Go Back  DVD Talk Forum > Entertainment Discussions > Video Game Talk
Reload this Page >

So you think you're good at Soul Caliber 2 ?

Video Game Talk The Place to talk about and trade Video & PC Games

So you think you're good at Soul Caliber 2 ?

Old 07-28-05, 01:23 PM
  #1  
Guest
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Glendale, next to L.A.
Posts: 18,484
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
So you think you're good at Soul Caliber 2 ?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...es_blind_gamer

Blind Teen Amazes With Video-Game Skills
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Writer

Wed Jul 27,10:01 PM ET


LINCOLN, Neb. - Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as "Mortal Kombat." In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing: He's blind.



And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.

"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat."

Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego.

"I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game.

Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games.

"I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me."

Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7.

"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers."

When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs.

"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well."

Now they get along just fine.

While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted.

He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help.

"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place.

"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.

"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.

How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.

"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was."

Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid.

That attitude doesn't faze Mellen.

"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards."

There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.

He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school.

When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study — what else? — video-game design.


Chris
Old 07-28-05, 03:01 PM
  #2  
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: MA
Posts: 4,661
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'd wreck this kid at Tetris or Klax
Old 07-28-05, 03:22 PM
  #3  
Retired
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 27,449
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by mrpayroll
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...es_blind_gamer
Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego.
They made a goof up. Pics are one of the MK 3D games and there are not decapatations etc. in SC 2.
Old 07-28-05, 04:56 PM
  #4  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 17,015
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I could kick his blind ass in Soul Caliber 2.
Old 07-28-05, 05:46 PM
  #5  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Atascadero, CA
Posts: 10,069
Received 207 Likes on 159 Posts
If I hadnt gotten a nice LCD set earlier this year I'd be pissed. Blind bastard doesn't need that set....
Old 07-28-05, 05:58 PM
  #6  
Banned
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Blu-Ray: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Petition
Posts: 6,677
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
He's 17 and a master of a M rated game? Sounds like someone hasn't been following the ESRB guidelines! This kid is part of the problem, not the solution.

Old 07-28-05, 08:58 PM
  #7  
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: MD
Posts: 3,137
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
lol.

but that is pretty sweet, good for him!
Old 07-29-05, 01:17 AM
  #8  
DVD Talk Gold Edition
 
tonymontana313's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 2,745
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Breakfast with Girls
I could kick his blind ass in Soul Caliber 2.
Nice to see you have compassion for the blind.
Old 07-29-05, 05:51 AM
  #9  
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Rampaging across DVDTalk.
Posts: 4,046
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
Everyone is probably just being nice and kicking the shit out of him in the game.
Old 07-29-05, 06:11 AM
  #10  
DVD Talk Limited Edition
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,731
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
Not to sound like an ass, but what is the point of playing games if you're blind? I really don't see what the point would be since gaming is such a visual thing.

I do kinda sound like an ass. Nevermind.
Old 07-29-05, 10:34 AM
  #11  
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 3,163
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post
Reminds me of the Dave Chapelle skit when Chapelle whips the kid with cancer on ps2 basket ball game
Old 07-29-05, 10:49 AM
  #12  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Austin, Texas
Posts: 930
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'd like to see him try that button mashing against me at Street Fighter II.
Old 07-29-05, 11:44 AM
  #13  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Plano, TX
Posts: 23,225
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Well I'll be the first not to be a prepubescent prick (it really is sad around here these days) and say "Good for him!"

edit: Make that second, looks like Outlaw beat me to it.
Old 07-29-05, 11:16 PM
  #14  
Banned
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
No offense, but I would have to see it (no offense) to believe it. There is no way that you could win any video game based only on sound. The article says he started out playing Space Invaders and Asteroids. I started playing Space Invaders back in '79, when I was 14 and I was a master at Asteroids (drop in a quarter, see you tomorrow), and there is absolutely NO way that the sound on those games give you any idea where you are on the screen.

Nice story. Makes all of us 5-sensers feel either guilty for not being rocket scientists or inspire us to feel like we could do anything.

Next week. he'll probably get a driver's license.
Old 07-31-05, 01:35 AM
  #15  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: a mile high, give or take a few feet
Posts: 14,831
Received 217 Likes on 173 Posts
I had read about this somewhere else. It's pretty amazing, and I'm sure he could kick my ass at any game. Even with the sound off he probably could.

