James from the UK sent me pics of his fresh tattoo, the half-sleeve design featuring Rufus, Sad Cloud and some crazy ghosts having fun with Robert Smith I did for him a while ago… and I absolutely love it… I think it turned out great and even the shading is accurate. Thumbs up for James’ tattoo guy, good job, I wanna hug you! Enjoy the great pics (if you want to see more, check out the whole photoshoot!), with a reminder of what the illustration looked like. Thanks James, it was a supercool project and I’m happy you’re satisfied with how everything turned out

Aunque han pasado algunos episodios entre medias desde el último trailer que os deje, aquí os pongo la promo del siguiente episodio de Gossip Girl que se emitirá el día 30 de noviembre. Corresponde al episodio 11 de tercera temporada y lleva por título “The treasure of  the Serena Madre“.

Sinopsis: Blair sospecha que su madre le ha estado ocultando un gran secreto, que resulta ser algo trascendental. Vanessa tiene planeado pasar Acción De Gracias con su familia, pero tiene una pelea con su madre, y aparece en el portal de la casa de Dan. Rufus descubre que Lily le ha estado mintiendo sobre su madre, Cece. Chuck le cuenta a Nate  que tiene información ampliamente perjudicial sobre uno de sus amigos. Jenny descubre que Eric estaba detrás del bochorno público que le hicieron pasar en el Cotillón, y no deja pasar la oportunidad de vengarse. Serena es sometida a una situación embarazosa cuando Trip y Maureen se unen a ellos en la cena de Acción de Gracias.

RUFUS THE WONDER DOG!

David from the UK requested a half-sleeve tattoo design featuring Rufus as a vampire guardian angel, watching over his wife and daughters… Amd here’s my first pencil sketch

Thanksgiving, like the once annual airing of The Wizard Of Oz used to be, is an event.

Yeah, some people make it out to be dysfunction junction (and for them, maybe it is), but getting to watch football all day on a day which usually would be spent slogging through work is a brilliant concept.

And, of course, it is a chance to feast.

It’s like being king for a day.

Bring me gravy! I shall gnaw on this turkey leg in a slovenly fashion as these superhumans on the television perform amazing feats for my amusement!

OK. It’s not’s not necessarily that dramatic and, as the Lions always play on Thanksgiving Day, the feats are not always amazing in a good way.

(though I cannot imagine how empty a Thanksgiving without the Lions playing the early game would be – it would be like a Halloween without a visit from The Great Pumpkin)

One Thanksgiving was spent living in London, eating some take-out pizza in an ice-cold flat.

And, in a cruel twist, my favorite team, the Steelers, was making a rare Thanksgiving Day appearance. They would lose, in overtime after a bizarre coin toss snafu to begin the extra period.

It was a game that would have been maddening to have watched and it was maddening to miss.

Thanksgiving hasn’t been brilliant every year, but that year – no food, no football, no heat – is really the lone one I recall as being truly miserable.

As a kid, our parents dragged us off to mass. I mean, you have the day off school and can sleep in and lounge on the couch; the last thing you want to be doing at an early hour is trudging off to church.

When I was fifteen, the priest decided to use his sermon to rattle off a laundry list of accidental nuclear exchanges between the US and USSR that had been narrowly avoided.

(this was 1983 and two months earlier there had been all of the hullaballoo surrounding the television movie The Day After)

I kept having images of an extra crispy bird and excessively dry stuffing.

It was a bit of a bummer.

It was also a year when the Steelers had a Thanksgiving game. Detroit beat them 45-3.

I had forgotten (or blocked it out) and had to research who played that season.

But, global tensions and football smackdowns aside, I have no doubt that the food was good.

That autumn, I was still listening to a lot of Top 40 stations, but Q95, an album rock station out of Indianapolis, had caught my attention as well and 97X was exposing me on a semi-regular basis to modern rock for the first time. Some of the songs on the radio that Thanksgiving…

Men At Work – Dr. Heckyll And Mr. Jive
from Cargo

By the end of 1983, Men At Work, who had burst onto the scene a year earlier, was over. It was amazing how massive they were and how quickly it ended, but their quirky music still sounds delightful twenty-five years later.

