Street Fighter IV

Been playing it all morning.

So far, very impressed actually. There's even integration with Home.. Just got a Dan T Shirt..

So the optional install is 2GB and once that is on, there are no noticable load times. Don't know what it is like without.

The default Arcade mode is just like the arcade, so if you are online then challengers pile in all the time. So much so that you basically never get to play the CPU. As such, I've just been taking on anyone and everyone all morning. I've got at least 10 online wins as I unlocked the trophy for that. Have more losses than wins though.

You get quite a few Ryu/Ken scrubs. Mainly Ryu actually. Probably because this is Japan... Anyway, they tend to drop after their first loss. I'm really enjoying kicking their asses.

I think I have now played online with every character bar the unlockable ones. Lots of players seem to have unlocked them all already (!?!?). Gouken seems to be pretty nails. Dunno if they are balanced or not. The others seem OK though.

So played online all morning and the code seems awesome. I haven't noticed any issues at all. Seems just like playing in the arcade, sans the tobacco smoke.

First time I have played most of the characters too. I think I may get into Abel and Crimson Viper from the new cast, even though I don't have a clue what I'm doing with them. I think I've won 2 matches with Viper already. Inexperienced opponents don't seem to know what's coming..

So far, seems very polished and I'm enjoying it a lot. After the massive let down that was the RE5 demo, it's good to see that (it looks like) Capcom have made a really good effort with this port.

Does the game display in 1080i or 1080p?

i'm guessing you're talking about the ps3 version?

Chunky Lover 53 said:

Does the game display in 1080i or 1080p?

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I love your priorities sir.

PS3 version, and it displays in 720P on my TV, which is fully 1080P compatible.

Played a fair bit of the single player. The new anime intros and endings are actually quite nice.

Other than that, the single player is so-so. It's a shame that while the rest of the game is pretty 'current generation', the AI is no better than in the days of the SNES. I was already recognizing patterns after a few hours of play, and it also has the Capcom trademark of the difficulty suddenly jumping to psychotically, insanely difficult for no reason at all, even though I have yet to actually set the difficulty above the default of Medium. It's like, I beat it a few times, so the CPU decided that what I really wanted was a CPU opponent that I could barely scratch. Abel was insane...

Setting it to accept challengers when in Arcade mode seems to be totally pointless, because you really can never even get to fight the CPU as you just get constant challengers. Seems a bit weird that it is even an option.. Surely just having Vs CPU OR Vs human online would have been simpler?

Played too much of it for one day. Probably played about 30 online matches in total (?). There was only one where there was any noticable lag. After all of the matches prior to that had been perfect, this one was almost unplayable in comparison.

There's a good range of players online. One poor fool using Sakura, and I perfected both rounds. At the other end of the spectrum, there was some Abel player that wiped the floor with me.

Overall, I can see me playing a lot more online against human opponents. Not so much of the 1P game though.

hanafuda said:

PS3 version, and it displays in 720P on my TV, which is fully 1080P compatible.

Played a fair bit of the single player. The new anime intros and endings are actually quite nice.

Other than that, the single player is so-so. It's a shame that while the rest of the game is pretty 'current generation', the AI is no better than in the days of the SNES. I was already recognizing patterns after a few hours of play, and it also has the Capcom trademark of the difficulty suddenly jumping to psychotically, insanely difficult for no reason at all, even though I have yet to actually set the difficulty above the default of Medium. It's like, I beat it a few times, so the CPU decided that what I really wanted was a CPU opponent that I could barely scratch. Abel was insane...

Setting it to accept challengers when in Arcade mode seems to be totally pointless, because you really can never even get to fight the CPU as you just get constant challengers. Seems a bit weird that it is even an option.. Surely just having Vs CPU OR Vs human online would have been simpler?

Played too much of it for one day. Probably played about 30 online matches in total (?). There was only one where there was any noticable lag. After all of the matches prior to that had been perfect, this one was almost unplayable in comparison.

There's a good range of players online. One poor fool using Sakura, and I perfected both rounds. At the other end of the spectrum, there was some Abel player that wiped the floor with me.

Overall, I can see me playing a lot more online against human opponents. Not so much of the 1P game though.

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Very cool, thanks for the impressions.

I'm still torn between which version to get, as I'm getting my PS3 tomorrow. How would you rate the ease of playing with friends? Are you able to make a friends only lobby and party up?

The game sounds pretty incredible, and if the online interface is nice and smooth I might just end up getting this one for the PS3 as I like the controller a touch more for when it comes to fighting games.

I've never been a fan of any fighting game's single player. It's just boring. I plan on ripping through SFIV on easy set to two rounds just to unlock all the characters, then never touch that part of the game again. It's kind of stupid that you even have to do that to have access to the other characters online, but whatever.

I can see the accept challenger setting being useful in a few years from now when the majority of the casual crowd has stopped playing it. Third Strike on the Xbox would have benefited from that feature greatly.

