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EVO 2012 results

 

Another year and another Evolution Tournament is in the rear view mirror. There were quite a few surprises and many up and commers who stepped it up in a big way during Evo 2012. Here are the full resullts after the break via the fine folks at Eventhubs. If you'd like a battle log of how it all went down as well you can find that here:

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition v2012 — Results


1. WW|Infiltration (Akuma)
2. AVM|GamerBee (Adon)
3. CVPR|PR Balrog (Balrog)
4. eLive|Xiaohai (Cammy)
5. MCZ|Daigo (Ryu)
5. HumanBomb (Sakura)
7. BT|Dieminion (Guile)
7. TH|Poongko (Seth)

9. Kindevu (Cammy)
9. Haitani (Makoto)
9. RZR|Fuudo (Fei Long)
9. Dogura (M. Bison)
13. DMG|iPeru (El Fuerte)
13. Kyabetsu (C. Viper)
13. coL.cc|Mike Ross (E. Honda)
13. EG|Justin Wong (Rufus)

17. WW|Ryan Hart
17. DRS|Chris. (Ken)
17. Hsien Chang (Yun)
17. Hori|Sako (Ibuki)
17. John Choi (Ryu)
17. TH|Mov (Ken)
17. Uryo (Sakura, C. Viper)
17. Haz

25. Zeus
25. EG|Momochi (Cody)
25. XSK Samurai (Ryu)
25. CEO|CJ Truth (Fei Long)
25. coL.cc|Combofiend (Oni, Abel)
25. MCZ|Mago
25. LU|Alex Valle (Ryu)
25. Kazunoko (Yun)

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 — Results



1. coL.cc|Filipino Champ (Magneto, Dormammu, Dr. Doom | Others)
2. LXG|Infrit (Spencer, Nova, Sentinel)
3. FC|NYChrisG (Akuma, Dr. Doom, Morrigan | Others)
4. coL.cc|Combofiend (Nova, Spencer, Hawkeye | Others)
5. TA|Frutsy (MODOK, Captain America, Taskmaster)
5. Flocker (Zero, Hawkeye, Vergil | Others) 
7. EG|Justin Wong (Wolverine, Storm, Akuma | Others)
7. Y2J (Wolverine, Spencer, Magneto)

9. EM|Taekua (Nova, Taskmaster, Vergil)
9. FRB|Chou (Wesker, Magneto, Vergil | Others)
9. FR|TooMuchDamage (Zero, Wesker, Magneto)
9. PZPoy (Zero, Dr. Doom, Phoenix)
13. PA|Kinderparty (Taskmaster, Nova, Arthur)
13. Drew Grimey (C. Viper, Vergil, Strider)
13. AGE|Knives (Spencer, Sentinel, Akuma)
13. MA|Scrubeks (Super-Skrull, Spencer, MODOK)

17. Meep (Zero, X-23, Iron Fist)
17. NGG Stone (Zero, Wesker, Dormammu)
17. Jan (Hulk, Sentinel, Haggar)
17. CFD|Hi I'm Nastyy (Captain America, Wesker, Super-Skrull)
17. BT|IFC Yipes (Spencer, Vergil, Hawkeye | Others)
17. UVG|Noel Brown (Wolverine, Frank, Wesker)
17. DJ Huoshen (Felicia, Super-Skrull, Taskmaster)
17. FRB|Mame Spider (Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Vergil)

25. ID
25. Sexy Mike
25. Mr. Naps (Ryu, Dormammu, Wesker)
25. CDV|White Bl4ck (Vergil, Taskmaster, Wesker)
25. Don323 (Morrigan Dormammu, Dr. Doom)
25. Apology
25. UFO|Gox (Wolverine, Ryu, Dante)
25. BT|Viscant (Wesker, Haggar, Phoenix | Others)

