Friday, April 30

Brick Wall

So having played about 30 matches of Super Street Fighter IV online last night I can present to you some broad observations:
  • The netcode for SSFIV is a massive jump forward from Street Fighter IV
  • The player community from Australia is respectable in both quantity and skill level
  • Some characters have been drastically improved in terms of power and priority, while others have been balanced out to the point of redundancy
  • My skill level is drastically lower than the majority of my competitors


Across all of my matches I can happily report that I never endured anything reminiscent of lag. In two matches, there was a slight stutter when both players performed their first movements, something like a small screen tear. After this instance, connection recovered in both of these matches and a fair (albeit one-sided match) continued.

In each match I faced off against an Australian opponent. The majority of my opponents played as Ryu and Deejay (?), however popular deviations from the main character included Juri, Dudley and Blanka. While I admit I exhibited similar behaviour at first, choosing Ryu for my first fight, by the end of my session I had fought with Gouken, Dudley, Blanka, Sagat, E Honda, M Bison and Adon.

I had the most fun with Gouken, his new Ultra was predictable but doesn't leave you anywhere near as vulnerable as Shin Shoryuken. Dudley keeps it classy with a formidable array of dashes and fakes. He will take quite some time to master, and one of my opponents that used him made a mockery of my Blanka. Honda, and Bison have received no noticable changes. I won't be using Blanka and Honda's new Ultra Moves as they require either double 360s or the wierd angle double charge movements. Adon was a pleasant surprise. Sure I expected the Muay Thai fighter to be quick and agile, but my strategy with Adon revolved around counter hits. The arcs of his anti-air moves are about 65-80 degrees, so very sharp and vertical. I only tested his first Ultra, and I missed on each of my three attempts. It is an expansion move, and if executed within close proximity to your enemy, you will jump straight over them. Sagat has been on the other hand, has been castrated. I know there were complaints he was slightly overpowered but they've taken all the mongrel out of him. It was so hard to see one of the stalwarts of my online arsenal left so powerless, so impotent.

So far tonight, I'm still having no trouble finding local, lag-free matches and I sure hope it stays that way. If this isn't the best online 2D fighter, I don't know what is. Scratch that, I'm having a hard time believing that any fighter could top Street Fighter IV in any of its various faculties.

     

7 comments:

  1. Capcom does it again. As far as those outlandish claims of "Japanese Development is flailing/dead" go, you can at least rely on Capcom to bring home the bacon. You sound like you're having fun.

    In other news, first user reports of the Reach beta are coming in. Very divisive thus far, it seems. Still, sounds like Bungie have mixed it up quite nicely.

    Back to Capcom, though...solid net code. Just had a ridiculously enjoyable few rounds of Lost Planet 2 - and that runs rather solidly as you very well know.

    Oh, just care to grab your view on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 being built on the MT Framework engine, rather than the Streetfighter IV engine...they say it has something to do with the SF engine, whilst being solid, not being able to a lot of transparency transitions and ridiculous effects on the fly. Thoughts, Trits?

    ReplyDelete
  2. MT Framework is the engine used for Tatsunoko VS Capcom yeah? After watching all the beautiful Ultra Moves play out in 720p I can't imagine any fighting game running on anything other than the SFIV engine. The visuals have been cleaned up ever so slightly, and now the hud is completely removed for Ultra finishes. It it freaking breath-taking.

    Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann has said that Ryu's new Ultra steals the show because it looks like any recipient will explode on impact. I couldn't agree more. The sound effects for the blows are lol-worthy. So incredibly brutal!

    I would really appreciate a 1 VS 1 setup in MVC3. The Marvel fanboy in me wants to have a Hulk VS Wolverine showdown.... with no team-mates to get in the way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not too sure on what Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was built on, but I've got a sneaking suspicion you'll be satisfied with what the MT Framework is squeezed into doing - especially one that isn't gimped on that laughable Nintendo machine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my god MvC 3 is going to be awesome. Let's be brutally honest here, it could be built on the shittest, oldest engine ever, as long as it plays ridiculous, I won't care in anyway!

    On a side note, I am so very happy that they fixed the net code, because I struggled to find a lag free game when I had (for all of 4 days, just not much fun by yourself I have found).

    ReplyDelete
  5. There is more on offer as far as single player is concerned, but I don't think it will rememdy the problem you had with SFIV. There are the bonus stages from SFII, 10 more characters, more character specific move trials, more online modes and it feels faster (I'd even go as far to say crazier).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Crazy, as in MvC2 crazy? That was fairly fast paced with the right characters on screen. mind you, it could also be slowed right down whenever Iron man was on screen with his infinite combo going.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not that crazy! It is a lot faster though, plus with some of the new characters in play the screen is almost completely occupied with projectiles and big, beautiful swooshes!

    ReplyDelete