8:05: Well, looks to be the end. Had a lot of fun checking out the game. I’m pretty sure noone was visiting the site during this, but that’s okay! Cheers to the guys at 1UP for streaming this to everyone. I think they’ll post the recording sometime this week as well, so i’ll post that on this page whenever that happens.

8:02: The most boring match of the night. This is how 90% of people really play Street Fighter.

7:58: I think Abel is the last of the brand new characters. Kinda bummed that this whole thing was only an hour. Would love to see more.

7:54: Oh my soul, that Rufus character is so awful. I’m seriously cracking up here. I wonder how the hit box works on his stomach.

7:51: This Ryu vs Ken thing is getting boring. Someone play Zangief or Dhalsim. You know what else would be awesome? If they brought back those little mini games in between where you beat up the car and smash barrels!

7:47: What in the world is that level they’re playing. It’s either an evil laboratory or some weird rave.

7:44: C. Viper, another new character. Never really liked her design, though. Seem to fit more in a SNK game than Street Fighter.

7:39: It’s nice to see most of the ex-1UP staff there playing. Especially after all that went on with UGO buying the company. Working at EGM/1UP used to be a dream job of mine

7:37: Shane is providing a convincing argument to learn how to play Rose. I never really learned to play many of the Alpha characters.

7:30: EL Fuerte — didn’t see one special move, outside of that throw. Looks like he moves quick, but also seems to play kinda lame.

7:28: Nice, one of the brand new characters. Never seen a good Balrog player before either.

7:23: We have a Dan appearance! The worst character ever. Cammy is right up there too in my opinion.

7:21: M. Bison used to be so broken when they let the boss characters playable in Championship Edition. Psycho Crusher spam, so lame.

7:20: Richard Li vs. Greg Ford — gonna be a good match. Use some different characters please!

7:17: Hah! A rematch! Guile was pretty much the first character I learned to play. That’s not a positive thing because Guile was pretty terrible in the hands of a complete nub. I remember getting my ass kicked by someone playing Ken and I tried to be a badass and leave the game even though I wasn’t dead yet. Didn’t save face at all.

7:15: I’d really like them to use focus ability more, now that the parry mechanic has pretty much been removed. I’ve read that it can deflect fireballs too.

7:13: Nice job Greg Ford with Ryu! That guy playing Ken was kicking ass. It’s nice to watch experienced people play.

7:10: Animation looks so smooth, not as fast as SFII Turbo, but that’s fine with me. Hope this bring all the casuals back.

7:07: Ken vs Ken — I expect to see a lot of people using Ken, he’s just universal favorite.

7:05: Look how much of the screen the fireball animation takes up. Keeping distance with them is going to be huge.

7:03: It’s starting! got a huge glass of orange juice to drink during this. Hopefully someone is watching this too on the blog. Let me know!

Update #2: Bringing this post back up to the top as 1UP will finally be showing this tonight! Stick to this screen at 5 p.m. pst, as I will definitely be live blogging during their live stream. Feel free to discuss in the comments section during this as well.

Update: Apparently it’s been postponed. No word when it will be rescheduled. Bummer. It also appears that 1UP has been sold to UGO Entertainment. R.I.P. EGM, very sad day.

Just reminding folks that we do in fact talk about video games here on TYS from time to time.  If you consider yourself a gamer, and played video games from the early 90’s onward, than you should at least know the name of Street Fighter II. In a few hours, 1UP.com will have their first game night of 2009, kicking things off with a live stream of the latest iteration of Capcom’s legendary fighting game, Street Fighter IV.

I’ll be keeping my eyes glued to this one for the entire duration, so i’m going to embed the video stream here on the blog.  I may even live blog during it if enough people who read this site are interested in discussing it in comments and such.

Here’s the lowdown of information from 1UP, including a segment of the last episode of the 1UP show from last month:

1UP’s Game Night: Street Fighter 4
Time: Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 5 p.m. PST

And we’re continuing our SF4 coverage into the new year by playing it on the first Game Night of 2009, streaming live on January 6, 2009 at 5 p.m. PST. We’ll show you the features exclusive to the console versions, including new stages and new characters Rose, Dan, Gen, Sakura, and Fei Long.

Heard about Titan Studios’ Fat Princess last summer, and really dug the simplistic art style for this capture-the-flag style type of gameplay. As evident by the title, you’re not capturing any kind of flag, but an obese regal woman. It pits two 16-player squads against each other, while also infusing elements of real-time strategy (Command & Conquer), team-based multiplayer (Team Fortress 2), and good old-fashioned top-down action-RPGs (think Zelda: Link to the Past).

Soon after the game was announced, a bit of controversy appeared surrounding the titular character of the game, as feminists groups were none to pleased with the idea of saving an overweight woman. It’s part of the gameplay as her captors are tasked with feeding her cake found throughout the level, which in turn makes her difficult to move. Definitely a topic I would not rather touch, but it’s a debate that has been out there in the open over the past six months.

via Playstation.com
Frantic and fun, Fat Princess pits two hordes of players against each other in comic medieval battle royale. Your goal is to rescue your beloved princess from the enemy dungeon. There’s a catch though: your adversary has been stuffing her with food to fatten her up and it’s going to take most of your army working together to carry her back across the battlefield.

Personally, I think the game looks like a lot of fun regardless, and it’s definitely the shot in the arm that the PS3 needs to start off the new year. I’ll be quite honest, I rarely play my PS3 at all outside of playing DVDs I get from Netflix. I still love playing video games, but I won’t go rushing to play everything that comes down the pipe anymore. You can check out some recently released gameplay videos that gives a nice glimpse into what this hybrid game is all about.

MP3: The Mountain Goats & Kaki King :: “Thank You Mario, But Our Princess Is In Another Castle”