Just added my two cents in the online vote and I thought I'd share who I voted for. Also while I'm at it I want to talk about the characters I really don't want to make the cut. Anybody who goes unmentioned either didn't appeal to me quite as much as the characters I voted for or I'm utterly indifferent to them. For most it's the latter.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the proposed additions and are curious here is the page detailing them.

Skullgirls DLC Character Concepts

Voted On

-Panzerfaust: I was sold the instant I heard inspiration was drawn from Big O, my favorite giant robot period. I can totally see him doing ersatz Final Impacts with that tank arm. The notion of tank treads as chainsaws sounds suspiciously like Jack Cayman from Anarchy Reigns, another game I love. I hope he plays less like a grappler and more like a raw power character but either way he looks fucking epic and I want him to make the cut more than any other character.

-Black Dahlia: I think Skullgirls could stand to have one more zoner and Dahlia fits the bill nicely. She could be a more conventional zoning character than Peacock and I really like her design. Not to mention she has story presence which is another notch in her favor. I'm pretty sure she's the one that killed Miss Fortune and she's established as the go-to killer for the Medici family so anybody who has a vendetta against those mobsters would in all likelihood have to deal with her at some point.

-Brain Drain: There really aren't any pure evil playable characters on the current roster. Brain Drain could fix that. I'd love to see Painwheel get her revenge for what he did to her and anybody involved with the ASG Labs seems to either hate or fear him. He has good antagonist potential for at least four characters. From a gameplay perspective I can totally imagine him being the only character with a tri-dash and/or beam. Maybe be a Magneto style Pixie/glass cannon. Controlling opposing teammates through snap-back also sounds cool.

-Molly: I voted for her in the hope they put her in the mech walker. It looks really great. Kind of like Tron Bonne really. More importantly I think her gameplay sounds incredibly fun. The idea of her being an assist that's heavily slanted to buffing point characters intrigues me and the notion of sending an electrical pulse trough relay points immediately made me think of Doctor Strange with his Runes. It seems like a very interesting character with a lot of creative potential.

Really Don't Want

-Umbrella: I generally find kid characters obnoxious and Umbrella was a royal pain in the ass in Parasoul's story. I don't want to play some brat. Not to mention we already have an umbrella user. I don't care to have two.

-Mrs. Victoria: Her gameplay concept sounds like nothing but pure fighting game fan service with no originality. One of Skullgirls' biggest assets to me is its quirky design and originality so I really don't want to see a copy character who just apes moves from other games.

-Feng: Remember what I just said about Skullgirls' originality being one of it's strong suits? Well, with that in mind why in god's name would I want a slot wasted on one of the most common, cliche character archetypes in fighting games period? Just because every other fighter has a token anime Chinese girl doesn't mean Skullgirls has to.

-Andy: He's already part of Peacock's move list he makes sense only really in that context. Without Peacock calling the shots he just looks dumb.

-Minette: She's not a fighter so I don't want her padding a small roster.With the exception of Phoenix Wright, I don't like the idea of non-combatants being playable in fighters. I never liked using Roll for example.

-Venus & Aeon: Aeon looks dull, I dislike Venus' look immensely and their proposed gameplay sounds unimpressive. Aeon sounds too much like Double and we have enough grotesque characters that Venus isn't really needed. That aside these two are supposedly gods or something. Sounds like boss material for a future installment maybe. Save them for a sequel if at all. I still don't like the designs either way.

-Samson: Samson already has his time to shine as Filia's parasite. There's really nothing to gain by going this route. Besides, Panzerfaust and Hubrecht are more compelling "Big Guy" designs than this.

DO IT NOW!!!

https://youtu.be/eYDvxo-M0OQ

FUCK...YES!!!

Just asking because I haven't decided which version I'm going to get and it largely depends on how many of my friends are going to get it. Whichever system has more buddies playing it is probably the system I'll go for.

I was talking to a buddy about this and we had some very different opinions, perhaps because I come from the comic side of Marvel and he comes more from the movies and games, but nonetheless it got me wondering. This is a general question. Who would you guys say are the top 5 villains in the Marvel roster? It's up to you whether you elaborate on the rationale behind your picks but at the very least please say where your familiarity with Marvel comes from. Anyway, here are my top 5 in no particular order. If anyone wants me to explain feel free to ask.

-Thanos
-Dr. Doom
-Apocalypse
-Ultron
-Loki

So who would you guys pick?

So yeah, a couple of times in the last week I started watching Hokuto no Ken aka Fist of the North Star and streaming it for buddies to join in and watch. Well it come up in the stream today so I thought I'd expound on it quickly. There are going to be spoilers obviously. There's a universal fact about this series.

Hokuto no Ken 2 sucks balls.

