VGCulture - Lil' Guardian Pyro

Official Site: http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/saxxyawards/
Source: Youtube Channel Harry101UK

The Saxxy Award is a contest hosted by Valve to give people an opportunity to show their creative side to the world using the Source Film Maker Program to produce a short film.  I don't pay much attention to each year's Saxxy Award, but I came across one of the entries while reading NerfNow.  Lil' Guardian Pyro was winner of Best Overall video from the bunch and I could see why.  It had humor, a sense of drama, action that was also charming at the same time, and that tense moment at the end.  Congratulations to the winners!  Click on the top link to check out the other entries that got nominated!

VGCulture - Filler - SSBM Final Destination

Sorry to leave you all with another filler, but it's a fitting follow up to yesterday's post.  Though a lot of fans of competitive Smash Bros. are excited about Project M, those who like to play casually are reminded how some people take the game a little too seriously and suck all the fun out of the game for them.  This little video, although facetious, does a good job of summing up what happens when you play with those who only want to play Smash Bros. seriously:
Source: Youtube Channel swordsman3003

So those worried that Project M just reinforces the competitive nature of the series, let me reassure you that anyone can still have fun with it.  Smash Bros. is like any other Fighting game where it provides a lot of depth in their game mechanics for further competitive play but will ultimately have distinguished skill levels among those who play it.  If you want to play more casually with items on and with special settings, do so.  There are definitely still people who play this casually, and Sakurai has already stated that he wants to produce a true party game that anyone could enjoy for the series.  I'm very excited to see how the next Smash Bros. turns out.

VGCulture - Filler - Top 10 Worst NES Games - AVGN

Ahhh, sorry!  I'm caught up with a lot of errands today so it's a filler for today!
Source: Youtube Channel Cinemassacre

VGCulture - Halloween Events 2013!

If you play an online game, there's a good chance that there's a Halloween event going on right now for it.  More games get involved with the holidays and will provide limited edition items, special game modes, special events and such.  Here are some of the games I found Halloween events for:
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot

MMOs:
-Dragon Nest
-Elsword
-Guild Wars 2
-Mabinogi
-Vindictus

Non-MMOs:
-Don't Starve - The Screecher Horror Mod
-Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams Halloween Level
-Killing Floor - Hillbilly Horror Fright Yard
-Serious Sam 3 BFE
-Terraria

Don't forget that the Steam Halloween Sale ends tomorrow.  Also a free Half-Life 2 Mod was added to Steam platform today called "No More Room in Hell" which features 8-player co-op Horror FPS action.  Have a fun and safe Halloween!

VGCulture - Music - Arcadias no Ikusahime

Official JP Site: http://nippon1.jp/consumer/arcadias/index.html   Source: Youtube Channel DesmaX

For the past week, I saw the name Arcadias no Ikusahime come up more than once on Kotaku and mentions how great the music is.  Looking at the game's theme and gameplay, I was thinking it'd be a lot of orchestration with some Baroque period influence.  And in some of the songs, there are a lot orchestration and RPG sounding songs.  I decided to listen to the entire gamerip OST and see what it was all about.  What I experienced was a very unique collection of genres.  I hear influences from Rock, Classical, Baroque, Drum 'n Bass, Jungle, House, Oriental, Pop, Celtic, and even some Dubstep.  Some songs sound like the typical Medieval period JRPG music while others sounds like futuristic Phantasy Star themed music.  In videogames, music can be experimented with, combined, and utilized to create a unique theme or atmosphere for the game's experience.  I like the music and the gameplay reminds me of Odin Sphere.  No word of an international release has been made, but I'm hoping this game gets localized.  The entire gamerip OST is up on top for you to listen to.  There are 51 tracks in total.  Thanks for sharing Kotaku, I might not have seen this game otherwise.

