So yeah, the title is pretty self explanatory. After being on roughly a year long hiatus from rigorous physical activity I joined a local gym that opened up nearby not long ago. I did this back in early October. It's really cool because is less than 5 minutes away by car and is actually in walking distance. It may not be a fancy establishment but it has all the essentials I need. Free weights, barbells, a few rudimentary machines, etc. Best of all though the monthly fee is cheap and there's no commitment which is nice. X3

I've got to say it feels really good to be at it again. It's a genuine confidence booster and I feel better when I am physically active then when I wasn't. I also enjoy it because pushing myself to improve is something I genuinely enjoy. I'm trying to get to the gym four times a week and staying there about an hour. I've got a loose plan and I'm keeping track of my progress. Which brings me to the tip I needed.

I have a question for the muscle-furs out there and I mean the ones that are seriously into lifting in real life and not just people with ripped fursonas. In the past I've had trouble with plateauing and getting past that. I know everybody hits a limit at some point but I never figured out a good way to break those limits in a good way. It happens eventually but it's really slow going. Does anybody have any advice or reliable methods to help push my body past that point? It's only a matter of time before I peter off. I wanna have a plan of action when I do. X3

Must get bigger!!!

How fucked up is this?

The very existence of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pisses me off. I personally feel jilted. Like when I bought the special edition back in February I was buying an incomplete product put on the market prematurely to cap off the fiscal year and now the company that put it out is trying to cash in again. This among other things has stewed in the dark recesses of my mind into a seething anger bitterness towards my on again off again beloved Capcom, a sentiment that only got worse with the random bullshit they pulled with things like those trolltastic DLC costumes. Over time I stopped caring. I said to myself "fuck it, not gonna buy it". Committed myself to not giving them my money on this one especially considering how much I flat out disliked the original game and some of the bullshit mechanics at work.

I was aware it released today and when I remembered halfway through the day I thought to myself "I wanna play this".

https://youtu.be/6oA3QqJ9m2w

Am I sick in the head? I know I'm a rabid fighting game fan but holy fuck! It's like a switch in my head got flipped and now I keep thinking about this game. I'm reading discussion on forums, getting opinions for an update to a game I didn't even like much to begin with. And it's not like it's could be completely better. All the retarded mechanics I hated are still there, just slightly less retarded.

Now there is absolutely no chance in hell I'm spending my money on this new. Fuck that noise. Capcom isn't getting my cash again for the game I should have gotten to begin with. It's going to be second hand should I cave in, which is looking more likely by the hour. I already did an Ebay search a couple hours ago.

For fuck's sake! I just need to hold out for one more week. Just one...more...week! Then King of Fighters XIII will come out, I'll have something new to sate my fighting spirit and then I can just let the game go. Draw on my nerdy rage and let UMvC3 pass over me and through me and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the desire has gone there will be nothing.

This situation is so messed up. >.=.<

Where did the soul go? This used to be pop music. Music today on the whole is crap compared to this and that makes me feel old. XD

https://youtu.be/slldMEPvUqA
https://youtu.be/l2J6AQ3AyI0
https://youtu.be/_XOY7lsBVpo

Nowadays so much music is Autotuned to the point of sounding sterile and devoid of soul. So manufactured.

The soundtrack!

Okay, maybe an exaggeration but you get the idea. I'm excited about Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown finally getting a release outside Japan but I really, really would hope Sega gave us a option to choose which version soundtrack plays. Hell, if they charged us for it as DLC I'd still buy it. Simply put the Final Showdown music is inferior in every way to the 5R one. They went from a seriously awesome Rock sound to a rather pathetic wannabe Tekken electronica thing. Here's a couple examples.

Arena: This is the theme of the fiery, high flying luchador, El Blaze. It went from this...
https://youtu.be/5yimn8JKHYw

to this...

https://youtu.be/QDnDl8pHVl4

Not the worst by any stretch of the imagination. That dubious honor goes to this next one.

Snow Mountain: The theme of the stoic nature lover and professional wrestler Wolf Hawkfield. This is the most drastic fall in quality to me. The level is at his cabin on a snow capped mountain. It went from what I think was the single best song in 5R...
https://youtu.be/z3OVSZDFzA4

to the single most dull in Final Showdown...

https://youtu.be/KJTWK4QyLNM

Am I wrong or is this music just dull? Thoughts anyone?

