MMA Weekend Roundup (Just a Few Thoughts)

UFC

Guillard vs Pearson no contest controversy:  I think it was the right call as it was the second knee that opened that cut, but that fucking downed opponent rule is a) fucking stupid and b) obviously being exploited by fighters. Use your hand to block the knee, not touch the ground and try and be saved by some arbitrary bullshit rule. That rule really needs to go. You could tell Rogan was trying very hard to watch what he said while still getting the point across. On his podcast he's been much more open about it (he fuckin hates it). I don't even get what the rationale is. Kneeing someone in the head is okay when they are crouched or standing but when they are on the ground it's not okay because.......? What, it "just looks brutal?" What actual EFFECT does it have.....oh ya, the SAME as it does anywhere else. Just let them fucking fight, fuck. Guillard got robbed of a win because of this shit. I just hope this doesn't take the wind out of his sails, cause we all know he's been spotty but you could tell he was on yesterday. He wanted to win that fight and clearly trained hard. Only for a no contest? Fuck.

Machida: Looked great at 185lbs. I hope this weight class becomes his new home. Of course, we don't know if the weight cut depleted his reserves or not as the fight didn't even enter the second round, so there's always the possibility that a guy like Weidman could wear him out ("take him into deep waters and drown him" as so many fighters are fond of saying) but for now I am impressed. I was so scared he was going to lose and was ecstatic when he won. I would love to see him and Silva fight at some point. Wow that would be a dream. War Machida!

Bellator

Have you heard the news, people? I'm assuming you have but if you haven't for w/e reason, the PPV is off. 106 is now a free card on Spike. Why, you ask? Tito is injured. lol What else is new. I'm going to take what they have said as the truth but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if there was some fuckery afoot. Bellator PR fuckery from the get go or some fuckery from the Ortiz camp....I dunno. Nice message to send the rest of the guys on that card though. You ain't sellin shit, mofuckas. We need washed up ex UFC vets to sell shit. Nice....Btw, that card is absolutely fucking stacked. Bellator 106 might be the best card this year.  STACKED. I cannot wait. The casual mma fan that may (and I mean may) have purchased the PPV to see Ortiz vs Jackson would have been treated some potentially insane fights before witnessing whatever shit show the two washed up UFC veterans would have put on. My only hope is they somehow tune in to the card on Spike because the guys still on that card deserve the viewership. 

Add Tiger Sarnavskiy to the list of those Russian fighters who are really impressing me as of late. Both in Bellator and the UFC. I'm excited to see what they can do in 2014.

Desmond Green vs Angelo Sanchez: Um....that was hard to watch. The cut sustained by Sanchez was easily the nastiest I have ever seen and I never want to see something like that again. If you want to see, and I don't blame you for the curiosity but be forewarned.....it's horrible, here you go:

See the doctor opening it up at the end there? He did it multiple times and each time I was like NO STOP PLEASE. He just kept.fucking.doing.it. I literally had to look away and keep looking away until it was over. Even Jimmy Smith said on air "I really wish that doctor would stop opening and closing that thing."

GROSS. 

WSOF 6

Haven't seen it (yet). I did however, have the Miguel Torres fight spoiled for me, since I never learn my lesson and still visit mma sites the day after events I have not seen. I need to stop doing that!

Response to Psychology Today Article About "Fat Shaming"

In a Psychology Today article entitled The #1 Worst Thing to Say to Your Fat Friend the author, Harriet Lerner, Ph.D discusses an article written by another writer, a woman named Natalie Kusz. Ms. Kusz is an overweight woman writing about "fat shaming" and in her article she talks about instances of shaming enacted upon her by strangers and she contends that, while they are certainly hurtful, the moments during which she feels the most shamed is "the well-intentioned disapproval of a friend--the one who leans a narrow hand on your arm and murmurs, “I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but I love you and I'm concerned about your weight." Both authors contend that this friend is acting in a harmful, rather than beneficial manner when they make such statements to their overweight friends (I wonder if they would feel this way if it was gambling/alcohol, etc rather than obesity being discussed).