King of Fighters 13 — Results


1. CafeID|MadKOF (Duo Lon, Chin, Kim)
2. IGL|Bala (Billy, Takuma, Shen | Others)
3. CafeID|Verna (Duo Lon, Shen, Kim | Others)
4. CafeID|Guts (EX Iori, Saiki, Shen | Others)
5. vVv|Romance (King, Benimaru, Yuri | Others)
5. CafeID|Lacid (Kyo, Ash, Kim)
7. AS|Reynald (Mr. Karate, Benimaru, Kim)
7. Yang Yao Ren (Mr. Karate, Hwa, Mature)

Mortal Kombat 9 — Results


1. EMP|Perfect Legend (Kung Lao)
2. vVv|CD Jr. (Kabal, Jax, Rain)
3. Pig of the Hut (Kenshi, Mileena)
4. IGL|Mit (Johnny Cage, Reptile, Scorpion, Stryker)
5. CoCo|4EverKing (Sonya, Kung Lao, Kenshi)
5. EGP|XBlades (Lui Kang)
7. EGP|Tyrant (Jax)
7. CoCo|M2Dave (Freddy)

Street Fighter X Tekken 2v2 — Results


1st place — Team Western Wolves
- Infiltration (Rolento)
- Laugh (Ryu)

2nd place — Team FGTV
- EG|Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
- CVPR|PR Balrog (Ryu)

3rd place — Team Mad Catz / Razer
- Tokido (Chun-Li)
- Fuudo (Ryu)

4th place — Team CompLexity / Cross Counter
- Combofiend (Julia)
- Mike Ross (Marduk)

5th place — Team TotalHeads
- Mov
- Poongko

5th place — Team Eternal Rival
- Richard Nguyen
- Tatsu

7th place — Team KazBon
- Kazunoko
- Bonchan

7th place — Team ?
- Algo Cacho
- ?

Soul Calibur 5 — Results


1. Shining Decopon (Tira)
2. Shen Chan (Cervantes)
3. Something-Unique (Pyrrha)
4. Woahhzz (Patroklos A)
5. CRNA|Ruka (Patroklos)
5. Xephukai (Astaroth, Patroklos)
7. Kamaage (Mitsurugi)
7. CafeID|Kura (Patroklos)

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo — Results


1. Mao (Vega)
2. Kusumondo (E. Honda)
3. AfroLegends (Dee Jay, Balrog)
4. MCZ|Daigo (Balrog)
5. MCZ|Tokido (Vega)
5. Damdai (oKen, oT. Hawk, oRyu)
7. Marsgatti (Guile)
7. Riz0ne (M. Bison)

Skullgirls — Results


1. Duckator
2. Rylander
3. JMCrofts
4. Trumpet
5. Severin
5. Grinta
7. Negus Eyoel
7. Trace

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown — Results


1. RZR|Fuudo (Shun)
2. Shironuko (El Blaze)
3. RZR|Itabashi Zangief (Shun)

 

PSA: EVO 2012 Live now

 

In case you didn't already know, the fighting game worlds biggest time of year is upon us. Evolution 2012 is ON! Day two is going on now, but we all know the real excitement is on Sunday during finals day. Via TwitchTV are all of the streams of the tournament bound to have many memorable moments.

 

 

Watch live video from srkevo1 on www.twitch.tv

Gameplay 1

Watch live video from srkevo2 on www.twitch.tv

Gameplay 2

Watch live video from srkevo3 on www.twitch.tv

Evolution 2012 Panels

[Via Shoryuken]

 

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E3 2012: Is Ubisoft's Watch Dogs the next big thing?

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Watch the below video first if you haven't seen it yet or watch the shorter clips provided below.

The E3 2012 Ubisoft Conference Watch Dogs presentation in its entirety.

There is something brewing at Ubisoft Montreal. It's a game you smell, of course. It's open world. It's technically beautiful, and more importantly it most defintely got everyone's attention at the end of Ubisoft's E3 2012 Press Conference. If buzz and not droids is the word you are looking for you have landed in the right place. So now what? You've now seen a very impressive vertical slice of a game very few people knew about prior to a little more than 24 hours ago. Take a look again if you need to below.

