Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Camel]

If there's a sim mirror I wish plague on all involved.

[cale]

I will buck the trend and say that I normally root for Adon. He's a massive twat but I do like him rather a lot. Will always pull for Abel too but rarely get the chance to on the streams.

I'm a bit anti-Sakura too these days. Unless it's fancy Uryo (I think) madness as opposed to the arid Chris G play style. That said, I've hardly watched any SF for the longest time so that might be a bit off the mark.

Everyone else I don't mind watching really. Not Viper though. No.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I almost always root against Rufus players. Apart from when Justin Wong plays against a Zangief, because that's pretty much the only time I find the character quite interesting to watch.

[joffocakes]

I'd say Viper is the main character I just cannot get behind. Even at higher levels of play her gameplan just seems like utterly vile nonsense. I used to despise Zangief in the early days of Street Fighter IV when his lariat seemed invincible and his SPDs were making a mockery of my stuttering, infant combos but now the patient menace of a Zangief shortening his distance from his opponent before absolutely devouring them with muscles is one of my favourite things ever.

Also, despite Ibuki probably being my secondary character after Dan I absolutely hate to fight against her and I hate to watch people play as her. Unless they are an absolutely insane mix-up, gimmick master, of course. It's usually just braindead vortex. I do hope the knockdown changes, universal and neckbreaker specific, force her to be played a little more honestly.

Also, I just got myself a cheeky wee PS4. I won't get my hands on it for another week or so but I'm still pretty delighted. I'm looking forward to wasting a good few hundred pounds more buying yet another console-specific fightstick and videogames I already own.

[lewismistreated]

I used to root for PR Rog but he's too good now. I like me an underdog, yes I do.

It'll be interesting to see where the five new characters fall on this spectrum. I can see myself getting behind Hugo something fierce. I was going to make a joke about getting behind him because he's so big, or something about a fierce attack, but I've just mainlined Dark Souls 2 for most of the day and my brain appears to have given up. Ah well.

[sith]

Fucking EL Fuerte. Always that prick.

[Qazimod]

I root for Gen players.

[JLM]

Sooo many fightings recently. Rival Scenes on Sunday, so I have been attending every session I can get to in preparation. Had two all-nighters this week and have levelled up my Rose significantly. Love this character so much. I have new orb set ups and new character-specific corner set ups when my go-to Louffy one doesn't work. Also she's getting buffed in Ultra! Let de spirits guide you.

Played a hell of a lot of Mount your friends with the SFO people as well. That same rule applies that you can introduce a fighting game player to just about any competitive local multiplayer game and it will be a huge hit.

More importantly though, Power Rangers The Fighting Edition has been even more popular than I had anticipated. I woke up yesterday and came downstairs to find Benners, at a pre-Rival Scenes intensive training session, in the lab with Silver Horns trying to find something to make him viable. He is actually getting wins against the top tier characters now. Also playing it with four extra fighting game heads has led to many many amazing discoveries. We have broken the game apart and it is now going to be a side tourney at Rival Scenes that will most likely be more hype than the AE event.

Stuffs that only Alistarr will probably appreciate:

1) Benners has discovered that Silver Horns can play a just about passable Sagat game based around getting stray hits and taking time to build meter. Once he has anti-air Super available he can actually stop the rushdown characters (every other character) mauling him.

2) I figured out how to do Ninja Megazord's Blanka ball! I can do Blanka Ball - > link low jab - > low jab xx Super. 50% damage, We tried our hearts out and cannot find any other character who can combo their super, so this solidifies his status as number three character in the game, or number four if you count Ivan Ooze. Ooze is soft banned in what has quickly become competitive play though. Blanka ball has crazy advantage on block too. Broken stuff. I have figured out air EX tatsu spacing too. I can to jumping mk - > low jab - > low jab - > sweep. Then jump and EX air tatsu. It can hit in front or hit behind, but I can also do it so it hits in front for two hits and then goes behind with the third, so you have to block both! Also you can do cross up MK - > low jab - > low jab xx rekkas and cross up MK - > low jab xx EX DP for massive damage.

3) Goldar is viable! Brad from SFO has picked him up as a main and discovered all the good stuff. Air fireball has a weird input (quarter circle from up to forwards!?) but is an excellent tool. More importantly, he has a condor dive that knocks down on hit, and on block Condor dive into low jab is a true block string. He also has an alternative condor dive done with the weapon buttons that is also advantageous on block, but doesn't knock down on hit and you can link a low jab off that as well. He also has an extremely ambiguous jumping medium kick cross up that Brad has figured out. His EX DP is probably the best in the game too.

