Well, me and my friends got together to do a tutorial vid on how to mod your Hori Real Arcade Pro VX SA. In this video we show you how to properly mod your stick so that you can have your own customized arcade stick.

I've got a lot of great tips on shoryuken.com but I know people would still prefer to have some sort of visual aid. It was my 2nd run at modding arcade sticks and my 1st art mod. I think it went very well, but I know some things on how to do it smoother the next time.

Check out our video!

And here's part 2!

Comment, rate, and subscribe!

A full day of filming!

Today was pretty rough. I woke up today with great optimism but things change on the fly later along the road. I had a few bumps I had to endure with today but like anyone coming into the film industry, you have to work with what you have. I've done quite a bit of preparation for today's event, and Russ can testify to that claim. With new things come new opportunities. So I had to quickly adjust to the situation.

So before I left out to Russ' house to go film I had to make sure I had everything ready to go so there would be little room for error.

TIP #1 : Always prepare for the worst possible situation

Here's what I brought!

HDV Camera
32 gig SDHC Card
Tripod
Xbox 360
Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition
Marvel VS Capcom 3
Custom HRAP VX SA
Madcatz SE (Slightly Modded). I call this the B!@#% stick, lol.
Studio Headphones
Blue Yeti Condenser Microphone
5x USB 2.0 Cords (You can never have enough!)
Hauppauge HD PVR
Laptop
Xbox Live Headset
Microsoft Xbox Controller

So yeah, oh whole lot of stuff! I think I managed to list everything down, but I probably missed a few things.

So, I happen to be walking to Russ' house ON THE HOTTEST DAY EVER! I was sweating buckets. Don't forget to bring your towel and a spare shirt. Last thing you need is to smell on the set. Always have spare stick of deo or body spray.

So I'm at Russ' house waiting for Russle because well, he's just getting off of school. I didn't wait long but I was occupied by his house guest who were very nice and offered me a drink while I waited. Be sure to always say thank you to those who're kind to ya. No one likes a rude guest.

So me and Russ are chillin' in his room as I unpack. To his surprise, he was shocked at all the equipment I brought. The setup was pretty legit to as it took up a decent amount of space in his room. After we got to setting everything up, we began to do equipment test right away!

Tip #2: Always test your equipment before starting any project. If you have a deadline to uphold and people need to be places after the show, you need to make sure that you make time so that you test the equipment and not take up any more time that you need to!

As my luck would have it, my laptop ran into a few problems with recording footage from the hauppauge. Rather than take up time trying to diagnose the problem, I figured out that it'd be less time consuming to just install it onto Russ' desktop. Windows XP did it right the 1st time around! Once we installed everything on the Desktop, everything ran smoothly. During the installation, we played a few matches of AE to gauge were me and Russ were at in terms of skill level, and I was happy with our performance.

So we went through a mic check, a haupp check, and a camera check. Everything was on point and we were ready to go. We discussed what we should open with 1st and what small things we should talk about before we started. Doing this ensured a higher quality product. After we made our opening statements, we agreed that we would try to keep a natural feel to the show so it was left unscripted. We have an outline for the episode, but we figured scripting it would be un-ideal.

So we started great with the show, and we immediately went to online matches. We figured we try to be funny and down to earth as possible without sounding cheezy, cheap, or unprofessional. It was tough getting our 1st few matches, because it almost seemed like the players didn't want to play. Couldn't find a game for like the 1st 1-2 mins, lol. :P

Like with all online games, we got good games and we got bad games. We however, managed to win all of our matches online. It came down to the wire sometimes, and we even lamed it out with a time out victory! But without spoiling the episode too much, I'll cut it off there.

After we spent about an hour or so recording the footage, it was time to transfer files. This is the one thing I didn't take into account. How was I going to transfer files from the desktop to my laptop. Russ cpu is pretty old, so it didn't have an SD slot. He didn't have a card reader. I didn't bring my flash drive and he doesn't own one. So how do you transfer files then? Hosting sites of course!

