IPW Topic of the Week: What do you think of Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition?

The Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter 4 has been out for a week or two now.  Although there are only four new characters in this version, the number of balance changes across all characters in the game makes Arcade Edition a unique beast.  Because of this, we decided to wait on asking for your opinions.  Now you've gotten some playtime with the game and there have been several major tournaments which have featured the game, allowing you to see how the top players are handling the changes.

So, what do you think of Arcade Edition?  How has it affected your favorite character?  What do you think of the game's new replay features?  Are you liking the new characters? Share what you think!

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: What Was Your Favorite Moment From CEO2011 & ReveLAtions?

This weekend ushered in a new era of stream monstering with CEO2011 and ReveLAtions going on at the same time. I'm just going to assume anyone who is even remotely serious about fighting games caught a little of both of the events, and those of us who are fighting game maniacs had two pop-out windows open the entire weekend for both streams. If you were lucky enough to be at either event in person, even better!

Each tournament had too many hype moments to count really, but for this week's topic we want to know which were your favorites from each event. Was it Tokido taking out Justin Wong in MVC3? Perhaps the match just before that, with Justin Wong going toe to toe with Chris G?

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Should All Fighting Games Receive Patch Updates Like Mortal Kombat 9?

Tomorrow NetherRealm Studios will release another patch for Mortal Kombat 9, adjusting a number of different move properties, fixing a few bugs here and there, not to mention a follow up patch that will come a few hours later that is said to improve the netplay. Mortal Kombat is still very new and has already seen more patches than some other fighting games will see during their entire life span. 

On one hand, if you look at other games such as Starcraft 2, they receive patches and updates all the time. With certain gameplay elements in Marvel vs Capcom 3 such as Level 3 X-Factor being a little out of control, I'm sure some players would love for Capcom games to receive the same treatment. At the same time, we all saw what happened with the knee-jerk Sentinel patch that came out not too long after the game was released. 

So what's the best course of action here? Would you rather see constant updates to the game even if they push the envelope a bit? Or would you rather give the game a bit of time to simmer in the competitive scene before changing too much?

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: How Has Your Team Changed Since the Release of Marvel vs Capcom 3?

When MVC3 first hit store shelves I'm sure many of you already had your heart set on a certain mix of characters or a particular team, but over the past months Marvel vs Capcom 3 has evolved quite a bit. We didn't know about the DHC trick, which characters were best in X-Factor, and which characters had the best assists. This of course has a lot to do with team formation and I'm sure it had a lot to do with all of us mixing and matching different characters over the past few months.

This week we want to know which team you started out with and what team you are using now. What are the reasons and are you satisfied with your current team or still soul searching?

iPW Community Article: Dormammu at Full Range by Karst

The iPW Community Article series gives our readers the spotlight right here on the front page of iPlayWinner. If you have strategies you would like to share, scene highlights or anything else related to the community and the games we all play, send an email to kumo@iplaywinner.com with your article or article idea.

Today's article from Karst covers Dormammu's vast array of options when at full screen away. Karst goes into pretty great detail on each of Dormammu's options, highlighting their strengths and ideal use in a match. Enjoy!

Introduction:

When the opponent is full-screen, his journey to get in close to Dormammu is long and fraught with peril.What Dormammu player does not possess a fiendish grin upon forcing his opponent to a corner of the screen to cower before the full arsenal of the Dread Lord? We love this sense of control over the screen.  This is what draws us to Dormammu.  No other character boasts the ability to threaten you in a variety of ways from any position on the screen while remaining absent of movement.  

The journey from full screen to reach Dormammu is laden with pillars, holes and bolts of energy until the final threshold is reached, where before your foe lays a mocking carpet of fire.  Here I offer my experiences in making that journey an unsuccessful one for my opponent.  May you gain from it.

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Casting for the Fighting Game Community Movie

Part of the allure of watching live streams and being a part of the fighting game community in general is watching the drama between players. This community has so many characters and personalities I'd be lying if I said the idea of a reality TV show based around the community hasn't crossed my mind a number of different times. But that's too easy so lets take it to the next level.

