Super Street Fighter IV and Online Play

For the longest time, I used to wonder why pro Street Fighter IV players would bash online play so much. It seemed like every single one of them would complain about how the game doesn’t play the same online as it does locally. As an amateur player who had spent the majority of Street Fighter IV time online, I thought it worked fine. Sure, there were instances where the game would clearly slow to a crawl, but I thought that I could play this game online the same way I would locally.

However, I’ve gotten a lot better in the last few months, and I’m really starting to see what many of the pro players were complaining about. As I’m learning new techniques, combos and tactics, I’m finding more and more that they don’t consistently work online, even with a great connection.
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Time For An Intervention

For the past few weeks, you’ve probably read a lot of my Street Fighter IV posts. Ever since I got an XBOX Live gold account in May, Street Fighter IV has become a huge part of my life. Besides dropping over 100 hours into the game and playing over 1600 online matches, I’ve spent a ton of time listening to Gooteck’s Street Fighter Podcast, reading the Street Fighter thread over at NeoGaf, watched any tournament videos I could on YouTube, and almost dropped $200 on a Mad Catz TE Fight Stick.

Some Thoughts On I Got Next (Short Version)

“I Got Next” is a documentary about the fighting game scene. Filmed during the Sinsation tournament earlier this year, its goal as a movie is to cover the scene and the people behind competitive fighting games. I watched the short version of the film at www.igotnextmovie.com. A longer version of the movie is due out this winter, with footage from Evo 2009.

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Some Thoughts On BlazBlue

As someone whose fighting game history is almost exclusively tied to Street Fighter, BlazBlue makes me feel as though I’m on another planet. While the general idea of one-on-one fighting is the same and there are many parallels that can be drawn in terms of the execution of normal attacks and special attacks, BlazBlue is a very different fighting experience.

Lost In Translation

Over the weekend, I was out with my girlfriend on a date that partially consisted of a trip to the local…I’m hesitant to call it an “arcade”, cause it’s more of an amusement place with lots of arcade games in it. Semantics aside, they had a Street Fighter IV arcade machine there. This is significant because Capcom never made a North American arcade version, so this place actually imported a machine (not the one above, but something like it). I didn’t think this place in particular would do that, but there it was and I had to give it a go.

Now Loading – Blazblue: Calamity Trigger

On my way back from my trip, I picked up my pre-order on the regular edition of Blazblue: Calamity Trigger. I had no idea what this game was about till a few weeks ago, when the limited edition version was getting rave reviews from the press.

Now Loading – Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

This fighting game needs no introduction, as many still hail it as one of the greatest fighting games of all-time.

To me though, I’m basically jumping in cold. Back when this hit the arcades, I was a bit too young for my parents to let me just go to the mall and hang out at the arcades. Also, during the few chances I got to play this game, I was destroyed by a pro every single time.

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