Skow Yard

Getting Back to Business

2007-09-08T20:34:00.000+01:00

OK, i just updated the blog with some articles and topics i've written over the past several months (some even further back).

And from now on there will be a lot more activity on here, so stay tuned.

The VF5 Effect

2007-09-08T20:31:00.000+01:00

Last year Evo held a DOA4 tournament, which had a very low turnout of less than 70 players, and we dicussed how this would effect future evos here, So in the aftermath of Evo2k7, the exact same thing has happened. I am not sure on the accuracy of this, but i read on #capcom that VF5 only had a turnout of 40-45 players, meaning 1 in 5/6 players finished in the money. Incredible.

So what went wrong? Firstly VF5 is the latest Next Gen fighter, but VF never really had a massive scene in the US to begin with. Few years ago, VF4 was at evo, but also quickly dropped. But what really done it was that VF5 was only available to PS3 owners outside of the Arcade. But since theres not that many good arcades left, and even fewer with VF5, players are only left with one option. But PS3s are expensive, still. So how can someone really practice if they can't afford a PS3? They can't.

Next point is that the 360 is soon to get a superior version of the game. This was known before EVO Finals too. So why fork out all that cash to get a PS3 to play an inferior version. For those that don't know the 360 version is getting 2 important additions. 1. Online play, thats right, at least you can actually get regularly competition this way, and at least practice up against real players. 2. Training mode from VF4, a great learning tutorial to help new players get the feel for VF5. With all this coming to 360, i can see alot of VF5 players holding onto their cash.

Finally, VF in general is probably the hardest fighting game to learn. Its not something you can just pick up and be good at in a very short time, unlike certain other titles. While its great the game is so deep and technical, it actually one of its weakness' (outside Japan anyway). It scares off alot of potential new players. Its only natural for gamers to compare it with other 3D fighters, and games like Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive are just so much easier to pick up for new players. Which means they are more fun for them. And thats what games is about for most, having fun.

So wear does this leave us. Looks like VF5 will be dropped for Evo2k8, is what happened to DOA4 is anything to go by. But does it deserve a 2nd chance. Maybe the 360 release will see a large influx of players into the community. And if thats the case that will probably mean switching over 360s for next year. Only problem with that is the lack of high quality sticks, and the sticks that are available have limited availability. But is it a case of too little too late. Theres alot of skepticism that online VF5 will be nothing like playing offline, since the game is so frame dependant. I guess will just have to wait and see on this one.

If VF5 is dropped, what do you think will replace it. I assume the sponsors insisted on a next gen game being at Evo, since doa4 was dropped. And VF5 is the only other choice. So what other next gen fighters are coming our way, that could possibly be used. Soul Calibur 4, maybe? I think that would attract more players than VF5 and DOA4 combined, but the question is whether it will be a good competitive fighter or not. Maybe it will just be another SC3.

However this final slot problem of a next gen fighter at Evo could be solved by Tekken 6 and ST:HDr. Both Next gen fighters, well T6 will definitely be no matter how you look at it. And they will both be replacing existing games at Evo. Maybe that final spot will just be left empty, freeing up more equipment, staff and time to run other things, like special events. Aswell as boosting prize money for the other games. Although maybe its a chance for an SNK game to get a look in. Although judging by the numbers at Dark Geese's SNK tournaments that looks highly unlikely. Although i'm sure with large prize money, an SNK title would easily get a turnout that would be at least comparable to what DOA4 had. Maybe alot more.

Summary - If you can't be bothered to read everything.
1. Lack of Players, since VF5 is only on expensive PS3s
2. 360 is getting a superior version after EVO is over
3. VF is hard to play, scares off new players
4. Will 360 version bring in enough players for Evo to keep VF5 next year?
5. If its dropped what will be replaced by?

Points 4 and 5 are obviously the most important issues at hand, which is what i want the focus of this thread to be, although feel free to comment on the other points. Just leave the flaming at home, if you got a point, back it up.

The Doa4 effect

2007-09-08T20:29:00.000+01:00

Was it a mistake to have doa4 at evo? simple answer is obviously yes, that spot could of probably have been given to a more deserving game. A more complex answer is still yes, but at least now the evo directors know doa is a waste of time. Evo has finally begun to be noticed, with the huge sponsor this year and capcom even taking an interest. Evo is only going to get bigger for now...

I'm sure everyone would prefer doa was out of the way now, instead of a year or two down the line, when evo is really immense and say they introduce a new doa game and it flops where the prize money is like $20000 or even more for 1st place (fingers crossed).

The doa community had a real opportunity to make themselves into a real fighting game community, not something the rest of us just laugh at, and pass off as something not worth playing. There was less than 70 players registered for doa on the evo2k site, and i can't imagine many more signed up at the event. How many people play doa4 online regularly that would of been able to make it to the event? All the doa community did was prove their criticisers right.

