ummmmm Street Fighter IV anyone???

[Riot]

IGN gave it a 9, which seems to be what most other reviewers are giving it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCvh06T- ... re=channel

metacritic from every review out there places it at 90/100 - http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... etfighter4

My initial thoughts after a few hours of play:

-Some graphical upgrades, including better lighting and really sexy new stages.

-Online connections are really stable so far, and matchmaking has been much improved to put you with people close to you for better connection.

-Online modes are fun; I like how you have overall points (Player Points) and character-specific points (Battle Points) to show how good you are overall and with each character. (So far I'm #8 Akuma in the world! okay so there are only a few hundred people playing...)

-Team Battle is fun. I played a 3v3 last night with two really good Cammy players and had some nice trash talk with the other team.

-Some subtle changes with frames and priorities for moves take some time to get used to for me, especially with Akuma, but overall most characters are improved and have more options and viability.

-Nerfed damage around the board is a good thing in my opinion; matches take a slight bit longer, but you no longer get half your health taken away if you mess up and eat Sagat's ultra or something.

-Despite developer claims saying the game is not faster, things do feel a little bit swifter... at least with the 3rd Strike characters. Or maybe it's the placebo effect. I think link timings were shortened/changed to make them easier (along with charge times being reduced and Focus Attacks coming out quicker), so things seem to be faster in each fight.

-My biggest disappointment is that you can't do any movements after you get the killing blow. This means no more FADC on the last move to kind of taunt them, and sadly no more rapid ducking/teabagging lol.

-You have to be a lot smarter now in regards to how you pick Ultras and how you act around certain characters when they have specific Ultras. For example, when Hakan has his Ultra 2 ready to go, don't jump ANYWHERE around him. So I think having to think more tactically will be a good thing, even though I tend to throw caution to the wind too much. Have to learn!

-Bonus stages and anime intros/endings kind of dumb, but I never cared about them in the first place. I guess if you are into little random anime story bits you'll enjoy them, or if you were a fan of the old bonus stages from SF2.

-Again, it might just be my imagination, but it seems like some of the shortcut motions like shoryuken may have been tightened a little bit.

-New characters are really smooth and fit in well! The 3S characters are looking to be some of the better characters in the game which is good news for some of you. Dudley is scary in the right hands.

-I thought spectating other people in Endless and Team Battle would be kind of boring, but you can talk to the other people and hear them which is nice (there are a lot of good players right now since it's early release, so I hear a lot of interesting tips), and the nice thing is you can look at everyone in the room's gamer card which shows their bio, reputation, other games, etc. So there is stuff to look at if you don't wanna watch the match.

-Hakan and Cody are really good and I'm having trouble figuring out how to play against them. Hakan has mad range when oiled up and is very scary.

-Guile, Rose, Dhalsim, Chun-Li, Vega, Bison, and Dan were all notably improved, and most the characters really, but these the most. Ryu, Sagat, Zangief were toned down.

-It's only $40!

Overall I'm really stoked about this game so far. There are a LOT of people excited about it and the community is getting huge again. It's fun to see it getting popular and tournaments all over happening. The online modes and tightened fighting engine and all the new characters are really good and raise the competitiveness a great deal. The netcode being improved is awesome, so there is less lag, and there seems to be a bigger sense of community in this one due to Team Battle and Endless Battle. I just played a team battle with the editors of Game Informer magazine haha, always fun to play pre-release the press who are reviewing the game.

and finally, I want to work on doing kara taunts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMeUjCXGOM these look sure to piss people off =D

[Merk]

-My biggest disappointment is that you can't do any movements after you get the killing blow. This means no more FADC on the last move to kind of taunt them, and sadly no more rapid ducking/teabagging lol.

This is absolutely 100% a deal breaker.

Fuck this game

[Riot]

-My biggest disappointment is that you can't do any movements after you get the killing blow. This means no more FADC on the last move to kind of taunt them, and sadly no more rapid ducking/teabagging lol.

This is absolutely 100% a deal breaker.

Fuck this game

Yes despite the lack of my favorite trolling mechanism, Gametrailers still gave it 9.3. Pretty good review.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/revie ... reet/64871

[Cactusjuice]

Y'know what'd be pretty cool - if they'd bring back more SF1 characters. We haven't seen Eagle since SvC2, and I don't think anybody knows how to effectively play as Gen... Not to mention, the rest of them are never even mentioned again. It's just kinda like, "well wtf happened to them?" For that matter, it'd be kinda cool if they made an HD remix of SF1. I'd play it.

[Riot]

I've seen some pretty good Gen players cropping up lately actually. A lot of people think he sucks but I think people are figuring him out, and Super buffed him a little, though not enough to please the Gen players I guess.

Eagle was in SF Alpha 3 for PSP... didn't think people actually liked him. I think the first 3 DLC characters for SSF4 will be Rolento, Hugo, and R. Mika, mainly because Ono the producer really wants R. Mika and Hugo, and fans are most vocal for Rolento I guess.

[Merk]

Riot what are the disadvantages of not having a hard drive in an Xbox?