Dr. Heckyll And Mr. Jive was their third hit from album number two and had been preceded by Overkill and It’s A Mistake on the airwaves. I still think the former is their finest moment, but the latter did little for me.

I don’t actually recall hearing Dr. Heckyll And Mr. Jive on the radio much, but I always smiled at the line, “He loves the world except for all the people.” Some days, it’s quite true.

Rufus And Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody
from Stompin’ At The Savoy

I wasn’t much into R&B growing up. There was one station and, on occasion, I would end up there, but, unless the song crossed over to the pop stations, I wasn’t likely hearing it.

Ain’t Nobody crossed over big time and it hooked me the first time I heard it.

Michael Stanley Band – My Town
from You Can’t Fight Fashion

Cleveland’s Michael Stanley was a major act in the Midwest in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Living on the Indiana/Ohio border, their music found its way onto many of the stations to which I was listening.

There was a lot of economic malaise in the first few years of the ’80s, especially in the Rust Belt. The punchy, anthemic My Town was rock straight from the heartland and its sing-a-long chorus got it a lot of airplay, especially when stations began editing in a shout out to their respective city – Cincinnati! – into the song.

Genesis – Mama (radio edit)
from Genesis

Paloma professes to like Phil Collins, yet, whenever a song of his pops up on shuffle, she invariably is displeased and hits next. It’s a fascinating phenomenon that has us both baffled.

As for Mama, it was the first song from Genesis’ followup to Abacab and the album continued the trio’s trend toward more pop-minded fare (for the most part). Mama, though, is a sinister sounding track which is what happens when your lead singer cackles like he’s been on a bender with Gary Busey.

Moving forward with this fun commission… after the “main theme”, I added a squad of ghosts with weird hairdos, as requested Enjoy, I even threw into the mix the first mermaid ghosts… shocking, I’d say. And yes, pencils are difficult to photograph… I hate taking pictures of pencils.

Red, Ralph, Rex and Rufus

Willoughby Amos, Willoughby Abram, Willoughby Bertram, Willoughby Barnabas,

Willoughby Bramwell, Willoughby Christian, Willoughby Cash, Willoughby Dashiell,

Willoughby Elliot, Willoughby Ezra, Willoughby Frank, Willoughby Grant,

Willoughby Isaac, Willoughby Ira, Willoughby Joel, Willoughby Jacob,

Willoughby James, Willoughby Jago, Willoughby Leo, Willoughby Lewis,

Willoughby Miles, Willoughby Matthew, Willoughby Micah, Willoughby Benjamin,

Willoughby Noam, Willoughby Oliver, Willoughby Rufus, Willoughby Reuben,

Willoughby Ross, Willoughby Rune, Willoughby Steven, Willoughby Thomas,

Willoughby Homer Rex, Willoughby Bruno Steven.

require 'filetorun'
require 'rufus/scheduler'

class Scheduler
  def start
    scheduler = Rufus::Scheduler.start_new
    scheduler.every '20s', :blocking => true do
      puts "running test"
     `ruby filetorun.rb`
    end
    scheduler.join
  end
end

Scheduler.new.start

Dramatical events occured as I was trying to keep my umbrella in shack in the raging winds. A ferocious beast came galopping towards me aiming for my troath. Luckilly the owner of said beast called it off before it could execute an attack and it settled with grazing against my umbrella free hand before it took off into the bushes.

The golden retrivers tops the statistics when it comes to dog bites human. Or so I have read somewhere. So you can imagine that my knees where shaking as this strange yellow mass of dog came galopping (happilly) against me at full speed. My life passed before my eyes as I thought about what would happen if that thing would actually launch an attack at me. Of course I have never met a dangerous golden retriver and of course all that doggie wanted was to say hi to me.

This is certainly the most fearfull creature ever created, appart from human babies. Do you see the teeth in that gap? Just waiting for an opportunity to take a bite out of you. But Rufus happens to be one of the nicest goldens, well doggies, that I have had the good fortune to meet in my days.