So this was an idea kinda brought up in a conversation with a buddy. We were talking about how so few movies, especially nowadays, have the heart to really cause a significant emotional reaction. You know, stuff that moves us whether it makes us afraid, uplifts our spirits and makes us smile or even cry. This got us talking about tearjerkers because I was determined to make my friend cry, which I did but I digress. XD

So basically I have two questions for you the lovely readers. First, do you feel movies are becoming a heartless mire of 3D, CGI, Michael-Baysian explosions (or not) and second, are there any movies that made you cry? I'll share mine if you share yours. SPOILERS!

https://youtu.be/3UkZOZIO63I
https://youtu.be/HqqNOqEhC0s
https://youtu.be/hCbdX92hbbg
https://youtu.be/WbW8GgAWKi8

Here's hoping for some interesting replies.

Okay, so this is a feeling that's been itching in my head for a while now. I used to play Dungeons & Dragons back in high school but pretty much stopped for whatever reason during college. Well, lately I've been getting the urge to play again but I have no local friends to do it with. I'd be willing to do it over Skype but I digress. I was wondering if any of my friends here on FA did play or even if they are interested in getting into it.

Another thing that crossed my mind was which version to use if I did start playing again. See, on one hand I played 3.5 Edition rules in high school but 4th Edition has come out since then. I've heard mixed things about 4th Edition, mostly that the experience is much faster and much more streamlined but at the cost of character variety. I've heard classes all feel kind of samey. On the other hand though I heard 4th Edition is extremely good at helping new Dungeon Masters. I've never DM'd before so this sounds really appealing to me.

So yeah, basically does anyone I know play D&D? Also, just curious what opinions are of the 4 rule-set as opposed to 3.5.

Okay, first a little back story. Up until a few weeks ago I was utterly indifferent to this internet phenomenon and largely ignorant of the "Brony" community. That changed when I heard John de Lancie, an actor perhaps best known as playing Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was playing a similar antagonistic character in My Little Pony. Now, I thought Q was great and I was eager to see de Lancie do his thing again. To my surprise I actually found the show alright. Kind of clever even. I was hooked. Oddly my love of Star Trek is what got me watching a show geared towards little girls. Go figure.

Anyway, I've essentially watched the whole show. Call me a Brony if you will but after the sampling I got from that one episode I was curious to see more and after watching the whole thing I have to say I like it. It's actually a rather cleverly written show with well defined and likable characters. That alone makes it better than most of the Flash animated garbage out there such as Johnny Test.

After seeing it all I honestly have to say I'm completely baffled by how galvanizing this show is, particularly the vitriol some people have for it. Every form of entertainment has is noisy fans but I'm hard pressed to think of anything recently that people have made such a fuss about. Maybe Twilight but that kind of deserves it doesn't it? Seriously though, I can understand if it's not your thing or you're not interested but what about this program inspires such roaring hatred. Just look at the knee-jerk reaction from the Pony banner not long ago. What causes this?

This is a legitimate question. I suspect I may just be ignorant to the community since I'm both new and and a rather passive MLP viewer. I genuinely want to know if there is a reason for this other than it just being trendy.

Just wanted to give a little shout out.

 emotioncreator is doing sketch commissions right now and he's still got a few slots open. He works fast and is very affordable. I'd go check it out and see if it's up your alley. If you're like me and you adore macro/mega muscles then there's no reason not to take a look. =3

Nerdgasm

noun

1. A climax of emotional excitement brought upon by the learning of new, positive information concerning comic books, video games, television shows and other similar, nerdy interests.

2. That thing I do when I see shit like this:

Mystery Picture #1
Mystery Picture #2

Gimmegimmegimmegimmegimme!!!

Oh my god...

https://youtu.be/F0_MSPoYqVA

I was laughing so hard halfway through I almost peed.