There is also a knock on effect that doa4 has probably had which many people here may have overlooked. Doa4 was a new game not only being a new game on the newest console, but also an old series that was added to evo for the first time. This will probably make the directors cautious of adding any new games to the evo line up apart from the next Tekken and Guilty Gear games. Does this mean games like Kof and new snk games, and other fighting games from other companies are doomed never to appear officially at evo.

Will we still be playing ST, 3s, MvC2, CvS2 in 5 years time. Yes the games are all popular, even drawing in new players for now, but thats largely more to do with current players just picking up other the fighters. The fighting game community is shrinking all the time, i can't help but think this is our last stand before we really truly die out. Can you imagine the advancements in 5 years. We will prob see the next gen consoles after the 360, ps3 and wii. And everyone will be those few extra years older. Its gonna get alot tougher attracting in new and casual gamers, aswell as keeping the current players.

I doubt many major new fighters will be released in the arcades apart from the usual suspects, most companies will probably opt for straight to console release, which could leave all manner of glitches, bugs and gamebreaking stuff. The community will be centered online just like doa4. And as proven already they obviously don't want to compete offline for lots of prize money.

So what are we going do? Is it time to start adding snk games to line up. They seem to have huge following even if its not hardcare in the same sense as the capcom community. The Majority seem to prefer discussing who can dress up like Kyo and Iori the best, talk about who can get the highest score on 1 player and who has the biggest collection rather than discussing gameplay.

Maybe i am talking utter bull, i tend to do that sometimes, so someone please come in here, slap me and tell me everything is going to be ok.

O.Hawk Guide

2007-09-08T20:28:00.001+01:00

I've been playing quite a bit of T.hawk lately, and heres a little guide i put together for him. Some of this stuff may be wrong, so i am totally open to criticism and corrections. I just hope it helps someone get better with hawk. Low tier power.

Important Normals

c.lp - godly priority, will beat out alot of pokes and torpedo type moves (blanka ball, honda headbutt and even psycho crusher). And is the main normal he uses to tick into 360.

c.mp - very high priority long reaching crouch poke. Also good to tick into. Good move to punish pokes that c.lp can't reach, and is an excellent meaty.

c.mk - good long range low hitting poke

st.hk - hits mid so opponents can't duck it like regular Hawks. Very long range, good for punishing at range and stuffing fireball attempts

st.mp - another mid hitting move unlike regular Hawk. high priority and good for stuffing fireballs attempts closer than st.hk

j.lp - the highest priority jumping attack in the game, use it often, it will beat 99% of moves in the air. Great for jumping too and setting up ticks.

j.mk - crosses up to set up combos and ticks

j. d+hp - splash which crosses up everytime unlike regular hawks to set up ticks and combos. Also can be done fairly low to ground for a quick jump to catch your opponent off gaurd.

Specials

Hawk Dive - Great for punishing careless fireballs, just don't abuse it as most characters have a way of stopping on reaction. Any character with rapidfire standing jabs will beat it clean. And some characters can punish you they you block it. I mainly use it to close the grab from range after knockdowns.

Rising hawk? - His dragon punch move, has alot of priority (move than regular hawks) and is his best combo finisher. I doin't think i need to explain when and how to use a dragon punch.

Typhoon - His 360 attack. Doesn't have no where near the range as gief's 360, but i think it might do a tiny bit more damage. Regardless as long as you tick it right you'll land this 99% of the time. Ticks of so many moves, even just jumping straight in with an attack or no attack and pull it off. Its also quite useful if you can do walk in 360,

Throws

- his best regular throw is the HK one, the one where he elbows the opponent in the face, after you come out of it you can cross up with jumping mk or jumping d.hp and on some characters actually walk underneath them like balrog does with his throw and setup a nasty tick into 360. His other throws are good. MP toss is good for throwing the opponent into a corner, but i generally go for the HK one due to the free crossup or tick afterwards.

Timing 360s

- Anyone familar with Gief's 360 will instantly know hawk's 360 has a much different timing to it, due to quicker jumping frames (its easier for him to leave the ground during the 360 spin). The best way i know is that if you wait a split second after your tick move then quickly spin, the 360 is alot more consistent. Other method which works is to do a more slower spin after pressing for a tick. Either method works, just go with the one your more comfortable with.

Landing 360 - negative edge style

- Theres loads of ways of landing the 360, some drum the buttons, so to increase the chances instead of just pressing one button, others are good enough to get the one they want everytime. (each punch gives a different strength 360, generally its best to go for the HP since it gives most damage, but it also leaves you furtherest away from opponent afterwards, the LP version leaves you much closer and i reccomend it more if your mid screen, since your trying to force your opponent back into a corner)

-The best way is to negative edge it, so its safe from reversal attacks like dragonpunches. Basically you start from down-back, and press your tick attack like c.lp or c.mp. then spin the stick/pad untill you get back round to down-back (hold it) and releasing the button as get there, this will result in 1 of 2 things. You get the 360 if they fail to reverse, or you block since your holding back if they do get it. To negative edge a HP 360, or different strength from the move you tick with, just hold down that button and release that one instead of the tick move.

