Ultra Street Fighter IV

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Also geegs to 'nut and 'roczech last night. I landed some t hawk u2 on jiro's evil Ryu, which made me happy because that matchup usually just involves me bring zoned. Also we then continued our mini rig/code series. I tried to introduce wild metagame by spending one match continually neutral jumping on his wakeup, and then not doing it the next. I don't know if it worked.

Also nate is scared of me. I know this because ran away when I joined the party he was in with donut. Don't be scared!

[Nate Dogg III]

Ha, I had to go to bed. But yes, you're scary.

Had a wonderful time on this last night. Had a FT10 as Evil Ryu versus Jason's Oni and I have no shame in admitting I didn't win a single game. It's a very fun matchup but one I do not know at all, so it was a good workout. Also taught me a lot about my Evil Ryu play, specifically that if I'm not looking for FADC after every single cr.MK fireball I might as well just put the stick down and do something else. Anyway, I would normally get grumpy about being on the wrong end of such a hammering, but Jason's a wonderful player and most of the time I was just happy to take a round. Most of the matches, I told myself afterwards while cranking myself to sleep, were very close.

On the bright side, dealing with Jason's fundamentals and calmness under pressure was good preparation for the massive set with Donut that followed. Think I won 16-6 (sorry, I kept checking, conscious I was ten games down for the night when we started). We both moved around the cast a lot, which was nice, and Donut showed off his beautiful new Seth tech - a midscreen juggle Super setup I still can't understand, and new midscreen SRK stomps tech, doing fierce DP, delaying the second hit, then leaving it and somehow getting all three stomps - but never the divekick reset. Is that possible? Either way, lovely stuff.

Also I want to learn Marvel. Been playing a bit more of the Vita version and I can do the Wolverine drill claw-dive kick relaunch thing. On top of that, I've watched an awful lot of it lately, so with that and the relaunch I reckon I'm probably the best player in the country now. Also I watched ECT top 8 last night (until the video ended halfway through loser's finals and I couldn't find the next part) and RayRay's Ryu is just the most lovely thing, so I'm going to learn Ryu. Does Wolvie/Ryu/Akuma sound like a team with any sort of synergy whatsoever? Probably not, but as the best player in the UK I see it as my duty to work round that.

Also I get to write something about Evo today, which is nice.

[Lyrical Donut]

That set was great fun, so many hype moments. I legitimately punished a Blanka ball on reaction with Seth's U2!

The divekick whiffs if you get all three stomps in after the delayed 2nd DP. I'm OK with that because you can juggle with Super when you land. It does fuck all damage, but that's not the point is it? Oh, wait.

Also fuck Rose's U2. It's all about cr.mp/mk xx EX Soul Fuck FADC U1 these days.

Oh, and I think I'm going to try and get into Marvel again before HF2012, too. That or VF5. Maybe even both!

[Nate Dogg III]

Yes! You did that Rose thing. And Seth's boom FADC teleport Ultra 2 was great. And I seem to recall you did Honda's standing fierce x super, too, which made up for my Honda beating your Rog using basically only fierce punch.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yeah, the better everyone gets the more important hit confirming into damage seems to be becoming. I'm basically spending all my training mode time working on random block hit confirms, so that I can miss them in matches, which I am doing with alarming consistency. I think it's about 99% lag and only 1% the fact that my execution goes to shit in matches.

Also obviously I meant rog/cody, but my obese phone autocorrected EVERYTHING while I was on the train and I didn't notice. I'm figuring out the matchup a bit as we go on, it seems that cody can't do much against rog's jab, however I cannot block random ex ruffian kicks, so that tends to even things up. Also since my entire rog (or indeed street fighter) game is based around tick throws, and jiro is good at teching throws, that makes things tough. I should probably learn some frame traps.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

No! Rose's U2 is amazing when used with the fake corner crossup j.lk into cr.hp x hp reflect into soul throw. I have no idea how to block that, since i don't know which side the orbs will hit, let alone the j.lk. That's what I landed when I did that guile-theme comeback with rose against your seth the other night.

Rose has some dirty corner stuff. Her j.hp will or will not crossup in the corner, depending on how you time it, and it's like a few frames difference. And I think it's behaviour might be corner dependant too. I still have no idea how stuff that works in one corner doesn't work in the other.