4) Tyson mains Lip Syncher because he's a filthy tier whore and Marvel Player. Against Benners he did a fucking insane thing. He did anti-air EX fireball, confirmed the hit, jumped, air dashed, juggled with jumping fierce and then jump cancel - > fierce - > jump cancel - > fierce - > jump cancel fierce as an infinite for 28 hits and 100% (!!!!!!!!!) damage. Holy fucking shit.

5) Tiger Megazord has a command grab! The EX version does 25% damage and then flings them to full screen so you can use your weird bouncing fireball for zoning. You can do low jab - > low jab on block and then tick command grab. It makes him not the worst character in the game. Also it has no whiff animation, so you can use it like Honda's Ochio throw in Super Turbo and just fish for it with no risk at all. Technology!

6) Lastly, a thing that Team Best from Now didn't discover in their review. You can go to options and turn off the character portraits, and hidden behind them is a hit counter for combos. Why the hell that isn't turned on by default is beyond me, but you can now see how legit your combos are instead of relying on guess work.

I think it has overtaken Breakers Revenge and World Heroes Perfect as my favourite poverty game. I'm going to be like one of those fake Third Strike players who says obscure game X is their real main game and they'd play it instead of AE if only there were a decent scene for it. Heh.

Oh, and for my own reference as much as anything, my stream catch up list now has:

All the non-AE stuff from the CafeID Korea tournament.

Civil War

Texas Showdown

NorCal Regionals

Any Topanga World League footage I haven't seen yet.

PAX East tourney.

North West Majors

Stunfest.

Might have to put off starting The Walking Dead for a while.

Anyone had any good coleslaw lately? I have been following bits from Joffo's latest Texas adventure with envious eyes. Bet that man is eating like a king. An obese, oil tycoon king.

[ah]

I spent an hour last night being summoned by people in huntsman's copse and then watching them rush into a bad situation and die or just fall down holes in bridges.

[strawdonkey]

Stay on topic please.

Had some Apple and Celeriac slaw yesterday to go with pulled pork, which was pretty good.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I just found some jalapeno coleslaw in Sainsburys, which I've not seen available before. As far as supermarket coleslaw goes it's really rather nice, though could do with a little more kick. They're also doing a kind of pre-cooked pulled pork shoulder for £6.50 in there at the moment. I really had my doubts about it, both in terms of price and in terms of trying partially-cooked pulled pork, but frankly it's better than the stuff I've had in quite a few expensive hipster bbq places recently (Hoxton Grill).

I've also recently been making a caribbean style coleslaw that's included in Levi Root's cookbook. It's got lime, green pepper, sweetcorn and coriander in, and it goes fantastically well with things like jerk chicken.

[ah]

I am interested in this Caribbean coleslaw. I can actually do a not-terrible vegan coleslaw dressing now, which is nice. I like to use it with red cabbage, red onion and curious purple carrots (obviously), for the most purple of coleslaws.

I only even saw the boss at the end of the level once, immediately before my companion got flattened.

[Plopboy]

I had sweet potato chips yesterday and they where very nice.

[Qazimod]

Ultra SFIV! NCR! Combofiend! Infiltration! Punctuation!

[ah]

I found this intriguing ring which, when you equip it, every so often a little message pops up saying that you're travelling to another world to help an apostle of blue in distress, and then before anything else happens another message pops up saying that the world master dies.

I also helped two people run to a boss fight and swing like lunatics without defending until they died.

[Nate Dogg III]

Last night I was summoned by a guy who stood outside the fog gate throwing the Hello carving for over a minute and then getting one-shot by the boss within. Good times.

People do know what they're doing though, on the whole. Probably the pace I've gone through it (started Thursday, did Nashandra today after about 14 hours) but almost everyone I've helped out has skipped the cutscenes.

[ah]

I think I have to take back my criticism of the two chaps I failed to help, anyway, after being so bad at it on my own attempt that in the end I pretty much just summoned two dudes, let them do the fighting, pulled a lever and stood back until they finished the job. Dishonourable.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Are you doing the chariot, then? I got him down to the last hit solo and then he did some unblockable breath attack that he hadn't done before and killed me stone dead.

[ah]

Haha, yes. I had more than one very similar experience, hence the summoning and playing safe like the angry little man I apparently am.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yes. I was helping loads of lads out through that bit last night. It's a horribly designed boss. Half the time I can be safely cowering in an alcove and I still get twatted by his wheels or whatever. It took me the best part of 90 minutes to clear the path to him too. Half the time when I went up there trying to lure the guardians out 1 by 1, all 4 of them would aggro at once for no apparent reason, and run over and twat my face off.