So I decided to upload to my Mega Upload account. Sadly enough, the max file you can upload on MU at one time conveniently is 2 gigs. The capture footage was about 2.24 gigs, so it was too much. MU has a service that uploads higher than 2 gigs but the amount of time it takes to upload it was unknown. So we ran into a really tough spot. We decided to try and upload it and hope it works, but we both agreed that I should always carry my flash drive and 2, I should come download the files on my flash drive when we're both available.

I'll be going to his house to get the capture files. In the mean time, I'll be working on the intro for the show, as well as other things regarding the show.

As a film maker, you have to know how to manage your time well. A lot of your time will be eaten up with working with editing software all day long. Any editor will tell you how long it takes to edit videos. It takes even longer if you want to have a quality video. The best thing you can do when it comes to making shows, or even small video series, is to decide whether or not how you want it to look. There's things like intros, outros, cut offs, host bars, and a whole bunch of stuff. Almost too much to describe. If you do a good job, you can use what you learned on your future projects and you can also try to learn other avenues of the industry as well.

So yeah, I've been doing a lot of stuff today, and guess what I have to do when I get home? Work! The life of a film editor is never truly over. If editing is something you have a passion for, you'll have to understand that it's not a job that is easy, time-friendly, or appreciated. Some people do understand the need for film editors and respect them and their decisions, but in the general publics eye, they assume it's an easy job. News flash! It isn't.

It does pay really well and it's a highly sought after field, so you can't go wrong here! :P

I love my job and the people I work with, so I got really lucky! Stay tuned for my next blog and keep an eye out for

Gaming Spotlight: Battle Fantasia

Battle Fantasia is a 2.5d fighting game released by Aksys games in April of 2007. This game features 12 pretty unique characters starting from Marco, a little kid who wants to one day go on adventures and be like his father, all Deathbringer, the man slaughtering giant. This game has some pretty unique features as well and some old favorites such as parry (Gachi).

Battle Fantasia is a 5 button fighting game (6 if you hotkey heat mode), that uses the following layout. It takes time getting used to, but if you play any of the king of fighters games, you'll fit right in.

(LP) (HP) (GA)

(LK) (HK)

In this game, parry is known as Gachi. There are 3 types of Gachi

• Normal Gachi: This gachi parry's a hit and leaves your opponent vulnerable to an attack for a brief period of time. Using gachi instead of guarding will result you taking 0 damage and put you in state where you are in a position advantage, allowing you to attack immediately while the opponent is still in a recovery state. 

• Blue Gachi: This gachi is performed by pressing forward + gachi button. This gachi works like the normal gachi. The only difference is that after performing the parry, your character will attack the other character and bounce the opponent off the wall, into the air, and place them in a juggle state. As long as the opponent remains blue, you can keep juggling your opponent. In my opinion this is the most devastating of the 3 gachis. The problem with this gachi however is the timing of the gachi. Unlike the 1st gachi, this gachi isn't safe. Depending on your opponents move, this gachi can be countered. Lets say 1 atack had 2 hits. If you used Blue Gachi, you would get hit by the 2nd hit of that attack because Blue Gachi is too slow. Blue gachi takes time to get used to, but once you master this, you'll be well on your way to doing high damage output combos.

• Red Gachi. This is performed by holding down-foward + gachi button. This gachi counters a low attack and retaliates with an attack. This gachi will knock your opponent to the wall and put him/her in a spinning dizzy state. Characters with great ground combos can capitalize on this. If your character is a  juggle character, try and find a way to get the opponent airborne from the ground to make use of this

There's also another unique feature to this game that's yet to be talked about. This feature is known as HEAT MODE. In heat mode, characters are granted special enhancements. For some characters, you get noticeable heats such as Marcos Dragon. Others are suddle but give nice rewards. Heat uses 1 meter and last about 5-10 seconds depending on the character. If you receive a significant amount of damage in heat mode, you will be put back into a regular state.

