Ultra Street Fighter IV

[JLM]

Everybody please watch the WNF vs FGTV exhibition. It was utterly brilliant.

Infiltration vs Latif:

That was so brutal. I rarely root for a Viper player but I just wanted him to take one game to spare his blushes even though I knew after the second game that it wasn't happening. It's partly that Latif hasn't been training at the highest level this year, but the bigger factor for me is that Viper has been figured out. Infiltration had answers to every bit of Viper bullshit and didn't let Latif get any momentum, and Latif took too long to disengage his autopilot in the early going. Once he went 4-0 down the pressure compounded this and he was totally out of ideas. Latif isn't playing anywhere near his best at the moment, but both he and Wolfkrone will struggle ths year regardless because the very top players are getting better and better at the match up.

WNF vs FGTV

This was amazing! I loved every second of this. The FGTV guys played their roles as the favourites, the over-confident veterans and out of town invaders to perfection, like 80s pro-wrestling heels.. On the other side you had the hungry upstart Marq Teddy (formerly Negromat) who has quietly become the best Guy in the U.S. and has outright said that this is the first major he feels like he has a chance of winning. If you follow WNF it should be no surprise how good he is, but those who don't and take him lightly because they don't know his name yet are going to get upset. I was cheering him on the whole way here, and watching him beat Ricky and take down FChamp twice in a row was a beautiful thing. The only downside for me is that I hate seeing PR Rog switching to Fei Long. Retiring the best Balrog in the world makes me sad.

Strekken 2013 8 man:

This was much more like it. Throws actually being a thing, red life instead of not-quite-as-yellow life, slower health recovery for off screen characters, loads of the character tweaks showing immediate and positive effect, people not just spamming half a chain over and over again because they're punishable now, Tekken characters having anti-airs. It really did look like a different game and there was only one time out in the whole thing. Great stuff.

[

[TheShend]

I really hope he doesn't mess up an input and end up with a friendship instead.

Babality shrly?

[joeplus]

Don't worry guys, I won't do anything massively unsafe.

Nearly up to C rank with Gief, got a few wins this afternoon that I felt were legit rather than just lucky. Narrowly lost a mirror match, sent an obligatory "GG COMRADE" message and got a friendly missive in return. Also I think EX SPD might be my favourite special move in the game, the ludicrous take-off speed always makes me giggle.

I think he'll be my sixth C character - very tempted to go for a certain shining achievement as my SF goal for 2013.

A little question - what's the practical difference between punch and kick lariats, in terms of how to use them? I know kick is quicker, presumably does less damage? Currently I only use punch lariat because it sort of feels right. I like doing it on people's wakeup to a) stuff fireball ultras (hilarious!) and b) train them to block so I can merrily SPD.

[JLM]

They start up at the same speed, but kick recovers faster. They're each suitable for avoiding different fireball speeds.

The punch one is the correct choice for anti-airs as it has a much better hitbox for the purpose.

The kick one starts off hitting much lower down than you'd think, and is the one best suited for trying to hit Dhalsim's fierce from full screen and the like.

[Plopboy]

Joe I hope you took your young lady for a Mexican meal!

[joffocakes]

Now that we've covered lariats; when is it appropriate to use the non EX versions of Gief's Running Bear Grab? To catch (predicted) backdashes? Is the close version just there as a tool for moving characters like Guile toward a corner? I very rarely use them.

Also, I love to do anti-air Lariat FADC EX Green Hand for meter-using mania.

Also also, after a hayate with Makoto, is it possible to do that cancellable normal x hayate feint > karakusa and have it be in range, either by choosing a different hayate to hit at first, walking a tiny bit forward after the hayate hits or using a kara-karakusa? I realise I cold probably find the answer to this by trawling shoryuken.com.

Any youtube versions of this SFxT 2013 nonsense?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

does c to shining c still work in ae?

[JLM]

The close version of Zangief's kick grab gives him a much, much better post-knockdown game than the SPD, so if you get a point blank punish against a character who's good at zoning it's the better option. Jab SPD is a popular punish simply because the range is never an issue, and fierce SPD has the raw damage, but in a lot of match ups the suplex is the best one to go for, and you'll see Snake Eyes go for it if he gets a chance.

[joffocakes]

Yes, apparently you can have a mix of both, as long as you have a C for each character it doesn't matter what version they're C in, apparently.

[joffocakes]

But don't all of the punch SPDs give you a pretty good mix up opportunity afterward, if you come back in with Green Hand? I guess it's not as good as a real knockdown and potential safe jump?

[JLM]

They all give you a decent one yeah, but being able to set up the ambiguous body splash and being sat right on top of them as they get up is still preferable, particularly against a character like Guile where you can make his reversal whiff so easily. After the SPD - > green hand he can flash kick FADC unless you have blizzard, but after the suplex he has to take the mix up. Without the EX green hand knockdown it's the only chance you get to go for the Vanilla/Super Zangief vortex unless you happen to land a sweep, which is quite an unsafe move to stick out there.

