He's blind folks, BLIND. I can't imagine the frustrations he went through, and it's truly a special story. EGM gave him some coverage a few months back, and he deserves whatever press he can get.
That's of course until you realize the writer did no research, spelling the game's title incorrectly (it's CalibUR, not Caliber) and made comments about decapitations and claiming the game featured gore. It doesn't. Way to spoil a wonderful story.
Comments (4)
Oh come on Matt, every video game features gore. Especially every fighting game. I mean, they are all like Mortal Kombat, aren't they?
Posted by Ken Edwards | July 27, 2005 11:56 PM
Posted on July 27, 2005 23:56
Oh yeah, because like once, I was playing Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo and I was Ryu. I did a dragon punch and it went into Blanka's butt and I kept pressing buttons and then pulled out his intesines. Once we came down, I pressed more buttons and I strangled him with them. Once Blanka died, Ryu ate the intenstines for his winning pose.
Really.*
*The above story was false. By the above statement I mean to bring no harm to the game industry by having the ESRB re-evaluate a 15-year old MA-13 rated game based on hidden game code. I do not wish they change the rating to reflect the new set of ratings either. If the above content does exist, it does because some sick, twisted bastard put it there. As for Rockstar, well, they're screwed.
Posted by Matt Paprocki | July 28, 2005 12:59 AM
Posted on July 28, 2005 00:59
I don't believe this story.
At first I thought that he probably memorized the sounds which the characters in Soul Calibur make. He could find out the attack the other character launches, which could allow him to execute the (memorized) correct reaction to every attack.
How does he know if the enemy is to the left or to the right? I guess he could figure it out due to the stereo sound. But then, how does he know how far away the other character is? He can't know that.
Still, I guess it could be possible to be pretty good even without knowing the exact position of both characters.
But then they wrote that he started out playing "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid". You can't play those games blindly. There are almost no audible cues. Asteroids is pretty much random. It's not possible.
And then there are the other inacuracies which make me believe that the reporter never saw him play the game ("decapitated, eviscerated and gutted" characters, "blood-spattered character's corpse").
Given that and the unlikeliness of being good in Soul Calibur without playing it and the impossibility of being good in Space Invaders or Asteroid without seeing the action, I think it's a hoax or at least a huge exaggeration.
Posted by LKM | July 29, 2005 4:45 PM
Posted on July 29, 2005 16:45
I was skeptical too. Soul Calibur could work, especially with someone like Ivy. Her sword has enough range. You can judge their footsteps probably accurately if you do it enough, but we don't need to. He's on an entirely different level.
It never really says he was GOOD at the early titles. Just started with them. I'm sure the kids who were playing against him would be witnesses.
Posted by Matt Paprocki | July 29, 2005 5:02 PM
Posted on July 29, 2005 17:02