UFC 102 Thoughts: It’s Couture vs. Nogueira, FTW!

30Aug09

UFC 102 was an excellent card from top to bottom.  It’s one of those cards that didn’t have the hype of 100, or the afterglow of 101, but I feel it was better than those two.  Is it short-term memory? Perhaps, but I enjoyed all the fights, and saw two legends put on a fight that lived up to my expectations.  Here’s the breakdown:

Light Heavyweight (205lbs) “The Polish Experiment” Krzyzstof Soszynski (19-9-1) vs. Brandon Vera (10-3)
I think this fight was a gimme fight for Brandon Vera.  I like him, and will almost always root for him cause he’s a proud Filipino, but he didn’t do much to silence critics this fight.  He seemed hesitant to go for the kill, and while I don’t want him to throw a win away just to try to finish and it’s not always apparent when you’re actually in there fighting, but he clearly was better than Krzystof (who I have to always check to make sure I spell right) in every aspect, from striking to clinching to groundwork.  Though it was  lackluster decision, Brandon won and showed an ability to throw dissecting strikes (which we knew he could already) and more than competent clinch control (again, which we knew already).  Vera, for me, is always fun to watch though.

Middleweight (185lbs) Demian Maia (11-0) vs. Nate “The Great” Marqaurdt (31-8-2)
Nate’s record always surprises me.  He has so much fight experience, and yet still young and has still so much potential.  I’ve never been bored of a Marqaurdt fight, and tonight was no different.  I was hoping for a Maia win, because I’m big on Demian Maia’s jiu-jitsu.  Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva espouse a standup style that minimizes damage received and maximizes damage inflicted, and Maia has the same philosophy for grappling and submission.  Too bad you need to get the fight to the ground for that to happen.  Maia dropped his hands going for a kick and got KTFO in short order by a stunning straight from Marquardt.  I was impressed by Nate’s talent and his sportsmanship.  He rushed to finish but saw Maia was out, and instead of punching until the ref stopped knew the fight was well and done and left it be.  Great performance by The Great, though unfortunately it doesn’t seem to lead a title shot.  Even though Anderson cleaned out his division, I feel a champion should defend his belt, even if the only challengers are people he steamrolled already.  Though I do like the buildup.  After the fight, Nate bellowed “If you want someone to kick Anderson Silva’s butt, then you’ll give the shot to me!”.  Indeed.

Middleweight (185lbs) Jake Rosholt (5-1) vs. Chris “The Crippler” Leben (18-5)
Leben has some cool asian inspired tattoos.  Aside from that, this was a good fight that showed a wrestler do what I’ve been noticing a lot of wrestlers do lately, which is slug it out until they fall, only to then wrestle.  It usually turns into interesting fights, and I know Rosholt wanted to make a splash by knocking out Rosholt, but instead he beat Leben with a beautiful triangle choke in the 3rd round that was inexcusably held on for too long cause Yves Lavigne totally missed the tap even though he was staring right at them.  This puts Leben in no different a place then he was before.  He’s a gatekeeper for up and coming middleweights, who’ll challenge them and usually give them a few moments for their highlight reels.

Heavyweight (265lbs.) Tim Hague (10-1) vs. Todd Duffee (5-0)
Todd Duffee looks like an American Ivan Drago, with a crazy stupid fist tattoo on his back.  It turns out he needs that tattoo cause apparently he punches so hard he needs a third fist to contain all that power.  He knocked Hague out in 7 seconds, for the fastest KO in UFC history.  Duffee looks like a force, and he’s starting to stack out an incredibly growing UFC heavyweight division.  Amusingly, after the fight he yelled into the camera “That’s thanks to hard work!” and “Feed me Dana! I’m hungry!” which drew a few laughs from me.

Light Heavyweights (205lbs.) Thiago Silva (13-1) vs. “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine (14-6-1)

This is another light heavyweight card that didn’t show us anything new.  Thiago Silva, putting himself back together after being destroyed by Lyoto Machida, showed he was an aggressive and powerful striker, and Keith Jardine showed he’s weak against aggressive and powerful strikers.  Powerful strikers he can manage (Rampage/Liddell) but add aggression and Jardine has shown time and again to succumb (Wanderlei/Houston Alexander/Thiago Silva).  Thiago Silva KO’s Jardine, and perhaps is destined for a fight against Brandon Vera, which should really test both fighters.

