New to the Tekken universe?  My friend Darnell over at SRK linked these highly informative and easy to understand videos that discusses the basics of combat for the uninitiated.  Level Up Your Game along with iamtekken.com have partnered up, featuring notable players like MYK a.k.a. Michael Kwon, a moderator over at tekkenzaibatsu.com.

Episode one is split into five different videos, each of which you can catch for free over at youtube.  For seasoned veterans, you may want to skip to part three to catch a refresher course on combos and wall techniques.  Lots of good info abound here folks -- check it out!

Level Up Your Game part one
Level Up Your Game part two
Level Up Your Game part three
Level Up Your Game part four
Level Up Your Game part five

It's been a week since Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion has been in my hands, and the wait has been somewhat worth it.  10 long months after T6:BR debuted in arcades all across Japan (and small pockets in North America), we finally get our localized version for the PS3 and Xbox60 consoles and it's wonderfully inept, pun intended.

The question I have right now is, "was it rushed?"  Most certainly not one would believe, but after playing Scenario Campaign mode and the much-anticipated Online mode, I was dismayed and bewildered.  Granted I don't play fighting games for the story so I didn't have any absurdedly high expectations for Scenario mode but Online mode?  What the hell happened here?

Nothing beats playing someone in person but I was hoping to at least be able to play some old Tekken friends over the online mode.  Unfortunately I couldn't even play my friend who lives in the same city as me due to horrible synching problems.  If I can handle playing Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV worldwide, why can't I enjoy Tekken in my own region?

You'd think Namco would have the capacity to at least incorporate some simple mechanics from the Nina Williams "Death by Degrees" spinoff for the Scenario Campaign mode, but noooo, lets keep that horribly awkward mechanic of confusing the analog stick inputs with the rocker pad, yeah!  No Namco, we don't need every single attack in the movelist; just one or two work just fine.  Oh hey, a targeting system.  Woot, thanks.

At least a patch is on the way.

Modes aside, Tekken 6 is the best incarnation of the franchise yet.  With a slew of new moves and gameplay tweaks abound, Tekken remains the undisputed king of balanced fighting.  Even the joke characters can stand their ground with a slew of much-needed attacks that round out their already impressive repetoire of shenanigans.  Namco probably also heard the fans decries of previous versions, and super nerfed the typically strongest characters in the game: the Mishima family.  They're just terrible to play now, albeit still unquestionably solid.

In short, tl;dr, buy the game if you're a hardcore Tekken fan.  Buy it if you enjoy 3D games and have a reasonable amount of friends to butt heads with.  Just don't buy it expecting anything too terribly philosophic.  Remember, masher and master are only a single letter apart.

I promise though, there will be one this Friday.  I don't think I'm going anywhere this weekend...

I had a great time though.  The night before we left, my drunken friend calls me up at 2 a.m. reminding me to tell everybody to try to hit on every single female at every club we went to.  I failed in my attempts to get numbers, but I'm happy to say I had some really good conversations with just about every person I spoke to.  Shyness overcomed!

(Picture spam to come at the end of this post.)

Just saw the latest scan for Examu's newest fighter Arcana Heart 3 and I am super, super embarassed.  I defended this game because of it's amazing gameplay system, but now I can't bring myself to justify it past it's newest addition: a 5 year old toddler.  I mean, it's bad enough when the entire cast consists of tweeners under the age of 16 and all, but now...maaaaaaaaaan.

In other letdown city news, Bakemonogatari episode 14 got pushed back to November 2nd.  I have no clue why it got pushed back five days, but hopefully because it's because they want to spruce up the online stream (or add some content).  I'm pretty sure its not because they're including English subs (lol), but so long as it doesn't turn out like episode 10, I'm okay with it.

Lastly, as most of you might already know Tekken 6 came out is a blast to play.  Then we fired up the online play to see how well it runs.  Then I cried.

As if by clockwork, Namco has listened to the complaints and has something planned in the works.  Markman over at tekkenzaibatsu.com reported that a patch update is already in the works, so I'm hopeful.  Hopeful.  (By the way, I'll post up a review down the week, so please watch out for it).

This has been your letdown city news update.  Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Saw this amazing thread on Neogaf and ii just had to post a Halloween-themed post today!  Aside from that hilarious image above, the OP posted a picture (and subsequent vid) of one of the coolest Ironman costumes of all time.  OF ALL TIME.  /kanye meme

The other cool Halloween thing I saw was this "promo" slash "viral vid" of the Silent Hill haunted house attraction in California.  I wish I could go to this thing!  But alas, I'll have to settle for videos such as these.  Maybe somebody out there will take their camera with them and do a walk-through!  That'd be so cool...

It's been about a month or so since the last tourney we had here, and once again another one is upon us.  I'll be doing brackets and running everything PS3 related, so (crossfingers) hopefully everything runs smoothly.  A lot of the guys who've been popping up around town are getting ready for this one, as it holds the potential to be the largest turnout we've had yet (something around 100 people are participating).

I'm pretty confident this will run well.  Past experience is a beast of its own; without it, I'm not so sure I'd have the where-with-all to pull off something this large.  It's definitely not EVO size, but for something local it's pretty huge. 

Next week is shaping up to be one of the best weeks of this year.  Tekken 6 comes out and Bakemonogatari gets streamed on the web!  Can't ask for anything more in life!


And the winner of this year’s Saimoe Tournament is…
I totally did not expect this big of an upset, but then again a lot of people are diehard fans of this show.  Me, I didn't care too much for it, but all in all it's a better ender than say...the girls from Saki taking it.

The original concept for Abel was... different : News : EventHubs.com
Is it a girl?  Is it a boy?  The description says "effiminate man", so...I dunno.  I'm confused!  I actually think this picture is cute...

Idol Foreign Language Academy: Now Idols Teach Languages (In Akihabara, Of Course)
This method of teaching is waaaay better than any other out there!

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Apology for singing shop worker
As much as I despise the RIAA, I can safely say I equally despise the PRS of the U.K.  Screw you, you greedy bastards.

5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything - PC World
Holy crap, USB 3.0 is a lot more amazing than I ever thought! 

8 things you need to know about Windows 8 | News | TechRadar UK
Windows 7 is on the verge of coming out, and already there's news of Windows 8.  Wow.

Casual Gameplay Design Competition #6 — "Explore"
You must play this game.  It is simply amazing.  Yes, that good. 

PS3 Slams Into Bravia TV At 50 Mph
Not sure what the point was, but man does it look super smooooooooth, lol

I would've expected something this crazy to go in America, the land of all things big!  Burger King's website is throwing a promotion that's only in Japan.  If you look real close, you can see one...two...seven hamburger patties!  SEVEN!  All for 777 yen, what a steal!  That's like, 111 yen per patty! 

Additionally, someone reported on 2ch that Warner Bros studios bought the IP address for a possible Gintama film.  No word on whether it will be related to the popular manga (please God, say it ain't so!), but from the looks of it Hollywood is definitely researching and planning a sweep of anime related franchises in the future...

Be on the lookout.  Anime is getting big.