Watch Dogs gameplay video #1

Are you still excited? If so, why do you think that is? I'll be the first person to say it took me quite a bit to get my jaw up off the floor after seeing this for the first time. It's so good it had many thinking it was a game meant for the next set of unannounced consoles after the target platforms went undeclared by Ubisoft. Although what we were shown is spectacular what is it that we really know about this game? 

You'll roam around a city with high tech gadgetry looking for targets after manipulating the NPC's you encounter on the way only to get into cover based fire fights just like every other action game set in an open world. Are you coming down from Cloud 9 yet? Of course you aren't. We all want everything we see that looks like a beatiful woman/man to be just that. Once we get our hands on the goods that's when we'll start to realize that their face might not be quite what we had imagined from afar. Maybe it'll be just like I'm Gonna Git You Sucka? Remember that scene in that movie. That is almost exactly what happens to us everytime we get hyped for pretty things. Give the PR team a hand. They sure know how to back that hype up with some solid PR gold too.

In Watch Dogs, players enter the dangerous world of Aiden Pearce, a new class of antihero whose ability to hack into any connected system could be his most powerful weapon.  Whether it’s triggering a 30-car pileup by manipulating traffic-lights to trap an enemy during a downtown shootout or tapping into the city’s omnipresent security cameras to access anyone’s personal information, Pearce is capable of coercing and controlling almost every element of the world around him.

“Watch Dogs goes beyond the limits of today’s open-world games by giving players the ability to control an entire city,” said Jonathan Morin, creative director, Ubisoft.  “In Watch Dogs, anything connected to the city’s Central Operating System becomes a weapon.  By pushing the boundaries, we can provide players with action and access to information on a scale that’s never been seen in a video game before.”

Watch Dogs gameplay video #3

Promises, Promises, Promises! I'm seen this before and so have you. Watch Dogs may turn out to be every bit as good as what was just shown. I truly hope so. But, before then I'll take a look at this other game announced at the beginning of this generation, Frame City Killer. Remember that game with quite a bit of E3 hype? You don't. That's because it never came out.

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TXDcast Special: NBA 2K12 Developer Conference

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With the NBA season in limbo at the moment 2K Sports' NBA 2K series is back for more regardless of a real life counterpart. NBA 2K12 is to take the basketball simulation game to to beat from last year (NBA 2K11) to the next level with a huge bump in NBA talent with its NBA's Greatest and a revamped my player mode. Listen in as dev representatives (listed below) give a Q&A on their latest NBA simulation title.

On the call are:

Erick Boenisch, Producer at 2K Sports

Mike Wang, Visual Concepts Senior Gameplay Designer 

Travis Moses, Access Communications

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[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast from iTunes. (MP3)

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[MP3] Right click Save Link As/ Save Target As to download the MP3 directly.

[RSS] Add the TXDcast (MP3) to your RSS feed to have the show downloaded automatically.

Music: Intro/Outro ”Truckers Delight” by Flairs

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EVO 2K11 stream is Live!

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The weekend all fighting game fans look forward to every year, Evolution, is now here once again. Assuming you aren't in attendance there are two great video streams to get your fighting game fix you deserve. The tournament to end all tournaments this year will be featuring the following games over the next three days:

 

  • BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2 
  • Tekken 6 
  • Mortal Kombat 9 
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3
  • Super Street Fighter IV (AE)

 

 


Streaming Live by Ustream

Bonus feed


Live Video app for Facebook by Ustream

Schedules for each stream:

Friday, July 29th - Main Stream

8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Super Street Fighter IV Tournament, Early Rounds
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Super Street Fighter IV Tournament, Quarterfinals
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM Super Street Fighter IV Tournament, Semi-Finals
11:00 PM - 2:00 AM EVO After Hours, Featuring grudge matches between top rival players


Friday, July 29th - Bonus Stream

8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tekken 6 Tournament, Early Rounds
6:00 PM - 19:00 PM Tekken 6 Tournament, Sem-Finals

