Deciding on "Go-To" games for each Gaming Platform

So, here we are, towards the end of another year. Here I am, making a post before Christmas Eve. A time of celebration and people show their true colors as well. Christmas is all supposed to be about what you give to others and a good time spent with such people. Friends and family time. Of course that comes later, onto some games.

PlayStation 3 - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Sony Smash Bros. as I commonly refers to it as, with good reason, has enough similarities in it to Smash to just pick up and play. When you start playing Ranked Matches and such, you start to realize how very different the game is. Even in playing Arcade Mode, you see this. When you play online however, you are forced to think and use your supers properly, with good timing and predict things that you opponents are going to do. This is the case with any fighter but being able to do this with no lag is what keeps me going. Bring a friend to do 2v2s, and you're golden. It gets points over Smash Brawl for this reason and will keep it in my PS3 for months to come.

You will see this. A lot...

PC - League of Legends

This is a strange pick for anyone that knows me and for me personally as I am still trying to learn this game. Based on games I have played and skills I've become used to, I think I've decided on a Champion. That being said, I'm told you don't really "main" a Champion and should know how to play with multiple Champions. There's something to this feeling like you have an army, with a team of five (yourself included) against an opposing army. A game that seems so simple, in theory, but once you play for yourself, you may find yourself not just curious about the game but stuck. There always seems to be something to learn. I'm still misplaced on my feelings with this game, but it has me interested enough to have made time for in a already busy schedule. That being said, I haven't touched Torchlight II yet, and I'm not even gonna get started on Diablo III. I already did that.

Badass Sword. Badass Female. The bunny suit is a bonus. Thank you, Jeremy.

Nintendo Wii - Super Smash Bros Brawl

Alright, so this one didn't come out this year. Well, I didn't want to leave out the Wii. Unfortunately, since I got the console for Christmas for some time ago, the very reason I wanted a Wii is still the only game I'm really that attached to, provided I have friends to have fun with it in. If I want to play online, I'll stick with PlayStation All-Stars. That's all I've got.

Peach Power!

Xbox 360 - Halo 4

Honestly, this whole list is somewhat surprising, because every game on here I have originally thought not much of. Except Smash and that's the one out of all of these I come to the least. Go figure. Anyway, sidetracked, Halo 4.

I hated on this franchise for multiple reasons. Ignorant twelve year-olds who think Halo revolutionized console shooters, being taken advantage of in Halo 3 when I first attempted to play the game, and others I can't remember. I decided to try it. I had little faith in both this and Black Ops 2 but I knew they would be hot games regardless. As it turns out, Black Ops II continued to only bring so much different to the table, while Halo 4 just flat out impressed me. The multiplayer works much better than any Call of Duty since the original Modern Warfare ever will, and the campaign was quite enjoyable; on Solo Legendary. Yep, first Halo game I play and this is what I do. Short story, I succeeded at this earlier today. I will probably make a separate post to get into all this after Christmas. Maybe before the new year. We will see.

These things are assholes. All of them.

Well, that will just about do it. With holiday cheer, comes holiday rushing out the door due to horrible planning. For now, I must run. Merry Christmas everyone and with Christmas, came yet another video. Yep, even right before Christmas Eve I'm putting out content. I play through the Giana Christmas level.

- Victor Max Vellon

Street Fighter X Mega Man Review

Street Fighter X Mega Man is a fan project brought to life and with this fan project came a much a needed revival to the Mega Man franchise. The game accomplishes successfully closing out the anniversary of Street Fighter and starting the Mega Man one with a bang. You can see why the name is what it is based on everything just said. The game mostly succeeds and is a great things too see. The future of Mega Man may be safe yet, but what is a fun game is simply over way too quickly.

You are treated to eight new master robots or excuse me, "World Warriors", that Mega Man has to of course defeat and take shier powers. If you have played any Mega Man game before, you know exactly what to expect here. What makes this experience different is that you see this version of classic Mega Man with brand new music that changes between 8-bit themes of the Street Fighters themselves, or clever mixes of other classic Mega Man tunes mixed with such 8-bit Street Fighter themes. The music is a strong point for the game, and was fan-made as well. Fans of both franchises will be treated to great level design and somewhat of a challenge. This Mega Man game in particular will have you doing things you did not in any other classic game such as Dhalsim's level that offers somewhat of a maze experience, climbing ladders not just straight up or down, and bosses that chase you the whole level. Real treats await past the initial eight bosses. As far as the  bosses go, they may seem a bit frantic and complex at first. Once you get past the fact that each boss will from time to time throw a super move at you and you have the proper boss order, as mentioned before, you will get through this pretty quickly.

I've mentioned the length of the game now twice. It is rather short for two reasons. For one, it's about the length of the original Mega Man or Mega Man 2 as opposed to the later games that would have a castle, then another castle leading up to Dr. Wily. Because of this, the decision would be made to not have a save system, nor a password system. The other problem is that the game was toned down in difficulty in comparison to Mega Man 9 or even Mega Man 10 that had it's moments. When the novelty wears off, it will be easy to dismiss this game as a tease for what it to come for the Mega Man franchise. With all that being said however, this game is worth trying out if for no other reason than because it's free.

You gain the ability to slide and charge shots again, which were missing in 9 and 10 respectively, and they are very welcome additions considering how crazy some of the stages and bosses are upon first playthrough. I have no doubt that fans will enjoy this game, but at the end, a feeling of being underwhelmed and wanting more are a very likely possibility. The only real incentives to go back are to try and unlock the "Secret Boss" or to play each level with a special code that enables you to listen to a cleverly named track called "Goes With Everything". Luckily, it seems that Mega Man is indeed back and hopefully this is the start of good things to come throughout the Blue Bomber's 25th Anniversary.

