The Fighting Games of 2012

There were a ton of fighters released and re-released during 2012. Here is what the year had to offer;

Arcade

• BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (November)
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (September)
• Persona 4 Arena (March)
• The Rumble Fish 2 (September)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Unlimited (March)

PC

• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (February)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (May)

Playstation 3

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)
• Dead or Alive 5 (September)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection (November)
• Fighting Vipers (November)
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (December)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (August)
• Makeruna Makendo 2 (December)
• Marvel vs. Capcom Origins (September)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (March)
• Persona 4 Arena (August)
• Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (November)
• Skullgirls (April)
• Sonic the Fighters (November)
• Soulcalibur V (January)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (March)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September)
• UFC Undisputed 3 (February)
• Virtua Fighter 2 (November)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (June)
• WWE '13 (October)

XBox 360

• Dead or Alive 5 (September)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection (November)
• Fighting Vipers (November)
• Fire Pro Wrestling (September)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (August)
• Marvel vs. Capcom Origins (September)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (March)
• Persona 4 Arena (August)
• Skullgirls (April)
• Sonic the Fighters (November)
• Soulcalibur V (January)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (March)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September)
• UFC Undisputed 3 (February)
• Virtua Fighter 2 (November)
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (June)
• WWE '13 (October)

Wii / Wii U

• The King of Fighters '96 (July)
• The King of Fighters '97 (March)
• The Last Blade 2 (October)
• Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (August)
• Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (September)
• Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge (March)
• Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (April)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: WiiU Edition (November)
• World Heroes Perfect (July)
• WWE '13 (October)

PSP

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)

Vita

• Darkstalkers 3 (April)
• Mortal Kombat (May)
• Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (November)
• Reality Fighters (March)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (October)

DS / 3DS

• Tekken 3D: Prime Edition (February)

iOS

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (April)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (September)

Android

• The King of Fighters Android (March)
• Street Fighter IV HD (January)

Super Street Fighter IV: PC Patch 1.07 Approved

Capcom has announced that the PC patch that was supposed to go live a few weeks ago has finally gotten approval and will be available next week. 1.07 will fix a number of bugs including;

• In the Car Crusher stage, a bug that made it impossible to advance has been fixed.
• Against specific characters, a bug that caused Juri to pass through her opponents when they were hit at point blank range with close standing medium punch has been fixed.
• Against specific characters, a bug that caused Dee Jay to pass through his opponents when executing close standing heavy kick super canceled into heavy Sobat Carnival has been fixed.
• Against Sagat, a bug that caused Cody's EX Bad Stone to miss when Focus Attack Lv. 3 -> Dash -> EX Bad Stone was performed has been fixed.
• In SSFIV AE, a bug where Dudley's Step Straight caused an opponent's hit animation to not operate as expected has been fixed.

New Street Fighter X Tekken DLC Added

There are 40 new gems available, 20 for each side, and a new color palette pack. The gems for Street Fighter include a mix of anti-Pandora and vitality recoveries. While the Tekken gems help characters to Harmonize their skills. The gem packs, 10 per pack, go for $0.99 each or you can download a trial pack for free. The new color palette, the 6th of the series, adds 4 new colors for character customization and is available for free.

Skullgirls Patch Delayed

Skullgirls co-creator Mike Z posted on Shoryuken yesterday that the patch has been delayed because of financial reasons that are beyond his control. He released no other information on the subject. To see what the much anticipated patch will include, visit Blue Gartr & Shoryuken.

Ragnarok Online goes Free 2 Play

This weekend the team behind Ragnarok Online, GRAVITY Co., Ltd., announced that the game has gone "Free to Play." Doing away with monthly subscriptions, Gravity now offers the game free of charge to all of their users. Players can now instead pay a fee for a VIP package to get all of the bonus' subscribers had received (better drop rate, higher EXP gain, larger storage, and additional buffs). As an added bonus for this weekend, RO players can try-out the VIP package for 3 days to get a feel for what they could be playing with. To get in on the action, head over to Play Ragnarok and download the client.

