so today's release day. and it hasn't released.

GameStop: Thank you for calling GameStop, where we buy and sell used games, my name's forgettable, how may i help you?
Me: good morning. is it in yet?
GS: no, it should be in after 6.
Me: >.< uh... do you have any pads?
GS: yah, we have the ryu gamepad for ps3
Me: y-!
GS: no, we're sold out
Me: >.< how about any sticks?
GS: no
Me >.< thanks

this is going to be the longest 3 hours... ever

Canada's got it, no special editions left though shoul have preordered

...BM... said:

Now, to have my failstore get it...

i picked it up at 6pm - got home by 7, and started unlocking people [**** does this take a long time even with 1 round on easiest]

report:

i just stopped playing about 15 minutes ago. game is addictive.

gief's throws are full circles, not half like i thought from playing the arcade. but they're EASY as hell to pull off. been ultracomboing people to death with him.

rose's ultra... ****. it's a bit good on speed/priority/damage

sagat's HK is still godlike

I warned you about Rose. Good to hear Gief's still good as the arcade too.

I am gonna be so excited on Friday!

Geif's Banishing Flat travels across the screen like there is no tomorrow. Combo the Banish into any 360 throw or super/ultra, no wonder he is the top of A rank fighters in this game. For some reason I cannot seem to fight Akuma, I know it is 2 Perfects and 2 Ultras (No more, no less.) But everytime, I fight Gouken, and cannot unlock him yet. Just need Akuma/Gouken and Seth now. Dan is hilarious, and of course, weak... none of his moves do any really decent amount of damage. But the EX Gadouken can throw off players who aren't escpecting a real fireball from Dan.

Dan is hilariously bad.

On the Easiest setting and 1 round fights, we took turns going through to unlock characters (and work on Seth/Akuma/Gouken).

I took Sakura so I could unlock Dan. And then took Dan.

Dan is awesome. I actually lost to my first opponent (on EASIEST) as Dan, because I went for the Legendary Taunt xD

And it took me a good 15 minutes or so to beat Seth with him. Charging his Focus move, then sweeping, is an insanely cheap, yet extremely effective tactic. The same holds true for Sakura's Shououken - knock CPU opponent into corner, spam Shououken as they go into wakeup, win match.

That said - his Koryuken still has that ridiculous priority, and holy bejeezus, does his Ultra cause a LOT of damage. Like, 45% damage. Thanks, Dan. Thanks for being awesome.

I perfect people online with Dan.

Dan is seriously awesome, his tatsumaki his actually really good, with the EX tatsumaki coming out super quick. Also, light tatsumaki = tiger knee and is a great attack to do out of your crouch mid-kick. I was running around online as Goku Dan and being a jerk with my microphone It's pretty much all about the punish with ultra though.

in all seriousness though, random online is probably the worst thing ever, even worse then SCIV random online. EVERYONE is either Ken, Ryu, Sagat, or Guile/campy charge character and then camp for the entire match. I can play for probably 6-7 hours without seeing anything other then ken and ryu... It's absolutely no fun, me and a friend basically took turns, every time a Ryu came up, I would play and pick Dan, then Light Tatsumaki + Focus Attack ftw because laggy online means Ryu can't really do anything about Focus Attack when he's on the ground outside of EX shoryuken. Then, every time we got a Ken, my friend would pick Ken and then out-camp/shoryuken punish the other Ken. got a decent amount of points doing that...

Also, Sakura is kick-ass. She's my main if simply for the fact that her combo's are ridiculous, sweet-looking, and her ultra is probably one of the best punish ultra's in that it hits low. Still working on M. Bison though, I suck with charge characters and I need practice and Bison is pretty aggressive for a charge character.

Sorry for the late review guys. Of course I've been playing it so long I forgot.

Copy-Paste from the UK forums:

I did exactly as I said I would do - got up early, went to GAME to collect my pre-order, got straight home for 10am, then played furiously until 5pm when I went round Joe's to play his version. And me, Joe and Kyle played even more, trying to unlock all the characters. Kyle found a love for the game (and especially Blanka), where I stuck to my faves from before - Sagat, Honda and Dan. I beared through the night and by the morning only had Vega and the hidden characters left to complete Story Mode with.