Joy! Autumn is here! That lovely season where the temperature cools and everything explodes in color. It's also the season with my favorite holiday, that of course being Halloween. Halloween is great. A day where society is allowed to unhinge, just a little bit. Any day where you can repeatedly terrify random strangers and not get arrested is a good day in my book. Which brings me to my next point.

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro is a place called The Soap Factory, an old warehouse that since the 80's has been turned into a gallery for contemporary and experimental art. Well, for the last four years in the month of October they've been using the basement space for and adults only haunted house. You must be 18 years old at least. It's a great time and leagues better than other attractions. The Haunted Basement is less about cheap jump scares but rather tries to disturb and make you uncomfortable in an emotional sense which is so much better.

I try spreading the love of this thing every year but there's a particular reason I want to mention it here and now. After years of going to The Haunted Basement, this year I've volunteered to be a part of it. I've signed on as a volunteer actor for the attraction and will be spending weekend evenings in October doing my best to scare people shitless. Can't wait. XD

You need to buy your tickets in advance at the Soap Factory website. They will sell out eventually so walk-ins just don't happen. If you're in reasonable driving distance of the Twin City Metro I suggest giving this a shot. Get terrified and spend a night on the town.

Here's a link to the website and a video about last year's Haunted Basement.

http://www.soapfactory.org/

https://youtu.be/bxUdnniVrLo

Well guys, I finally did it! I was playing some casual matches with a buddy of mine. He said he's pretty new to game but I have to question that because he kicked my butt a few times. Regardless, we were doing our thing when suddenly...this happened!

https://youtu.be/1PkOXh0ZsII


This is the very first time I've completely parried anything that was over two hits and not a projectile. It's a good feeling. Too bad my punish sucked. I guess I was too shocked by the fact I actually parried that whole damn move. XD

On an semi-related tangent I seem to play Q better when listening to Skrillex. Particularly the following songs.

-Rock N' Roll
-Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites
-Kill EVERYBODY

Last one seems to suit Q somehow. I dunno. X3

You know, I don't talk about it much but Anarchy Reigns might just be my most anticipated game over the next several months. It's hard for me to get excited about game launches anymore but one just looks so damn slick.

Just the initial concept of a multiplayer brawler with modes like Battle Royal and Survival sounds like it could be a blast. It sounds like that was the core concept but then they go on to say they added a lengthy single player mode too. Of course that may just be marketing talk but it still sounds nice. The thing that has really sold me on the game though is the characters. There isn't a single one I dislike. They've unveiled quite a few and I bet we're going to see a least a couple more. Here is a link to each character's reveal trailer. They're only like a minute each so check them out.

-Jack
-Zero
-Sasha
-Big Bull
-Mathilda
-Blacker Baron
-Nikolai
-Leo
-Durga
-Garuda
-Oinkie

Seriously, every character to me has something about them that makes them cool. They're creative, off the wall, stylish, wacky and several other adjectives I don't care to use right now. Bottom line, these are great character designs and I can't wait to try every single one.

So how about you guys? Any of these fighters really stand out for you?

Comes out in January. Happy birthday to me! ^.=.^

I just realized I have yet to follow up that character breakdown way back. Trailers for Iron Fist have reminded me I need to do that. Well, I'll get to that tomorrow but for now I'll touch on these two.

Vergil is a snore to me. I know he and Dante are brothers but I saw a handful of moves and animations ripped straight from Dante's movelist. His saving grace to me is the Phantom Swords, which granted look pretty sweet. If not for those I'd be completely unimpressed.

Iron Fist...meh. I like the character and at a glance they seem to have incorporated his chi abilities to some extent but watching him in action is so-so. I think it's because I get more of a Fei-Long vibe from him than I'd like.

I'm almost willing to bet money that Phoenix Wright and Rocket Raccoon will be the last unveils. People are either bitching or ecstatic about Wright and RR has been ridiculously polarizing. No way they're tipping that hand until the very end.

Okay, this was a fast turnaround so I felt the need to follow-up on the last journal.

Anyway, it was revealed very recently that the Pandora mechanic in Street Fighter X Tekken not only removes your partner from play for a power boost but it will also kill you at the end of the round. So, how much does this change my opinion on Pandora? Frankly, not much.

