Hey fighting fanatics, so while Ready Up were representing at Battle of Destiny guess who I came face to face with? Let me feel your jealousy because I only had a full on interview with a world class fighting champion, the one and only Justin Wong of Empire Arcadia! OMGZ! Well enough gloating from me, let’s roll on with the geek talk and see what Justin had to say about Street Fighter IV.

Shaz - So how long have you been competitive in the fighting game community?

Justin - I been playing fighting games for 12 years but I been a competitive player for at least 9 years.

S - Capcom have Street Fighter 4 for an exclusive preview here at Battle Of Destiny. Did you get a chance to try it out? If so what are your impressions on it?

J - Yes, I did I played SF4 and at first I found it very basic but after 10 games, I started experimenting on the focus cancels and the new characters. I really like Abel and I feel like he is almost the perfect character. Good normals + he’s a grappler. Only thing he is missing is a projectile but that’s good that makes a good balance. I hope there will be secret characters though. The fighting engine is intuitive but at the same time simple enough for even the casual gamer to learn.

S - With Street Fighter 4 being released later this year, how do you think it will effect the fighting games scene?

J - I think Street Fighter 4 will be beneficial to the scene, it should bring back more of the people that retired from the scene, also it should bring in some new players who are going to get in to playing it because, well, it’s Street Fighter 4!

S - In your opinion do you think Street Fighter is going to retake the throne in the fighting game community?

J - As we all know a bunch of fighting games are coming out throughout the year and to get ready for 2009. Now in my honest opinion, I think Street Fighter 4 will be the main tournament game just because it’s the new Street Fighter. The games success will also help the other games, drawing player back to fighters. I’d say the King of fighting games is back!

S - Do you see any of the major commercial leagues such as CGS, MLG or WCG’s picking up Street Fighter 4?

J - I hope so, If they do, I would compete in all of them and win <grins>. But yeah, if they really do pick up Street Fighter 4 I think it would be the most popular competitive console game ever.

S - You’re a five time Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Evolution Champion, three time Canadian Street Fighter 3 champion and 6 individual Australian Fighting game champion *breathe* do you have it in you to master Street Fighter 4 and continue your reign as a fighting champion?

J - <laughs> of course, I got a good 10 years or more left in me for fighting games and whatever new fighting game that comes out, I will play it and dominate in it. Why? Because of who I am… I’m Justin Wong.

Keep an eye out for our Battle of Destiny video for more from Justin ‘Marvelous’ Wong!

You can find out more about Justin and the other Knights of the Empire of Empire Arcadia here.

Despite (mostly) outdated stereotypes of the closet-geek, a lot of gamers have hectic lives. Between job, school, and family commitments, it can be hard to find time to sit down and play a video game these days, never-mind sink dozens or even hundreds of hours into one alone.

I’m a University student, and I commute to Glasgow everyday from home. The heavy workload prevents me from playing much of anything during term-time, and I have to be very selective about what I do play. But I do use the commute to my advantage; during less-congested journeys I can flip open my DS or PSP, and I’m almost always listening to a gaming news podcast otherwise. Even if I can’t keep up with my play-time, I always keep up with the latest announcements. And that’s half the problem for me.

With heavy-hitters like Bioshock, Mario Galaxy, and Call of Duty 4, it wasn’t uncommon to hear people proclaiming 2007 as the greatest year of gaming since 1998, and this meant hype-levels were through the roof; as a gamer, I wanted to get in on the latest games while everyone was discussing how awesome they were. It’s human nature! Instead, I grudgingly had to add those titles to the backlog, while others finished them and moved on to more great games.

But hang on a second. Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong.

I finally played through Super Mario Galaxy in May of this year. I only beat the base game with 60 stars, but I loved every second. I knew it was supposed to be impressive - the true sequel to Super Mario 64 - but my preconceptions had been dulled somewhat with all the talk of Niko Bellic visiting his cousin in Liberty City, or Snake facing off against Liquid one more time. So although I missed out on talking the game over with fellow fans, any bias towards (or against!) the experience was partially lifted, and I ultimately enjoyed it more.

It’s the same for other games, too; recently, I was working through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Nintendo GameCube - a title some three-years old - and it was a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be, after some initial-release rumblings that it’s not as good as other games in the series.

So perhaps I need to worry less about which games I should play when, and more about just playing what is convenient and fun at the time. After all, my backlog of those higher-rated titles isn’t going anywhere.

As a lead up to our upcoming MMO feature we have some news on Tabula Rasa. More specifically some news on the games creator Richard Garriott. He has been in training for a small trip… into space! He is set to become Earth’s sixth private citizen to conduct a space mission aboard the International Space Station. Interestingly he will be following in the footsteps of his father, Owen Garriott (a former NASA astronaut), meaning that he will become America’s first ever “second generation” astronaut. You can find out more about the mission at http://www.richardinspace.com.

To commemorate this quite unique trip Richard and NCSoft have launched Operation Immortality. As part of his mission Richard will take with him, and store in outer space, a history of humanity’s greatest achievements, human genome data, and personal messages from people all over the world.

From today anyone that has an active trial or retail account for Tabula Rasa can become a part of this mission by visiting https://www.operationimmortality.com/ and adding their own personal message and TR character data to the information stored on the Immortality Drive.

You don’t have an account? No problem, NCSoft have given Ready Up users access to a limited amount of trial codes for the game and a link to download the client. Just click the buttons and you’ll be on your way!