Source:
-Kotaku - Arcadias no Ikusahime is Pretty, Light-Hearted, and Fun to Play

VGCulture - I Am Street Fighter - 25th Anniversary Documentary

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/streetfighter


I'm surprised I didn't see this before, but the Street Fighter Documentary was released officially to watch on Youtube!  Street Fighter, like to many other gamers, has been an influential part of my gaming life and is what got me into fighting games.  Street Fighter 2 had set the standards and shown the capabilities of what a fighting game could be.  The graphics, music, defined mechanics and controls, characters, and story made Street Fighter such a memorable experience in all aspects.  Just hearing a small tune from a characters theme strikes immediate recognition to the character and level.  The intense competitive nature leaves all sorts of experiences for players who have played the game.  And from Capcom's first Street Fighter till now, a lot has changed yet a lot remains the same.  For the longest time, it seemed like Street Fighter had become more underground and attracted a niche group of gamers despite how many Street Fighter games had released.  Capcom wanted to bring back the community, the excitement and memories that Street Fighter fans had before.  I think Capcom had done a great job of bringing Street Fighter back to forefront of the Fighting game scene with Street Fighter IV.  Although I don't agree with their practices in re-releasing their games in more definitive versions with each of their games (SF4->SSF4->SSF4AE->USF4 or MvC3->UMvC3 or Dragon's Dogma->DD:Dark Arisen), they really do make games that pleases their fans even if they happen to upset them at the same time (Tekken X Street Fighter on-disc DLC).  I haven't watched the Documentary myself yet, but it should be fun to go down memory lane and see the legacy of Street Fighter unfold itself.

VGCulture - Free Mafia 2 or Civilization 5

Official Site: http://www.greenmangaming.com/golden-joysticks/

I'm not even sure if I want to recommend this after the frustration I just went through.  So Green Man Gaming is having a promotion where they're giving away one of two games for free for voting games for the Golden Joysticks Awards.  So you can vote on categories such as best gaming moment, best platform of the year, best indie game, and others.  At the end of voting, you can sign up for a CVG account, if you don't already have one, and choose a free steam key for either Mafia 2 or Civilization 5.  On that form, you have to enter your login for greenmangaming.  If it doesn't work, you'll probably have to choose another username.  You're essentially making a new account on GMG I think, even if you already have one.  Even then, they'll send you an e-mail to get your code and you'll find out that they don't give it to you just yet because your votes weren't registered yet and it will say "Oops, looks like you haven't voted yet!"  So if you really want that free game, you're going to have to be patient and spend some time on the long load times on the voting site and problems GMG is having getting that free steam key to you.

Aside from all that, the whole point for this promotion is to get people to vote on CVG's site.  Honestly, the choices are really hard and made me realized how many amazing games came out this past year.

If you're going after that free game key, best of luck to you and hope you don't run into as many problems as I did.

VGCulture - Garen Does The Monkey

Official Site: http://beta.na.leagueoflegends.com/
Source: Youtube Channel League of Legends

Garen was the 2nd champion I bought when I first started playing League of Legends and he was one of my favorite characters.  He was incredibly strong with high damage, high resilience, his spin skill (Judgment) allowed him to be invulnerable to all spells, and it was a time where Fire Cape stacked.  After numerous nerfs and changes to his skills, I didn't play him as much and I saw the same from the community.  It seems Riot realized this and decided to spruce Garen up a bit with new visuals, some refining in his skills, and adding a new dance!

Garen originally did the dance from N*Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" Music Video.  But watching the spotlight, I realized he did "The Monkey".  But where did the inspiration come from?  What is riot referencing when they added it in?  I looked what other people thought it might be and one mentioned Johnny Bravo.  I still remember that dance being in the intro of that cartoon (Dance at 0:22):
Source: Youtube Channel Chankis39

Then I saw one other possibility from an Animé I've never heard of called Overman King Gainer.  Dance at 0:46
Source: Youtube Channel ntyun

I am now addicted to the theme song and can't stop listening to it.  There's also the theory that Riot is referencing "Bird is the Word" from Family Guy.  Dance starts at 0:28.
Source: Youtube Channel FOX

It could be anything!  The dance is a bit goofy for Garen, I kinda liked his N*Sync dance.  Still, his visual upgrade looks pretty cool and I'm planning to check it out myself in-game sometime soon.

