Can you believe it? It’s coming! What is, you ask? Street Fighter IV!! Who’s gearing up for it? We are! Who’s we? Uh, well I don’ t know, but I sure as hell am! So can you tell I’m slightly excited? Sure it’s more than a bit of a month away, but who really cares, I’ve been waiting almost 6 months now since the arcade came out. I found out that the game comes out the day after Louis Riel Day (For those who don’t know, Louis Riel Day is that holiday in Feb when everyone complained that there wasn’t one, we get LRD, but the rest of the country gets Family Day). I also found out that I was suppose to work on the day of the tournament, but I switched out and decided to work on Valentine’s Day, since I have no significant other (GO SINGLE-ISM). So that means that I get that Tuesday off, which means I can buy SFIV and play all day long! Who’s with me on this one?!

Oh that reminds me, I’ve been working on a poster for promoting not only the tournament, but something that we can hand out at the tournament to show people who we are, I guess more like an Open House flyer. This picture I’m just about to post is actually the poster I’m working on, the promo pamphlet will be something coming up.

So anything about it would be nice, I know it’s not perfect because of the inkblots and crap, but give me a break here. I’m just kickin’ around some ideas here, I’ll definitely need to get this out before the tournament, we’ll need to get stuff around the university and to PNP games. When I’m finished this I will be sending out some emails and such to people around the city, all I ask is that you print 1 or 2 out, in color or b/w and then take it to somewhere that has a lot of traffic and put them up. If you decide to put them up in a public place, that’s cool, if it’s a shop, please ask for permission first!

Okay, so on to some “news”.

We all know that yesterday was suppose to be a day where we got to see SFIV being played on console by those guys at 1UP.com, but apparently they were bought out yesterday by UGO Entertainment and had to postpone said showing. Which really sucked because I think a majority of us were eager to watch people play the new console characters. But this is not really the big point here, it’s to say that UGO bought out 1UP.com and laid off a ton of employees that worked there, including the Ziff Davis staff, who were most famous for their magazines in the gaming industry, specifically Electronic Gaming Monthly aka EGM or EGM2 to some of us who remember. I remember my first EGM I got was the Fighting Game issue, it’s where they covered the Fighting games of the arcades AND some consoles. It had move lists for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Alpha 2, Virtual On, Star Gladiator, even Tobal No.1 ! That issue went through so many hands and it eventually got torn to shreds. I still remember the back advertisement for that issue, it was for Space Jam: The Video Game. Oh, the memories, thanks EGM, you always gave some good tips back then. RIP EGM.

I’d like to say that I’m very impressed with the layout of the webpage. I give Jayse a lot of props for it, he’s put in a lot of time and effort into this thing and he doesn’t get paid for it (Thanks for volunteering your time Jayse!). I’m hoping that the amount of time and effort you put into this site and the community is also going into the DVD. A lot of people should be thanking you as well for all that you’ve done for us in the last 6 months. I also just noticed the Street Fighter IV Countdown on the side. I must say, it’s pretty neat, but I swear the time is off by a day or something. As of the 9th of January, it will be 22 days until the end of January and then 17 days until SFIV is released, so 39 days right? But then I look at the timer and it says 39 days:4hours:6mins:xx seconds, and today is the 8th isn’t it? Don’t know about that, unless someone can clear that up for me, once again, nice stuff with the site Jayse.

Haven’t kept up with finding out where to pre-order SFIV or the stick, PNP is working on a pre-order system, EB doesn’t know if they’re getting it, and another thing, is there going to be some sort of 12AM opening for the game? And even if there was, would I go? I guess we could use it to promote our club, but I don’t know.

So I haven’t really been playing much lately, since I’m back at work, working full time prevents me from playing all my games to the fullest. Fallout 3 is still getting gameplay from me, Farcry 2 is getting there, but I require a bit of time to play the game, so it’s more of a weekender game. Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is great, but I haven’t popped it in for a bit as I’m still figuring out who to make. I’ve been playing a bit of ST HD Remix, but have kept my online play to a minimum since I enjoy playing local games amongst our local scene. If you would like to join us, please check out “The Gathering Thread” that I have just linked you to.

I guess it’s very hard to keep up with the news of gaming since most places I go to have already been talking about it, whether it’s SRK, Screwattack.com, IGN.com, etc etc. You guys have pretty much read most of it. I try my best to give you the news for the local people who decide not to go to those sites. I haven’t been linking them a lot since it’s pointless if you’re not going to go to their sites in the first place.

A bit of an issue this year with the Student Group thing at the U of M, we’re currently not registered as one (I checked the UMSU webpage, we and UMGA are off the list). I have currently got our application forms but require the assistance of a few University of Manitoba students. As you know, the executive team of the SSGA/Chipdamage.com are not students of the U of M any longer, we are alumni or drop outs or whatever you wish to call people that don’t go any more. We are currently looking for a student or students who we can rely on to be a liaison between this group and many things at the U o M. This is pretty much the work of a vice president and such. You don’t actually need to do much. It’s more of a way for us to have a foot inside the door to certain perks at the U of M (Trust me, if you’re going for medicine or something and you do this, this definitely opens more doors for you). If you are currently a U of M student and would like to donate a bit of your time to the club/community, please give me an email at jimkim@chipdamage.com.

In closing, I’d like to say I’m very excited these upcoming months as we’re coming to the start of a new generation of fighters (Yes I know SCIV was actually a start, but it didn’t get super hype!). I’m also very excited to see where the games will take our scene, I’m hoping that this and many other things will help us grow into a scene where we eventually just have little sections of the city battling it out to see who reigns supreme. Is it North End, South side, the Trashcona/East End, West End/Downtown, or West Side aka The STJ? Who knows, we’ll have to see when the game that we’ve waited 9 years for finally comes out, next month! Later guys.

James “Korea” Kim