Middleweight (185lbs) Ed Herman (15-7) vs. Aaron Simpson (4-0)
This was another bad decision in the night, which makes it look like I hated this card, but I didn’t, I just disliked some of the parties that should have been more responsible. This time, Ed Herman’s corner draws my ire. But before that, Aaron Simpson showed a good standing game that knocked Ed Herman down enough times to force him to stay down and hope Simpson jumps into his guard. That wasted some time until they stood up again and Aaron Simpson took Ed Herman down in a way that hurt Herman’s knee. At the end of the first round Herman clearly had a busted wheel as he limped to his corner. For some stupid reason though, Herman (probably a macho sense of pride and that he was fighting in his hometown) and his corner (probably cause they’re all idiots that obviously don’t care about their fighter after this fight is over) went into Round 2. Subsequently Herman threw a kick that fucked up his knee some more and caused the ref to call it. The 2nd round was a joke, and Herman probably has a fuckload of medical bills and time that he could have lessened if he just didn’t continue fighting. Simpson won by TKO.

Main Event: Heavyweights Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira (35-5-1) vs. Randy “The Natural” Couture (16-9)
Damn, this was a great fight.  But first, where does Mike Goldberg get his stats? He said that Randy’s never been submitted.  What? Ok, nice job of being a no-nothing.  Anyway, back to this amazing fight.  I wasn’t of the camp that felt this was do or die for either men.  They both have legendary legacies, and to see them test their skills against anyone in the division is a pleasure.  Even though Randy was 46 coming into this fight, all eyes were on the only man to hold championships in both Pride and the UFC: Minotauro Nogueira.  After an abysmal performance against Frank Mir where he got schooled and then finished for the first time in his illustrious career, many had called for his retirement.  Rumors circulated that he was done, getting KO’d repeatedly in training, etc.  If your training partner is Anderson Silva, I’m not to surprised or shocked by that news.  There’s a reason why rumors aren’t always substantial, and circumstance leads to outcomes, and Big Nog showed why in dismantling Randy Couture.  No easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, Nog was caught repeatedly by Couture’s boxing, including beautiful close uppercuts, only to wade through and pummel Couture with his own punches.  A lot has been said of Minotauro’s underrated strikes, and tonight I hope that descriptor goes away as this, along with most other of Nog’s fights, showed that Big Nog has more than competent striking accuracy.  His footwork and head movement leave much to be desired, but Nog seems iron bound and he punches well.  That’s a dangerous recipe for many fighters.  The 1st round is perhaps the best round of fighting I’ve seen this year, they both boxed in the early moments with Randy getting the better with uppercuts only to have Nog drop to guard once Randy tried a clinch.  Randy backed off immediately, some more boxing and dirty boxing, and then Nog dropped Randy and went in for the kill with a D’arce attempt that Nog had to give up despite looking tight as hell since  Randy wasn’t tapping and Nog was tiring himself out in the attempt.  They box some more, Randy gets his trademark clinch and pummels Nogueira only to have Nog punch back while in Randy’s clinch and then they fight against the cage as the round ended.  It was a fucking beautiful round that showed everything these two guys had.  Round 2 wasn’t as good but still incredible as they boxed again, Nog tried for a guillotine only to have Randy slip out and then Couture dropped Nog and chased him into his guard, dropping fierce short elbows and posturing high to land bigger shots.  Nog was active with his guard though, fighting for wrist or body control and moving vying for better position for his legs.  NOG THEN SWEPT COUTURE INTO MOUNT(!), and goes for an arm triangle but let it go since Randy locked him down at half-guard and Nog couldn’t pass to the side to sink it in.  Couture maintained half guard, and really impresses me with his defensive jiu-jitsu against a monster on the ground like Nogueira.  RANDY SWEPT TO HIS FEET and they box to finish the round.   Couture’s hard shots were just unfazing Nogueira.  I’m talking beautiful uppercuts, straights that would buckle average men..it was incredible.  That Nog finally went down is a testament to Randy’s determination.  That Nog didn’t stay down is a testament to Nog’s resilience.
Round 3 has both men slugging it out again only to have Nog drop Couture.  Nog tries to go for the finish with hammerfists and I thought it woulda been over but Randy kept his hands up and was moving to guard.  Couture nullified any heavy damage with his guard and then turned only to have Nog go for his back.  If they weren’t by the cage Nog would have gotten it, but looking at it again, obviously his proximity to the cage was the only reason he’d risk giving his back to Nog.   Couture slipped out and ended up in Nog’s guard.  Couture raining nice elbows but it seems a little too late.  Right as the round ends Nog again sweeps Couture into mount.  It was an amazing fight that proved both guys are still relevant, Nog especially with a win by Unanimous Decision.

