That explains my confusion, since I will always have a place in my heart for French Soul Calibur superstars like Kayane and Keev. . .
Given that one French shmup player that kicks butt with a keyboard, we probably shouldn’t read too much into the controller choices of the French.
I saw someone use a custom keypad in Evo in 2009. I knew the person was a Kaillera warrior (a really old way to play MAME emulator online- was bad netcode but only way to play certain games online until GGPO emulator was introduced) so not surprised.
For those who are interested in storyline stuff in fighting games, it’s not going to be there at launch. They’re planning a full story mode for the Summer (guessing to fit in DLC chars and because they wanted to get the real game out ASAP)
Oh, and one last heads up, they’re doing one last beta this Saturday and Sunday.
Oh, Going to throw a warning to some folks here: The launch version of SF5 is going to be VERY barebones in terms of single player content. Much of it is getting added later. Story mode is just 3 fights, survival is a joke, and no way to just randomly play AI outside of training.
The game is being rushed out for the purposes of the competitive community, and they prioritized multiplayer online and local offline versus play entirely (which is what I want)
So if you’re a single-player only person for fighting games, I would strongly recommend waiting until Story mode comes out this summer (that said, I doubt a sale happens) . If you care about “getting good”, you can step in day 1 no problem. That said, the way SF5 has been designed, everything arbitrary about SF4 is gone, and IMO- it is the best core system Capcom has ever made, judging from my beta experience.
I kinda hope Tom doesn’t review it now.
This seems to be kind of a shit-show for early players. As Alstein mentioned above, story mode is just a three-match chunk, there’s no way to play against the AI except in training mode, and the servers aren’t reliable yet. The microtransaction stuff (not working yet) is littered throughout.
But hey, $60 pre-order and you get a bonus Chun-Li costume.
It’s a pretty ballsy and probably foolish move to release such a bare bones game for $60. It says a lot about their faith in the Capcom Pro Tour that they would rather rush out a game without any single player content and suffer a hit to review scores than to miss the start of the annual tournament circuit. It’s kind of amazing how far they have come around on supporting the competitive scene in just a couple of years. I’m fully on board with what they’re doing so long as the online play is as smooth as it’s supposed to be.
Is it supposed to be smooth? I read someone (Evil Avatar, iirc) that summarized the reviews saying there were netcode issues accross all reivews and platforms, at least mentioned, so that’s a little worrying. I haven’t ready any reviews myself though.
I was really into getting this and a second PS4 controller so my son and I could play a few matches a day, just for fun, or in between waiting for a show we were both going to watch, but I spent the money on my wife’s upcoming birthday instead, and this purchase will have to wait. I’m kind of glad I held off though, as it sounds like other than playing with my boy in local Vs. mode (which now I type that, I only assume is available at launch!?) and probably some training mode action when he’s busy with his friends, I wouldn’t get much out of this.
Though, I suppose if I’m being honest, that’s all I really wanted. It sounds like the core fighting mechanic (the, you know, game itself) is pretty damned tight, and that’s what I was looking for. It also sounds friendly to new comers, which I’m not really I suppose (I was mad skilled at Street Fighter 2 Champ Edition waaaaaay back in the day, but the last one left me in the dust) but he is.
The netcode delivers as advertised. I’d put it at around Killer Instinct level, which is just a slight notch below Skullgirls level. That’s very good. The issues with netcode in the beta were either being matched with people on the other side of the globe, which no netcode can fix, or people having terrible wireless connection. Anyone who plays a fighting game on wireless should be forced to listen to a Triforce business pitch.
It’s by far the best netcode any of the major fighters has ever had.
The microtransaction stuff- characters won’t cost money if you play a reasonable amount. Costumes is where they plan on making their money- so like DOTA, not League.
Also, this is my own personal opinion- but I’ve been doing fighting games longer than most- I think this is the best core system of any fighting game ever. There might be character balance issues, but the core system is really smart. It might even surpass my all-time favorite Virtua Fighter, and that is not something I say lightly- it’s on par with me saying there’s a better RTS than Ahriman’s Gift. I’d say the friendliness to newcomers comes from most characters being easy and intuitive to control, though some chars are tricky (Chun-Li, Karin, and Dhalsim will probably have the highest execution requirements)
The one thing I’m sore about right now is how directinput isn’t supported natively on PC. That’s just inexcusable. x360ce gets around this with minimal effort, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Capcom has said this will be fixed, and their track record of fixes on PC is good, if a bit slow. They are the opposite of scumbag NRS/Warner Bros.
One last suggestion: if anyone wants a cheap pad for play this game- if on console , any Hori FC4 is fine. If you’re playing on PC- get the newer model from play-asia because it has xinput support (same cost, just more shipping). Do not buy the Mad Catz pad, it’s getting panned universally. Also, while PS3 controllers are supported in the PS4 version, it is problematic, and most tournaments are going to ban it I think because of issues with syncing controllers and time requirements. PS4 controllers will be needed.