If you had to cast for a movie about the fighting game scene, what famous movie stars would play the part of the players, tournament organizers and anyone else heavily involved with the scene? Post up in the comments your choices and a URL to photos of each actor or actress you think should play the part of said person!

IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: What Makes a Good Fighting Game Player?

After watching the Mortal Kombat Nationals top 16 mostly dominated by fighting game vets it became clear that no matter what the title of the game is, players with sound fundamentals can transfer those skills from game to game.

So, as it seems, the title of the game or the mechanics of said game can do little to deter those who have been playing fighting games for sometime now from picking up and dominating in each new title. So what's the secret?

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iPW Guest Article: SSF4: AE Yang Breakdown by ROM (Part Two: Normals)

While Yang’s normals are fairly good, zoning is not his forte. The ranges on his normals (cancelable or otherwise) are somewhat stubby, so getting into a poking fight with certain characters can be costly. This in no way means that his normals are useless, but rather they are much more powerful up close, exactly where he (and you) want to be. However, there will be times where it’s more profitable to play a patient game, and thus knowing what your normals are capable of is a must.

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Which Fighting Game Needs a Patch the Most?

Every fighting game, no matter how much fun it is, will always have elements within it that players will feel need to be patched or taken out. It used to not be like this as when a game was released, you just had to accept it for what it was. These days, however, we have the luxury of having our voices heard and the developers hopefully taking notes of what sort of changes need to be made in the next patch and/or revision of the game.

So, now that you've had time to play some of the newer games such as Marvel vs Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat, and for some, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, which game do you think needs a patch the most at this point and why?

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IPW Topic of the Week: What Type of Original Content Would You Like to See?

Over the past several weeks you may have noticed a wave of articles being published on the site. We're committed to bringing fresh, informative and entertaining content to all of you, and you can expect to see even more of these articles coming up in the near future.

With that being said, the IPW staff would like to know what type of original content you, the reader, would like to see on the site as we move forward. Are you hungry for more video content? More streams? More articles? What type of articles would you like to see?

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iPW Guest Article: SSF4: AE Yang Breakdown by ROM (Part One)

With AE set to be released on consoles relatively soon, I’ve decided to write up a relatively detailed breakdown of the only character I care to play – Yang. You may know me as ROM, and I play Yang. I've been playing the character since I started learning Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, and have since transferred my experience and knowledge of the character in that version to this game. I've had extensive playtime with this character and want to share my knowledge with those willing to learn.

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IPW Topic of the Week: Is the Fighting Game Genre In Danger of Over-Saturation?

Regardless of what you personally think of the game, you have to give Street Fighter 4 the credit it is due.  The fighting game genre was on life support for years, and with it's success came a whole new wave of enthusiasm for the genre from publishers and developers.

Now we have a ton of fighting games.  This year we have Marvel vs Capcom 3 already released and Mortal Kombat is days away.  In the pipeline we have Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (DLC and Retail), Street Fighter 3: Online Edition (DLC) , King of Fighters XIII, BlazBlue: CS2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Skullgirls (DLC), Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken X Street Fighter, and who knows what else will be announced.

This is great for the fighting game fan, but do you think that the market is in danger of over-saturation?  Are there any parallels between what is happening now and the decline of the genre in the late '90s and early '00s? Does the fact that some of these games are being updated via DLC change the equation? Are you getting tired of these games or are you in heaven? Discuss in the comments!

Note: To see a pretty cool graphic timeline (shown partially above) of the genre's history from Kotaku, click here.

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I Need Backup! - Utilizing Assists Properly in MvC3 (Part Two)

Alright! We're back with the next installment on how to properly utilize assists in Marvel vs Capcom 3. Last week we went over the basics (click here to read part one) and discussed how to think of assists and when you should call them. This week we're going to have a bit more fun, diving right into different types of assists and their uses. We also included a short video to hopefully give you guys a couple ideas on how to use these assists efficiently and possibly come up with some setups of your own!

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IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Do You Play for Fun or Play To Win?

Just a few years ago the majority of fighting game players were those who typically played in tournaments and were overall competitive players. With the explosion of the genre over the past few years though, things have obviously changed. We want to know this week, do you play for fun or do you play to win?

