I've been enjoying dabbling in 7. That story mode is laughable though. Left it and now just Treasure Mode, mostly. New trailer was suitably chaotic.

A teaser for a new Garou MotW? I missed that... I have it on Switch, and think it's ok, but the reboot will need to go some ways for me to feel bovved'.

tigersgogrrr wrote:

New Garou? Awooow!

There's a big UK Versus Fighters event going on today, if anyone's interested.
But came to ask a technical question...

How many of you guys think you can recognise 4 - 8 frames of input delay? And if you honestly can, if offline modes enforced it, how ruinous might you consider the decision to be?

I'm sensitive to FPS (60fps to 30fps is night and day for me. I know it's not the same for everyone), but much less sensitive to input delay. 
16 frames, certainly, but sub 8 barely registers on me.

Had a dabble on Dragonball Fighterz last night.

It's superb button mashing fun. Kinda want to learn it now.

In my pursuit of paraphernalia, I managed to secure a Skill Smith VHS for 3rd Strike called 'SOLUTION'. I already had two 2nd Impact Skill Smith tapes but I'm made up we found another.

Let's go back to 23rd September 1999

Slow as a white man in slippers.



I still think Viper's the best character they've ever had. Her and 3S Akuma are the ones I've had the most fun using.



Like combos in SF2 I believe she was a happy accident; except they didn't embrace her.

Most people thought she was weak at first, before discovering her instant-air Burn Kick shortcut and ability to cancel DP into a feint for links and mindgames. Thus fierce-feint-fierce and chained Seismic Hammers for ground pressure, cancelling out of one if it landed into IABK, and then Ultra/Super if you had one.

Besides FADC, she only really needed meter for EX Hammers. Her other EX moves were generally worse than her natural options! So yeah, I'm certain she was accidental to at least some degree. I'm sure they knew her blockstring lockdown was good.

And for that she was fluid — more pliable for expression than any other character. You can tell they're going for fluidity with Jamie, but it's all ersatz in a game that enforces slow-paced meter rule on him. Swooshier movements with universal limitations. Rigid.

To play Viper at a highish level you needed pretty extreme execution, and I get that nobody wants a whole game of that, but here's the thing: while few could really master her, almost everyone could learn how to play against her. It's like how most players can't reliably chain Kazuya's electrics, but that's okay when there are loads of characters you can flourish with instead, while anti-Kaz strats don't push those requirements on you.

So many games are dumbing down now, and I wonder how long until devs start profiling us. For example, Lee was actually quite decent for about the third time ever in season two of Tekken 7, but then nerfed again thereafter. I put that down to a bit of human error, but it raised the thought.

Because we've always seen nerf calls for strong characters, but what happens when it's not a strong character but one that simply annoys bare folk? El Fuerte, say. Where if buffing a lowly character causes a drop in player hours following increased representation, they get nerfed in response to tracking data suggesting a spike in frustration.

I feel Street Fighter VI is making the same mistake as V (and most modern fightmen) in trying to prioritise a frustration-free experience (what with the global rise of comeback mechanics, easy inputs and excessive meter), which I think is counter to the rewards of the old-school journey.

The risk of abject failure is the heart of a competitive endeavour's appeal. I still vividly remember the first time I played Tekken (coin-op in Devon) and got absolutely wrecked by a younger lad. Had it given me some charity damage I wouldn't have left so inspired to get the home version.

Viper good Hakan better.

I'm broadly with Escape in that I don't think just shortening combos, or making only certain things combo, or making inputs easier, or having fewer tools to remember is helpful for fighting games.

People trying to get into fighting games are like people trying to get into mobas or FPS royale type stuff.

Maybe if the developers put more effort into half decent tutorials that show players you can do things like buffering your fucking inputs during one move to make the next move combo, or show the fucking hotboxes, or explain how startup, hitstun, pushback etc. work then new players would be able to learn the idiosyncrasies that at the moment you have to dig up on discord or old forums or 90 minute YouTube videos and they might be more inclined to stick around if they don't find a community of people too hang around with online.

Maybe if devs and publishers put actual effort info a tournament system, the playerbade would be more likely to stick around, as they would have some reason to keep watching our coming back to the game.

I know fgc devs are smol bean babies with previous baby soft bottoms, but I can't believe that even games like Guilty Gear where a player was given so many tools to use at their discretion, where basically if the frames would allow it, you could do it, have become games where there are shorter, fixed combos by rote, with maximum effort made to stop people feeling bad because they don't use the defensive tools to stop themselves getting reamed in the corner. Because when you are spectating, watching a player tee off on someone with a huge combo, in the clutch, at the highest level, is fucking good shit.

Shout outs mahvel 3, Tekken (all of them) and Guilty Gear ( up to Rev 2), and KoF 13 and maybe also 14 and possibly 15 iunno, shout outs Big Band trombone solos, shout outs Viper knuckle cancels and Hakan oil combos, shout outs any games I missed like BBTag where it happens but I dunno because I never played them.

Shout outs revoked for GG Strive, SF5 and 6 and MvC4. SHAME. SHAME I SAY.

Here endeth old man yelling pathetically at the clouds of his lost youth.

I think most studios still expect The Internet to do most of the lifting for education and it turns out that's not a great approach.

Mind you, it's also probably difficult and expensive to justify to product managers, so.

I'd have SFIV in my top 3 SF games I reckon.

I really enjoyed SF4. It was timely, and MM was a beautiful thing.

In my top 3 list, Alpha 2 and Super Turbo are definitely taking the first two slots. Need to think carefully about number 3... It could well be Championship Edition. I have a lot of fond memories of that. 3rd Strike is also excellent, but I never did get into the culture behind the game. It's one of the best to spectate though, certainly.

Edit - Almost forgot Capcom vs SNK 2 too...

High five for elf too o/

\o

Bought JJASBR on Steam for me sins. I wonder if this will gain any kind of traction with anyone.

Not to say I don't dig taking a horse and small dog into battle.