XBLA - SF2HF vs FFS
As some of you know Fatal Fury Special came out yesterday on xbla. The game itself plays great, and as far as i know is extremely faithful to the arcade MVS/AES versions. Although after facing Ryo, i was shocked i couldn't enter the AES code so i could play as him. Anyway its probably for the best since facing Ryo online all the time would be a pain in the batty.
But the real question on everyones mind is how does it compare to SF2HF also on xbla. I'll be comparing the games on Lag, Ranking system, Droppers, Quarter Match system, leader boards and other/extras
Lag
The most important aspect of any online fighter. In short. HF has tones, FFS has none. On HF you'll most likely get a near lag free game if you play anyone else in the UK, and most likely get acceptable laggy games with east coast americans and other europeans. But any further than that its probably gonna lag like a bitch. Now takes FFS, you can (and i have) have near lag free games with Japanese players, although occassionally you'll get a laggy game, but it doesn't become choppy like HF, just gives you extra button input delay.
Ranking system
Both games boost Ranked and Player match modes. Ranked is fairly obvious, player matches in are unranked.
But in FFS they even rank the player matches using a different system. Ranked matches in FFS give you a true skill score, which assume judges your score/rank by your opponents score/rank. In player match from what i have seen it sorta ranks you by wins. Only seperating players on the same amount of wins by how many losses they have. At any rate, having too sets of rankings seems superfluous. The only real problem this creates is it makes the player matches more serious than are meant be, with some opponents trying to counter pick you to get the win.
On the other hand HF ranking system is pretty tight, giving players a player rating based on opponents ratings. So if you beat someone highly ranked you'll get a load of points, but similarly if you lose to someone much lower to you it really reduces your rank. Which can destroy a hard days worth of rank building. But if your good you'll win lots and good rank anyway. The biggest problem with the ranked matches is that after you have selected your character you are free to unselect and repick. As theres no time limit to select your character, people will often screen camp waiting for you to select first, or not at all, forcing you leave, giving them the win.
Droppers
This is not a problem at all on FFS, if your opponent drops you get the win. On HF its 50/50 if you drop mid match. So your about to win, your opponent might aswell drop, as they might get lucky and get the win, and giving you the loss. This is not a problem in player matches which are unranked in HF. But whenever someone drops in HF, you get this establishing connection screen, which counts down 15 seconds and lets you resume playing against other opponents. Not only is that really crap, but it actually takes 20 seconds in real time seconds and its quicker just signing out and and reentering the game to get back in the action.
When someone drops in FFS it just takes you to the win/loss score screen which appears after every match, then you press the A button to take you back to the gaming lobby, But the person who dropped can still rejoin the game lobby too as far as i know. Which can be annoying, but they still get the loss and you get the win, and if your the host you can simply kick them out of your game.
Quarter Match
Both have a quarter match type system. Where up to 4 opponents can enter a single game, and the winner stays on. Both allow you to reselect your character after every game, which is something i am a little upset about, but thats minor. The 2 players currently waiting in line spectate as the other 2 players face off. Which is good if your all friends or if your playing with highly skilled opponents. But for the most part, you'll be playing casual players. Its good theres lots of players, but it can get tiresome watching single special move and jump spam. But once its your turn, you can show them how to deal with that kind of play.
The main difference between the 2 apart from the stuff already mentioned, is that in FFS whoever started the original game remains the host, so they manage the players they way they see fit. I like this, as i hate idiots and laggers (not too much of a problem in FFS anyway) so i can kick them out of the game. The main problem though is that when the host leaves, the game ends. Although it doesn't allow the host to end the session untill the current match is over. But that isn't gonna stop someone from turning off their 360 though, or just signing out. Another thing is that you cannot join a game session thats in mid match, you can only join in between matches. This is only a problem cause when you search for matches it lists ones that are in mid match, forcing to try to enter other sessions.
In HF the host switches to the current champion, which can get annoying especially if they lagged their way to victory. And they are free to kick anyone from that session. The biggest problem in HF though is the establishing connection problem and lag as already mentioned. If your in a game with players from the 4 corners of the earth, your gonna feel the lag and your gonna be uninterrupted by a countless number of establishing connection screens which happen when someone drops, when connection drops below a certain point mid match, and when just trying to start the game with the next opponent. Only thing HF has over FFS over is that you can any session that has available slots whether they are mid match or not, but you'll have to wait untill the start of the next game to be able to spectate.