Saturday, July 30th - Main Stream

8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament, Early Rounds
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament, Quarterfinals
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament, Semi-Finals
11:00 PM - 2:00 AM EVO After Hours, Featuring grudge matches between top rival players


Saturday, July 30th - Bonus Stream

8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Mortal Kombat 9 Tournament, Early Rounds
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Mortal Kombat 9Tournament, Quarterfinals
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM Mortal Kombat 9 Tournament, Semi-Finals


Sunday, July 31th, Main Stream (times are approximate)


10:00 AM - 9:00 PM Top 8 Players in each tournament battle for the championships, in the following order:

BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2 Tournament Finals
Tekken 6 Tournament Finals
Mortal Kombat 9 Tournament Finals
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament Finals
Super Street Fighter IV Tournament Finals

Q&A with Hadouken!

Every hardcore gamer grows up fantasizing about the day they see themselves in a video game. With advanced character creators, gamers are more easily able to achieve this dream.

For Hadouken! this dream has been realized over and over again. It wasn't through a character creator, however. Instead, Hadouken! has had their music appear in video games. They've had their music in so many games that they've become somewhat of a mainstay in EA video game soundtracks, and will be featured in hot upcoming titles like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and EA MMA.

They don't just get their music into video games, however. They are all full-fledged, hardcore gamers themselves. From their early days of playing the Commodore 64 or Atari, to their Xbox 360 that is in their tour bus, these guys are more than familiar with the gaming industry.

Check out bassist Chris Purcell's responses and determine for yourself just how hardcore of a gaming band they really are!

Q&A with Chris Purcell of Hadouken!

TheVideoGameDomain.com: Growing up, you guys were huge fans of video games, which ones were your favorites?
      

Chris Purcell: I think we all became fans of video games at different points in our youth, and so we all have different memories of the various systems we started out gaming on. I remember my parents getting an Atari when I was really young, and then that getting upgraded to a Commodore 64, before we ended up with a Sega Megadrive II. My sister and I used to play games like Zombies Ate My Neighbours for hours on that console. I think that's why I've grown up with a love for all things zombie-related!

That being said, most of the gaming of my youth was done on PC, and my favourite to date is probably still the Half-Life series. The explosions on 'Bombshock' from For The Masses are actually grenade samples from the game! I still love first person shooters and will always pick them up over any other game.

TVD: What inspired you to take the name from Street Fighter?
      

CP: We wanted a name that summed up our music, but also stuck out. The energy of the fireball summed up our music and the raw energy of our early shows. Taking a Japanese name felt right, too. James is a big fan of Japanese gaming culture and all things Nintendo - the first album is littered with Gameboy samples!

TVD: What is the main reason that you feel you've been included in so many different video game soundtracks?
       
CP: I just think we make fast-paced, high-octane music which is exactly what you want to listen to when you're playing a game and blowing up buildings, or speeding around a race track at hundreds of miles per hour! I think EA have recognised the influence of gaming on our music and see how other gamers can relate to that, which is great!
TVD: With you guys being so interested in video games and, obviously, music, what are your thoughts about games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band?
       
CP: I really like Guitar Hero, but I'm amazingly awful at it. I like to think that there's an inverse relationship between being good at playing guitar, and being good at playing Guitar Hero!

TVD: Have you ever tried to get your music in games like that?
       
CP: We did actually get onto the iPhone equivalent of Guitar Hero called Tap Tap Revenge with our song "Get Smashed Gate Crash" - which was a lot of fun. I think with the type of music we make we're going to have to wait until they bring out a Synth Hero before we can think of being properly included though!

TVD: What's to be expected with the new album?
       
CP: Tunes from the new album are already underway. We've got a lot of tracks in full demo form, and a couple have already gone to production with James working with UK Drum & Bass producers Xample & Lomax. The music is the next logical step from For The Masses, which was produced by a Dutch Drum & Bass act called Noisia, with more dance sensibilities coming into the foreground - influences of which could be heard in things like the trance stabs on Lost, the amen breaks on Bombshock, etc.


