STREET FIGHTER IV

SO PSYCHED YOU GUYS!!

I almost made this thread last night!

Abel
Akuma
Balrog
Blanka
C. Viper
Cammy
Chun Li
Dan
Dhalsim
E. Honda
El Fuerte
Fei Long
Gen
Gouken
Guile
Ken
M. Bison
Rose
Rufus
Ryu
Sagat
Sakura
Seth
Vega
Zangie

February 17th in North America
February 20th in Europe

Anyone seen it or played it yet?

I was at the Chinaown Faire when I was in NYC watching some people play, the big thing I noticed is that jump-in is WAY nerfed, and there's no parry = how are you supposed to deal with hado-turtlers? Then again, I also watched FUCKING JUSTIN WONG playing and that guy can beat anyone so there must be a way (and he doesn't hado-turtle).

I went down there, too. It's kind of intimidating to go into that arcade, since there's always a couple of super hardcore guys who will be at one or both cabinets and utterly dominate everyone else who comes in. You know - like that guy who has just come back from his soulcrushing Wall Street job, still in his suit, sitting down on that stool and quietly killing everybody.

I much liked the game, still. Haven't played more than a few games, though, and I'm still not familiar with the new system, so I've got to reserve a deeper analysis other than it's fun.

woah eric suzuki's hair is really something

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/941/941347p1.html
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/street-fighter-iv-hands-on_1

actual news on console-specific version with anything actually new added to it seems strangely rare given that it's out in a month; hands-ons so far pretty much just say it's arcade perfect and comment on the mechanics

there is a menu option to change the colour of Sakura's underwear. Hoping this is part of some kind of XBOX-live based FBI sting.

http://img.skitch.com/20090106-cu2sk9e8dauphpt8w5h1n5kfdk.jpg

if they'd had the guts to actually update any of the characters they could have had a deformed post-accident Vega who goes round leaking fluid out of his face but still dissing everyone for being ugly

that and a Sakura that wasn't just obvious paedo-service

also this game needs Adon and http://www.zweifuss.com/hugo/hugostance.gif

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172107

the Sakura thing is unbelievably gross

^^^ yup!

Dan is in this. Might buy it.

http://www.freewebs.com/lorddr/dan-yuritaunt.gif

banter

That commentator is part of the game? I doubt most people will play more than 2 hours without muting it.

if there's an option to change Sakura's panties I'm sure that they'll be one to mute commentator.

Also, looking good Dan.

rly wish you could mute the super-move cutscenes too : ////

yeah, fighting games should never change pov so drastically.

dan is such a worthless character. why do they keep including him in games? also, why did they give him that horrible voice?

Dan is a fan favourite*, that's why they keep including him.

* Well my bro and I like him.

suggested better voice actors:

Bison: WILL ARNETT
Dan: STIMPY/FUTURAMA GUY
Vega: DAVID HYDE-PIERCE

Dan is the MAN, let no one tell you different! (Btw, i totally don't remember that announcer voice)

http://wa3.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/tuan/nengajo.jpg

http://www.iplaywinner.com/street-fighter-4-system/

latest .jp tier list to be taken w/pinch of salt
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/Fstrike/SF4%20Tier%20List/SF4TierList.png

more hands ons

http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/action/streetfighteriv/news.html?sid=6202732&tag=topslot;thumb;1

http://ces.gamespot.com/story.html?sid=6202941&tag=topslot;thumb;2

dan falls on his face if he misses his super

Gen has four super moves

I can only pray Dan has that fantastic Level 3 super back, the slow, predictable one that does minimal damage but reduces himself down to 1 pixel of life.

I played Marvel vs. Capcom 2 the other day. Dan was in the game. I kicked his ass when my friend is the one who actually knows some of the special moves in that game (I just bang buttons). Watching Dan do his fireball is hilarious to this date. And if you hit select he signs an autograph for you.

I used to like Capcom vs. Snk 2 better because I knew how to do the moves for some people in that game and the game was made to not be as much of a button masher in the first place. But yeah, M vs.C2 is still a great game as well.

Street Fighter IV Game Night streaming live in 40 minutes (should be archived later)
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172234

the crazy-priced £150/$150 tournament edition sticks are selling like crazy
o_O

a bit too excited for this now

just seems like the wait is getting longer, not shorter : /

are you getting this on ps3 jeff?

Sakura looks like badass competition for the home versions.
I've seen Rose videos and her voice would get annoying pretty fast.

cozwn - I'm leaning towards the 360 version since I have a feeling the online over there will be better.

this (.pdf) is a bit nerdy but also great and written in easy to understand english (as opposed to shoryuken.com)

Ugh, why do people put out PDF magazines. And one that looks like a mid-'90s issue of GameFan no less. There is nothing sacred about print layouts, guys.

And I just realized it is a print magazine, just lazily converted to the web.

haha.

final of the first SFIV japanese nationals

big outrage that dhalsim, not sagat took it; doesn't really square w/the recently re-configured tier list

did anyone watch the 1up game night with the pros? it was actually pretty decent (the first one was OK, but mostly just to see the console version in uninterrupted action), they explained a lot interesting technical stuff for boring dudes like me

2 things.

1)obviously it's one of the greatest SF players in the world is playing him, but Dhalsim looks way more fun to play with then before. Adding a bit of speed to his movements was a great idea.

2)why does the video say "run nigga run nigga" at the beginning?

haha yeah I have no idea re:2

dhalsim is rad in SF2 as well, he's a sneaky bastard w/lots of neat tricks. trouble is his learning curve is pretty steep, and yeah as you say he is pretty slow

but in the right hands ->

I've read that in World Warrior, a perfect Sim player can beat all of the other characters 100% of the time except for glitch-abusing Guile players.

To me it would seem to be difficult to beat a perfect player no matter what character he or I were playing but what do I know.

dude playing dhalsim in the SFIV video is way better than the dude playing sagat

^mandatory rallying cry for all victories with Bison

roll call

i will straight buy this right now if you want to play.
it's been years since I touched SFII.

it's not out yet but I will be putting MAJOR time into this so there is no doubt I will be available for games if anyone thinks their hip enough to throw down

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/snow_infernus/large/large_image-4.jpg?v=248850

thought that was implying Oro had been added to the game

sadly not :/ just some fan art

anyone psyched for
http://www.capcom-unity.com/kramez/gallery/view_gallery.one?pid=56031591

http://wa1.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/kramez/large/streetfighter-chun-international_poster.jpg

wtf?
Who's the guy in the bottom left corner? - not a street fighter I presume.. he is holding a gun. he might look the most like Dan.
Would the other bottom guy be another random non-street fighter character?
Are the top 3 Balrog, M.Bison and Vega?

O, i think i thought this was the SSFTII thread. my bad.

top 3 in SF2 is dhalsim akuma balrog

do u haf SF2HDR forks? I play tht a TON. let's fight!!

will brilliam m and snarly circa yow are STRAIGHT chckenshit

yeh am drunk so what

^^^^haha woops pls excuse me

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpDaRihF2I/AAAAAAAAANg/8Pf99fjBdi0/s512/Gamepro_October_1993.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpAvDy9yWI/AAAAAAAAAMk/2mz6rLx9xKE/s512/EGM_46.jpg

http://wa3.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/cyber-dan/large/egm2v2n3.jpg

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/cyber-dan/large/gamefanv2n5.jpg

Holy shit at the Gamepro cover up there. I'm not saying *I* could draw that...I'm terrible at drawing. But I am saying that any number of kids in my 4th grade class could draw that.

Yes, they are not doing justice to these nuanced characters.

http://bunnypookah.free.fr/Archives/SSF2T.jpg

I need to buy SFII still; probably will do tonight.

Chun Li is about 4 feet tall in that picture.

Looks like T-Hawk's wearing Uggs.

I actually bought that issue of EGM off the rack...

Killer Hidden Character - Dan

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpAvDy9yWI/AAAAAAAAAMk/2mz6rLx9xKE/s512/EGM_46.jpg

if you mean this one nhex then i did too! weird that i would remember that

http://wa1.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/sonicbroom/large/sf2np.jpg

http://wa3.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/sonicbroom/large/sf2tgpstrat2back.jpg

http://wa1.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/sonicbroom/large/sf2tnp.jpg

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/sonicbroom/large/sf3egm.jpg

http://wa4.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/sonicbroom/large/ssf2np.jpg
^^^^think this may be my favourite so far

some srs crimes against limbs in these pics

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpDZ2vZQII/AAAAAAAAANY/7teV1bmqxjA/s512/Gamepro_July_1994.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2160342692_742a1b5ff3.jpg

lol
http://img.skitch.com/20090125-jtr72e5f1qk6g7mr1ra8n85fry.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2815963311_2a60ba313a.jpg

cozwn = hero

seriously.

huh — at what point did it become standard for companies to have enough promo art for review use that stuff like those magazine covers ^^^^ stopped happening? or am i missing something?

that last T Hawk one looks like Sebastien Tellier

sirlin's shirt

what really upsets me is that I can't find the street fighter magazine article with the worst concept art ever. worse looking than anything I've seen here :(

alt.costumes revealed

anyone picking up one of the $150/£150 ltd. edn. (3000-run) tournament edn. sticks? arcade perfect emulation of the SFIV viewlix cabs in yr home with all sanwa parts...

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/s-kill/dsc01753.jpg

^^^woah

So, it'll may be long after the majority of players stop caring, but I just realized that the PC port of SF IV is now coming out later in the year. Good news: this seems to imply that it will have online crossplatform play with 360, while as before it was going to get a simultaneous release with the console versions and no online play, if I remember correctly. Bad news: it might be so far into the future that nobody will care anymore and be playing, or my computer will not run it.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpDaRihF2I/AAAAAAAAANg/8Pf99fjBdi0/s512/Gamepro_October_1993.jpg

lmao i had this issue

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_DX8MXY3dneU/SXpDZ2vZQII/AAAAAAAAANY/7teV1bmqxjA/s512/Gamepro_July_1994.jpg

this too!!!

man i wish i still had them old ass gamepros

http://209.85.117.197/12413/88/0/a93096/avatar-93096.gif

http://i39.tinypic.com/e13ri9.jpg

this game looks dope imo

lolll

scary larry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xp

what is 'MARK HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET ABOUT BRAVE FENCER MUSASHI?' from - i bought that game when it came out for the ff8 demo btw ~_~

or was that xenogears i dont even remember

haha Brave Fencer Musashi!