[Goemon]

Talking about writing you thought you'd enjoy but didn't; I finished Braid last night and, as good as the puzzles and that little rewound end scene are, the writing in those little green books is pretty awful. Which is a shame, as the rest of the game has such a wonderful tone. Also, I'd been talking the game up a bit to the lass and she sat watching me approaching the end, guffawing at how cringe it all was.

Do you know what the story is talking about?

Now that you've finished it you should venture into the braid thread and read up on theories.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It's so horribly clumsy, all trying to be multi-layered with these allusions. Blow makes really nice puzzle-platformers, but he's not much of a writer.

Also Nate I think that now is probably the worst time to be learning Marvel. People are juuuuust discovering a new round of infinites that you can start from team aerial combos, and it seems like a lot of characters have them. So I expect most of the online population will now either people people who are insanely good, or people looking to just land the infinite repeatedly.

[Nate Dogg III]

I plan on countering that with raw natural ability. Also divekicks. I think I maybe know how to do snapbacks, too.

In all seriousness though I've no interest in playing it to any kind of standard, I just want to press buttons against you fine people and see what happens.

[Plopboy]

I got a new way of playing these fighting games, I pretend I'm controlling the other character and now my imaginary win ratio is 100%.

[Qazimod]

Also I want to learn Marvel. Been playing a bit more of the Vita version and I can do the Wolverine drill claw-dive kick relaunch thing. On top of that, I've watched an awful lot of it lately, so with that and the relaunch I reckon I'm probably the best player in the country now. Also I watched ECT top 8 last night (until the video ended halfway through loser's finals and I couldn't find the next part) and RayRay's Ryu is just the most lovely thing, so I'm going to learn Ryu. Does Wolvie/Ryu/Akuma sound like a team with any sort of synergy whatsoever? Probably not, but as the best player in the UK I see it as my duty to work round that.

We need a Vita Marvel lobby Think I have you on my list already (ohnathan?) but it would make a change from getting destroyed by randoms. And you can show me why my Chun/Morrigan/LeiLei team is the stupidest thing.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Is UMVC3 50p online yet? I am waiting until it is 50p.

[JLM]

GGs to Alistarr, cale and Nate. I ended uplaying Oni for most of the evening and he is fun. Props to Alistarr for pointing out how easy the jabs into target combo links are for him a little while ago too. Aside from that I'm aiming to make my last few utterly terrible characters a little bit less terrible, starting with Sagat. Unfortunately for Alistarr I decided to start that endeavour against him and his Rufus, and even with a Sagat as bad as mine it's still not fun for the fat man.

Nate, that Marvel team is two point characters and one assist/anchor in Akuma, but they're all good characters and it'll still be effective. The only worry I'd have with it is that Ryu needs a lot of help to get in and deal damage. He's such a cool character in Ultimate Marvel, and ChrisG and RayRay have some amazing tech with him, but you'll notice when you play agaisnt zoning teams that his mobility is absolutely terrible. I had to drop him from my team when I first started trying to play the game because I could never land a hit. RayRay's team has both drones and EM disruptor assist to help with this. Akuma's tatsu assist is up there with the best in terms of synergy with Wolverine, but Ryu would be better off with Doom plasma beam, Taskmaster arrows, Sentinel drones or something with similar full screen horizontal coverage to cover his approach.

You could maybe lose Akuma, have Ryu on tatsu assist and add a support character for Ryu in the back?

Or you could leave it how it is and make it work, I just like to theory fight.

[imp]

Yes. Finally an opportunity to give JLM advice on how to play a character.

Spoilered for long.

S.HK

[Nate Dogg III]

Thanks, Jason - it wasn't an entirely serious suggestion, in fairness, but I appreciate the straight bat. I might muck about with Doom a bit instead and see how it goes; I've been using Akuma for long enough now (on the Vita version anyway) that dropping him for Ryu might be a bit much for me this early on.

[JLM]

You just copy and pasted the Bison guide from SRK. Fraud.

Also Nate, myself and Alistarr don't play to a very high standard in Marvel. Join us, or we'll just have to fight each other and get bodied by Imp and 'choo at Heggfest.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Which those of us who play bipson stick to religiously. Also, st.mk when slightly out of st.hk range.

My bipson hasn't got much better lately. For some reason I can hit vega's 1f unplinkable cr.jab, cr.jab more consistently than i can the 2f plinkable bipson cr.lk, cr.lk. Why is this mother.

[JLM]

I have a problem linking Bison's crouching shorts consistently. The timing on it is so weird. The way they hit isn't crisp and snappy enough so I find it hard to get a rhythm for it. They're too squelchy. Yes, squelchy.

