Essay

It was. Thanks for coming out. Look forward to the next time (i.e. hopefully tomorrow, when you find a way to get to Montreal :D).

Looking forward to tomorrow. Should have 4 Ottawans with me again, and yes, Dhaos, Ian's one of them. We'll probably get to Foonzo around 4:30. Got my fingers crossed for Team Versus 3v3's happening later in the night!

Wish I could fit you too, but my car is at capacity.

I'll swing by after dinner this time. Was pretty consistently Saturdays, especially once HQ stopped running, but this week our gracious host has time to kill before the new semester starts. :D

Woah. Contain that rage, lofo! I'm there tomorrow with the PS3 as soon as my afternoon frees up.

Same deal with me tomorrow at 2, but I'm otherwise free. We'll see when Blade and Psykotik roll in.

Yeah, me too. In particular, I'm getting dash>airthrow on backdashes less consistently than before. I've gone from getting it 100% of the time on Potemkin's, to less-than-half the time. :/ Oh well, time to explore better option selects. Definitely not hell so far from my experience. Sniping with the new bit of invincibility on force-break dive helps make the May think twice about getting too predictable in the air, and the added untech time on our K.Dive has lets us knock down off of higher combos than before. Once you get used to the new distances and setups she'll go for OHK from, you've got no shortage of ways to take your feet off the ground and punish her. (I haven't had to deal with my local May using OHK's wiff FRC yet though, so I might have to pick my punishes eventually.) She indeed does look more interesting to play with/against now at least, so troll away! The changes to Baiken are having the same effect on me, but, god-dayum, she's probably going to be a time-sink.

Which is essentially the default layout for GG. :P

[s.Pin > Airdash > j.P xN > j.K > link 5S-2H] erry day! Also, see this new guide. EDIT: Also, lolz at Colin and Phil's button layout not being included in the Xrd cabinet's options

Most likely. What days will you be in town? Our ever-so-gracious host was saying we'd have extra opportunities to meetup until the new school term.

We've been meeting at Rigel's house in the west end. Kind of near Ottawa's Ikea if you Google Maps that. We'll probably have multiple +R meetups next week, so let us know when you're in town and we'll get you the address.

The latest object of my testing in +R: I was surprised how close to universal this was. @Shinjin: I'll PM you my details.

So... I landed a PS3 with the Japanese copy of +R last night. Some of the first things I'm noticing: - The 5HS hitbox buff will make our lives much easier. Even again skinny, high-pushback A.B.A, you can [high/low opener > c.S > 5HS] and confirm into an S-Stroke if they're crouching, or an HCL 6FRC6 combo otherwise. Versus some characters you can even stick an extra 2S in there since that moves forward now. Against the taller characters (A.B.A, Anji, Axl, Dizzy, Eddie, Jam, Johnny, Justice, I-No, HOS, Potemkin, Slayer, Sol and Venom), this grants access to the easier 5HS > tiger-knee HCL 6FRC6, which only used to come for me from 2S openers. - The extra 3 frames of air-dashing time lets us get j.K>j.S>ffVCL from an HCL FRC. (For me, at least, this means fewer screw-ups versus Johnny, who often required j.K > ffVCL if you caught him with HCL standing.) - The newly-cancellable FB-Dive is going to be fun. Doesn't seem as character/weight-specific as it used to be (EDIT: Naw, still some variation and quirks of course.), and, yes, even with your back to the corner, you can combo into it, air-dash twice, and knock the opponent down into the opposite corner with a j.HS. However, that's the worst-case scenario. If your back is not-even a half-screen away from the corner, then the corner combos at the opposite side of the screen can begin! I also almost wanted to say that the throw FRC got easier, but I think this is just me having been used to the frame delay on the Xbox version that hid the visual cue.... This is actually getting closer to being a universal combo now. Unless I'm wrong, it used to wiff on Jam, Anji, Baiken and Bridget, but doesn't anymore at closer ranges in Plus R. (I think their falling hurtboxes stick out and get hit by the new close HCL hitbox.) The HCL still wiffs on A.B.A, Dizzy, Ky, Robo and Venom though.

We'll probably get to HQ with +R at 7 or a bit later, but I think that'll work. I'm going to make sure to drag people into impromptu KOF and Vampire Saviour tourneys too.

New plan: Dev and I will swing by HQ tonight with +R 6:30ish. EDIT: Scratch that. After 7, apparently.

I just look at it in the same vein of me being addicted to playing billiards on pool tables instead of playing billiards on a free website. Tactile execution can be fun in all walks of life!

Does this happen with the 360 version? I haven't noticed any slowdown or experienced a freeze myself on it.

Any improvement would probably be a "vast improvement" at this point. Hope that's not just big marketing speak.

Very nice! Lots of nice little tips in there like threatening more with throws as Raou and using D-Ghosts to set-up pressure, all alongside great visual examples of implementing his offense.

My body's telling me to skip this one, sorry guys.

Venom has too many balls now, which is pretty awesome, really. We'll see when I get my hands on +R.

I see what you mean about the clashes. 3min20sec for anyone that wants to see something hype. No no, that's right, but the implication with Accent Core is that Zato is done, and you just call them Eddie now as a unit, hence his on-screen name being Eddie now despite the portrait always being Zato's face, and not the parasite's.

Could be a resurrected Zato-1 back in control of himself, but I'd say that's more unlikely than a reinvigorated Eddie. When the Xrd trailer cuts to Millia, we even see her hair wipe through a shadowy effect, so I'd be surprised if the parasite was out of the picture.

Keep in mind, a lot of stuff on the website seem to be quickly thrown together. The character descriptions are 95% identical to the character descriptions on the Japanese GGXXAC+R site. With them revealing these characters so early, I'd be surprised if there weren't more character reveals to come. They did something like that with BBCP, didn't they? Terumi Hazama and someone else revealed late? I'd expect at the very least a playable Arcade boss character thrown in (probably someone other than I-No since she's already been the Arcade mode boss for the last decade). A suped-up Eddie is a good potential fit for that role, in my mind, especially considering how he featured in the trailer.

Huge thanks to everyone at Foonzos last night. Was an absolute blast, and I'm glad to have made the trip. Look forward to the next time we can do this.