It would be strange to play a game against someone facing the opposite direction.
Old 07-31-05, 05:49 AM
  #16  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: St. Albans, England (UK)
Posts: 1,376
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'd say "Good for him" too but TBH I think I'd also have to see it to believe it. Of course you can listen very carefully to "where" a sound might be coming from, but especially on a game like Asteroids or Space Invaders the sound is the same all the time. It would be like me playing SI with the TV switched off.
Thats impossible to do, no?
Old 07-31-05, 12:01 PM
  #17  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 744
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
maybe someone should tell him he's playing mortal kombat, not soul calibur.
Old 07-31-05, 10:36 PM
  #18  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Drexl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 16,077
Likes: 0
Received 15 Likes on 13 Posts
I'll bet he sure plays a mean pinball.
Old 08-01-05, 02:45 AM
  #19  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: St. Albans, England (UK)
Posts: 1,376
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
And Calibur is spelt wrong
Dont know he has to playing SC in the picture though, they were just using that as an example.
Old 08-01-05, 10:04 AM
  #20  
Guest
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Glendale, next to L.A.
Posts: 18,484
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by grim_tales
And Calibur is spelt wrong
Dont know he has to playing SC in the picture though, they were just using that as an example.

Well, I just checked the dictionary and there is no spelling for 'calibur', so the makers of the game are making up names as they go along.

That's perfect! The young people of today are pretty bad spellers to begin with and these people are not helping them!

Chris
Old 08-01-05, 10:45 AM
  #21  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Maxflier's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 13,236
Received 235 Likes on 171 Posts
Count me as another that would have to see it to beleive it.Seems like you could beat the dude easy by just fighting defensively.
Old 08-01-05, 11:11 AM
  #22  
Guest
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Glendale, next to L.A.
Posts: 18,484
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Wow, this thread just won't die!

http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/4785325/detail.html

Blind Gamer Takes All Comers
Lincoln Teen Is Whiz At Videogames, Despite Blindness

POSTED: 9:17 am CDT July 29, 2005
UPDATED: 9:31 am CDT July 29, 2005

LINCOLN, Neb. -- You need skill and quick reflexes to play video games, but could you play with your eyes closed? A Lincoln teenager proves it is possible.

Brice Mellen takes all comers when he’s at the controls of his favorite games. Lots of kids are good at videogames, but what makes Mellen different is that he's blind.

"I used to tell him all the time, 'Brice you're so special. Not everyone could do this,'" said sister Ally Stewart.

When teenagers line up against the 17-year-old, he tells them: "Pretty much, let's go. I'm good."

His family and friends attest that he can beat almost everyone who steps up.

"For some reason he has better hand-eye coordination than I do -- without the eye part," Stewart said.

Mellen has been blind since birth, but his sister said Brice taught himself to play by memorizing the way the joystick moves, listening to sound cues and asking lots of questions. Mellen said it's no more difficult than riding a bike, which he also does.

"I just kind of check for landmarks, cracks in the sidewalk, poles, garbage cans," he said.


Mellen likes to compete at Dog Tags Gaming Center in Lincoln. His favorite games are Mortal Kombat and Final Fantasy.


I can't wait until he gets his drivers license!

Chris
Old 08-01-05, 11:46 AM
  #23  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: St. Albans, England (UK)
Posts: 1,376
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by mrpayroll
Well, I just checked the dictionary and there is no spelling for 'calibur', so the makers of the game are making up names as they go along.

That's perfect! The young people of today are pretty bad spellers to begin with and these people are not helping them!

Chris
I mean the spelling of the game is "Solul Calibur" not "Soul Caliber"
Old 08-01-05, 12:39 PM
  #24  
DVD Talk Gold Edition
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Missouri
Posts: 2,301
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
He's blinded but his ears is not deaf. So, he can heard & feel when you move your analog control or your character from the screen w/ background sound effect. If you are so hurry tried to beat him.....you are wrong for big time...instead be patient & use ur stragety or trick him
Old 08-01-05, 02:00 PM
  #25  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Drexl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 16,077
Likes: 0
Received 15 Likes on 13 Posts
Originally Posted by grim_tales
I mean the spelling of the game is "Solul Calibur" not "Soul Caliber"
Okay, "Calibur" comes from Excalibur but I have no idea where they get "Solul" from.

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.