I’ve never been great at fighting games. I’ve got a few combos at my disposal, but the majority of the time I’m just mashing buttons and hoping for the best. This is why I’m so attached to Marvel vs Capcom, I could mash the controller and make cool stuff happen. However, when MadCatz announced they were bringing out a new Fightstick for MvC3, I decided now was the time to finally grasp a joystick (Not like that! You lot are right dirty minded) and see what all the fuss was about.

Before I get to that, I’ve got to say, the stick itself is fantastic. The Tournament Edition has a real weight to it, which is something I didn’t expect. The stick is responsive and gives you great feedback when it comes to dead-zones. Unlike the stick, the buttons give next to no feedback. That satisfying ‘click’ response from the stick isn’t there and it felt like I wasn’t doing anything, that my frantic button pushing was paying no dividends. The buttons felt a little loose and was my only complaint with the overall Fightstick.

From a design perspective, the Fightstick is great. It’s a solid piece of kit that feels unlikely to break if dropped. A must if you’ve got your drunken, fighting game fanatic, mates around. The fact you can replace almost everything on the stick is great too (perhaps another set of buttons might solve my problem?), not that I’ll be messing around with this thing. It’s aesthetically pleasing too. The cable compartment on the back is a great feature if you’re keeping it ‘on display’, although there might be too much cable for that space. It’s a decent size and the MvC3 artwork on the faceplate is fantastic. Even the box is nice, so much so, that I’ve kept it hanging around when, normally, it would’ve been straight in the bin. (ED: This is not recommended for warranty sake and it’s a collector’s edition, you’d probably want to keep the box.)

Overall it’s a great piece of hardware that any fighting game fan would be proud to own. If you’ve never used a stick before, there’s definitely a learning curve. And because you’ve got a stick doesn’t mean you’ll always be kicking arse (trust me.) If you’ve got the spare cash and want a great stick, look no further. If you haven’t used one before, maybe go with the entry-level model. The TE is a little pricey.

8.5/10

Originally featured on Gamerwok.com – friends of ours, and a site Anthony also writes for on occasion. Check them out.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is one of the few high-def reimagining’s I thought worked well. It’s slick presentation and how loyally it stuck to the NES original made it a hit with fans and newcomers like myself. It’s interesting take on classic platforming mechanics and, developer, Grin worked with that. Expertly recreating what had gone before, whilst adding their own additional bits of flair. This is something the sequel just doesn’t live up to. Perhaps it’s a case of a developer being left to their own devices, but it just doesn’t have that classic Bionic Commando feel.

That’s probably because the game’s core mechanic, the thing that set it apart from every other platformer out there, has been taken away. The addition of a jump mechanic has made it all too easy to make your way through levels. Figuring your way around environments, using only the bionic arm, played a big part in what made the original, and the first Rearmed, so great. Jumping just seems to strip away a lot of the challenge and, honestly, makes for a far less fun experience.

The same can be said for the level design. I was never ‘wowed’ by any of the levels I’d played through. Whilst backtracking is encouraged, you won’t want to do it. They aren’t visually interesting and often end up being a maze of tunnels, seemingly out to confuse you.
The addition of new upgrades was a welcome one, but after picking up health regeneration, I never felt like I needed to use anything else. New sniper and helicopter-flying sequences have been added to break up the side scrolling, but these fall flat after a while. Not even the addition of a second player made this any more enjoyable. That can’t be a good sign.

Rearmed 2 is a game that left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like a cheap way to cash in on a notable name rather than an experience people actually want to play.

6/10

This review was originally posted on GamerWok.com. They’re our friends, you should check them out!

Players who expect to pick up the game and run through it with Move easily will be shocked, using Move with this title takes some practice – and will even put Resident Evil veterans through a new learning curve. But, when you are used to the layout and how the hardware works with the game they are definitely some great advantages offered by Move.

The biggest advantage Move offers is the aiming is much more precise. It takes so little effort to get the shot you want lined up. It’s really user friendly. This becomes clear when you’re up against face a group of enemies. It’s so much easier to clear them out. Although the Motion control has improved the aiming, the movement of the character in general is a bit of a pain. You have to options when it comes to the movement of the character. You can either purchase the extra Navigation Controller, or use the Left hand analogue of the dual-shock controller (I tried both and found it a lot more comfortable and slightly easier with the Navigation controller). Either way the movement of the character seems a lot slower and slightly more difficult compared to the dual-analogue, but if you give it chance it does become easier over time. Other than these changes the layout of the other buttons are the same and are easy to navigate around once you are used to the placement on the Move controller.

So, the question is does Move improve the experience of Resident Evil 5? If you are willing to give it time (and prepared to part with the cash for the additional controller), it does improve the games overall feel and removes some of the frustrating parts of playing it with dual-analogue.

The first thing I noticed, that anyone noticed, is how clean and stylized the presentation is. I believe the fellow behind me exclaimed “Holy sh*t, the menus look sick!” I mentally agreed with him, and proceeded to choose my fighters. For the build that was available, there were about 20 fighters. My first time around, I chose Ryu, Doctor Doom, and Chun-Li. There was really method to my choices, I just didn’t want to keep the guy next to me waiting. Each fighter has 3 special moves that you’re allowed to chose one of. Again, I have no idea what difference these made, so I just chose the defaults. Then the match began.

