{"id":81,"date":"2009-08-13T22:20:21","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T11:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/?p=81"},"modified":"2009-08-13T22:20:21","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T11:20:21","slug":"sf4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/2009\/08\/sf4\/","title":{"rendered":"SF4"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I\u2019ve been play\u00ading Street Fight\u00ader IV on and off for the last month. I\u2019m a long-term SF play\u00ader, around since SF2 World War\u00adrior hit the arcade, keep\u00ading up with the main\u00adstream titles all through the absurd suf\u00adfix era, Third Strike, the Alpha games, el spam\u00admo ver\u00adsus and CVS. SF4 is the clunki\u00adest, most slug\u00adgish, ill-designed SF game of the lot.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to blame it on my reflex\u00ades get\u00adting dodgi\u00ader as I age, a lack of sleep or even my Aus\u00adtralian bush inter\u00adnet con\u00adnec\u00adtion. No, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Focus is the same crap\u00adpy unblock\u00adable sys\u00adtem that I hat\u00aded from Soul Cal\u00adibur, with the addi\u00adtion that it can\u2019t be bro\u00adken by sin\u00adgle hits. It\u2019s the ulti\u00admate anti-air in a game with no air block\u00ading. Was it intro\u00adduced to train us away from jump\u00ading in? Well done.<\/p>\n

Ultras con\u00adnect in the most absurd sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions, almost requir\u00ading bad tim\u00ading to con\u00adnect. The most glar\u00ading\u00adly bro\u00adken is Rose, whose ground-based rib\u00adbon throw bull\u00adshit con\u00adnect\u00aded with Vega mid-Barcelona Attack, some\u00adhow set\u00adting him on his feet on the ground. It does\u00adn\u2019t even make sense. Oth\u00aders come to mind in no par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar order: Seth (almost full-screen ultra, con\u00adnect\u00ading with an oppo\u00adnent in the air), Bal\u00adrog (jug\u00adgles from prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly any posi\u00adtion), Ryu (jug\u00adgles from a sim\u00adple anti-air drag\u00adon even though no oth\u00ader fire\u00adballs do), Rufus (ultra will jug\u00adgle any\u00adone from almost any posi\u00adtion, includ\u00ading air, and is unescapable), Hon\u00adda (ground-based but catch\u00ades peo\u00adple jump\u00ading in, even though it makes no sense what\u00adso\u00adev\u00ader, even visu\u00adal\u00adly), Sagat (ultra resets the oppo\u00adnen\u00adt\u2019s veloc\u00adi\u00adty and posi\u00adtion, no mat\u00adter what they were doing), and Dhal\u00adsim (slow-mov\u00ading fire\u00adball that when com\u00adbined with an instant tele\u00adport + fierce punch is prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly impos\u00adsi\u00adble to escape).<\/p>\n

The tim\u00ading of ultras in gen\u00ader\u00adal make no sense, and I\u2019d go so far as to say that trig\u00adger\u00ading them too ear\u00adly is actu\u00adal\u00adly required. Sev\u00ader\u00adal times I trig\u00adgered Guile\u2019s ultra with what I thought was per\u00adfect tim\u00ading and was blocked, yet com\u00adput\u00ader and online oppo\u00adnents trig\u00adger much too ear\u00adly to visu\u00adal\u00adly con\u00adnect and they\u2019ll hit. As with Sagat men\u00adtioned above when an ultra con\u00adnects it puts you in the equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of a cus\u00adtom state, remov\u00ading all your pre\u00advi\u00adous veloc\u00adi\u00adty and accel\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion so you\u2019ll stay locked into the cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adic. That\u2019s shit\u00adty. Pre\u00advi\u00adous games in the SF series that did\u00adn\u2019t fea\u00adture cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adic wankathon ultras hap\u00adpi\u00adly respect\u00aded those attrib\u00adut\u00ades and required skill to catch some\u00adone in a super prop\u00ader\u00adly. Ryu\u2019s SF3 Shin Shoryuken was bad enough, but imag\u00adine if Ken\u2019s drag\u00adon super locked you in place to ensure every hit con\u00adnect\u00aded, or Chun\u00adli\u2019s light\u00adning kick super clipped you once in the air and reset you to stand\u00ading so you\u2019d get hit by it all. Fugly.<\/p>\n

Ultras that allow exces\u00adsive jug\u00adgling are pro\u00adgrammed to force the play\u00ader into posi\u00adtion to con\u00adtin\u00adue the jug\u00adgle. Balrog.<\/p>\n

