Ultra Street Fighter IV

[mayor_mike_haggar]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/995085580/bring-divekick-to-pc?kappa

neeeeeeeearly

[joeplus]

Lovely little drunken lobby with Jiro last night, cheers man. Tried out some Gouken, he's lots of fun, even though I totally forgot about his counter move and demon flip.

Was a little salty after losing with Chun against your random, then randoming, getting Chun again, and losing again. That's no way to main.

[jiroczech]

I didn't even notice you were drunken! Was a lot of fun, vggs. I'd spent a wee bit of time in training beforehand doing stuff like hit confirming Cody's counter hit HP, EX bad stone into U2 (seems really easy) and s.MP into U2, but then failed to do anything like that in a match.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Counter hit confirms require reactions that I don't think I have. The best counter hit setups are ones which are also combos. With cammy I'm trying to use cr.lp, cl.hp, cr.mp, which is a combo on hit, but has a 2 and 3 frame gaps if it's blocked so there's a few chances for counter hit.

[Qazimod]

http://www.kickstart...ick-to-pc?kappa

neeeeeeeearly

Only just got home and started to catch up with online stuffs - and it's hit it's target! So hype right now.

EDIT: Keits has said in the comments that if the project doesn't reach it's second goal - which would bring online play to the game - he'd fund it out of his own pocket as it's a feature he'd like to see. Which would be very nice indeed.

[Yasawas]

My Qanba arrived today

With this in mind do we actually have anyone in here who only plays on PSN? Please add me if so and I will punch you, same as the username but with a lower case Y. And are there any PS3 exculsive fighters I should be getting? I remember seeing at least one Alpha game on PSN but I've no idea about anything else. I'm not PS2 compatible sadly.

[Camel]

There's Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty. I think it's just a PS1 port though.

[Yasawas]

Oh god I forgot I could trawl eBay for old PS1 games.

My TE is up in the trading folder now, if anyone I've played with on here wants it you can take 10% off that price.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

quazi I just played a juri who jumps more than you. you're safe.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I trolled him a bit with the fact I can anti air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-z7U9LOas

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I hope it was a small child.

[Plopboy]

This popped through my letter box today

and he look better in the flesh so to speak, awesome

But in sad news, for Dan, he has been usurped as my main character by Elf (according SSFIV game card) which is sad but I find Elf more fun to play (blasphemy I know).

[hegg]

Joffo, Jiro - I'm away from tomorrow and not sure I'll have any internets until I'm up your way. So you know, I'm gonna aim to be at Twitch 11/12 on the Sunday, at the very least BoM and I will put a couple of quid down and just play vs for a few hours together. Please pop by and join in if you can.

Not sure we'll bother with the tournament, see how it goes.

Hopefully see you next weekend!

[JLM]

I need to get more SF-ing friends on my list so I don't have to play randoms for practise any more.

I'm getting really bored of fighting players who fall into the category of all combos and no brains, which covers a good chunk of players who have lots of points on XBL.

I just had a set with an Akuma player who had these wonderfully well rehearsed set ups after a knockdown, but at mid range or in neutral situations he didn't have the first idea how to play the game. He whiffed about twenty sweeps per round at all manner of silly ranges, he'd uppercut after every single blocked jump in despite getting punished every time, he'd uppercut any time he got reset from an air to air or other neutral situation, and the vortex set ups he used and the order he did them in had absolutely nothing to do with my responses to his previous set ups. I played him with Gouken and found that wake up counter was a viable option because he'd go for the dive kick and cross up tatsu options no matter how many times he got hit. He also went for a shitload of frame trap set ups but didn't go for a single throw, so I never had any reason to get counter hit. A lot of players seem to be copying stuff they've seen in match videos but have no clue as to why it's good and when it should be used.

Before that I played an Ibuki player who was exactly the same, just throwing out full screen neck breakers and going for dash up throw in a desperate effort to get the knockdown, then he could begin his routne where the other player becomes irrelevant and he just picks from his list of set ups until I get out of it or the round ends. I had matches against him with Chun where he'd perfect me, then I'd perfect him back because if I took control at the beginning of the round he had no idea what to do. Chun shouldn't really be perfecting anybody except maybe Zangief.

There was also a Sakura player who had the tatsu loops down, did the Uryo meaty fireball set ups and had lots of swanky resets, but he'd wake up mashing jab and go for EX uppercut any time I got some offense and he had meter.