I think we see For The Masses as the first step toward us becoming the band we want to be - making loud, abrasive dance music alongside the likes of giants like The Prodigy & Pendulum. Hopefully this next album will show people that we have the potential to hold our own amongst these bands.

TVD: Any tour plans for the support of that album?
       
CP: We're heading out on tour this October on a run of dates around the UK where we'll be playing some of the tracks from the new album for the first time. In December we're also due to support Pendulum on their arena tour of the UK - which we're honoured to have been asked to do. As of yet the release date of the next album is up in the air until we've got all of the tunes finished, but I'm sure we'll be back out on the road playing as many shows as we can next year to support the release!
TVD: Thanks a lot Chris!
You can check out the latest release by Hadouken! on iTunes by clicking the link below:

For the Masses

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90s Throwback - Banjo-Kazooie and the Transition of Physical Media to Modern Times

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I’ve got a question for you, internet. When was the last time a video game with original characters and an original concept was at the top of your most anticipated list? Can you even remember? Among the slew of Halos, Guitar Heroes, and countless other spin-offs and sequels, there are very rarely original games with all-new characters that catch your eye and propel to the top of your most-wanted list. By all means, it certainly isn’t a terrible thing. I can dig; Rock Band 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are my two most anticipated games of the year, and I truly cannot imagine any as-of-yet unheard of game knocking either of these two from their concrete perches. But this idea of never truly anticipating a new character with his or her new story anymore is something that I have just recently realized. This shift of anticipating a sequel, rather than looking for the newest big thing, is a new and radically different shift in gaming for this current generation.

Coming to this revelation has really got me thinking about new and original concepts and characters in most recent times. I’m nineteen, so truth be told, I’ve pretty much only seen digital downloads as the norm for new, creative ideas, while larger, more robust cookie-cutter FPSs lead the way for physical media. I carry my entire music library in my pocket, Walkman devices are for silly old men that look ready to experience a midlife crisis, and vinyl is as dead to me as that dial-up connection noise AOL always used to make. Is that a bad thing? Of course it isn’t - all media changes over time, and soon enough it will be my generation telling the next about how back in my day, video games used to be played on discs, and newspapers were made of actual paper -- before being laughed at for not having a chip in my brain that shuffles 6,000 songs through my brain stem. New and original ideas used to be gambled on with physical media, instead of this new business model of safely distributing content via the internet in order to reduce the risk of selling a game physically with the profit column in the red. This is a story about such a game, in a time where consoles weren’t connected to the internet, and everybody wanted to be the next Italian plumber.

Back before a time when I jumped ship from my Wii console to properly play Rock Band on the 360, I was an avid gamer loyal to the Nintendo brand and its family of consoles. The Wii gave me a good run and the GameCube had a number of really neat games, but the Nintendo 64 was the console that really spiked my interest in gaming. I could name you dozens of games for the console that I loved with all my heart, but one game in particular stood out head and shoulders above the rest to me. This game, of course, was Banjo-Kazooie.

For those of you painfully unaware of the piece of childhood you so sorely missed out on, Banjo-Kazooie was essentially an adventure game released in 1998 by a developer company known then by the name of Rareware (later changed to simply Rare). The game’s premise was to collect as many golden Jiggies (read: stars) in order to unlock more puzzle levels (read: castle rooms) to ultimately face off against the evil witch, Grunty (read: Bowser), in order to save your little sister (read: princess) in distress. It’s certainly true that the main goal of the game was a concept used just two years previously in Super Mario 64, but the plot was far from what made this game so revolutionary in my mind. What made the game so great was that its cast of characters all had their own personalities – almost certainly ahead of its time in terms of character development, in a gaming generation where consoles revolutionized graphics by giving oranges six polygonal sides rather than four.