I can't remember if I told this story on this board elsewhere before, but when I was in first year university I had a roommate who would play video games in this windowless room with gray-painted walls for hours and hours and hours at a time (36 hours on Ocarina of Time entirely uninterrupted, except, one hopes, by bathroom breaks). He would become just completely demented after awhile. In the middle of one of these binges, I overheard him on the phone, calling Slocki, desperate and deranged, at god knows what time: "HELLO MARK HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET ABOUT BRAVE FENCER MUSASHI?"

― antexit, Tuesday, February 3, 2009 12:13 AM (23 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lollllllll

roll call
― set phasers to stan (cozwn), Friday, January 23, 2009 1:46 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j161/Lunchcast/sf4-revenge.jpg
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349539&page=32

"- Alt. Costumes are available only in 5-character 400-MS-point DLC packs, one new pack every week as follows:
Grapplers Pack - Zangief, E Honda, Rufus, Abel, El Fuerte (Feb 12)
Beauty Pack - Chun Li, C.Viper, Sakura, Rose, Cammy (Feb 19)
Shoryuken Pack - Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, Dan (Feb 26)
Shadoloo Pack - Dictator, Sagat, Claw, Boxer, Seth (March 5)
Classic Pack - Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Gen, Fei Long (March 12)
All-In Pack - Get everyone at a discount (1000 MS Points; available from April 30th)

- On day one, when you put in the disc you'll be prompted to download an update that will give you a Championship mode, which facilities play in a tournament format, allowing you to earn more Grade Points. Clearly this is for Ranked match... but I don't see anything that says if there is an unranked/player-match Championship mode.

- Championship mode, as with Ranked and Player matches, can be played using the Arcade-interrupt method (or whatever it's called; under player profile, there's an Arcade-interrupt setting that you can change)

- If you rank in for Championship mode, or any of the Challenge modes (I think; the text is not very clear), you can choose to upload your replay file. Replay files can be viewed by anyone."

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=174758

Are you kidding me? You're supposed to pay $12.50 for additional costumes? (That's if you're willing to wait for the bundle, otherwise it's $25!? Maybe it's 200 pts, not 400.. still ridiculous even then!)

turns out they're 320pts each, so what 64M$pts or 40/50pence? how much would you have to pump into the arcade cab to get just one costume?

either way, the game is pretty cheap and it's not like you need these or anything; I'll probably pick up the all-in pack at some point despite my utter disdain for useless dlc

But it's not even just useless DLC, it's stuff that should obviously go on your $60 disc (if it isn't there already...) but they're cutting it out for an extra revenue stream! I just looked it up, and even the fancy Collector's Edition only comes with five of the costumes (or one of the five packs). Well, I hope they're included in the PC version, considering how much later that's going to be.

it is just useless dlc though, isn't it? some (admittedly pretty rad) costumes. it's hard for me to get wound up about it, considering how cheap the game is here (rrp seems to be about £26) but I acknowledge I am a stan by this point, anyway instead of having this fruitless argument let's both enjoy this pic of dhalsim

http://i.somethingawful.com//sasbi/2006/07/jumpman16/Bewilderbeest.jpg

0_0 Busy Philipps is enthralled by the Yoga.

so apparently in SF-lore, dhalsim had a pet elephant and his pet elephant had a best friend. when balrog visited india he punched the best friend elephant in the face and killed it and that's why dhalsim hates balrog

!!!

assuming that's just an actual Tyson anecdote they borrowed

Capcom is pleased to announce the first expansion pack for Street Fighter IV. Championship Mode expansion pack will add several unique and gameplay enriching options to Street Fighter IV’s already robust feature set free of charge post launch. Street Fighter IV’s Championship Mode Expansion Pack will include:

• Replay Mode – Record, upload, and download top matches to share with the Street Fighter IV community. Players can analyze top tiered fighters matches, leave voter feedback for others, and share their own triumphant victories.

• New Points System - Two new points systems to measure your skill (Championship and Tournament Points)

• Enhanced Tournament Matching System - Skill level matching system offers improved tournament match making for beginners and mid-level players. Competitors earn Grade Points (GP) to earn entry into more advanced tournaments.

http://streetfiytahfo.ytmnd.com/

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/2009/02/custom_1233860153561_yikes.JPG

famitsu art.

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/__icsFiles/artimage/2009/02/06/pc_fc_n_gn/0202suto006.jpg

so ridiculously psyched for this. any word on the quality of online play?

I am crazy stoked for this. here's what I know about the online play for def:

- 1vs1 player and ranked lobbies
- no word yet on quarter matches, would be silly if they're not in there. this screen seems to suggest it
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/__icsFiles/artimage/2009/02/06/pc_fc_n_gn/0202suto017.jpg
- earn grade points to participate in online tournaments
- earn battle points to rank up
- day-one patch to add in championship mode
- some dude on SRK who has the console version for a while: "I can confirm the net code is solid"

- the capcom USA and capcom JAPAN dev teams have been playing each other pretty much lag-free throughout development. that's california to japan. pretty sure the game runs on P2P as well, so o_O

^^^last point from capcom PR tbf

- there's no official US street date btw, so copies will start turning up in shops late next week

are you getting this day one, circa?

absolutely. we'll have to try out that netcode.

what's the bit about no official US release date? thought Feb. 17th was "official".

nah, afaik capcom haven't given an official street date. they're having a launch party on the 17th but on SRK folx are starting to hound best buys and 7/11s from next week ^^;

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=174520

"Capcom has declared retailers can sell this as soon as they have the copies."

http://img.skitch.com/20090208-fyjb3qsc7jimm382m93cj8nb5m.jpg

JME has his copy already

God, I wish I could play this. Everything about it looks outstanding.

http://the-magicbox.com/0902/sfiv28.jpg

http://the-magicbox.com/0902/sfiv36.jpg

my thumb has a dime-sized blister from playing street fighter all weekend

o rly? ws it gd?

yah altho it plays closer to 3rd strike than anything. akuma is still completely broken ken still sucks and i can pwn with rose but generally suck.

the collector's edition stuff is pretty dope the udon artwork is nice i also was given the first couple of sf comix which are pretty lulz

nice. so you have a copy then? can you let us know if you can play quarter matches?

lol capcom unity. i dont have a copy a friend of mine that worked on the launch has one i played it at his place this wknd u probably know more about the game than i do. i played strictly vs. mode. once round with each character than a couple hours more with just the ones i like to get a feel

no worries dude, was worth asking : )

The mounting hype for this is killing me! Blog posts everywhere anticipating it and recalling
nostalgia and glory for the old SF2 days feels so familiar.

My local store claims copies this friday! Fingers crossed...

online looks pretty lag-free

dan's challenge mode (spoilers)

he looks... viable

http://i39.tinypic.com/oglvu0.png

Apologies if this has already been discussed on here, but I have NEVER heard of seconds!

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8980892&publicUserId=5696848

The new 1up blogs are really on fire, Retronauts and the Grind have been doing really good work since they started up.

Seconds is definitely real, though I don't know anyone who called it that. The commenters are on point - it was a polite thing to do, to stretch out the match for the money you were spending the arcade. Of course if you were in a real hardcore arcade then not so many people cared about that stuff. Of course, at home it's all far less relevant.

We called it "mercy round" around my parts. If you really wanted to demonstrate your primacy you'd take them down to just a hair on their bar before giving them the round.

i have never heard of seconds or mercy rounds, but what a pointless thing. how does that catch on?

My local store claims copies this friday! Fingers crossed...
― Jeff LeVine, Wednesday, February 11, 2009 6:14 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sooooooooooo didja get it?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/street-fighter-retrospective-article

:( now they're sayin' monday...

... maybe tuesday. saturday at the latest

Apparently most places won't be selling this until Wednesday the 18th. So I guess the "no official release date" thing is resulting in the game being released later rather than sooner.

Will the release of this mean that I shouldn't buy SFIISHDTURBOSLDKDLF because everyone's gonna migrate to the new game?

I'm betting a lot of people will move over to SFIV, yeah, but I doubt the HD Remix community will dry up. I'd hate to dissuade you from picking up HD Remix because it really is a great game.

Also, upon further research, some places will be selling SFIV on Tuesday. A lot of mixed info on SYR forums.

10/10 on EG
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3350/3283106845_686874460e.jpg

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr305/xsgamer/SFIVouch1.pnghttp://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr305/xsgamer/SFIVouch2.png

http://i44.tinypic.com/2rhla8o.jpg

Dumb Onion AV Club pan:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/street-fighter-iv,23796/

I understand the aim for broader audience reviews not aimed at super hardcore nuts like us, but the writer seems really lazy. I'll quote some of the comments:

This is like listening to someone who hates westerns review The Wild Bunch.

"Some outlaws rob a bank, they run from the law for awhile, there's a big shootout, some people die - haven't we seen this before? Did we really need another one?"

That's exactly it, actually. The gameplay, which is what a game like this lives and dies on, was only discussed in five words. Stylish, superb, second to none. How so? What stuck out other than the pretty graphics? Why are we stuck on less relevant points like the win quotes and so on when the meat of the game is so shallowly addressed? In a positive IGN fluff piece or this phoned-in review, that's just lazy. I'll forgive any reviewer for not knowing a genre-- you get what they give you to review-- but pretending you do is just not good policy.

I'm ready to admit that the game isn't near perfect, but it doesn't even sound like the reviewer tried to play Street Fighter in a versus mode. Street Fighter lives by multiplayer and to ignore completely is just plain foolish.

Lol, sf nerds will fucking CUT YOU mang.

i love how video game fans cant deal with less-than-100% STELLAR reviews of games they want to be good. that review seemed pretty fair to me.

it's just wrong in many places, which is annoying:

"Gameplay is still rendered in old-school 2D."