Over\u00adall I con\u00adsid\u00ader Ultras a total\u00adly bro\u00adken con\u00adcept from the begin\u00adning. The cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adics are the equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of geek porn. They\u2019re not inter\u00adest\u00ading after the first time, they\u2019re sta\u00adt\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly shot, and they require no con\u00adtin\u00adued skill to exe\u00adcute past the ini\u00adtial flail\u00ading of direc\u00adtion\u00adals. Sit back and watch some\u00adone\u2019s health reduce for five seconds.<\/p>\n

Input buffer time in this game is inex\u00adplic\u00ada\u00adbly long. You can exe\u00adcute a drag\u00adon when you block some\u00adone\u2019s attack and it\u2019ll come out a full sec\u00adond lat\u00ader. This makes the game feel slug\u00adgish, almost turn based. It\u2019s espe\u00adcial\u00adly hideous when you realise you exe\u00adcut\u00aded a spe\u00adcial too ear\u00adly and expect it to fail, line up a dif\u00adfer\u00adent spe\u00adcial for the exact time of block release, and then sud\u00adden\u00adly the drag\u00adon comes out of nowhere. Cog\u00adni\u00adtive dis\u00adso\u00adnance ahoy!<\/p>\n

The ani\u00adma\u00adtions vary between very nice and attro\u00adcious. So much of Ryu\u2019s ani\u00adma\u00adtion set is just hor\u00adri\u00adble. I\u2019ll leave the dis\u00adcus\u00adsion of the game\u2019s art style for anoth\u00ader time, but I\u2019ll take a part\u00ading shot: Ryu looks like he\u2019s been repeat\u00aded\u00adly backed over by a truck fol\u00adlowed by a tis\u00adsue-reject\u00aded face transpant from some\u00adone with the rage<\/a>. What pot\/crack\/ego trip were the art team on when they decid\u00aded on hilar\u00adi\u00adous scary and hurt faces for the char\u00adac\u00adters? If you\u2019re tak\u00ading this much cre\u00adative license with the source mate\u00adri\u00adal\u2019s his\u00adto\u00adry then it\u2019s clear you\u2019re only using the Street Fight\u00ader name for brand recog\u00adni\u00adtion and sales.<\/p>\n

Every\u00adthing with excep\u00adtion of crouch\u00ading strong takes two min\u00adutes to come out. Crouch\u00ading strong on the shotokan char\u00adac\u00adters has a hit pri\u00ador\u00adi\u00adty high\u00ader than God. I wish I could turn hit\u00adbox\u00ades on to see what the deal is with cer\u00adtain moves. Smooth ani\u00adma\u00adtion DOES NOT WORK FOR STREET FIGHTER. Leave it for some\u00adthing like Soul Cal\u00adibur that has a suit\u00adable col\u00adli\u00adsion sys\u00adtem. When you kick a foot out, when does that foot switch from bound\u00ading-box to hit-box? (For those com\u00adfort\u00adable with Mugen ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy, when does it go from just CLSN2 to CLSN1?) There\u2019s no telling at 60 fps. I can\u2019t make tim\u00ading deci\u00adsions in this sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion. Maybe that\u2019s why they will\u00ading\u00adly b0rked the tim\u00ading so much; just throw things out ear\u00adly, and hope you don\u2019t cross col\u00adli\u00adsion box\u00ades and trade damage.<\/p>\n

Since when you can com\u00adbo two crouch\u00ading strongs? What the fuck? Next we\u2019ll be con\u00adnect\u00ading two stand\u00ading fierces in a row as long as you can get the milisec\u00adond tim\u00ading exact. Why be so exact with tim\u00ading in this case and screw it up every\u00adwhere else?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more inno\u00adva\u00adtion and sys\u00adtem depth in one<\/strong> of P.O.T.S\u2019 char\u00adac\u00adters<\/a> than in this entire game. It\u2019s a slug\u00adgish wankathon of tech\u00adni\u00adcal\u00adly accom\u00adplished yet painful\u00adly ugly VFX with a bizarrely lop\u00adsided sub\u00adset of pre\u00advi\u00adous SF game sys\u00adtem fea\u00adtures and I wish the review indus\u00adtry had cor\u00adrect\u00adly trashed it instead of bow\u00ading to the almighty series come\u00adback mar\u00adket\u00ading machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I\u2019ve been play\u00ading Street Fight\u00ader IV on and off for the last month. I\u2019m a long-term SF play\u00ader, around since SF2 World War\u00adrior hit the arcade, keep\u00ading up with the main\u00adstream titles all through the absurd suf\u00adfix era, Third Strike, the Alpha games, el spam\u00admo ver\u00adsus and CVS. SF4 is the clunki\u00adest, most sluggish, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}