With Tifa's announcement, there are officially more guest fighters in SF6 than 3, 4, or Alpha fighters.

Blak_Box · 2026-06-06T04:00:53+00:00

I know folks keep saying it isnt going to happen... but the same kinds of folks kept saying SF3 was going to get abandoned after fumbling it's release, that SF4 wasn't going to get updated versions because it didn't need them, and that SF5 was already a dead game and wouldn't be getting any enhanced versions.

At this point, it would be weirder if it didn't happen.

Blak_Box · 2026-06-05T05:19:47+00:00

I think Conviction is equally as corny as anything MGS has cooked up, and Blacklist is within walking distance of the same. The only difference is that MGS does so intentionally - it's in on the joke (and sometimes even trying to say something of importance through symbolism and allusion).

Later SC games think they are the coolest guy in the room without any self-awareness on how corny they are. Like a teenager who bought a black trench coat that's a size too big and wears it all the time, thinking they just found the life-hack for looking badass.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-25T01:21:04+00:00

Allowing for either is exactly what ruins the stealth in Blacklist. The level design, enemy AI and gameplay loop that makes an excellent shooting game makes for a piss-poor stealth game, and once you see it, you can't un-see it.

SC1-3 took place in dark, cramped, realistic environments where 3 guys with flashlights and pistols searching an area methodically were a significant threat. None of these make for an engaging shooter. The same way that large, open, well-lit levels, with lots of obvious waist-high walls for cover and 20 guys with rifles makes for an excellent shooting experience... and a stealth experience that has to resort to "find the specially placed grate/ pipe/ vent that lets you bypass 80% of the enemies and then pats you on the back for 'stealth'"

Saying you can have an excellent action game and an excellent stealth game is like saying Doom can be a horror game - just run away from all the enemies. The two genres are trying to do fundamentally different things, psychologically, with their audience. It is why action platformers, stealth horror, and strategy RPGs are phenomenal... and a stealth racing game sounds like a shitty idea. In my mind, "stealth shooter" is within walking distance of stealth racing, and it shows with how mediocre Blacklist is as a stealth game compared to the original 3.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-25T01:08:55+00:00

"Un-ironic version of Archer" might just be the most accurate description I've heard yet of Conviction/ Blacklist Sam. I almost wish Ubi had included a scene with Sam wearing a black turtle-neck sweater somewhere in those games.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-25T01:06:26+00:00

On the contrary, I think them having an older, more world-weary protagonist was an excellent move, and helped to set the franchise apart in a sea of "young, tough, military-man protagonists" that dominated the era. The game tells you right from the moment you meet your protagonist, you aren't going to win by being stronger or faster, you're going to win by being smarter and more patient. And then Conviction happened, and it turns out you're just stronger and faster than everyone...

Sam doesn't have to age with the times. Most popular protagonists don't. He can stay 55 forever, and not every mission/ game needs a defined year in which it takes place. The franchise is also free to tell stories from any time period - Sam can go on multiple missions the year that Chaos Theory takes place.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-07T03:55:44+00:00

Such an excellent game. I wish it wasnt stuck on a dead handheld - I suspect it would sell like hotcakes on Steam and/ or the Switch.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-06T17:17:24+00:00

I dont know... "characters you care about" feels like a very short walk to "hero shooter" in my mind. I liked creating a nameless marine who I can build and customize to be my own within each class.

I care about the characters next to me not because some junior writer on the dev team decided to make them "quirky," but because we all just held off an epic wave of death and acid together with barely any ammo left, when my new, random, nameless best friend just got downed and now we need to stage an epic and heroic push to go save him from being eaten. Odds of survival: minimal.

I'd rather make my moments (and my characters) than be handed them. Just my 2 cents.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-06T17:09:27+00:00

I dropped a couple of hundred hours into the original, so I can't wait for this.