A lot is going to depend on how much of a boost you get and what if anything factors into the strength of the boost, but I don't see it working out well. Your opponent blocks well, you're screwed so the damage payoff has to be good but not so good to render Pandora broken. Either one of two things will happen. It'll either be an overpowered mechanic or, more likely, it'll wind up too risky and impractical to really use. Forgive me if I don't have faith in Capcom's ability to get this right the first time. They rarely ever do.

Bottom line though is I just don't see the point of having a mechanic like this in the game to begin with. With all the tag mechanics at work in a tag team game why bother putting in such a risky comeback gimmick at the expense of a teammate? It seems superfluous at this point and I just don't get it.

I like Ono, but...
https://youtu.be/joYo8c1Uz_w

Oh Street Fighter X Tekken. You were doing so well. Looking so good. What happened?

https://youtu.be/PPaM55ayBvA

Hey look, it's the All Spark! Cole MacGrath is going to be in the PS Vita version. Maybe there's still time to squeeze in Optimus Prime.


You know, I was genuinely getting hyped for this game. I really was and as more was revealed it was looking more and more likely I wouldn't be able to resist buying this at launch. This Pandora Mode has effectively reversed that position.

I don't know the finer details of how Pandora mode works but I know enough that I'm comfortable calling it just another bullshit comeback mechanic to make this game more friendly for the scrubs. Considering you lose a round when just one character gets KO'd, sacrificing your partner for a power-up doesn't seem like that steep a price. It's not a brain dead as X-Factor but still...

I'm sick up to my eyeballs with these mechanics. I'll give Street Fighter 4 some leeway but now it's just getting silly. Playing Mortal Kombat and especially 3rd Strike for a while now I've remembered just how much I miss it when fewer concessions were given to the scrubs. It may be harder or make a game less approachable to newbies but it ultimately feels more rewarding to know your skills are improving and know that you outplayed your opponent without any sort of crutch.

I'm tired of comeback gimmicks. I thought this game was finally going to be a new title more geared towards the hardcore audience but Pandora threw that notion out to window for me at least and now my enthusiasm went down a good dozen pegs.

Oh and scramble mode? Anybody remember the royal cluster fuck that was Guilty Gear Isuka? Yeah. Not confident about that mode.

I'm trying to get good at Q and as such it's vital I learn when it's best to use the taunt. However I often find people taunt me back when I do this and I don't think realize taunts actually do thing in this game. Q's is especially important for him because it increases his defense and makes him harder to kill.

However, I was trolling hard in this match.

https://youtu.be/m-69uJLgdt8

I'm blaming Hazama. Now whenever I fight in a trenchcoat I transform into an enormous dick who will flaunt superiority if I think it's appropriate and this time I did.

Hail the almighty king of trolls Hazama! He has thus decreed the trenchcoat be the garment to don on thy ventures of douchebaggery!

If you want to see me kick ass skip to the video. XD

First let me just say I got 3rd Strike Online for both 360 and PS3 and once again I'm shown that Xbox Live is a better online service than PSN. 3rd Strike Online uses the typical color marker to show ping. Green is excellent, Red is terrible. On Xbox at least over half my matches are green. On PS3 I have yet to to see better than yellow. Despite that the GGPO netcode is phenomenal as expected and even the worst connections are often playable. Just today I played a few matches with  hazardbarzard who lives an ocean away from me. They were perfectly playable and latency was negligible considering we were just having fun.

It's been a blast playing this game again after so long. I may as well be learning it all over again because I never had the privilege of playing it in the arcade against other people. Despite it's terrible balance it really is a fun game in no small part to the parry system. I love it to death. Pulling off big parries is awesome but it's also such a fun mechanic. It's high risk, high reward and is both a defensive and offensive move. It allows you to be much more offensive which is a nice change from the extremely defensive pace of Street Fighter 4 which I've been playing the last two years. I like SF4 but it's a different beast from SF3. I'm just saying I'm enjoying going back to a Street Fighter that's less methodical and less forgiving.