VGCulture - Music - PAC-STEPS

Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/236450/
Source: Youtube Channel Laurent Bosch

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ had 8 DLCs announced for it before the game released which was offered for free for those who pre-order the game.  If you had pre-ordered the game, you would have 4 extra courses, 3 skins, and 2 BGMs.  I pre-ordered the game for $2 less on Green Man Gaming thinking that even if the game got a discount with the DLCs, it'd still cost around the same price so I might as well get it now while it still offered the DLCs.  One of the 2 BGMs offered is Pac-Steps.  When I first saw the name, I was thinking it'd be a Dub-Step iteration with sampling of the classic jingle from the original.  The thought was both interesting and frightening at the same time.  Thankfully, the track turned out to be Drum 'n Bass/Jungle (I guess it's referring to variations of DnB like Hardstep/Trancestep).  The song isn't too heavy so it has a bit of a laid back feel to it while still sounding fast and urgent which matches the hectic speed of the game.  It starts off sounding a bit more organic with real sounding instruments as it transitions to faster beats with a more synthesized drum kit.  The courses are great additions to the game and the skins are fun little aesthetic changes, but the addition of this song made it really worth it.

Sadly, I can't say the same for the other BGM DLC "Re-entrance".  It's essentially a remix of the Main Menu theme used in-game which I didn't really like.  The game is a lot of fun and I'm very glad they brought it to PC, but there are some problems with it that I'll probably address when I do a review.  If you already have the game on consoles, it should have upgraded to the new stuff for free while those who have the main game on Steam but not the DLCs can get Pac-Steps for $.99.

VGCulture - Music - Pokémon Catchatronic

Mix Creator Youtube Channel: Nick "Pogo" Bertke Source: Youtube Channel Pokemon

I don't keep up with Pokémon much nowadays because of various reasons.  I stopped playing the game because it was way too hard to keep up with and it took a lot of time.  Every time I play a game that required grinding, I'm reminded of playing Pokémon.  I've only truly completed the original Pokémon game and have not really played any of the main series games since then (though I do have Poké Gold/Silver and SoulSilver, just never beat them).  With the upcoming Pokémon X/Y, I'm considering trying it out since it seems a lot of changes to the game will be made for this iteration.  For the Pokémon cards, it was just too expensive of a hobby to keep collecting them and there were too many.  Did you know people still collect Pokémon cards?  It's crazy!  And finally, I stopped watching the show shortly after they changed all the voice actors.  It also bugged me that Ash never got smarter and always ends up doing the same mistakes he did in previous seasons.  So it's a bit of surprise for me that after seeing this little music video/dance mix made by Pogo, I have the urge to watch the show now.  The mix is pretty catchy and makes good uses of sampling (though, that's mainly what Pogo is known for).  I also see a bunch of first generation and 2nd generation Pokémon in the video.  There's even a small snippet of Ash in his original character design, hat and all, holding a gym badge that doesn't look familiar.  So much has happened in the world of Pokémon that I'm oblivious to it now.  Mike Fahey of Kotaku didn't seem to like the mix or video as much as he points out Pogo's other works such as the one he did for Alice in Wonderland.  Perhaps my expectations before watching the video was low that I ended up liking it a lot and reminded me how much I miss Pokémon.  Pogo has a lot of great works you can check out at his channel (top link).

Source:
-Kotaku - Pokemon Brings Back "Gotta Catch 'Em All" With A Bad Music Video

VGCulture - Music - Mighty No.9

Kickstarter Page: Mighty No.9
Youtube Channel: 2-Player Productions
Source: Youtube Channel nuclearblast91

The support for Keiji Inafune's Mighty No.9 has been phenomenal.  The funding has already reached over 2 Million dollars with 17 more days to go.  It's clear that many people are excited about the game, including me.  2-Player Productions has joined the team to document the progress and development of the game.  I think this is a good idea.  To have the community be so involved and close to the development of the game allows fans to be reached out and be part of the journey the team at Comcept are taking to complete this project.  For me, one of the most interesting and important factors in a game's development is the music as I find music to be incredibly important in a game and is also what I work with most.  So it was a nice surprise to have a video interview Mighty No.9's music composer (who also worked on the original Megaman) Manami Matsumae posted up by 2-Player Productions.
Source: Youtube Channel 2PlayerProductions

It was short, but rather inspiring hearing from her own words of her work and her involvement with Megaman and Mighty No.9.  Hearing her play the Mighty No.9 theme she wrote on piano sent a chill down my spine.  I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of her work in the full game when it finally releases in 2015.

