Guilty Gear: Guilty Bits Videos Introduce Guilty Gear Characters to New Players

As console gamers await the release of Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R and the far-off release of Guilty Gear Xrd, members of the GG scene have taken it upon themselves to help new players get into the game they enjoy. One such resource for new players is "Guilty Bits," a video series that breaks down individual characters of the game in short, five-minute videos.

"Guilty Bits" attempts to use terms that will be famililar even to those with only a rudimentary knowledge of Guilty Gear. Each video gives an overview of a certain character's style of play as well as options for both offense and defense. The series is currently ongoing and has covered 9 of the game's 23 characters.

For more information about "Guilty Bits," check out the Dustloop Thread or follow the series' creator on Twitter.

Injustice: Patch v1.04 Notes Released

NetherRealm studios has released the newest patch notes for Injustice: Gods Among Us on the game's website. Included in this update is the ability to play Scorpion, as well as a few more balance tweaks to the already-existing cast.

It's interesting to note that the update only makes Scropion available to season pass owners, while the rest of the general public will have to wait until June 11 to purchase him. Hit the jump for the full list of changes.

Click to read more ...

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R Update Delayed

Arc System Works has officially delayed the forthcoming update to the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 digital release of Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus. In a posting to the company's official website, ASW says the game has fallen behind schedule but little other explanation for the delay is given.

This delay should come as no surprise for the many players awaiting this new update. The original release window for Plus R was given as Spring 2013, a season which is now less than a month from completion.

Cognitive Dissonance: An Open Letter to the Street Fighter IV Generation

To the members of today's fighting game community,

We screwed up. We were all given the ball by the forefathers of this community, and instead of running with it we dropped it, kicked it into a gutter and left it there. And there it sat until people like Alex Valle, Mike Watson, Henry Cen and others begrudgingly came back, picked up our disheveled community and took control of it again. To them you owe everything; to us, a swift kick in the ass has been due for too many years.

Click to read more ...

UFGT9: Guilty Gear AC+ Tournament Footage

During Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 9, the Guilty Gear community hosted a side tournament. While the event could not be streamed during UFGT, Chicago's Ryan "BGCallisto" Price recorded many of the matches, including all of top eight, and has posted them to his YouTube channel.

The event included longtime midwestern players Aaron "AKA" Harris, Jamarr "JaMarvelous" Lewis, Dennis "Ukyo Tachibana" Quiba and John "blackSNAKE" Prucha, and featured an appearance by Abdulatif "RZR| Latif" Alhmili. The full bracket for the tournament can be found on Challonge.

Injustice v1.03 released, Batgirl available

The latest update to Injustice: God Among Us is live today, and along with Batgirl and two costume packs (The Killing Joke and Red Sun) there are plenty of gameplay tweaks that will affect the way each character plays.

Some of those changes include nerfs to Deathstroke as well as attempts to make Bane and Sinestro more tournament-viable characters.

Hit the jump to see the full list of changes via the Injustice website.

Click to read more ...

Arc System Works announces Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

Arc System Works has announced a brand new entry in its Guilty Gear franchise as part of its Arc Fes celebration. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is a completely redesigned version of the game, with 3-D models replacing the former sprite work of the game with the whole product running on the Unreal Engine.

According to Shoryuken, GGXrd runs on SEGA’s RINGEDGE2 / ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Ver.2 system but little other information is available at this time. Hit the jump for the first trailer of the game, which reveals returning characters Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Millia Rage and Zato-1/Eddie.

Click to read more ...

Arc System Works Festival Coming This Weekend

Fans of Arc System Works games such as BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Guilty Gear will want to keep their eyes fixed on the computer monitor this weekend as ASW throws its yearly Arc Revolution Cup, a Super Battle Opera-styled tournament for each of the company's three main titles.

Starting Saturday in Japan with last chance qualifiers for each game, the main tournaments play out throughout the day on Sunday. Hit the jump for the schedule and individual game brackets.

Click to read more ...

Injustice Patch 1 Notes Released

NetherRealm Studios has released the details of the first patch that went live with the release of Lobo on May 7. The notes are found on the Injustice website, but as the page is currently down TestYourMight has the community covered.

Click to read more ...

NorCal Regionals this Weekend, Stream Schedule now Online

NorCal Regionals takes place this weekend, April 26-28, in Sunnyvale, Calif., at the Domain Hotel. A Road to Evo event, NCR will showcase top players from all over the country as they compete for seeding points to Evolution 2013 in King of Fighters XIII, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Persona 4 Arena, Mortal Kombat 9, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Street Fighter X Tekken 2013, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Registration for NCR is now closed, and the hotel has been booked for weeks, so the only way for many players to take part in the event is to watch the action online. For the benefit of those viewers, IPLAYWINNER and TeamSp00ky have released a tentative stream schedule so everyone can follow the action. Hit the jump to find out when each game is being played.

Click to read more ...

Brokentier And AGE To Sponsor NorCal Regionals 2013, Event Trailer Reveal

Kineda announced today via Facebook that two more well-known companies in the fighting game community are now official sponsors of NorCal Regionals.

Performance Designed Products brand Afterglow Elite and Brokentier have joined a list of businesses that also includes Mad Catz, ArcadeShock, Eightarc and Focus Attack.

NorCal Regionals takes place April 26-28 at the Domain Hotel in Sunnyvale, Cali. Make sure to check out event trailer after the jump!