The Loop

- If you knock down your opponent and they are near or in the corner and you start "The Loop". This is the most advanced thing Hawk has and its his key to winning matches. Watch guys like Toutanki, K and Mayakon to get familar with it. Basically how it works is that you do a Safe Jumping LP*, into crouching LP ticked in a negative edge 360. Then keep doing it. As long as you do it right, the opponent has only 2 chances to escape, and even then your totally safe. The first chance is duriong the safe jumping LP, buit if you indeed do a safe you'll land in time and block the attack. The next chance is ticking the 360, which as long as negative edge it you'll be safe aswell.

*Safe Jumping LP - Its hard to explain, but you can basically land from a jumping LP in time that 99% of all reversal attacks will miss you. Only ones which will hit you are reversals with 0 frame delay. Only ones i can even think off the top of my head are Ken's HP dragon punch, Blanka Ball and maybe a couple of supers. Timing has to be very precise so i suggest you watch some matchvids to get the timing down.

What if the safe jumping LP hits the opponent? Then you should go for a combo instead, easiest one is jumping LP, standing LP/c.LP/MK, rising hawk. This will cause more damage, than blocked jumping lp, blocked c.lp in 360, but not as much if the moves aren't blocked. So why combo you ask? Its much more likely to dizzy and ita guarunteed if the first hit lands. Remember the opponent can still get out of the loop, but once a combo has started they will have to eat the damage. And if you do manage to dizzy them then you can just combo again, and 2 combos does alot of damage.

r3ko's Butchered loop (stolen from Bullet Proof)

- Heres an easier version of the loop, which can be done anywhere on the screen, but its easier to reverse, but you can still be totally safe as long as negative edge. When knocking your opponent down and they quite close, just walk up to them and do a meaty crouching MP tick into 360, and repeat. If you knock the opponent down further away, and you try and be cheeky with a meating crouching LK (must be at max range, any close and they will be up and much easier for them to reverse) tick in to 360. If your really far away and you knock them down, say after a MP throw or HP 360, then hawk dive in and do c.LPx2/c.MP meaty into 360. Very easy to reverse the last one, but its more a susprise than anything else.

Anti-air's - Rising Hawk is great as anti-air but try not to get baited into whiffing it. As it has a long recovery and easily punished. If someone tries crossing you up you can hit him cleanly most of the time with a close standing MP. c.LP rapidfire works pretty well if the opponent press to attack in the air too early. Standing HK is not very reliable and is only good to catch people on their way up, rather than on their way down.

Dealing with Fireballs - be patient and take your time, but don't be afraid to try a jumping LP when you get the chance, its ok to receive a couple of dragon punches and other reversals, its lot more risky for them than it is for you, as if they mess up its a 360 time. When using the hawk dive try to anticipate fireballs so that you'll the hit the opponent before they recover and can dp or hit you. Hardest characters to do hawk dive on are O.sagat and Ryu as they recover very quickly after fireballs. Also if you mange to get close enough and you rising hawk straight through a fireball, works best on fast fireballs.

Combos - I know this is the part people have been waiting for, sorry to dissapoint but Hawk really only has a couple of practical combos.

- Jumping LP > LP/MK/c.LP > Rising Hawk
- Cross-up MK/d+HP > MK/MP > Rising Hawk
- Cross-up MK/d+HP > c.LPx2, LP > Rising Hawk (dizzies 90% of the time)

Can swap out rising hawk for a 360 for most of these, if the opponent blocks or you mess up and allow your opponent to block midway.

Thats about it, i hope this guide helps you on your hawk ownage. Please don't ask me about matchups. I haven't played hawk nearly enough. But against everyone just try and get and land those ticks. Just be wary about doing them against Honda, Blanka, Dhalsim. There regular throw ranges are longer than yours and nearly as long as your 360. And especially beware Geif as his 360 has a much longer range than yours.

ST Blanka Guide

2007-09-08T20:27:00.001+01:00

Heres a Guide, that was originally put up on the srk wiki before it got edited by DSP.

Anyway i'd just like to thank RWD and Crayfish who contributed alot of time and help write this. I'd also like to see what Ryza and G-tactics, both being blanka players have to contribute. I'm sure you guys got some tricks which haven't been covered.

I'm also gonna write Bison guide in the near future, and RWD has a Honda guide in the works, (hes the guy who originally taught me Blanka and Honda, so now you know why my Honda is so Boom!)

Heres my short Blanka Tutorial vid, which dsplays some of the techniques in the guide, and some which aren't I reccomend you check it out.

Introduction

Blanka generally considered to be a low tier character, but its not impossible to get wins with him, probably due to not many people having come across him and have little understanding of his moves and tricks. I have only begun to play blanka recently but with the help of many threads and some friends especially RWD. I have started to piece together what I hope is pretty sound strategy for Blanka.