VGCulture - Music - Christian Gabel

Soundcloud Page: Christian Gabel - Krater
Source: Youtube Channel Christian Gabel

I wanted to revisit a game I mentioned over a year ago called "Krater".  It is a top-down, 3-man party, Action RPG/RTS Adventure game set in a desolate, post-apocalyptic Sweden.  A lot of the atmosphere and influences that went into Krater was due to the inspiration musician Christian Gabel had when coming across a series of concept art seemingly meant for a movie.  He had worked on a soundtrack inspired by the images of Karlstad in ruins and shared his findings and work with one of the developers of Fatshark when he was at a party talking about science-fiction movies with them.  Fatshark had already been working on a post-apocalyptic game at that point and the developer Gabel was talking was fascinated by his story thus the studio collaborated with him on the development of Krater.

The music is very atmospheric with a retro sort of feel.  Gabel was fond of the use of synths and other old audio equipment which in turn made for a nostalgic sounding environment.  Some of the tracks would be then remixed for the game to fit the situation.  The feeling that I get from listening to the music while playing the game is one of familiarity, despite never having heard the song before.  And although I use the word "atmospheric" to describe the music, it's not the generic, cinematic sounding "atmospheric" that I'm against as most of the songs have some sort of recurring theme or hook to them that make them memorable, unique and distinguished.  I'm actually kind of sad this soundtrack wasn't used in a movie.

The reason for revisiting the topic of "Krater" since July of last year is that I eventually bought the game but never found the time to play it.  It went on sale various times and eventually I convinced one of my friends to grab it so we could play co-op on it.  Unfortunately, co-op is just a tiny mode where two players run through one of three very challenging dungeons to grab loot, level up, and earn some money.  The combat system and gameplay is interesting, but lacks content and variety.  There are only 4 classes to choose from and each class only has two skill (there are high tier versions of the skills for the classes later in the game) and characters have level caps to them which means getting higher level cap characters require leveling them up from the beginning.  Since there aren't any resources (mana/energy, whatever you want to call it), all skills are based off cool-downs and how the player cycles through.  The game is pretty fun in its own right, and the music is a huge (and I'm HUGE) plus to the experience; however, it does feel unrefined, unrealized, and full of potential that hasn't been tapped into yet.  The atmosphere and music of the game definitely are the highlights of the game thus far with the combat, class, and skill management being interesting but not entirely fleshed out.  I'm still holding out my definite opinion of the game until I've fully completed it first, but it's still not a game I'd be so sure of recommending to a friend.  The music, on the other hand, I would recommend anyone to listen to.  Click on the top link to listen to some of the track directly from Christian Gabel's soundcloud page.  And if you like it, the soundtrack is available on iTunes, Amazon, and various digitally distributed music sites.

VGCulture - Hatsune Miku Project DIVA F Controller

Play-Asia Site: Hatsune Miku -Project Diva- F Controller for PS3 Source: Youtube Channel shinstc

Holy mother of rhythm game controllers, I want this so bad!  So I managed to nab myself a physical copy of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F in fear that they all get sold out, but I had nothing to worry about (which might be bad in terms of sales and for future plans of porting the 2nd game).  I had come across a controller created by Hori that was made for the game specifically and thought it was an interesting design.  When I looked it up online to see if there were any video demonstrations for it, I realized I was looking at a "mini" version and that this was the original version (shown in the video above).  The Original is larger, the buttons light up, and has a swipe pad rather than an analog stick.  It's so shiny and has that arcade feel to it!  It's also really expensive.  It was $499 when I checked it up online last night at Play-Asia, but due to the release of Project DIVA F yesterday, it seems they have lowered the price down to $399.  Not to mention shipping costs $50+ depending on where you live in the world.

Image from Amazon.com

This is a picture of the Mini version that has no light up buttons, no swipe pad, but it lighter and smaller for easier transportation and usage on your lap.  Still, the cheapest ones I've found that isn't used is around $145 at eBay or $168 at Amazon.  As much as I want the controller, I can't justify the purchase of it.  It's more expensive than the fightstick I bought and will be mainly used for one game as opposed to my fightstick where I play over 20+ games on it (Fighting, platformers, shoot-em-ups).  After seeing the controller, playing on controller doesn't seem as much fun anymore.  The controller design reminds me of an old music rhythm game called Pop 'n Music.
Source: Youtube Channel bootsee

For those who are a bit more dedicated and want an authentic arcade experience with Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F, you can grab the original controller at Play-Asia on the link on top or the Mini version from your select online store such as Amazon.  Maybe I'll get a mini if it drops down in price.