Now it's not all bad. There were in fact three good things about HnK2. Their names were Ein, Falco and Han. They were original characters with interesting motives and fighting styles. The Tentei arc itself wasn't bad either. Beyond that though, it sucked. Biggest reason being the series creators didn't want to even make the damn thing. They had a plot leading up to the final confrontation between Ken and Raoh and didn't plan further than that but the powers that be wanted more money and had them continue. They gave no fucks it seemed so the writing was pretty lazy. But let's get into specifics shall we? Here are my personal reasons for thinking HnK2 sucks.

-The new OP song "Tough Boy" is pretty damn atrocious. I know "You Wa Shock" is peerless but goddamn.

-Most new characters are bland if not uninspired expies of better characters in the first part.

-The few interesting new characters die far, far too soon after their introduction and often for dumb reasons. I know meeting Ken at all is like signing a death warrant but even so some of these guys could have lasted a while or gone out with style. Nope!

-Kaioh was an especially terrible villain. His motives were lame and he was so over the top evil it was actually comical most of the time. It's hard to take a guy seriously when he looks like he's on fire and doesn't even realize it.

-Hokuto Ryuken in general was a dumb style after the Han fight when the introduced the demon aura concept. How the hell does a martial art itself make a person evil?

-The Shura arc drags for too long and is very boring because the character conflict lacks personal history and emotional weight many earlier arcs had. These characters have virtually never met before the arc actually began.

-The retcons. This is the big one because they were horrible. Mostly in reference to the Hokuto lineage bullshit. They added this whole True Hokuto Bloodline thing and made a lot of the major players relatives in order to give the Ryuken branch an artificially deeper reason to oppose Ken and add phony gravitas to the fights. This made the the history of Hokuto Shinken overly convoluted and in another way cheapened the story and characters that came before. Being the sole successor to Hokuto Shinken became less about earning it and more about being a child of destiny. It's basically the same as what George Lucas did when he decided The Force comes from Midi-chlorians.

-The Raoh worship. Raoh was the main villain of HnK1. The villain. Sure he was pretty cool and on some level you might sympathize with him but ultimately he was a ruthless tyrant who put his ambition over all for almost the entire time he was around. Then HnK2 keeps trying to paint him as this tragic anti-hero. Maybe even the guy who really should have been the Hokuto successor which is bogus because it reduces the importance of Ken, the damn protagonist of the entire series. It gets even worse when Ryu enters the mix.

-The series ended on a low note no matter which media you choose. The anime ends with an unimpressive fight against Kaioh, a comically poor villain, and the manga ends with the already silly Kenshiro/Bat/Lin love triangle concluding by Ken curb stomping a robo-mook after Bat shows he's a total jobber even as an adult.

-Oh yeah, there's a Ken/Bat/Lin love triangle. Why does this even exist? I wouldn't doubt it if ken were almost twice as old as Lin even after she grows up.

So yeah, some shriveled little vestige of enthusiasm lingers in me enough to check out this Sony Event held today if for no other reason than to somehow give me hope for the future of gaming. I'm just going to kind of ramble off a list of thoughts without really organizing them. I've read and watched pieces enough to get the idea of what's going on but I won't claim this to be the most informed or comprehensive impression of the event.

Also just to put things into perspective, I'm starting to feel like the old guard when it comes to games. One of those crotchety bastards who believes things were better in a bygone era. The economics of gaming has changed to a point where the game industry operates more like the films industry. Development budgets are huge and in order to turn a profit they need to sell much more than they have in previous generations. That's why nowadays are less quality niche titles and many triple-A games are very samey and homogenized. To sell the most possible copies the product is made so readily unoffensive to as many demographics as possible. This is the chief problem with current gaming in my mind and why I'm so pessimistic about the future.

I also had a bottle of wine tonight.

Soooooo, here we go.

-Better graphics, more power, all that expected junk, la-dee-da. For me none of gaming's current issues could be strictly solved by prettier pictures. That said it's smart for Sony to ditch the Cell processor. I'm no tech expert but I recall that thing was a bitch to program games for and why PS3 kind of lagged behind Xbox with multi-console games. Still, they didn't say what kind of GPU it was using. They just waved around a bullshit marketing word like "supercharged" and "highly enhanced". Give me hard facts assholes. I want to make sure the damn machine has better specs than my laptop.

-The controller is apparently incorporating a touchscreen and some kind of motion detection. They seem relatively unobtrusive. That's the best thing I can say. However they really just make me worry more about future gaming and reinforce my suspicion nobody has any idea how to go forward. They're so clueless about ways to genuinely innovate the game experience they have to attach these failed, terrible gimmicks to the hardware like vestigial organs.

-They actually seem interested in trying to make the system accessible to 3rd party developers. Good for them. Puts them a step above Nintendo at least. Not a difficult thing to do mind you, but still.