Well, I strongly disagree with the contention made by both of these authors and what follows is the comment I submitted for publication on the site.

Basic Ninja Gaiden Tips

I LOVE Ninja Gaiden. LOVE IT. Any regular reader of mine is already acutely aware of this, and probably sick of hearing about the franchise on this blog. Well, those people can roll their eyes all they want but it's my blog and I will mention Ninja Gaiden as many times as I want. I am independent, defiant and need no audience.

Wait, come back!

Okay, okay, I won't mention Ninja Gaiden for a while after this, I promise.

So, for anyone who may be new to Ninja Gaiden and are finding themselves assaulted by insanity and wondering how the hell they are ever supposed to excel at the game, I have for you a few basic tips that you should be aware of. Just remember, this is Ninja Gaiden, not Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Onimusha, God of War, etc. It is its own beast so be cognizant of that fact and treat it as such (not bashing any of those, btw.  love some of them, like others, blah blah. Ninja Gaiden is just in a league of its own in terms of both mechanics and difficulty).

The tips:

1) ALWAYS BLOCK. On the xbox, I basically hold the L trigger at all times. This should be your default position, and from there you can flick the stick to roll, initiate attacks, etc.

2) Use shurikens to interrupt enemy attacks, and also to cancel your own attacks (this becomes more natural with time....at first, use them for stuns). This will create windows for you within which you can initiate a pre-emptive attack.

3) X+A (or X and [] on the Playstation platform) will allow you to jump towards the nearest enemy. It is a tracking jump. Once you get near them, press A again to jump off of their heads. This stuns them and allows you to roll towards them and initiate a free attack.

4) Blocking reduces the damage taken from incendiary shurikens. If you time a dodge just as they explode, you completely negate the damage (due to the i-frames afforded you during an evasion) but before you get the timing for that down, at least make sure you're blocking when they blow up.

5) The center camera button is your friend. Use it often!

Good luck and again, remember that Ninja Gaiden requires a very different mindset and playstyle than does say DMC. You don't get openings, you create them. Enemies are not there for you to kill; they're there to kill you.

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth is an enhanced port of a 2009 Wii game entitled Muramasa: The Demon Blade which was an excellent 2D side scrolling action role playing game that starred 2 characters: the princess Momohime and Kisuke, a ninja with, wait for it…..amnesia! Yes, amnesia, that old video game trope (I’ll save you the hassle of searching for the story section of this review and just tell you right now that if you are playing this game for the story you’re barking up the wrong proverbial tree).

When you begin the game you are tasked with choosing one of two stories to play through. Momohime’s  or Kisuke’s. Depending upon which choice you make you’ll either be travelling east or west; if you choose Momohime you’ll play as a princess possessed by a vengeful spirit in search of 108 legendary demon blades. Choose Kisuke and you’ll play as a ninja with amnesia……in search of 108 legendary demon blades. The stories both evolve (some might say devolve) from there but frankly, I paid very little attention. What did get my attention, however, was both the audio/visual presentation and the gameplay. The game is simply gorgeous, the music is great and it plays like a dream.

The Urge To Smash Break and Destroy

NOTE: This is a post I had saved (but never published) and I decided to put it up now since I think it could be the catalyst for an interesting follow up/update since things in my life have changed rather significantly since I wrote this nearly three years ago. I will ruminate on things for a bit and if I believe a follow up is warranted I will write one, post it and link the two articles to one another. 

From time to time, I get the urge to break things. To vandalise. To destroy. I don't follow up on these impulses (although I admit that I did a couple of times when I was a kid/teenager, although nothing serious) but when I have them they are pretty strong.

I'm not sure why I have these inclinations. It may be related to the society in which I live, as it feels restrictive, and these feelings are a response to this? I dunno. Maybe there's some sort of biological reason? Like I am supressing my innate destructive 'manly' urges throughout my 21st century, 'cultured' 'modern' and 'civilized' lifestyle, and my inner caveman makes an attempt to break free every now and again, an attempt that manifests as an ure to tear down the social order, the 'establishment.'