Watch out, you know you’re screwed when he does the puppydog eyes – or the sad doggie eyes. Dogs are vicious manipulators that only wants you to scratch them and feed them and play with them. And you happilly oblige.

Trying my hand on a rather new ground. This tattoo design (ending up on a leg in Denmark) started with a very broad request, sounding more or less like this: I’m looking for a hairdresser Rufus. I normally love drawing hair, but that usually happens when I work on dark ladies… Monsters have no hair, so I decided to focus on tools, scissors and razors. Here’s the first pencil sketch.

RELEVANT QUESTIONS–DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!!!

Krista in Lafayette Hill, Pa.: Is it true that the CW has decided to air the rest of the episodes of The Beautiful Life later this season? If for some miracle the ratings increased would they bring it back full time?
A representative for the CW tells us, “The status of unaired eps of The Beautiful Life is still to be determined.” My rock-solid source who knows about such things tells me: No truth whatsoever. Sorry, Mischa!

Drew in Walhalla, S.C.: I’m a freak for Chuck and Blair on Gossip Girl! Tell me they aren’t going to break up any time soon.
They aren’t. It’s actually Rufus and Lily’s relationship that will be in a very bad place until the end of the season. From what I understand, it all stems from a letter that Serena’s father is going to send her. And of course, it doesn’t help that Bart Bass is back in the mix!

Rebecca in Miami: How about some One Tree Hill scoop?
Skills is moving to Los Angeles. (Tear. You will be missed in Tree Hill!) Also, a new man may come between Brooke and Julian.

Randall in Ohio: How about some good stuff on 90210? I’ve been getting into it lately.
DVR alert: I’m hearing that episode 12 is going to be awesome. It all goes down at the Winter Wonderland dance, and an intervention takes place for Annie to get her to realize that Jasper is a bad guy. Hmmm, will she believe them? Also, Teddy has feelings for Silver and asks her out, but she rejects him. Wah-wah. Though we hear something will happen between the two later on.

Credit: E! Online

***
Notes:

If you recall, The Beautiful Life starred Mischa Barton (Marissa, The O.C.).

We already saw Lily receive the letter from Serena’s father last week and the OTH stuff we already knew as well both from the episodes and spoilish info I posted.

There’s also been spoilish pictures of the Winter Wonderland dance circulating. Can’t remember if I posted them.

Original Posting Date: Sunday, July 19, 2009

This day 5 years ago I arranged to go and see a dog that I had seen on the internet in the Laois pound. I wanted a ’shaggy’ dog and was thinking along the lines of maybe a beardie or Tibetan terrier cross and then I saw a wire haired mix that the pound had named ‘Rufus’.

He was described as being big and needing a special home as he had some issues. Over the phone I spoke to the SPCA warden there and filled him in on my background and he was pleased as the dog had been with them for several weeks.

They obviously saw something special in him to warrant keeping him so long and I am so grateful that they held out to find him a home.

So that evening, I drove to Laois with my biggest crate in the back of the car and went to meet my potential new companion (I say potential but I knew that once I had met the dog I wouldn’t be able to leave him in the pound!!). When I saw him my jaw must have dropped a bit (!) as he was definitley bigger than I had thought. He was kenneled beside a very noisy neighbour and as such there was a bit of fence fighting going on – bit of red flag.

We took him out of his kennel and I began to make friends with him. I had brought some toys to see what he thought and was delighted when I was able to entice him to a bit of a game of chase, other than that he wasn’t really sure what toys were for – another red flag?

I did a bit of handling of his various areas and realised that he was not terribly comfortable with handling, delivering some inhibited bites – big, huge red flag BUT great bite inhibition.

After the warden and myself struggled to get him into the crate we set off home. First time inside the door he cocked his leg, and several more times until I had got on the ball and began a toilet training program.

I couldn’t leave him as he was very destructive, terrified of getting into the car, had obviously never worn a leash before and was reluctant to meet new people. I was beginning to get the picture that I had a lot of work ahead of me – toilet training, leash training, people friendliness, dog-dog reactivity, resource guarding, manners training, alone training…. the list went on and on.