-Streaming games from the Cloud. Hope you have a good internet connection. I hate the idea of streaming games from the Cloud. What's more we keep hearing about publishers thinking of ways to bite into used game sales so something like this always makes me leery because it's a way to control content. I'm fine getting my games digitally but I also like the option of a physical alternative. Streaming from Cloud seems like a monumental pain in the ass.

-I hate all this social networking crap. It started halfway through this last generation and never stopped and I fucking hate it. I buy game consoles to play games. If I wanted to socialize on a network I'll use my fucking computer that can go to social sites. I don't want this shit to be pushed in my games. If I like your game I'll mention online in the usual circles but the last thing I want is games being built with this crap in mind so we can become their free advertisement.

-They didn't demonstrate any of these features they talked about. Maybe saving it for E3. Either way all we really got out it were some trailers. Some barely looked better than what we have now. Others could very well have been pre-rendered. After the whole Killzone 3 thing all those years ago I never believe these kinds of trailers.

Final Thoughts
You take away all the online social stuff and cloud streaming and what do you seem to get? A more powerful, more expensive PS3. What's the point? I love my PS3. It gets the job done and there are still games coming out on it that I like.There was nothing at this event to put my concerns to rest. I don't feel the future of games should be in networking and prettier graphics and bigger games with prettier graphics and bigger budgets. I just want them to either be fun, creative, innovative, immersive, well made and complete products, or any combination of the above.

I get more enthusiastic reading about Oculus Rift than I do reading about PS4.

Cuz I found a Star Trek: TNG gag reel!

https://youtu.be/lnOKAfliK0k

My god I want those Season Blu-ray boxes so bad but why do they have to be so goddamn expensive?

Boodendorf came through with another tutorial about offense. It's part of a tutorial anyway. Glad to see more are incoming. He calls it "Burst Damage" and it's pretty similar to some of the tactics I mentioned in the earlier primer when talking about "Sniping" as I call it. He of course goes more in depth and has video examples.

https://youtu.be/M6skCAG-zaM

It's just more to demonstrate winning in multiplayer is less about who's the most technically proficient and more about who's a better opportunist. Combos are nice to have and there are some impressive, lengthy ones, but experience has shown me it's usually best to keep it short, sweet and simple. You're less likely to fuck up your combos or have it fucked up by someone else. If you can get good damage in only a handful of attacks, even better.

Also, he mentions a Jumping Killer Weapon Heavy trick. It's a weird glitch that only three characters can really make any use of and even then it's not game breaking or anything. I wouldn't worry about it. It's only worth knowing if you use Zero, Sasha or Nikolai.

Hey guys. Today I just realized a fair number of people here I know have picked up Anarchy Reigns. When I went from Campaign to multiplayer the action was like night and day and the transition was a little rough at first so just for the benefit of anybody planning to dive into the online portion of the game I'm writing this primer to make the transition a little easier. Keep in mind this is based primarily on Team Deathmatch experience but I have played all modes and this advice should be applicable to most modes.

I'm going to operate under the assumption that anybody reading this has at least gone through the tutorial.

The Mindset
There is absolutely no honor in this game so put that out of your mind right now. Succeeding in this game means fighting dirty. You win by being a ruthless, unfair, opportunistic, predatory bastard. Gang up with teammates against people who are alone. Hunt the weak. Hang back while two people are fighting and steal a kill when your mark is nearly dead. Use any items available to you to incapacitate or outright kill others before they know what hit them. Run if things get hairy and if possible so you can regenerate some health. Never ever run off on your own in team modes. Strength in numbers is vital. If you're in a team game find your team before you find your enemies.

Defense
In the campaign when you're fighting waves of mooks it's perfectly fine to run in guns blazing. That doesn't work so well in multiplayer. Defense in this game is absurdly strong, so much so that all offense stems from a rock solid defense. When you're fighting head to head with someone it's less of a brawl usually and more a fencing match, baiting the opponent or waiting for the other guy to do something that leaves them wide open. Boodendorf on SRK made an excellent tutorial for this. I'll link it here.

Anarchy Reigns Defense Tutorial

I personally prefer the walk method mentioned in the video. It's not that much slower than the Killer Weapon method and keep your guard up. There are of course abilities you can unlock to drastically improve both blocking and evades. If you run into a hopeless turtle who just refuses to engage in fighting at all your only options are to find a throwable item to open them up, or just forgetting them and moving on. I prefer the latter as I'd rather hunt for a kill than waste time with a coward. Just be sure to keep an eye on the guy if you disengage as they may try to stab you in the back.

360 Attacks and Launchers
This is your "get the fuck off me" move. Everybody has it and performs it the same way, pressing Square and X. For a brief time you're invincible and everybody hit by it gets knocked away to give you breathing room. Continuing from what I said above, a great way to open people up is to bait these out. Land a few hits, stop the combo early, block and/or back-step and as long as the attack doesn't hit you the opponent will be left wide open for whatever attack you want.