Should Microsoft Consider Purchasing Atlus? (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Congratulations to SEGA, whose bid was accepted and who are now the parent company behind Atlus.

Shin Megami Tensei. Persona. Etrian Odyssey. Trauma Center. Catherine. With these titles/entries into these series' Atlus, a long-standing Japanese video game development studio has finally made a name for itself in the West in recent years and now that this niche company is poised to make broader waves in the industry their parent company, Index, is doing everything it can to completely screw them over. They are losing money in every single division other than games (thanks to Atlus' success) and so amidst rumours of money laundering (yes, it's that bad) Index announced earlier this summer that they were filing for the Japanese equivalent (well, economics experts would take dispute the use of the term equivalence here as their version of bankruptcy (called civil rehabilitation) is very similar but not exactly equivalent) to bankruptcy protection as it is understood here in the West. Along with this announcement came a secondary announcement: Part of this process would be the selling off of their subsidiaries, the biggest of course being Atlus.

 And so starting, if I am not mistaken, at the end of July, Atlus has had a metaphorical for sale sign up in their (also metaphorical) window. This sale has attracted bids from more than 20 different companies, one of them being SEGA's parent company SEGA Sammy, who bid somewhere around $200 million U.S. If SEGA is successful in the attempted acquisition they will have immediately bolstered their suite of intellectual properties with the popular, critically acclaimed and diverse Atlus library. This is something that SEGA could really use, as their in house development has been stagnant for many years and while they have been publishing a decent amount of games this generation, they have not had any serious success. In fact, there have been more than one failures, both financially and in terms of public relations (PR). Having Atlus under their ownership would be of great benefit to them. 

Thinking about this one may wonder who else would benefit from acquiring Atlus?

Forum Discussion on Weak/Strong Atheism, Agnosticism, etc

Note: This is an old post that was was sitting in my drafts yet was never published. It's probably from 2011 but I thought I'd throw it up to have some new content on the blog in the interim between now and my next (newly composed, not an old draft) entry.

This is an excerpt of a discussion I had on a forum recently regarding religion/atheism, etc. (Italics is the other people, magx is in normal font.)

I just wanted to set you straight that not all atheists have the belief that there is no god.


If we're going further wax semantics, I suggest you look into agnosticism, because the above......


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism


....doesn't really help your case that you're some authority on the matter, here to keep me informed.

Left Trigger to Dodge and Customizable Controls

I have a gripe that I need to let out. This gripe is with the developers of hack n slash games. Actually, I have another gripe that just came to mind, which I will get to in a few minutes. The second gripe is with ALL developers. Let's get to the first one.

Gripe Number One

Hack n Slash developers, let me point something out to you: Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) was released in 2004. Almost six years ago to the day. And yet, almost none of you seemed to have received the very simple message: The right stick is not for dodging. Map that shit to the left stick! It's really easy: Left trigger is block, and the left stick is dodge. Simple, no? Here's why it's way better this way:

Speed

Think about it:

I'm in the middle of a combo. It's a four hit combo and I am just inputting the command for the fourth hit when I see one of my enemies initiate an attack. What do I do? I dodge, of course (or parry if that mechanic is built into the game) (and yes, you could also utilize a move with frame advantage and offset their attack (depending on the game) but shut up and bear with me here lol). So, where are my fingers at the moment I want to initiate the dodge? One is on the left stick, the other is on a face button, inputting the combo command. So, if the dodge command is mapped to the left stick, I can immediately dodge as soon as I see the enemy begin their attack animation, with absolutely no delay, correct?