Arcade mode: It's recommended to play offline if you're trying to unlock characters, because the "jump into someone else's arcade run" gets very annoying as it exits the fight you're in. So you could be just about to beat Seth, and then someone will interrupt and you'd have to start at him again.

Speaking of Seth, he's a pain in the neck. In round 1, he's ok since he only tends to spam his focus attack and Dhalsim's low strong punch, and therefore is pretty predictable. However, after you beat him for a round he spams everything, especially Yoga Teleport, Spinning Pile Driver, Sonic Boom and Shoryuken. You'll find yourself yelling at your screen - after the first 20 continues.

Arcade mode itself is really good, as you always get to fight a bunch of random characters, then your character's rival. Versus the rival, there will be a special intro which is either really funny or really interesting. Either way, they're better than the prologue or ending animations. And during the fight the characters will converse with one another during certain points in the fight. Following the rival, your next opponent is Seth, then if you have done well enough and met the requirements, you get to fight Akuma or Gouken. I have yet to fight either of them.

I have played a few online matches, and have done really well (perhaps playing the arcade version helped). The lag isn't as bad as in Super SFII Turbo HD Remix because the animation slows down rather than freezes. Versus Mode offline is very comptetive too, depending on the skill of your opponents. On top form, me and Kyle (as Sagat and Blanka respectively) are at toe-to-toe, and have some impressive fights. I'd like to see a replay mode put up for the game.

I've only done the Trial mode in Challenge Mode. It's a very good way to learn the moves, combos, and what it takes to get good at the game. At about level 4 or 5 the trials get a lot harder, and require some expert timing to be pulled off well. The first 2 or 3 are really good for new players, though.

Look out for me soon - once I've completed the roster I'll be heading to the online SFIV scene!

Onto the characters themselves. Dan is teh Awesome, Legendary Taunt -> Ultra cancel is fun to confuse players with. Though I'm awesome with Sagat (as I was on the Arcade version), since EX Tiger Uppercut is such a good CCCCOMBO BREAKER! Characters I hated playing as in Arcade mode were Guile, Dhalsim, and Sakura. Sakura's fine until she bumps into Zangief or Seth. She can't seem to do enough damage to beat Gief's power or Seth's move spamming. Abel and C. Viper are really good though. I could see myself playing Viper more often once I have got used to her moves.

EX Messiah Kick > All

Anything outside of a fireball eats it.

I <3 Rufus and his 3 lines per winquote.

Most of the time I can read Rufus' winquotes halfway before it disappears... Something about hating cats was in one of them O.o Plus his theme tune when playing as Dhalsim or Ken in the Rival fight is pretty funny.

Speaking of Winquotes, I love how they've used individual winquotes for each opponent. For example, when E.Honda beats Sakura, he says something along the lines of "you need to eat 5 meals a day to keep up with my strength!"

Son Gopaul said:

I agree about Seth, but Sakura can beat 'Gief pretty easily as long as you play super smart. I beat him first try in medium because I remembered how much of a pain he was before, so all I did was spam medium and light hits till I hit confirmed for my specials and did not run into liquid fo... I mean Banishing Punch and his throw range. Also never, ever, ever try to focus attack a 'Gief attack from the air, it's a trap, by the time he hit's the ground and you're going through the rest of the move, the computer has already done the full circle in the air and will instantly command grab you out of the focus attack >_<

another awesome thing about Sakura? her ultra is a low kick. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've hit with it simply because they went to block standing up, that and hit confirms with the focus attack

the character I'm trying to learn right now is Bison. I'm bad with charge characters but I want to learn and Bison is my boy. The blister on my thumb cracked open when I was trying to do scissor kick into ultra >_<

In an odd change from the last few Street Fighter games where Vega was my man, I can happily say I <3 Cammy in SFIV Cancelling Spiral Arrows into Spin Drive Smashers and a Spinning Back Fist THAT ACTUALLY WORKS!!!

*spits on Vega* You are dead to me Vega, you and your gorgeousness are DEAD, you hear?!

Son Gopaul said:

I'm gonna have to do it anyway. SF4 is on hold due to last week before march break which means midterms.

Also, for those who don't have my XBL name yet for some SF4 action : Hatman EXTRA

Having played with Dan now in a multiplayer environment, I must say...

I overestimated his level of suck. A LOT.

