So with the release of Ultra Instinct Goku approaching, no doubt the most hyped DLC character since the game's release, I started getting reflective about Dragon Ball FighterZ. A lot of time has passed since the game hit the market and I started waxing nostalgic about the teams I've played over the course of it. Back in those young days of season 1 I ran with two teams: The first was Super Saiy...
2019 was a kind of bizarre year in games. At the midway point of the year I thought the industry was in sort of a drought, but by the end I realized there was way too much good stuff for me to find the time to play it all. With that said let's get to it. 2019's 2018 Game of the Year Celeste was my favorite game of 2018 and looking back my decision to call it game of the year last year was absol...
Haven't posted for a while. I seem to have completely drifted away from Mega Man Legends. Oh well. I've shaken the urges to play Street Fighter and KI nonstop and have been giving more time to other games, and more importantly, reading and writing. I'm also experiencing a bit of a resurrection in my anime interest. I'm closing in on a platinum trophy in Saint Seiya: Soldier's Soul. One trophy l...
So I finished Shadow Lords for the second time, hopefully the Astral Plane stage actually stays unlocked this time. This time my team was Chief Thunder, Sadira and Fulgore. I dragged the game out many turns until I felt I was ready to fight Gargos, and this time I absolutely thrashed him. Thunder opened the fight, and he was all I needed. Gargos never had a chance. I did it on Challenging diffi...
Killer Instinct's Shadow Lords mode got its claws into me in a big way and I ended up buying the full game, previously having only the first season. I feel like the Bombcast did the mode an injustice with their coverage and made it sound like some free to play cash grab. It's really well made, balanced, and completely worth your time and energy. Nothing else has really changed much. Just though...
Haven't blogged for a bit, but I've still been getting my gaming in. It's an exciting day, just a few hours away from Urien unlocking in Street Fighter V. Speaking of which, I've found my game again with Balrog and have been tearing up the online ranks. As of this post I'm at almost 4600 lp. My goal of making it to Super Gold rank seems at least possible to me. It could go south again soon, but...
Last night I took Rashid through extreme survival and got the fight money I needed to get the "Priceless" trophy. That trophy was also the last one I needed to unlock the platinum trophy for SFV. As a trophy that currently is unlocked by 0.1% of players it's easily the rarest platinum I've ever gotten. I have a ton of fight money right now, even after Urien comes out this month and I buy him I'...
My inconsistent play in Street Fighter has continued. The other day I actually was so cold I fell all the way into Super Silver, but yesterday rebounded and fought my way back into Gold. During this cold streak I've been in my own head way too much. I'm not sure what it's going to take to get out of it, but I'm working on it. I need to get back to the little improvements focus I had, I've gotte...
So, Double Fight Money Weekend came and went. Everything started off as I hoped. For the first few days I was shooting up the ranks, I hit 4900 league points, an all-time high for me. Then it all fell apart because of a lack of discipline on my part. Greedy for more and more fight money and league points I stayed up playing..... and playing some more well past when I knew I should and I ended u...
My work schedule sucks. Street Fighter V's first double fight money weekend, hotly anticipated by, well, pretty much only me, is finally here, and of course, today, the first day, is the only day I'm off during the whole thing. Worse yet, it didn't start until 7 pm east coast time so I barely had time to participate. Still, the prospect of the extra fight money really wasn't what had me excited...
Today continued much like yesterday. I continued to hone my Balrog in Street Fighter V. Tomorrow I will for the first time in months play a significant amount of ranked matches. Double fight money starting at 1 PM EST. I figure this is a good chance to carve out a bit of extra coin for myself. I livestreamed more of The Witcher 3: Complete Edition today. I'm still, very obviously, getting accli...
So, today, I continued my usual investment of time into Street Fighter. Leveled up Balrog to 42. Another 1000 fight money off of that. Put some lab time into the Rashid matchup and deconfirmed the things I thought I had figured out yesterday, did find out that I can punish the Eagle spike with the dashing punch. It's just hard to be patient enough to maintain charge while waiting for the block...
Apologies for no entry yesterday. I think I'm getting a little bored with sharing minor adjustments and fighting game routines almost exclusively. Though that is the vast majority of my game play these days. I digress. So, I think I discovered some info about the Rashid matchup for Rog. I need to do some lab time to verify that though. That's my biggest takeaway from the past few days. Gonna pu...
Combining multiple sessions since my last post I played quite a few matches the past few days, but not as many as I would have liked to. I played very well for the most part I felt and came to a realization against Rashid that he's actually a lot like a more mobile less hard hitting version of Bison. That's helped me out quite a bit. Still exploring the Vega matchup to unsatisfactory results, b...