UFC 164 Results and Poll Question (Regarding Co Main Event) (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) *UPDATED* Frank Mir Speaks

Here are the results from UFC 164:

Anthony Pettis def. Benson Henderson via submission (armbar)
Josh Barnett def. Frank Mir via first-round TKO
Chad Mendes def. Clay Guida via third-round TKO
Ben Rothwell def. Brandon Vera via third-round TKO
Dustin Poirier def. Erik Koch via unanimous decision
Gleison Tibau def. Jamie Varner via split decision
Tim Elliott def. Louis Gaudinot via unanimous decision
Hyun Gyu Lim def. Pascal Krauss via first-round TKO
Chico Camus def. Kyung Ho Kang via unanimous decision
Soa Palelei def. Nikita Krylov via third-round TKO
Al Iaquinta def. Ryan Couture via unanimous decision
Magnus Cedenblad def. Jared Hamman via submission (guillotine)

And now the poll question:

Was The Co Main Event Stopped Early?

In my mind, yes, it absolutely was stopped early. Fights usually get stopped on a fall from one big hit if the fighter is visibly knocked out or if they had been taking sustained/heavy damage prior to being knocked down . Neither of those two was the case here, imo.

UPDATE: Frank Mir had this to say about the stoppage when asked about it at the post fight press conference:

"Obviously I thought it was a bad stoppage," Mir said in the post-fight press conference. "We're fighters. If every fight was stopped on any kind of a flash shot or anything like that — actually, I took the knee, and I remember going, 's--- I'm in a bad position.' And that's why I dropped my other knee out from underneath me so that could fall to the ground and make sure I didn't take a second one. I didn't belly out, I didn't flatten out, and I actually tried to redig my underhook so that i could get a single. And I actually looked at the referee stopping it.

"And then at first I thought, maybe I was out? Did I take a bunch of shots that didn't see? And then after watching it, I was conscious the whole time. Even when I stood up I wasn't wobbled, I was completely coherent. So at best your argument is it was a flash knock down. I didn't know fights stopped on that. If that was the case I never would have beaten [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira, I don't think we would have seen Travis Browne knock out [Alistair] Overeem last week. There are too many fights in our sport that are exciting, and you've got to let us fight. I didn't sign up for a tennis match. It's nothing against Josh, he's a great fighter and he did what he had to do."

Well that certainly is interesting, isn't it? On the one hand the fact that he (at least claims to have) dropped down by choice to avoid further damage and attempt to initiate a takedown makes this stoppage all the more annoying for the fans and seemingly unfair for the fighter but on the other it actually lends the referee in this case a little bit of a sympathetic light in which he can be viewed- I mean, if fighters are going to be dropping to the mat on purpose and this looks indistinguishable from a knockdown, well, I'd hate to be a referee in a main event. 

Texas Church Causes Measles Outbreak

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2013/08/24/measles-outbreak-traces-to-vaccine-refusing-megachurch/

This is the type of story that in the past would have caused me to rant both in writing and aloud, but at this point my outrage has been blanketed by a nonstop torrent of stories like this (by this I mean stories in which ignorance causes measurable (and avoidable) harm) so for now I find it sufficient to merely link to the story for anyone who may have missed it (this story broke a few days ago).

At this point all I can do is sigh and shake my head.

The PS Vita Might Just Be Portable Heaven

Check out this snapshot of my PS Vita home screen (this is just the first panel, there are actually several of them but this one alone makes my point):

If you ask me, this is pretty badass. Sure, it could be argued that the 5 Vita titles shown are rehashes, and I can't disagree. I can only add the caveat that it's still early in the handheld's life cycle, and there are many titles for the Vita that are not rehashes/ports etc. I just REALLY happen to love Ninja Gaiden, DOA, EDF and Muramasa.

Speaking of Muramasa, if you've played the Wii game and enjoyed it (if you didn't you're dead inside, because the game is fantastic) (I'm only half serious), you should check out the upgraded port on the Vita if you ever get the chance. Yes, that's right, I said upgraded. The Vita is not only capable of playing a Wii game, it's capable of playing an upgraded version of a Wii game. The game POPS on the Vita screen. Simply gorgeous to look at and it now features fully customizable controls, so if you hated having to use up on the stick to jump, well, you can now change that. Personally, I still rock that method, but I also enabled the x button to act as a jump, so I have the best of both worlds.