A lot of players don't seem to understand (or at least refuse to accept) that there are times when it's not your turn, and during that time you have to block, wait for a mistake, try to pick up on your opponent's patterns, think about your next move etc. You can't just mash your face against the buttons until you start hitting the opponent and then resume your routine. Well you can, but it won't make you very good at the game. It's why on streams you often hear the commentators say "great block!" not in response to a tricky cross up ,but just to praise someone for fighting that instinct to hit a button in a clutch situation. I understand that it's one of the hardest skills to learn and I catch myself failing at it all the time, but there are so many players who are genuinely exceptional at other aspects of the game who are still absolutely terrible at blocking.

A lot of people also complain about their character having no wake up options, but blocking is a wake up option for everybody and hardly anybody uses it. People wake up with buttons, wake up with stand tech, wake up with back dash, wake up with crouch tech, wake up with any special move, focus back dash, ultra, neutral jump, backwards jump... anything but blocking. It forces me to play a really stupid and over-simplified post knockdown game and I think it'll make me a worse player in the long run if this is where I get most of my practise. I don't expect to be a professional player or go to Evo any time soon, but I'd like to start attending the odd tournament again and I think I'd get destroyed by players who have regular offline competition.

Any time I play against any of the WSO guys or similarly godlike players I get killed, but it's the most fun I have playing the game because you can adapt and apply a bit of logic to what's happening and you can see them doing the same. When they use a set up or trick that's reliant on me being a relatively intelligent player I count it as a small victory, and when I bait them into a mistake or catch them with a trick I've learned that feels like a win too. I love having sets against people where meaty pressure and resets become viable options because I've spent time in previous rounds earning the right to go for them. I love those situations where you can get a cheeky walk up throw that oddly makes sense because you've conditioned the opponent to sit still in a particular situation. Winning matches by blocking on the opponent's wake up every single time because they're guaranteed to do something dumb isn't nearly as satisfying.

[Nate Dogg III]

I actually played this last night, and had a moderate amount of fun by searching for 'more skilled'. That's pretty much everyone that's still playing online, but it's nice to take on better players than me knowing that if I lose I'm only saying goodbye to two or three PP. And in a nod to Jason's post there (albeit one tailored to my skill level relative to his) it was nice to play opponents who at least play the game semi-properly so I could treat them with a bit of respect. came up against one flowchart Ken and he nearly beat me, players like that really require such a different approach.

Had a hugely frustrating lunchtime AE session on the work PC using a 360 pad. Came up against some shocking players with v high BP and PP, should have won but it was never going to happen when I had to keep thinking about what button to press. Need to fix that second stick and bring it in, really.

Oh and I'll be on tonight at some point. Once it's cooled down a bit.

[Qazimod]

I should be around for fightings tonight, if I can remember to show up. Has MacMantis accepted my friend request yet?

EDIT: no

EDIT: How do you get to play Peter Rosas on SFIV over Xbox Live?

Send out a Fiend Request

/coat

[mayor_mike_haggar]

That's ranked pretty much though, isn't it? People who are good at ranked learn to beat ranked, which tends to cater to a very specific type of playstyle, and in which there tends to be little in terms of adaptation, learning or metagame. I had a similar experience against a cammy whose answer to being neutral midscreen was to throw out hk spiral arrows or jump in (basically the same as my cammy I suppose). When he found out i could punish those he switched to lk to make them safe. He never once seemed to throw out a cr.mk with SA buffered into it at midrange to counterpoke/catch me walking forwards, he never poked with st.hk or mk, never frame trapped. But you better believe he had his combos down.

And yes, nate, renked is a mystery to me. Since i mostly play lobbies with you lot, the instant I play a mashy ken I completely forget to just block and punish on wakeup. It's a totally different, and much less fun, game. I won about 80% of my games last night with rog by just waiting for an opportunity to land a jab x combo as punish and anti-airing jump-ins. Where's the fun in that?

And nate stop being so irritatingly consistent with those day-long 70% damnge evil ryu combos would you. Honestly.

[Nate Dogg III]

Would it make you feel better if I told you that was pretty much the only match all night that I landed them? I assume not but there it is.

Also, HEGG! I met that French Abel player from that Fight Club thing at Develop the other week. He asked after 'your friend...zat Guile player'. Lovely man, actually. I got his online deets but he's only got PS3.

[JLM]

Also Heggmond, have you seen the new Guile technology Dieminion has been posting? After Evo he finally bought an Xbox and has a Youtube channel now. It's ridiculous that he hasn't been producing Guile related content before now since he is THE GUILE, but better late than never.

His channel is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Dieminion?feature=watch

Safe jump set ups, resets and all that good stuff.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Jellum! What on earth are you doing! As if we need hegg's guile to know 1-touch death reset combos. Honestly.

[Camel]

As last year's winner, I reckon Hegg should host in full Guile cosplay get-up.

[Lyrical Donut]

Hey, I know of a man who is from France, mains Abel and only plays on PS3. Given that I see him playing lots of games early, I assume he also wouldn't look out of place at a conference like Develop either.