From my experience most people throw this out after two or three hits land. As for when you should use them, don't get twitchy. In the rare 1-on-1 scenario I usually won't use these unless a Killer Weapon starts being used. Now if people are ganging up on you I personally try to use it the instant something hits me to minimize my chances of getting launched. If on person lands a weak hit then another can launch shortly after. Suddenly you're airborne as two or more people pound on you, which leads to the next part.

You can do 360 attacks virtually whenever you want during a combo except in three circumstances: During a cinematic Killer Weapon attack, if incapacitated by an item, and finally, and much more importantly, if you're airborne. All the combos and big damage in this game come from knocking an enemy in the air with your launcher, rendering them unable to escape, and going to town. Everybody has a launcher and it's performed with Triangle. They tend to be slower but they hit they will put the enemy in the air, at your mercy. You're primary goal in those fencing match standoffs is ideally to open the enemy to a launcher.

Also, because the 360 can only be done on the ground be sure to be very careful when you try to use jumping attacks. They can be immensely useful for ambushes or attacking people preoccupied with others, but they are risky since you're essentially making yourself defenseless. A stray hit can start a combo on you.

Sniping
This is what I like to refer to when you swoop in for a kill. Everybody can charge their strong attack (Triangle) with or without the Killer Weapon out. There are two levels, denoted by a change in posture. The charged Killer Weapon strong attacks usually send you dashing a good distance very fast and tend to hurt like hell. If you aren't locked on to somebody they can be manually aimed. Before entering a brawl where everybody es fighting take a moment to see if anybody is near death or if you've even been noticed. You can potentially charge the move and "Snipe" a kill and if nothing else maybe you'll get the drop on an enemy or save an ally. It's worth trying sometimes.

Rampage
This move is much less useful than it was in campaign. When a person rampages the best option is usually running away. If that doesn't work it's actually fairly easy to avoid getting hit. Just dodge when they get close and try to jab you. Since you're on a time limit in rampage the default urge is to pummel them to break guard but if the initial attack whiffs you get stuck in a pummel animation that hits nothing, wasting time. I save my rampage for only three situations. First, when another rampaging person attacks me I rampage to get in the clash. It's the best way to defend against this move and can end their rampage early. Second and much more scarcely, when everybody is in a battle and to preoccupied to notice me running behind them to annihilate them. And third, against bosses. Otherwise if somebody hits you with a rampage try to block or evade as best you can but expect to die since it's a likely outcome.

Level Items and Hazards
Levels in this game try to mess with you in various ways but they also have weapons and items you yourself can exploit.

-Tires and signs: The absolute best throwable items. Hitting the enemy with this leaves them open to any attack you please and for a good long while. Usually when a match starts the first thing you should do is try to grab one of these nearby.

-Liquid Nitrogen Tanks and Motorcycles: These function similar to above only they freeze and electrocute respectively. Almost as good as above except the enemies are stationary and can't be juggled. Leaves them open to your heavy moves though.

-Oil Barrels and Cars: These light enemies on fire which is a very brief and inconsistent status. Nowhere near as good as the others.

-Gattling Guns: Some levels have stationary gun turrets. If you're near an area that has one always be aware of who controls it and how many teammates are near you in team games. Teams brawling in a place with a turret is usually a losing battle for whoever doesn't control it. They can pick of people while you're preoccupied with the person in front of you. If your whole team is there, blitz the turret. If your teammates are spread out or dying all around you, run away.

-Kraken and Cthulhu: These bosses appear on some levels and can be a royal pain. Generally it's a team effort to take one down but doing so gives a lot of points. Kraken is easier to kill and generally less disruptive since he's stationary and you can just get away from him. Cthulhu is worse. It can travel the entire level and has a habit of teleporting high scoring players directly to itself. It's really tough to kill so just avoid it as best you can.

COMBOS!
And finally the juicy stuff. Once again thanks to Boodendorf here are a couple combo vids to demonstrate what the characters can do. Notation is on the actual Youtube pages. now some of these are more flashy than practical but they'll give you an idea what to do after a launcher.

https://youtu.be/kk4N5pFELT8
https://youtu.be/smWw7OX-z9A

If you have any specific questions please ask. Also, if you want some help with some very basic combos to do that are easier than the ones in the videos feel free to ask me in the comments and I'll send you a note. I've done this for a couple friends and they're already kicking ass.

See you on the battlefield!

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 came out just this last Tuesday. I know it's a niche game based on a niche series (in the US anyway) but I was wondering if there's anybody I'm friends with here who have bought it or plan to. Reason being this game actually has online co-op as well as versus. I want to get on that with a buddy.