The Basics

Best pokes are probably c.HP and the HP Slide for the most part, i've seen his stand LK be used a lot also but meh, Blanka isn't the best poker and it shouldn't be your main focus.

Whenever attempting a Slide, always charge back in case it connects since it will start his wake-up options that, unlike his pokes, are actually quite decent.

j.LP and j.LK are evil - probably the best jump in attacks in the game. j.LK is a crossover which is argueably the best in the game (at least tied with Deejay's j.MK).

His j.HK is excellent for punishing fireballs at close range.

Anti-airs are the vertical ball (obvious), s.HP does a good job, if your feeling confident Electricity does well but is the hardest masher move to use (randomly won't come out when you follow the same "proper mashing" rules that apply to Chun and Honda).

Other anti airs are straight up LP and straight up HP, the HP gets extra credit since it is literally a pimp slap - sexy!

Even Blanka’s super can be used as an anti-air, if timed correctly.

Blanka’s ball if great for closing the gap, you can even roll up and throw and from certain ranges, using LP and MP balls.

Blanka is one of the best throwers in the game, and is extremely good at countering tick throws with his own.

O.Blanka is a waste of time, all hes got is a slightly faster walk speed and a different type of vertical ball. I find Blanka’s slide, leaps and even his super just too valuable to give up.

Advanced Strategy

Fast Meter Building + Super
---------------------------
This is obvious, backwards beast leap charges meter retardedly fast, unfortunatly, Blanka probably has one of the worst supers in the game, or at least it's tied with Honda's "random hits of doom" but, just like Honda's, it does have a some uses.

Firstly, its actually a decent anti-air, you can make the first hit connect when Blanka goes up, hold onto the button to keep Blanka in place, the let go when the opponent is falling - this abuses the volley ball effect so you can get some damage in from it. The invincible start-up is nice so you don't get whacked attempting it too.

Don't use this as a chipper, its the most obvious thing in the world and most jabs/shorts beat it

It rolls under all projectiles except for Low Tiger Shots.

Another odd little trick about the super is on knockdown near the corner, with proper timing this can be used as, I think at least, a crossover which then leads into a free combo attempt - this has been highlighted in the TZW combo videos. I say I think it is a crossover as (when done right) Blanka hits the opponent from behind, but like CE Bison's psycho crusher, it is probably random how it hits when done this way, and is even comboable which you can find details on in the combo section.

Using the leap
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The leap is a valuble tool which is often over looked, most people would attribute it to only really setting up throw and combo cheese (which will explained in later sections.), which its great at. But it also makes blanka a very nimble character.

You can bait attacks with it, by leaping backwards at close range, and countering with a slide or c.HP or even ball.

You can use it effectively to close the gap after knockdowns if you don’t have a charge ready, so you can start a meaty or cross up.

Leaping forward in to throw range out of blue or off a c.MK can take your opponent by suspise, giving you a throw/headbutt/tick/combo

When Downed
-----------
Blanka cannot be crossovered... ever... vertical ball is simply too good and,. Fear the beast...

Don't attempt reversal horizontal ball... ever - you'd be surprised how many attacks will beat it clean which sort of defeats the whole point of a reversal really.

Reversal backwards leap is good to get out of jams mid-screen... just don't use it to avoid something in the corner unless you like being hit afterwards though.

Using Blanka Balls with Caution
----------------

Using Blanka’s horizontal ball is extremely risky against certain characters. If blocked the following characters can punish you. Warning some can even punish you when u hit aswell.

Dic can do a feirce psycho crusher
Dee Jay can do a feirce fire ball
Blanka can do a feirce blanka ball
Boxer can use his rush moves
Claw can walk > feirce
Dhalsim can do far feirce or roundhouse
O.sag can low roundhouse tiger

Bite Loops and follow-ups
----------
Basic, retarded, fun - like Dhalsim's bull**** only a bit easier to get out of.

Blanka's bite range is simply sick, I think its actually larger than Sim's, but anyway... generally j.LK or j.LP tick into bite does wonders if not abused too much.

Once you land throw you can do the following:

- j.LK > throw again xx repeat - this is obvious to get out of, but its one of those things that works because Blanka is so fast, even if you only get a second set of bites, damage is damage.

-j.LK > MP > throw – MP ticks nicely into throw, but u have to walk the tiniest bit forward to land the throw otherwise you get normal standing HP.

-j.LK > MP > leap > throw - You can even add a leap in here which if your close enough will cross up, and you don’t necessarily have to go into a throw, a combo or a tick could be a better option.

-j.LK > x-over j.LK > combo attempt - the second c.LK should crossover when your at mid-screen so make them feel the rage (rawh!)... you also have the option of repeated j.LK's if the first crossover attempt doesn't hit.

