After a whole week of hard work and dozens of revisions I finally completed the first Virtua Fighter planeswalkers. Many thanks go to EliShffrn (from EFnet's #mtgrules) for helping me out with much of the wording of the card text. Click the card to enlarge the image even further if you dare!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,300 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 58 posts. There were 56 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was March 25th with 164 views. The most popular post that day was Tech Talk: Former Tekken player Mack on a Long and Stony Journey.
The top referring sites in 2010 were virtuafighter.com, stumbleupon.com, en.forums.wordpress.com, en.wordpress.com, and neoempire.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for hori ex2 mod, goh notes, virtua fighter 5 characters, gohnotes, and modding hori ex2.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Tech Talk: Former Tekken player Mack on a Long and Stony Journey March 2010
2 comments
Modding the HORI EX2 – with Genuine Arcade Parts December 2008
4 comments
Revisited: Leonard’s VF5 Review April 2009
VF’s Option Select; or A(nother) Shldrm Flow Chart January 2010
6 comments
Guide: Stepping in Virtua Fighter 5 August 2008
3 comments
Still unannounced for console, Final Showdown, the newest iteration of the Virtua Fighter franchise, receives a new trailer overhaul. The final fight is between Akira and Goh, mind you (Goh loses …).
I’ve finally got around to launching a Virtua Fighter YouTube channel. I intend to upload my whole VF video archive to it containing several hundreds of VF3 matches as well as new VF5 tutorials and matches.
You can access the channel through http://www.youtube.com/user/GohNotes or by clicking on the VF-YouTube icon at the top-right side on the Goh Notes homepage.
There are already more than 30 videos on it. So go have a look!
I really wished more people would have read this great book: the official BradyGames Virtua Fighter 5 game guide (see the picture to your left). It clarifies it all.
The BradyGames guide is, to-date, still the most accessible Virtua Fighter manual out there. It covers it all: the basics as well as the advanced gameplay mechanics, the character’s weaknesses as well as particular strengths, and even such things as top priority throw escapes and what-not.
While it lacks decent universal combos in the character sections (some of the combos mentioned there are tech-rollable as well), the technical stuff about the game’s core mechanics is an awesome read: comprehensive and comprehensible.
The only thing I’m missing in this guide is a decent coverage of side throws (and escaping them) and stagger recovery. Apart from that, I really like to come back revisit the guide from time to time to refresh my tactical knowledge and digging for new ideas to implement into my game play.
In short: For US$16.99 (official price), this is a real bargain for beginners and intermediates as it holds the information all bundles together in one place, in one book.
While the western community is still fighting hard for a console port of the now-2-year-old VF5: Revolution, the arcade-exclusive successor to Virtua Fighter 5, first bits of information about a brand-new VF5 installment called Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown were unveiled today at the Japanese expo AOU 2010.
With Virtua Fighter 5: Revolution SEGA got the fifth installment of the old-established polygon beat-em-up series an overhaul for the Japanese arcade halls. Unfortunately, a console port never appeared so that only in Japan you can enjoy the two new characters – karateka Jean and sumo wrestler Taka – and the many new gameplay changes and moves.
With the release of the new Revision B of VF5:R (new animations and balancing), the close-knit western fan community hoped for a speedy porting to the current-gen consoles. As I’ve already mentioned on GamersGlobal.com, western fans have already begun in October 2008 to excessively file support tickets on SEGA’s Japanese community site to request a console port for VF5:R. But SEGA never quite responded to that.
Twitter has eventually invaded Goh Notes too. But for the better: I can now get the new content onto the blog that wouldn’t make it into a whole new post. It takes time to develop posts, especially if you’re writing about game theory in VF5 or how this and that is going to work out.
My twitter feed, which you can find on the right side of Goh Notes, will concentrate on Virtua Fighter and my personal experiences that I make by playing that game. If those “twittered” thoughts are elaborate enough, they will eventually make it into a post.
I hope you all enjoy the new addition to the blog, which will keep you up-tod-date on a more regular basis than I could do it with my (endlessly long :D) posts. Of course, you can also go directly through my Goh Notes twitter blog and bookmark the feed.
Get it before it’s too late. The US VF5 tournament and gathering SoCal 2009 takes place from May 21st – 24th. Well-known VFDCers and newbies, old hands and younglings, top players and wannabes – they will all attend the huge gathering: a mixed bag of personalities that guarantees great and intense matches and match-ups for all characters in Virtua Fighter 5.
But even if you can’t directly go to the event, you can still re-live the experience. For $40 (orders from outside of the US: $45) you get a DVD with replays from the gathering – coming as high-quality, widescreen avi-files -, and a T-shirt with your name on it. This is an exclusive offer that ends April 30!
I thought it would be time for some face-lifting on Goh Notes. Too long have I borne with the old newspaper-styled design and its foibles. Especially the video bar tucked under the bottom of the old page was nowhere to be found.
While the new design introduces clever use of color and format styles, its limited width makes it necessary for some deeper amendments of the posts and pages. This takes time. Not only will I change around some pictures but also the text itself gets a new face-lift.
Version 2.0 of the 
Blue Book is also planned—with up-to-date and revised tactics, and combos.
—Leonard