The second day I had him I brought him to be neutered and checked out by the vet and also to begin some socialisation at the vets – luckily for our training program, Rufus was right from the start very food motivated (and still is).

Once he was over the neuter surgery we worked on getting Rufus into a routine which included lots of short training sessions and plenty of walks so that the process of teaching him that the world was a nice place could progress. He came everywhere with me (and for the most part, still does!) but we also worked on alone time too – never leaving him alone until we had worked on getting him up to longer periods of time – friends and family were roped into minding him with strict instructions (and lots of treats) anytime I had to go to non-doggie places.

Work on his discomfort around strange people was the most urgent work so we concentrated on that first while working on teaching him to stay home alone, toilet training and in the car training.

Then the dog-dog work started (with much fear and trepidation on my part!).

The first dog I introduced him to up close (after a couple of months of gradual desensitisation and counterconditioning work) was my sister’s dog Mac, a setter mix who at the time was young and very appeasing around older dogs. They were introduced on neutral territory, on leash at first and then when Mac solicited play and Rufus responded positively we let them off leash in a wide open (secure) space. I had worked hard on Rufus’ recall up to that point but had not started to exercise him off leash.

The two got on like a house on fire and chased each other around me; they had a great time. We took regular breaks in the games and the photo above is a picture of the two of them waiting for a treat for sitting politley during play on that first introduction.

The two boys had a ball and began to develop a friendship that continues to this day.

After 2 years of solid work Rufus and myself had got to know one another so well that I could relax when in social situations with him.

Dog-dog work continued as it does to this day and Rufus has come on in leaps and bounds – we still have some proximity and resource issues with strange dogs but I understand the scenarios and thus manage these situations by separating dogs when they have resources and by practicing calm behaviours at a safe distance when there are lots of other particularly adolescent dogs around.

Five years down the line I have the greatest dog I have ever known – yes he still has some issues but I couldn’t expect him to be perfect, especially since he didn’t have the right start.

We work everyday on overcoming any problems but I have the best relationship I have ever had with a dog and a new understanding of what owners of troubled dogs go through.

Its not easy but has been very rewarding.

Rufus is my heart-dog; he is a relaxed companion at home and an active but responsive partner when out and about. I can take him anywhere and I know that he will happily lie at my feet.

He never complains when he has to wait around with me or for me, he puts up with all the fosters we have in the house and the dogs we transport in the car beside him, he tolerates and usually enjoys all of the attention he gets from passers-by, he waits when I ask him to stop and comes to my side if he’s spooked – he asks for so little in return but gives me sooooo much.

He fits the true definition of a companion, a constant companion who is with me everywhere we go. I have learned so much from living with this dog and I hope that this helps me to help others who also experience issues with their dogs.

After these five years the biggest lesson I have learnt is that is all boils down to relationship – this only comes with time, patience and persisitance.
During those first few weeks of living with Rufus there were many times when I was tempted to bring Rufus back to the pound as it all felt too difficult – looking back I realise that that would have been the easy solution for me but certain death for him.

If that had happended I would have lost so much; so much joy and friendship and so many learning opportunites.

I could write posts upon posts about all the problems that he had and some of the problems he still has but it wouldn’t change the relationship I have with him now – Rufus is Rufus and I wouldn’t change him for the world.

5 years of Rufus slide show!

Comments from original posting:

Anonymous said…

What a fantastic success story. It’s hard to believe he had so many issues when you first got him. You have given him such a fantastic life and he has given you such loyalty and love in return.

Happy Gotcha Day Rufus. May you have many more years of happiness together.

Karen, Millie & Sandy.

July 19, 2009 6:51 PM

 

rachel said…wow what a lovely story Anne xxx
Kirsty loves Rufus too xxx
keep up your amazeing work xxxx
Rachel x

August 25, 2009 10:13 PM

Carpet stain removal said…Great story! Best of luck with your pet.

October 5, 2009 6:09 PM

Things been a bit thin lately. I’m not saying it for sympathy; I’m saying it so you know that what I’m about to tell you, well, these is not the types of things that we do around here, at least not usually, and even then on those rare occasions we do, not unless it’s for charity. You’ll see what I mean.