So I didn't get to do any lab work on this day. A bad confluence of events caused that. I did however play many matches and was very happy with my overall game and execution. Landed a combo I had been working on in the lab the last week or so: Overall I was rather happy with how things went yesterday in spite of not getting the lab time I wanted. Hopefully I get that time today. As far as other...
I had a pretty good day in SFV. I was very happy with my execution for the most part and I managed to land some combos that I had been working on in the lab. Struggled mightily against a few very good Laura players so I spent some lab time trying to figure out something to work into my arsenal against her. Didn't find a ton of things I could do to punish her as much as I was hoping, but I estab...
I played a good number of matches this day. Was happy with how I played for the most part, especially in the second half of the day. In the lab I was not very successful on this day, but I did learn that my medium and hard grand blow is a useful tool for getting under Fang's poison tosses as long as I don't react extremely late. Other than that not much to report. As far as other games go, me a...
So I had a real good day online yesterday. Felt like my execution was mostly on point. I put in that lab time on Nash and his Moonsault/Somersault/whatever you want to call it kick. I found it easy enough to counter the normal versions of it with the ducking hard punch, but what I really liked was what I figured out I could do against the EX version, which you see quite in my experience with Na...
So I had a pretty good run of matches yesterday. During a battle with Nash I, on reaction, punished his somersault kick with a ducking hard punch. I want to take the time today to expand on that and get in the lab and see how easily/consistently I can replicate that. Also had another discovery with turn punch, in that it is able to be linked into the v-trigger dash punch strings. Hadn't realize...
Didn't get to play very much at all yesterday. Only got to work on some execution drills to stay sharp. Getting back to action today.
Had some great matches yesterday. Put some time into studying the Vega (Claw) matchup a bit more. Learning the precise moments I snap out of block stun with a punish opportunity. Had my ass handed to me by a very good Fang player. Gonna put some serious lab time into that. May not have time to play on this day as I have some hosting duties to take care of.
I had a great day online yesterday. Really ran over a lot of people. Didn't take time to do too much training but made a minor adjustment to optimizing my punishes against Bison. When he goes for the slide now, after the block, he ends up eating a juggle combo as the punish of choice instead of some lame throw or sweep. Gotta take those opportunities when they come against him. In Rocket league...
Got to play a bit of several games yesterday. Early in the morning I put a ton of time into SFV. Finally having a day off from work I just wanted to get in a ton of matches and I did just that. One thing that stuck in my craw though in terms of improvements to my game knowledge was how easy it is to sneak Rog's overhead into his V-Trigger dash punch chain, even though it doesn't combo off that....
I finally got to play some Rocket League yesterday. Not much, but it was good to get back in the flow of things. Partner and I were definitely not on top of our game after so much time off though. In Street Fighter I discovered more about the Balrog/Zangief matchup. Zangief's charged hard punch is another move that leaves him vulnerable, especially if you time it right, to the turn punch. Furth...
Today was the first day where I didn't make any real improvements to my play since I started this method. My time with the game was cut short by a number of factors. Feel like I'm on the verge of figuring out some stuff about the Vega matchup, but nothing just yet. Again I didn't get to play Rocket League. I also made the mistake of buying Uno on PS4. Which, like every version other than the 36...
Had a lot of circumstances yesterday, but I still had time for Street Fighter. Things I discovered yesterday: 1. Balrog's ducking jab can be linked into his target combo. 2. Against a Mika player who likes to try for her dropkick right at the edge of it's range, if you turn punch on reaction Rog will step back and absolutely clobber her. 3. Gief's flexing can be annoying against someone who use...
So yesterday I only got to play Street Fighter V due to time constraints. Still though, I learned some tech I didn't already know. Found out you can link Balrog's target Under Impact target combo from overhead. Very easy to integrate into my game and it provides another way for me to get into V-Trigger. I also had a bad case of new toy syndrome to work out of my game. Was using the turn punch w...
Doing this from the break room on my crappy tablet.So this post will be somewhat truncated. Street Fighter V - Discovered that Rog's turn punch is v-skill cancelable. All this time I was treating it like some blunt instrument, yet it is as refined as any other tool in my arsenal. Rocket League - No partner again so I spent a good deal of time working on perfecting my air roll recovery. Less bad...
Picking up where I left off yesterday: Street Fighter V - I for a while now have been having a run where I would semi-frequently botch a V-Trigger cancel into a combo and couldn't figure out why. Had to spend quite a bit of time yesterday trying to figure out why but I think I figured out the main culprit behind my drops yesterday. When transitioning from Balrog's crouching uppercut into the da...
I recently read Daigo Umehara's book, "The Will to Keep Winning". Daigo, for the uninitiated, is the most decorated Street Fighter tournament player in history and was Japan's first professional gamer. His book offered no tactical advice on how to become a better player but did provide insight into his mindset towards both games and life in general. One of the things he preaches is trying to ma...