Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Jackson]

Also, here's a little tip - the throw does on average 130 damage. After a focus crumple, always dash in and do a combo. Even something as simple as c.HP, HP Shoryuken will do more.

What's a focus crumple?

[Uzi]

What's a focus crumple?

It's a crumpet based attack you can do by focusing your breakfast bag power.

Or explained better in this.

Watching all of them will explain all the main mechanics of the game

[Major Britten]

Just played this again today after being away from the game for months. Decided I would try out Makoto for the first time, managed to finish Arcade mode on normal without too many problems but as soon as I went online just got my arse handed to me. Lost 5 matches in a row which were all way too one sided and just turned it off in the end Perhaps its down to me using a character im not familiar with but are the online ranked matches pretty much like that now, people who just use Ryu/Akuma and are so good that youre lucky to get at least 2 hits in?

[Jackson]

(edit: to Uzi) Cheers, that'll help me rather a lot! I've also ordered a cheap Hori EX 2 from Ebay, getting properly into this! Gonna stick with Sagat for a while, nice and straight forward powerful character.

Made my first small steps this morning (against easy CPU), actually reacting to jumps with tiger uppercuts! The start of a long journey, hehe.

[ah]

Just played this again today after being away from the game for months. Decided I would try out Makoto for the first time, managed to finish Arcade mode on normal without too many problems but as soon as I went online just got my arse handed to me. Lost 5 matches in a row which were all way too one sided and just turned it off in the end Perhaps its down to me using a character im not familiar with but are the online ranked matches pretty much like that now, people who just use Ryu/Akuma and are so good that youre lucky to get at least 2 hits in?

nah, there are plenty of monsters but you shold be able to find some games with lower level players. makoto is really difficult to use though, so not the best character to start out with if you're getting back into it.

[Willei]

I also booted it up for about the first time in six months. I played a couple of good Adon players who trashed me mercilessly, so I guess people have actually learned to use him now! Almost everyone I played were mostly rushing down too which was the biggest surprise.

I couldn't do any combos with Viper, I couldn't do anything full stop with Cody, for some reason my Ken is as good/bad as it ever was because that guy is so basic and his combos are so simple. I had about ten games with Vega where for the first five I was trying to do Bloody High Claw with punches, silly Capcom me. Won about as many as I lost, have exactly the same BP as when I started somehow.

[Kayin Amoh]

Played Joffo, Alistarr and Glasgow Kev tonight. Been ages since I played, and these guys are pretty awesome so I generally got caned. Good fun though!

I should really learn to use a stick - got one lying here, pretty much abandoned. It'd allow me to start doing Focus attacks and cancels, which a pad makes difficult. Mediums on both triggers and the Focus on the left bumper - neither of which are handy. Problem is, every time I use a stick I do worse than with a pad so I swap back to it. :S

[Qazimod]

Oh man, you guys (Kayin and will) should totally get in on the lobby sessions if you're thinking of returning to the game. Even though it'd mean two more people to completely thrash me... Saturday was pretty busy for me so I couldn't make time for streetfightin'. I'm still having good fun with the game when I have the chance to play it though.

EDIT: oh and Kayin you should consider a Fightpad if you're no good with sticks and dislike using triggers/bumpers - they're much more intuitive and I've seen them going pretty cheap lately...

[Kayin Amoh]

Oh man, you guys (Kayin and will) should totally get in on the lobby sessions if you're thinking of returning to the game. Even though it'd mean two more people to completely thrash me... Saturday was pretty busy for me so I couldn't make time for streetfightin'. I'm still having good fun with the game when I have the chance to play it though.

EDIT: oh and Kayin you should consider a Fightpad if you're no good with sticks and dislike using triggers/bumpers - they're much more intuitive and I've seen them going pretty cheap lately...

Aye, if I played it more I'd put the time into the stick - handy for excursions to Japan. I've never really tried a fightpad - are they easy enough to plonk your thumb over both mediums at once?

I'll easily play you anytime you're available if I'm free, of course. I'm not really getting back into SF as such, but I saw a few of my online buds in the same lobby so I joined in to give them a session. Must be great to have your strings land most of the time - my one Cody combo often got two jabs in and then missed the crouching MP.

Glasgow Kev's a damn fine Cammy player. She's my main, and he definitely knows how to use her way better than I do. Again, you put time into something and you'll improve. I'm not a bad natural player, but I'm playing it the same way I used to play SF2 and missing out on a lot of the subtleties.

[Goemon]

Some Makoto mirror matches Lyrical and I had after everyone left last night.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/4/oeNcb9s1fRM

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/2/fOrwEMeXz68

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/1/YeM0GCcBKg4

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/0/WJi_k9ceQNg

Also this one where I fought his Dhalsim. I've put this one up to gloat becuase at 1.24 I actually get the kara ex karakusa out - nearly shit my pants with excitment.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/3/dH8Eej3pU2g

[Qazimod]

Aye, if I played it more I'd put the time into the stick - handy for excursions to Japan. I've never really tried a fightpad - are they easy enough to plonk your thumb over both mediums at once?