But when things is thin—when jobs are hard to come by and I find myself having to shake those old feelings, those thoughts of Maybe I should just get a desk job somewhere and work a steady shift, and stop with this silly freelance biking business—that’s when you make decisions that either (a) put you in harm’s way, or (b) make you embarrassed to call yourself a freelancer. Embarrassed that other freelancers have to call me one of their own, is what I’m saying. Embarrassed for fucking my industry in the neck.

When I accepted another job last week from my online advertisement, I knew it was nothing but trouble. The woman who emailed me wouldn’t elaborate on the details, saying instead that I should bring a towel. I knew better, but I was hurting for work, so I accepted, whimpering some fading line about how my acceptance was conditional upon dah dee dah blah blah blah. I knew I would do the job, and so did she, and she had $700 in her corner of the argument.

I show up at the job site—an abandoned pier on the waterfront—and she is there with fifty of her closest friends, who all cheer when I ride onto the pier. She has a fucking bullhorn, and she’s saying, “Here he is ladies and gentlemen the amazing and incredible not to mention freeflying bicyclist extraordinaire: Willy the Wild Wicyclist!

Willy the Wild Wicyclist?

“What the fuck?” I mouthed to her.

“Seven hundred,” she mouthed back.

“Curse on your ugly family,” I mouthed, pretending to hold a bullhorn in front of my mouth.

“Tell me something I don’t know, prick,” she mouthed back.

Five minutes later I’m performing as Willy the Wicyclist, and that performance (I came to find out, via bullhorn) would consist only of riding top speed through a human bridge-tunnel on the pier—the kind of thing you do at a wedding or football practice, where two single lines of people are three feet apart and meet hands in the middle and you run underneath—and then after breaking through the tunnel, I was to hurdle at top speed off of the pier and down into the water. Wily the Wicyclist was a flyer, see.

No problem, right? I mean, yes, a little cold, but as that evil woman had mouthed, seven hundred bucks. That kind of green makes a lot of things seem warmer.

Things that I didn’t know at the time, but would have liked to know:

(1) several of the people in the human bridge-tunnel pushed me back and forth inside the tunnel and banged on my shoulders with their non-bridge hands, greatly reducing my speed and contributing directly to my “hurdling” off the pier at about 5-6 miles per hour.

(2) the pier was about 25 feet above the water

(2) the water was about 4 feet deep

So picture me basically falling straight down, bike flipping, and me ditching the bike at the last instant to try and get some semblance of a water landing. I ended up landing on the front tire, which is probably how I’m still walking, however gingerly and crooked that process is. But that is also why I broke three ribs.

And poor Rufus, my bike, was dead in the water in a very literal way. I have several bikes, but Rufus was a long-time companion, and one of the best friends a man could have; the old boy could do anything I asked of him.

These people—people who pay money in order to witness other people hurt and humiliate themselves for that same money—they will go to hell eventually, if there is a hell, and so I do have that fact to remind/comfort myself, but still, an eternity in hell whose beginning is thirty years off is still thirty years off, at the end of the day. In the meantime I just have myself and my mirror, and that shit ain’t comfortable.

Now, our ever-popular Wheels Go Round section, detailing some of the valuable lessons we learned as a result of this otherwise traumatic experience.

Wheels Go Round:

• Don’t jump a bike off of a pier
• Don’t go to a job when all they tell you is to bring a towel unless there’s a (specific) promise of a trip to the tropics or freelance judging a swimsuit competition.
  • Get that promise in pictures/boarding passes. C’mon, think about it: anyone putting on a swimsuit competition has to have some pictures. No proof, no job.
• Don’t eat a hot dog from The Frankfurter on the waterfront if you’re going to jump a bike off a pier. I know, I know, you’re not going to jump off a pier in the first place because of what I said in the first Wheels Go Round bullet point, above, but it’s like calling home in high school if you’re drunk and need a ride—in this case the hot dog would be drunk driving. Just don’t do it no matter what.
• Have some fucking dignity, buddy.