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With the key features explained, lets get back to the game. Battle Fantasia is Aksys gaming's attempt to create a unique balanced fighting game. Unlike earlier titles such as Guilty Gear, Battle Fantasia takes the classic fighting game approach such as Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Each player has a certain amount of HP. What's fascinating about this game is the exact amount of health is listed on each players side as though it were an RPG.

Unlike previous games, this game is very "zone" heavy. 

Zoning: Controlling a set amount of space with normal moves and special moves.

It has elements of Street Fighter III: Third Strike, but the pace of the game is different. It's not slow by any means but it's not as fast as compared to 3rd strike. After about an hour or so of playing the game, you should transition a little better. This game also relies on the parry function a bit too. Since it's such a heavy mechanic in the game, it's good to start learning and recognizing patterns early on so that you can parry and capitalize on your enemies mistakes

This game appeals to the simple straightforward fighting game enthusiast. Even at the lowest levels of play, you have a blast, but when you're at higher levels of play, you can do things like this.

(No, this isn't me playing the game, lol)

Now, lets talk about the cast of the game for a second. Like with all Aksys fighting games, they use a brand of truly unique characters

Marco

Marco is in essence one of the main characters of the game (if not the main character). His playstyle is simple and has a lot of past fighters type of move sets. If you're new to this game, you'll probably find comfort in playing with Marco since his move set will be similar to that of Ryu of Street Fighter. He has a fireball command (each version has a different property) and a shoryuken command (Uses his sword instead of his fist).

He also has a few moves of his own that sets him apart like his Fanged Snake Crash (Jumping sword slash) and his Hell Slash (Fierce giant swing). 

Accompanying Marco is his pet dragon, Char Siu

Char Siu takes importance in Marcos fighting style because Marco's heat mode transforms Char Siu into a fierce dragon ready for battle. Char Siu works like an assist character from the Marvel VS Capcom series games.

Urs

Urs, Marco's older brother was trained by his father to serve the queen and her army. Unlike Marco, he doesn't play like any other character. He uses a Chainsaw blade to take down his foes. The only move reminiscent of a previous fighter is Urs shoryuken like move. It's more like Kens than Ryu's since he does multiple hits with a flame sword.

Urs is a rush down character with a lot of mobility. Using him will get allow you to get to your opponent quickly and efficiently. He does medium damage like Marco but Marco is overall stronger than Urs. But that is debatable since Marco lacks the speed that Urs has. Marco is power, Urs is Speed.

 Cedric

Cedric, is scholar of a science facility. He uses his calculative brain and smarts to get the edge on his opponents. His weapon of choice? A spiked ball and chain of course. He is also a magic user and is one of the charge type characters of the game. He has an essence of Guild because he has a flash kick (Holy Devotion) and sonic boom (Evangelical Light). Although they're similar, they don't play the same way at all. Cedric has zoning moves but he can also be played very aggressively.

Cedric can combo right out of his throw and he has a lot of juggle mix ups. He is a balance between a mix up and zoning character

Ashley

Ashley is a pretty crazy character. He has low damage output, but he's arguably the fastest character in the game. His a pure mix up character that capitalizes on tick-throws, and juggle opportunities. His heat mode makes him even faster as well as makes his damage out put higher and enhances properties to existing moves. This is the type of character that can only be played well at high levels of play because he's quite the complex character.

He uses his agile move set to move around the plain fast and hit fast. His damage output isn't that great, but if you can confuse your opponent, you'll rack up the damage in no time.

Olivia

Princess Olivia, another unique character of the game is pretty fun to play. She's also one of those characters that requires at least a intermediate level of understanding, but she also is pretty unique. She's a balance between zoning and rush down. She uses the flag of her mainland in order to defeat her foes. Attached to the tip of the flag is a spear head. 

She has a lot of safe options that are available to her, which makes her kind of a threat. She can sit there all day, hitting you and retreating back to safepoints. She can also go head to head with you if you're in her space. She can score knock downs and start the mix ups

Beware of her Empress Lily. With it, she can juggle you into the air and go in for a super with little room for error.