I want to find the heirs to the sun covenenant (I refuse to use any term with the word "bro" in it) so that I can be all nice and golden when mans summon me, but I think that's in another one of those PVP specific areas and god those annoy me.

[Camel]

HoG has just issued a statement on Facebook warning people to sort out their hygiene. I'm on my phone so can't post it here.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Aha. Amazing

[ah]

This is a great rundown (with example footage) of how delayed wakeup, red focus cancels and punishable DP FADCs are working out so far in Japan:

http://www.twitch.tv/ultrachentv/b/524132584

[Plopboy]

HoG has just issued a statement on Facebook warning people to sort out their hygiene. I'm on my phone so can't post it here.

Here it is

I too have been dark souling, but I tried to tickle a dragon to death as I forgot to equip my sword, thankfully I had a Sun Brother helping me who killed it for me.

[Goemon]

Xaio Hai's analysis of his and Daigo's topanga match up. Its a sick level of analysis and a reason I'll never be good at this game...I just like jumping around and doing stuff.

First we need to look at the various ways in which Ryu can hurt Cammy, and how Cammy can hurt Ryu.

Usually the matchup is Cammy-Ryu 6-4, but at the top level it's 5-5. Why do I say that? Let's start with a comparison of footsies: Ryu has a slight advantage in terms of attack range with 2mk 2hk. Cammy can counter-poke with 2mk and 5hk (far standing HK).

Further away Cammy has a small technique which is 2mk buffered into Spiral Arrow. If Ryu tries to poke with 2mk he will get hit (with Cammy's 2mk into Spiral Arrow). At this range, Ryu cannot use 2hk to whiff punish, but at top-level play Daigo would not poke at that range anyway.

(After that, further out,) There's a certain range where only Ryu can 2mk Cammy and Cammy can never poke back, as if she pokes back she gets whiff punished.

Even further out, as long as Cammy does not have any EX bars, Ryu can Hadouken. At that range, even if Cammy Focus Absorbs the Hadouken and dash forward (sa66 or "saving Attack, forward dash"), Ryu will still be at frame advantage. Additionally, Hadouken is a move that can do chip damage.

Once Ryu gets the health lead, as long as he does not throw out Hadoukens (which can be punished by EX Spiral Arrow or Ultra)... since Cammy cannot beat Ryu in footsies, Cammy will definitely lose. That is the one absolute advantage Ryu has over Cammy.

So at this point, you might think, "but wait, aren't we forgetting about Cannon Strike?"

True, Cannon Strike is the one move that breaks up this impasse. You could use it to counter Ryu's 2mk.

At high-level play, the main point of this move isn't to hit Ryu. It is more to make Ryu hesitate. Let's analyze it: if a Ryu player wants to counter Cammy's Cannon Strike, then it is very, very easy. All he has to do is to hold back on the stick, and as soon as Ryu sees Cammy jump, DP. If Ryu wants to go for a 2mk poke, just watch Cammy, and visually confirm that Cammy is still on ground before you press the button for real. All pro-level Ryu players can do this.

So how does this change things? The breakthrough comes from the 0.X seconds of psychological warfare that comes into play, when Cammy walks forward. Because it's no longer max Ryu 2mk range once Cammy walks forward, he has to worry about random Cannon Strikes.

Ryu needs 0.X seconds to confirm whether Cammy has jumped or not, so he'll hold back while Cammy is holding forward. And because Cammy's walk-forward speed is faster than Ryu's walk-back, after 0.x seconds here's what the situation turns into: a range where both characters’ 2mk can hit each other.

At this range, being able to hit-confirm from 2mk into Spiral Arrow (don't throw out Spiral Arrow if 2mk is blocked) is the crucial factor. At high-level player, you need this advantage.

(On another note,) Usually 5hk pokes aren't there to hurt Ryu. It's more there for distraction and gauge building. Also throwing 5hk out encourages your opponent to go for a Focus Attack, in which case Cammy can perform, on reaction, 2mk xx Spiral Arrow.

Next, what can Cammy do if meterless? I found that there's a distance where Cammy's 2lk (crouching LK) will not hit Ryu normally, but if Ryu 2mk or throws out a Hadouken then it will hit, which can then be confirmed into Spiral Arrow. Therefore, just walk up and block because Ryu's 2mk does no chip and if canceled into Hadouken then I can Focus Absorb it. Even if he goes straight for the Hadouken (not from crouching MK) it's just a tiny bit of chip. I just need that one chance to knock Ryu down.

