I know what you're thinking: "Not another fucking meta post".
Well, sorry to disappoint. But this time, I'll at least get straight to the point.
As of right now, it's all but confirmed that I'll be living in Japan for the next few years. I have some lofty goals that I hope to accomplish while I'm there, both related and unrelated to gaming. So, what does this mean for this blog?
Rest assured, this isn't going to become a "Living In Japan" blog or anything like that. If anything, this will become a "Playing Games In Japanese Arcades" blog, since this blog is primarily for people who already know me through the gaming communities I'm part of (and secondarily, for people who don't know me, but happen to stumble upon this place anyways).
I'm going to be living in Yokosuka, which, according to Google Maps, is roughly a 90 minute train ride from Mikado Takadanobaba. If you're reading this and somehow don't know about Mikado, let's just say that it's the place to be if you play Guilty Gear. I'm going to try my best to make it to as many tournaments there as possible, since, well, it's fucking Mikado. It won't be easy with work and a personal life, but there's no way I'm going to be a stone's throw away from the best Guilty Gear players in the world and sit idly by.
But what does this mean for this blog? Right.
A large part of the reason I haven't finished the netplay article, as an example, is because I'm missing a critical element of it; to explain why it is necessary for players outside of Japan to play online, it is necessary to also explain why players within Japan don't. This means going arcade hopping to see what the typical Japanese arcade looks like on a weekday afternoon, and contrasting that with the days when an arcade like A-cho or Mikado is holding an event. To see just how easy it is to find competition for a game like Virtua Fighter or SFIV between train stops, compared to, say, Melty Blood or Guilty Gear. I could very easily finish the article right now without this valuable experience, but it wouldn't hold its weight over time, and I'd end up having to revise it as I learn more about how fighting games are played by those who play them best. So yeah, it's best to just hold off on it altogether until I know exactly what I want to say, and how I want to say it.
Of course, I'll also inevitably improve as a player. Which is kind of a scary thought, lol. That might mean revising everything entirely to reflect my newfound insights! But that is exactly what I should hope for, isn't it?
Unfortunately, none of this is happening any time soon. I'm going to be quite busy, you see, just getting on my feet and eventually settled in. So, it may very well be another eight months before you see a new post here. Waiting sucks, but trust me; it'll be well worth it.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Hindsight Isn't Upscaled
I was recently invited to play vanilla VF5 online. It had been awhile since I last played vanilla, so I figured; sure, why not?
Upon playing the game for the first time in at least a year, I immediately noticed something as soon as the first match started: this game looks like shit. Like, not even just a little bad, it looks fucking awful. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say that this game isn't being upscaled at all.
How? How did Sega release such an awful looking port? How did nobody notice it sooner? I at least had the excuse of playing on various dying CRT monitors from the early 00's before now. This game was released in late 2007 for the 360, and as I recall, there were plenty of 1080p displays on the market back then. Even on a 720p display, I highly doubt it would look any better since the 360's internal resolution is lower than that.
Just to be sure, I checked the back of the case, and it does say it supports 1080p. If this was Sega's idea of support back then, I shudder to think of what other games of the time offered the same kind of "support".
Unfortunately, I don't have any capture equipment and my camera kinda sucks, so bear with me here. These pictures aren't the best, but if you look closely you can see where vanilla looks awful and where FS fixes it (Jacky's feet are a good example). It's much more prominent in person, obviously, so if you have both games, I implore you to see for yourself. This is almost as big of a difference as the PC port of Dark Souls, pre and post patch.
Upon playing the game for the first time in at least a year, I immediately noticed something as soon as the first match started: this game looks like shit. Like, not even just a little bad, it looks fucking awful. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say that this game isn't being upscaled at all.
How? How did Sega release such an awful looking port? How did nobody notice it sooner? I at least had the excuse of playing on various dying CRT monitors from the early 00's before now. This game was released in late 2007 for the 360, and as I recall, there were plenty of 1080p displays on the market back then. Even on a 720p display, I highly doubt it would look any better since the 360's internal resolution is lower than that.
Just to be sure, I checked the back of the case, and it does say it supports 1080p. If this was Sega's idea of support back then, I shudder to think of what other games of the time offered the same kind of "support".
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