-Slide - hilarious, but it works, people get so paranoid over the j.LK and trying to stop it they forget Blanka can just low knockdown them and start crossover ball fun again.

-Leap forward twice to crossup > throw/combo – this can be quite useful against characters which don’t have reversals.

Crossover Balls , Knockdown and Electricity Fun
---------------------------------------------------------------
These strats go hand in hand:

Whenever a slide, c.HK or vertical ball connects - you get a free attempt to do crossover horizontal balls... unfortunatly, your going to have to work out yourself which balls to use as the whole thing is dependant on where you are on the screen and how deep the attack you used connected - this is something you get a feel for in time and isn't too hard to work out in a heated battle.

Before we go onto the crossover fun, remember Blanka can also do the following on a fallen opponent:

Forward Beast Leap > meaty f.MP (the headbutt) - the headbutt hits twice and people seem to forget the second hit is low and eat it everytime... ghetto!

Forward Beast Leap > j.LK > Bite Loop - oh bite loops, how I love thee...

Forward Beast Leap > j.LK > x-over j.LK > combo attempt or repeat j.LK's until it hits or your hit - more crossover j.LK fun... told you it was a good attack ^_^

Slide - funny how the most basic of meatys does a fantastic job, gotta love the paranoia of air Blanka people have that they forget about the lows.

Anyway, back to the crossover balls - once you get the feel for it, you can start doing the following:

Crossover ball > combo attempt - I should dizzy all the cast (except maybe Gief) since you alright got a hit in prior, but ST hates people so this won't be the case all the time

Crossover Ball > forward/back MP - for times when you simply can't be bothered to combo, say hello to that headbutt again

Crossover Ball > MP or HP Electricity - what? you think those CvS2 whores made this famous? Bah, Blanka is too ghetto for that game, anyway, Electricity overall sucks but at least you can get some chip damage this way, don't use the LP version, learn how to mash like a man and use MP or HP only. Always be charging for another horizontal ball when doing this, if the electricity hits the opponent, you can do MP vertical ball to crossover then electricity again... repeat until the opponent blocks it

Combos
-----------
While some of these may not be the flashiest combos around these are without a doubt the most practical

- j.HP > MP > HP
-j.MP xx mp electric
- j.HP/HK > c.HK
- j.HP/HK > c.MK/Heabutt(1-hit) xx Ball
- j.MK > c.MK > c.MK xx Ball
- X-over LK > MP > Headbutt
- X-over LK > c.MK > MP > Headbutt
- X-over LK > c.MK > c.MK xx Ball
- c.HK knockdown in corner > Super > c.MK xx Ball

XBLA - SF2HF vs FFS

2007-09-08T20:25:00.002+01:00

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.

Kaillera P2P

2007-09-08T20:25:00.001+01:00

OK, its been goin for a little while now, but Kaillera P2P has arrived and its boom. No more extreme delay. Delay can be as low as 1 frame or something, and cuts out nearly all the lag. Although as a drawback you may experience some severe frame skipping occasionally. At any rate its much better than playing with the regular client.

Everything you need to know is here at

http://kaillera.movsq.net/

For people who are experienced with kaillera, just download the new kaillera client off the above site and paste it over the current one in your desired emulator directory. I suggest you make a backup of the original kaillera client or just make a new folder for the emulator and put the new client in there. If you don't understand what i just said, then you better check out the site above.

Now you complainers of lag got no excuse to play some online fighters!

Future of 2D Fighting Games

2007-04-18T15:46:00.001+01:00

When you ask people "What do you think is the future of 2D Fighting Games?". The Reply you'll most likely get is Guilty Gear. Thats a perfectly reasonable answer. At the moment Guilty Gear is having alot of success. It's the most popular 2D Fighting game in the arcades in Japan, and hardcore fighting game players all over the world are starting to jump on board. Also new 2D fighter's are adopting the same style as it, fast paced, combo heavy, overly complex, anime graphics/visuals.

However I can see problems going down this path. This new breed 2D fighter may work in the Eastern part of the world, where anime is cool and massive player bases. But in the western world i think these overly complex fighters are scaring people away.

Take Guilty Gear for example. It has such a complex game system, its not the sort of game someone new to it can just pick up and play. Take the total fighting game noob (someone who never really played any kind of fighting game at all), they see Guilty Gear they think it looks cool, wouldn't mind giving it ago. You'd probably scare them off before you even got anywhere past explaining all the gauges on the screen and what they do. And the worrying thing is, i can only see Guilty Gear getting more complex overtime, with new updates. And its little friends will also no doubt try and stay on top of the competition.

I like to think that 2d Fighters has kind of reached a peak with complexity by now. Fighter's have got more and more complex over the years, cause they have needed to. After the SF2 games era, games got a lot more combo heavy, to the point where the games go ridiculous such as mvc2. So games like Guilty Gear had to change the psychics in thier games from previous fighters to stop things like infinites. Which makes the game more complex, as the player has to think of new and interesting ways of continuing to combo thier opponents.