Yep; you can easily cover both mediums with one thumb without mashing adjacent commands. Then again, I often play fighters with pads by putting my thumb under the base and letting my fingers cover the buttons - it looks stupid, but it means I can get to certain commands and target combos easier...

[ah]

Glasgow Kev's a damn fine Cammy player. She's my main, and he definitely knows how to use her way better than I do. Again, you put time into something and you'll improve. I'm not a bad natural player, but I'm playing it the same way I used to play SF2 and missing out on a lot of the subtleties.

he was beasting wasn't he? i was almost tempted to stop going random select for a moment there! i think you and i had a couple of close games in between the demoralising defeats.

been a pretty excellent day for street fighting for me. three different lobbies got me through pretty much the whole slow sunday without having to wonder what to do at any point at all. i also learned a new joke beginning "what's the difference between a bee and a baby in a coma?" - thanks for that little chat carlito :-)

[Kayin Amoh]

he was beasting wasn't he? i was almost tempted to stop going random select for a moment there! i think you and i had a couple of close games in between the demoralising defeats.

been a pretty excellent day for street fighting for me. three different lobbies got me through pretty much the whole slow sunday without having to wonder what to do at any point at all. i also learned a new joke beginning "what's the difference between a bee and a baby in a coma?" - thanks for that little chat carlito :-)

Aye, I managed to take him out twice through doing, uh, weird stuff that somehow landed, but he's obviously a way better player than me with a real knowledge of the system. One of my wins was only because I managed to get all my ultras in by spamming them while being comboed - he missed a link, and Cammy went through what should have been a solid combo.

I can't go random, mind. I only know two characters so it would have been as one sided as you could possibly get if I did and ended up with Balrog or someone.

Qaz - I'll see if I can get my hands on one before I buy it, but being able to hit all the buttons would be great. The triggers and bumpers aren't handy for fighting games at all.

[Fitzcarraldo]

One of my wins was only because I managed to get all my ultras in by spamming them while being comboed - he missed a link, and Cammy went through what should have been a solid combo.

Oooh that grinds my gears.

[Lyrical Donut]

Also this one where I fought his Dhalsim. I've put this one up to gloat becuase at 1.24 I actually get the kara ex karakusa out - nearly shit my pants with excitment.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSwerdna?feature=mhum#p/u/3/dH8Eej3pU2g

Nice work

I need to work on that karakusa, st.hp, hayate cancel, st.mp, oroshi you nailed me with a few times last night!

[Jonster]

I have the Superbowl on in the background and now understand why the achievement is called "From C To Shining C".

Just thought I'd share.

[imp]

Who needs Air's blog? I've been in the lab, and found an honest to god 50 50 mix up for Ryu.

Okay, so what you need to do is hit the following combo:

c.LK c.LK c.LP c.HK

The c.LP into sweep is not his easiest link, but it's also no f.HP to c.HP. Anyway, getting back to it, if you were for example to jump in with hard kick, and then do the above combo, you'll net you a solid 211 damage and an untechable knock down. The mix up also works just the same from a cross up MK if you take a half step forward before the next bit.

Now, from exactly this position you have a GamerBee level vicious mix up. If you do an HK Tatsu from the very peak of your jump, you will do the most ambiguous cross up tatsu it must be possible to land. If however, you wait until juuust past the apex and do an LK tatsu, you will hit in front of your opponent. There you have it. Two attacks which look like they won't cross up. One of them will, one of them won't. It's a little tricky to set up, but it looks great for making opponents hesitate after future jump ins I'm sure.

EDIT: as a side note, I've found the Sako x JLM combo doesn't work outside of the corner on:

Ryu, Ibuki, Abel, Guy, El Fuerte.

It works on everyone else.

[blipwoo]

i also learned a new joke beginning "what's the difference between a bee and a baby in a coma?" - thanks for that little chat carlito :-)

[JLM]

Got some Streetfightings in this weekend. GGs to all. Particularly noteworthy was the 5AM lobby with Mr. Lyrical Donut. I have missed that Makoto a great deal, and it allowed for more Sak vs Mak, which is the most fun. Also imp brought a lot of comedy this weekend, so kudos for that as well. The Abel vs Imp's Zangief challenge is still on. Three victims have already fallen; surely someone will stop the spinning tyrant soon?

Apologies to Joffo and co. last night. I got called away by housemates bearing food after one game and didn't get back on nearly as quickly as I'd expected to. Still had time to get absolutely shut down by Glasgow Kev's Ryu mind.

[ah]

Oooh that grinds my gears.

in one of our games the guy did ex dive > ex dive > ex dive > ex dive > sako combo or some voodoo like that and i was just saying "uh oh..." while furiously mashing out quarter circles and buttons. unfortunately for all involved he left me a frame of freedom after the upward pointing punch or whatever it is and i finally got my ultra out. i felt dirty for the rest of the round though, especially when he beat me anyway.