For those who haven't heard about it, here's a trailer!

https://youtu.be/mUSsytvcR_g

I still think it's kind of funny how much I was looking forward to this game considering how I mostly despise HnK2. Hell, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that actually likes it. Still, more characters to explode heads with.

So far the game has been fun. It does a few things worse than the first but it's mostly better. Now I just need Koei to hurry up and release Han DLC and I'll be peachy. Trying to plow through Legend mode and unlock Falco asap.

Another reason why Anarchy Reigns is a great game. Here are my absolute fave tracks from the huge OST.

https://youtu.be/o1fuwUJnKFM
https://youtu.be/ypVii_9QDgQ
https://youtu.be/fTKBa3VERvw

And I thought UMvC3 got people salty. Check out this high sodium intake.

https://youtu.be/Htw83L9XvMo

This had me laughing my ass off.

I love Anarchy Reigns. It's some of the most fun I've had in a multiplayer game since Fall of Cybertron. It's something new and something great. But I swear it's deliberately random environments, some ridiculous perks and a few other assorted things that border on bullshit this game at times seems scientifically engineered to raise your blood pressure. It's hilarious but dammit I love this game.

Played a few team deathmatch games with  trinitystrike and had a pretty good time. Still these games and other ones prior taught me a few things and I'd like to address them briefly.

-If you're one of those chicken shits who uses master evader to run away at the first sign of trouble, go fuck yourself.
-If you have a shitty connection and use Baron or the Rin sisters, go fuck yourself.
-If you play Deathball of Capture the flag like Battle Royale, go fuck yourself.

That first one really gets under my skin. The team Trinity and myself were on were all had shit connections, exploited lag like nobody's business and insisted on running away the instant things looked hairy. Two words: Bull, shit.

I should clarify that lag may not be the right term. Perhaps latency. The framerate never drops ever for me. It's just people with terrible connections, well, their characters seem to behave in ways that are contradictory to what should be happening.

For the record I use Max. Dude is huge, crazy and kind of reminds me of Jecht in a way. I dig him. =3

Just wanted to remind you guys that I (usually) post bite sized comic reviews on twitter. If you want to hear what I think or share your thoughts with me feel free to follow. Keep in mind I'm far more knowledgeable about Marvel. I'm pretty new to DC comics and indy titles are usually just a blip at best. Only a handful maybe. Just uploaded two weeks worth of my pull on twitter now. Check it out.

https://twitter.com/Zero_Shifter

While I'm at it why don't we have a little comic discussion. I'll give us a little topic if you want to talk about something simple but feel free to stray from it and talk about something else. I welcome any discussion really.

So, the question. Who would you say are some of you favorite and most hated comic artists and why?

=3

Just a little curious since I'm still fairly new to DC. I'm getting pretty jazzed about Injustice and there's still a fair bit of roster guessing going about. I've always figured the typical legacy heroes will make it in but the villains are a bit more of a question mark for me. Who would be some of the most iconic DC villains in your opinion, barring Batman's rogues gallery? Batman villains are really well known and if you ask me the Injustice roster already has too many Batman character period. Who else are major big bads?

Sure I know about guys like Lex Luthor, Sinestro and Darkseid, but beyond that I'm kind of in the dark. For example, Doomsday has been practically confirmed but is there anything notable about him beside killing Superman in the 90s? Black Adam is a rumored addition too but I'm clueless about him other than being a Shazam villain.

I'm kind of curious who you guys quantify as major DC villains who may not be blatantly obvious. Please, enlighten me.

I may have decided to hate this game months ago and I put almost no stock in reviews, even so I still am curious what other people think. That said, considering how "game journalism" is such a hopeless, pathetic punchline right now, I have to stand back in awe of this review.

https://youtu.be/rRyN6qUZ9Mc

You know I always liked Adam Sessler. I may not always agree with him but I always respected how (when he doesn't have executives breathing down his neck anyway) he effectively conveys his perception of the game experience eloquently with thoughtful analysis and fairness. You don't see many of those nowadays. Most every major game "News" outlet either tries to bullshit you with phony impartiality or wastes time with peurile nark and bad jokes. So many reviews say a lot without telling you much nowadays. Just a sea of mediocrity getting 8's and up because games aren't held to a higher standard anymore, nor are the organizations reviewing them. Case and point, watch this review.

https://youtu.be/el-_LPIjrok

Different games granted but tell me, which of these two reviews seemed more informative and useful? More professional? More fair and sensible?

-Edit-
Four years after posting this I was looking at my journals and noticed this entry. I forgot I wrote it. Just felt I should add that in the time since writing this, my opinion of Sessler has done a complete 180. Sadly to see I guy I used to respect devolve in to such a stereotypical, utterly sanctimonious, bay area douche-bag. Such a pity.

