Month: November 2014

While video game conventions are typically third-party affairs, Sony is set to put on a very special dedicated entirely to properties that have appeared or will soon arrive on PlayStation consoles.

The two-day community event, dubbed PlayStation Experience, will feature playable versions of games like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Order: 1886, Bloodborne, No Man’s Sky, The Witness, and more, as well as the very first North American showing for Sony’s virtual reality simulator Project Morpheus.

Have no fear, there will certainly be enough for fighting game players to check out as well. Genre titles such as Mortal Kombat X, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Divekick: Addition Edition +, and Skullgirls Encore are all set to make appearances alongside their more adventure- or shooting-driven siblings.

Oh, and, Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono will be bouncing around the show floor, Blanka figure more than likely in tow, ready to tease future happenings and take silly pictures.

In order to make sure fighting game fans are counted among the convention’s attendees next month, Sony has provided us with 25 (yes, two-five) tickets to award to our audience. As tickets are currently running for $55.50 a day (or $95.50 for the limited two-day passes) this is a pretty big opportunity if you want to see the show in person.

Instead of just throwing them into the ether and letting you fight over them, however, we’re gonna play a fun game.

First off, make sure you’re following both Shoryuken (@shoryukendotcom) and Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar (@evilmrwizard) on Twitter. Next, you will need to send a tweet to both accounts, letting us know which upcoming PlayStation fighter you’re most looking forward to with the #ShoryukenPlayStation hashtag.

For example, if I were to participate (which I can’t, don’t worry), I would send something like this: “I can’t wait for Mortal Kombat X! @shoryukendotcom @evilmrwizard #ShoryukenPlayStation.”

And we’ll even provide a couple of buttons that will automatically follow the two aforementioned accounts.

Follow @shoryukendotcom

Follow @EvilMrWizard

See, isn’t that easy?

PlayStation Experience is scheduled for December 6-7 at The Ventian in Las Vegas, Nevada. A full stream will be provided through Twitch should you not be able to make it in person.

More details on the event can be found here.

Temo Koei’s Dead or Alive franchise has seen something of a resurgence in recent years. With a successful competitive push recently concluded during the Road to the Fall Classic and yet another update to Dead or Alive 5 in the works, things are looking up for the Team NINJA fighting game series.

Venture Beat’s Stephen Kleckner (who Shoryuken forumites may know as Sosage) recently caught up with producer Yosuke Hayashi, creative director Tom Lee, and director Yohei Shimbori for an interview to talk about the Dead or Alive 5’s development and their balancing process. On the latter, Shimbori specifically mentions the balancing act of taking in player feedback while still trying to stick to his guns and make sure that each character maintains their unique styles.

That challenge was compounded when they adapted Virtua Fighter guest characters, which ultimately forced a change in the game’s combo system due to direction from Sega AM2 representatives.

“We had a rule from Dead or Alive 4 which forced a juggle to end if the player input the same command twice in a row, but we wound up changing that rule. Virtua Fighter characters use P, P, P… as a base for combos,” Shimbori explained. “We weren’t talking about just two of the same command; we’re talking 4 in a row. So thinking about giving players more freedom in their combos, we decided to revert our rule to what had been in use through Dead or Alive 3: the same command doesn’t necessarily end the juggle. It’s simpler to juggle by using the same command rather than figuring out how to string together different moves, so novice players will find it easier to juggle their opponents.”

They also had the opportunity to touch on one of the game’s more controversial aspects–the oversexualizing of its female characters. Lee’s reply to this is interesting to say the least, pointing out that they are creating “strong, sexy, confident, and attractive” characters. That said, he also acknowledged that the issue was a touchy one even within the development team and that they are aware of the criticisms against their designs.

To read more on this and other topics regarding Dead or Alive 5, be sure to visit VentureBEat for the two–part interview.

Source: VentureBeat (1, 2)