Fighting Games General Thread(Street Fighter, MAHVEL BAYBEH, KOF, Mortal Kombat, etc)

[Zevox]

The interesting thing to me about that is that, since Haggar wasn't on the previously-leaked roster list, it seems to confirm the datamined one that included him and several others in addition to that leak's characters. Two things about that, though:

- It includes characters that we know to be DLC (Sigma and Black Panther, plus the rumored-to-be-DLC Venom), so not every unannounced character on it may be in the base roster.
- With regard to DLC, it's imbalanced between the two sides if all of the six planned first wave of DLC are in there. Every Capcom character on that list except the Monster Hunter has been announced already, and only Sigma has been announced as DLC - plus Hunter was on the first leak's list, so presumably he's a base roster character. Which either means they're going the weird route of releasing the game with more Capcom characters than Marvel ones and having more Marvel than Capcom in the first wave of DLC, or some of the DLC characters aren't among this list. Given the way the character select screen is split between the two sides, I'm thinking the latter is more likely, which is good since that's the better of the two possibilities.

So yeah, that leaves MvCI's roster in a more interesting place than it has been - some actual uncertainty is in the equation again. Also, personally, of the datamined characters, I really hope Dormammu is in the base roster. The rest of them don't really do anything for me, but he was one of my favorites in MvC3, so if I can get him I'll actually have two characters from MvC3 that I played that I can default back to if I don't like any newcomers (the other being Dante).

As far the recent announcements, mostly meh for me. Never played the returning characters in 3, likely won't in Infinite. I did like what I saw of Gamora, and even Jedah, at Evo though. Gamora will probably be the first newcomer I try out, because a team of Dante and Gamora would be too sick not to use if I wind up liking her - two very different characters who nonetheless both rock an arsenal of weapons ranging from swords to guns? Yes please. And Jedah, well, I'm not a Darkstalkers fan, but I liked what I saw of him enough to give him a try. I won't be too surprised if I wind up not using him just like the other Darkstalkers, but he's piqued my interest more than Felicia ever did, at least.

[danzibr]

Hey, I don't know if this is the right thread for this (I could make a new one), but any thoughts on For Honor?

[Zevox]

So, I went ahead and picked up Tekken 7, and have been playing it just a little bit. Haven't gone online or anything yet, I'm still getting my bearings, which is not proving easy. Coming into a 3D fighter from 2D fighters is pretty jarring, what with jumping being nothing like it is in 2D games, sidestepping being a thing you need to use and deal with, almost nobody having any projectile moves, overheads being super-common all over the place, the way knockdowns work being drastically different (I actually need to look up how they work, I'm having a time figuring out how to do a basic "stand up and block" option without getting a roll or attack I didn't want), every character having like over 100 moves on their move list ( )...

I tried out the characters I played in SFxT. Hwoarang is definitely a no-go, his different stances complicate things way too much when I don't even have a handle on the game's basics. Asuka and Alisa seem more promising, and Asuka is probably the one I'm the most comfortable with right now - though really that just means I know a combo with her and have used her a little in Treasure Battles (which I apparently need to play a ton of if I want those customization items, which I kind of do...). I still need to try Lili, Master Raven, and maybe Akuma.

I played through the story mode, which was shorter than I expected. Honestly, it kind of feels like the only parts they really wanted in there were the backstory of Heihachi and Kazuya and that final fight at the end, and the rest was just filler - they sure skipped straight to that final fight abruptly enough, anyway. And oh god, that final boss fight was crazy cheap. I had to drop the difficulty to novice to actually beat it, with Kazuya getting that last surge of health and super armor on everything when you get his hp to 0. And somehow, the bonus fight with Akuma was even worse - even on novice it took me so many tries to beat that, because every time I pushed a button he just teleported, parried, focus attacked, or shoryukened me. And then you needed to figure out that you had to do your rage art at the end in the one second you had before he hit you with that Raging Demon, or you just auto-died. Yeesh, that was frustrating.