For the first 15 seconds or so, I slammed buttons. For the first 15 seconds, it actually worked. Then, my opponent realized that I was clueless, and began to level me. After I lost, I laughed it off, and shook his hand. Instead of going off to another kiosk to play other games, I stepped back for about 20 minutes and watched what worked and what didn’t. I thought I had a grasp on what to do, so I jumped back in and played someone else.

Turns out, I actually won this time. I chose Ryu, Hulk, and Viewtiful Joe. Once again, this was on a whim. The difference was, I understood the importance of blocking at the right time, and actually switching my characters in and out. I know there are fans of the genre screaming at their monitors regarding my stupidity, but refer to sentence one of paragraph one.

The game plays and feels absolutely incredible. Everything runs extremely smooth, and is as responsive as could be. Even when I was slamming buttons, I was able to pull of some awesome looking moves that dealt quite a bit of damage. When I actually figured things out, it only got better. For only having a limited amount of time with it, I was shocked at how quickly it began to feel natural. Obviously I’d get my ass kicked by anyone who actually knows how to play well, but I’ll chalk this one up as a win for my own sake.

Oh and it looks pretty good too. Actually, it’s gorgeous. The animations are fluid, and the colors as vibrant as the comic books from which some of these fighters come from. Character models looked awesome, and certainly looked better than some of the overweight cos-players that populated the convention. Jokes aside, the special moves that fighters pull off look fantastic. Even when they were going to undoubtedly put an end to one of my fighters, I just didn’t mind because of the visual feast that led to my demise.

This was my first experience with the game. To be honest, I haven’t been giddy with excitement over a fighting game since….well, ever. Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was the talk of the show amongst the fellow gamers I spoke to, and for great reason. This game is going to be huge.

Oh, and apparently I’m the only one not obsessed with Deadpool. Someone want to clear that up for me?

This means those wanting to slay some zombies with their brand new peripheral will be able to on launch day. Capcom also announced that those countries currently lacking a ‘gold edition’ of RE5 (here’s talking to you, Italy and Spain) will be able to get it on the 19th.

Joystiq have also been able to confirm that the new control scheme can be used when playing online and players can play with other motion-lacking mates too. If you haven’t picked up Resident Evil 5 yet, or couldn’t stand those controls, this might be for you.

The patch, which is set to become available “close to the launch of the PlayStation Move.”, has been something many Resident Evil and PlayStation fans have been looking forward to. Especially those of us who abhor RE5′s control scheme (like me!). “Technical reasons” are being blamed for the ‘Gold’ only patch.

“This will only work with RE5 copies labeled ‘Gold Edition’ — the original version of RE5 won’t be receiving the patch, for technical reasons,” Shuman says, additionally noting that the patch itself will become available on PSN “close to the launch of the PlayStation Move.”

The patch will be available on disc in a reissued ‘Gold Edition’ shortly after the release of Sony’s new controller. Just to include those that can’t get to the net on their PS3′s. I think it would’ve been nicer to include those who don’t like buying their games again first, Capcom. Just sayin’.

Image Source: Joystiq

At Capcom’s Street Fighter panel, Street Fighter IV producer, Yoshinori Ono announced another new fighting game. For the first time Street Fighter and Tekken will combine and characters from the two franchises (including: Ryu, Kazuya and Nina Williams) will be able to take on oneanother in tag team-style combat. The project has oft been rumored, but has finally come into fruition.

The most interesting part of this is that there’ll be two games. Street Fighter X (pronounced “cross”) Tekken will be produced by the Street Fighter IV team and Tekken X Street Fighter will be produced by the team behind Tekken 6.

The game’s release window is currently set for “not for a while!”. So it looks like we have some time to wait. Check out the screens after the jump.

That statement wasn’t elaborated on, but it does suggest that the team are now focused on character balancing before the game releases next spring. Kadowaki did hint that the game could be shown off at a forthcoming event.

If it’s true that development began two years ago, it’s hardly surprising that the basics are done. Would we be considered delusional for thinking this could be at E3?

This certainly would be an interesting move and would make DMC5 the first in the series to be developed outside of Japan. It seems about the right time for Dante to return on both PS3 and Xbox 360. As always, we’ll give you more information as we get it.

Source: TheSixthAxis

Super Street Fighter IV will, apparently, offer fighting fans a more balanced and, as you would expect, expanded experience compared to the original which was released earlier this year.

There are very few details thus far, but we do know that the game will be re-balanced, so much so, there’ll be no online connectivity between the two versions of the game. Alongside this, Capcom have confirmed that eight new characters will be added into this ‘Super’ version. Fans will be glad to know that T-Hawk and Dee Jay are back, alongside another, new, female, character named Juri. Also, Capcom won’t be charging full price for the game due to the minor nature of the changes.

I’m indifferent about this really, how do you guys feel?