I can watch that fight over and over and over again, it was just…I love both guys, Randy’s determination and strategy is always incredible to watch, and some will probably say that the axiom “Never bet against Randy” is stupid, but you really can’t with what Randy can do.  With his Greco-Roman and boxing background, his clinch is frightening.  He has incredible conditioning for someone who’s 20 years younger, but at 46 it’s awe-inspiring.  He loves competition, and he loves challenging his opponents.  He threatened (jokingly) that he wouldn’t be adverse to subbing Nogueira.  He handed Liddell his ass with both striking and seemingly took him down with ease, regardless of Liddell’s renowned takedown defense.  He out muscled Tito against the cage, and slowed down the Phenom Belfort in his prime.  He owned the larger, stronger and younger Tim Sylvia and Gabrial Gonzaga.  Randy but up nothing short of a valiant effort escaping defeat 3 times in all 3 rounds.  Randy can be a beast at 205, and I hope he drops down to finish his career, though that’s the most stacked division in the UFC, with powerful strikers for days.  But the story of the night is Nogueira.  He had a banged up knee and neck, and then suffered a staph infection that forced him into a hospital a week before his fight with Frank Mir.  He said he doesn’t want to make excuses, and Mir but on a hell of a performance, but if they were to fight again I don’t know if the fight would in any way resemble each other.  Nogueira showed he still had the tools that made him a hero in the sport: Tough as steel with an unmatched ground game.  Nog himself showed what effective BJJ could do, pulling guard in the first round as soon as Randy got the clinch, and making a statement that Nog would continue to do it whenever Randy tried to work his bread and butter.  Nog squashed any hopes of that by threatening to drop guard at the first sign of that.  Against quicker, more powerful guys I’ll still worry about Nog, but I’ll never doubt him again.

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Craig Ferguson on What Went Wrong With Society

16Aug09

Agreed.

Future (young and fresh) out.

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Tags: Craig Ferguson, Youth

Anderson Silva: Untouchable

10Aug09

FightMetric just posted a blog post with the following “fun facts” from the Anderson Silva/Forrest Griffin fight:

* Silva landed 13 of 25 total strikes, for an accuracy percentage of 52%. That is his lowest hit rate since coming to the UFC and the third lowest of his career. He landed 51% against Ryo Chonan and 50% in his first pro fight against Luiz Azeredo. Silva has still never had a fight in which he landed less than half his attempted strikes.

* If you want to consider Silva’s head movement, consider that Griffin landed 1 of 35 strikes thrown to Silva’s head, or 3%. The average is 29%.

* With his three knockdowns against Griffin, Silva becomes the only fighter in UFC history with two fights containing three knockdowns. He also did it in the second fight against Rich Franklin.

* The three knockdowns also moves Silva into second place for most knockdowns in UFC history, behind only Chuck Liddell.

I don’t know if Roy Jones wants  a piece of that.  Plus, I don’t think we can fault Cote and Lietes for not engaging.  Doing so is a death sentence.