[Murmaider]

So, I went ahead and picked up Tekken 7, and have been playing it just a little bit. Haven't gone online or anything yet, I'm still getting my bearings, which is not proving easy. Coming into a 3D fighter from 2D fighters is pretty jarring, what with jumping being nothing like it is in 2D games, sidestepping being a thing you need to use and deal with, almost nobody having any projectile moves, overheads being super-common all over the place, the way knockdowns work being drastically different (I actually need to look up how they work, I'm having a time figuring out how to do a basic "stand up and block" option without getting a roll or attack I didn't want), every character having like over 100 moves on their move list ( )...

Most characters don't really jump much, except up/forward 3 or 4.

Best way to get up as a beginner, is just holding back. It's the only one where you're invincible for some frames.

There's no need to learn every move on that list. Just remember your 10-frame punisher(usually 1,2) and then pick up some mids and at least one low that seem good. Then you need an armor move(the one with a red sign in the move list) and a tracking move(this one has a blue sign). The first one is (mostly) uninterruptable, the second tracks sidestepping in both directions.

Learn the grabs. On low ranks, people won't break them. Break grabs by pressing 1, right when you get grabbed(or 2, when you're up against, Jin, Paul, Lin or Steve. Then there's also King...)

I tried out the characters I played in SFxT. Hwoarang is definitely a no-go, his different stances complicate things way too much when I don't even have a handle on the game's basics. Asuka and Alisa seem more promising, and Asuka is probably the one I'm the most comfortable with right now - though really that just means I know a combo with her and have used her a little in Treasure Battles (which I apparently need to play a ton of if I want those customization items, which I kind of do...). I still need to try Lili, Master Raven, and maybe Akuma.

Hwoarang is hard to play, because of his huge move list, yet, for some reason, it feels like he's the most played character on low ranks.

Josie, Kasumi, Shaheen and Claudio have the shortest move lists of all the characters and are pretty easy to learn. Or stick with Asuka and Alisa, they're pretty beginner friendly as well.

I played through the story mode, which was shorter than I expected. Honestly, it kind of feels like the only parts they really wanted in there were the backstory of Heihachi and Kazuya and that final fight at the end, and the rest was just filler - they sure skipped straight to that final fight abruptly enough, anyway. And oh god, that final boss fight was crazy cheap. I had to drop the difficulty to novice to actually beat it, with Kazuya getting that last surge of health and super armor on everything when you get his hp to 0. And somehow, the bonus fight with Akuma was even worse - even on novice it took me so many tries to beat that, because every time I pushed a button he just teleported, parried, focus attacked, or shoryukened me. And then you needed to figure out that you had to do your rage art at the end in the one second you had before he hit you with that Raging Demon, or you just auto-died. Yeesh, that was frustrating.

That story mode was terrible. Way too few fights and way too much boring exposition, delivered by a character who has no relevance in the Tekken universe at all.

Akuma fighting the Mishimas was pretty dope, though. Too bad Jin didn't get to be part of the action.

By the way; what made you try to learn Tekken? Was it Geese?

[Velaryon]

Hey, I don't know if this is the right thread for this (I could make a new one), but any thoughts on For Honor?

It's basically a fighting game disguised as Dynasty Warriors. Not bad in concept, but the matchmaking is absolutely horrible, the game balance leaves a lot to be desired, and the faction warfare system is completely broken.

Hwoarang is hard to play, because of his huge move list, yet, for some reason, it feels like he's the most played character on low ranks.

Hwoarang is quite noob-friendly at first, thanks to his easy 4 and 5-kick combos just by spamming the two kick buttons. It works quite well if you're playing against someone who can't deal with simple button-mashing. Once you pass the point where that's no longer effective though, he becomes a LOT harder to play.

[Murmaider]

Just defeated Akuma as Kazuya on the hardest difficulty. Took me only about 20 billion tries. Still, I couldn't tell you what Akuma says at the beginning of every match.

