thenicestplaceontheinter.net/
Lastly, keep your head up. And the best thing? Your significant other is out there, still waiting for you. New possibilities! Don't be sad and be excited on this fact.
-Chady
Apr 3, 2013
Beards
During the duration of Holy Week 2013, I've met a lot of peeps that I haven't seen in a long time and it's quite funny to see them squint and stare at me from afar and if they're in a group, whisper to each other to confirm if it's really me they're seeing. One comment that I enjoy hearing (besides the "you got handsomer" comment) is that "you have a beard that's why we couldn't tell" comment. I always liked having a beard and a few of my close friends and family members *cough,cough* parents *cough* don't understand why I have one. I would like to list down a few of my favorite reasons on why I have a beard.
1.) It's a useful deviating topic from the usual shit people keep asking like "Are you married?", "Do you have kids?", "Do you plan on getting thinner?" (By the way, to the people who ask me this..fuck you. Suck a bag of dicks.) Sure, those topics will be brought up eventually but with the beard, you can counter with your own questions after they ask why you have said beard and if it all works well, you've moved on to better topics.
2.) I can grow my beard to good proportions (like James Harden-esque) I like that in my little circle of friends, I am the only one who can do this. I also like how I look with the beard on. It may be a part of my persona too nowadays...
3.) It hides my chin :D
4.) And finally, Beards often signify that a person is deep, mysterious, brooding and has a lot on his mind. I like those concepts that come with beards when in truth, I'm just a nerd thinking bout Mahvel and Chicken 90% of the time lolz.
So, that's me.
Later.
-Chady
Feb 13, 2013
10 more years...and maybe more.
A few months ago, Mahvel players found that there was indeed infinite technology in Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3. At first it was thought it was only possible through Team Aerial Combos aka TACs but in recent weeks, it was possible to do as long as you learn the proper timing and recognize when to hit the buttons
after the hitstop. Of course, this is easier said than done because it is hard as bricks (I'm not going anywhere).
TACs are by far the easiest way to gain access to the infinites but I'm pretty sure sooner or later,
we'd practice our hearts out and we should be hitting infinites left and right (especially after Marlinpie recently explained the input nulification glitch) or maybe some ingenious player out there would unleash some new tech that would set up or present an easier route to an infinite. Rest assured, we will be tinkering with Mahvel for a long, long time. Maybe even over ten years.
That's what I always loved about the Marvel series. There is a huge amount of tech to be found. Sure some of which are crazy stupid and totally broken but it's what makes Mahvel...Mahvel.
-Chady
Jan 20, 2013
Bioshock Basis for Role-Playing First Person Shooter Games
I've never been a fan of the role playing first person shooter genre but I'm not saying I don't like them.
My first encounter with role playing first person shooters was during my stint in Cebu (2010) and my roommate was playing Bioshock 2. I blindly hated the game at first because of the genre it belonged to so I did not mind him while he played. A few weeks passed, my roommate reached the area where the Spider Splicers were introduced and it caught my eye. I'm not really sure what made me pay more attention to it but I'm gonna 'blame' my roommate who endlessly praised everything about the game and sharing the experience with me. One thing is for sure though, after he finished the game, I made the Bioshock basis for Role-Playing First Person Shooter Games.
If you're not familiar with this kind of games, Role playing first person shooters (or RPG shooters for short) are FPS games (like Call of Duty or Battlefield) mixed with RPG elements like leveling up and customizing stats and armor. Some examples of this games are the aforementioned Bioshock 2 and Borderlands.
The thing that irks me with RPG shooters is that I don't like my RPG elements mixing with my FPS(eses?). First Person Shooters, as the name implies, are designed to be played with quick reactions and the pace can be so frantic at times and crucial moments (like shooting someone) require strict hand-eye coordination and I can't be bothered by micromanagement. Yes I know that they aren't done at the same time but knowing that it's there, it's part of the endeavor. I feel they are two different experiences that should not go together because at it's core, FPS players are there for the shooting and RPG players enjoy the leveling up and character development. Of course, a lot of people enjoy this style of gameplay and I respect them for their dedication and love but I personally cannot go through RPG shooters...Unless, well, here is where I apply the Bioshock Basis:
One: The micromanagement is kept to a minimum - I cannot stress how important this is for me. I cannot deal with the fact of dealing with my items within the first person point of view. Call me crazy but it just doesn't work with me. I will admit that there is micromanagement within Bioshock but that's my limit. Whenever I watch people play Skyrim or Borderlands 2, it drives me nuts when they can't decide which crystal to keep or which pot to brew in...uhhhhh. If I wanted micromanagement, I'd play Diablo 2...or FF10.
Two: Storyline - This is the second thing I look at for RPG shooters. I commend Bethesda for creating the wonderful world of Rapture and that was the greatest come-on for me to the Bioshock universe. The amazing characters, the moral choices of either to help or harvest the little sisters and the plot twists. Bioshock's storyline wants you to play the game more to find out how all those pan out which leads me to...