Of course, winning is fun, so it's hard to separate the two, but are you constantly training in hopes of winning your next local tournament? Or are you more of a casual player who enjoys finding new combos and having a few laid back matches with your friends? Are you somewhere inbetween where you play for fun, but in the back of your mind plan on going to tournaments and causing a few upsets at the next tournament?

Fight for Relief: A Post-Mortem

How much time and commitment do you think goes into planning a major fighting game tournament? A few weeks? Months, even? What if you only had 13 days from point in which you dreamt up your tournament idea to the day it needed to be executed? What if it wasn't just one tournament, but two, spread across California complete with an online broadcast for both? Oh, and you expect the players to play for charity as opposed to a pot full of entry fees.

Fight for Relief did all these things and managed to generate over $32,000 (and counting) to benefit recovery efforts in Japan due to recent earthquakes and tsunami. As the head organizer and online admin for the official site, I organized the event with AJ Papa of Level | Up Series and Mark "MarkMan" Julio of Mad Catz over the course of 13 days, a lot of Skype calls and sleepless nights.

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I Need Backup! - Utilizing Assists Properly in MvC3 (Part One)

Yo dawg we heard you like mix-ups, so we put an attack on your attack so you can attack while you attack.With many players transitioning from Super Street Fighter 4 to Marvel vs Capcom 3, it seems one of the biggest hang ups many have is the use of assists. Of course, assists aren't at all a part of Street Fighter 4 and many other fighting games so it's understandable that it can take some time to wrap your mind around how assist usage works. 

Assists tie into many other aspects of the game such as team formation and other things, but the point of this series of articles is to give a basic foundation on how to choose assists, how to protect them and a few other topics surrounding this subject. 

In the following weeks we'll dive a little deeper into the subject, talking about different assists, how to protect them among other things, but for today we're just going to touch on the basics to get us started. 

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On the Scene: The Next Level Brief Overview by Sabin

The New York scene is renown and revered for both its rawness and its realness. Chinatown Fair, the arcade where quite a few of the top East Coast players came from, was certainly no exception. For those of you that came to Chinatown Fair in the past, I'm sure you remember how dark, gritty and smelly it was.

There were also a large amount of undesirables that came to the arcade: people that just came and took up space just to hang out and not actually play any games. Of course I don't just want to put CF on blast; I had some amazing memories there, and the place definitely helped shape me as a person. I can easily say that I acquired much of my skill from Chinatown Fair - as well as quite the number of friends that I still correspond with to this day.

I was utterly heartbroken when it closed. I wondered, "What will happen to the East Coast scene?"

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IPW Topic of the Week: Would You Want SF3: 3S Online to be Rebalanced?

Over the weekend, Yoshinori Ono revealed at the Ultimate Gaming Championships in Italy that Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online wouldn't come with any balance changes.

Reactions to the news seemed pretty mixed, so I figured I'd ask all of our fine readers just what their thoughts on the matter are. Additionally, with news from Captivate expected in the coming weeks, what kind of new features for SF3: 3SO would you like to hear about?

Do you have an idea for a future topic of the week? Send your suggestions to tips@iplaywinner.com!

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On the Scene: Get Roasted at Dragon Lounge

Dragon Lounge: 24th & TaravalSince I moved out to California some five or so years ago, there is one thing that always boggled my mind: why does San Francisco, a major metropolitan city of over 800,000 people, have no real fighting game scene? Sure, around the Bay Area there are plenty such as Starbase Arcade in San Rafael and Keystone II down in San Jose, but in the city proper there is very little going on. 

Until now. Enter the Dragon Lounge -- that is, as long as you're over 21!

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IPW Topic of the Week: Are You Hype for Mortal Kombat?

Mortal Kombat is set to be released on April 19th.  In just a few weeks, legions of players will be uppercutting opponents and showing no mercy with gruesome fatalities. 

Are you hype for Mortal Kombat?  What makes you excited for this next installment of the series?  If not, why aren't you on the hype train, and is there anything that might be revealed for the game that might get you back on?

Do you have an idea for a future topic of the week? Send your suggestions to tips@iplaywinner.com!

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