Then I tried Kasumi for a bit. I was too tired to go online, but I got some perfect treasure matches, by abusing Kasumis tiger-conjuring powers. Tekken bots can not deal with projectiles.

[Zevox]

Okay, before I get to responding to people: Dragon Ball FighterZ's beta. On the one hand, it's been delayed, by a full month. On the other hand, that's to increase the capacity for it, and it now has an actual date rather than just a sign-up date: the beta itself will run from September 16th through the 18th. The three days immediately before Marvel vs Capcom Infinite releases on September 19th.

That is awesome! That's going to be a great weekend, getting to try out a game that looks as promising as DBFZ (assuming I can get into the beta, but hopefully since they're specifically shooting for increased capacity...) and then go straight into a new Marvel. But besides that, that has to be deliberate, right? That's ArcSys/Namco inviting people to compare the two. That's some confidence on their part, but I can't say it's unwarranted.

Most characters don't really jump much, except up/forward 3 or 4.

Best way to get up as a beginner, is just holding back. It's the only one where you're invincible for some frames.

There's no need to learn every move on that list. Just remember your 10-frame punisher(usually 1,2) and then pick up some mids and at least one low that seem good. Then you need an armor move(the one with a red sign in the move list) and a tracking move(this one has a blue sign). The first one is (mostly) uninterruptable, the second tracks sidestepping in both directions.

Learn the grabs. On low ranks, people won't break them. Break grabs by pressing 1, right when you get grabbed(or 2, when you're up against, Jin, Paul, Lin or Steve. Then there's also King...)

Hm, okay then. Though does every character even have an armored move? That would surprise me a bit, most fighting games tend to reserve that for the big guys.

Speaking of throws though, well, that's kind of a weakness I have in every fighting game, honestly. Teching throws has never really been something I've managed intentionally, except sometimes with purple throws in BlazBlue - and even then only rarely. It just seems to be something my brain's never quite wrapped itself around the idea of reacting to in the midst of a match...

Hwoarang is hard to play, because of his huge move list, yet, for some reason, it feels like he's the most played character on low ranks.

Josie, Kasumi, Shaheen and Claudio have the shortest move lists of all the characters and are pretty easy to learn. Or stick with Asuka and Alisa, they're pretty beginner friendly as well.

Hm, yeah, I watched a video yesterday that gave a basic overview of the play style of each character, how hard they are to play, and who they'd be recommended for, and Josie and Claudio were two that caught my eye in that as well. Still, I'm currently looking mostly at Asuka and Lili (whom I toyed around with in training mode for a while last night, and was generally liking). The thing that makes me a bit cautious about Asuka and Alisa is that said video referred to them as very defensive characters in playstyle, and I'm having a bit of a hard time visualizing how to play defensively in a game like this, where projectiles aren't a thing except with Akuma and Eliza (and even there Akuma at least isn't a zoner despite that) and nobody really seems to have a huge range advantage over everyone else ala a Dhalsim type. Lili being considered more of a rushdown type might be a better fit for me to start with.

That story mode was terrible. Way too few fights and way too much boring exposition, delivered by a character who has no relevance in the Tekken universe at all.

I wouldn't agree that that was its problem personally - I completely advocate the mindset of putting in only as many fights as make sense for the story being told, ala BlazBlue's recent entries for example. I was baffled by the purpose of the reporter character though. He's not a playable character, doesn't seem like he would be since there's no indication he can fight, isn't even given a name, and even his voice acting was so monotone it was almost comical. It's like they thought they needed a narrator, but also needed to give him an in-narrative identity, but for some reason didn't want to use any actual character from the series. Just strange.

Akuma fighting the Mishimas was pretty dope, though.

Yeah, that was definitely the best part of it. Cool to see Akuma just kind of show up as if he belonged in the game and kick some ass with the best of the series' badasses - certainly feels like the sort of thing he'd do.

By the way; what made you try to learn Tekken? Was it Geese?