"If you repaint the Mona Lisa or do a shot-for-shot remake of The Godfather, can the unoriginal results somehow still be compelling?" <- this isn't even a valid crit. of SF2HDR, nevermind SFIV which is a bottom-up new engine

"Street Fighter purists will argue otherwise, but this is essentially the same game most of us played nearly two decades ago, only rendered in far prettier pixels." <- this is close if I'm being generous, lazy if I'm being honest... the 'essentially' gives him a lot of space to breathe

"Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, etc. Is Street Fighter IV the best version?" lolwut

"... a game they already own." uhhhhhhhhh

it ws a pretty bad review slock bt I think yr point still stands, it is funny how worked up folx get abt vidgame reviews

/stan

I think reviews don't really serve fighting games v.well tho

ok I suggest banned myself for my penultimate post

it's just his points are completely valid, it seems, if you're a casual gameplayer.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd258/Ronabo/PHTO0009.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd258/Ronabo/PHTO0005.jpg

as long as he's not totally garbage i'm well going El Fuerte pretty consistently:

http://www.gamemanx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/streetfighter-4-fuerte.jpg

they thought he was grbo early on until ppl discovered his infinite and his crazy mix up game, now he's considered pretty good, need a lot of dexterity to play him well tho I think : /

who else is getting this on 360?

"blanka burgers"
I might get this, but I'm buying a DS lite today and dunno if I wanna keep running back and forth to vidya game store.

Hoping to install this to the 360 hard drive. Any reports on that causing problems, or does it work okay for this one?

going to be heading out to pick this up in a bit! hopefully it's available around here.

looks like i'll have to wait 'til tomorrow :(

maybe you could have called ahead???

i was out and about for other reasons as well so it's not like it was a wasted trip.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/XavierGarcia/Own%20things/balrog_icon.jpg

soul fuck

There were copies on the back shelves at two gamestops yesterday in mid manhattan, but for preorders only. Guy at the desk tells me that he has no idea when they're going to start selling to the general public, maybe the 20th, but that they don't have enough to even cover their preorders now and maybe I should check back midday for the next few days. Fuck that, I tell him, I'll just get it on Amazon. And the guy who works at Gamestop, the one wearing a gamestop nametag, shrugs and says "yeah, that's what I'm doing too."

I got my copy! it's very different

It'll be amusing if after 10,000 anticipatory posts, you end up being the person who likes the game the least...

"I got my copy! it's very different"

^ last street fighter 4 comment cozwn ever posts.

heading out in a bit to pick this up for reals this time. woohoo.

haha coz just soundly beat me several times. i'm still fumbling pretty bad with these new mechanics. no noticeable lag though!

good games! been toying around with FADC, the timing's pretty tricky

I'm still pretty bad but the game is fuuuuun, gorgeous too

wat characters do u like so far cz??

el fuerte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SUPER DYNAMIC COOKING TIME!!

fr rlz tho, weird mix up game, very fast, high priority body splash, decent focus attack, and some fine combos... def think he's a sleeper; he's a bit goofy but heaps of fun

ryu is surprisingly fun too; guess he is kinda immutable

for the new characters i like abel the best but i'm really feelin rose managed to consistently beat my friend how is hardcore w/her last wknd

man, some of these combos are damn near impossible. i've spent like 15-20 min. just trying to nail a single string in the challenge/training mode. i can understand making them prohibitively difficult but some require like absolutely precise timing.

First impressions are great - glad to finally get my hands on this thing. Love most of the graphics, the colors, backgrounds and animations. Package seems quite deep - definitely seeing myself putting a ton of time into this (and hopefully getting decent). Controls mostly seems a little easier that Turbo HD. Gotta retrain myself on the two button throws, though I guess I understand why they changed it (no more happy accidents). Balrog seems weaker? Am I right in thinking focus attack let you pass through fireballs, or no?

I hurt myself playing this tonight. Also I now suck at street fighter ;_;

This "Indestructible" theme song sure is... something.

The challenge rooms don't do the best job at explaining what you're supposed to do. I got stuck on the third batch, dealing with cancelling - don't really understand what they want me to do there. Has anybody seen a nice online video tutorial that slowly goes through cancelling? Or wanna have a go at explaining it (read the manual paragraph on it, but it made my head hurt).

Seth second round ended my night. Was getting a little frustrated there, but I'm sure I'll be able to get past him tomorrow / when less tired.

Nitpick: The logo on the spine of the box.

jeff, this guy's videos will help you see the distance and timing you need for some of the challenges

youtube.com/user/kalelulen4

I don't know but I think maybe the david sirlin super turbo tutorials (on yt) explain cancelling, possibly the intermediate one

man, some of these combos are damn near impossible. i've spent like 15-20 min. just trying to nail a single string in the challenge/training mode. i can understand making them prohibitively difficult but some require like absolutely precise timing.

― blanka burgers (circa1916), Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I know, right. some of them aren't even technically difficult, like j.HP, cr.MK, cr.MK, cr.HK which is ryu's level 1 hard challenge but the timing on the combos is so new and finnicky it makes them really difficult; some of the target combos (still dunno what that means), which are only two inputs (e.g. for fuerte far st.MK, st.MK) are nails o_O

friendly technical tip: the comboing system in this one is a bit difft. to ST, where you can cancel (xx) a normal into a special, a normal into a normal, and a normal from a cancelled normal can be cancelled into a special

in SF4, you can still cancel a normal into a super and you can cancel a normal into a normal, but you can't cancel a normal into a special if that normal itself has been cancelled off another normal, so for instance ryu's fwd.HP (the overhead one) can be comboed if you cancel it into a cr.LP

because you cancelled the fwd.HP into cr.LP you can't then cancel that LP into a hadoken, what you need to do is create a link, which in this case is easiest done by putting another cr.LP after the first (which is a slower input window, kinda like a half musical beat between the LPs) which can then be cancelled into the hadoken

so you can't fwd.HP xx cr.LP xx Hadoken but have to fwd.HP xx cr.LP, cr.LP xx Hadoken; someone pls correct me if I am wrong

(suggest banning myself for this one too btw)

jeff, at 00:15 in this vid, DS explains cancelling

Am I understanding the Sirlin video correctly that cancelling just means doing a second move at the exact frame that your first move hits or is blocked?

I guess I was thinking that cancelling meant, well, stopping your first move from coming out, as the word cancel would seem to more than imply

i have HD now shall i buy a playstation 3 and this?

They usually don't actually mean cancelling the move, but cancelling part of the first move's recovery animation following the hit, so the next attack follows quickly in a string.

so im basically getting killed as vega which is weird since hes been my best or second best character since turbo for the SNES but looking at the tiers i shouldnt be surprised. but the damage his combos do is just ridic

ugh i should just stick to rose soul reflect pwns so damn hard

so is everyone still just playing through the challenges??? ive started working on unlocking seth, gouken and akuma so far ive unlocked rose (with vega) and fei long (abel)

basically loving this game so far ^_^

lol sry rose with bison cleared w/vega as well

I am getting my fucking ass kicked. I feel like I'm something like 22-100 in arcade mode. Was just playing as Abel on medium and got beat by Sagat for 45 minutes in a row.

Still can't convince myself to buy this with my current 360 controller, and apparently the fightpads are impossible to get here.

ive been playin on a pad it sucks, for sure, but its less of a detriment to certain characters according to srk. ill probably end up picking up a TE at some point but kind of cant justify the expense. maybe ill win one of the mini-tournies and get it for free

here is a short one-act play not about gaza:

BOSS: you look tired. out late last nite

LAMP: uh... no. [sheepishly] i was playing SFIV. and then i woke up early so i could play before work

BOSS: what's it like

LAMP: [spends exactly twelve minutes discussing the new tiers, how much worse vega is as a character, EX damage, the worthlessness of ppl that main Ken (worse than Hitler!) and on-line matching]

BOSS: ...

LAMP: so... it turns out im kinda into street fighter

so... it turns out im kinda into street fighter

My friend beat me over and over again, so I suggested he play online, where other dudes beat my friend over and over again.

So basically I am the worst at this game.

We should start a worst of the worst tournament. For all the glory.

lol at Lamp

I would totally win worst of the worst

I don't find the analog stick on the default 360 controller; it's a bit imprecise but it's better than trying to use the horrible d-pad. The button layout is much more problematic - the triggers are too slow to respond to be used for anything that requires timing and the left bumper above the stick is awkward to hit. It also makes throws and PPP / KKK moves more challenging.

Unfortunately word is that the 3rd party controllers won't be available in Canada until March and even then reports of reliability have been....mixed.

Despite control issues I am still having a great time online playing against friends (not Ken) and everyone else (Ken). Hope they patch in a party / lobby system soon.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5634/2vabe39ph6.jpg

What's so bad about Ken in SFIV, out of curiosity?

pretty sure "in SFIV" is unnecessary there; hasn't he been hated since forever?

nah he's pretty good (exc. he's a fanny and no ryu, obv), there's just a lot kicking around on xbl

playing against friends (not Ken) and everyone else (Ken)

@ Nhex for me its just this ^^^. he's a generic midtier dude easier to defend against then blanka but he shows up waaay too much and it gets boring playing him all the time.

"plays Ken" is like shortform for asshole n00b/spammer now and if i had the time i might main Ken just for that surprise factor when playing good players on-line. also for lulz

FP > Flaming Shoryuken.

The game is young though, I hope people will branch out more as the player base matures. If not, well, I have opponents to work on my Gen game with...

I can only play balrog to any standard in this, cos my qcf skills are pretty rusty after caning deejay in HDR... I keep going ryu tho, my hadoken rate is up from 30% to 60%, practice practice

done all his level 1 challenges now; gets pretty hard at level 4

I greatly prefer playing as Ryu and not Ken. Ryu has better flow or something.

love this game btw but def finding the learning curve pretty steep, despite the input windows having loosened for specials

picked up a stick too so that's not helping, my game's got worse, which I'm sure is natural

I got a stick too and Im sure its better than the controller but its still kinda rough going with limited practice. Its tough because this game definitely makes you pay for your mistakes if you accidentally screw up a hadoken and end up jumping (which I do all the goddamn time).