But this sort of fighter really isn't doing us any good as far as attracting new players, these complex fighters only really cater for the hardcore scene. Players who have been playing fighting games for years and need something new and more complex to challenge them and keep it interesting. Now this is not a problem in Japan since they have a very healthy arcade scene with many players. But when it comes to western world, our scenes are really small when compared. With each new game coming from Japan less and less players are playing it, as they are not catered for us. Even though anime is popular here, anime by most people in the Western World is just looked upon like another cartoon, something for kids. Then the games are extremely complex, instantly making people think "WTF is this all about? this game looks weird and is too hard"

I often play Tekken with a casual group of friends. They got little to no idea what the hell they are doing, just the next step beyond random button mashing, i guess you would call that educated button mashing. But the point is they get alot of fun out it, without ever the need to really learn the game. Now i know this is what seperates us from the casuals gamers, but if a game is so complex in the first place to not get many casual players, then the only real place players are coming from are from other fighters. Leaving us in a state of just recycling players over and over again. But players get older, they get more important things in their lives to do and drop out of the scene. Will this continue untill no one is left?

Lets go back to the days of SF2. You could jump, move forwards, backwards, and crouch. You had 3 punch buttons and 3 kick buttons. You could block and you could throw. Its the sort of the game which is easy to play, but hard to master. Games like Guilty gear are hard to play, and even harder to master. You could probably sit down with a total fighting game noob, and teach em how to play SF2 in 2 minutes. "Thats your health bar up, This is how you block, this is how you throw, and this how you do that special move". Then take guilty gear "thats your health bar, thats your tension bar, thats burst gauge, thats your..." Interrupted by noob "hold on a sec what are these other 2 bars". You haven't even gotten to what the buttons do yet.

But its not like these complex fighters are the only ones avaliable. There are other fighters being which are nowhere near as complex, such as NGBC. But why arent we playing it? Well one theory is that if the Japanese aren't crazy about it, then we aren't playing it (I realise people do play NGBC in Japan, but its nowhere near the scale of say GGXX and 3s). Players in my eyes, are far too worried about what the japanese are playing rather playing what they like. But hey, Japan is a credible place to copy. They got the heathliest arcade scene, they got the best players, there are loads of match vids of them so we can steal thier tactics, so why shouldn't we play what they are playing.

Now comes the tricky part. What do tournament organisers run at events. It's hard for them to decide what games should be supported. Do you go with what you know will get good turnouts, or do you go with something abit risky, but has the potential to attract a load of players...

Hyper Street Fighter 2 Tier List

2007-04-09T17:14:00.000+01:00

The game has been around a few years now, but remarkably theres been very little tier discussion for it. Probably due to the nature of the game, with so many characters from different versions its extremely hard to rank the characters since so many of the matchups go unplayed. I doubt we will see many CE Balrog verus ST Feilong for example.

Anyway i had a crack at it, and heres what is probably a very debateable tier list.

Tier 1:
CE Bison, CE Guile, CE Ryu, CE Sagat,

Tier 2:
WW/HF Guile, HF Ryu, CE/HF Ken, HF Sagat, ST Dhalsim, ST Balrog

Tier 3:
WW Dhalsim, HF Blanka, ST Chun-li, ST Ryu, ST Vega, ST Bison

Tier 4:
CE Vega, CE/SSF2 Dhalsim, HF Chun-li, SSF2 Ryu, SSF2 Ken, ST Ken, ST Honda, ST Deejay, ST Sagat

Tier 5:
HF Honda, HF Zangief, HF/SSF2 Balrog, SSF2 Bison, SSF2 Sagat, SSF2 Chun-li, SSF2Vega, SSF2 Deejay

Tier 6:
ST Blanka, HF Dhalsim, HF Vega, SSF2 Honda, ST Feilong, ST Guile

Tier 7:
WW/CE Chun-li, WW/CE Blanka, CE Balrog, WW/CE Honda, HF Bison, SSF2 Feilong, SSF2 T.Hawk, SSF2 Guile, ST Zangief

Tier 8:
WW Ryu, WW Ken, WW/CE/SSF2 Zangief, ST T.Hawk, SSF2 Blanka, SSF2/ST Cammy

If you would like to discuss the list, then please head over to this thread

Thanks

Street Fighter 2: The Rivals

2007-04-07T13:21:00.000+01:00

Street Fighter 2 was the biggest fighting game series ever, and was a huge success, and its no susprise that many a company tried to get a peice of the action. i want to see some of you old skool heads share your memories on classic games. If theres a game which isn't on this list which you think should be, then post it up with reasons why it should, i don't want you guys just making random lists of games.