[joffocakes]

That'll change how I approach Guile and Sagat if I ever play Gief again. I absolutely love getting a KO with the close suplex thing because it ends with the dust clearing and an upside-down Zangief's nose barely an inch from the concrete; not even a hint of a flinch in his eye. What a guy.

[JLM]

Ha, he is a fearless man. Alistarr pointed out yesterday that neither character should be able to get up after Dee Jay's regular throw. It does look like it breaks both of their necks, but Dee Jay seems fine with this.

My favourite, erm, falling down thing, is Makoto in third strike though, who manages to land right on her head every time she gets knocked down.

[joffocakes]

I love seeing a Dudley KO with Corkscrew Blow in 3rd Strike, because the freeze frame shows that the sheer power of the cyclone he's generated has caused his big loose jowl to flap out. That and the horrible way his neck twists when he's hit when a Shin Shoryuken.

[Nate Dogg III]

Thanks for the tip Joffo. Unfortunately that thing doesn't work with windows 8. I can run that and the game in win7 mode but then it doesn't recognise the stick. I gave up and played skyrim.

[cale]

Things:

If Dr Shend happens to read this can he please point me in the direction of some Elena stuff that a beginner would need to know? I've seen the renic primer thing which was good but anything else that could be recommended would be appreciated.

Also, I'm going to ask for some Fez help soon from the people in here who have cracked some of the codes. I'll boot it up at one point, try and do some stuff, remember where I got to and then come and ask for some non-spoilery spoilers so I can get a bit further into it.

I'm playing Skyrim again though. I love it.

[ah]

Floe has heard our call and is playing Sagat!

[Qazimod]

I love seeing a Dudley KO with Corkscrew Blow in 3rd Strike, because the freeze frame shows that the sheer power of the cyclone he's generated has caused his big loose jowl to flap out. That and the horrible way his neck twists when he's hit when a Shin Shoryuken.

I think I was playing 3rd Strike OE the other day for lols - only solo bits and pieces but still a whole lot of fun.

I still giggle when I read the challenge name "Hip Tosser" as well; that should be a custom title in AE. Although I'm not hip

[JLM]

Absolutely heroic effort from Luminaire against Infiltration there. I love the hype levels whenever someone fights the champ.

Cool to see the adaptation going on even in a short set. After a blocked shoulder Luminaire went for low short on the first two occasions. Third time he baited the uppercut and got a full punish. Fourth time he went to bait it again and Infiltration put his own poke out there to take the initiative. I like seeing how those little situations play out as the match goes on.

Hakan vs Dhalsim has to be second only to T. Hawk vs Blanka as the worst match up in the game too. As much of a dick as FChamp was being yesterday that was still painful to watch.

[Lyrical Donut]

That Champ intro, followed by the mauling at the hands of Infiltration's Hakan was deeee-lightful!

Juicebox Makoto?! Shame he didn't pick Ultra 2. I'd love to see him act that out.

[palaver]

Hakan S-tier.

[JLM]

Hakan is S-Tier against Dhalsim. I'd call that 8-2 for sure. He is almost custom built to murder 'sim.

Juicebox needs to pick Juri. Makoto is barely better against Rufus than Abel, plus Juri counter picks Sagat as well if Floe changes.

[Yasawas]

Hakan is great to watch, I enjoyed that a lot. Marvel's in the bag apparently which is just as well based on that.

I like KingofSarus a lot more when I can't hear him.

[JLM]

Filipinoman up next! Best Rose in the U.S.

I'll stop with these pointless little posts about the stream now.

Oh man, he just did the Louffy corner set up and then had another set up with jump fierce on the way back out.That was beautiful.

[ah]

Man, now Floe is talking about learning a new character.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Some dhalsims think that sim hakan isn't that bad, but sim just needs to play crazy offensive. Not sure what I think of that though.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

When's it back on?

[Plopboy]

Finally got AE for PC last night thanks to an Imp tipoff and what a disappointment. Only game so far that's run noticeably worse on PC than console. Despite fiddling with settings into the small hours I can only minimise but not eradicate the most terrible screen tearing, and if I turn vsync on it adds a good five or six frames of input lag. Really bummed out as I was looking forward to mad costume mods and that error001 balance hack

If your not fussed about seeing the stage these are my settings running through VMware on a MacBookPro and I get >60fps with no tearing and an A rank on the benchmark. It is only 720p but does work.

All this talk of Floe just makes me think of this lady

[Qazimod]

Ooh, just completed some more trials! All that work in the lab seeing what Juri's counter could defend against seems to have made me better at Ultras... or I just haven't touched trials mode in ages, because Raging Slash and Climax Beat were still incomplete. But no more! I think I'm at about 50% completion now, which doesn't count for much when a third of the trials just go through specials, supers and ultras anyway...

[JLM]

The interviews at SCR have been approximately 200% less awkward on day 2. Still pretty bad at times, but I haven't been muting them all and the last one where Kelly beat Fanatiq to the obligatory PDP promo code plug was good stuff. Thank goodness for that.

I love that Infiltration was "somewhat satisfied" with his performance against Latif in the FT7 and felt he didn't play at his best. Sticking the knife in there.