Is his PSN ID inspired by a certain Kaz Hirai?

[hegg]

Also, HEGG! I met that French Abel player from that Fight Club thing at Develop the other week. He asked after 'your friend...zat Guile player'. Lovely man, actually. I got his online deets but he's only got PS3.

Aww yes, he was super! Thoroughly nice chap. I remember feeling profound sadness when he told me he only played on PS3. Maybe we can convert him?

Also Heggmond, have you seen the new Guile technology Dieminion has been posting? After Evo he finally bought an Xbox and has a Youtube channel now. It's ridiculous that he hasn't been producing Guile related content before now since he is THE GUILE, but better late than never.

His channel is here: http://www.youtube.c...n?feature=watch

Safe jump set ups, resets and all that good stuff.

I watched a couple of those the other night, the one-hit kill vid (or some such...the one vs Viper) made me all gooey inside. That guy...he's unbelievable.

As last year's winner, I reckon Hegg should host in full Guile cosplay get-up.

I'm a bit beardy now, more Gief than Guile.

When I get back in a couple of weeks I'll get a rollcall going for the SF fest. We can start talking times, tournies, whatever. Should be pretty sexy.

[JLM]

Any fightings occurring? I'm all Olympics opening ceremonied out now.

[Qazimod]

Bah, I was out last night and so my promise to show up was a big fat lie. I'm not sure if I'll be available this evening either.

In other news, I was in town today and I visited CEX - I spotted a copy of Street Fighter EX 3 for PS2 and tried to remember if that was the game desk was comparing to SF x Tekken a while back. I didn't buy it though; I'd probably play it for a few days and then get distracted by other stuff...

It has an awesome Guile theme though:

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I'm going to be psychologically scarred from the beating jellum put on me this afternoon for quite some time.

[JLM]

I aim to leave lasting emotional damage. I like your dapper pink 'rog. I think, on balance, the DLC outfits have been kindest to Balrog. It's so difficult to decide between his chav outfit and his mobster suit because they're two of the finest alts in the game, and even his Apollo Creed hoodie look is very swish. I think you're playing him mostly correctly too, though you have a tendency to wildly wild a bit wildly at times, if you follow.

I think my favourite round was the timer scam win against Ted Hawk because I am the worst kind of scum.

Went for a few option select ultras in this set, most of them went perfectly (as in, the ultra didn't come out when it wasn't meant to and on one occasion caught the back dash as intended) then there was one where I did the ultra input too late and botched it but my accidental meaty ultra ended up beating a wake up EX overhead from Balrog, so it was all good. I'm having far too much good luck with that at the moment.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

God, yes, those OS ultras. Must stop backdashing when you have those stocked. I os'ed you a few times too, only with sweep, but it's nice to start getting them out in matches. Main issue was anti-airs, I kept forgetting where the button was. Also I'm not sure how to AA divekicks with rog. jab seems to do a decent job, but i don't know if there's anything better.

I actually laughed quite hard at the timer scam. That yang/hawk match was so tense as well, every round pretty much going down to the last 20 seconds or so, I really enjoyed it, perversely. Hawk has such good buttons that he's perfectly well equipped to win without ever needing to land an spd, if the opponent won't let him. Yang seems to have a couple of useful normals too.

And yes, I do tend to start wilding a bit when under sustained pressure. I am trying to cut it out a bit.

[JLM]

Yeah Yang vs Hawk was a lot of fun. I really enjoy playing a character I don't use all that often against a grappler and trying to find that handful of useful buttons most characters have against them. With Yang it helps that his standing roundhouse is almost the same as Chun Li's and his footsies game is oddly comparable to hers thanks to their similar walk speeds and a couple of broadly similar pokes, so I find it quite intuitive. I can see why Nemo and a few other top Chuns went to Yang for AE.

Forgot to mention your swanky cr.jab/sweep option selects. Such a potent option for 'rog in particular because both his infuriating crouching jab pressure and his sweep are godlike.

With 'rog I think waking up with block is a particularly strong option for him because there will almost certainly be a point in the opponent's pressure where you can jab your way out and kill their momentum. Headbutt is such a huge risk, and although I walked into them for the first couple of games, I think they ended up costing you a lot more damage in the long run. You obviously know this already though, and not doing anything under pressure is much easier said than done. It's still the part of game where I almost have to tell myself out loud not to do anything reckless, and it still doesn't work a lot of the time.

[Plopboy]

Thanks for the games tonight JLM and Scott and I learned some new things to do with Elf from the master

I did manage one solitary win during the night, though I put that down to playing against Elf and being lucky, ggs though and much to ponder