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Tags: Anderson Silva, Fight Metrics, MMA, UFC

Microsoft Security Essential Folder Startup Fix

10Aug09

Just a little tip I came across for a problem that’s been bugging me since I’ve installed Microsoft Security Essentials.  I’m running Windows XP, and ever since installing Microsoft’s anti-virus/malware program, the Microsoft folder has been popping up during startup.  Not a life breaking disaster, instead more of a nagging poke.  Well, some semi-diligent searching into it, I came across this solution from Microsoft’s very own support site.  Whodathunkit?  Basically, you go to regedit, go to your startup entries and fix the string that MSE placed there and changing this:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\msseces.exe -hide

into this:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\msseces.exe” -hide

Of course, I wouldn’t recommend you do this unless you’re comfortable fiddling with the registry.

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Tags: Microsoft Security Essential, Windows Nuisances, Windows XP

UFC 101 Thoughts: Don’t Call It a Comeback…

09Aug09

UFC 101 had the enviable and unenviable task of following UFC 100.  In one regard, the hype and new fans from the big marketing push for UFC’s centennial show surely had people more interested for this card then otherwise.  On the other, it wasn’t UFC 100.  A night plagued with longueurs, decisions that showcased the peculiar point system of MMA, technical grappling bouts that could turn off newer fans and one awful call that showed an awful referee being awful.  But much like UFC 100, it was a night where current champions would build on their legacy.

Lightweights (155lbs.) Josh “The Dentist” Neer (25-7-1) vs. Kurt “Batman” Pellegrino (19-4)

This fight was billed as a classic MMA fight between an outstanding grappler (Pellegrino) and a hard nosed slugger of a striker (Neer).  Like most fights of this nature, the grappler dominated, but not as thoroughly as one would have expected.  Josh Neer was incredibly impressive with his guard.  He was wily, going for submission after submission and moving so as to not be controlled for very long.  Pellegrino busted his ass trying to pass Neer’s guard, and he fell into triangle and armbar attempts on the way there.  The first round was an excellent example of how difficult it is the score a round with the current factors in place.  Kurt Pellegrino had an awesome slam early, but then wasn’t able to do anything when it was on the ground.  I felt Neer was actually the aggressor in this round as he actively sought out submissions, reacted to any ground and pound attempts with slashing elbows, as well as almost locking a highly touted Pellegrino in his guard.  The second round I could see how Neer just threatened submissions to keep Pellegrino at bay, but the first was a round I would have easily given a 9-9 to.   Pellegrino rinsed and repeated taking Neer down and then working to pass.  He avoided submissions and landed some clean shots, and though Neer was almost begging to ref to stand them up, both men were unable to keep the other dormant for very long.  The 3rd round could have been a turning point, when Neer was spawling up near the end of the round and dropping sick elbows to the head of Pellegrino, I thought he knocked him out.  He most certainly stunned him.  But Batman regained his senses and won by Unanimous Decision.

Middleweights (185lbs.) Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida (10-3) vs. Kendall “Please Don’t Call Me The Spider Cause Anderson Will Kick My Ass” Grove  (12-5)

Kendall Grove is from a  weak season of the Ultimate Fighter, so weak I don’t even remember which one it is, who has trained with both Tito Ortiz and BJ Penn extensively, and yet never really made a splash.  He’s incredibly tall for the division, at 6′6, yet he wasn’t able to utilize his height against Almeida, who has said this fight was his farewell to the middleweight division since he’s dropping down to 170 after this.  Grove has also shown some good muay thai skills, yet wasn’t able to do anything against a the Big Dog, who just threw strikes just to get in close enough for a takedown.  This match was a near copy of the first, with Almeida fighting for a takedown and Grove eventually giving it to him.  Grove showed a good guard (not good enough to stop Almeida from repeatedly passing) and almost sunk in an armbar that Almeida escaped from and then denied for the rest of the fight.  Almeida won by Unanimous Decision.

