What's it all mean? 

Man, it's been a while since I've slapped up some commentary here on GotSpace. A while back I had vowed that my feisty post was supposed to be indicative of a return of my old column, the B-Side, but work and school obligations have kept me… Busy. That isn't to say that I haven't had plenty of free time. I've just chosen to spend it playing a lot of games; probably more than I had been playing in years. I'm not sure what triggered this sort of renewed vigor — maybe it was the slew of fall releases — but the new year ushered a new beginning for my unhealthy love affair (or obsession…) with "chasing the critters on the digital wonder-box." At least that's what my father would call it.

Kick-starting the revival of my gaming obsession was Assassin's Creed, which was arguably my favorite gift from the Christmas bounty. Props to my father for picking it up for me. This is a game that's really the most clear cut case of love-it-or-hate-it among reviewers that I've seen in quite some time. As far as my two cents goes, I have to say that I'm in agreement with the former. Now don't get me wrong on this, but as a member of the gaming press, I can understand holding a game with a long dev cycle or a ton of hype to a higher standard than some budget title like Ninja Bread Man. However, regardless of how hyped a game is or how much time its been "in the oven", when the game does a ton of things we've never seen before and some that we have but does them well, it deserves no hate. It should get applause for what it does right, especially when what it does wrong is so minor IMO. Altair is ten times as stealthy as Solid Snake ever was, the enemies are (generally) pretty intelligent, very persistent and ever aware, and lets face it; the game is absolutely freaking beautiful. When I arrived at the first town in the game, I was in absolute awe. I thought there was no way it was real-time until I pressed the analog stick and Altair responded.

Now sure, the game's got a limited array of mission types. Sure, there are some weird clipping and AI issues. And sure, the game has one doozy of a blue-ball ending, but I enjoyed it start to finish. In fact, it's probably one of the only Xbox 360 games — Xbox Live Arcade games excluded — that I actually almost got every achievement point. The only two I don't have are "Conversationalist" because you can't revisit the segments in the lab and the one for doing 50 stealth kills; though I'm confused as to why I haven't gotten it yet… There's only one other game on the 360 that I felt a similar sense of duty to. That was Gears of War; and had 50% of the achievements not been online multiplayer related, I'd have gotten them all.

Really, when a game can grab a hold of you, shake you and say "listen, man!', it's doing something right. Assassin's Creed does this, Gears of War did this, and as much as I hate to admit it, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune does too. Now, for those paying attention, did you see what I did there? Yeah, I just gave praise to a PlayStation 3 game… Some of you may recall my uncontrolled spitting of venom towards Sony's black, shiny behemoth of a console once upon a time. I noted it being over-priced, under-delivered, and how there was no way that Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4 could save the system. Do I take back any of that? No, but that's only out of principle (and some degree of fact). But having gotten an 80GB PS3 for Christmas with Uncharted, I have to say something I never thought I'd say. I like a PS3 game. In fact, I also like Ratchet & Clank Future, so there's two. The system came with Motorstorm which was originally one of the games I thought looked cool, but I've yet to give it a whirl; Drake and R&CF have been keeping me busy.

Between sessions of pick-pocketing, treasure hunting and making robots dance with a futuristic disco ball gun, I've also been carefully watching the slow trickle of information and imagery for Capcom's upcoming Street Fighter IV. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 3 months, you're undoubtedly aware that SFIV is on its way. You know that it's 2D, the eight original world warriors are returning to action, and that the game is on display at the AOU 2008 expo in Japan. There's been three to four videos circulating that depict footage from the game, and if the crappy over-shoulder cam footage is any indication, this game is going to rock. While anyone who knows my stance on the series is aware that I stopped playing the games after SF2T: Hyper Fighting and therefore only had a passive interest in SF3: Third Strike, I am actually pretty psyched to see what IV brings to the table. Friends of mine who have some close intimate experience with the work-in-progress tell me not to worry, and that it still "feels" like SF2. While some little dink on NEOGAF posted two videos for comparison purposes — one of SF:EX2 and SFIV to try and rattle these notions — my faith stays strong. Capcom knows that the series has been stagnant for some quite some time, and it's hardcore fan-base is hungry for something new. And if that something new doesn't satisfy their hunger pains, it will be torn to shreds.

Though I'm still a bit iffy on this Abel fellow… A man "with no past?" You could at least pretend to try.