[Broker]

I have an old friend and back in the early 90's he had a SNES and we'd go round and play SFII all day. He was really good at it (by our standards) and would usually win but I got okay myself simply through playing a lot.

Fast forward to today and he doesn't really play games anymore but is still pretty good and always beats me at SFIV but I get the feeling now that he shouldn't be winning anymore. He still plays it like it's SFII and I see so many opportunities to punish him but I just fail at my execution in the heat of the moment. Hopefully, if I can get things hardwired to come out on demand that won't be the case anymore. I look at what he does and I'm actually appalled at some of the things he does and the bad habits he has like only ever really using HP or HK and jumping in a lot and stuff like that. He doesn't really get the concept of focus either and rarely uses it but he always wins nevertheless.

One last question, if you get competent with one character, does that make it easier to do so with the others or is it like a whole different game? I see most people can play with anyone and I wondered if that was due to hours of practice with each person or just general ability at the game that can be applied universally.

I've been playing with a few guy's like this recently, they both grew up on SFII but have played the alpha games, CvS and a little SFIII and they both hammer me 9 times out of 10 because their basic execution and combo use is top notch. My best chances are surprising them with focus attacks, or using someone who is new to SFIV or has new moves in this game, because despite not being familiar with this version, they're both fucking excellent at the game in general.

I'd say that learning a QC character like Ryu or Ken will make it easier to learn others, experience with one of the shoto characters will serve you well with all of them, though obviously a few of them are a bit more diverse and require specific knowledge of their properties. Learning to use one charge character and being able to actually execute charge moves has massively improved my ability to play with all of them.

Also, I've been instructed by the group to ask if anyone on here lives in the Nottingham area and would be up for some local multiplayer sometime? Whilst there were only 3 of us playing regularly before there's 5 now so we're thinking about organising a more regular evening devoted entirely to SSFIV. If anyone would like to participate then they're welcome, however we're playing the PS3 version so anyone who is dependant on using a stick and plays on the 360 might be screwed.

[ah]

i mean, i love this. thanks, blipwoo.

i hope i don't end up eating nothing but knowledge and becoming a hollow unintelligible shell of my former self, though, even if the transformation does grant me mostrous powers and 100 hit combos.

edit: it should probably read "fancy eating some honey?" instead of the chips and salad thing though.

[Jackson]

Ranked match found me a fellow noob (using dan for some reason) and I won a few games, great fun! And I managed to upload a terrible replay.

We also had a drunk 'pass the pad' session at a friend's last night before the superbowl, and the accessibility of the game shone through. Everyone was right at home with the SF2 characters, having a blast. What a game.

[jiroczech]

I had a day off work - got all the stuff I had to do out of the way and settled down to some quality time with my TE. 3 hours later and I'm a broken man. Only respite was meeting our own Mr. Dave White - not that it was a good match, just it was nice to see a friendly face after the steam of beatings I'd taken. One match, this really aggressive Sakura who I was struggling to deal with, beat me and sent me a message saying "all that turtling for nothing". Cheeky fucker. I wasn't even turtling, it's not like I had any kind of coherent strategy. Feel like I got worse rather than better. At one point I hit the "why do I even bother playing games?" low.

[Dave White]

Hey jiro

I thoroughly enjoyed that match, close too, great fun.

Have to say my love affair with blops is unsurpassed, but i am making sure i give this the love it deserves.

Guile is my main but currently learning ibuki

[mayor_mike_haggar]

god, my execution with this stick is ASS online. 2 hit combos are minor miracles, let alone 2 hadoukens in a row.

[blipwoo]

god, my execution with this stick is ASS online. 2 hit combos are minor miracles, let alone 2 hadoukens in a row.

give it a month, you'll wonder how you ever did without it^_^

[Nate Dogg III]

Had a lovely little run on this last night. Six or seven straight wins then a couple of losses at the end.

Unfortunately the fireball FADC anti-air Ultra has become an obsession, replacing the crossup EX Tatsu - Ultra that I always used to go for and always got blocked and was always embarrassing. I keep doing the fireball from fullscreen, and an LP fireball at that, which ain't foolin' no-one. Twice last night I burned a full super bar in five seconds by doing it once from fullscreen and messing up the dash out, then trying again by which time my opponent knew what I was trying to do. Profound badness.

I'll be on after work and maybe a late one too, not sure. I spent all last night working and feel like I need a wee reward.

[ah]

next to zero chance of me getting any fightin' in this week. sad sad sad. can anyone ease my pain with word of any recent streams archived anywhere for me to catch up on while ironing this evening?

i hate ironing the most, but i'm getting pretty good at cuff xx sleeve front FADC* sleeve top xx shoulder. hard to pull off in a real batch situation though.

*flip and display crease

[Nate Dogg III]

hard to pull off in a real batch situation though.

When cale reads this, cale is going to laugh.