Nah, I'm actually not familiar with him at all, so that announcement did nothing for me. It's mostly the good word-of-mouth, liking what I saw of it both on Maximilian's youtube channel and at Evo, and the fact that I've never really tried a 3D fighter since getting into the genre. I spent some time with Soul Calibur 5 a couple years ago, but not even enough to say I was particularly comfortable with that game. Half of the fun there was just designing custom characters, really. And well, Tekken is definitely the big dog on the block as far as 3D fighting games go, so it seems like the one to try. I actually intended to try it back when Tag 2 was the current game, even, but just never got around to it.

Hwoarang is quite noob-friendly at first, thanks to his easy 4 and 5-kick combos just by spamming the two kick buttons. It works quite well if you're playing against someone who can't deal with simple button-mashing. Once you pass the point where that's no longer effective though, he becomes a LOT harder to play.

Eh, I'd like to at least try to play better than simply button-mashing (whether I succeed is another matter, but still), so I think I'm going to pass on him until/unless I get a lot more comfortable with the game and with stance-change characters generally.

[Murmaider]

Hm, okay then. Though does every character even have an armored move? That would surprise me a bit, most fighting games tend to reserve that for the big guys.

Every character has at least one armor move. They vary in strength though, so some characters only want to use them when they really have to.

Speaking of throws though, well, that's kind of a weakness I have in every fighting game, honestly. Teching throws has never really been something I've managed intentionally, except sometimes with purple throws in BlazBlue - and even then only rarely. It just seems to be something my brain's never quite wrapped itself around the idea of reacting to in the midst of a match...

Yeah, it boggles my mind how really good players manage to break every throw the first time. It's possible to see the difference in throws when they occur, not for me though

On the ranks I'm playing, people usually break simple throws, while tech throws get through, unless someone is really spamming. Regular throws are broken with 1 and tech throws with 1+2, so if I mash 1 when I get grabbed, it's a 50/50. Or I just duck.

Hm, yeah, I watched a video yesterday that gave a basic overview of the play style of each character, how hard they are to play, and who they'd be recommended for, and Josie and Claudio were two that caught my eye in that as well. Still, I'm currently looking mostly at Asuka and Lili (whom I toyed around with in training mode for a while last night, and was generally liking). The thing that makes me a bit cautious about Asuka and Alisa is that said video referred to them as very defensive characters in playstyle, and I'm having a bit of a hard time visualizing how to play defensively in a game like this, where projectiles aren't a thing except with Akuma and Eliza (and even there Akuma at least isn't a zoner despite that) and nobody really seems to have a huge range advantage over everyone else ala a Dhalsim type. Lili being considered more of a rushdown type might be a better fit for me to start with.

Tekken is more about your personal playstyle than what character you actually play. Asuka is good on the defense because of her parries and high damage on launch punishers, but if you can pressure your opponent into ducking at the wrong time, you can play her very aggressive too.
Alisa is good at keeping the opponent out with her long reach, but that reach can also be used as annoying and fairly high damage poke.
Lili can be good on the defense too, because she has the best sidestep in the game.

Lili has some moves that she can only use when her back is turned towards the enemy. Not technically a stance, but it kinda is. Just something to be aware of, if you're specifically looking for characters without a stance.

[Velaryon]

Eh, I'd like to at least try to play better than simply button-mashing (whether I succeed is another matter, but still), so I think I'm going to pass on him until/unless I get a lot more comfortable with the game and with stance-change characters generally.

I didn't mean to suggest that you play Hwoarang, merely to mention that button mashers often find initial success with him because he has a couple of easy and spammable kick combos. If anything, that's probably more useful to you as something to look out for.

Tekken 6 was the last one I played, and most of my experience comes from before that. But for good characters who don't do much with stance changes, you can't go wrong with Paul or any of the Mishima/Kazama family members. Or if you do decide to try out characters with different stances, Lei and Xiaoyu are two of my favorites.