Hey guys, just a quick question. Just this holiday my family got me an iPod because they got sick of seeing me using a CD player. Fair enough, but now this means I need to get iTunes. At least I think I do. If I don't please tell me. I know it's a good music program but I always like to look into new software reviews, particularly cnet user reviews. The reception of the latest version of iTunes over there is overwhelmingly negative.

Basically just wondering if anybody can give me a heads up on what the current situation with iTunes is. Is it decent? Is it a resource hog? I want to be able to use this new iPod but I don't want to fuck up my new laptop in the process.

Okay, so I had this idea and since I have a few days off coming up I thought this could be a lot of fun. Gives me an excuse to fuck around with my voice too. So here's the deal...

In the comments here leave me some dialogue to read. It could be something you made up or a single line or a movie quote. Whatever. After that I want you to try and describe the kind of voice you want me to read it in. Try to articulate how you want me to sound when I'm delivering the line. I didn't really want to do impressions but it's an option if you really want.

I'm going to shred my vocal chords for you guys. X3

Another list. Hooray! I'm so original! What can I say? I like these kinds of journals because I get to talk about things that don't normally come up in conversation and I like the replies I get. I was going to do top five but honestly there are only really three who are constant enough to matter. Everybody else just gets shuffled around and falls off. So here we go!

#3 Thanos

Maybe not the best Marvel villain ever but he's definitely up there, and he's my personal favorite. Lets get one thing out of the way. Infinity Gauntlet was an amazing crossover event and Thanos was the star. He also looks like a boss. With that said, Thanos is loaded with pretty much all the traits I love in villains the most important of which is his intelligence. Sure, Thanos in an incredibly powerful individual. He looks like a brute and has gone toe to toe with the likes of Thor and Thing, but his greatest asset has always been his mind. He very frequently wins his battles through wit rather than power. It's how he has consistently bested others who are frankly out if his league. Through his cunning he's even managed to attain omnipotence.

The other aspect about him I enjoy greatly is his ultimate motivation. Thanos has threatened to eliminate galaxies, attained godhood and actually killed half of the life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. Why? For love of course. See, in Marvel the Grim Reaper is a girl and Thanos is madly in love with her. He serves her faithfully and the biggest motivation for just about every major goal he pursues is to impress and romance Death. She rarely reciprocates though and this tends to frustrate him immensely. His character is rather complex as a result. His disdain for life and ruthless willingness to eliminate it is all to woo a woman who frankly isn't all that interested. And honestly, I'm no stranger to nihilism so on some level I can almost relate to his motives. Really though he carries himself with such class and style it's hard not to root for him at least a little in most of his books.

#2 Megatron

I need to clarify that I'm talking about the Beast Wars incarnation. Sure G1 Megatron is great but he was ultimately a fairly shallow megalomaniac. The Megatron of Beast Wars was so very much more. BW Megs is a baddie with all the charisma and presence of a bond villain. It would be more apparent if I listed more of my fave villains but I love a good schemer. I think there's more joy to see a villain laying traps and plotting against the heroes than to simply try to overpower them every time. Megatron does this in spades and most importantly to his placement, he does it with giddy delight.

Megatron is just such a fun character from a characterization standpoint. He knows he's evil and he revels in it. His quirky speech mannerisms, always punctuating sentences with "Yesss" or sometimes "No", his dry wit and sarcasm as well as his overbearing ego and sense of superiority. It's this combination of things that just makes him an absolute joy to watch in action and a good chunk of the best lines in the series are solely his. Not to mention he turns into a purple T-rex. Later on he turns into a flying cyborg T-rex with roller blades. I don't care how you slice it, that's pretty damn awesome.

#1 Dio Brando

This will come to no surprise to anybody who knows me and frankly this explanation will be a lot less elaborate. I love Dio because he is so completely, unbelievably, irredeemably evil and he loves it that way. So few villains can pull off evil for the sake of evil and none pull it off with the style and over the top panache as Dio. He's a vampire, he's gorgeous, he's intelligent, he dresses in some of the most unvillanous looking atire I can think of, he tried to kill a guy by dropping a road roller on him. He is so full of himself and so overconfident he bleeds ego. It was bad enough in the first arc but when he got the power to freeze time it just got ridiculous.

Let me elaborate. In order to flaunt his superiority, something he rarely passes on the chance to do he used his time powers to fuck around with a clearly weaker opponent when he could have killed him easily. The hero was trying to show his bravery by marching up stairs after Dio dared him to. Only after taking a step or two does he realize he didn't move a single step and sometimes moved down. Dio was literally freezing time, running down the stairs, moving the hero back down and running back up to were he was standing at least a couple times just to fuck with this guy and show just how out of his league he was.

Despite this overwhelming ego there are a few shreds of humanity that make Dio a bit more interesting than "Muhaha evil!" villainy. He resents his abusive father for treating his mother like shit and he has a certain degree of respect for the Joestar lineage because of their tremendous will. Also even though he's supremely confident there isn't a single instance I can recall of Dio succumbing to plot induced stupidity. He's one of the most methodical and cautions villains I've ever seen.