Welterweights (170lbs.) Johnny Hendricks (5-0) vs. Amir Sadollah (2-0)
Dan Miragliatta is infamous for basically giving Kimbo a win against JamesThompson, and stopping a fight between Brandon Vera and Fabricio Werdum because Werdum gained mount and landed punches that Vera was defending.  Basically, I think he’s the worst referee in MMA today.  This fight proved to be another on his highlight reel of failures as he stopped the fight while Amir was trying to stand. I could actually see a reason for the stoppage, Hendricks was charging with big shots shots, and Amir’s answer to getting punched in the face was grasping wildly for a muay thai clinch.  Then when Amir fell he seemed to still be in it, but wasn’t in it enough to better defend himself from the punches that finished the fight.  It wasn’t pretty. I’m on the side of fighter safety over PRIDE style reffing where a guy goes out and then gets punched 2 more times just to be sure, but Miragliatta too often is the cause of an awful call.  The post fight included people booing Hendricks unnecessarily, and Joe Rogan explaining it wasn’t his fault that the fight was stopped early.  Amir is in a strange place now.  He won the Ultimate Fighter a while ago and this was his first fight, and he lost.  He also came in at around 167 lbs, despite winning the Ultimate Fighter as a middleweight.  Amir can drop further down or stay at 170, regardless, he’s a striker with a penchant for submissions that would be in a division stacked with strong wrestlers.  Hendricks by TKO.

Lightweights (155lbs.) Shane Nelson (13-3) vs. Aaron Riley (27-11-1)
I actually stopped paying attention during this fight, since it involved fighters I didn’t really know with in a one sided fight.  Aaron Riley was the victim of an early stoppage or something to that effect the last time they fought, and basically worked Shane Nelson for 3 rounds to a unanimous decision.  The one notable thing was that Shane’s corner was telling him how good he was doing, that he was winning rounds and should keep it up, but from what I was seeing he wasn’t doing well, and needed to do something different if he wanted to win.  Joe Rogan even made a comment on how Nelson’s corner was giving him “Kool-Aid” with that kind of talk, and I heartily agree.

Forrest Griffin (16-5) vs. Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva fighting at Light Heavyweights (205lbs.)
Anderson Silva watched as Forrest Griffin threw up some probing punches and kicks, got Forrest’s timing, and dismantled him.  Anderson caught a leg kick and I thought it was going to be a replay of his last fight at Light Heavy where he caught James Irvin’s leg kick and punched him square in the face before finishing him.  Forrest survived the punch in the face, and then landed one nice combo, only to be repaid by a vicious combination in return from Anderson that drops Griffin.  They exchange again and forces Griffin to backpedal, which makes Anderson challenge him to fight him.  Forrest shrugs warily and they engage again, resulting in Forrest getting dropped a second time.  I think at this point Forrest realizes this fight was set up to have Anderson look good at Forrest’s expense, and gets helped up, yes, helped up by Anderson.  Griffin throws a charging combo that Silva avoids with head movement and footwork.  Then he stops, catches Griffin in the face with an easy jab and finishes with a KO 3 minute and change into the first round.  Forrest runs out of the cage, and Rogan calls it an “embarrassing” loss.  It certainly looked that way, but I think Anderson could do that to 95% of the fighters in the UFC.  Forrest Griffin never had a chance.  There was talk that Griffin’s size would be a big factor, but speed kills in fighting.  Any contact sport, whether it be karate, kickboxing, boxing, judo or sambo, a quick fighter has an incredible advantage.  I never felt that Griffin had a chance, he just didn’t have the tools to do anything against Silva, though I did think the fight would last longer.  Many say that this is the return of Anderson, that he was finally challenged, but Patrick Cote challenged him and that was an incredibly lackluster performance.  Whatever the case, Anderson showed that he’s the best striker in MMA, if not in the world.  His head movement alone was awe inspiring.  Forrest Griffin has never impressed me with his technique, but I always respected his heart, and unfortunately the UFC was counting on that in the hopes that Forrest would fight to the bitter end, which he did.  Forrest Griffin was fed to Anderson Silva, and the Spider swallowed him whole.