Bioware: No SecuROM on Dragon Age 2, Release Control instead

Dtoid is now reporting that Bioware has responded to complaints about SecuROM being "ninja'd" into copies of DA2. Instead they say the software is actually Sony's Release Control software which was placed to prevent early usage of the game. The two software's are very similar to a point that they share files that can easily raise concerns about SecuROM invading the machine. Bioware did go on to say that any RC files left over can be easily removed.

You can read Bioware's full statement here.

Square Enix Shuts Down Final Fantasty XI, XIV Servers to Conserve Energy

Japan's power company, TEPCO, has asked major businesses to try to conserve power in any way possible and Square Enix has decided to do that by shutting down their FFXI, FFXIV, & PlayOnline servers for at least a week, maybe even a month if need be. All current subscribers are being given the month of April free of charge as compensation. While the XI user base may survive if it does come down to having a month of no service, XIV may not. SE is still trying to build a stable following for XIV after its troubled launch and first few months there-after and any downtime will hurt their efforts. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Press Release:

"Due to the continuous earthquakes occurring in the eastern regions of Japan since Mar. 11, 2011, the power companies in Japan have encouraged everyone to cooperate by conserving as much energy as possible as it is feared there will not be enough power supply. Based on the current situation, we have decided to shut down the game servers temporarily, and therefore to suspend services of FINAL FANTASY XIV, FINAL FANTASY XI, and PlayOnline temporarily.

The services will be temporarily suspended for at least a week starting on Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT). We will provide an update regarding the reinstatement of the service as additional information becomes available. In connection with the temporary suspension of services, players will not be billed for any PlayOnline service throughout the April billing cycle. Additional information regarding this matter will also be posted as it becomes available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your understanding of this unusual situations."

link

Statement from TEPCO:

"A big earthquake occurred in the northern part of Japan at 2:46PM of March 11th 2011. Because TEPCO's facilities have been seriously damaged, power shortage may occur.
TEPCO appreciates customers' cooperation in reducing electricity usage by avoiding using unnecessary lighting and electrical equipment.
We are taking all measures to restore power, however, we expect extremely challenging situation in power supply for a while. We kindly ask our customers to cooperate with us in reducing usage of power"

SecuROM DRM Found in PC Version of Dragon Age 2

Dtoid, via Vivid Gamer, is reporting that EA has snuck it's dreaded DRM program into the PC version even though it has said previously that it would not. EA could also see itself in some legal trouble as a court order said that they would have to disclose ahead of time if they would be enclosing a DRM into their product.



The "gamer's rights consumer advocate group," Reclaim Your Game, is currently in the process of informing their subscribers of this action. It has also raised the following concerns;

* Inconsistent information about DRM
* No EULA for SecuROM
* SecuROM files hidden from user
* SecuROM files not removed after online activation
* DRM removal tool not included; SecuROM remains even after user uninstalls game

You can read the full document of complaints & concerns here (.pdf) or here (site).

One Weekend, Two Major FPS Leaks

FPSfags got an early Valentines Day gift. On Friday Crysis 2 (beta build) + the Crytek3 Engine were leaked online. A seemingly hefty torrent weighing in at 9.21 gigabytes has given fanboys an early look at the much hyped about title. EA & Crytek are on the hunt atm, people are reporting that the torrent has been pulled from Pirate Bay & Demonoid.



Because it's a beta build the graphics are unpolished, reportedly the build is limited to DX9 & medium settings, but it is more than playable. It took players less than a day to get multiplayer working, but sadly only in LAN format.



The other big leak this weekend happened today, Sunday. Sony's flagship FPS Killzone 3 got released by some Eurofag. PS3 News, via MadFanBoy, is
saying there are two versions of the Killzone 3 client out right now. The 3D enabled version weighing in at 41.4GB and the regular version at 22.3GB.



Crysis 2 will be in stores on March 22, 2011 and Killzone 3 February 22, 2011.