Anyway heres some of the best:

Fatal Fury Special(SNK):
One of SNK's answers to Sf2. Following suite with SF2 champion edition, Fatal Fury Special is essentially Fatal Fury 2 but with more characters. If you overlook its controversial plane switching you'll find a deep fighting game. the air game is not as rich as SF2, but on the ground, i think zoning, poking and espeically block pressure strings are even more important than that in SF2. Added bonus is that game is pretty balanced and would make a great competitive fighter.

Samurai Shodown 2 (SNK):
Now i don't know if Samurai Shodown was the first weapon based fighter, but if it wasn't it was certiantly the first one to do it right. Samsho 2 simply improved on what was already there, adding more characters, better visuals, etc. The characters all very original and the game visually is amazing. But what you'll notice about samsho 1 and 2 is that it doesn't play like SF2 at all. The action is alot slower and combos aren't necessary at all (although they are in there and very powerful too). The emphasis in this game is your ability to out zone and poke your opponent, captilising on any mistakes.

Mortal Kombat 2 (Midway)
Mortal Kombat exploded into the scene with its fancy digitised graphics, simple easy to play system and gory falaties. All that was missing was good gameplay. Mortal Kombat 2 gave us better gameplay. The game was never gonna be as deep as Street Fighter 2, but it wasn't meant to be. Its easier to play, has a block button and every character has the same moves(although slighty different properties depending on the character) other than specials. Its great fun and always gives you a nice feeling when you perform a fatalitiy on someone. Main problem with the game is that its too shallow at higher levels of play and becomes abit of a turtle fest, with whoever attacks first often losing the round.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Konami)
Basically if you like Street Fighter 2 and like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you'll love this. Only the Snes version however, the Mega Drive version is horrid in comparison and any game with Evil versions of the turtles in them, need to dead in my opinion. Anyway back to the Snes version. Its really cheap SF2 style fun, all the turtles are there aswell as shreddar and other villians like the Rat King. However there are a few characters which only made appearances in the comics, when most of us where probably hoping for more characters from the cartoon. This is my only real problem with the game (very minor one at that), other than that its probably the best console only SF2 clone ever.

World Heroes Perfect (ADK)
The world heroes series has a susprising amount of games in the series, 4 in total, WH1, WH2, WH2 Jet and WHP. The first 3 WH games are memorable for their unique controls at the time. Only 3 buttons, 1 for punch, kick and throw, but what was really interesting is that the longer you held one of the attack buttons the more damage it did. WHP dropped this for a more traditional 4 button layout. Its a solid game, with a large slection of characters with a few interesting game mechanics such as deflecting projectiles (simple parry) and blow defense (gaurd break attack). The combos can get quite silly though.

Power Instinct 2 (Atlus)
Another Rival to SF2, and one of the few series which still survives today. This version of game obviously takes alot from SF2, but it did add something new. All the stages have destructable walls at either end, and once they have been knocked down the stage expands. Power instinct all introduced the double jump afaik. And finally some of the characters had the ability to transform. The game is also quite hilarious (theres a move called Teeth Throw, what more can i say), especially the granny characters.

Fighter History Dynamite (Data East):
The Fighters History Series is quite famous for being a complete rip off of Street Fighter 2. Capcom even tried to sue Data East, but lost the case. Fighters History gets alot of stick for this, but if you think about it logically you will see that theres a pretty good game underneath. Sure it copied SF2, but SF2 is awesome, so Fighters History is awesome too. The only real differences in gameplay is that you can hop back and theres a more flexible combo system. Its extremely fun and a good laugh, too bad the game is ruined by Karnov who pretty much destroys every other character in the game.[size=12][/size]

Killer Instinct (Rare)
Killer Instinct is probably the most original SF2 rival since Mortal kombat appeared on the scene. Only thing that is similar to SF2 is that it has a 6 button layout. The first thing which sticks out about KI is the grahpics. Pre-rendered animated backgrounds and sprites gave the game a great 3D feel to it. The system is also completely different such as winning player of the first round keeps what health they have. Also automatic combos with combo finishers which can get to insane levels. But what makes this interesting is that the opponent can break combos if they can guess and time thier combobreakers right. This keeps the combos extremely varied as no one wants to be become predictable and have thier combos broken.

Art of Fighting 2 (SNK)
Yet another attempt by SNK to compete with Street Fighter 2. The first thing you'll about the game is the huge sprites for the characters. They were extremely detailed for time, and what was particularly awesome is that damage would show on the characters, like bruises and thier clothing getting torn. Also i nice bonus is that when the opponents move far away their sprites getting smaller and much larger when close up. Gives the game nice ccinematic feel to it, this was later put into the Samurai shodown games. Gameplay wise Aof2 is not all that, but if can be a fun game nonetheless.

King of Fighters 94 (SNK)
SNK's longest running and most successful series started with KOF94. A game that brang the fatal fury series and art of fighting series into one game, plus loads of new characters. What set this game apart was that you have to select a team of 3 fighters to play with. The also introduced Kyo, the hero of KOF, and now one of most popular SNK characters. The gameplay also changed alot from previous SNK titles, the action was alot faster and was more combo oriented, with many flashy special and super moves.