I will attempt to buy this tomorrow and throw down. It's been YEARS since i played SFII more than a single match.

chars I'm digging in desc. order: balrog, rose, rufus, dhalsim, ryu, guile

rly enjoying it now I've had a proper go at it w/my HDR crew; sorely lacking lobbies and the ability to spectate but I've faith tht'll come in a future patch

anyone want to throw down w/us on 360, add me gt:cozeny

i wonder if i could get by in SFIV with my old ryu steez (rarely use special moves, just getting in there with fierce kicks and throws). probably not very well, i'm guessing.

I've been playing the hell out of this. Can't seem to find a character that i really dig though. I can usually tear it up with M. Bison (people just don't know how to block and punish it seems) but he's kind of boring to me. Gouken seems pretty cool what with his throw-into-ultra and parries. Too bad I kind of suck with him.

http://i8.tinypic.com/6p72buw.gif

game is def missing this bro
http://i11.tinypic.com/85bj5l1.gif

We might see some T. Hawk and Dee Jay

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/954/954936p1.html

ken players are the most disgusting savages in the world imo

otoh easy battle points : D

mmmm been gobbling up ken's all night long

SHORYUKEN!, block, throw, SHORYUKEN!, block, throw, repeat x10. Seems to take a while for these bastards to wise up.

So tired of people who play shotos exclusively. Especially fucking Ken.

Had not heard the phrase "shotos" before.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=943709&topic=45656387

Yep, old as the Dickens. Especially when paired with "scrub", therefore "shoto scrub".

scrotos

if I walk-up throw another whiffed DP I'm gunna scream

nnnnnnnnnghh

anyone finding the challenges really hard (or really easy)? I've just spent a disgusting amount of time on rufus' level 4 normal challenges : /

I'm going to have to stop clicking on this thread. I don't have a PS3 or 360 - my jealousy is out of control. I will bump this thread in several years when the PS4 and the Xbox1280 are duking it out and I manage to snag a PS3 and SFIV for $120 somewhere.

wall street fighter 4
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/da071533be/wall-street-fighter-4

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2009/2/22/a-few-things-about-street-fighter-4.html

"I had to pay a tax of fighting the computer on easiest for long time just to get the core features of the game. (I did this picture-in-picture while watching episodes of Frasier.)"

Some valid points. Some valid points to the contrary in the comments section too. Some stuff we won't really know until high level play is established.

One thing I unequivocally disagree with him about is the 2 button throw. Accidental throws happened way too often on the older SF games and, despite Sirlin's spin, that's not a good thing. Also a botched throw resulting in a punishable whiff animation instead of a punch or a kick makes a lot more sense.

all of these complaints pale in comparison to deciding that your every waking hour of playing SF2tHD should be soundtracked by a brain monging metal remix of the Ken theme

it's a shame the throws look so ordinary in this, scaling them back to this realistic looking shit seems at odds with having 25 hit ultra death combos with closeups of bugged out eyes

how you liking it so far, MA?

xpost

?

there are a lot of cool, exaggerated throw animations in this.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/image.php?u=64487&dateline=1222398651

how could I possibly be so horrible at a game I've been playing off and on for almost twenty years?

El Fuerte's pretty damn awesome, btw.

czn - yeah, the challenge stuff, though I haven't spent too much time with it yet (just Ryu & Barlog) is really tough. It took me a long time just to get Ryu's first combo to come out once and after that I pretty much gave up (though I may go back to it). The timing seems so tight / which makes it somewhat unfun. With Barlog I couldn't seem to do his first cancel move and gave up there (level 3). My brother pointed out, it would be cool if the showed you the moves and button presses in game so you could get a better idea - like they do in the last Virtua Fighter. I'd also like to be able to skip a move I'm stuck on so I could at least try the next. The whole unlocking aspect to the game (as Sirlin mentioned) is so far probably the most annoying thing about it for me. That said, so far I'm really loving this and expect I'll be playing it more than any other new game this year.

I'd also like to be able to skip a move I'm stuck on so I could at least try the next.

i get frustrated by the challenges and give up i got to the ... third? hard trial for rose with the FA cancel and havent tried since but i'd like to see what the other ones are, impractical as they may be for match play

i can see what sirlin i sayin i played a couple of SFII matches today simply because i was getting frustrated by how punishing the inputs for links in IV are. and obv some players like cammy have way better inputs in II than in IV but the controls as whole are more forgiving i think. i've mostly been playing rose and despite all the links shes much easier to play than she was in alpha and the upside to the ultras is that shes a much more rounded character in IV.

also i think its totally lulz that sirlin and japcom have such beef

man I wish they'd remove the df,df+P shortcut for shoryukens, I get getting whiffed DPs when I want supers : /

im still pretty sloppy all over the place esp with poke/crosses need to up my defensive game really got owned a couple of times today once by a aggro sakura of all things

the arcade interrupt thing is a good idea but at the moment it basically seems to involve three seconds of arcade mode before you get challenged

this game is really good but I still feel like I basically know nothing; the speed required to do a focus attack dash cancel into something useful terrifies me

I unlocked the "seriously emo" title : D

FADC-ing requires major dexterity, it's crazy. I can FADC rufus' messiah kick into ultra but only in training; can't FADC ryu's shoryuken into ultra yet, most of the time I get a second fkn shoryuken cos of the df,df+P shortcut

arcade interrupt is alright if you want to spar while waiting for an online match, beats setting up a lobby and sitting in it; if you actually want to play through the arcade mode, it's a nuisance

think I am "sleeps anywhere" at present :/

only relatively major coup so far is successfully juggling Sagat's ultra from his super

quite want to learn Gen but his moveset is pretty daunting

for me its not that the stuff like the FADC to ultra moves are hard to physically do, although they are, its that as soon as a i get pushed off my game in a match i completely forget which j.?? your supposed to cancel into and what the best tactic for punishing a missed dragon punch is and i just start mashing and hoping i luck into something decent.

No kidding. I can get a somewhat respectable amount of combos down during challenges but once I have to fight a moving target my brain turns to mush.

this game is too hard for my old man reflexes.

when do challenges become move specific? I tried some but it is just beat up a bunch of cpu guys within a time limit.

Its whatever the last two options are. Its basically combo practice.

and it is fkn hard

got stuck on balrog's level three hard

j.HK, cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.MP xx Dash Punch xx Buffalo Charge

Can get it all up to the Dash Punch but haven't managed to cancel into the Super, even when just mashing the last bit

http://insultswordfighting.blogspot.com/2009/02/peripheral-concern.html

Interesting point. I notice that most reviews have basically just given this one line (X-box d-pad is terrible!) and ignored the fact that most people don't want to or can't afford to invest in an arcade stick. By contrast, pretty much every review of Mario Kart Wii mentioned how bad the default play controls and the wheel were, but that game is just fine using cheap old GameCube controllers.

I tried to pretend I was too good to throw down the extra money for a nu controller then I looked in the corner of my room at all the rock band shit and realized I was deceiving myself.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1470/kenflow.png

for me its not that the stuff like the FADC to ultra moves are hard to physically do, although they are, its that as soon as a i get pushed off my game in a match i completely forget which j.?? your supposed to cancel into and what the best tactic for punishing a missed dragon punch is and i just start mashing and hoping i luck into something decent.

yeah, can't count the number of times on SF2HD I've just turned into a bottling button masher, pathetically whiffed my desperation super combo attempt four times in the corner and then died like a dog

think I have probably done this to other people too though, I guess; people get properly disorientated by Bison's various floaty shit, in both games. People seem to still be playing this like SF2 at the moment, but most of them are rubbish, whereas I got battered like 20% of the time in SF2 and got beaten narrowly another 20%

man I played some dude earlier who did ryu's lvl2 hard challenge on me in-game then proceeded to srk -> FADC -> ultra me o_O

busted out the rufus and managed to clutch a dive-kick -> lk, hk -> ultra for the win and almost wet myself w/excitement (also o_O)

however if I eat another cross-up -> fierce srk or j.HK, sweep I am gonna shit frrealsies

I notice wake-up shoryuken's are now so easy to time that all you have to do is knock a Ken guy over, walk up to him, crouch, and then hit yr free combo on the way down from his idiot botched comeback

a guy who did that a lot beat me because there was so much lag I had no idea what was going on :/

please don't get good at Rufus, I can take losing to a Jamaican stereotype but not a spherical jiggling animation

...and the best thing is? that's actually a bison in his stomach :)

Ha, then Ken flow chart is great.

how are the non-SF4 aspies getting on w/this btw?

non SF4-aspies

The more I play this game the less I like it. I spent an hour last night getting pwned by Seth w/ Sakura on easy. =(

side-stepping the aspie issue im really interested to see what the npd sales data says about feb sales for this ~~~ im expecting it to be the TOP SELLING GAME but i wonder how many units it moveddddddd going by the # of ppl crashing the srk server this is gonna be near gta-level altho probably not guitar band or ninetendo e_e??

cuz itz interesting to note like wat it all means for tatsunoko vs. in the short-term and maybe darkstalkers franchise revive long-term. also wat this means for fighters as a genre thinkin this may be the 7th gen catalyst that gets general gamer mrkt hype to SNK tactical-mashers and waku waku on virtual consoul SFIV = FFIV in terms of the year crappy fanart broke???

okay everyone feel free to fast action dash cancel to suggest ban me but i tht my gamer philosophy stuff is more interesting than hearing about how ive been using standing roundhoue to lp soul spark as defense against shoto sweeps

next time i will save it for my london review of books articles

srsly if this results in a Darkstalkers revival I will be so fucking stoked

FADCs lamp in the face fr his cheek

thought capcom's secret xbox announcement was going to be xbla darkstalkers, MvC2, CvS2, or SFIII:3S

not lost planet 2 :****(

well get a sega dreamcast you goddam n00b ^_^

lol i meant SFIV = FFVII upthread btw its kind of ridiculous how much time ive spent think abou this game even outside of technical/strategy stuff

Any videos showing how to best block/counter wakeup shoryukens?