Three: The RPG portion doesn't dominate the FPS portion - Once again, I play FPSeses to shoot the bejeezus out of someone. I cannot be distracted by stats like how low my attack percentage is, the opponent's evade rate should be countered with this item or how I should use this spell with that spell for this spell for..SHHHIIIIT! I am so impressed how the Bioshock system does this. Upgrading seems a bit daunting at first but that's expected in any game and once you get the hang of it, it doesn't get anymore complicated because it stays the same. You get to focus on the shooting more. And this for me makes you immerse in the role more.
Four: Unique and Fun Experience - Duh.
So that's my Bioshock Basis for RPG Shooters. I have to go now. I read that Dishonored is good...
Peace y'all
-Chady
My first encounter with role playing first person shooters was during my stint in Cebu (2010) and my roommate was playing Bioshock 2. I blindly hated the game at first because of the genre it belonged to so I did not mind him while he played. A few weeks passed, my roommate reached the area where the Spider Splicers were introduced and it caught my eye. I'm not really sure what made me pay more attention to it but I'm gonna 'blame' my roommate who endlessly praised everything about the game and sharing the experience with me. One thing is for sure though, after he finished the game, I made the Bioshock basis for Role-Playing First Person Shooter Games.
If you're not familiar with this kind of games, Role playing first person shooters (or RPG shooters for short) are FPS games (like Call of Duty or Battlefield) mixed with RPG elements like leveling up and customizing stats and armor. Some examples of this games are the aforementioned Bioshock 2 and Borderlands.
The thing that irks me with RPG shooters is that I don't like my RPG elements mixing with my FPS(eses?). First Person Shooters, as the name implies, are designed to be played with quick reactions and the pace can be so frantic at times and crucial moments (like shooting someone) require strict hand-eye coordination and I can't be bothered by micromanagement. Yes I know that they aren't done at the same time but knowing that it's there, it's part of the endeavor. I feel they are two different experiences that should not go together because at it's core, FPS players are there for the shooting and RPG players enjoy the leveling up and character development. Of course, a lot of people enjoy this style of gameplay and I respect them for their dedication and love but I personally cannot go through RPG shooters...Unless, well, here is where I apply the Bioshock Basis:
One: The micromanagement is kept to a minimum - I cannot stress how important this is for me. I cannot deal with the fact of dealing with my items within the first person point of view. Call me crazy but it just doesn't work with me. I will admit that there is micromanagement within Bioshock but that's my limit. Whenever I watch people play Skyrim or Borderlands 2, it drives me nuts when they can't decide which crystal to keep or which pot to brew in...uhhhhh. If I wanted micromanagement, I'd play Diablo 2...or FF10.
Two: Storyline - This is the second thing I look at for RPG shooters. I commend Bethesda for creating the wonderful world of Rapture and that was the greatest come-on for me to the Bioshock universe. The amazing characters, the moral choices of either to help or harvest the little sisters and the plot twists. Bioshock's storyline wants you to play the game more to find out how all those pan out which leads me to...
Three: The RPG portion doesn't dominate the FPS portion - Once again, I play FPSeses to shoot the bejeezus out of someone. I cannot be distracted by stats like how low my attack percentage is, the opponent's evade rate should be countered with this item or how I should use this spell with that spell for this spell for..SHHHIIIIT! I am so impressed how the Bioshock system does this. Upgrading seems a bit daunting at first but that's expected in any game and once you get the hang of it, it doesn't get anymore complicated because it stays the same. You get to focus on the shooting more. And this for me makes you immerse in the role more.
Four: Unique and Fun Experience - Duh.
So that's my Bioshock Basis for RPG Shooters. I have to go now. I read that Dishonored is good...
Peace y'all
-Chady
Jan 7, 2013
Accepting.
So my new year literally started with a bang...to my heart. My girlfriend broke up with me two days after new year because she needed to focus on her career, future and all other essential stuff. Being the dumpee, I questioned if I did anything wrong, to which she replied "No." I also asked if she found someone else and she also replied "No." Desperate for answers, I just wanted to know why she wanted it to end. I really wanted to save our relationship because we've being going out for awhile now (around three years) and that's a long time folks but I understand (now) that it's just hard...with our current state.
Our current state being in a long distance relationship.
LDR's are very difficult and require a lot of sacrifice on both ends. I guess it just took too much of her focus and she had to let go of me to do the stuff she needed to do. Of course, I could not accept this at first. It was unfair. I didn't see it coming. It was a major SHOCK for me. If you're familiar with the five stages of grief and I assume you guys are also aware of the seven stages of breaking up.(Look/Google it up.)
So after the shock, came DENIAL. To be honest, my stages are in the wrong order and some are grouped together because I felt denial, ANGER and BARGAINING all at the same time. I wanted her back. Plain and simple. I tried talking to her again but she won't answer my calls. I thought of a thousand scenarios what I could do, what I should have done and what I should be doing but then again, the LDR state looms up again and smites down any plans you have.
Fortunately for me, I have the best family and set of friends to help me understand and process all the stuff going on. I gave it time, thought about the whole thing and made the proper move. Thankfully, she replied a few days later and we decided it was the best for the both of us.
Now, I'm still healing and currently in the ISOLATION/DEPRESSION stage but with the closure she gave me and my famfriends support, I am moving towards ACCEPTANCE.
Peace out
-Chady
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