[Zevox]

Tekken is more about your personal playstyle than what character you actually play. Asuka is good on the defense because of her parries and high damage on launch punishers, but if you can pressure your opponent into ducking at the wrong time, you can play her very aggressive too.
Alisa is good at keeping the opponent out with her long reach, but that reach can also be used as annoying and fairly high damage poke.
Lili can be good on the defense too, because she has the best sidestep in the game.

Perhaps, but I figure it's probably best to aim for my first character to be someone that's suited to how I'd like to play, particularly since I'll be learning a system that's very foreign to me here as a 2D fighting game player.

Lili has some moves that she can only use when her back is turned towards the enemy. Not technically a stance, but it kinda is. Just something to be aware of, if you're specifically looking for characters without a stance.

Yes, but that actually doesn't bother me. There's only a few things that put her in that stance, and only a few things she does out of it, all of them pretty straightforward. The thing that's scaring me away from Hwoarang is primarily that even which side of his body is facing the camera is technically a stance and changes his moves, which seems nuts. And to a lesser degree Flamingo Stance, which seems very awkward to control, but if it were just that I could simply try to avoid it.

Anyway, I actually went online and played some matches the past couple of nights! To very mixed results. Mostly lost, of course, though that's to be expected when I've never played the game or even series before and didn't get it day 1. Had everything from an awful connection with a button-masher I couldn't do anything about due to the connection eating almost all my inputs, to decent matches with people who only rematched if they lost and left as soon as they got a win (was using Player Matches, not ranked), to players who were clearly way beyond me and left after only one fight, to a player who was clearly beyond me but kept playing but eventually started acting like a jackass about it, to finally a single opponent who was of similar skill to me who actually stuck around for a good half-dozen or so games. That last was the best part, obviously, I feel like I got a lot more comfortable with some things thanks to it.

I was playing Lili, and some things are definitely taking some getting used to. Timing on just about everything, obviously, but besides that, a big one is lows. I mean, I can't exactly get anyone with those big damage launchers if they never block low, so I need to use them - but her down 3 seems to be slower than I thought from how it looked, her down 4 is a little awkward in that it leaves her crouching, and neither of them knock down or lead to any combos. Her down-back 4 does, but it's crazy slow and I'd be shocked if it's not punishable as heck on block, so I keep being afraid to use it. I kind of feel like I may have to do though, since it's the only low she has that seems that threatening.

Another thing is sidesteps. I've yet to use them basically at all, and when I face anyone who can incorporate them into their play, I get blown up easily. That's just one of those things that's really going to screw with me for a while, I think.

Also, I'm going to need to break the habit of throwing out super raw when I get it. I do that a lot against the computer in Treasure Battles, because it generally just gets hit by it and loses the match, but it's more likely to lose me the match off the punish than win it for me online.

[Murmaider]

Perhaps, but I figure it's probably best to aim for my first character to be someone that's suited to how I'd like to play, particularly since I'll be learning a system that's very foreign to me here as a 2D fighting game player.

Sure, I hear ya. i guess what I was trying to imply, was, that it doesn't matter which character you start with. The fundamentals are what Tekken is about and what you learn on one character, will translate to everyone else, or, at least, will give you better match-up knowledge.

I was playing Lili, and some things are definitely taking some getting used to. Timing on just about everything, obviously, but besides that, a big one is lows. I mean, I can't exactly get anyone with those big damage launchers if they never block low, so I need to use them - but her down 3 seems to be slower than I thought from how it looked, her down 4 is a little awkward in that it leaves her crouching, and neither of them knock down or lead to any combos. Her down-back 4 does, but it's crazy slow and I'd be shocked if it's not punishable as heck on block, so I keep being afraid to use it. I kind of feel like I may have to do though, since it's the only low she has that seems that threatening.

Another thing is sidesteps. I've yet to use them basically at all, and when I face anyone who can incorporate them into their play, I get blown up easily. That's just one of those things that's really going to screw with me for a while, I think.

Well, if your gameplan requires them to duck, you'll have to give them a reason to. I wouldn't worry too much about your lows getting punished. You gotta throw stuff out there to find out how your opponent reacts.