I dunno about videos, but just stand there looking gormless while they're on the floor then start blocking low as soon as they go for the move, or focus attack them

maybe crouch and mash LK so it looks like you're trying to poke them as soon as they get up, but then start blocking

alternately, pick Bison and alternate headstomps and early landing fakeout Devil Reverses until they commit suicide mid-game, leaving you with a relatively simple task

yeah, low block seems pretty much the only reasonable thing to do. though i do like the crouch mash poke and then block idea.

vast swathes of how-do-you-do-this-move dudes crashing Shoryuken.com is fuckin hilarious

haha yeh

anyway, almost got my cuboid rufus on but his level 5 hard challenge is monstrous

j.HP > MP (link) LP > cr.MK xx EX Tornado

the link has to be hit in a 1/60th of a second frame window or nothing comes out : (((((((((

Any videos showing how to best block/counter wakeup shoryukens?

any character in particular? i know a lot of the wake-up strats very from character to character like with rose i might try to low block into reflect and then jab/roundhouse to punish and move in...

i think mpx4a's strategy is good as well

st.LP > cr.MK is a fkn link too

:****(

don't think I quite get links beyond random trial and error in challenge mode, is the point that you're supposed to press the next hit exactly as the first one connects?

I think it's more when the first one has fully recovered, most are 1 frame, some are 2/3 frames, whatever the timing is v.tight

Sirlin is less than impressed.

Just now discovering the real game within the game after 18 or so years of sporadic play feels kind of like finding out your granddad was a horrible racist.

http://img.skitch.com/20090226-c5xrg2ta8ra26wtrgc4ic3im24.jpg
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

*^*-b

don't think I quite get links beyond random trial and error in challenge mode, is the point that you're supposed to press the next hit exactly as the first one connects?

yah i think its a frame issue - your supposed to link the moves so that as the final frame of the last move finishes the first one from the next is beginning. will double check this once i get home. but its kind of a moot point i think because it all comes down to timing and building muscle memory imo

riddle me this sports fans, how the hell can i do el fuerte's super combo when it's exactly the same as another move except with 3 kicks instead of one. As in, how do I time those 3 kicks, quickly, or what? I am failing already and I've only just begun!

are you pressing the three kicks simultaneously? probably best to map them all to one button if you're using a controller

ggs earlier, MA, I'd obviously spent too much time practicing high-falutin combos and not enough time practising not getting rinsed

yeah, press all three buttons at the same time. EX moves, hit two buttons at the same time. My brother was stuck on the same thing this weekend. Instructions could be clearer. I think the three buttons are mapped to the left/right bumpers already?

ah, i was riding the failboat, i just saw 3 kicks and i made the incorrect assumption that it meant hitting kick thrice rather than hitting thrice the kicks. Thanks guys.

I think El Fuerte is going to be an awesome character but that i'm going to suck. Also that I need to get a non-360 pad.

ok, challenge mode driving me slightly insane.

ggs earlier, MA, I'd obviously spent too much time practicing high-falutin combos and not enough time practising not getting rinsed

it's ok, I'm working on a 60% damage Bison combo that I'll become preoccupied with but never actually successfully hit under any kind of pressure, that should balance things

think you def. won on style

general dash cancel tip: if you dash during a lvl 2+ focus attack the dash animation will come out whenever the focus attack finishes regardless of timing

eg you can charge your focus attack to the second longest (middle) one, immediately tap dash and then start charging a move while you wait for the focus attack animation to connect and the dash to come out

general tip to anyone playing me: I can not actually do any special moves when facing right

When playing ranked matches I hated coming across people playing Akuma (cheap bastards), but now that I've gone to the bother of unlocking him, I kinda wanna use him. Is that wrong?

Also can somebody explain his heavy kick to EX focus attack combo. I know what a focus attack is, but not what an EX focus attack is, I guess - cause I can't do this combo to save my life.

FK then tap MK+MP when it connects. EX focus attack is like a way to cancel a move into a fast EX attack so that you can then cancel that into a dash and hit something else you wouldn't normally be able to combo into (eg Ryu's Shoryuken cancelled to EX focus cancelled to dash followed up with ultra)

^^ Jesus this game is ridiculous

don't think Akuma is disproportionately good in this, haven't really got into him because he only has two variants on the same wanky grab super

elsewhere, Dhalsim's level 3 normal challenge mode is insane idiot bullshit

coulda sworn that's what I did (or tried to do) a hundred times in a row :(

This thread has completely convinced me not to buy this game.

I wdn't let it put you off tbf, the game is very noob friendly

really? i had a horrible time playing it last night for the first time. seems like the type of game that only gets fun once you start mastering the mechanics.

haha i keep thinking that i might enjoy the game more if thought less about the mechanics

there are a lot of ways this could be noob friendlier cf. the surlin blog post and the general tediousness of the challenge modes but i think even if i was new the game itd be fun. well, as long as you have ppl to play with, anyway

Sirlin has 2 more articles up:
http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2009/2/24/some-positives-about-street-fighter-4.html

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2009/2/27/street-fighter-4-ultra-combos.html

"Imagine a game where offense is, for the most part, really good. In this game, throws have instant startup. Even if the opponent breaks a throw, they still take damage. If you just sit there (trying to sit on a lead), you are open to throws. Also in this game, knockdowns are powerful. You can't vary the time you get up, so that makes crossups more powerful. It's also hard to reversal attack (a bad way to design things, but just go with it for now), so attacking a rising opponent is good. Stages are fairly small so you can't run away. Finally, hit point totals in general are actually really low, so even when you're behind, you aren't THAT behind. You can always go on the offense because, well, offense is strong."

looooooooooooooooool

from sirlin's SF4 concept doc
http://img.skitch.com/20090302-1c1pdq4tamx7m6ws88wnsu6x7d.jpg

Wow, that is super lame.

Reading through that doc, I'm convinced that Sirlin's SFIV would've been pretty bad and/or unworkable.

Street Fighter IV: The Sands of Time.

"literally a 4th dimension"

http://www.iplaywinner.com/street-fighter-4-character-log/chun-li

scroll down and click the autotune chunli song.

cross-ups = a bunch of tards acting like it's the most awesome feature ever that a jump kick that goes past your opponent's head inexplicably counts as hitting him from behind, right?

then you invariably eat a fiery shoryuken, lariat, SPD, or electricity

it's pretty funny that guys who pride themselves on that glitchy shit can now get battered by dudes who just hammer the buttons, but it's not at all funny that my attempts to get the timing right for three chained light kicks can get interrupted by dudes who just hammer the buttons

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/kramez/hairdoken.jpg

Sirlin is basically right re: ultras, but the fact that his main worry is that it will ruin the ends of matches between "expert players" is retarded

also yeah I sometimes accidentally teleport when doing Bison's ultra, when I get the fucking motion wrong

I guess this can all be attributed to the fact that he has spent his whole adult life trying to reconcile himself to the fact that there exists no legal apparatus for him to marry Super Street Fighter II Turbo

ties in with his retarded sands of time knockoff idea: he is trying to create a mechanism where he can relive the same cross-up combo forever in an eternally recurring Nietzschean nerd orgasm

things that are retarded about this game:

j.HK, cr.HK is so hard to deal with... but why? in all the games I played of HDR (must be close to 100 hours) I fell for this crappy 'tactic' about 5 times. why do I fall for it in this about 5 times a match? I don't remember getting hit with j.HK xx shoryuken in HDR either but again about 5 times a game in this one

sweeping is crazy hard to punish... why?

why does the game correct you, so that if you get crossed up and DP the wrong way, it still gives you the right output?

I never thought I'd say it but reversal are too easy, it eliminates a lot of the mind games and gamble of the jump-in

the df,df+P shortcut for dragon punches is unnecessary and just ends up in more whiffed moves not better execution. oh great my opponent has whiffed another wake-up fierce shoryuken, now I'll punish him w/bison's ultra except I won't, I'll fkn teleport half the screen and eat his ultra instead

FADC is v.complex and unfairly balanced in favour of some chars. rufus can do an easy fadc combo and set you up for his ultra and 50% damage all day long. same with sagat and ryu. charge chars on the other hand? haha fuck you! you can fadc to a stupid normal xx special for little damage AND it's harder to do

charge chars are retarded in this game. like "sonic can't even swim" level retarded

I mean I love it but grr if it doesn't make me brim sometimes

you think there'll be a backlash about this sort of stuff? Did the elite obsessive arcade guys just not realise it was unbalanced because they were all just playing against other people who would never dream of using Scrub Tactics?

why does the game correct you, so that if you get crossed up and DP the wrong way, it still gives you the right output?

I dunno it just seems that a dude would not be confused enough to jump in the wrong direction just because somebody landed behind him

i didn't really want the gmae until i played at the arcade for the first time last night, waaaaaaaooooooooooow this game is fun. i played abel and el fuerte a coupel of times, they are GREAT.

how come you didn't want it, will?

one of us one of us one of us one of us one of us

I am fed up with 360 controller issues (the four face buttons mock me) and general unavailability / ridiculous prices on decent arcade sticks so I have decided to build my own. Further updates as events warrant (probably involving pictures of my hands covered in molten solder).

this game is really good. oddly I lost all day today and then as soon as I started playing tonight have been winning way more. i haven't mastered any special moves yet and am playing with ryu, you can get v far by leading with light punches and then changing to heavy kicks/sweeps, with an occasional fireball or dragon punch.

those ultra moves are so fucking stupid, you're pummeling somebody and about to kill them and they do this stupid ultra move, they don't even seem easy to dodge or to take ages.

so many people on xbox live are such assholes at doing the same move over and over and over...so lame.

If you've been knocked down and your opponent starts timing a focus attack so it'll hit you just as you are starting to get up, what are you supposed to do to counter that? Or what's the best thing to do to not get hit?

do an "armour breaking" move straight away on getting up. you'll need to time it right. each character has one, check their command list, it's the move with the little red star next to it

or just something easy that does more than one hit

can't do that as a reversal on wake-up tho can you?

you can always back dash too, it has a few frames of invincibility

I'unno

back dash is underrated

if people knew about backdash I wouldn't of headstomped 90% of the people I've played to death

what is the best thing to do when someone is stunned. I always panic and end up just punching them or something.

as ryu?

