What is noscope? And other "stupid" questions about games you've been too afraid to ask.

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

It's because I finally got a gaming-capable PC in the house, and I don't want to go on a buying spree on Steam only to find out that I can't install all those precious mods I've been itching to play on Dark Souls, Oblivion, Skyrim, KotOR 2, etc.

As long as the game isn't a multiplayer game that uses Valve Anti Cheat (VAC), you should be fine. You can mod VAC games too, but people have reported wonky behavior like getting banned from servers, losing their VAC rating and such when modding VAC protected games, even if the mods themselves don't affect the multiplayer part of the game.

 

[StriderShinryu]

In fighting games, can someone explain what Okizeme means, and what it means for a fighter to have good/bad Okizeme?

Ok so "okizeme" is about the options a character has after knocking an opponent to the ground. Fighting games have so many different ways to attack(lows, highs, cross-ups, throws) that require different defensive moves. After dropping an opponent on the ground, no matter what you get to make the next offensive move and they have to respond to it. A good okizeme character like Akuma in Street Fighter 4 forces your opponent to either guess ahead of time what you're is going to do or respond to it at the very last second. The word "okizeme" comes from Japanese martial arts and was applied to Street Fighter back in the day and eventually became part of fighting game lingo. "Vortex" is sometimes used instead among English speakers, but it means the same thing.

Actually, Vortex isn't the same as okizeme. As stated, okizeme is the general game of cat and mouse played at wake-up (when you have your opponent knocked down, they have limited options in how to get back up and you have limited options to deal with them getting up).

A vortex, however, is a combination of attacks and movement that are basically designed to loop into each other. Once you're stuck in a vortex series you have limited options of escape and, if you get hit, the aggressor can basically start the looping series over again to force the same situation. These are often easiest to execute and set up once you've knocked an opponent down, and they often do feature a knock down as the key point for the loop, but they are not specifically related to okizeme. If anything I suppose you could say they are a very potent type of okizeme. An easy example of a vortex is with Cammy in SF4 (before Ultra SF4 where they added delayed wakeup almost entirely to combat vortex play). Cammy can use a series of moves that flow from her EX dive kick which, when properly executed, can lead to a mix up between her drill attack special or sweep if you get hit or her backwards throw if you block. Either of these options (especially the back throw) can put you knocked down and in a position where she is perfectly placed to start the whole thing again with a very ambiguous dive kick (you don't know which way to block because the aggressor can vary whether it's a cross up or not purely on a slight shift in timing and spacing) as you are getting up, and this starts the loop over again. Watch high level Akuma, Cammy and Ibuki matches in SSF4 AE 2012 for plenty of examples of Vortexes.