Sidestepping is something that comes with better matchup knowledge. If you keep getting hit by the same move and you feel there's no way to punish it on block and you can't duck under it, then you probably found a move that needs to be sidestepped.
Other moves can be sidestepped as well, but often have very restrictive timing and/or they're homing to one side.

If you're opponents keep sidestepping, it's maybe time to give that d/b 4 another go

[Mikemical]

We talking Tekken now? Cool.

I got the third game for my PSX and played it to death, then my cousin got his PS2 and we played through 4, Tag and 5. Hwoarang was always my main pick up until 6 where he got some of his moves changed(you could no longer get a 5-kick combo with just one button, Hunting Owl lost priority, though the new grabs in different stances are pretty damn cool), though the one I felt was the most changed was Jin from 4 to 6, in 3 he was a Kazuya clone with some new moves thrown in, but starting in 5 he started getting more technical.

In 6 I switched to Lars because unless you learned how to use him, you would have a bad time going through the story mode. I also picked up Miguel and enjoyed how goofy he was despite hitting like a truck, and even knocking people flat out with his taunt-punch.

I wish I had a way to play 7, because what I've liked what I've seen. Also, that SF is somewhat canon within the Tekken-verse is kind of cool, just so we can forget that horrible mess that was SFxTekken.

[Zevox]

So, we got a new story mode trailer for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, and it actually looks surprisingly good. Perhaps it's partially because they don't linger on any shot long enough for things like Chun-Li's blank stare to become an issue, but they actually make it looks like a legit, cinematic story mode, similar to what NetherRealm has done in their games. It looks like Jedah will be a major antagonist for the game in addition to Ultron-Sigma (unclear on whether he's aligned with Ultron-Sigma or a secondary villain, but he seems implied to be allied with Dormammu and Firebrand, and to have the Venom Symbiote under his control). It's a little interesting to hear that Ultron-Sigma only has two of the Infinity Stones - perhaps Jedah has another one or two, and the heroes get ahold of the others? There's also a cameo by Doctor Light, which was very unexpected and great to see.

On another note: Dragon Ball FighterZ news! Androids 18 and 16 are confirmed to be playable, but evidently, not 17. He is instead a part of 18's moveset, being summoned to assist her for at least one of her supers and many of her specials. So, sort of like Personas in Persona 4 Arena, I'm thinking, except only for specials rather than normal moves - I kind of like that, I'll have to try her/them out (maybe they'll be in the beta?). And evidently, Android 16 will be a significant player in the story mode, which involves dead characters like him being brought back to fight the heroes. That's probably how they're explaining having characters from different periods in the series' story all around in one story mode. Oh, and on a neat note, there's apparently going to be an online mode where each character on your team can be controlled by a different player, resulting in 6-player matches - that's a neat option, the only similar thing I recall is SFxT's 2v2 mode.

[Velaryon]

We talking Tekken now? Cool.

I got the third game for my PSX and played it to death, then my cousin got his PS2 and we played through 4, Tag and 5. Hwoarang was always my main pick up until 6 where he got some of his moves changed(you could no longer get a 5-kick combo with just one button, Hunting Owl lost priority, though the new grabs in different stances are pretty damn cool), though the one I felt was the most changed was Jin from 4 to 6, in 3 he was a Kazuya clone with some new moves thrown in, but starting in 5 he started getting more technical.

In 6 I switched to Lars because unless you learned how to use him, you would have a bad time going through the story mode. I also picked up Miguel and enjoyed how goofy he was despite hitting like a truck, and even knocking people flat out with his taunt-punch.

I wish I had a way to play 7, because what I've liked what I've seen. Also, that SF is somewhat canon within the Tekken-verse is kind of cool, just so we can forget that horrible mess that was SFxTekken.

