White Man

Holy shit, that sounds amazing! It's like every bonus mode from every ASW fighter (including the potential-squandering Legion Mode from BB) combined into one.

Fixed. Solid post otherwise. I still think a couple of the more popular characters were purposely withheld to foster interest in DLC and/or the inevitable sequels. But really, it's all conjecture at this point. "We're basing the roster on character popularity" is a very developer-ish thing to say, because it satisfies the fans and a more accurate answer would have likely been needlessly long-winded or prematurely divulged which characters they were or weren't planning to feature. I'm sure a lot more factors went into the final decision process than just "popularity", whether that was referring to character usage or the broader definition. By the by, has anybody caught any footage of M.O.M mode that folks know of? I was curious if it functions the same as in previous games or if they've changed things up for Xrd at all.

Regarding the loss of FRCs... Let's not forget that this is an entirely new game on a new engine. It's still GG, yeah, but Xrd plays noticeably differently from AC/+R. If you try to play this game the same way you played the last iteration, then you're going to run into problems because the system mechanics work differently. The gameplay in AC was very focused on cancels, especially FRCs. Based on what I've seen and read, that no longer seems to be the case in Xrd. And yet I still see all this gameplay footage where people randomly cancel everything and get nothing off of it because they can't let go of this idea that spending meter on anything else is a waste. I've watched hours of tournament footage now and have yet to even see what half the cast's Overdrives look like. FRCs are gone, FBs are gone, move lists are different, most old combos are dead. Accept that the new system is different and learn how it works instead of trying to use it like the old system and then complaining when you don't get the same results.

Good lord. It's like Continuum Shift II with horses.

The community for AC+R might diminish slightly, at least temporarily, but I don't see it dissolving anytime in the foreseeable future. A good game won't stop being a good game just because it gets a sequel on newer hardware. Just look at all the people who still play Third Strike years after the release of SF4, even now that there's a lot of overlap in the rosters.

I assume that's still in development, but you'd hardly know it based on how little info they've released. Maybe they're running into some issues with the Z Engine...? I don't know how to feel about this Tribute Edition. While I can appreciate the work these guys obviously put into "finishing" this project, the gameplay videos alone reveal a pretty obvious shift in quality between where Mane 6 left off and the new team took over. I was mostly interested in this game due to how professional it looked for a fan-made fighter, but now it appears... somewhat less professional. The team behind TE supposedly wants to continue developing the game with new characters and various engine fixes and such. Provided Hasbro doesn't drop the hammer a second time, I'll gladly give them the chance to make improvements.

Oh, I see. When you said "not on the PSN store" I misinterpreted that to mean you didn't download anything except an unlock code. Still though, makes me wonder how they handle online compatibility between players. What happens if, say, you're in a player match and select one of the DLC stages or themes other people in the lobby don't have? Does everybody have to download the necessary files before the match starts, or are you not able to select DLC features unless everybody in the room has them?

I was wondering how they were planning to gouge people for the old stages and music themes... So I take it this DLC must be offline only, then? Otherwise it would have to be on the discs already, in which case I can't imagine them not selling the unlock codes at some point because, you know, free money.

Sol Badguy TAS arcade run (AC). I absolutely love this one because of all the impossibly crazy shit the player manages to pull off. Dude really gets creative with it. The fight against Ky (starts at 14:12) is a must-see. EDIT: Ah, I probably should have put this in this thread. Oh well~!

I want to see CS Rachel vs. CP Makoto. Every single round will end via timeout. Not only does the edition select thing sound like a fun feature, but it should help put a cork in all the players who complain that they liked it better back when their character was broken enough to give them free wins. Maybe Capcom can implement this feature the next time they port SF3 and we can finally get a balanced version of Third Strike without all the Chun/Ken/Yun players rioting in the streets.

Holy shit, I never noticed those were sections of the characters' emblems before! Thought it was just a generic design for all characters... Huh. Neat.

Samurai Deeper Kyo and Zatch Bell aren't WSJ titles, so there was never any chance of them appearing in the game. As for the others, I don't know what our chances of seeing any additional faces are. I still think there might be one or two "hidden" unlockable characters that haven't been revealed yet. 39 and 13 are just such weird numbers for character totals... As for DLC, the announcement about that seemed a little ambiguous. Does anybody know if the devs definitely said they were absolutely not doing ANY post-release content, or did they just confirm there would be no paid character downloads?

I don't understand this mentality at all, frankly. It's not like bursting doesn't cost you anything in this game. You still have to pay for getting caught in a combo, you're just making a decision to strategically sacrifice a potentially valuable offensive option in order to get out of taking a certain amount of damage. Just letting someone beat you for free because you made a mistake is like committing video game harakiri.

