GetTheTables

Sounds like a treat. 😅 I'm very interested in trying out some of the characters they just added. Carmine seems like he'll be amazing in this game, and I just watched some Hakumen play and he seems like a beast. Which is cool as he is one of the few BB chars I really liked.

Did you figure out a way to select Ragna/Ragna? 😝

Good shit man. Glad you like it! @misterBee and I managed to play a chunk of games over the weekend. Fun as hell. I definitely need to practice more than not at all. I'm way too mashy and I don't really know how to use my team. Although I'm also not 100% sure what my team is gonna be. I've been using Kanji and Es - Es is fantastic but (as misterBee mentioned during our games) Kanji very well may be a big pile 'o butts in this game. He has a lot of wind up on his normals (or at least it feels like it, haven't seen frames for this game) and his solo damage is okay but nothing amazing (which is less of a big deal now but more of an issue when you need to start assist covering bursts). I think he may need to make up the difference with command grabs and the command grab super but I'm not sure how well that will work out in game. Also may get better as I work on covering some things with assists. Or just using assists better in general. 🙂 But worse comes to worse there are a shitload of other chars to pick from.

Fans will defend anything. It's just kind of the nature of the beast. I legit wish they would have stuck with NG. That was basically the only game of it's type that was made by someone other than Platinum. Even though the series had it's foibles it was good to see someone else's take on it. Then again I think "hardcore character action" may be a genre that is near guaranteed to lose money. Platinum gets by on moxie, street cred, and now merc'ing themselves out for other properties. But so far as I know Bayonetta never did anything other than undersell (side note: bless Nintendo for keeping that series rolling).

Brolywho? 😝 Go get 'em B! Dunk some foos and have fun.

For sure. And the tech we have now makes it way easier to keep games alive in general. Hell I'm doing that a bit myself with playing anime games here with misterBee. This is definitely the best it's been in terms of keeping a scene alive. I just wonder how much people really care about that with modern games sometimes. Plus with SFV I have concerns over what happens when Capcom pulls the CFN plug out, but that only matters on a really long time line. Like any of the fight nights here are gonna be SFV in the first place for her to be banned. 😛

I totally agree. And I think you see plenty of that with people still running tournaments for games like 3rd Strike, Vampire Savior, ST, etc. Part of it is also that the culture has shifted. Games don't get the same amount of time to breathe like they used to (partially because people are actually making fighting games at a consistent rate). You're not playing the same game for 10+ years so players aren't building the same level of reverence/fondness for newer titles and without that you're not going to get the same level of player driven effort to organize and support events for games that aren't "current". In Capcom's case, they're incentivized to encourage players to stick with the most current game because that is what is gonna keep money flowing in (previously through raw sales, now from DLC/post release support). There is a lot of push to get players onto the latest game: all the official coverage is about the new game, pro players end up playing the new game over the old game due to more events and often much better prize support, and the casual/serious casual player base follows where the coverage and pro players go. I'm not saying that is good or bad, or that recent-but-not-current games can't survive; I've seen SFIV and MK9 tournaments still plugging along. But I do think it makes it harder to have something like a 3rd Strike come out of this generation of games, actual game design considerations aside (i.e. are people really gonna want to play SFV when it isn't the Capcom zeitgeist?) I think we're some years off from when that comes to pass for SFV, but its interesting to think about. 🙂

The best part about that will be when it goes like SFIV Ultra: Capcom will wrap this game up and players will be ready to let it breathe for a little while (maybe even by then they'll have tuned up shit like the online and the remaining input lag), then Capcom will turn around and release a half baked version of SF6 within the next year and kill it. 🙃

The Ninja Gaiden camera definitely wasn't great. I remember in the first one I was able to sort of intuit well enough where the enemies would be that I could make it work but in 2 they throw so much goofy bullshit at you (I remember a lot of exploding shurikens and rockets) that I remember the camera being part of the problem there. I can relate to MillionX's friend who can't finish a game. I feel like nowadays I'm in a similar boat. It took me most of last year just to get through Persona 5 (which is admittedly a long game) and I still haven't played through Nier Automata even though I bought it the day it came out. I only feel confident that I can get through Gears 4's campaign because that should only be 6-10 hours total. Still may be a coin flip if I can finish it before 5 comes out. 🙂 That said not making it through the Diablo 3 story is like a criminal lack of free time or focus. But different people also play through games at different rates and with different purposes. I have a buddy who still hasn't beaten Skyrim and he's been playing that since it came out on the 360. He just really loves wandering around the world at his own pace and exploring every nook and cranny.