Leader boards
HF and FFS both have the standard leaderboards for ranked matches, aswell as for player matches in FFS, which i have already mentioned. HF also has weekly and monthly leader boards, but there are more. HF has ranking boards for individual characters which is a really nice addition. Its good to see that even though you may be fairly low ranked among other players overall, that your amongst the players who play your characters your pretty high up.
FFS doesn't have individual character leader boards, nor does it have weekly or monthly leader boards for its ranked and player matches. What it does have for some strange reason is arcade mode leader board both for all time and monthly. I can't get my head round this because for one why would we need to know on a monthly basis who has the highest arcade score. I can see why its nice idea to have a long term leader board, but its flawed by the fact that in arcade mode you can just play against the player 2 all day getting perfects until you have the highest score possible.
Achievements
I don't normally care too much for achievements, for the most part they are either boring, pointless or crazy. some all 3. As you can expect you have the standard singple player achievements, complete the game, complete it on hardest difficulty, complete the game without losing a round or continue, etc. Then comes the online ones, win 10 ranked matches, win 100 ranked matches, wins 10 matches in a row, etc.
But in FFS you have a few crazy ones, such as finishing the fight with Big bear with the timer on a multiple of 11. Theres another one which has something to do with Mai. Firstly these sort of achievements are boring and crazy and only not pointless in that you have to do them to get that 100/100 points you need to show the world you have done all the achievements. But what makes these achievements even worse is that they don't even tell you what you need to do, just some weird riddle which your meant to guess at.
"Unlock Mai's folding fan mini game" I can tell you right now that its nothing to do with a mini game.
Other/Extras
HF also has just a one on one unranked mode which is good if your just looking to play the one person for any amount of games. It borrows the screen from the old snes and psone ports of other Street fighter games, keeping scores of wins/losses and kos. No handicap setting though. FFS special doesn't have this mode directly but you can imitate by just setting up a private match and inviting whoever you want to play in it, or if your host just kick other players out of your game, abit mean, but they should have given us a proper 1on1 mode for online play.
Conclusion
In my opinion, FFS wins hands down due to its far superior netcode. It just too much fun playing against highly skilled far eastern opponents with minimal lag. HF does have the edge in some areas. Better leaderboards, true 1on1 online play and less crazy achievements. But I can easily overlook these things where HF wins out. After all the whole point of netplay is being to be able to actually play your opponent. Plus FFS is void of any of the dropping problems that plagues HF.
But the real question on everyones mind is how does it compare to SF2HF also on xbla. I'll be comparing the games on Lag, Ranking system, Droppers, Quarter Match system, leader boards and other/extras
Lag
The most important aspect of any online fighter. In short. HF has tones, FFS has none. On HF you'll most likely get a near lag free game if you play anyone else in the UK, and most likely get acceptable laggy games with east coast americans and other europeans. But any further than that its probably gonna lag like a bitch. Now takes FFS, you can (and i have) have near lag free games with Japanese players, although occassionally you'll get a laggy game, but it doesn't become choppy like HF, just gives you extra button input delay.
Ranking system
Both games boost Ranked and Player match modes. Ranked is fairly obvious, player matches in are unranked.
But in FFS they even rank the player matches using a different system. Ranked matches in FFS give you a true skill score, which assume judges your score/rank by your opponents score/rank. In player match from what i have seen it sorta ranks you by wins. Only seperating players on the same amount of wins by how many losses they have. At any rate, having too sets of rankings seems superfluous. The only real problem this creates is it makes the player matches more serious than are meant be, with some opponents trying to counter pick you to get the win.
On the other hand HF ranking system is pretty tight, giving players a player rating based on opponents ratings. So if you beat someone highly ranked you'll get a load of points, but similarly if you lose to someone much lower to you it really reduces your rank. Which can destroy a hard days worth of rank building. But if your good you'll win lots and good rank anyway. The biggest problem with the ranked matches is that after you have selected your character you are free to unselect and repick. As theres no time limit to select your character, people will often screen camp waiting for you to select first, or not at all, forcing you leave, giving them the win.
Droppers
This is not a problem at all on FFS, if your opponent drops you get the win. On HF its 50/50 if you drop mid match. So your about to win, your opponent might aswell drop, as they might get lucky and get the win, and giving you the loss. This is not a problem in player matches which are unranked in HF. But whenever someone drops in HF, you get this establishing connection screen, which counts down 15 seconds and lets you resume playing against other opponents. Not only is that really crap, but it actually takes 20 seconds in real time seconds and its quicker just signing out and and reentering the game to get back in the action.