Ugh, that story mode in 6 completely killed my love for Tekken. I played a fair amount of 3 and 4 in college, but none of my friends back home like fighting games much so I mostly played 5 by myself. It was bad enough that 6 was one of those games where you can't read anything if you don't have an HD television (I didn't at the time), but the bosses were absurdly difficult to the point where I could only win through sheer dumb luck and trying 20 freakin' times. I haven't touched the game in years now, and while I do kinda miss it, I would only go back to 4 or 5 at this point, because 6 can die in a fire and 7 looks like more of the same.

[Zevox]

So, more Dragon Ball FighterZ news quick on the heels of the last. We got a new trailer showing off Piccolo, Krillin, and the Androids in action, which looks pretty sick. In addition though, it actually gives the release window for the game: February 2018. Which is pretty surprisingly fast, I have to say, especially for the western version of an ArcSys game, which typically takes a few months from when the Japanese version comes out. Namco's influence, perhaps? I just hope it doesn't portend the game being rushed in some way - though with ArcSys' track record and how great the game looks even at this stage, I can't say I'm too worried about that.

Beyond that though, they've also begun registration for the closed beta, if anyone else is interested. No guarantees you get in of course, but if you do, it'll be going on in mid-September, and apparently include all 11 currently-announced playable characters. And there will apparently also be an open beta later, which is mentioned briefly in the trailer. Which is nice, but I still really want to get into the closed beta - getting to try out DBFZ the weekend right before Marvel Infinite comes out just seems too perfect and fun.

[Zevox]

So, I've recently gotten back into playing BlazBlue, thanks to the release of Jubei, and it has been great. Jubei's a lot of fun, fortunately not too difficult to play, and very different from other characters I've played in the series - he's pure rushdown, while I'm accustomed to more balanced types (Jin in CT and CS, Platinum) or more zoning-oriented characters (Hazama in CS, Lambda briefly, Nine), so there's some definite adjusting I have to do to him, and it's fun just trying to learn the different skills he takes compared to them. But even though I'm getting my butt kicked consistently, because almost everyone still playing online is easily better than me (and the ones that aren't are often laggy...), it's still a ton of fun. Honestly, more than I've had with any fighting game in quite some time. I just wish I had more free time to spend on it.

Which maybe makes it a bit of a mixed blessing that I didn't get into the Dragon Ball FighterZ beta that's happening this weekend. Disappointing, I really wanted to try that out, but more time for BlazBlue.

But that'll end come next Tuesday, because that is finally the release of Marvel vs Capcom Infinite! Which I'm definitely looking forward to at this point - even if I like none of the new characters I've at least got Dante and Dormammu to fall back on, and I think odds are I'll like at least a couple, since every new character in the roster interests me to at least some degree. I'm seriously crossing my fingers for good netcode though, I could not deal with Marvel 3 level online these days. It needs to be at least up to SF5's standard, preferably better.

[Zejety]

I'm currently having a great time with the early access version of Sirlin's Fantasy Strike.
It's a game deliberately designed to be simple to understand and execute, so it's

1. a great entrypoint for new FG players
2. a game for players who struggle with execution
3. intermediate players who still never quite reached the "mindgames" stage of high-level play
4. a game that players of different FGs can easily pick up and play against eachother with little prep

It's currently pre-alpha and only launched on EA a couple days ago, so the matchmaking queue can be a allegedly a little empty at times, but I've consistently found opponents, even in the EU.
This may not replace everyones' "main games" but it's a really fun diversion and can be played seriously. It's interesting to see how much complexity one can strip from the genre while retaining much of the mindgames and depth.

Anyone else playing it?

[Zevox]

No, I think I've seen mention of it once or twice on Shoryuken, but haven't played it myself. Looking it up, seems fun, but it's steam exclusive, and I don't trust my computer to run a fighting game well. I'd try it out if they had a PS4 version, but for now, sadly no dice.

[Zejety]

No, I think I've seen mention of it once or twice on Shoryuken, but haven't played it myself. Looking it up, seems fun, but it's steam exclusive, and I don't trust my computer to run a fighting game well. I'd try it out if they had a PS4 version, but for now, sadly no dice.

