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A poster on NeoGAF uploaded some photos of a custom TvC cabinet located somewhere in Brooklyn, NY. The set up is rigged to an Astro City cab. I'm sure we all wish we could play TvC like this! Click here for more photos.
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Some new scans showed up today featuring Joe Higashi and Duo Lon and Clark Still. Not sure where the scans originated form, Arcadia Magazine perhaps, but the source is Cyberfanatix.com.
Some great new footage of Street Fighter IV over at 1up.com showed up today. The full match between Cammy and Fei-Long that was previewed in the 1up Show segment a couple weeks back. Also, a full match between Dan and...well... Dan! Worth watching for his throw alone! Check them out:
haunts
Gen vs. Rose!
Tune in tomorrow (January 6th) 5pm Pacific Time and 8pm Eastern Standard Time to 1up.com as they will be showcasing Street Fighter IV and answering questions about the gameplay. You can post your questions on the forum link included within the article. They will also be playing the new characters such as Rose, Gen, Cammy and all the others.
The quality of gameplay should be pretty good compared to what you're used to seeing since from major sites like these since I know there are at least a couple good players who work there. The segment will be an hour long so if you haven't seen the new characters in motion be sure to check it out!
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This isn't really news to anyone who has already spent some time with Street Fighter IV like myself, but according to some critics and game journalists out there, Street Fighter IV is an amazing game!
The Official Playstation Magazine gave the game a 5/5 and the Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 9.5. The reviews (and some previews I've read in the past) say the online options really shine but most of us are curious to see how well the online portion will hold up in the final retail version. If it's anything like Super Street Fighter II HD Remix's netcode I will be pleased, although nothing will replace having someone playing right next to you of course.
Also, thanks to MarkMan at SDTEKKEN for posting up the Arcadia 2008 Awards. Both the magazine itself and it's readers voted Street Fighter IV as the top game of 2008. SFIV also picked up a couple other awards such as Best Character (Ryu), Best Production and Best Graphics. Looks like Yoshinoro Ono (producer of SFIV but also Capcom Fighting Jam) has redeemed himself afterall!
haunts | Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 2:06AM A lot of combo videos popping up for all the new games lately.. With this one though, you wont be able to put much of the combos to use unless you live in Japan and have access to a V5: R cab! We can keep wishing that SEGA will release VF5:R here so we can all give Taka Arashi a shot at some point, but until then check out the video. Nice job Reno!
I found this 3 part series through Cyberfantix earlier today and it's pretty interesting to watch. At first I thought it was an older documentary of some sort but they mention KOFXII a little later in the series so it's pretty thorough and up to date. Check it out:
I have been waiting a while for all the DVDs for SBO '08 to be available and last time I checked the release date for the rest of them was mid to late December. Well, that time has passed obviously (Happy New Year!) and they are all up for preorder on Play-Asia.com. I'm personally going to check out the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Virtua Fighter 5: R DVDs.
Also, speaking of major Japanese tournaments, I just read on VFDC that Kakutou Shinseiki V was announced a little over a month ago. This is the official national tournament for Virtua Fighter 5 R. Qualifiers are underway now through January and the tournament kicks off in March '09. You can check out the official site here.
Gilley, the same guy who bought a full SFIV arcade board for his house and hooked it up to a LCD TV, is making some good use of that same set up. He complied a guile combo video that is really something else, especially some of the combos near the end. Check it out!
Awesome HD Remix combo from Desk over at SRK. You can also check out another version with notes that will explain what's going on since, well, in some of these its pretty hard to tell exactly what just happened!
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So this is an updated list of the Street Fighter IV Battle Point Ranking in Japan. There has been some shuffling around on the list but Daigo is still at the top with Ryu and the list still has more Sagats than any other character. With that being said, there is still an overall healthy mix of characters in the ranking which is good.
Will Sagat dominate the rankings when the console version and inevitable arcade update comes out? Turns out they are making some tweaks to his gameplay like being able to reversal his Tiger Knee and rumor of not being able hit with his towards and roundhouse twice as a juggle. These are both very powerful assets to his gameplay but even with these readjustments he will still be a very strongl character so we will see.
Thanks to Azrael from SRK for the translation. Here is the list:
1. ウメハラ (Umehara)
Character: Ryu
Battle Points: 130,915
Match/Win Ratio: 5,204/4,488 86.24%
2. おじさんボーイ (Ojisan Boy)
Character: Sagat
Battle Points: 110,390
Match/Win Ratio: 4,352/3,516 80.79%
3. マゴ (Mago)
Character: Sagat
Battle Points: 100,431
Match/Win Ratio: 4,091/3,202 78.27%
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In the past, Northern California each year has held the NorCal Regionals Tournament to see who is the best in the Bay, but due to space and game restrictions it is not happening this year. The SoCal scene decided this would be a good opportunity to have an event where both NorCal and SoCal can battle it out to see who is the best in the state. So, come January 17th the top players in California will converge at Denjin Arcade in Simi Valley for the first annual California Regionals tournament.
The tournament will feature most major fighting games such as Street Fighter IV, Third Strike and even BlazBlue. There will be singles and team tournaments for all these games, but what will most likely be the highlight of the event is a special "5v5 Battle for California Tournament" where the top 5 players from each region for SF4, 3rd Strike, MvC2, CvS2, and ST will battle it out. I don't think any tournament until maybe EVO2K9 can hope to be as hype as this!
Check out the official thread for the event on Shoryuken.com for more details, and after hearing about all this you're still not hype... well, I'll let Lil' Shoto take it from here:
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This was found on a Japanese blog so this isn't 100% confirmed but looks pretty realistic to me. It's nice to see TvC and VF5:R in the mix but I am curious why there is no 3v3 Street Fighter IV action.