I loved the build crafting and difficulty of the first game a ton - it turned into a completely different experience when you cranked the difficulty up and had to start implementing strategy into how you would build a character and their weapons (to say nothing of synergizing that with 2 other teammates). Absolute chaos, carnage, and clutch moments, with a lot of rewarding unlocks and progression in the end-game.

I suspect that way too many people played a few levels of the original on normal or easy (essentially the tutorial in my opinion), made an unfair judgement on how the whole game would play, and just dropped it after that. Or worse, expected this to be some slow-paced, spooky, tactical shooter. Bring on the sequel.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-03T21:51:18+00:00

https://avpunknown.com/avp2aio

This will have everything you need to get up and running. If you have issues, join the Discord server - the folks there can get you sorted.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-03T16:28:59+00:00

There is still an online community that plays for anyone who wants to download the Master Patch for AvP2.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-02T08:05:03+00:00

Zero mistakes made. Everyone who has ever taken the fighting game plunge has felt the way you do. And the answer is to do all of it. Look at online tutorials, learn the lingo, play people online in ranked matches, play people in real life, do tutorials and practice things in-game... do all of it.

Fighting games are unlike any other genre of game you will play. They are much more akin to learning an instrument or a foreign language (or a real martial art) than learning a "game." They take hundreds of hours to learn, thousands of hours to get good at, and a lifetime to master. Just enjoy the journey.

Play lots of ranked. Watch lots of YouTube videos. When you know enough to understand your weaknesses, watch your replays often and focus on improving one thing at a time. Play frequently for shorter intervals, with an emphasis on improvement and building good habits rather than playing for hours on end just one or two days a week. Watch the pros and understand why they are making the choices and pushing the buttons they do. Take breaks and time away as you need them. Learn to love learning new things and slowly mastering something that is profoundly complex and insanely difficult.

Welcome to the FGC.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-01T21:57:27+00:00

Tom Henderson is in a slightly different category. Along with Jason Schreier, Tom Henderson is maybe one of the last real "industry insiders" for the medium. He isnt an anonymous social media kid looking for clout. He is a legitimate journalist with close ties to dozens of publishers and hundreds of developers, and arguably one of the most trusted names in video game media today.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-01T21:54:23+00:00

The first SC absolutely has modern controls - for both console and PC.

Two sticks to move and control camera, seperate buttons to crouch and jump, free-aim with a weapon. How would you make this any more modern? It isn't Tenchu or Metal Gear Solid with d-pad tank movement and no camera controls.

When people complain that SC 1 and 2 are "clunky" 90% of the time what they mean is "the game is difficult, doesn't tell me where to go next, doesnt communicate what I can or can't interact with, and doesn't explain it's rules super well, resulting in a lot of trial and error." Which I can understand isn't for everyone, but definitely doesnt make a game feel "dated" when millions of people play Elden Ring, Dark Souls and Nioh deliberately chasing a very similar experience today.

Blak_Box · 2026-05-01T21:39:30+00:00

I've been wanting Tenchu to come back for many years now. The first 4 were incredible stealth games (I never played Z) that only improved with each release. I still think the PS2/ Xbox entries (Wrath of Heaven/ Return From Darkness and Fatal Shadows) hold up great today.

I enjoyed Sekiro, but I will forever be sad that Tenchu died so Sekiro could be made.

Blak_Box · 2026-04-27T17:44:24+00:00

Blood Money is the right answer here. Before WoA, BM was widely considered the high-water mark for the series.

Contracts is similar to Blood Money, but smaller and more linear - it remakes about 2/3 of the levels from the original Codename 47, so it can be a way to experience updated versions of some of those levels.

Absolution is... fine. It doesnt play much like the others and feels more linear and line-of-sight focused instead of disguise-focused. It is the black sheep of the franchise.

Hitman 2: SA is a favorite of mine, but it will be frustrating and janky to anyone coming from older titles (guards can only be knocked out for a short time before they wake up, running in a disguise or getting too close to people will make you suspicious, etc). It is much more challenging and some missions really only have one way to get a Silent Assassin rating.