My PC runs the game fine on a lower resolution and it's pretty old too (bought it when Diablo III came out). That being said, it is pretty unoptimized at the moment (which is to be expected).
A PS4 version is indeed planned, but sadly not available yet (I understand that Sony is not a fan of unfinished games on their platform).

Edit: Steam refunds are still a thing, so you could always test how the game runs on your PC.

[Mikemical]

Behold, the cornerstones of our universe's creation!

The Infinity Easter Eggs!

[Zevox]

Behold, the cornerstones of our universe's creation!

The Infinity Easter Eggs!

Yeah, I saw that. I would probably be pretty upset if I were the sort of person who actually bought collectors editions, but fortunately I am not. Really sad for those who were expecting something like the cool design they originally advertised, though.

Definitely looking forward to tomorrow. I need to try out all the new characters, get started learning how Dante and Dormammu differ from their MvC3 versions, figure out which Infinity Stone(s) I'll prefer (currently liking the look of Time, Reality, and Mind, maybe Soul) - oh, and play through the story mode I suppose, see if that's any good. But mostly figure out who I'll play and start practicing for online, and cross my fingers that the early reports I've seen of it being good are accurate.

[Zevox]

So, is anybody else playing Marvel Infinite now that it's out? I've gone through the story mode, spent a lot of time in training mode, and played just a bit online today. Impressions:

In general, the game's plenty fun, very Marvel despite the lack of assists. The combos have become incredibly open and freeform in this one, even compared to MvC3. It's amazing how easy it is to extend combos even with characters who previously mostly had to make do with shorter ones, like Dormammu, and somebody like Dante pretty much gets to make his combo go until proration says it has to stop every time, and can mix and match how he does it. Throw in the tag mechanic and well, yeah, when you get a hit, it shouldn't be hard to get good damage on it with pretty well any team. (Except maybe a throw, who can get a combo after those seems more limited.)

The story mode was decent - fun little action romp, nothing to write home about, but it's what you kind of want out of a crossover that makes as little sense as this one. You get to see things like Ultron and Sigma meeting and fusing, Thor getting infected by the sigma virus, Thanos stealing the Satsui No Hado from Ryu, Dante and Tony Stark being total bros while Captains America and Marvel get exasperated over it; just random fun stuff in a totally nonsensical action story. 6/10, might play again sometime, probably won't, but it was fun.

Anyway, the online! It's fairly good! I am kind of annoyed that, as far as I can tell, you can't see what your opponent's connection quality is in ranked. But I set it to search for people with a rating of 4+ (out of 5), was finding people in short enough order, and the connections were mostly okay. Some jittering sometimes, but usually relatively smooth. Definitely a far cry better than Marvel 3. I played a team of Dante and Captain Marvel, using the Reality Stone. Still not sure that's the stone I want to stick with for that team (and it doesn't help that I often forget it's there...), but it seems like the easiest to use while I'm still learning the basics. I played a number of people who clearly didn't know what they were doing and won those easily, but a couple of others that had some idea what to do. Beat two of those - narrowly, against a Spider-Man/Chun-Li player who was all over the place with their innate speed and the Time Stone - and lost to one, a Haggar/Thanos player using the Power Stone. Mostly because of Haggar: the pipe is still very strong, and I could not find a way to handle it in the couple of rounds I had.

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun, and looking forward to playing more. I'm not completely sure Dante and Captain Marvel will be my main team - pretty sure Dante will be on it, but Captain Marvel just seems like the easiest to learn of the other characters I'm interested in for now. I was liking Dormammu, Thanos, and Ultron too though, and to a lesser extent Gammora, X, Zero, and Dr. Strange, but all of them will be harder to learn/adjust to. (Surprisingly, I even think Dormammu will be harder to adjust to in this version than Dante, even though you'd think Dante would be the one who was more thrown off by the new control scheme. They did a few weird things with Dorm, while with Dante I can just mostly ignore the kick buttons when it comes to normals and learn the new properties of his specials and be fine.)