I don't mind the loot boxes. So long as they're just full of goofy cosmetics or Survival Mode cheeseburgers or whatever for me its not an issue. I do kind of dislike that they're gonna have costumes behind that but that is more of an "I don't like that" thing than a real issue. Hell if I can stockpile enough cheeseburgers I might be able to finally AI exploit my way through the higher Survival levels.

Amen to that. Of all the FGs I've played recently SFV is the absolute worst to fire up when you're already in a bad mood. On those days I either play something else or sequester myself in training mode. SFV is a fucking tilt factory. 👺

Yeah one of the defining factors I've found with high Silver/low Gold players is that they usually have their specific game plan refined enough through raw reps that it makes them really dangerous in bursts. Its around that point that you start to see people consistently hitting longer combos, having set ups/legit mix ups, hitting meaties, etc, and they have enough attack gimmicks to make short set adaptation tricky. I keep waiting for players to level out and not throw out so much refined crazy but then I have to remind myself that this is SFV online and that is probably gonna happen for a long time. 🙂 Recognizing when the different VTs are useful is definitely valuable. Everyone is sort of in the same boat of "pick this one 90% of the time" but its good to recognize when that 10% comes up and how it can be useful. Just blind picking the same VT over and over is leaving options on the table. Which, even with some character's VTs feeling pretty damn lopsided, is a waste in a game that isn't exactly overflowing with options.

Fucking a-men about Ninja Gaiden 2. I tapped out of that game around the mid-way point because it became too frustrating. I've played through a lot of what people consider to be hard games but NJ2 felt more "cheap" hard than "designed" hard. Still love that they brought that series back and I'd love to see modern Team Ninja take another crack at it. Been playing Gears 4 in preparation for 5. Finally getting around to it since it was on sale and I just got an X. In Act 3 and I'm having fun with the campaign so far. It's not Shakespeare or anything but the writing and pacing for a game like this are pretty good and I really appreciate cranky old man Marcus.

You should definitely give it a go. If nothing else you should be able to pop up to UG but you could probably get to Plat if you're doing that well in casuals. Those are the results I was getting before I made my Gold run. Not sure how much difference there is between UG and SG but in Silver the difference wasn't too much. Mostly more consistent than the previous bracket. One thing I regret out of that is not spending more time refining in US; I sort of stumbled over the finish line into Gold and while that was satisfying to hit that goal I didn't build the skills I needed to actually hang in Gold. Which I've been paying for now that I want to try to climb up in the Gold ranks. Better late than never. I like the new DMC costumes and of course am all about Laura Gloria. Airman Rashid is also fantastic, though a) I never see Rashid players anymore, and b) I've almost never seen a Rashid player use anything other than the default costume so it may be a moot point.

Sorry man I'll do better next time 😓 I'll so hard it'll bring down the server. I had a bunch of thoughts rolling around when I had the time to start typing but then I was tired from the weekend and everything got sort of mushy and I just said "fuck it post it!". Which may be for the best; I had a couple of really rambly moments there before I did an edit pass. I'm hitting a really interesting point with me playing the game where I'm starting to get comfortable where I'm at again but the players are better/more dangerous/more uniquely crazy than they were in Bronze or Silver so its more work to get there and stay there. And its going to be more work until I can win consistently enough to start making my way up the ladder again. The hard part is finding the time to keep up. Even with a really modest goal of playing 30-45 mins a day and trying to get in 3 online sets I still have plenty of days where that doesn't work out, so I'm trying to maximize the time I do get. I think it's made me practice smarter in training mode, and I know it's helped me approach the online matches differently. I'm focusing more on the learning aspects of the matches which helps with not getting as nervous or frustrated as I have in the past. And I always come away from a session feeling overall good about the time I've spent (which I feel like is a near miracle with how sort of shitty SFV's online is) and with things to look forward to working on. Its fun but it also takes time and it doesn't help that I'm feeling split across my hobbies right now. So FGs get a subset of a subset of time, and SFV ends up eating all of it because its the one I have the clearest goals for. I really want to put more time into Cross Tag and UNIEL as well but that's gonna require some circus quality juggling to pull off. Still though better too many interesting hobbies than too few. 🙂

My near official motto. 🙂 I really like the way the art looks in this game in general but I'm with Darc in that I was never a fan of the SF EX games so this one isn't gonna be for me. Glad its coming out for fans of that and Fighting Layer.