Translation form SRK's HeartNana:
Warning! If you want to save the surprise of unboxing your Street Fighter IV stick come February do not watch this video! This video provided by SDTEKKEN's MarkMan shows what appears to be the final product and packaging of the Tournament Edition Street Fighter IV FightStick.
If you're not familiar with this stick yet, this is a stick that is being developed by MadCatz that contains authentic Japanese arcade parts to offer the highest level of response and build quality. The joystick and buttons are both manufactured by Sanwa, the build of the overall product is very sturdy and it includes some other nice features such as the option to wrap the cord and pack it inside the joystick after use.
I've personally played on the stick and can say that the Tournament Edition is well worth the money and you wont have to buy another stick for a very long time if you go this route. If my endorsement isn't enough, Alex Valle has also recently had a chance to play on the sticks and also agrees they are the best retail stick you can buy.
MadCatz is also making a budget FightStick and an assortment of Street Fighter stylized pads which should have a more responsive D-Pad than say the standard Xbox360 controller.
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Some new images just surfaced on some Japanese gaming magazine sites of Gen and Rose. Nothing too new on Rose's end but it looks like Gen has two supers and two Ultras, a first for this game. This probably has to do with which stance he is in. How this will affect the over all game balance has yet to be seen.
Also, in a recent preview of the game in GamePro magazine, Yoshinori Ono details more of the online options included with the game:
"We don't put up hurdles...we want to make it as easy as if there was someone sitting next to you in an arcade," Ono hints. "We're going to engineer the home version of the game so you can actually play in arcade mode and you can turn on a function that would allow match-making in the background, so you could just have somebody jump in exactly as they would at the arcade," Ono says. "No one's really done this before, so it has potential to be really, really huge."
But it goes even deeper. "There's a ridiculous amount of options and filters you can turn on," he continues, "and if you prefer to not have a function on at all, you can turn it off, or choose only ranked matches or player matches." And if you want some truly strenuous practice, Ono says, "you can even set it so you only fight people that are significantly better than you based upon the battle point count." Once you set your options, you'll be able to hop into arcade mode for a few quick warm-up rounds while you wait for a challenger to join your game.
With Street Fighter IV's new online mode, Ono is aiming for something almost unheard of among shooters and fighters: creating a solid matchmaking experience that functions in the background. And it's an inventive way to seamlessly blend single-player and multiplayer modes into one cohesive experience. And don't worry about lag: The team is working hard to "cleverly hide" any lag, but the online modes are being testing across the Pacific and the game is running smoothly already.
So it looks like they are adapting the Japanese Battle Point system for the online mode to determine skill. This essentially means the more people you beat who have a better ranking than you, the more points you will acquire. On the other hand, if you end up losing to a higher ranked player, the more points will be deducted from your ranking.
I think the ability to sit in practice mode and only be linked into an online match if a player is better than you is pretty clever. I only hope you will be able to restrict matches by region so you aren't linked up with someone on the other side of the world and lose to some random lag.
Speaking of lag, they also mention people have been playing "across the Pacific" without any lag present due to a technique to hide the lag (GGPO roll-back?). I assume this is CAPCOM USA playing against the offices in Japan. Lets hope out of all this news, this last portion of lagless online play ends up being true.
fiveten | Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 7:09PM ;)
Big thanks to Virtua Fighter 5 training partner FIVETEN from SRK/VFDC for giving us the low down on the HD REMIX tournament that went down over the weekend! Have images and impressions from the event? Let us know!
The Fresh sneaker boutique in Berkeley, CA was lively with DJs spinning good music the entire day while I waited around for all 16 people to show up and play in the Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix tournament sponsored by TRIUMVIR . People came from a lot of places all over the Bay Area, different experience levels, and lots of new acquaintances were made. I was 9 years old when ST came out (23 now), and to finally participate in the action felt nostalgic. I'm definitely going to step my game up for the next opportunity.
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Not really from a gameplay perspective, but from a graphical standpoint. I read online quite a bit these days questions like "Why didn't CAPCOM go full 2D with Street Fighter IV like SNK-Playmore did with King of Fighter XII?". Both games use 3D models, believe it or not, for their visuals.
Fact of the matter is King of Fighters XII uses a technique called "rotoscoping" which essentially means they created 3D models and drew over the models to create a genuine 2D look. Street Fighter IV uses standard 3D models on 2D plane with a stylized look. So yes, King of Fighters XII is hand drawn, but 3D models play a big part in its look and feel.
CES this year looks like it will be a good one for Street Fighter fans. With the game coming out just a month after the show I am sure we will see plenty of footage from the game and get more hands on impressions of the new joysticks.
Now this is one thing I didn't expect to see from the show. According to 1up, community managers from Sony and Microsoft will battle it out in Street Fighter IV during the show. You would assume it could go either way since I take it most of these guys aren't hardcore fighting game fans, but it looks like Microsoft will take this one unless Sony has something up their sleeve. It turns out Capcom Community Manager Seth Killian is the team captain for the MS team so to they have a bit of an advantage is quite an understatement.
CES 09 begins January 8th and runs till the 11th.
T6:BR dropped in Japanese arcades just a couple days ago and a lot of videos are popping up on YouTube already. The game obviously looks great, it's just too bad we have to wait till Fall 09 to play it!
haunts | Monday, December 22, 2008 at 2:04PM ;)
A lot of King of Fighters XII news pouring in over the past couple days since the location test went down. There are some impressions posted by Reno on NeoGAF and Cyberfantix has a report from sugar boy on the system changes and over all feel of the game thus far.