The History of Fighting Games: Part 2

2007-04-07T13:17:00.000+01:00

Chapter 1: In the beginning, Part 2

In the first of part of "In the beginning" we looked at the father of fighting games, Karate Champ, the intitial blueprint which all future fighters would follow. The original release of Karate Champ was a single player game, two player versus didn't come about till slighty later. However in 1985, a few other companies took a stab at the fighting game genre based on the original of Karate Champ, Shanghai Kid and the more popular Yie Ar Kung Fu. Both Single player games.

Shanghai kid was similar to Karate champ in alot of ways, but quite different at the same time. First major difference is that there is only 1 joystick, used for movement and blocking. And 2 buttons for attacks. While the attack commands become alot simplier, blocking became much more complicated. Most of us are accustomed to only blocking high/mid and low attacks in fighting games, but in Shanghai Kid you had 3 areas to block, head, high/mid and low areas. When playing through the game you would face opponents of increasing difficulty, but the thing which set it apart here is that you was told by red circles on your enemy where you should at attack for that moment. If you attacked elsewhere there was a good chance you would get countered and lose some of your health. Which reminds me, the point scoring system employed by Karate Champ is now gone. In its place a small life bar which would deplete if you was hit, much more familiar.

Many of you have probably at least heard of Yie Ar Kung Fu. A single player fighting game which makes use of the same controls are Shanhai kid, a joystick and a punch and kick button. Now what makes this game stand out is are the enemies you face. You control Oolong and with your deadly kung fu attacks you take on many different opponents each weilding a different weapon and with each boss brings a new challenge, each requiring a different strategy. Yie Ar Kung Fu also brought greatly improved graphics to the fighters (well compared to Karate Champ and Shanghai kid). All the characters look very unique and theres even two different backgrounds/stages to the game, awesome.

Next on the List is Galactic Warriors. It allowed for 2 players to fight eachother, nothing new there (karate champ already did this), it allowed for a choice of characters. Granted there was only three, but three is better than one. Galactic warriors also introduced the the projectile, not bad for a game made in 1985. Granted they were little more than rockets, activated by only a push of a button (not the motions we are used to today), but it did add a new playing experience to fighting games, now you didn't have to be right next to your opponent to do damage. Also of note is that the character sprites where much larger and alot more detailed than the previous games. This would soon become standard among fighting games.

It would be two years before another fighting game appeared in the arcade, but it would be one of the most important fighting games in history. Next time on the history of fighters, "The Birth of Special Moves"

The History of Fighting Games: Part 1

2007-04-07T13:09:00.000+01:00

Chapter 1: In the beginning, Part 1

In the beginning, in a time even before Street fighter, where graphics were blocky and sound was often nothing more than the odd bleep, there was a fighting game which gave birth to the genre. Its name Karate Champ (Data East USA). Made in 1984 during the day where arcades were supreme, this odd game let you fight your opponent in unarmed combat. There wasn't life bars, or specials moves, just plain old normals. However this was not the oddest thing about the game, each player had two joysticks with which to control their identical men (only a palette seperated them, a brass tactic also employed by Street Fighter). The left joystick for movement and blocking and the right joystick for attacking, moving both sticks would result in different normal moves, similar to how command normals work in more modern fighting games. Attacks range from jumping attacks to sweeps, from long range pokes to little kicks to the legs.

Now it doesn't sound at all remarkable, but the game actually had tactics believe it or not. Your moves don't simply work by pushing the stick in a direction. All the moves had a start up time, for which you had to hold the stick a direction untill the move finally came out. If you move the stick away from that direction, then the move would stop mid start up. This allowed for feints, coaxing your opponent to make a wrong move so you could strike them. Now both you and opponent are trying to do this so to try and land a hit to score a point. First person to win 2 points won that round. However this in itself caused a serious problem at "high level play". More often than not the person who commited a full move first would get hit for thier trouble. This meant both players would play very defensively, not wanting to try and strike eachother.

One of the best features about the game is the little training part, just before you start. Its quite common in snk games to see a little tutorial on how to do the universal moves, utilising the ABCD buttons. Now Karate Champ you have something similar, but instead of just watching you actually get to try them out with your character as your being shown. I think this is great and should be standard in all fighters. Karate Champ laid down the foundation, but who would be the ones to bring the genre to new heights.

Welcome to the Skow Yard

2007-04-07T12:54:00.000+01:00

For those you don't know me, I am r3ko, and this is my Skow Yard.

In my Skow Yard, i'll be discussing Fighting Games. I'll be taking a look at aspects of the genre, and do my best to try and update this blog regularly with my Skow thoughts.

You probably thinking by now, "who is this clown?" and "what does he know about fighting games?" Truth be told i know about as much as Jack Shit, and Jack just left town. Well thats all for now, stay tuned for future blog posts.