Watson

God I love this little bunny. Watson is a master mage rabbit that with proper knowledge, can defeat any foe. Watson uses his mastery of magic to lay down the law. He can lay down magical traps to activate at a later time, as well as zone the crap out of you with his heat seeking fireballs.

Watson is zone heavy character. He can be used aggressively but he works best as a zoning character. He has great juggling capabilities and mix ups. If you like long, flashy combos, with a high execution barrier, then Watson is the little bunny for you.

Don't underestimate his magic, or you'll be taking 1300 damage in a single combo!

Freed

Freed is my favorite of all the existing characters. He is a rushdown character that has the essence of Balrog from street fighter. He has great mix ups and does a little over medium damage. His heat is my favorite amongst the rest of the cast as well, and one of the reason I picked him up. He creates a clone of himself that repeats his attack based on the level of strength of the move that you did. This only applies to special moves of course. He won't repeat a super or any normal attack. By using heat mode, you can create a load of frame traps that will in the end deal a lot of damage even if your opponent manages to guard.

Donvalve

The grappling giant, Donvalve is quite the damaging character. He has a strong damage output with very few combos. He has no dash but if you use his heat mode, he gains super armor, fast walk speed, and extra damage. By no means is not having a dash bad thing. He can always use his jet pack attack to get around the stage as well as throw you into a wall. He uses 360 motions for his grabs but the grabs themselves have a very short range. Donvalve also has some pretty solid pokes, so you can fight off those pesky jumpers

Coyori

Coyori is the agile waitress who loves a good battle. With her unique move set, she can dish out the damage. She has a rather simple move set, but she has great footsies. She can use her speed to get around opponents and use her juggle potential to do 2 supers in a single combo. She's one of the few characters who has a target combo but because of that, she can create high damage opportunities off of the easy hit confirm.

Face

If you've been around in the guilty gear series, your immediate thought is, omg it's faust with guns. Lol! Face uses his guns to attack his opponents at a distance. While his normal shots have short range, his special shots have pretty high range. Combine that with heat mode and you're good to go. His heat mode makes all of his bullet shots unblockable, so you better have your parry skills ready!

Odile & Dokurod

Dhalsim, Dhalsim, Dhalsim! Odile plays almost like Dhalsim from the street fighter series. She has long ranged attacks and she has the infamous spinning divekick. She is surprisingly a combo heavy character. She's often confused as Olivia because they look exactly the same. So much so, that the writers of the game made her a twist in the plot of the story of the game. She's a bit faster than dhalsim, but she lacks his teleport. 

Deathbringer

The final boss of the game. Deathbringer well, brings death! Lol. He's a very strong damage output character but lacks mobility. Very predictable, but if he manages to land a hit, can be very devastating. Has combo options but the chances of getting this combos are very slim because it requires blue parrying.

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Outside of the characters and their movesets lies the story of the game. Aksys really did a good job in supplying the stories to their games. The game has a pretty rich story, and has a story mode for each of their characters. If you complete their stories, you unlock extra content such as alternate costumes for the characters. Freed turns into sol bad guy basically!

With all this said and done, and after all the time I put into playing this game and writing the review, I give Battle Fantasia a

8/10

I think it's a really good game and it deserves some love. Finding copies of this game will be rather difficult in a retail store, but you can find it online for about 10 bucks. 15 bucks if you include shipping. Get it while there are still copies available! That's it for the spotlight this week! Check out my blog next week where we'll talk about another one of my all time favorite games, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle! See you guys next time :P

Gaming Spotlight

What's Gaming Spotlight?


It's a new mini series that I'm working on where I go a little in depth about past games and explain them with a degree and depth. These are games that I grew up with or games that didn't get enough love because of poorly constructed reviews or for some reason didn't get enough publicity.

There's a bunch of games like that, like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, or Battle Fantasia. Look forward to some of the segments in the future, and if they're popular enough, I'll create video reviews on them as well.

