That’s all. That’s literally all I have to say about it. Microsoft had a great E3 presser last year and it seriously went down to this.

Microsoft’s press conference was pretty much all about Kinect (the official name for Natal) and some of the games it can do, and although you may have been satisfied if you were a more casual gamer, for a more hardcore gamer like myself it was an absolute disappointment.

What I’m sad about is that I almost feel tempted to pick up the redesigned 360 they introduced at the end, which will include a 250GB HD and built-in N-mode WiFi for the same price as the current 360. (The redesigned 360 was also shipped today and will be available by the end of the week.)

Due to a lack of legitimate comments I initially decided to enable registrations and then require people to be logged in to comment. Unfortunately, WordPress has no native anti-spam measures to keep them out and what do I get as my first registration?  Yeah.

So, for the time being, commenting has been disabled until a solution involving user registration, including anti-spam measures, is found.

Update: Comments have been re-enabled, but due to the lack of legitimate comments on older posts, commenting will be automatically disabled on all posts after 7 days.

I do not know what is wrong with it. However I will try to find a way to fix it.

UPDATE: The issue seems to be with Chrome; The RSS feed link on both Firefox and Internet Explorer is working correctly. If you use chrome, just ass http://blog.ancientcave.com/index.php/feed/ to your RSS feed reader of choice.

So… for the first quarter of 2010, with a bit of help from GameFAQs:

(Note that this is for North America only)

Nintendo Wii

Jan. 26th: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Jan. 26th: Tatsunoku vs. Capcom
Mar. 23rd: Sakura Wars: So Long My Love

Xbox 360

Jan. 5th: Bayonetta
Jan. 6th: Mass Effect 2
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Feb. 9th: Dante’s Inferno
Feb. 23rd: Lost Planet 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 9th: Final Fantasy XIII

Playstation 3

Jan. 5th: Bayonetta
Feb. 2nd: Gran Tourismo 5
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Feb. 9th: Dante’s Inferno
Feb. 23rd: Lost Planet 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 9th: Final Fantasy XIII

Nintendo DS

Feb. 16th: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Mar. 17th: Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Playstation Portable

Feb. 9th: Dante’s inferno

PC

Jan. 26th: Mass Effect 2
Feb. 2nd: The Sims 3: High End Loft Stuff
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 16th: Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

Yes, this is real footage of me playing Dissidia. I haven’t played it much since Zidane is only level 1 here (I recorded this for a friend, actually) but you can see just how I fail so far.

I like fighting games more nowadays, but I’m always shy around them. I’m a fairly average gamer in skill as it is, but it’s fighting games especially that I don’t do well in. All the unique button combinations and techniques were always difficult to grasp. After constant beatdowns at the hands of my friends in Street Fighter II I thought I’d never bother with it again… until many years later (around 5 or so years ago) when I borrowed my friend’s copy of Soul Calibur II. I think I held onto it for months until I finally got my own copy of the game and gave it back to him, but still… Although I got quite decent playing, I’m still stuck in the realm of fighting mediocrity.

And here’s might be why, using Dissidia: Final Fantasy as my basis for this.

1.) I always play the easiest/high tier characters
Let me get this out of the way first; I’m not a Cloud nor a Final Fantasy VII fan, but I tend to run him a lot if I go through Dissidia’s arcade mode… why? Because he’s just so darn easy to use. I can start a bravery attack from far out and likely catch my enemy off guard… same goes with his HP attacks. Plus, his unique trait is to be able to smash his enemy like a baseball, all the way to the other side of the stage. You can just mash away if cloud in the early going, with the occasional dodge thrown in; It’s not really that hard.

Cloud is my highest level character so far, maybe because I did his story on my bonus day, but still. He’s easy to use.  Fortunately I’m not alone on this, since multiplayer matches are riddled with Cloud everywhere, even if it’s partly to do with his rabid fanboyism that I oh-so-dislike.

Yet, I’m still not that good with him.

2.) I always play on the easier difficulties
Even moreso in Dissidia is the fact that I already find the slightly higher level fights to be fairly difficult. (Though, because this is more of an RPG Fighter than a normal fighter the situation is kind of different.) I spend most of my time earning PP in normal arcade mode because of the fact that I find it easier. That, or when I’m not grinding I’ll shoot the enemy down a couple of levels and just have some fun beating on them.  I usually don’t take up a great challenge all that often.