Focus Attack (dash cancel, buffer the dash) > fwd.HP > cr.HP xx Shoryuken > FADC > Ultra

or just throw them : )

if you try ryu's normal challenge level 3 it should help you with a few basic 'cancel' combos like crouching medium kick cancelled to hadoken or standing medium punch cancelled to shoryuken. the latter of these would be a good, relatively easy and quite damaging combo to do on a stunned opponent

Am I correct in thinking that unlike in Street Fighter II, wiggling the stick and mashing buttons while you're being thrown doesn't help you recover faster?

Actually I was kind of wondering about that too - with throws, grabs, etc. do you still get extra damage out of mashing the buttons, or did they take that out?

they took that out, you can tech throws obv

dunno if mashing buttons speeds up recovery from stun

Feels like the game is dying off a little already? I had some really long waits for ranked matches tonight, when a week ago they would pop up instantly :(

Anyhow, thanks again for the tips. I definitely feel like I'm making some progress and seem to be winning my fair share of matches already, which kind of surprises me. Still got a lot to learn of course. I wish the game had a match replay feature - could really help with learning from mistakes. I really have grown to love this game something awful

the replay feature is coming in the patch, though there's some question over whether it's use might be limited to the high ranked players (ie only dudes with mega-BP can upload but us proles can watch any). of course we don't know if it allows local storage of replays, it wd be a bit wtf if they didn't allow that if they're going to the trouble of coding the replay feature in

I think maybe a lot of ppl have migrated to player matches cos ranked is full of plug-pulling boosters?

keep getting booted from lobbies by the host, possibly for having ultra-threatening "I Like Cats" as a title

i havent been playing any ranked matches but tbh between lyfe and work i havent been playing at all lately

I haven't had any of the problems playing ranked matches others have mentioned. Never had anybody quit on me once. Mostly I've been creating the matches, so obviously I've never been kicked. Haven't plugged in my mike, so I haven't had to listen to any trash talk. Haven't gotten a single message or anything. It's almost weird. Also with over a hundred matches online, only one match had serious lag problems (with a few others with tiny lag bumps). I've also seen a fair variety of characters being played and a fair variety of tactics employed, not just Ken/Ryu & Akuma although I've certainly run into them more than any other character - oh well. The thing I like about ranked, is just the one match and done feel. Haven't tried non-ranked except against people I actually know.

Re: replays. Yeah, I don't care about uploading 'em somewhere, just would love to sometimes re-watch a match occasionally and learn where I went wrong. I already forgot they were talking about adding that feature and the championship mode on launch - wonder if they are still going to happen?

I haven't had any trash talk or bad messages but I played about thirty player matches today and besides the guy I played who was really good, everybody still defaulted to the masterpiece ken masters

got to echo ronan's post above, this game is great. I was hitting a wall with it last week hence the long whiny post above but I've come through that now and am getting used to the new blocking and the intricacies of focussing. intrigued to see how the 'championship mode' works.

lobbies are "something capcom is aware people want and would consider for a future title update," according to their main spokesman.

ggs jeff (the game hides the lag well but it definitely felt 'soupy', almost as if we were underwater, on the 2 bar connection; HDR was buttery smooth) and MPA (the mighty bison's a mighty bastard in this game :D)

Thanks czn for working me through jumping Akuma's super as I was finally able to pull it off in game a few times this afternoon. It's weird that most of the people who've taken the time to unlock the more powerful boss characters, don't seem to take the time to learn to use them effectively. I feel like whenever I see a Gouken or Akuma I'm going to invariable win, simply because most of the people playing those characters just don't seem very good? I do take an absurd amount of pleasure beating Kens, especially if I get to do it by grabbing them after yet another whiffed shoryuken - I don't know if I'll ever get tired of it. It seems I've fought a lot of terrible fighters with over 1,000 BP who just know how to spam a few (a couple?) of moves. I don't understand how they're winning such a high percentage of matches. I finally broke 800 BP today after a nice 7 ranked game win streak, but it goes to show you how the BP system is a bit broken as it often seems to have more to do with luck then skill - just so happens I lucked into playing seven average at best players in a row without running into anybody who was particularly good.

This game forced me to finally figure out how to use custom soundtracks on the 360!

I've still to find an effective way to use akuma's super (maybe I cd go dig around in the srk akuma forum but no) other than as anti-air

the funniest akumas are the ones who when they stock their ultra stand at the other side of the screen throwing out jabs and shorts as they repeatedly try and hit you with it. this isn't HDR, akuma's ultra is pretty useless in this game

you can hit both Akuma's big moves off a focus attack, but I find it hard to get that excited about cos it's just a load of splatters, y'know? It feels like it's not really Akuma unless he has about eight supers.

I hit that FA, FP, Scissors kick, Knee Press Knightmare 50% damage combo I mentioned on you earlier and it whiffed because you got stunned :(

I sometimes feel like one day I might get bored of headstomping people so I'm trying to migrate to Balrog, but I can't get over the fact that the second hit of his ultra will never hit on a juggle, and I'm not sure if that can be outweighed by how funny it is to pretend he's saying "my bike money" when he dies

my xbox name is MichaelAnnoyman if any of the rest of you want a go at me

This game forced me to finally figure out how to use custom soundtracks on the 360!

it is so dumb that they spent all this time making tons of remixed themes that only play during the rival matches in arcade mode, and then have this one massively weedy song with only two verses playing through the entire rest of the game

you know the trick with balrog's ultra about holding the kicks and not holding the kicks to get all the hits to connect?

I think it's headbutt > PPP ultra then hold kick for the first punch, let go for the second, hold kick for the rest

yeah, it's ultra with kicks, then no input for the second hit then back to holding kicks, but the straight punch on the second hit is just a deliberate miss so you don't juggle them out of range of the last three uppercuts

I think

I'unno it seems a bit shit that he has no way to combo into hitting his full ultra but Ryu and Rufus can basically combo into theirs from accidentally bumping into you or using demeaning language

(Balrog ultra seems to juggle from crumple stun)

^Increasingly inconsolable that I am 25 and using language like this

Sorry at shoryuken.com we have "Fun" by playing intelligent games at high levels, we don't give a fuck whether a shitty player has a "good time". Their good time should be achieved by getting better not by getting undeserved wins. Otherwise we'd play smash.

And it isn't just that the motions are "easier" it's that they're DUMB and remove an entire layer of gameplay so that little Timmy can get his flamey punch he likes so much to come out.

:D I think this game might be a wind-up

Increasingly inconsolable that I am 25 and using language like this

PROTIP: your boy and/or girlfriend will find this type of language even more reprehensible particularly after losing to you for an hour or so straight.

I just leave her to her pokemans

Have you guys noticed the tops of the leaderboards!?! I can't believe people have already played the game that much. Over 4,000 wins in just a few weeks of release. Scary to think of sombody playing a game that much. I mean, I've played a lot of SFIV, probably too much too, but I just cracked my 200th game played today (ranked + friendly). Crazy numbers up there

those dudes are boosting, jeff; 1 round, 30 secs, pull if they're losing

so my save game got corrupted (seems this is quite a widespread issue so beward) and I lost all my BP, unlocks, colours, stats, challenges, icons, titles, everything basically. oh well

there are some legit pros at the top tho, I think edmasterb is around 50 or so, he is the best ken in the usa

Boosting huh? Well that's an even weirder way to chose to spend your time than actually playing 4,000+ games. I'd heard about it, but don't know why I didn't put the two things together. Still can't really get my head around it, I guess.

Sorry about your save. I does feel like they rushed the game out a bit. The underlying game is very strong (I think), but the interface seems to have a fair number of problems. I've noticed now in ranked games, if I create one, nobody ever joins or it takes minutes. If I select quick game and browse through the list, I usually have to resfresh it for at least a minute clicking on game after game only to find that they're full. However, the weird work around is, if you go into arcade mode and set invites on for ranked games, it generally takes less than ten seconds before a new challenger arrives. Maybe they should have pushed the game back a bit to polish up the interface and create a better way to get into games (works great in SF2THD, don't know why they didn't use the same system), and allow parties / championship mode from the get go. Also to make sure the save system works right, obviously. I also feel like the training mode could have been more thought out and offered more depth & options. Finally (while were dumping on the game a bit), it's a complete ripoff that they are charging people to unlock extra costume packs that are already on the disc you bought.

OK so ken is AMAZING in this game

really feeling: rufus, ken, viper, sagat, akuma, ryu, balrog
feeling: abel, fuerte
not so feeling: honda, blanka, guile, vega, gouken
is a bitch: cammy

Blanka and Guile are just such obvious wastes of everyone's time

I think blanka is pretty good he's just a wee fanny; I never liked him in SF2 either

guile and vega are worse than dan imo

i guess its a bad sign that i havent played this in ~ a week and have no desire to do so?

cammy seems pretty good but shes difficult to learn, i think that tactically shes got more options than a lot of midtier characters and her moves combo in a way thats intuitive

i basically cant play w/anyone but rose tho and vega has been heartbreaking.

Vega just has a horizontal roll move that takes two minutes to hit and can't combo and an ultra that almost never hits and doesn't do much damage when it does. Between him and Guile it's like Capcom actually hate the fictional video game characters they created themselves

Blanka just looks like shit and is boring

I have kind of eased off this a bit even though I played an actual really good Ryu a couple of nights ago; he beat my fledgling Balrog 3-0 at a canter, so I dug out my not-fledgling Bison and beat him 3-0 then ran off

also I don't get why Zangief and Dan's Ultras look like shorter, less damaging versions of their supers

they should pretty much of just swapped those moves round so your super does a shit ton of damage but you have to sacrifice your EX moves if you want to use it; as it is supers are unused and ultras happen in every! single! round!

I know this debate is already being done to death by the top-tier basement dwellers but enh

ordered this on amazon. argh. i can't wait to struggle with the controller!

I am now total shit at this, after like a week off

this guy who kept doing jump kick-sweep then walk-up throws almost beat me

That was my only trick in 1991

is el fuerte's dash really called the "border dash"? cuz o_0

oh hey cozen, noticed real late that you sent me a message asking if i wanted to sfiv. Not really been playing it and shit so i would have said no anyway, but sorry for ignoring ye.

my bro is coming roon' this weekend so i'll get some practice in and hopefully stop being so fail.

s'alright u r gay tho

Had two different Akuma's rage quit on me tonight! Weirdly those were also the first two rage quits I've encountered. Pretty annoying that it doesn't count as a win, yes?