Thanks a bunch for listening. See you guys around :P

Street Fighter IV: Understanding the game - Episode 1

I have been playing street fighter since the world warrior days and competitively since 2006. During this time, I've been playing many different fighters that I've come into contact with, and I believe I have a solid understanding of the game. What I've come to realize nowadays more than ever is that whenever I run into people that say they play said game really good, I've come to realize that they don't understand the core fundamentals of the game.

In the SFIV series specifically, the execution barrier isn't too high because Capcom makes it so that if you have issues performing directional inputs, you'd still pull off the move. Down-Forward, Down-Forward, + Any punch will result in a shoryuken, if you're any of the shoto characters. In my opinion, this was a bad move on Capcoms part. It basically gets you used to performing faulty execution.

Things of this nature does not exist in any other street fighter title...

Outside of this little help feature, there are misconceptions about the basis of this game. Capcom changed the game once again by adding the canceling feature also known as "focus attack dash cancel". As the name ensues, it cancels your focus attack into a dash, which will lead into other opportunities. Combo opportunities.

This is something that newer players don't understand. They think "omg, that combo was so long and cool and  does a lot of damage". While that may be true to some degree, this is exactly the problem. People tend to think this is the focus of the game...

Thinking this way would encourage players to try to land a specific combo they've been practicing. Some go to great lengths to try to land this combo onto the opponent regardless or not what they do is the best decision. While each player has their own play style, it's apparent in the newer players.

You're probably a new or inexperienced player if you....


Jump in excessively
Spam/mash out moves on impulse
Wake up ultra when you have an ultra available
Wake up [insert special move/super here] on almost every knockdown
Press more than the required number of button presses. Also known as mashing
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There are so many factors but these are general ones. Now, if you fit into any of these 5 categories, you're probably a newer or inexperienced player. Becoming a better player is possible at any level of play, so the thing you have to do is understand what you do wrong and build upon it from the next time.

Zoning/Spacing


These mean basically the same thing. Zoning is basically controlling a set amount of space with any of your given moves. This term is a lot more complex than it actually sounds. It's so simple yet very misunderstood. You can only truly understand Zoning by experiencing it. Zoning is the core of all SF games. It translate to every street fighter game ever made. Some sf games is more zoning heavy than others. SFIV is one of them.

Lets go into zoning a little further. In this example we'll use the corner of the stage and both characters in this example will be Ryu and Ken. Ryu puts Ken in the corner with a HK Hurricane Kick. Now, when you're trapped in a corner, the 1st thing that pops into most players mind is to get out of the corner. Why? Because it's the worst possible position in the game.

Since you're in the corner, all Ryu has to do is adjust himself to the proper range of the screen by going back and foward to the point where he see's fit. Ryu can in theory do anything he wants to the opponent. That's not to say as that it will go unpunished. From this range, Ryu can use his great pokes to keep you at bay. If you try to jump out of the corner, you'll most likely eat a shoryuken, st.LK, c.HP, or s.MP. All these things can anti-air you and put you right back in the corner only for it to happen again.

Another huge factor that can be capitalized on is ambiguous cross-ups/acu. ACU's are very devastating because the opponent has to play the guessing game on which way he or she will be crossed up. The person performing the ACU will know which way he or she's going, but the opponent has to guess which way to block.

While this example may seem like it explains a lot, it really can only be captured through sheer experience...

I think I'm gonna call it a night for today's episode. Tune in to our facebook channel for updates, events, and all the jazz. See you guys next time! :P

What's Up Guys!

Hey guys and gals, just thought I'd explain a few things. 1st up, I've finally got a blog channel now! What does that mean? You get to delve into the life that is Chris Ware :P

Here, I'll be talking about my daily updates that revolve around me and things to come. That being said, I've been working on a couple things right now. Me and Russ have been going at it for new ideas, and I think we've finally found something that will work. I'd love to go into details about it, but for the mean time, I'd like to keep it a little hush hush, seeing as it's still in the start up phases and nothing is too concrete at this point. Just keep you eye peeled for new stuff to come.

Thanks for checking out the new channel guys! See you around

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