3.) I’m a button masher

Yes, it’s true.  When it comes to FPSes, I spray.  When it comes to fighters, I mash.  Whenever it’s time to attack I start mashing the circle button, or the square button, or whatever button I need to mash to get whatever done. I’m not even paying attention as to whether or not I actually have to press the button or not. All I know is… I know which button to press… just not when. (Unless, of course, it’s an EX burst)

4.) I use spam attacks

You know how I like to fight? I pick Ryu and it’s all obvious from there. Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Shoryuken! (Whoops) Pretty much the same thing in Dissidia. Once again with Cloud, I use his aerial attack that initiates a chase all the time. Attack, if miss attack again, hit, chase, attack again, rinse, repeat, etc… It’s quite sad. Same goes with Terra and Blizzara. Attack, attack again, attack again, attack again, etc… I’m starting to think that Terra can be quite cheap in that sense, too

5.) I fail at comboing
And finally, this probably goes without saying that if I mash and spam, I can’t combo. Well… sometimes I can; I once found a basic little air combo while playing Melty Blood: Act Cadenza but that’s about it. I can maybe pull off two attacks in a row, but that’s it. I’m too busy spamming Terra’s Blizzara to care though.

So yeah, that’s the skinny.  I suck at fighters. Dissidia is a different beast of its kind, though, and you can’t compare it directly to other fighters, but the same basic elements apply. It doesn’t matter that you can air-dash around massive environments and sent people a hundred feet in the air with a single buster sword swing.  Still, I have fun with Dissidia, despite my suckage.

I’m getting better at it, anyway.

Select posts from A Gamer’s Mind will now be featured on the Xanga-run blog Hardest Level. What I’m saying by this is that editors from Hardest Level will scan this blog, maybe select 2-3 posts a week, and syndicate them on the front page with a link back here.  This in turn provides for more exposure for the blog in general, beyond the occasional pingback/trackback that we might get.  That, and the posts are being syndicated on a community that gets quite a bit of traffic.

This in turn means you might see me get a bit more creative and try to keep the blog to its goal of portraying the gaming culture.  I have a lot of spare time on my hands these days, so it’s time to hop to it!

Anyway, it’s that time again. Let’s take a look at what to expect from the gaming industry in the next quarter:

Again, help is always appreciated identify worthy games-to-come

NORTH AMERICA

Xbox 360:
July 1st: King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match
July 20th: King of Fighters XII
July 22nd: TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-shelled
July 28th: Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection
Possibly near the end of July: Marvel vs. Capcom 2
August 14th: Madden NFL 10
August 25th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 1st: Guitar Hero 5
September 8th: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, NHL 10
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 22nd: Halo 3 ODST

Playstation 3:
July 20th: King of Fighters XII
August 14th: Madden NFL 10
August 25th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 1st: Guitar Hero 5
September 8th: NHL 10, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 22nd: Need for Speed Shift, Katamari Forever

Wii:
July 7th: Tales of Monkey Island
July 26th: Wii Sports Resort
August 14th: Madden NFL 10
August 24th: Metroid Prime Trilogy
September 1st: Guitar Hero 5
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 15th: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, NHL 2K10
September 29th: Dead Space Extraction

Nintendo DS:
Today: Megaman Starforce 3: Black Ace/Red Joker
August 24th: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Sometime in July/August: Flipnote Studio (DSiWare)
September 1st: Duke Nukem Trilogy: Critical Mass
September 15th: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Scribblenauts
September 29th: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Playstation Portable:
August 25th: Dissidia: Final Fantasy
September 1st: Duke Nukem Trilogy: Critical Mass, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
September 8th: Disgaea: Dark Hero Days
September 15th: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
September 22nd: SMT: Persona, Need for Speed Shift
October 1st: PSP Go

PC:
Today: GTA PC Trilogy
July 1st: Street Fighter IV (Fight pad bundle on the 7th)
July 7th: Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1
August 25th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 27th: Need for Speed Shift

EUROPE:

Xbox 360:
August 28th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 17th: Need for Speed Shift
September 22nd: Halo 3 ODST
September 24th: Metal Gear Solid Rising
September 25th: Dead Rising 2, Tekken 6

Playstation 3:
August 28th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 18th: Need for Speed Shift
September 25th: Dead Rising 2, Gran Tourismo 5

Wii:
July 10th: The Conduit
July 24th: Wii Sports Resort
September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band
September 25th: Red Steel 2 (Remember for this that WMP is MANDATORY for this game.)