As for the other games on that screen, sure, they are PS1 games, but they are enhanced on the Vita and even if they weren't, you're still playing PS1 games on the go, as well as iterations of current console games, all on the same system with the best screen of any handheld ever. And I do mean ever. It's stunning how good games look on it.

Quick Thought- A Parody of Oneself

Mormonism is a religion featuring magic underwear started by a known con man and it is adhered to by droves of people in multiple countries. Scientology, a religion that deals with aliens and souls trapped in volcanoes was started by a science fiction author who is on record stating that the best way to get insanely rich is to start a religion- Religion seems to almost be satirizing itself at this point.

One Armed MMA Fighter Wins a Championship Belt

Lyoto Machida Got Robbed. MMA Judging Is Seriously Flawed

As soon as the third round ended at UFC 163's Phil Davis vs Lyoto Machida fight I felt certain that Davis was going to get the nod, and sure enough he did. In an ideal world, that would have been because Davis had clearly won the fight. In the world we inhabit, it was because, well, because he succeeded with 2 out of his 10 takedown attempts. 

Yes, you read that right. 

Phil Davis, an accomplished wrestler, was 20% successful at his main thing- the takedown. That means that Machida was 80% successful at doing his part- stuffing said takedowns. Well, then Davis must have significantly outstruck Machida on the feet, right? Nope. I think he landed a few more shots, but his accuracy was much worse than Machida's and Machida landed a lot more 'significant' strikes. All Davis did was land 2 takedowns, both near the end of the rounds in which they occurred. Machida, on the other hand, stopped an accomplished wrestler from taking him down 8 out of 10 times. That means He kept the fight where HE wanted it, and while he was there he did more damage. Yet for some reason, the judges don't seem to allocate points for stopping a takedown, which is INSANE. A takedown attempt is a fighter's attempt to establish Octagon control (placing the fight where you want it; one of the scoring criteria used by the inept judges). If the fighter in question is successful, the gain points (and rightfully so). However, if the opposing fighter fights against the takedown and is successful, he gets.....no credit? 

How the fuck is that fair, reasonable, or logical? 

Machida won that fight and I believe the UFC should award him a title fight. 

Some Unlikely Video Game Sequels I'd Love To See Made

Remember, these are more unlikely than not, so I am not listing stuff that will most likely be happening (Alan Wake 2, for example).

Just off of the top of my head, so to speak:

Ninja Gaiden (2D) (sequel/prequel, w/e)
Streets of Rage 4
Shadow Complex 2
Alpha Protocol 2 (Obsidian was onto something with that game man...stupid SEGA)
Geometry Wars 3
Psi Ops 2

Dynamite Cop 2 (please please please)
Road Rage 4 (?) (probably not as fun as we may like to think though)
Winback 3 (in the style of 1, not 2)
Shinobi (3DS one was great)
Final Fight 4 (?) 

NHL Hitz

Onimusha 4

Astro Boy: Omega Factor 2 (most people have no idea how good the GBA game was)
Jade Empire 2
Sudeki 2 (yes, seriously)
Altered Beast 3 (there was one on the GBA that many are unaware of- and it was actually good)
Chromehounds 2 (I am not into these types of games but I know many loved it)
Condemned 3 (in the style of 1, not 2)
Dead Space 4 (again, in the style of 1)
Amnesia 2 (consoles please!!!)
The Saboteur 2
Ninja Five-O 2
Tokyo Beat Down 2 (first had some potential)

How about you? 

Being Single Is Selfish....Sure, But Relationships Are Just As Selfish

Find that shocking? Ridiculous? Demeaning? Insulting, even? Okay, tell me: Why do YOU get into relationships then? Why does anyone?

(Note: This is a follow up of sorts to an earlier post I did regarding the selfishness of having kids. Click HERE if you want to read that one.)

 Here are some (arguably) selfless reasons (I say arguably given the selfish altruism theory popular in some psychology circles):