There were two main characters in the game, both featured prominently in the title. The leader was Banjo, a cautious brown bear that had yellow hot pants tighter than a mid-nineties Lara Croft as well as a rockin’ blue backpack. The sidekick, situated inside Banjo’s backpack was Kazooie, a female breegull whose temper was oftentimes as red as her feathers. These two very unlikely heroes would combine forces to complete various tasks all while learning new moves to perform along the way, such as flying through the air and smashing baddies/key switches with a rather painful-looking ground pound. The duo was polar opposites in terms of personality, and the game shined in the dialogue between the two leads and their large supporting cast. In an alternate universe, it’s easy to imagine the duo as an interspecies “good cop/bad cop” combination that would break down whichever furry critter stole a poor defenseless stash of nuts and force said critter of his or her guilty crime. Kazooie was the queen of smart-alecky comebacks to NPCs that played with her temper, and Banjo would oftentimes shush Kazooie before she said anything that would change the game’s E rating. It was truly a comedic back-and-forth of jokes that is incredibly original during a video game era that contains little to no character development.

 

On top of the funny dialogue between characters, the game had great fun letting the player know that they were indeed still playing a video game. Banjo-Kazooie didn’t break the fourth wall; it didn’t even bother building one up. The characters knew better than to take themselves seriously, and it really played well with the dry humor of the game. At one point, Kazooie blatantly says that she’s ready to finally win the game, and while it may be true that my seven year old brain found that hilarious, replaying the games on Xbox LIVE have proven to me that the games still maintain a level of humor that even a grown teenager such as myself can crack a smile upon reading. In simpler terms, it’s a game that rivals the Toy Story franchise in terms of the range of audience; children and adults alike can appreciate the humor displayed in Banjo-Kazooie.

Not all of the humor contains a witty dryness to it, though – as with almost every Rare game, the developers do their best to weasel in as many dirty jokes as possible. It’s not easy to catch anything the first time around as a child, but playing the game as an adult helped me come to realize a large amount of subliminal raunchy jokes that nowadays can make me giggle at something inappropriate. Case in point, if you can follow this story: a coconut tree in the middle of a desert valley is surrounded by water but doesn’t have anything to drink. The objective to this situation is to direct Gobi the camel to the tree and ground pound him with enough force to vomit up the reserve of water in his hump in order to water the tree – yes, this is seriously a thing. The (presumably male) tree, when approached, cries out for help and requests water so that he won’t die of thirst. Kazooie (a female, mind you) promptly asks “How’re your nuts?” to which Banjo immediately scolds. Watching this exchange as a teen almost resulted in a double take, as it was extremely surprising that an E-rated game would harbor a dirty joke such as that! Going on a scavenger hunt through the internet revealed many, many vulgar jokes littered throughout the game as well as its sequel, Banjo-Tooie (For the record, my favorite gag is a rock formation in Banjo-Tooie’s Terrydactyland that suspiciously looks like some rather inappropriate parts of a man’s anatomy involving his urinary tract and reproductive system).

This sense of originality in storytelling has been a shining example of how a video game can make a lasting impression in my life, from the day I first played it, all the way into my adult years. Because of this game, I have found that storytelling, rather than graphics, gameplay, or genre, is the key to a great video game. Character development is so, so key in keeping the player absorbed in a game, and to me, as a player and a lover of video games, it’s sometimes a little disheartening to play games that don’t take time to set the tone or develop the characters before tossing you into a gunfight. It’s this very reason why I take a large fancy to these smaller games released through the Xbox LIVE network, because I’m always looking for the next original game that will really pull me in with its characters and its story – something that many, many sequels released today no longer attempt to do.

I encourage you, if you own a 360 console, buy Banjo-Kazooie! If you enjoy a healthy laugh and a lot of imagination, I (and my silly seven year old self) highly recommend it, even if it does still live in a 64-bit era. Give the bird and bear a good spin, and watch and read the joy they have to offer.

Thanks for reading!

HEYRILES RATING:

FIVE ECSTATIC KITTENS (out of a possible five)