The Future of Video Gaming Hard Corps and Much More

It's 5:10 am. I've been up since around 4 am. Why? Well, I set myself up for it, and I'm also anxious/excited about the Mega Man 25th Anniversary Video I am going to be putting out just tomorrow. Let's just right into the topic though. Gaming is always in my life, so I'm trying to make a name for myself. Problem is, I have to juggle that with the need to find a job that grows more and more desperate by the day.

A few weeks back, I made a post about The Future of Video Gaming Hard Corps and this is kind of a follow-up to that as well as clarity. I tend to jump in an out of things. While gaming will always be in my life, I still seek my gaming niche. When running a community, I have to get my feet wet with quite a bit to entertain as well as socialize. While the past six months have not been successful for a job that is paying the bills, I have two as a writer for GamerSyndrome and Examiner.com. The interesting part about the latter is the focus I've put in since it has the most potential to get my name out there and the fact that I've been examining my life quite a bit lately. As cool as it is doing the things I do with VGHC are, I can do better for myself as a person.

I'm not trying to take away from VGHC, I just think that part of this passion I have for it should also be put into strengthening my life as a whole. I've been distant from friends. This has been for several reasons. I won't list them, as I don't want this to be some big emotional post or anything like that, but 2013 is gonna be different and I see it as a year of change. I already have as a person and a close friend that told me he didn't even know who I was anymore. This was however because I finally decided to try out a big gaming franchise I hated on for years. The franchise being Halo, and with Halo 4, I'm loving every minute of it. The point is this, I seek stability. I want it in my life. This means in my family, friends, future girlfriend, and career. Not a job. Jobs are temporary, a career is what moves you forward and you feel comfortable in (hopefully) also with benefits. The closest thing I've ever had to that was my old job, and this new gig over at Examiner, which I recently got promoted in.

It's easy for people to look back and call this lack of a real social life "sad" or "lame" or "boring", but it benefits me. I've been doing me for some time now, because I need it. I've held myself back in life always because of something and things just need to be put in motion. With VGHC 3.0, I plan to have a job to help support that, still write content for places, and continue to take the stances I do for self-respect. With all of this however comes the point in life I've been referring to as "the storm". A storm's coming. I can feel it. It's already started. I'm more willing to push aside the ones who I comes to realize don't really support me or really care if they have me in their lives or not. I think it will continue. Some of these realizations are more harsh than others, and I fear one very close is coming when this new site rolls out. I will have no choice but to face the storm though, because in the end the steps I've taken with VGHC have helped me as a person and made me feel good about bringing up something in gaming from the ground up with the potential for even more growth. In the end, I won't compromise what I feel is ideal for the brand. 3.0 means stick to what works, ditch what doesn't. The problem is, what currently doesn't was part of our "focus" and I'm simply not willing to put in the effort when to this day, I'm the only one who has unless the name "Triple Threat" is involved, and even as far as that goes, I have much to consider.

I'm laid back, and too nice of a guy to be the leader I need to be at times and that's the part that really sucks about the whole thing. I don't regret any of it though. I'm most thankful for the ones I don't know that actually stick around to talk to me or even just leave a comment on my videos. Sometimes that makes all the difference and tells me that I'm not wasting my time. No one is getting any younger. Sticking to what works and ditching what doesn't applies to life as well. The excuses end here. I just want results. Stability.

VGHC Mega Man 25th Anniversary Video

There is no way this wasn't happening. Everyone that knows me is aware of my love for Mega Man. Hell, I have a sub-series dedicated to it on the VGHC YouTube channel called "Mega Madness". The full title was indeed "Mega Madness: Tributes to the Blue Bomber" but I ditched the sub-title in favor or making things more simple and organized on the channel, but enough about all that.

If you are here, you are aware of my preview video, because I will be debuting it here on my personal blog. Since we are in the process of re-creating the Video Gaming Hard Corps website, I didn't want to post something there in case we are not able to hold onto old content (which I believe we will be able to do, so no worries). The benefit to coming here outside of seeing the video are details for a even further sneak peek on what I have been working on over the past week. Also, while this is the perfect video for "Mega Madness" it will be under the latest review playlist, reason being is that I basically combine everything I've done on the channel thus far, and put it into this video. Rants, game impressions, music rants, ect. All being said, let's get into some details.

- New intro just for "Mega Madness" videos from this point on.
- A new run of the very first Mega Man was done, just for this video, only clips for time sake.
- Permission granted to VGHC to use a song by "The Megas" for my ending montage portion of the video
- Mentions of other Mega Man themed music you should hear
- My personal feelings on the first Mega Man and the series as a whole
- A clip taken from the TV series to illustrate a particular point
- None of our usual links will be attached to this video and is strictly a Mega Man tribute vid.

I think that about covers everything. Total run time I believe is close to twenty minutes or just below. You didn't think I'd be able to shorten this, did you? Don't be silly. Really though, it was a person mission of mine to put out this special video to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a series that I hold very close to me. Because of this, I've worked hardest on this video and it shows. That being said, I'm no professional video editor. I haven't spent this much time editing any videos outside of places I'm sure I'll never get proper credit for them, but was done for the greater good. With all being said, this will be the biggest things for the VGHC YouTube channel and the brand as a whole until the 3.0 site rolls out. As I post this, final touches are being put on the video so it is ready to go on Dec. 17, which leads me into one more thing I want to reveal...

I will be streaming Street Fighter x Mega Man on Dec. 17, since that is now a thing. You can read more about that here and here. Enough talk from me, check out my preview and stay tuned to the YouTube channel on the 17th for the full video. I can't wait to share it with everyone probably more so than anything I've done thus far.

- Victor Max Vellon