I've managed to get my win percentage up to 48%, which at least I'm happy about. Goal is to get over 50% tomorrow. Still sticking with Balrog & feel like I've a pretty good understanding of his basic options. Just a few characters still giving me trouble and my own stupid mistakes. It does seem like the average player just has a couple of tricks up his/her sleeve and even over the course of a quick best of three, it's pretty easy to figure them out. It's weird though, because the one thing this game gave every character, is a lot of options but I guess the average players just aren't taking the time to learn them? I still feel like Sagat is the most powerful character, but weirdly, like half the Sagats I've fought don't even use his best move (Tiger Knee). I wish the ranking system / quick matches for this game actually worked :(

is el fuerte's dash really called the "border dash"? cuz o_0

I don't use sagat's tiger knee that much either, but I should; it's only his best move if you get the spacing right and use the LK version cos then it's safe on block and you can get lots of good corner pressure

otherwise I think his best move is his standing heavy kick, that thing is obscene o_O

abel's such a great character; I really feel all the new characters are great but they do require a lot of work and all of them have very bad matchups against a lot of the cast

that said, I'd much rather play rufus, abel or c.viper (and have to think) than blanka, sagat or zangief and just be mindless

did everyone stop playing? : /

Still wanna play sf2thdvdkrd!

send me an xbox!

I'm still playing some, though I've definitely slowed down, mostly because 1. getting frustrated with the broken searching for ranked games 2. Quality of people playing ranked has dropped dramatically (I know I'm an average player at best, but I went on a 16 game win streak today(!), not because I was doing great, but because like 14 of the 17 people I played were completely garbage - that bleeds away the fun & it also bleeds away the opportunity to get better, a bit).

everyone decent has stopped playing ranked I think, jeff; mostly because it's full of people who are boosting (the top ranked player has like 50,000bp? that's more than daigo had a month after the arcade release!)

player matches are where the fun's at but then BPs are addictive

I wonder when the patch'll come out

e.g.

^^no.1 on PSN btw

I don't understand why developers bother putting ranked matches in games if they're going to just let people disconnect from them

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QnJCVJguxsE/SdBQOxXG7DI/AAAAAAAAAI8/6j7oQnd0drA/s1600-h/IMG_0002.JPG

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QnJCVJguxsE/SdBQOxXG7DI/AAAAAAAAAI8/6j7oQnd0drA/s1600-h/IMG_0002.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QnJCVJguxsE/ScR_6vGe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHM/kavzo5uglbQ/s320/hatemail.jpg

I been outta town but tonight I reckon I'll be back for some SF4.

justin wong's face

ouch, faced.
also lolz at "negro install" shirt

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/75/m_4d5d851edba747e1b22407bb41ccb729.jpg

dnw

Ha, that's the TWEWY opening credits theme song.

yup ^^; viper is mad fruity

http://www.eatnineghost.com/wp-content/uploads/kungfupapa/01.gif

are you you hyped for the pc version or your just like whatever by this point, nhex?

Still kind of hyped, but I haven't actually touched the game since I last played it in an arcade like three or four months ago. I'm an SF fan for life, so I'm definitely going to play it at some point, but my hopes of playing it with a larger community are more or less dashed. Who knows, maybe a PC version will open it up some, but it seems so far down the line that, like usual, there's only going to be a relatively tiny hardcore few left still playing it.

kindevu has a nasty viper now too

anyone been doing the trials?

stuck on abel 5, ken 4, blanka 4, fuerte 1 (!), and a few others

anyone other than me actually still playing? forks you should get up in this game srs

kinda hooked on sf2 and getting decent enough to win 2 out of 3 matches; don't need the additional stress in my life.

this is street fiytah fo GET HYPE

I'm still playing pretty much every night. Player data says I've already put in over 47 hours!?! Funny thing is, I still feel like I've barely just started.

you don't want to know how many hours I've put in : /

put it this way, I have played 890 games w/rufus alone (next most is 170 w/sagat)

http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/tt40/gshady/bpblaster.jpg

lost two rounds to a ken who'd jump back into the corner then continually jump back heavy kick and sweep and sometimes buffer ultra/shoryuken, mostly because the netcode makes it hard to go from a standing to a crouching block sometimes

: (

worst thing is he beat my nascent viper beforehand :(

Finally got my first piece of hate mail!

i demand a screencap

I'll screencap all of mine :D

viper is too good

rufus is godlike but viper is something else

ha, I'm neogaf famous

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=350974&page=553

(page 553)

shda scrubbed my gt before I posted tht to SRK, d'oh

I don't get it?

do we have enough interest for a joint kof xii/blazblue thread?

I have battle fantasia still to bust open

weird - I just got Battle Fantasia on friday (still haven't played it tho). Definitely planning to pick up the new KoF and BlazBlue for complete fighting game overload.

I got it the week before sfiv and still haven't played it :(

very psyched for the other two; esp. blazblue

can you understand that? Now, Heil Hitler!

o_O

I spend my days looking down on the human race

o_O

honestly, shit like this is why I'm kinda moving away from getting sfobsessive.

Welcome to the club, forks!

yeah me too, I'm going off it cos it's too frustrating and don't want to end up bitter like those^^ dudes

the netcode in this game can be a dog in some games; it's horrible

- you can't switch from a high to a low block quick enough
- you can't block, e.g. full screen blanka balls on reaction
- you get wacky moves because the game drops your inputs
- you can't reversal because it drops your inputs

http://www.hybredpc.com/random/richardrq.jpg

oh, 2small: http://www.hybredpc.com/random/richardrq.jpg

lol at this from the top of the thread
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/Fstrike/SF4%20Tier%20List/SF4TierList.png

blanka, c.viper, rufus and akuma have gone up and up since then. c.viper is considered the 2nd/3rd best char in the game now

Hopefully some online fixes are coming soon. I don't think it's ever going to be perfect, obviously. My main complaints are still with the fight browsing method (which is seriously broken). There's always going to be some lag, but honestly, out here 85% of the matches I haven't been able to notice it. Haven't had a problem with other players really... though I don't wear a headset and keep the volume low on my TV so if people are taking, I guess I'm just not hearing 'em. Anyhow, it's easy to ignore that stuff. I've slowed down on my playing though (as I'm trying to mostly get better at STHDR). I wish the game kept more detailed stats.

people who insist on calling the boss characters by their Japanese names should be repeatedly punched in the skull

czn - I was just thinking, since the game seems to cover all regions in its search, you're probably having more problems with lag because 75% of the time you're getting matched to people at least a few thousand miles away? Maybe one solution is to set your search priority for french language - which should give you a lot better odds of playing somebody relatively closer, plus you could have the added satisfaction of beating up a french dude. Maybe worth a shot if you haven't tried it already...

nah I only play 4bar games. the game isn't really the best for input-delay netcode, they shoulda went w/ggpo or 2df.

e.g. hurricane kicks aren't safe on block, there's a few frames you can punish but you can't punish these online; you often eat/tech a throw or eat a dragon punch

oh well

also retarded, things that combo on hit don't combo on block.

http://beastdaigo.jp/movie_sf4.shtml

oh my g

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donovanmyers

Championship Mode, in a nutshell, means hot tournament action and match replays that let you watch the best of the best. Championship Mode goes live for both PS3 and Xbox 360 on Friday, April 24, and it comes entirely FREE.

For anyone that wants more than will fit in a nutshell...

Tournaments:
The tournaments offer a new take on classic SFIV competition. They are broken out into 5 different levels, which means everyone can participate and find a good challenge without getting blown out of the water or bored. You score Grade Points (GP) for tournament wins, and as your GP total grows, you’ll become eligible to enter into more exclusive tournaments. Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). The CP work basically like “prize money” up for grabs in the tournament. The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize!

In true tournament tradition, character selection is double-blind. With the CP purse on the line, you won't be able to see who your opponent has picked until you've both made your choices, and the battle is set to begin.

The tournaments are run according to a standard type of single-elimination bracket, but your opponents are generated dynamically. This means the matching system will automatically match you with a player of your skill level participating in that tournament type, so you don’t have to wait around. Since the tournaments are already seeded by player strength, you’re assured quality opponents at your same skill level, as fast as possible. If you can advance through the rounds to take a top placing, you’ll score GP and CP. As your points increase, you’re eligible for tournaments with increasingly strong opponents.

--SG Championship (SUPER GRADE): 5 rounds long. The highest grade championship in which only top players can participate.
--G1 Championship (GRADE 1):５ rounds long, for advanced players
--G2 Championship (GRADE2 2): 4 rounds long, for intermediate players
--G3 Championship (GRADE3) 3 rounds long, for beginners
--FREE Championship (Free Grade): 4 rounds long, open to anyone regardless of their level.

The tournament system is set up to reward you for participating. At G3, you actually score a point even if you get knocked out in your very first match. At G2, you don’t gain points for a first-round loss, but don’t lose any either. Similarly, you never lose points by participating in the FREE rank tournaments. Only in the top G1 and SG tournaments is it possible to lose GP, and even then you only ever lose 5 points for a first-round loss.

One of the best things about the new mode is that can play in tournaments in just the same way you can use the “arcade request” feature, so you’re free to play in arcade mode while waiting for your next tournament challenger, who will be chosen automatically based on your rank.

Last, but most certainly not least, disconnecters, aka pullers, aka ragequitters, your days are numbered: If you disconnect during a match, the system will also dock you your progress in the tournament, so pullers will never be able to advance into the higher ranks of tournaments. What’s even more fun is that the system also happily displays your disconnect percentage, so if you've got a bad habit, it's right there for everyone to see.

Replays
Replays are generated straight from the Championship Mode tournaments. The top 5000 Championship Point leaders will be given the option to upload a replay, which are then available for anyone to watch. Everyone on both X360 and PS3 will have be able to watch any of the replays on their platform, but there are also some system-specific extra features on the replays:

On PS3, viewers can watch your replay and vote in real time according to characteristics like “beautiful” or “funny.” For the nerds, you can vote once every 30 frames (that’s 2x a second!), although there is a cap to avoid total vote spamming. Replays will be ranked according to the user-submitted reviews, making it easy to find the flavor of replays you want to see.