For most people, when they see Cammy has meter and leaves for the air, they will always Shoryu. Chances are, 95% it will hit. The remaining 5% only happens when Cammy is too close and Cammy does not do a low EX Cannon Strike as she's jumping, which makes Ryu's immediate MP Shoryu whiff.

Even if Ryu recovers from the whiffed MP Shoryuken without getting punished, he will be scared of a delayed EX Cannon Strike which can evade a 2nd Shoryuken attempt. Therefore Ryu's safest choice here is to block. But if Ryu blocks, Cammy will be at point-blank range and horror mode begins.

How about LP Shoryu then? There's a chance of it getting beaten outright by a low EX Cannon Strike and connecting into combo. And that's the mind game being played here. Without it, Cammy can never get in.

Moving on... Almost every Ryu now knows about 2hp OS throw tech (crouch tech with LP+LK+HP), so a lot of Cammy players do not use low EX Cannon Strikes (as it would get hit by Ryu's crouching HP). How should you deal with this? It's very simple really. Ryu's 2hp is 4f. Cammy's 2lk is 3f. All I have to do is (pretend that I'm going to throw or go for an EX Cannon Strike, but instead) do a delayed 2lk button press. (This beats the 2HP OS throw tech.) If, in response, Ryu goes for a Focus Attack, then all you have to do is go for a 2lk 6lp blockstring. If he performs a focus-backdash, after 2lk Cammy can walk forward 5lp 2mk xx Spiral Arrow.

Some people have noticed that Daigo would sometimes leave Ryu standing still without blocking or doing anything, and think that he's doing that to taunt. That's not the whole story, really. Two reasons: 1) This is a psychological tactic, but we all knew that already. 2) Standing still hurtbox is smaller than moving or crouching.

This is Daigo combining psychological warfare and the game system perfectly. But since he also did this last year, I came up with a tactic to counter it, and that is by throwing out a random Spiral Arrow.

It's a complete gamble, but I have a methodology that gives me a very high success rate on this gamble.

I'll try to describe what Daigo is thinking when he does this: When two players are at neutral, to break the stalemate, he will stand still to start the psychological war.

When he decides to stand still he has already decided how long he will stand (0.8s-1.8s) and not hold back to block at all.

If this is a trap for me, he will tap down on the lever to crouch around the 0.5s mark, or pull back to block around the 1.0s.

So for the first couple of times when he attempts this, I'll try to download his habits.

After a few times, when he realises that I consistently did not fall for the trap, he will think that perhaps I have already figured it out and stop the trap setting (by holding back to block after 0.5/1.0s) when leaving Ryu defenseless, to change up the strategy.

At this moment when he decides to change things up, is when his defensive awareness decreases. That's when I immediately Spiral Arrow and hit him with it. You can watch the videos again and it's not hard to find out.

And that's my review of the Cammy-Ryu match-up. Recently I haven't been home a lot, and have been writing these on my mobile phone, so I couldn't include any pictures to illustrate. I thought I'd just share my thought process anyway.

[Fitzcarraldo]

For anyone on Hugo Watch (about 90 minutes onwards):

Probably the best use of Hugo I've seen so far - the range on his EX Backbreaker is absolutely unreal! I'd still like to see more corner lockdown as even this Hugo player generally opts to give away the corner advantage for a cross-up opportunity.

[ah]

Last night I laughed at a James Chen joke.

I'm off having adventures this weekend but would quite like to play a fighting game sometime on Monday if anyone's likely to be around? Let me know.

[Qazimod]

I still have no Xbox Live.

Was it a joke told by James Chen or a joke about James Chen?

[joffocakes]

http://shoryuken.com/2014/05/02/ultra-street-fighter-iv-receives-training-mode-fight-request-offline-match-recording/

An article on srk confirming offline replay recording (for ten matches) and fight request from training mode.

It does say that recording replays will no be available when time is set to infinite, which I can understand, but it also states that "longer" matches may not fully record.

A shame, too, that pausing the game in training disables fight request since that's the one mode with a load of menu tinkering.

[ah]

Maybe it means best-of-seven fights might be too long to record - I can't imagine you'd design a match recording feature for street fighter 4 which couldn't handle recording three 99-second rounds. Surely.

I still have no Xbox Live.

Was it a joke told by James Chen or a joke about James Chen?

Believe it or not he said something really funny. If I remember next time I'm using a computer I'll seek out evidence!