That looks deep enough

One Rufus on each hand… Sad Rufus, pencils and finished version never saw my monsters becoming hand tattoos, I’m super curious

The infamous Sorrow tattoo in its next evolution… One Rufus on each hand!
Pencil sketch and finished version for the “angel” Rufus.

I’m working on tattoo designs for a lovely couple from Denmark. Here’s a first “draft” for an upper-arm tattoo, featuring a happy Rufus under a starry sky.

Having found a paralysis tick on Rufus last Sunday evening, and having a very stressful week of worry, my darling Rufulus is now home again and been taking advantage of some quality couch time.  Keeping this energiser-puppy quiet for the next few weeks will be a challenge… the sleepy puppy state doesn’t last long.

From/De: Capcom

Super Street Fighter IV:  Additional Modes Trailer – Tráiler de Modos Adicionales

4 New Modes | 4 Nuevos Modos:

Team Battle, Replay Channel, Endless Battle, Bonus Stages | Batalla en equipo , Canal Replay (Repetición), Batalla sin fin, Bonos por etapas.

Although I still hold hopes of growing up to become Rufus Shinra, Vice President of a World Dominating Energy Company, I realise that unless I capitalise on a new energy supply, then it won’t really happen.

Therefore, I have realised that the person that I would probably grow up to be is:

Epically nerdy and epically awesome.

Yesss. And my internet is constantly reminding me about its cappedness. =(

So adieu.

(PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC & Arcade – Reviewed on XBox 360)

by: “Tiger” Oliver

Pros:
Beautiful, high-definition 3D renderings from the fighters down to the very last brick
Great combat engine; very fluid
Decent story with great new fighters

Cons:
WTF?! I thought Gouki/Akuma sent M. Bison down to Hell at the end of Street Fighter II?! Why does he keep coming back?
Boss (Seth) is cheap – from the way his fighting style works from the way Capcom cheapened his ominousness.
C’mon, how come I can’t unlock Gouki/Akuma when I’ve beat him over 9000 times?!

Sometimes, a decade’s hiatus can really fire up a series. Thankfully, in the case of Capcom’s Street Fighter series, absence has made the fight grow stronger with Street Fighter IV.

Street Fighter IV takes place between Street Fighters II & III. Seth, the genetically-mutated leader of a global arms dealer (?), is trying to get DNA from all of the world warriors so he can take over the world. Meanwhile, M. Bison’s trying to get a brand new body (yes, AGAIN) whilst trying to take out his escaped creation from a roup of experimental super soldiers. Besides all the ins-and-outs of the other character’s stories, this storyline feels like a cheap knockoff of the Street Fighter III storyline.

But, does that cheapen the game? Let’s crunch the numbers:

Gameplay – 4/5

Classic Street Fighter fight here. Three punches, three kicks plus a default 3X punch & 3X kick buttons. There are some differences between this and other titles in the franchise. The first is a Focus Attack, which it activated by holding down the two “middle” attack buttons. By my understanding of the system, you can activate it during a combo or when someone’s attacking you to parry it and counter. The longer you hold down, the more powerful it is.

The second is that, once again, there’s only one Super Combo per player plus a new Ultra Combo. Simply put, the more damage you take in a match, the more your Ultra Meter fills up. When burning like flame, you can unleash a devastating Ultra Combo, which makes the camera go all cinematic and dramatic and such.

While combat is more fluid than the Street Fighter Alpha series, it just isn’t as such compared to Street Fighter III The range of attacks seem the shortest since Street Fighter II.

The original twelve world warriors from Street Fighter II – Ryu, Ken, Chun-li, Zangief, Dhalsim, Blanka, Guile, E. Honda, Vega, Balrog, Sagat and M. Bison – are all in this game. Joining them are four new contenders:

Abel: A Frenchman with no home, no family, no memory of his past. He teams up with Guile and Chun-Li to track down M. Bison.

El Fuerte: A Mexican lucha-libre wrestler who’s also an aspiring gourmet chef (and a horrible one, at that!). He thinks that he’ll master cooking by blending in the favorite flavors of all those he meets in the newest tournament. Yeah, g’luck with that, mate.

