Are you a Betting Gamer?

October 7th, 2007

If you’ve noticed my latest MSN messenger screen name(don’t worry, its changed already) then you might be strangely curious as to what it may mean. Here’s the screen name:

dp- SFA3 Betting Record = Dan +4 Beers || Chris 0 Beers ^^UNBEATABLE!!^^

What this is refering to is the betting system that I have with my twin brother in Street Fighter Alpha 3. SFA3 is such a well balanced title with no bias, it requires skill and hard work to master hence making it an awesome choice for competition.akuma street fighter alpha 3

Competition by itself would be useless without something at stake. So to heighten the drama we place bets on our winnings. Most of our play time is spent practicing, we use this time to talk about how our day was and to just warm up. When we are ready, we will choose a match to play for and then thrash it out.

Short matches just aren’t worth playing, so we set the max round limit to 5 which is the highest we can go. First one to get to 3 rounds won wins the bet.

The way we tally the winnings is by the winner’s difference. So for example, I was on 4 wins(thats 4 straight wins ;)) and then just the other day that increased to 5. Now today we had two bets and unfortunately my winning streak was over, I lost both matches. So then the score went down to:

Dan +3 – Chris 0

This way its easy to balance out who is the leader. When we began this bet, I lost 3 bets in a row. Then over a month or so the tides turned and I got up to my 5+ winning steak. Overall we probably place about 2 bets a week.

My brother and I love placing bets because it brings out the best of our talent. And to be honest its the only game that I have been playing lately. I’ve been too busy with work and haven’t been bothered picking up anything else. I think that I’ll wait until my latest online purchases come through before I start anything else.

There is only one consequence for our betting, our poor thumbs. Week in an week out we are left with less skin on our thumbs than the week before. Its not healthy. So we have both mutually agreed to do our best to pick up a pair of arcade sticks to relieve the pain.

So what about you and your friends/family? Do you place bets in games and if so what for? For my brother and I beer is our betting currency. What games do you play competitively with?

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Play Impressions 13/9/07

September 13th, 2007

akuma illustration

Play test is a new feature that I have started up. You see I just don’t get the time anymore to play a game from start to finish and then write a review on it. Hence in this feature I review the games that I have had the luxury to play.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Some time ago I wrote an article about my new focus towards niche/cult gaming classics. Since that time I have managed to scronge around and pick up a few of these titles. One of these games that I have missed out on is the Street Fighter series. Unfortuntely I just hadn’t grown up with the series and until now hadn’t played the series all that much.

Thankfully my brother snapped up Street Fighter Alpa Anthology for the PS2, I’ve been playing the title pretty much ever since. Out of the 3 Alpha games and Gem Fighters Alpha 3 is the highlight of the disc. Initially I wasn’t convinced and was after a more combo orientated fighter(like King of Fighters). But after giving it a fair go I just haven’t stopped.

Although I have throughly enjoyed this excellent fighter(probably the best and most balanced/skill based fighter I have ever played) there has been the bad as well. Unfortunately for the past 3 weeks I have had monsterous blisters on my thumb from intense gaming sessions with the title. The other downfall along with the blisters is that I have lost a total of 3 beers to betting matches with my twin brother. But worry not as I plan to win them all(and more) back.

Overall I am very happy about this purchase(only $AUD30). It has reinvigorated the core gamer in me.

Final Fantasy

Recently I’ve had this thing for finishing old titles that I couldn’t be screwed finishing/playing the first time around. This is where Final Fantasy comes in, I never really played heaps of the series back into the day. As I like to say I am a more action intensive gamer. But due to the stress that I’ve been recieving from Alpha 3, my thumbs desperately needed a break.

So to cure this problem(and my left thumb) I have taken it upon myself to start my own FF journey. From the original right through to the most recent titles. Once I eventually bought myself a new working PSone memory card(the others are full up) I started playing right away. So far I am really enjoying my little adventure. Its a nice break from all of these brain stressing, high octane titles that I normally play.

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