VGCulture - Fall & Winter 2013 Releases

Reference: http://www.metacritic.com/game
Source: Youtube Channel IGN

When I was younger, I wanted to be able to play every game that released but thought it impossible because of how expensive games were.  Now that I can afford to buy games and that we live in an age where crazy sales allow me to buy games between $2.49-$9.99 each, I find that I still can't play every game that releases because there isn't enough time in the day to play that much.  Even with the crazy sales, some games don't go down in price (Xenoblade Chronicles, noooo, I should've bought you on the first daaaaaaay) which leads to purchases lots of games at high prices.  I'm already going to try getting Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F today which is $50, and it's a good thing I'm not a Madden fan or that would've been another $60 I put down today.  I've already skipped a lot of games I wanted this year such as Dragon Crown, The Last of Us, Tales of Xillia and many others, yet the holidays aren't even here yet which means a lot more games coming out.  Here's what we can look forward to just in the next month:

-Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (Today)
-Madden NFL 25 (Today)
-Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (Today)
-Lost Planet 3 (Today)
-Killer Is Dead (Today)
-The Chaos Engine (Aug 29)
-Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Sep 3)
-Total War: Rome II (Sep 3)
-One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 (Sep 3)
-Rayman Legends (Sep 3)
-Diablo III (Sep 3)
-Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (Sep 3)
-Outlast (Sep 4)
-Killzone: Mercenary (Sep 10)
-Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (Sep 10)
-Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX (Sep 10)
-NHL 14 (Sep 10)
-The Wonderful 101 (Sep 15)
-Grand Theft Auto V (Sep 17)
-Ys: Memories of Celceta (Sep 24)
-Valhalla Knights 3 (Sep 24)
-Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (Sep 24)
-Armored Core: Verdict Day (Sep 24)
-FIFA 14 (Sep 24)
-Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 (Sep 24)
-Shadow Warrior (Sep 26)
-Alien Rage (Sep 27)
-Deadfall Adventures (Sep 27)

Not to mention games like these are coming out in October & November:
-Batman: Arkham Origins
-Battlefield 4
-Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
-Call of Duty: Ghosts
-Watch Dogs
-Need for Speed Rivals
-The Guided Fate Paradox
-XCOM: Enemy Within
-NBA 2K14
-Beyond: Two Souls
-Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
-Sonic: Lost World
-Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
-Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl
-Pokemon X/Y


There are about 24 games I want and plan on buying sometime or another just from this list.  I'm sure I'll find the price I want for each of these games, it's just finding the time to play them that's difficult.

VGCulture - Gamepad Compatibility on PC

Gamepad compatibility for a PC game is a wonderful thing when the keyboard and mouse just doesn't cut it.  Genres such as platformers, fighting games, shoot-em-ups and Beat-em-ups just feel better with a traditional gamepad or arcade stick.  It's nice to see a lot of these games still being made and readily available on PC to play and even better to see that they're compatible with a controller.  There's just one problem with this that I've run into quite often in the past dozen games I've recently played: Only the Xbox 360 controller works.

There are plenty of games that were ported to PC that was originally on Playstation 3 yet it doesn't work with a PS3 controller.  It may be that when a game is ported to PC, it uses Microsoft's development kit to bring it over and is already scripted to use the Xbox 360 controller and the developer doesn't want to program the ability to recognize other controllers.  It might be that Microsoft has exclusivity to a game when ported over or developed on PC, especially when that game uses Games for Windows Live.  Whatever the case, it's very limiting and annoying to have only one controller out of dozens that other people have at hand be compatible with a game.  I've been pretty lucky on some games such as Street Fighter x Tekken and Sonic Generations to be able to use my fightstick and Playstation 2 controller to play those games; however, I haven't had luck with a lot of games I've gotten recently.  Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Sonic Adventure, Sacred Citadel, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara don't recognize other controllers and have been known only to support Xbox 360 controllers.  There have been ways around this that people have used such as an Xbox 360 controller emulator that recognizes any controller as an Xbox 360 one or an application that maps keyboard keys onto a controller.  For some games, this has worked.  For others, it has not.  I'm hoping that developers realize that not all PC gamers own an Xbox 360 controller and would prefer to use a different controller on their games as it often deters many gamers from playing or even purchasing their games.  I've already purchased my games and will stubbornly play through them with my keyboard despite it not being the way I want to play them.

VGCulture - Filler - Highlights of DotA 2 from Korean Casters

Source: Youtube Channel ATK402

I knew I should've watched the Internationals 3 in the Korean channel!