Crimson Viper: A spy that’s looking into Seth’s organization, S.I.N. and the project he’s currently undertaking.

Rufus: An obese fighter (some say MMA, others say Kung-Fu) who wishes to layeth the Smacketh-down on Ken Masters to become the best fighter in the U.S.A.

…I’m sorry, ADD’s kicking in; but, do you think Rufus looks similar to Dr. Robotnik/Eggman?


I don’y know, maybe it’s just me…

Anywho, there are eight unlockable characters (not including Seth):

Rose – Somehow, she’s returned from being M. Bison’s host back to physical form.

Sakura – A schoolgirl who’s Ryu’s biggest fan. She follows him around, trying to get him to train – or at least spar – her.

Gen – A friend to Chun-Li’s deceased father who wishes his death to be on the field of battle.

Dan – The joke character of Street Fighter. C’mon, this guy blows.

Cammy – M. Bison’s female clone-turned-British Special Ops agent, she’s looking into M. Bison’s ties with S.I.N.’s projects.

Fei Long – A tribute to Bruce Lee, also a carbon copy of him. Fei’s films are being vandalized by Shadaloo, so he’s off to remedy the situation.

Gouki/Akuma – The man who killed Ryu & Ken’s master (and his very own brother), Gouken. He seeks to fight Ryu and awaken the Satsui no Hado within him.

and…

Gouken – Ryu & Ken’s master. He was supposedly killed by Gouki/Akuma after his Raging Demon attack, but has now regained consciousness after all these years.

My biggest complaint is with the Seth character. For one thing, he’s like a rip-off of Gill, in my opinion. The second thing, Capcom cheapens his story when it’s revealed he’s the renegade byproduct of a super soldier experiment by none other than: you guessed it, M. Bison.

That being said, this is still one amazing game in terms of gameplay.

Graphics – 5/5

Screw Super Street Fighter II: HD Remix, this game is THE epitome of high-def fighting games. Every small graphical detail is made: from the hairs of Guile’s sweet ‘do to Rufus’s… um… body jiggle.

Anywho, each stage is amazingly detailed, the attacks are spectacular and the Ultra Combos… each a masterpiece.

No qualms here, a Renaissance-quality game.

Sound – 4/5

The music’s great, but not perfect. It’s good, but not mediocre. There’s nothing I can say about the sound and the music in this game that I haven’t summed up already.

Controls – 5/5

The controls are nothing new, classic Street Fighter. But, they’re improved. Special moves are now easier to pull off, everything flows very fluidly (even if, for the advanced combos, you have to move at lightning-fast speeds with world warrior-like reflexes).

This is how Street Fighter II should have controlled.

While not as perfect as Street Fighter III, it’s just one notch away from being there; still good enough for a perfect score in my book.

Replay Value – 5/5

From online play to facing players locally, this is Street Fighter at its best. You’ll continually play this game, getting better and better at it, wanting to annihilate your friends as they will want to to you if they play/have this game. Even trying each difficulty with each character in Arcade Mode will leave you coming back for more, even after unlocking all the characters (which is half of the replay value in the first place).

However, with this game, you simply can’t “replay” it. It’s got so many variables to it that there’s no “replay” value to it. Yet, it is in an “infinite” sort of way.

Overall – 4.5/5

If it wasn’t for the cheapness of Seth’s character and storyline, this game would have gotten a flawless 5/5. The music had no sway in it – even though, if everything was orchestrated, I might have thought different. Maybe.

So close, yet so far away.

Buy? – Cool your jets, John Denver
While this game is good, I can’t justify still paying $50 for it. Wait for some sweet Christmas deals or after you get some coin and Wal-Mart gift cards on Christmas. On the deals part, you might find it for cheap if it’s used, but I doubt it.

Rent? – Definite

Like professional wrestling – oops, I mean “sports entertainment” – games, fighting games like this series are what makes renting fun. You can pick it up for a week and still get the same rush that comes with owning it. Very few non-fighting/wrestling games can make such a boast. I’d definitely recommend this for a rental, hands down.