Click to read more ...

TeamSp00ky partners with MadCatz

During the Fighting Game Community panel at PAX East, Mark "MarkMan" Julio announced that MadCatz will be partnering with Victor "TeamSp00ky" Fontanez in future projects.

The terms of the agreement were not provided, but MarkMan said later that "Mad Catz will divulge further details [of the deal] in the near future."

IPLAYWINNER will update readers as that information becomes available.

A Spotlight on Big E Gaming

Hold Back to Block has posted a new video on one of the East Coast's most prolific tournament organizers, Eric "Big E" Small. In the video, Small gives a little history on his involvement in the fighting game community, his philosophy on running events and his thoughts on the future of the scene.

Hit the jump for the video, and check out HBTB on YouTube for more features and interviews about the FGC.

Click to read more ...

IPLAYWINNER and TeamSp00ky to stream NorCal Regionals

IPLAYWINNER and TeamSp00ky are proud to announce they will once again join forces, this time to stream NorCal Regionals, taking place April 26-28 in Sunnyvale, CA.

Keep watching IPLAYWINNER, Shoryuken.com and NorCalRegionals.com during the coming days and weeks as we reveal more news about this exciting partnership.

Click to read more ...

Cognitive Dissonance: The Little Engine That...

Photo courtesy of AvoidingThePuddle.comWhen I locked the doors at 1106 East Broadway in Columbia, Missouri, on May 13, 2007, Gunther's Games ceased to exist. It was simply another casualty in what had become a long line of arcade closures in much of Missouri, but it was home to the several fighting game players of that college town. I had learned to play Guilty Gear there, and improved at Super Street Fighter II Turbo. We had a small, dedicated community, but it was not enough to make up for the lack of customers that had once filled the shotgun-style arcade. The only reassurance left after the demise of Gunther's was that there was nothing left for us to lose anymore.

Click to read more ...

Guilty Madness coming to Next Level, NYC on November 17

Inspired by the recent Curly Mustache series of tournaments and hoping to send Accent Core off in style as America prepares for Guilty Gear: Accent Core +R, Guilty Madness is a one-day event that will pit players against each other for more than $500 in prize money.

Organized and funded by Andrew "DaiAndOh" Greenberg with streaming by Min of TeamSpooky at http://twitch.tv/min2012, the event will be a standard double-elimination tournament but feature rounds played in a best 3/5 matches format. All entry fees will go toward a pot that has been sweetened by a $500 bonus.

Entry fee for Guilty Madness will be $25, and Next Level will be enforcing its usual venue fee of $10. For additional information or questions about the event, head on over to Dustloop.

Review: EightArc Fusion Ivory Arcade Joystick

The market for fighting sticks is certainly more crowded than it was only four years ago. Where once gamers only chose imported sticks from Hori, Sega and the like or homegrown stick makers in the US—MAS comes to mind—suddenly players have the support of a major gaming company in the US, Mad Catz, along with stateside support from Hori in addition to all the independents out there. And recently another company, EightArc, with its line of dual-modded Fusion sticks, is looking to take a place among the upper tier of peripheral makers.

Many people discuss sticks from a solely technical basis: the stick, buttons, PCB and mod-ability. However, I decided to look at the EightArc Fusion Ivory from a strictly gaming perspective. That is, without knowing what the difference between Sanwa and Seimitsu is, would a player find enough value in the stick to justify the price-point? And after months of use, I think several features make the Fusion Ivory a stick for both longtime players and beginners just starting out. 

Click to read more ...

Cognitive Dissonance: The Return of Guilty Gear?

A little more than a week ago, on February 15, my social media feeds were glutted with reactions to the news I was not sure I would ever hear again: Guilty Gear was getting another arcade release. A day later, when the release was also announced for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, the online chorus grew louder. While details are currently scarce about the upcoming release of Guilty Gear: Accent Core+, the only sure thing is that all across the fighting game community, people are salivating to play GGAC and compete. But, can the game — will the game really come back? The answers to those questions are a bit harder than a simple yes or no.

Click to read more ...

Cognitive Dissonance: A Lack of Perspective

The fighting game scene has changed tremendously since the release of Street Fighter 4 in 2008. Where once gamers were struggling to fill 32-man brackets, now there is hardly enough room for all the entrants at many venues. Players are regularly able to not only pay for their tournament expenses by winning, but also pay some bills or make a profit. And as the flood of games has increased, niche scenes have been able to reemerge and grab some of the spotlight. However, a disconnect is growing between the mindset before the fighting game revival and after. Veteran players, unable to remember the old days, and new players who only know a post-Street Fighter 4 era are placing expectations on a gaming community that never before had them. In doing so, they are creating an environment that is becoming hostile for smaller games in the very scene they wish to promote and expand.

Click to read more ...

Cognitive Dissonance: Fighting Against the Tide

I don't like the modern fighting game community.

I grew up in arcades, where people waited to play and you never knew if the older guys behind you might take a swing if you actually beat them. People yelled, punched cabinets and generally let their emotions run wild as they took a break from class, skipped school or even had the day off from work. It sounds intense, and it was, but it was also what motivated me to become a better player. Beating the older guys was an idea so euphoric it was worth being a little scared every time. I learned to talk shit, hold losses and even how to socialize with fellow players in the arcades of St. Louis, Missouri. And that was before I knew that fighting games had organized tournaments.

Click to read more ...