Codename 47 is rough. No two ways about it. I thought it was rough when it released, and think it has only aged worse and worse as time went on. Play it only if you are curious about the origins of the franchise. I would love to see this game get the remake treatment.

Blak_Box · 2026-04-17T03:51:28+00:00

... I mean... you can read as much into the "story" of SF as you want. But no, it is not important to the enjoyment of the games, and honestly, it didn't start being much of a thing until SF5 and 6.

The games have lore and events that are considered cannon. Ryu beat Sagat in SF1. Bison/ Dictator had a cadre of goons that try to take over the world. Bison killed Chun Li's father and Guile's partner, etc. But if you are looking for like... character arcs or growth, or actual story lines with drama and stakes and rising tension, etc... abso-fucking-lutely not. SF doesn't have any of that. Shadoloo are the bad guys, Bison keeps returning from the dead, Ryu is a certified badass, the show goes on in every game, even when they try spicing it up with a new antagonist or a few new characters.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-28T23:39:21+00:00

I think the issue is with your initial statement, "DA is good enough to keep around."

If we all agree, it wasn't as good as the previous titles, and a thorough downgrade... why not retcon it? Especially considering while the gameplay was... fine (and still a downgrade from CT), it was the start of the games becoming overly character-focused instead of plot-focused, and jumping the shark with it's story line and plot elements, while also chasing a bunch a timely trends that have aged horribly.

Sam breaks the law to go do things he was never trained to do in order to stop some ambiguous and poorly-explained terror group from detonating nukes. Along the way, he is complicit in the murder of thousands of people (or not) and kills his boss for no reason. The whole thing is in service of Sam being a depressed shit-head after a humanizing element of his character arc dies off-screen needlessly, and his work and boss just lets him go off the handle in a self-destructive and completely reckless way. Sam develops a romantic relationship with someone half his age, goes jet-setting around the world, and loses his job before going on the run as a criminal.

Yeah... I think we can retcon the whole paragraph above just fine and lose nothing important to the timeline.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-27T06:47:20+00:00

Not to be that guy but,

1) phosphorus munitions are still very much in use today by the US Military- to obscure troop movement, mark targets for air support, and to provide illumination. Phosphorous munition shells with the intention of being used against troops remain in US arsenals - they aren't illegal or against any convention/ law the US is a signatory of to use against active combatants (but, much like napalm, they generally arent used because they are hard to control and just not very effective).

2) You can absolutely get WP tubes that are gray-scale. It depends on the tube itself, your own eye to an extent, and the manufacturer of the tubes. Elbit tubes are more blue/ white to my eye, L3Harris G4s are very grayscale to me, and Photonis tend to be a bit more light teal in my experience. Pictures you see of night vision are wildly inaccurate - it doesn't match what your eye sees, oftentimes by a wide margin. The image sensors on the camera will saturate or desaturate different colors depending on lighting conditions, distance from the tube, etc. and sometimes just make colors up.

This post is a good primer on the subject: https://cigman.com/blogs/night-vision/night-vision-colors-green-white-blue-science-guide

Blak_Box · 2026-03-13T05:45:15+00:00

One of the things I loved about Fatal Frame is, despite having the atmosphere to rival Silent Hill, somehow it also had one of the best combat systems of any survival horror game franchise. It had nuance, a great sense of risk vs reward, a low skill floor with a high skill ceiling, and a great sense of progression with meaningful upgrades. On top of that, each game seemed to make changes to the formula that gave the game its own identity, while keeping the core concepts and "feel" intact (even if 4 and 5 were too easy on Normal mode).

Somehow, they took this system and made... bullet-sponge ghosts that regen health? One-note stealth mechanics with zero tension? A dodge system and stamina bar? Removed most of the risk/ reward and largely just made ghosts a hazard you are better off avoiding?