Lightweights (155lbs.) Kenny “Ken-Flo” Florian (13-3) vs. UFC Lightweight Champion “The Prodigy” BJ Penn (13-5-1)
This is another fight where the challenger just didn’t have the skills to dethrone the champion.  Kenny is known for his crisp muay thai and sharp elbows, BJ has has chin forged from steel and skin to match.  Kenny is known as an analytical fighter who comes up  with effective strategies, BJ is a fighter you can’t replicate.  Kenny’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu got him to the finals of the Ultimate Fighter, BJ Penn’s jiu-jitsu earned him a black belt and a BJJ championship in an astonishing 3 years.  Kenny tried to mimic GSP’s success against BJ, pressing him against the cage and trying to knock the wind out of him, but Kenny doesn’t have the wrestling or size advantage that GSP had, and BJ wasn’t getting winded.  The fight lasted 4 rounds, but it was mostly Kenny trying his best to pummel BJ into the cage, all the while avoiding Penn’s excellent striking.  For 4 rounds Kenny tried to take BJ down to no avail, and then BJ took Kenny down in his first attempt, passed to mount and then sinked in a rear naked choke when Kenny gave up his back.   Kenny improved leaps and bounds from the fighter that was on the first season of Ultimate Fighter, but it wasn’t anywhere near the level that BJ is at.  I think BJ wanted a knockout, and when he realized it was the fourth and Kenny would backpedal whenever the two engaged, BJ just looked to finish and promptly did so.  BJ Penn proved that while their are men who could beat him, dominantly in some instances, none of those men are at 155.

If a fan were to watch these two PPV’s as a gauge to the championship landscape of UFC, they’d think that all the champions were near-invincible.  UFC 100 displayed an injured GSP taking down and pounding out at will a larger Thiago Alves.  Brock Lesnar plowed through the only man to beat him in a way that it left no interest in a rubber match between the two.  UFCF 101 had two champions whose legacy was questioned by their past performances show that they were in a class of their own.  Anderson Silva decimated a former champion at UFC’s premiere light heavyweight division, and the second best lightweight in the division had nothing to threaten the champion with, and I doubt he ever will.  BJ Penn, GSP and Anderson Silva are all champions that I don’t think will be beaten anytime soon, and Lyoto Machida may be on that list if he can beat Shogun Rua, the only light heavy I think stands a chance.  Brock Lesnar hasn’t shown anywhere near the versatility (or class) of the other champions, but is freak of a man that also happens to be an NCAA champion.  One last note, this night put a question into the Ultimate Fighter experiment.  The Ultimate Fighter alums on tonight’s card (Grove, Sadollah, Griffin and Florian) lost, with the exception of Sadollah, soundly.  It’s a testament that they were even on the big show, and there is no doubt in my mind that Ulimate Fighter contestants (the one in the UFC anyway) are fighters and not reality show stars, but tonight wasn’t a good night for them.  UFC 101 was a good show, but it may be the start of divisions being several rungs below its champions, which would leave future UFC shows with no interesting championship fights except between champions.

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“He’s got nobody to fight”

08Aug09

Dana’s a silly guy, cause in one minute he’s talking about what a great fighter Fedor is, and then the next he’s saying he’s a joke that needs to prove himself.  I think Fedor should’ve signed with UFC, drop that nonsense of co-promotion.  Though from what I’ve heard, Fedor owns part of M1 Global, so he’s just looking out for his own interest in that.
That’s not really what I wanted to talk about.  What made me bother posting this, is that the “real question” of who Fedor has to fight can be applied to the UFC.   UFC can offer big money fights of Fedor vs. Lesnar and Fedor vs. Couture.  Strikeforce can build up a fight between Fedor and Overeem, and Fedor and Brett Rogers.  Outside of those 4 fights, there’s nobody even on radar.  Dana seems to be overestimating his own roster.  Mintauro and Cro Cop have both been pulverized by Fedor. Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, Cheick Kongo and Frank Mir are all interesting fights for Fedor, but nobody’s clamoring for those battles.  On Strikeforce’s end, they can offer Arlovski again, but I doubt it would end any differently.   Though the newest season of Ultimate Fighter should drop in some fresh heavyweights, there’s no real fights.  Aside from money there’s no competitive value in Fedor fighting Kimbo.   The truly compelling fights would be if Lyoto Machida were to go up to heavyweight and challenge Fedor, or even Anderson Silva.
Fedor is in a precarious place now.  M1 Global is placed on his shoulders.  Should he lose, all bargaining chips are lost for him.  He’ll probably still be at the top of the Heavyweight rankings, but he won’t get as good a deal from any other company, but UFC may still offer him a lucrative deal, just because one loss in 10 years is still impressive as hell.