So far, the reviews have been really positive. Most of the reviews seem to be glossing over the missing SP stuff with “Oh well, no one plays these games for SP anyway, amirite?” I don’t think it’s going to cost Capcom much in the area of reviews.
It also seems to be a hit with the fighting game community so far. The guys that go all in for netcode and frame interrupts and stuff like that have been going nuts for this.
The only people left out are the casual players that like to practice versus AI and what have you.
Couldn’t be more excited from this news:
"Updated Launch Times!
FEBRUARY 15 - WBACON [CAPCOM]
Great news, Street Fighter fans!
We’re happy to confirm that the release date & time for Street Fighter V has been moved up per the revised schedule below.
Europe…Feb. 16 @0:00AM UK (UTC+00:00)
AUS/NZ…Feb. 16 @11:00AM Sydney (UTC+10:00)
Americas…Feb. 16 @0:00AM EST (Feb. 15@9:00PM PST)
Asia…Feb. 17 @2:00AM JST (UTC+09:00)
EDIT: added UTC time zone for extra clarity."
You can play in literally 5 and a half hours! I can’t wait to go online. I was in the betas and I’m already really happy about this game. I always felt, like many other oldschool players, that Street Fighter 4 was a step back in terms of the series. Street Fighter V is returning balance to the universe.
You can still practice with the AI in training mode, although to be honest that is a bit unsatisfying as you never ‘win’ the round. Also the story mode still lets you play a few 1 round matches. I’m not sure exactly what the survival mode is but it’s probably a bit more what people want in terms of versing AI.
Personally, I plan to really go to town with Street Fighter V. I’ve never been a professional level player, but I’ve been above average in street fighter III: third strike. Who knows, maybe I can dream of playing in some of this e-sports scene? A man can dream!
Now the only problem is which character do I choose. I’ve already been playing with Ryu and I love his V-Trigger Fireball Crazy mode, but I’m strongly considering a different character with better footsies (they really nerfed Ryu’s crouching medium kick from other games, he no longer has that great of range).
I’m considering Karin since she has great footsie potential and buttons. I’m also likely to check out a bit of F.A.N.G. as the idea of being lame and firing off poison at my opponent sounds fun. :)
Can you make closed lobbies in this game so I can just play with people who I know and who demonstrate a similar level of suck? I’m just not prepared for the drubbing venturing into the wilds of online fighters is sure to bring. I don’t think I care enough to deal with that.
Right now all lobbies are 2 people only. The March Update will allow 8 person lobbies, and SF has always given the private lobby/kick people from lobby option, so that won’t be a problem.
Good players hate 8 person lobbies anyway except in Skullgirls where there is crossplay. They don’t like waiting to play.
Ranked mode will be a good option for a while as well, because they are using a league system like LoL. Will take a couple of days to be property sorted into house pot monster though.
Got this on pc (for some reason, not really sure), and there are big server issues! Keep getting dc’d. So far it seems as described, great fighting system, diverse range of characters that feel different, missing basic features that (may) get patched in later.
That certainly sounds like a complicated, okay, system.
So $6 a character (or playing the game… a lot, I’m guessing), $4 for a premium costume, and you can only get story mode costumes by playing the game. But additional characters and costumes are what we are talking about and I’m guessing most people would have happily dropped $60 for a new version of the game that came with 10 more characters, so this honestly feels pretty okay to me. Not complex, I don’t think, but they sure word it like it’s some elaborate system. I’m okay with this, if there is a character I really wanted I’d probably have fight money saved up from the campaign/gameplay I guess (it sounds like if you do most of the single player content you can afford the 100k for a character) and if I wanted a second additional character… I guess I could just drop $6 if I didn’t want to wait until I had earned the coins.
I think the important bit is modes and other gameplay bits will be free. That’s a big draw for me, I think that’s pretty cool.
Yeah, I actually think as far as microtransaction models go this one is pretty OK. Basically more fighters are unlockable content, which is totally cool if you enjoy playing the game. Paying extra fro cosmetic stuff is just that, paying extra for cosmetic stuff. Content patches and updates are included, as it should be.
The days of everything for $60 (or $50 not so long ago) are gone as development costs skyrocket. I think Capcom has hit a pretty good revenue stream model here, at least at first blush.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you don’t want to deal with fight money and the like you can just buy the season pass and get the entire roster of second wave characters for $20.
I think a lot of people think that this game is going to have this terrible free to play system, but it’s really pretty benign.
I’m just reminiscing the days when you can easily blow $10-20 dollars in a few hours if your local arcade is very competitive.
And then SF5 springs you this microtransaction model, which is pretty generous in comparison. But it is still very close to F2P model (i.e. grind or pay).
The one thing that annoys me is that colors are unlocked behind survival mode, and you have to redo it for each costume. That’s an hour of tedium per costume that I could spend on doing something fun instead. SFIV vanilla had the same issues.
story costumes cost 40k fight money, characters 100k. The story mode gives you 160k and takes an hour, survivals give you 10k, just playing the game legit doesn’t give you that much though.
I think the season passes are going to end up necessary even for competitive players, so the system is not overly benign. It’s just a replacement for the Super/Ultra upgrades.