At the end of the day though he's just such an amazing despicable bastard it's impossible to not love the guy.

Oh man I can't wait. Once I saw it was up for pre-order ant Play Asia I had to snatch it up. Man, that new trailer. Already posted it on JoJo_Furs but I'm going to post it again.

https://youtu.be/HbdgjePSY0o

Dat Road Rolla Da. I swear this trailer is like my new alarm clock. I watch it once a day. XD

I've been practicing more in SSF4:AE so I felt like sharing this. I like most Street Fighter characters to some degree but there is a small handful which just drive me nuts. Here are the five worst offenders. And I'm not including characters from the EX series because...well, it's the EX series.

#5 El Fuerte
What a tremendous disappointment. As some people know I have a soft spot for Lucha Libre so the prospect of Street Fighter finally getting a proper luchador had me ecstatic. Then we got...a total joke character. You know how you ruin the awesome idea of the fighting chef? You make them a shitty cook. If Elf were an amazing cook his character might be salvageable but as is he's just pathetic. His design is lame and he didn't have a good look until his third alt came out. Worst of all his movelist just sucks. I was looking forward to some elaborate grapples and maybe even multi-throws or something appropriately high flying and stylish. What I got was bad normals and a retarded looking run. What a shame.

#4 Balrog
I don't care if he was one of the very first boxer characters in fighters, Balrog is shit. Boxers are among the coolest and most stylistically varied characters in fighter. Look at guys like Steve Fox, Dudley, Ric Stroud, Shen Woo and numerous others to see what I mean. I know all the original world warriors are based of stereotypes but at least they got creative with most. Balrog is just a clone of Mike Tyson. Also, from a story perspective I just don't understand how some moronic, petty thug like this guy could end up being a high ranking Shadoloo officer. It's just dumb.

#3 Twelve
This is what you get when Shang Tsung fucks the Pillsbury dough boy and they have a baby. Street Fighter is no stranger to weird characters and oddball designs. Hell, some of my favorites are oddballs. Still, it gets to a point where enough is enough and Twelve is just too damn much. Not much personality really and I don't find his moves especially neat. Really though it just boils down to he's so horribly out of place it irritates me.

#2 Seth
Good VAs do nothing to hide the fact that this character is about as lazy as you get. Nothing but a big, boring copy. He copied the general look of Urien and Gill and is too boring to get his own damn special moves for the most part. He just copies them from everybody else. Seth is the Dural of Street Fighter and when you're comparable to the most boring character in a fighter somewhat known for it's vanilla characters, there's a problem. Seth, like Twelve, is another case of an oddball that's too odd to fit and while Twelve at least has some semblance of originality there is absolutely nothing original about Seth. Spinning that ball in his gut isn't impressing anybody and I feel like we were cheated a proper new big bad as a result.

#1 Ibuki
I'm probably going to hang for this but I fucking hate Ibuki with a passion. She's a combination of two characters archetypes I just can't stand in most cases: The Ninja and the brawling schoolgirl. Street Fighter has no shortage of either of these and yet somehow we just needed to have Ibuki didn't we. The schoolgirl character always got on my nerves but sometimes things can be done to endear them. Like Akira from Rival Schools for instance. However Ibuki falls into all the old cliches. As for being a ninja, she's probably the most boring ninja I can recall off the top of my head. Her specials are mostly just various kicks with a few kunai here and there and her design is just so blah. Nothing but beige everywhere. It's like she just grabbed a bunch of burlap sacks from a coffee shop and slapped together an outfit. Where she's not boring, she's annoying and nothing about her is appealing to me. I can't for the life of me understand why she has so many fans.

So who do you guys hate?

Just one of those "little getting to know me" journals. Feel like sharing some of my likes. I'll link to some yt vids of the music in question after saying why I like these wonderful music makers. Keep in mind #1 is the only one set in stone. All the others tend to float about depending on my mood. Either way, all of these guys have colored my personality over the years.

#5 - Electric Light Orchestra
Turn to Stone
Livin' Thing
Mr. Blue Sky

I think a big reason for this one is I grew up listening to my dad play his old vinyls in the house or cassettes in the car. I thought ELO was good back then but when I grew up more I realized just how awesome they are. I really love the blend of 70's rock with the accompanying orchestral bits. It's just so cool. And a lot of it is just so damn happy!

#4 - Toto
Hold the Line
Afraid of Love
Africa

I know Toto has this reputation as a cheesy 80's rock band who just sang a bunch of songs about and titled after women. They're not entirely wrong. Even so I can't help but love these guys for a couple reasons. First, to me they're song compositions are sound more intricate and exciting than a lot of others in the same time frame. Second, Toto made the soundtrack to the ridiculous David Lynch Dune film which I also love. That's got to count for something!