When someone drops in FFS it just takes you to the win/loss score screen which appears after every match, then you press the A button to take you back to the gaming lobby, But the person who dropped can still rejoin the game lobby too as far as i know. Which can be annoying, but they still get the loss and you get the win, and if your the host you can simply kick them out of your game.
Quarter Match
Both have a quarter match type system. Where up to 4 opponents can enter a single game, and the winner stays on. Both allow you to reselect your character after every game, which is something i am a little upset about, but thats minor. The 2 players currently waiting in line spectate as the other 2 players face off. Which is good if your all friends or if your playing with highly skilled opponents. But for the most part, you'll be playing casual players. Its good theres lots of players, but it can get tiresome watching single special move and jump spam. But once its your turn, you can show them how to deal with that kind of play.
The main difference between the 2 apart from the stuff already mentioned, is that in FFS whoever started the original game remains the host, so they manage the players they way they see fit. I like this, as i hate idiots and laggers (not too much of a problem in FFS anyway) so i can kick them out of the game. The main problem though is that when the host leaves, the game ends. Although it doesn't allow the host to end the session untill the current match is over. But that isn't gonna stop someone from turning off their 360 though, or just signing out. Another thing is that you cannot join a game session thats in mid match, you can only join in between matches. This is only a problem cause when you search for matches it lists ones that are in mid match, forcing to try to enter other sessions.
In HF the host switches to the current champion, which can get annoying especially if they lagged their way to victory. And they are free to kick anyone from that session. The biggest problem in HF though is the establishing connection problem and lag as already mentioned. If your in a game with players from the 4 corners of the earth, your gonna feel the lag and your gonna be uninterrupted by a countless number of establishing connection screens which happen when someone drops, when connection drops below a certain point mid match, and when just trying to start the game with the next opponent. Only thing HF has over FFS over is that you can any session that has available slots whether they are mid match or not, but you'll have to wait untill the start of the next game to be able to spectate.
Leader boards
HF and FFS both have the standard leaderboards for ranked matches, aswell as for player matches in FFS, which i have already mentioned. HF also has weekly and monthly leader boards, but there are more. HF has ranking boards for individual characters which is a really nice addition. Its good to see that even though you may be fairly low ranked among other players overall, that your amongst the players who play your characters your pretty high up.
FFS doesn't have individual character leader boards, nor does it have weekly or monthly leader boards for its ranked and player matches. What it does have for some strange reason is arcade mode leader board both for all time and monthly. I can't get my head round this because for one why would we need to know on a monthly basis who has the highest arcade score. I can see why its nice idea to have a long term leader board, but its flawed by the fact that in arcade mode you can just play against the player 2 all day getting perfects until you have the highest score possible.
Achievements
I don't normally care too much for achievements, for the most part they are either boring, pointless or crazy. some all 3. As you can expect you have the standard singple player achievements, complete the game, complete it on hardest difficulty, complete the game without losing a round or continue, etc. Then comes the online ones, win 10 ranked matches, win 100 ranked matches, wins 10 matches in a row, etc.
But in FFS you have a few crazy ones, such as finishing the fight with Big bear with the timer on a multiple of 11. Theres another one which has something to do with Mai. Firstly these sort of achievements are boring and crazy and only not pointless in that you have to do them to get that 100/100 points you need to show the world you have done all the achievements. But what makes these achievements even worse is that they don't even tell you what you need to do, just some weird riddle which your meant to guess at.
"Unlock Mai's folding fan mini game" I can tell you right now that its nothing to do with a mini game.
Other/Extras
HF also has just a one on one unranked mode which is good if your just looking to play the one person for any amount of games. It borrows the screen from the old snes and psone ports of other Street fighter games, keeping scores of wins/losses and kos. No handicap setting though. FFS special doesn't have this mode directly but you can imitate by just setting up a private match and inviting whoever you want to play in it, or if your host just kick other players out of your game, abit mean, but they should have given us a proper 1on1 mode for online play.
Conclusion
In my opinion, FFS wins hands down due to its far superior netcode. It just too much fun playing against highly skilled far eastern opponents with minimal lag. HF does have the edge in some areas. Better leaderboards, true 1on1 online play and less crazy achievements. But I can easily overlook these things where HF wins out. After all the whole point of netplay is being to be able to actually play your opponent. Plus FFS is void of any of the dropping problems that plagues HF.
posted by r3ko at 8:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home