Glad to hear that the new stick is working out well. 🙂 Managed to finally get games in after a week or so away. Ended up going even across sets which I’ll take after a week off. Two things I noticed during review that I need to work on (that I can work on the short term) are varying up my offense and defense. Some games I do a decent job of it but others I just hammer on the same attack sequence hoping for a frame trap or on defense I lock up and don’t backdash or VR enough. Gotta continue to work on being more mindful about what my opponent is doing/responding and adjusting accordingly. Practice definitely feels like it is paying off even when I don’t get much match time in. Still have a lot to work on that I want to get consistent but that at least gives me something to do when I fire up the game and can’t hop online. Current plan is to keep working at training and online matches and resume the Ranked sessions in the next couple of weeks to shake things up again.

It makes the most sense to push marketing as "hey this is a for real fighting game and not just a jiggle festival". Ideally it lets them pull in a bigger market of people with the core product and they can cater to certain proclivities of their fanbase with DLC as they see fit. And if the game sells like shit they can always break the emergency glass and release the super slutty costumes en masse to generate big 'ol buckets of post release money. The most critical question is: Will Mila make it back???? I would legit give that game a shot if she makes the cut and the netcode is okay.

FWIW Cross Tag is one of the more fun games mechanically I've played out of the recent crop. It seems relatively shallow but there is actually a lot to dig into and work on, and it seems like the game could go really interesting places for the people who stick with it. I think the player base concerns are real though. ArcSys has a lot more eyes on them thanks to DBFZ but Cross Tag is still likely to be anime niche. Very likely even more niche because its a tag game crossing over several strains of high grade weeb.

People have a really hard time shaking associations, I think. When a person/company produces similar content for a long enough time that is where everyone's head goes. It's like if Michael Bay started making 3 hour silent films about nihilism. People would still line up and buy tickets, then be all like "where are all the shiny tiddies and explosions???" no matter how much marketing you put out. People recognize branding first. Hell you even have Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb musing about how he hopes that Anthem still has familiar Bioware RPG components like a dialog wheel. This is from a guy who very clearly knows what the game is going to be and is being pitched as, but he can't help going back to what Bioware is to him (and most people I think). Your average gamer is gonna be even more prone to that.

I actually came away a little excited but I went in with really low expectations. DMC5 hit all the right notes for me so I'm cautiously very excited for that. I was cool on Last of Us 2 despite really liking the first one, but this trailer did a lot more to sell me on it and I'm way back on board. Also due to nothing but nostalgia and it being deliciously dumb I am looking forward to what the hell ever that Battletoads game ends up being. And like I said earlier I'm surprisingly into the idea of AC Odyssey but I'm not sure if I'll actually bite on that one (I bounce off of all those games after about 6 hours). And I have a pre-boner for Cyberpunk 2077. Thing is, the way companies announce and promote games has shifted so much that E3 is just another press conference for me (not a new idea by any stretch but I agree with it). Anyone can do a livestream or throw up some YT vids to promote their games nowadays and most companies are doing just that (seems to be much easier, relatively cheaper, and gives them a lot more control over messaging). Like with Doom Eternal. I'm excited for that of course after playing through the last one, but E3 was just "hey this thing exists and we're gonna talk about it later at a time that benefits us more". Trailer looked great and I'm glad its confirmed but I'm one of those old farts that doesn't really get excited about a game unless I really like the idea (Cyberpunk 2077) or I see something that is at least a proof of concept of gameplay (what was in some of the trailers). Which also limits how much some of this stuff moves the needle for me.

It says a lot about Odyssey when its the first AC game in a long time that I've been interested in playing. 😉 Gonna go back to counting the minutes until DMC5 comes out.

Stick looks great B! Also great art from Dias. Hope you get it soon.

I remember playing DoA1 on I think PS1 or Saturn. J mostly just laughed at the moon gravity boobs. 3 and 4 were the ones I put the most time into. Never really learned how to play the series proper but always loved the way the action flowed.

I am very pleasantly surprised that this game got announced. 🙂 I figured if another entry was going to come along it would be a ways off. Always really liked the series even if I didn't stick with it. Looking forward to seeing more of this.