Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Qazimod]

Hell yeah it is-

[cale]

I'll probably be on a bit later tonight.

??

Back on the Xbox? Say it's true.

I hope to be on tonight too if there is some friends list shenanigans going on.

[Lyrical Donut]

PSN

[Qazimod]

Phew, Juri trial #23 down. The end part of the combo is a light fireball (release) followed by a Lv2 focus into Ultra, but the timing to get enough charge for the crumple before the combo ends is insane.

#24 will have to wait.

[cale]

PSN

Bah.

I didn't make it on in the end. I watched The Dark Knight again instead.

Bat fighter.

[joffocakes]

I played some fun games with Jonster and Qazi for a wee bit before discovering I'm Alan Partridge and Knowing Me, Knowing You have been added to Netflix. Excellent.

[Camel]

I played some fun games with Jonster and Qazi for a wee bit before discovering I'm Alan Partridge and Knowing Me, Knowing You have been added to Netflix. Excellent.

I thought you looked familiar when we met.

[Lyrical Donut]

PSN seems to be full of people who ragequit Endless Battles when I beat them, that's if PSN doesn't ragequit me first.

I went to a K.K. Slider gig instead.

[joffocakes]

I thought you looked familiar when we met.

What?

Ah!

Ha!

[Jonster]

I played some fun games with Jonster and Qazi for a wee bit before discovering I'm Alan Partridge and Knowing Me, Knowing You have been added to Netflix. Excellent.

GGs to you both too. Sorry for vanishing as I did, had to take a kindle upstairs, and then one of the cats decided it was a good time to be sick

[freezycold]

Sometimes I feel like I understand this game a little, and then I play people like JLM and feel like an absolute beginner again. Blub.

[Lyrical Donut]

I'm just going to leave this here

[geldra]

So if anyone is in Newcastle on Saturday September 7th (between midday and 4pm) and fancies chinning me in real life (by playing Street Fighter obvs) then pop along to HMV (downstairs, in Gamerbase) on Northumberland Street.

This is the first and most likely last meeting of the NEFGC. My name is Adam and I'm a 37 year old man arranging meetings to play childrens videogames.

[Camel]

Oh that's a shame. Why is it the last?

[geldra]

Just my general pessimistic outlook. Plus its pretty desolate up here.

[Camel]

You don't know what desolate means until you visit Heart of Gaming, FinalFightsville. And they're doing ok.

Talking of which, I haven't been back since our last meet. Anyone up for another visit?

[Qazimod]

Jee Jees to Jonster and Joffo last night - some excellent games with a whole bunch of characters being played. Jonster's Oni and Gief skills continue to be amazing, and he clearly has the better Juri too (I'm still salty about everyone being able to pull off EX divekick->U2 much more consistently than me ) Joffo just beat up everyone with everyone, and I managed to get a few more wins with Thawk and *cough* Blanka.

I'm on holiday next week so I'll try and find time for more fightings soonish.

[hegg]

You don't know what desolate means until you visit Heart of Gaming, FinalFightsville. And they're doing ok.

Talking of which, I haven't been back since our last meet. Anyone up for another visit?

What about that gamer disco thing on Wednesday? Hang on, just looked at the FB page, it says 11:00-16:30...can't be right surely?

[hegg]

Not to worry, been updated now, starts at 7:30pm. Who's going? I can probably make it for the start, and it doesn't look like we need to bring our own sticks.

[hughes]

I cannot play this game. This week I've been trying to do that learn the game with ryu and a handful of fundamental moves and just...nope! It's not like I'm going up against B+ guys either, I go against a blanka that uses slide forward punch or electricty, the slide forward punch beats a fireball at that distance which is the only long range option, if I try mk against him he electrocutes and I just take the bad end of a trade. Get beat. Go against ibuki (twice) and it's some guy jumping about constantly and I get fucking trounced, is that command grab blockable or not? I'm sure I have done in the past but not today. Get beat. Go against a zangief and it's like spinning lariat passes through fireballs, and you'll lose every in air trade with it, and if he's close enough it's a non interrupt-able command grab that does what, 33% damage? Get beat.

Also how do you use d.hp as an anti air? I've seen people use it, I've seen people use it very effectively but whenever I try it their lk or hk goes through it.

I know people say it's like chess and you have to get over the hump of your first 100 games and relish the fact that every match you learn little things even if you don't realise it, and if you were instantly good at it it wouldn't be worth playing or rewarding in any way, but man I'm playing guys that you could probably say were objectively bad and I'm significantly worse and getting annihilated.

People in the community say they wish more people have the commitment to get past that stage, but compared to something like COD where even if you're bad, you're going to pick up kills, or be on the winning team by virtue of other players skills while you're new and improving, this for a newb as cack handed as me is just lose, lose, lose, lose, lose.

[Lyrical Donut]

We were all terrible at Street Fighter when we started out. Same goes for FPS games too - I spent a good year getting my arse handed to me at Quake 2 before I started giving the good players a run for their money.

