Something Wicked this Way Came


The long wait is over.

After almost four months of tortured waiting, my ordeal of counting the days away have finally ended. This morning a FedEx courier arrived bearing the package I have been waiting for such a long time. Yep, my copy of Virtua Fighter 5 for the PS3 is in The Sanctum, and I couldn't be happier. I simply have not wanted a game this much ever before... or perhaps, it was because I haven't felt this way in such a long time is the reason for my extreme euphoria. In any case, my most-awaited fighting game is here, so now I can throw away my now-useless copy of Dead or Alive 4 (okay, not really).

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play much since I had to go on off to work. I was able to create a VF5 game file on my PS3 Hard Drive (which took several minutes), create my first custom character save file and try out some of the modes, particularly Arcade and Dojo. What can I say? The game looks absolutely amazing on my TV even though the set resolution right now is just 480p (since my Archos AV700 cannot record video in HD ). I'll be enjoying VF5 in the crispy clarity of HD once I finish recording some videos for posting online.
Anyway, my first attempts to play met with the usual result- while I beat up the first few opponents handily, later stages saw my poor Aoi flat on her back. I'll need to spend some time in the Dojo Training Mode before I start taking names with consistency. But this early, I could sense the increase in speed, the easier manueverability of the characters and the tightness of the controls. For now I'm using the regular Sixaxis controller- once my VF arcade stick arrives (God knows when), this should get even better.

I wasn't able to check out the other modes- VFTV or Customize- as much as I wanted to, so I'll save that for later tonight. Expect a full review as I strap on my fighting gear and get ready for a fabulous VF5 weekend.