Just a few things I have noted from reading some of the stuff over at SRK.
I gather from this post it seems some of the stages may have been altered from the arcade version. Specifically the drive in stage with the cars. The arcade version had a mustang that was barely visible on screen. The PS3 version may be missing it. Also a couple of the cars are spaced differently and there are less people in the crowd. The Russian train stage may also have one of the trains missing as well.

To unlock all of the alternate colors and taunts you have to play through the challenge mode, and time attack.

The console version seems to have more dialog added while in a rival match in SP.

Mr.Nemoperson said:

To unlock all of the alternate colors and taunts you have to play through the challenge mode, and time attack.

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I was wondering about this and figured it'd be the case. There are already vids on youtube showing people going through the various challenge modes. Guess I'll just try and go through all those with my mains first then get the rest over time.

subcons said:

I was wondering about this and figured it'd be the case. There are already vids on youtube showing people going through the various challenge modes. Guess I'll just try and go through all those with my mains first then get the rest over time.

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From what I understand once you unlock an alternate color for one character then that color is unlock for everyone as well. Not sure about the taunts or win quotes though.

I'm going to hit up the release party tonight in LA to play the US version. People are saying that the US and JAP versions are the same with no region lock...so call your import stores.

Einhander said:

I'm going to hit up the release party tonight in LA to play the US version. People are saying that the US and JAP versions are the same with no region lock...so call your import stores.

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Have fun Einhander, also let me know how the Collage of Street Fighter Magazine covers from over the years of its history came out as I helped with that project.

Here's some pics of the setup:

Also here's what the Prima Guide looks like inside for the characters, those interested.

Einhander said:

I'm going to hit up the release party tonight in LA to play the US version. People are saying that the US and JAP versions are the same with no region lock...so call your import stores.

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I just noticed you changed your handle back....mwahahahaha.
Fucking awesome.

Loopz said:

I love your priorities sir.

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I can't help who I am

ReplicaX said:

Have fun Einhander, also let me know how the Collage of Street Fighter Magazine covers from over the years of its history came out as I helped with that project.

Here's some pics of the setup:

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Nioce nioce. I'll give my impressions of the event tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

Loopz said:

I just noticed you changed your handle back....mwahahahaha.
Fucking awesome.

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I had to rep my roots -- for better or for worse. You can't even imagine the dumbasses that have already commented on my OG gametag. Morons...

Mr.Nemoperson said:

From what I understand once you unlock an alternate color for one character then that color is unlock for everyone as well. Not sure about the taunts or win quotes though.

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Yes.

Say you unlock a third colour variation, then all charas have 3 colours to chose from.

Anyone have a list of how to unlock the hidden charas? I only have Sakura..

hanafuda said:

Anyone have a list of how to unlock the hidden charas? I only have Sakura..

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You can unlock them by finishing Arcade mode with the following characters:

Ryu unlocks Sakura
Sakura unlocks Dan
Bison (dictator) unlocks Rose
Chun-li unlocks Gen
Abel unlocks Fei Long
C. Viper unlocks Cammy


Gouki: After you get the characters mentioned above, you must play with one that has finished Arcade Mode.

You cannot lose any match and also have a good overall performance. Gouki will appear and you have to win against him. Not very sure since i haven't paid too much attention, but i think it's how you unlock him.


Gouken: Same as above, defeat Gouki and perform 2 ultra combo finishers. Sometimes i get to fight Gouki again, which is weird but i might have made some mistakes. I think this is the correct way...


Seth: Beat Arcade Mode with every characters.


Pallete Swaps\ Unique Taunts: Just beat Time Attack and Survival in Challenge Mode.

I spent some time with the Japanese PS3 version. I love this game. I'm happy that some of my 3rd Strike combos with Ken worked. I gotta say I don't like how the guys I played with abused Ultra combos. I'm never a fan of systems that seem to favor scurbs.

Good thing I don't use most of the characters that unlock other characters. I could care less about Rose, so I won't mind if I don't unlock her, but it looks like I'll have to play as Ryu, so I can get to Dan.

I wonder if Capcom will patch the game like how Sega did with VF5. So if there's any balancing issues, they could clear it up instead of a whole new game like the old days.

YuckMud said:

Good thing I don't use most of the characters that unlock other characters. I could care less about Rose, so I won't mind if I don't unlock her, but it looks like I'll have to play as Ryu, so I can get to Dan.

I wonder if Capcom will patch the game like how Sega did with VF5. So if there's any balancing issues, they could clear it up instead of a whole new game like the old days.

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fixing balancing issues is at least another couple of sf 4 releases

i'm predicting 4th Strike will be the one used in tournaments 8 years from now

I've been having quite a lot of fun with Rose. She seems quite cool in this, and her ultra combo is very handy too.

Played about another 20 online matches. Practically no issues. A couple of brief pauses at the start of rounds in a couple of games. Found someone that was roughly the same level as me, and it got to 7 matches each by the time the session was over. Good stuff. We were both using a bunch of different characters too.

Einhander said:

I had to rep my roots -- for better or for worse. You can't even imagine the dumbasses that have already commented on my OG gametag. Morons...

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Unfortunately, its easily imagined.
Stand tall, oh Pride of Tucson.