#3 - Jamiroquai
Space Cowboy
Virtal Insanity
(Don't) Give Hate a Chance

You wouldn't know based on this list but I have a huge love of jazz, soul and funk and while those kinds of bands may not be among my faves, that kind of music is my "go to" listening music. That said, Jamiroquai is just so good because they manage to dabble in and fuse elements from all these genres in fascinating ways and make it sound modern as well. Sounds less cheesy and always chill. There's some great acid jazz bands out there but Jamiroquai tops them for me. Also, Napoleon Dynamite dance.

#2 - Depeche Mode
Black Celebration
Precious
Enjoy the Silence

There were a lot of synth bands in the 80's. Thing about Depeche Mode is they don't suck. Even though they still use synths to this day they still manage some incredible songs and while I don't usually care about lyrics on songs Depeche Mode are a rare exception. Sure they're bleak and dripping with angst and despair usually but it suits the songs, especially when they started sounding really industrial. I love that sound. I just think these guys are great for sounding "synthy" and good without really sounding like kitschy 80 pop. They're also the only songs I can sing halfway decent in karaoke.

#1 - Daft Punk
Human After All
Da Funk
One More Time

If there were one band I could be downright fanatical for, it's these guys. Not to sound hipster but I was a fan of these guys before it was popular. I first heard their first album "Homework" shortly after its release and it's been a magical trip since then. I have all their albums, including the remix ones and the live recordings. I have the Stardust single since Bangalter was part of that. I have the movie animated by Leiji Matsumoto. One of my greatest life regrets will be having missed their Alive 2007 tour. I'm a total fanboy.

It's not just me loving the music though. Sure that's a huge part, but another thing is these guys have been the soundtrack to some of the greatest moments in my life. If I was traveling somewhere or doing something special and out of the ordinary chances are I was listening to Daft Punk at the time. As such I associate their music with some of my fondest memories. It's a special attachment really and it's why these guys are peerless to me.

...And also why I wish they'd make another goddamned album already! Tron Legacy soundtrack doesn't count! Not a studio album! Movie soundtrack! Yaargh!

Finally got some nice, clear, official trailers for some of the major players from Hokuto no Ken 2. Finally got some footage of the Rasho.

https://youtu.be/AvhgSug4b7s
https://youtu.be/omHij6X0Kwc
https://youtu.be/5dDCyAK6aIM
https://youtu.be/5205EzCILwc
https://youtu.be/uEnZZfLq_TI
https://youtu.be/ncw7BJ_xLsw
https://youtu.be/JN5QPb2Tc4s

Some assorted thoughts on these.

-I don't recall Bat or Lin really fighting at length. Bat however has a pretty cool style so I dig him. Lin on the other hand just fights like Mamiya minus the bladed yo-yo's. Hell, she's barely fighting. Mamiya could at least scrap a bit. Lin is just running around and shooting her crossbow. She was next to nothing but a damsel in distress the entire time in HnK2 so I think it's kind of dumb her spot isn't taken by a cooler fighter.

-Falco is a roaring badass as expected. Gento Kouken was so cool.

-Kind of surprised how awesome Shachi's style looks. Hyoh isn't too bad either.

-My god Kaioh is dull. I would have expected them to make him a bit more savage looking in action but other than that hilarious omnipresent headbutt he just looks kind of stiff.

-Where the hell is Han? He better be DLC in the future or I will be most disappointed.

A few of my friends have already seen but last week I started a fan group. Not surprisingly the subject of said group is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Here's the group.

 jojo_furs

I kind of want to get the word out, not just to the JoJo fans here but also to any anime/manga enthusiasts who maybe interested in looking into it. You'd be amazing how quickly people get hooked on JoJo if they give it a shot. In either case, I was hoping my friends and good acquaintances who watch me here on FA would be willing to help out and make a quick journal pimping JoJo Furs. Doesn't need to be elaborate, just a little shout out.

Thanks guys!

More footage of the new additions!
https://youtu.be/0tKtU0a3XpA
https://youtu.be/UMFBKcX57RU
https://youtu.be/_WXWyFPvi-I

It's being released early February next year. I'm just crossing my fingers that they'll announce Han as playable before then. If they add Kung-Fu Freddy Mercury then I will be absolutely 100% satisfied with the playable roster. Everybody I'd want to play will be playable. C'mon Koei, I we already know he's in game.

http://the-magicbox.com/1211/hokuto44.jpg

Just tell us he's playable now and all will be right with the world. Han was cooler than Hyo and Kaioh combined.

Kinda of funny I'm looking forward to this game so much considering I really don't like Hokuto no Ken 2 all that much. Guess I'm a sucker for the character designs and the ultra violent martial arts. X3