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inFAMOUS Thoughts

05Aug09

I’ve been looking forward to inFAMOUS (I’m not spelling it that way again) ever since I saw the preview for it.  While the game doesn’t disappoint, it’s certainly unpolished.  It’s an original superhero in an unoriginal world running on what seems to be a last generation engine.  But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.

Good
Comic Book - The story isn’t that original, but how it’s presented is.  I don’t know if I can emphasize this enough, but the comic book style presentation is astounding.  I almost wish for cutscenes for most of my actions because the style is so evocative.  A lot of comic book games ignore the comic book presentation, which I don’t mind.  But some scenes in the game give me the same page to screen transition goodness that the Sin City movie did.

Powers – Early in the game you can get powers to make you feel bad ass.  Throwing grenades, dropping down from great heights and electrifying everything around you, tossing an electric wave in front of you.  Those are early powers.  They only get cooler after that, and it’s a lot of fun to just run amok.  Though, I played as an heroic character the first time through, so when I did run amok I had to reload the game when I was satiated.

Running Free - Parkour in videogames have come a long way, I feel.  And this game shows it.  The free running in Infamous feels very much like Crackdown, in that the goal isn’t to run a “course” like in Prince of Persia, but to make your own path.  There isn’t a set path to reach any rooftop.  You just find a handhold or crevice and climb.  The game doesn’t set a new standard, but it stays on a good path.  Mostly.

Big Moments – I like boss fights, and this has them.  They’re all different and feel like a “boss fight”, and not that you’re just fighting someone who happens to be a little stronger then your average enemy (though those fights are there as well).  This also has big moments of fighting off waves, climbing incredibly tall structures where falling is perilously possible, and dropping a crowd of enemies with one powerful bolt.

Bad
Twinkle Toes -  I noted that the freerunning in Infamous is fairly well done.  Except that overall Cole is light.  He has a buoyancy that takes a while to get used to, which feels inferior to the weight that Assassin’s Creed and even Crackdown had on its free running.  For instance, I can jump from a handhold and float around in midair looking for a pole or handhold to stick to, and if I fail to do so gravity usually still hasn’t caught me yet that I can just land back where I started.  This problem makes the game feel like a game.

Marksmen Goons – While traversing the city enemies will spawn seemingly out of nowhere, because they will have spawned out of nowhere.  They will then proceed to shoot you, and hit you with fairly remarkable accuracy.

Downtrodden Design – The animations in the game aren’t very refined.  The very first mission/tutorial has you chasing your friend through the city, and you can instantly see him run awkwardly and if you’re (un)lucky, see civilians walk into cars and fall down hurt.   It’s not a good start, but it doesn’t ruin the game.  The character models are designed well enough, but don’t come off well.  The game just doesn’t feel next-gen, though it plays extremely capably.

Nitpicks

“Generic” – I’m beginning to hate using the term “generic” because it makes me feel jaded.  But some things are either fairly generic, or downright cliche.  For instance, a post cataclysmic city quarantined by the government is generic if you read comic books and watch campy sci-fi movies, but Infamous doesn’t feel that generic because the city seems to be running fine.  It could be the people in the street walking around like mutants aren’t on their rooftops shooting at people, or that that electricity still works (I can tell, trust me), but the city doesn’t seem that lost, which makes me attempts to save it not seem that desperate, but desperate enough.  What’s cliche is Cole.  He’s Solid Snake, if Snake were a bike messenger and not a clone of the perfect soldier.

All in all, the game is well worth buying if you own a PS3.  You can get lost in the city, fighting goons, and there’s enough side missions to satisfy your desire to just level up without actually advancing the story.  The side missions also clear enemies from an area, though not entirely as you’ll sometimes fight a stray gang of enemies deep in your turf, but I just assumed they were suicidal.  The story is also decent enough, with an ending that slaps you in the face and says “There will be a sequel”.  For a game like this, that could only be a good thing, since all this game needs are a few refinements that seem to be easily addressed.

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