Also, I uploaded a video of one of my matches. It was a nice warm up before going toe to toe with Haz. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination but I think I rather soundly trounced this guy. He was oddly enough higher rank than me. I'm Elena by the way. My sub is Q.

https://youtu.be/9RpnIGtz4sY

Hey guys. You know about that game Capcom is releasing this holiday season? You know, the one featuring all those characters fighting team matches 3 on 3? The update that was announced 5 months after the original one was launched? Yeah, you know the one. Well, I have a little recommendation for you. Don't buy it. If you do buy it you're speaking with your wallet, and what you're saying is "Don't worry about making a good product the first time. If you make a better one later I'll buy it anyway".

If you need to buy a fighter at the end of the year I'm of the mind you'd be much better putting that money to the upcoming King of Fighters XIII. It's also a 3 on 3 team fighter and it's looking rather flashy itself. Also, after having a chance to play a working build of the game at Otokon I can say I had a lot more fun with KoF XIII than I ever did with that other game. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/h2vwdAXQcjU

Skullgirls looks pretty sweet too.

Well, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition came out for both consoles just this week. If you haven't played it before I suggest checking it out. It's not perfect but it's damn good and the way this online edition has been approached is just brilliant. Been working the last couple days so I haven't touched it yet but I plan to do a lot of playing tomorrow.

In celebration I'm going to share my favorite match of all time in the game. As awesome as the classic "Beast Unleashed" video is I feel this match trumps it. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/XPHKWWFB4P8

Oh, and before you watch the video look at this link. Hardcore Devil May Cry fans, try not to throw up in your mouth.

New Dante Looks Like Ninja Theory Creative Director

https://youtu.be/53quqG5DDZw

Good god it looks terrible. I why were there never any more than four enemies on screen at one time despite the huge areas? I could talk at length about the many reasons this game sounds like garbage but you can literally go to any game board anywhere discussing it and find out why. Dare I say it, watching these recent trailers makes me almost want to go back to that piece of shit game Bayonetta.

Deep down he's a tarantula trapped in the body of an Italian man.

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/upl.....01433982_2.jpg

Why do I get the feeling this is dangerously close to the mental image of people who believe all the negative stereotypes about furry fandom?

...Spider crotch...

I'm going to go through the characters starting with the ones with gameplay shown followed by those that haven't been.

Released

Strider
He's a good addition and a much needed one. He has a huge fanbase from previous Vs. games alone and why shouldn't he? He's a damn cool ninja from a sweet Genesis/arcade game and his moves are memorable. Good news is he looks just as sweet this time around. Demand fro him was just as high if not higher than Megaman so I was surprised he didn't get in from the get go. Maybe they held off to help push sales of Ultimate. Who knows?

Firebrand
I know a few people who are ecstatic to see Firebrand but I personally couldn't care less. To me he was always just another monster from the Ghosts n' Goblins series. If he has any kind of personality I'm oblivious to it. His moves in UMvC3 don't really impress me either. Just a very mobile dude who breathes fire. That's boring to me. Also, Ghosts n' Goblins really need two reps?

Nemesis
I like Nemesis. Aside from generic Zombies he's the most iconic monster in the RE series and for good reason. From the first cinematic in Resident Evil 3 to the very end, Nemesis was hunting you down and just wouldn't stop even after getting blown up, burned alive, blown up, dowsed in acid and of course blown up. In game he looks okay. Like in RE3 he's either brawling the crap out of you, flailing tentacles or using his rocket launcher. There really isn't much to how Nemesis attacks so you can't really make him too flashy but it makes sense. I did laugh at that Super though where he literally walked through Chun-Li's Kikosho. Hilarious. He's not a bad addition but not great either. My major problem with Nemesis is he's the fourth RE character in this game. I'd probably welcome his appearance more if not for Jill's presence. Chris, Wesker and Nemesis would have been the perfect rep for Resident Evil.

Unreleased

Frank West
They tried to get him in the first one so it only makes sense they'd finish the job. He's as good as a done character. Like Zero they're probably going to more or less copy him over from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom which means he'll play sort of like Jill in MvC2, calling in zombies for attacks and what not. He has some grappler traits too. Either way I'm glad to see him back. Frank is awesome and Dead Rising need some love in this game.