Also, League of Legends World Championship is happening this weekend.

VGCulture - Steam Market's 200 Item Listing Limit

Official Site: http://store.steampowered.com/

If you have a lot of games on steam, you probably have access to a lot of Steam cards.  And if you're like me, who doesn't really care about badges or steam level, you probably tried to sell your cards away for money to put into your steam wallet.  Apparently, each user is limited to list 200 items per calendar year before being asked to provide extra information so that they continue to sell more items on the Steam Market.  First question, are you a citizen of the country you identified yourself with?  Then it asks typical stuff you usually fill out for paying for the games anyways: Name, Address, City, State, Country, Zip Code; and then *BAM* they hit you with this question: What's your Social Security Number?  Please note that this isn't Valve specifically asking for it, but the IRS requiring any and all users of the Steam client who has reach 200 items listed or has made over $20,000 on the Steam market so that Valve can report their earnings.  This was incredibly baffling to me.  For one, any money that a user makes stays on Steam as credit to use back in the steam market or to purchase games.  Can the IRS really call that an actual "income"?  If someone is making a few hundred and definitely over $20,000 in the Steam Market, then it's fair to track since it is affecting the usage and fluctuation of the economy when so much money is being used.  But a 200 item limit when cards are making 9-15 cents each?  It just seems rather ludicrous to me.  Most importantly, they are asking for an individual's Social Security Number.  That is something an individual shouldn't take lightly as that information in the wrong hands can wreck havoc on their identity, credit, and reputation.  I'm sure Valve would do their best to get your information safely to the IRS without it getting leaked out, but I have to point out that Valve's Steam Forums have been hacked before.  Many large corporations have had their database hacked and it's a common problem nowadays.  Even PC Magazine's forums got hacked just recently.  So as much as I'd like to make a few extra bucks to cover a bit of the impulsive buying I do on Steam, I'm going to have to hold onto a lot of cards until next year unless they decide to do away with the 200 item listing and check only if it goes beyond a certain price range.

VGCulture - Filler - Nichijou OP on Osu!

Source: Youtube Channel Adam Meech

I don't remember the last time I played Osu!, but I sure miss the game.  I don't think I'd go back to it though unless I had a touch-screen laptop or something.

VGCulture - Filler - Fuka's Theme

Source: Youtube Channel xKuragari

I haven't played any of the Disgaea games in the series yet, but I'm very interested in doing so.  Ridiculous attack animations, lots of content, memorable characters and such are elements I've heard from the franchise and want to experience.  I found this particular song to be catchy and addicting.  I don't think I'll be able to get around to this game any time soon, but it'll be something to look forward to.

VGCulture - Fighting Game Terminology

Reference Site: Wiktionary - Glossary of Fighting Games
Source: Youtube Channel IGN

This was an awesome weekend of watching EVO 2013 through Twitch TV.  One of my favorite matches was uploaded today by IGN with Justin Wong vs. Chris G on Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  There was emotion, excitement and hype, but there were also a lot of words I didn't understand.  I'm not a hardcore fighting game fan, but I do love fighting games so I'll understand typical terms like DP = Dragon Punch = Forward-down-forward punch attack or a "Combo".  But when I started words like "vortex" or "punish", I wasn't sure what they meant exactly though I had an idea.  Luckily for me, there is a whole page worth of terms used often in fighting games that's linked above.  You don't have to understand all the terminology or know all the advanced techniques of a fighting game to enjoy watching pros go at it, but it does give you a deeper sense of appreciation for every little thing that happens within a match.  Although, watching pros play and not knowing a lot of the advanced techniques makes it that much more amazing and exciting to watch.  I remember the first time I started learning about how pros played Super Smash Bros. Melee and realized the plethora of strategies and abilities that characters could utilize in the game.  It was like opening a whole new part of the game up for me to see and understand.  I'm not a hardcore fighting game fan or player and I don't plan to become pro, but I think learning something as simple as the terminology used in commentary and analyzing a match in a fighting game would help me appreciate the game, the players, and the community that much more.  If you didn't watch EVO through the streams this weekend and you're a fighting game fan, look up some of the matches online because they were really good this year.  For non-fighting game fans, look up matches for Super Smash Bros. Melee or Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as those are most flashiest and mesmerizing games to watch.