Are you playing Ranked? That's probably not the best place to be if you're at the beginner stage. Get involved with some lobbies with the 'muk crew, we're all here to help.

And yes, Blanka is a fucking tart.

[Camel]

Not to worry, been updated now, starts at 7:30pm. Who's going? I can probably make it for the start, and it doesn't look like we need to bring our own sticks.

I'm going, should be there 7:30-8. Great if I don't need to lug a stick.

[ah]

I've spent the afternoon losing to bad players too. Don't worry about losing.

If you want to do a training session just let me know, I'm around for the next hour or so. Gamertag is ALI5T4RR. I'm not good, but I lose to good players frequently so I can give some advice on what good players should do.

[hughes]

Yeah I was playing ranked, I wish this still had player matches in it like what vanilla had, because now you have the choice of serious business ranked match, or winner stays on endless match, and I sure as poop ain't doing much winning. IIRC player matches were always much more relaxed and people tried new characters or set ups or what have you, ranked is just brutal.

[Camel]

You can set up your own endless lobby with just two slots so you don't have to queue up every time you lose.

[Qazimod]

As Donut suggests, play lobbies with us - it's a million times more fun. I abandoned ranked months ago in favour of lobbies with friends and randoms, but then I'm genuinely awful and the red mist comes too easily. Private Endless rooms with 'muk folk are the best.

[Fitzcarraldo]

JLM's Cody advice was rather helpful when my friends and I gathered round for a day of fighting this afternoon; I was checking my phone mid-rounds/games to go over his notes like some pathetic Infiltration imposter. I found using his st.mp as the anti-air a little inconsistent, though, or it might be that Makoto's air normals are just difficult to fend off? I definitely need to work on the timing for it anyhow. Is practising counter hit combos in training mode as easy as setting the dummy to mashing a button? Or is there something else I should do? If Cody is all about maximum damage, I should probably learn to spot a counter hit as I don't check the screen for the pop-up at all

Cody is absolute dirt up close when you've got people scared about oncoming throw attempts.

[joffocakes]

Blanka is a dick:

Generally as Ryu you can crouch block and not have to worry about anything he does unless he gets too close. His slide is very punishable. Just sweep it if you don't wanna get too exotic. You'll be able to punish any Blanka Ball he does too. If the jumps in just dragon punch. Be prepared for Blanka players deliberately doing his shorter forward Ball to land just in front and throw. If you're crouch blocking you can just tap away on cr+lk and cr.lp together to maybe tech the throw or even hit before his begins.

When he begins hopping through you to the other side just mash on jabs or something, knocking him out of his rhythm. He's not invincible at all when doing that hop but he can go over low attacks then mash on electricity, which can be quite annoying.

If he does that arcing "rainbow" ball just hold and charge your focus attack. He'll usually land right in front of you for a full level 3 focus crumple. Be aware, though, that when he does this move as a reversal on his wakeup it will break armour so focus will not work.

When he's doing electricity and he's not too close you can hit him with cr.mk into fireball or whatever. You can beat pretty much everything Blanka has on his wakeup outside of Ultras with a meaty low attack; he'll be hit out of electricity, forward, up and rainbow balls and his hop before they have the chance to begin. EX Upball does start quick enough to escape but some low attacks will lower your profile enough to make that miss too. I get right up next to him and tap away on cr.lk+cr.lp; if he does something and the cr.lk hits I'll do the cr.lp into a combo, if he tries to throw it'll be tech'd and if he uses EX Upball it'll fly overhead for a potential punish. If he blocks you can just do a series of light attacks until you're out of throw range then wait for him to make a mistake, or go in for the tic throw, being wary of electricity.

As Ryu you should get the cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.hp x lk.hurricane kick (which can be followed by mp.shoryuken in the corner, or EX shoryuken FADC backward Ultra 1 if you fancy) down since those meaty cr.lk openers against his wakeup can lead to big damage.

Also, the most important thing is to remember that in not picking Blanka yourself you are already the better man.

[joffocakes]

JLM's Cody advice was rather helpful when my friends and I gathered round for a day of fighting this afternoon; I was checking my phone mid-rounds/games to go over his notes like some pathetic Infiltration imposter. I found using his st.mp as the anti-air a little inconsistent, though, or it might be that Makoto's air normals are just difficult to fend off? I definitely need to work on the timing for it anyhow. Is practising counter hit combos in training mode as easy as setting the dummy to mashing a button? Or is there something else I should do? If Cody is all about maximum damage, I should probably learn to spot a counter hit as I don't check the screen for the pop-up at all

Cody is absolute dirt up close when you've got people scared about oncoming throw attempts.

Cody's anti air mp is his back+mp, rather than just mp on it's own. It's a pretty consistent move, definitely up there with the best anti-air normals in the game.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I just played this game for the first time in months. Does everyone have a terrifying sakura now, then?