[Nate Dogg III]

Also Nate, myself and Alistarr don't play to a very high standard in Marvel. Join us, or we'll just have to fight each other and get bodied by Imp and 'choo at Heggfest.

This might be nice. Alistarr plays Grooverider though (shut up, that's his name) and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I will probably just go into training for five minutes, become disheartened and go play Lollipop Chainsaw.

[JLM]

Playing against that bastardfuckingfullscreencombofuckingfuck is what made me drop Ryu and discover how hard it is to get in with him without the right assists. Fuck Grooverider and fuck Fabio too. Wolverine should do fine though, the nimble little scamp.

EVO AE brackets are up. My predictions to get out of these pools in winners for the "A" pools. There are a lot of pools.

Pool A1: Ricky Ortiz to take it. FC Jago outside chance but his Bison looks very rusty these days. Prince Martinez unlucky to be in a pool of death and having to play Ricky Ortiz first round.

Pool A2: Tatsu or Chris King to take it. The Vega pool. There's also a Japanese player in this pool who doesn't have his handle listed, so that may be a killer and I just don't know his real name.

Pool A3: SnakeEyez to take it. Have no idea who anyone else is in that pool.

Pool A4: EG Floe to take it. Again, don't know anybody else.

Pool A5: Kyabetsu to take it.

Pool A6: Arturo or WeirdoNeo to take it.

Pool A7: Momochi.

Pool A8: DMG Lud. I hope so anyway. Let's go Chun.

Pool A9: Mepu or KDZ.

Pool A10: Fubarduck, or LuckyD if someone else takes out Fubarduck as Dhalsim vs Yun is still broken.

Pool A11: Scunsion.

Pool A12: MOV

Pool A13: PR Balrog. Outside chance: Andreas. Andreas is a beast.

Pool A14: Happy Medicine. Outside chance: Chris Hu and his godlike Oni.

Pool A15: LPN or Rico Suave.

Pool A16: FNEX K Brad or F-Word. Sad that F-Word has to play another UK player in his first game

Pool A17: JSMaster, AndyOCR or Starnab. That's a ridiculously strong pool, and I thought JS Master had retired!

Pool A18: Filipino Champ.

Pool A19: Fuudo.

[strawdonkey]

Fuck Grooverider and fuck Fabio too.

Sublime.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yes. Also if i do plink his cr.lks I inevitably plink when trying to do the scissor kick, which results in a throw coming out when i press fwd,lk,lp all at once. Idiot.

[joffocakes]

The crouching light kicks are a two frame link though, aren't they? I'm probably wrong. I often am. It seems easier than other one framers.

[Nate Dogg III]

Grooverider will always be amazing for being precisely mad enough to fly to Dubai with porn and weed in his luggage.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

You are right josephene. I should really double tap them but I can't double tap so I don't double tap them even though double tapping them would be best, as we all know.

I just can't get the timing down. It's one of the reasons I'm playing less bipson now.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

He didn't? Aren't they wild enough to kill people for having a bit of weed on them? Which, frankly, is the most bizarre and insane thing in the world if you think about it for even the tiniest fraction of a second. God I love insane middle eastern countries and their bizarre ruling elites.

[Nate Dogg III]

Yeah he was inside for six months, I think. They tend to commute the sentence on the first Ramadan after they lock you up: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_7598000/7598831.stm

Least he was actually guilty, I read about some guy who got done because he had a poppy seed bagel at Heathrow and they found a seed in his lapel. Another guy with a roach in the tread of his shoe.

I no longer fly through Dubai, put it that way.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

So who's going to play tonight then.

[Qazimod]

Me. Whether I'll be able to join anyone's games or not is another matter.

[ah]

Even if you're not good, you can often stand at full screen, fireball, then super jump over Ghostface and he's pretty much at a loss. I want to build a new team but it's hard work to build a new team when you play maybe an hour a month. But yeah, I think I've been missing out on the mixup side of things by having Ghostface up first just standing still, so maybe I could make a Spiderman team or a Zero team or a team with Akuma on point or something.

The thing about Doom is he's fun as heck to fool around with in training mode, even if you're terrible. I love messing up his easiest combos.

The thing about Marvel is it's just as fun if you random select characters one by one and try and play best of 3 sets with teams and characters you have no idea how to use.

It's good to play it though, either way, because it's a fun game.