Nintendo DS:
September 25th: Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box
This is seriously the only thing coming out on the DS in Europe in the next three months that actually looks good.

Playstation Portable:
September 11th: Dissidia: Final Fantasy
September 18th: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
September 25th: Gran Tourismo PSP
October 2nd: PSP Go

PC:
July 3rd: Street Fighter IV, World of Goo
August 28th: Batman: Arkham Asylum
September 18th: Need for Speed Shift

JAPAN:

Xbox 360:
July 30th: Gears of War 2 (Wow… this late?)
September 24th: Halo 3 ODST
Most of the good Japanese stuff are just existing games being relaunched as platinum titles.

Playstation 3:
September 17th: Tales of Vesperia
Once again, most of the good stuff is just be relaunched as greatest hits titles.

Wii:
July 23rd: Punch-Out!!
August 1st: Monster Hunter 3
August 6th: EA Sports Active
September 17th: House of the Dead: Overkill

Nintendo DS:
July 11th: Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito
August 6th: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (You mean they actually went through with localizing that piece of shit?)
September 12th: Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Playstation Portable:
July 2nd: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva (Yes, I know…)
July 16th: Ys I & II
August 6th: Tales of VS. (a.k.a. the date that Namco Bandai says they have no intention of localizing the game anywhere outside Japan, as usual.)

PC:
July 2nd: Street Fighter IV
There’s also a crapton of other PC games that I don’t think I could care about on this side of the Pacific, although with my understanding of Japanese I have to laugh because a lot of them seem to be part of the “Eroge Text Adventure” genre.

That rounds out the games to watch for this quarter, and hopefully Arkham Asylum won’t end up in my Q4 post three months from now. This is only a warmup for what’s to come, though.  Come the fourth quarter, everything’s gonna be jam packed!

By now, if you’ve been following this, you probably know the runaround.  Sometime late last week, a scan of the latest issue of Nintendo Power showed an article showing Tatsunoku vs. Capcom, the latest in the “vs. Capcom” series that was made famous by Marvel vs. Capcom. The article specifically hinted that the game was coming to North America, which is something that a lot of people were expecting to never happen due to the nature of the characters on the Tatsunoku side.

Well, CAPCOM thought differently on that, and Capcom Unity’s Twitter account confirmed that Tatsu vs. Capcom was one of two or three “mystery games” that they were showing at E3 next month. That being said, not only is CAPCOM surprising us with this Wii game that we never expected to come outside of Japan, but they also have two more that they’re going to spring upon us.

But this is why we all love CAPCOM. They’re one of the few developers that actually listen to their fans.

In the meantime, you can find some TvC  gameplay footage after the jump.

Because of that, I’ve gone and made the blog its own separate Twitter account, so if you want the latest updates as they happen on the blog, be sure to follow gamersmindblog.

I do have quite the backlog of posts to get through, and I do intend to get through all of them, hopefully starting early next week although things will get spotty due to prior commitments (if at all, expect very little in the means of updates from the 5th to the 10th and none from the 11th to the 15th, but that shouldn’t be so hard.)  In the meantime I’m looking to write a bit about the PSP remakes of Star Ocean: First Departure and Second Evolution which I’ve thuroughly enjoyed, as well as a couple of top 10s: Top 10 RPGs I’ve played that I think everyone should play, top 10 Fighters, and if I ever feel like getting through it and writing about my most disturbing video game memories, top 10 things I never want to see in the gaming industry or community ever again.

I’ve definitely been heavy on gaming over the past while trying to shift my focus onto something away from my personal issues at the moment. Interestingly enough I find myself picking up my PSP to play some Super Stardust Portable in which I’ve improved quite a bit on now.  (Enough to make me just download No Gravity as well.)  I’ve also been messing around with a couple of free MMOs, and I think I’ve settled on Drift City (a quirky little MMO-style racing game) and Lunia (part RPG, part beat-em up I guess) for the time being.  Both games are provided by ijji games and so far I’ve been impressed with them. They actually have quite an interesting lineup of free games to try (Gunbound and Gunz: The Duel also come to mind) and are definitely worth checking out.

In the meantime, happy gaming.