STREET FIGHTER IV

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

I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall. The last month of mostly playing REALLY shitty players has caused me to develop some bad habits that are hard to break, andt the process of breaking them is sometimes making my game too tentative. The last few days has definitely shown me a still got a long ways to go & I don't know if I can make it there. I'm scared of what will happen when I eventually reach G2. I think I may take a break for a while and just keep working on my game in the practice room.

Weirdly I've got more hate mail in the last few days than since the game came out. Maybe that's people's only outlet now that they feel like they can't rage quit?

Is this Games for Windows Live thing something I should be wary of? They're also suspiciously not talking about the hoped-for cross-platform play, which might be a deal breaker.

Cozwn - interesting replay against dictator. Generally I don't like matches that get that defensive (slow), which is why I've recently been losing too many matches being wiped out by a super/ultra lately. I gotta learn to be more patient especially when the other guy has been meter. I was especially impressed by all the stuffed throws (not sure which of you kept teching those). Does Rufus not have a uppercut of some sort to punish those m. bison headstomps? Anyway, you were very good at blocking them.

I just hit G2 myself tonight, after working my way through an absurd amount of Kens (five in a row!) and a couple Ryus for "variety." When the game gets like that, I do get a bit frustrated (as I guess does most everybody?). Anyhow, I saw my win percentage drop 3% since I started working my way into Championship mode :( have also finished second place in twice as many championships as I've won (22 vs. 11)

tht dictator had me FUMING; all he did was jump heavy kick, throw. slide, neutral jump heavy kick, throw. back off, scissors. repeat. I was just frustrated chasing him around the fkn stage.

cr.MP punishes bison headstomps but I was literally raging at tht guy's style of play I even missed three or four easy links into ultra

sorry, tht m.bison had me fuming

I kept teching his throws because he only had one pattern, so I knew exactly when to mash throw. he ws horrible and absurdly has like 5000gp now, top 200 in the world o_O

so many ryus and balrogs; it does get dispiriting

it is basically too late for me to ever play this game again

worst thing was he ws called mrfluffypants

MPx4A - I don't think it's too late to pick up SFIV. In fact, now is probably a good time, especially for online play since the new championship mode now breaks online down into more effective skill tiers, you'd have to play quite a bit to move up and face decent competition. It still has a regular friendly system too, plus the solo stuff and a large training section that lets you work through each character's moves and combos. It's also a much more forgiving game with easier command imputs than pretty much any other fighting game I've played. It also still has a pretty decent sized player base of most skill levels (though maybe not enough higher skilled players / competition for the likes of cozwn who have really got the game down).

no I already have it but I stopped playing, and I don't want to go back and have my bison owned by a cozen rufus what has since far outstripped my progress

...for example

i've been playing a little again after not playing for a few months and i'm rusty as hell but it does come back pretty quickly

I have played 380 hrs on my second save; approx 60 hrs on my first (corrupted) save

o_O

cozwn, are you going to compete in this http://www.capcom-europe.com/sfivofficialtournament/register.php ?

I can't get out of the third round in G2. I'm enjoying the quality of matches a lot more though - it has definitely gotten a lot more consistent since I hit G2. G2 is probably where I belong until I spend more time in the practice room and bring up my own game a few steps. Do we know how many points you need to hit G1?

It's gonna feel great when/if I finally win one of these G2 championships.

15k to hit G1 : /

PC version pretty much confirmed for July 2nd-ish, along with Bionic Commando and RE5 later. Looks like Steam's gonna get it, too.