I ran through 8 consecutive matches last night with Dan without losing a single round. But then I gave up the controller because I was tired of playing xD

Dan...you're still my boy. OYAAAJIIIIIIIIIIIIII

And why is Dan is ranked F in the official strategy guide? I fail to see this logic.

Lol, of course "tiers are for queers", as Mario once said on one flash animation.

Dan is ranked F because the author didn't care to try.

Tiers are crap if you don't know how to play with the high tier characters. And in this game, even against someone who knows how to play, the battle is only slightly uphill.

That's why I use my man El Fuerte. QUESADILLA BOMB!

Just got the game, and I'm currently going through the challenge trials so I dont end up as quite as much a scrub. (A lot of work on this, I dont want to be completely embarassed at MN) Analog control on the 360 isnt bad, but I REALLY need to get a good stick, and sadly all the stores close to me are sold out. Hopefully something will come in the next couple weeks, until then I'm doing ok...some of the cancels and Zangief's 720 are close to impossible, though.

Mostly concentrating on unlocking characters ATM. Have everyone but Akuma on up unlocked. Made MUCH easier with super easy mode and one round victories. I actually enjoy the anime cut scenes too. Rufus has a surprisingly hot girlfriend.

Dan's amazing - the priority his ultra has is nearly as vomitinducing as rose's. (i ultra'd a ken as he was doing a F DP, already on fire, and i was expecting to get knocked out of it.)

the only thing i don't like in the game is the online play - for this reason: crybabies and rage quitters.

i get a lot of hatemail when i use zangief. "you're playing him cheap whinewhine"
zangief has a limited amount of moves, and they are: move forward, lariat, glove, throw. i use all of his moves, and that makes me cheap. but the endless wave of Ken/sagat/akuma/mighty ROO players who spam fireballs and MAYBE DPs (mostly DP in ken's case) aren't cheap at all, no sir.

last night, and by night i mean this morning, i got tired of it and responded to someone who in our first match, cheesed with vega against my dan. i know how great vega can be, i got over 700 scoreboard wins with him in hdrmx. he never made an aggressive move, so in between taunting him, i had to chase him down all over the screen. he barely gets the 2-1. fine, next round, i pick gief, and plaster his honda. time for hatemail. i respond and let into him about his crappy vega tactics, and the fact that gief is what gief does - close the distance and command throw.

seems i got through to him. that's 1 out of eleventybillion haters though.

anyone else on PSN, add me, i'm not exactly enjoying facing the same trio of losers (KenGatRoo) every other fight. i use everyone, some a lot better than others, so you'll never have to play against the same character 8 times in a row >.<

STGouHadou

Sounds like I need to stop playing Sagat, otherwise I'll start receiving the hatermail when I play online. Blanka's still a fave of mine, as is Dan.

However, I've heard my style with Sagat is different (i.e. I don't spam Tiger Shots)

GouHadou said:

I'll give my friend your PSN next time I'm at his house.

Also, seriously, don't stop playing a character just because other people are losers. My friend plays Akuma with him and is aggressive. If you enjoy Sagat play him, just don't stand in a corner and spam tiger shots till your controller just does it for you.

It's times like this that make me happy I've been rendered offline for months.... bloody Ken players....

I've never liked calling anyone cheap in anything, including oofs and sfiv, I mean, Spinning Pile Driver puts a lump in my throat, but I just try and play around it when I can.

I'll be happy to play anyone over PSN (and not keep playing the same dull characters) and if someone were to tell me what headsets work for voicechat, I'll buy one so I can talk oofs with you at the same time. Yay for bridging the gap that is the Pacific! (with a Spiral Arrow...)

It's Viewtiful_Me on PSN too, in case you missed my gamertag thread

a headset for ps3 also peaks my interests....

dshaffer said:

Rufus is pimp.

I'm glad I learned to play as El Fuerte. NO ONE plays as him. Everyone sees him as a joke character, so of course, when your face is firmly planted on the ground between El Fuerte's legs as he sits on your back holding your legs above his shoulders, you tend to be surprised by it.

I think El Fuerte and Dan are the two most seriously-underrated characters EVER.

This one time, I picked El Fuerte, and I suppose the other guy thought I was joking and picked him too, getting asolutely plastered in the process. Then he took me seriously and picked Ryu.

That's not much of an improvement, but at least I had his respect. lol