Vergil
Vergil is cool but I'm not too happy about his inclusion, mostly because I've always been of the mind that the only Devil May Cry rep we ever needed was Dante. I'm sure he's going to play radically different from Dante but at the end of the day he's another swordsman and I can't help but think there were other franchises they could have explored if they wanted to add a character like that *coughSengokuBasaraOnimushacough*. He bolsters Capcom's villain count at the very least.

Phoenix Wright
This is by far the coolest addition to the roster among the 12 newcomers. Of course I may be biased since I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney series. In either case there is literally no telling how he's going to play because of the simple fact he's never fought in his own series before. This means the developers are going to have to be extremely creative in giving him a moveset that's good but also faithful to the source material and I personally can't wait to see what the end results are.

Final thoughts
My opinion on Capcom's choices are mixed if not a little more on the negative side. On the positive side we got excellent additions in Phoenix Wright, Frank and Strider. However I honestly think Strider and Frank should have been in the first to begin with which kind of mitigates my enthusiasm. On the negative side, Vergil, Nemesis and Firebrand are only adding to the problem I had with Capcom's roster in the first version and that is I feel too much representation from too few franchises.

We now have four Street Fighters, four Resident Evil characters, three female Darkstalkers, three Devil May cry reps and now two reps from Ghosts n' Goblins. This seems like such a waste, especially considering how lush a catalog of franchises Capcom has. Apparently Gene from God Hand barely missed the cut. Vergil could have easily been replaced by Soki or Masamune, or Sieg from Chaos Legion if you want to get obscucre, and that would offer greater franchise diversity. Then you have other franchises like Power Stone, Breath of Fire, Rival schools and so on. I just feel like they're missing a golden opportunity to let some other franchises or even one shot games shine. It's the same problem I had before.

Hello my lovelies. Well, I've put this off long enough but I think it's time I addressed the leaked roster of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. There's 12 new characters so I'm going to break it up into a few journals so you guys aren't being bombarded by a wall of text. Before going any further though I wanted to address a couple thoughts.

1. Why am I talking about the characters at all when I've made it clear I'm not buying this game? Well, I honestly am rather excited about some of the characters they added and want to share my thoughts. The reason I'm not buying this game is because as a day one buyer of the original I feel like I've been conned. That doesn't mean I can't discuss the roster though.

2. Nobody was going to be completely satisfied with the picks. You see a lot of people complaining about the roster saying it would be better if it had so and so instead of whoever. The fact is nobody is right or wrong. The roster is what it is and it's impossible to please everyone in this case. Mine is just another opinion among many.

3. On that tangent, people saying Capcom ignored the fans need a reality check. I know it sucks Megaman isn't in but if you look at polls I posted a while ago for who was wanted on the Capcom side, four of the top ten on both polls are among the six new roster additions. From the sound of it Capcom had little say on the Marvel inclusions. But if it was Niitsuma who said that it's probably another lie so whatever.

4. In regards to the Marvel side, people saying "X" character would be a waste because they were "only relevant in the 90's/in a cartoon" need to shut up. Who cares about when who was relevant? People like certain characters for their own reasons. Relevance is a non factor and doesn't make anyone's desire for certain characters any more or less valid.

5. Conversely to the above point, people whose desired characters are all returning characters from MvC2 need to think a bit more outside the box. It's a new game with new possibilities including a chance to see characters never before in a fighter to make an appearance. You want to play Marrow, Omega Red, Amingo, Son Son etc. then why not play MvC2? This kind of comes full circle to not being able to please anybody but I honestly believe the most wasteful thing that could have been done to the new roster would be recycling too much of the older roster.

With that I'll collect my thoughts on the roster. I'll probably post another journal withing the next 24 hours. I plan to pick apart Capcom's side first because I'm more familiar with their characters and I feel their choices are overall weaker than Marvel's.

Until then, keep it smooth.

So I was watching a delightful Hakan tutorial posted on SRK and it has this awesome music bed. I wait until the end to see what it is and they guys who made the video have no clue. So, I tried running VCast Song ID on it a few times with no luck. Does anybody know what this song is called? It's a sick beat. XD

https://youtu.be/zh_J-rueKeo

Hakan's Tuorials always have the best music. Know why? Because Hakan is fucking boss. It's a fact.