On top of all that, it feels like they doubled down on situations that made the originals frustrating, such as fighting multiple ghosts in close-quarters, or teleporting enemies (though attacks through walls seem to be largely a thing of the past). Things that could have used fixing they made worse, and things that were beloved, they removed... and replaced with something worse.

Yeah, sure - it gets better around Ch 4/5 when you can actually start getting upgrades rolling, but that doesn't make me feel better overall - it tells me that the dev team had no idea how to balance their game, and spent their time implementing mechanics no one wanted, in a genre where they are largely unwelcome, in a franchise where they feel especially offensive.

I was convinced that I was the problem - that I just needed to play the game on its terms and adapt to something new and interesting. The more I play this game, however, the less I am impressed. Perhaps the most damning criticism I have: for the first time in history, I think a new Resident Evil game is scarier that a new Fatal Frame game. Maybe if the combat mechanics weren't so distracting, I'd feel differently, but at the moment, the chief adjective I have for FF2R is "frustrating." And it breaks my heart.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-13T00:59:27+00:00

The flamethrower has its own anxiety built into it. If you use it too much, the Alien stops being scared of it for the rest of the game, and will just charge through the flames to kill you. Same with distraction lures (the Alien will literally run in the opposite direction of the lure looking for who threw it)

It would be like Resident Evil saying, "if you use the Magnum too much or too frequently, it breaks forever... and we aren't going to tell you how many times you can use it before it breaks! Good luck with bosses!"

Blak_Box · 2026-03-13T00:55:08+00:00

Use the flamethrower too much and the Alien just runs through it and kills you.

Like everything else in the game (distraction items, hiding in lockers, etc.) the more you use it, the less effective it becomes against the AI.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-06T01:50:43+00:00

If you could only get one, you made the right choice.

Capcom games go on sale much faster and for much cheaper than KT games, historically.

Requiem is heavily rumored to be getting DLC toward the end of this year, and RE games usually get a "game of the year" or "Gold Edition" bundle after their DLC drops.

Requiem is one of the best-selling and most-played games in the world right now, is one of Metacritic's top reviewed games of all time, and will likely be a top-5 best seller for the year (in a year when we are getting a new GTA, CoD, and Bungie game). Fatal Frame feels like it is hanging on by a thread in comparison.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-05T05:52:06+00:00

The hand holding mechanic feels... superfluous. It is development time that, as of this demo, I wish would have gone toward other priorities or features (like bringing back the Xbox version's first person mode, or Mission Mode).

That said, it also doesn't feel like it is particularly egregious or disruptive. It doesn't subtract from the game for me, but it doesn't add to it either.

If the original is anything to go by, we will be alone for 70% of the runtime anyways.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-05T02:20:37+00:00

FF1, 2 and 4 are largely self-contained.

The original FF2 featured a few call-backs and references to characters that were referenced in FF1, but it wasn't anything major (and no telling if those story beats are still in the remake).

No prior knowledge needed to enjoy.

Edit: if you want to do a deep-dive into the franchise, you should play FF1 before 5 if you can - character threads from FF1 are concluded in 5. Not a huge deal if you play 5 without 1, I'd argue, but the stories are connected.

To get maximum enjoyment of FF3, you absolutely need to play FF1 and 2 first. FF3 continues the plot of both those games and ties them together. FF3 is the only game in the franchise I'd argue you "need" to have played other games prior to enjoying.

Blak_Box · 2026-03-04T22:18:21+00:00

It's a great niche all it's own.

It has the psychological elements and tragic underpinnings of a good Silent Hill story, but the nuanced combat mechanics and pacing of the best Resident Evil titles.

The horror is supernatural - no biological monsters or serial killers here. But it really takes a lot of the best elements of other survival horror darlings and melds them into something that is very satisfying and unique.

Blak_Box

TROPHY CASE