Also I guess Dudley plays a lot differently than he does in 3S which is why I COULD NOT win yesterday. He has weird poke chains that combo into his baller s.hk -> EX Machine Gun Blow. Back in the day s.hk -> EX MGB was his punisher / if you're really good you can poke with s.hk and hit-confirm the EX MGB. Now it's a poke-chain ender.

His uppercut is not invincible in first few frames and can get stuffed easily unlike Ryu/Ken's

He still has the problem of having no real range. His F+Hp got a bit buffed though since there's no parrying.

He still has the problem of getting in on an opponent, especially against characters who can keep away well like Akuma. His "Ducking" moves got a bit buffed since they go trough fireballs easier but it's really only effective if they try to fireball you from midscreen or so.

[Riot]

The disadvantages of not owning a hard drive are:

-You can't install the game... when you install the game to your hard drive, all load times are reduced, which is very handy. This probably also leads to faster network play since it's just less the console has to think about when loading stuff. Also it is a lot less stress on the console if it's loading the game off the hard drive instead of the disc. It will make the xbox run cooler and avoid overheating.
-It's room to save games, download games, download DLC (like alternative costumes or extra playable characters should they release some, or rock band songs if you should ever play music games), or downloading videos or any little extra thing. The default memory card thingy that comes with the $199 arcade unit is only like 256mb... not big enough to do like anything. I bought the arcade unit and just bought a hard drive separately.
-Along the same lines, you can download demos of games. Most every game on 360 has a demo out.

The hard drives are kind of expensive because they are MS proprietary bullsheeeeeet but imo they're worth it. You don't have to get like a giant 250gb one, even just a 20gb or 60gb would be fine if you're not the type to download a bunch of little arcade games. You can always delete a game you install whenever you need to if you need room, so if you're only playing SSF4 that'll probably take about half the space and give you room for other stuff. If anything you can just buy the barebones arcade system and play the game on it and worry about a hard drive down the line if you get annoyed with load times or want to get DLC stuff or arcade games. However, the arcade package doesn't come with a headset, but the hard drive bundle Live Starter kit things you can get come with a headset and 3 months free of live.

Here's the one I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
and speaking of Live, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product get it from newegg or amazon, it's 10 bucks cheaper, sometimes it goes down to 30 or 35. That makes it only like $3 a month.

and here's those fight pads I was talking about, even though you know what they are I think: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product they are good if you are obstinate about playing on pad

INFORMATION OVERLOAD, p.s. I also talked about SSF4 to you in conversation cornucopia

[Merk]

INFORMATION OVERLOAD, p.s. I also talked about SSF4 to you in conversation cornucopia

YA I KNOW but I want to keep the SSF4 stuff in this thread to keep stuff organized.

How much are separate hard drives? I'd like to go with the cheapo arcade console and just buy the HDD separately if it ends up being cheaper.

[Riot]

INFORMATION OVERLOAD, p.s. I also talked about SSF4 to you in conversation cornucopia

YA I KNOW but I want to keep the SSF4 stuff in this thread to keep stuff organized.

How much are separate hard drives? I'd like to go with the cheapo arcade console and just buy the HDD separately if it ends up being cheaper.

I wanted to reach out to Chad and he never comes down here, he is too good for this thread. And follow the link I posted up there. The 60gb hdd, headset, and 3 month live package is 90 dollars. That's what I got along with my Arcade package, and it comes out to what, like 290.

BUT YOU SEE at that point it becomes worth it probably to get this Elite bundle:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

120gb hdd, comes with game(s), headset, and it's sexy black. The only reason I got the arcade system when I bought one is because at the time it was the only version that had the new revision to the hardware that eliminated RRoDs, which I think all versions have now.

p.s. some crazy combos for Dudley and a few others so far and videos for them listed on this page: http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=232398 the trade DP options are nuts, and so is Combo 6... takes off 60% hp!

[Riot]

Chad here is a video of Juri bread n butter combos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJSCnCXN ... r_embedded

[Fluffyumpkins]

Thank you Riot. I will offer you some Akuma Bacon, Egg, and Cheese combos.

[Riot]

That is legitamately witty. Juri has a lot of wallbounce combos to ultra. I bet I could bounce one of those delicious combos you posted off the wall and into my mouth. Merk bought the game hallelujiah, now we are going to fight and embarrass people and ourselves online. I wonder if Merk plays hard enough to get to the top of Dudley leaderboards!

Merky let's do some team battles tonight! I have a bunch of other friend/acquaintances that have the game now too, from either around Bloomington or from Homestead (a year younger than me, so you probably wouldn't know him... he's got a really good Vega though!) if we want to bring more peeps in. OR WE CAN JUST DO SOME 2v2s!

Oh Merk I am so excited!

[Cactusjuice]

Thank you Riot. I will offer you some Akuma Bacon, Egg, and Cheese combos.

Damn! I need to try some of those!

[Riot]

http://manfactory.bandcamp.com/album/st ... -round-two

lol these street fighter songs are pretty good

the vega one is awesome! the first album is good too

[Riot]

Merk read this

http://www.exceedgaming.com/SuperSFIV/D ... Guide.html

and this too maybe http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=232963