On X360, you can’t vote on the matches, but you can watch and then save a number of your favorites. While watching your saved matches, you’ll also have the option to turn on input commands (just like the Training Mode option), so you can see the gritty details of exactly what button and joystick inputs the top players are using to win.

And just for good meansure, the full press release is below:

Update to Street Fighter IV: Championship Mode comes free!

Capcom is bringing new options to Street Fighter IV with an eye towards serious players. Street Fighter IV’s Championship Mode update expands on the fighting fun by offering players the chance to compete in tournaments and to watch replays of the best tournament matches. Best of all: it comes to you at no cost! The Championship Mode update will be available for both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners on Friday, April 24 (times TBD).

Championship Mode offers you the chance to compete in 5 different grades of tournaments, creating the right challenge for players of every skill level. You’ll score Grade Points (GP) for tournament wins, and as your GP total grows, you’ll become eligible to enter into more exclusive tournaments. Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). CP are like “prize money” up for grabs in the tournament. The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize!

Replay Mode allows you to select and watch the best Championship Mode tournament matches.

On the PlayStation Network, you can rate matches while you watch according to characteristics such as “awesome” or “funny.” Replays are then ranked based on these vote ratings.

On Xbox Live, instead of rating the matches, you can choose to download and save your favorite replays to study the players’ techniques. You’ll also be able to turn on the input commands from both players to be able to review their button and joystick motions in precise detail.

It sounds like a good mode in theory, but I wonder how it will work in real life. In particular, it seems like lag is going to be a real problem in this format - as the odds of getting a really laggy match when you're in a hopper against 16 to 32 different players seems extremely high. Those really laggy matches are just no fun.

It's good that they have a rage-quitter fix for the championship mode, but I wonder if it's included in the regular ranked game mode too. If not / why not?

I'm worried that the post makes no mention of an update to the match browsing though - that's where the real (fixable) problem with the game's online mode is. The need to fix quick game so it actually works (at least as good as they did it in SSF2THDR). The fact that I have to try to load up 5-10 games every time I want to play one match is the main reason I've slowed down on playing this online & I know it's the reason a lot of people have already given up on this game and traded it back in.

what do you guys find is the best way to train yourself up with diff characters, solo or online play? haven't played in a week or so as I got GTAIV and am surprised how addicted to that I've become.

daigo beasted. the end.

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2009/apr/17/live-audio-national-sfiv-championships-saturday/

the one everyone was waiting for:

poongko (korean nat champ) vs. j.wong (us nat champ)

iyo (jp nat champ) vs. j.wong

daigo (daigo) vs. j.wong

^^^^daigo is fkn gross, j.wong never even had a chance. guess tht's wht we can expect at evo then; daigo's not even the top-rated player in japan anymore, he's third behind mago (sagat) and ojisanboy (sagat)

sorry to answer ronan's qn, I just play lots of online matches w/the same character. e.g. my best char is rufus, I've played 1137 matches with him. next best is c.viper, but I'm still learning her. I've played 228 with her. I think it's best to play online, 4 bar connection only, cos a lot of it is mindgames. you can practice execution in training, which is handy but playing against the comp there's no mindgames so...

Here are the best quality versions available, the previous ones are pretty awful. In the order they happened:

(Semi) Jason Cole vs Justin Wong:
(Final) Mike Ross vs Justin Wong:

Poongko vs Iyo:
Poongko vs Daigo:

Iyo vs Daigo:

Justin vs Poongko:
Justin vs Iyo:
Justin vs Daigo:

^^click through for HD, if you're bothered

http://www.kineda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gamestop32.jpg

u need a girlfriend, dawg

lol she's on holiday in usofa right now so I'm geeking out on sf ok

Surprised how Daigo just utterly dominated Justin Wong. That Iyo v Daigo match was pretty nice.

yeah daigo vs rufus is a 9:1 match-up : ///////

jp thinks ryu:rufus is 6:4, j.wong thinks it's 7:3 but he got BUSS up by daigo pretty bad

he didn't even land one dive kick looooool

poongko got outfootsied

iyo played it like an exhibition match and I think tht's the only reason wong beat him; he's a little genius w/dhalsim. this is the jp final against RF:

okay ILX needs to auto-collapse/thumbnail the youtube embeds

Cool fight. I don't think I've ever even come across anybody playing Dhalsim online. He does seem like a challenging character to use because so many of his moves are slow? I've been playing through some of the challenge levels for most of the characters recently and it has really brought home how rarely I see anybody taking advantage the variety of characters or any of the more interesting moves / combos online. It does seem somehow like the Ken/Ryu epidemic has gotten even worse. The quality of play in ranked is so poor most of the time now I'm getting pretty bored - hopefully championship mode is going to work and provide more challenge and variety.

Thought I'd hop into ranked tonight and play until I lost a match, but had to eventually quit out of disinterest, still riding a twenty-one match win streak. I swear I'm average at best at this game though (so far).

it's odd, I ran into a couple of half decent dhalsim's the other day. I don't play ranked (I've played 40 odd games of ranked, total; compared to about 2000 played matches) so I can't comment on the competition. in player matches, it varies wildly. I tend to play xbl friends and ppl off srk/neoempire, tht way I know wht the level of competition is going to be and adjust accordingly (playing random dudes I tend to sandbag until they do something impressive then I step it up)

I think I'm pretty good now; I play w/the best blanka in the uk, must be in the top 50 blanks in the world, and he beats me up but I can beat him now and then which I'm happy with cos I think the blanka rufus match is 6:4 online (lag helps blanka, hinders rufus). and I can hold my own against the srk/neoemp dudes and random good players online

championship mode shd be good because, well, no rage quitting :)

re:ryu/ken, instinctively I'm more inclined to take a ryu more seriously than a ken (mostly cos ken is, well, a bit shit) and I've only played like 2/3 good kens compared to a wealth of decent ryus. tbf ryu is pretty easy to play cos he can get good damage and stun off a single jab and he can land his ultra so many ways

the challenge mode is addictive but I think I've plateaued and am now stuck on a few tht I just can't seem to get past. did complete all of c.viper's trials tho ^^;

dhalsim's moves aren't all tht slow but he has low stamina and low damage output so you need to play effective keep away and be patient, for the entire match

he has some rad shit tho and can deal out damage in the right hands. his ultra is like urien's aegis reflector too, which is cool. unblockables!!!

interview w/iyo and daigo

Iyo: My god! This is insane!
The crowd, the energy is just crazy! It’s just never like this in Japan. The raging excitement makes me super nervous! I have to go to the bathroom!

PC version announcement date... announced. Not that game date... the announcement of that date.

http://kotaku.com/5219214/release-date-announcement-for-street-fighter-iv-pc-version-coming-may-1

so.... this is pretty addictive

I only had time to try it out for 20 minutes before work (so far). It's weird - not too much different in feel from ranked since you still have to browse through players for each match. Though it seems like when you get to the second or third level of a tournament the people in the lobby tend to actually be there. I love that they've fixed the connection bars actually showing up now, at least... that seems to make a big difference alone - don't know why it took so long. I like the double blind selection too - in twenty minutes I saw more variety of characters played than I had in the last week, but maybe that's just because at seven in the morning not a lot of casuals had migrated over to championship mode? How many points do you need to get out of the beginner levels?

I do not know; I've won two tournaments in G3-C and still haven't progressed : /

Cool to watch your match replay czn, you came back and won with style (though that Sagat seemed weak). My game is definitely missing flash (I'm trying to work on it though). In general I feel like the competition has gotten a lot better - I hope it lasts. I don't quite understand the GP & CP points system. Won my first tournament though and that felt good. The new mode has definitely brought back some intensity for me, which had pretty much disappeared over the last few weeks.

ha, yeah, that sagat was rubbish and he tick threw me like nobody's business. once I realised tht ws all he was going to do, it was easy. I shouldn't have been jumping forward so much but I was nervous and doing stupid stuff :D

I agree tht the competition level seemed better and I was paired up with lots of people I've never played before.

don't understand the points system myself either but I think the mode is fun and as you say it's intense; the adrenaline starts going when you make it to the final! :)

it seems to have actually striated the competition quite successfully. the dudes who are the top of the leaderboard are BEEFY players. I've watched some of their replays and they are seriously pretty good

loool I keep mashing and uploading crappy replays. there's one of my peacing out a gen who full gekiro'd me (!!!). it was a bit scrappy, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing against him, nor what his moves do : /

how you getting on with it jeff? I'll keep an eye out for your replays :)

it's pretty addictive this mode

I think you can only upload a replay if you're in the top 5,000 and I haven't been playing enough to keep up with the pace (even if I had the talent, which I probably don't - noticed I was just under 10,000 currently). Just won my third championship though and winning always feels good. Playing championship mode is definitely incentive to try to raise the quality of my game. Even if the quality and variety doesn't last - it at least has been great to finally see a bit of it the last couple of days.

I think, though, that CP is basically a total of the GP of the players that you have beaten during a tournament plus the GP of all the players that they have beaten. so when you lose or win, they know how sick you were and how many points to give you for tht tournament

so you can, theoretically, not play for ages, go into a 'free' tournament with some skilled dudes, beast them and earn enough CP from tht tournament to hit the top 5000

your CP isn't an all-time figure, I don't think (ie it doesn't accrue), it's just the purse for tht one tournament. the top 5000 purses are able to upload

your GP are you battle points (these accrue over time and can only be lost at higher levels)

Right - at first I thought it was GP rank for replays, but I landed in the 2,000s last night and still couldn't upload. I guess I've had some bad luck with CP (it's kind of random) as my best is only just under rank 9,000, I think. It doesn't really bug me, but 5,000 seems like such a low number for replays - cheap ass capcom.

My semi-real concern now is that one's reward for reaching higher ranks may be the inability to find a game because of not enough players. We'll just have to see how this system develops.

jeez the comp is steep in G2