I've actually encountered some decent competition in Revolution (most of which has been from figuring out how to counter people spamming bullshit with Lili/Law/Devil Jin, but STILL). The grinding does get old, though. The conditions to unlock Eliza are so ludicrous that I wouldn't bother trying to get her if she came with a brand new Benz delivered to my house by Katsuhiro Harada himself. I assume you guys are playing Tag 2 on PS3? 360 online scene was pretty dead last I checked, though that could have just been an off night...

Huh, I'm surprised Shaman King and Black Cat didn't get any reps. I sort of expected to see Yugi in there too, if only as a support... Still a great lineup in any case. Hiei is a very pleasant surprise, and it's nice to see them giving some love to another classic with characters from Sakigake!! Otokojuku. It looks like one of Bobobo's attacks involves kicking Don Patch at his opponents' heads. Seeing that makes me deliriously happy.

That was a nice breakdown. Thanks, Vulcan! I wanted to try getting some decent practice against her, but Revolution's training mode is a joke. I guess I can always pop in Tag 2, but I'm not sure how much of what I can learn in that will carry over... Never had too much of a problem with Lili or her butler in that one.

Normally I'd call it immature to complain about not getting a free update to an already fully-functional product, but the fact that US PS3 customers were promised the patch at release kind of makes this a unique situation. If you as a company promise your consumers a certain feature within a certain timeframe, you're at least ethically obligated to deliver on that promise—if not legally obligated. I wouldn't go so far as to say the patch delay is grounds for a lawsuit (or that ASW even deserves to be sued by anyone), but if you want to be really anal about it, you could probably say what they did was technically false advertising. I got the 360 version myself, but I completely understand the frustration of PS3 buyers. People really should stop saying "just buy the Japanese version" unless they themselves are willing to pay for it. Otherwise, don't treat people like they're being stubborn because they choose not to spend more money on a product they already purchased.

Give it to me straight, guys. Am I just absolutely terrible at this game or is Lili wall-punchingly obnoxious for everybody?

My only issue with PC ports of fighting games that have an online component is that every new port further divides the playerbase and subsequently shortens the lifespan of a title on any given platform. The more options you have for playing a game, the less chance there is that someone will have chosen the same option as you at the same time. While I was initially disappointed that ASW opted not to port CP to the 360, part of me is glad the entire community is going to be funneled onto one system (for the sake of argument let's pretend the Vita port doesn't count) rather than being spread out across two or three. While there are obvious benefits to appealing to as many different markets as possible, when it concerns a game in a genre that requires an active community of players (fighters, MMOs, multiplayer-centric FPS titles, etc.), I think you're better off targeting the largest single group of players out there, even if it means excluding a few people. Besides, how many hardcore fighting game fans out there own a PC but not at least one console?

CT had its fair share of issues, granted, but it was less wacky than the majority of debut installments in new fighting game series. Even then, I can name a couple of KOF titles that were miles beyond CT in the severity of glitches and balance issues, and those hit the market after SNK had been pumping out sequels for years. Given the kind of game CT was and the fact that ASW was dealing with a new engine on a new platform, I think it came out more solid overall than anyone could have reasonably expected. Honestly, if they had patched out some of the more egregious exploits and reworked the burst system (which was admittedly redonkulous), I probably would have gone right back to CT a week after CS came out. I always had more fun with that one, and it sure as hell wasn't because of Haida and clap loops.

It's easy to shit on CT because LOL loops and glitches and LOL Arakune and Nu, but the game did a lot of things right—some of which I would argue have never been done better in any subsequent installment. For one, I miss the high damage output. I know it's a personal preference thing, but I think it made matches more intense knowing that a huge lead didn't mean certain victory. If your opponent was smart and had the meter, it was entirely possible for them to mount an epic comeback late in the round. The characters also felt more distinctive in CT, I think. A lot of homogenization in damage and move properties throughout CS and CP removed some of the uniqueness of their playstyles—not all of it, of course, but CT really excelled at making every single character feel incredibly distinct, like they were each operating on a completely separate gameplay engine. After CT, only certain characters maintained that feeling of being radically different from anything else in the game. The best about CT, though, was the console version's main menu. Shit was epic. The menus in CS/EX are the most boring thing ever, and CP doesn't look like much of an improvement.

Bedman. I'm not even trolling. Just think about it.

In theory, the next Tekken game should be Tekken X Street Fighter, which I can't imagine being F2P. After that, who knows... Enough time might have passed that the market will have changed and the F2P model won't be as profitable anymore.

Much gratitude for the upload, Dandy J! Great video. That third match... Wow. I see now what people are saying about the speed difference. Movement seems roughly the same as it's always been, but the increased block/hit stun makes the hits inside of combos feel a little less like machine gun fire and closer to someone fanning a revolver. I don't know, I can't think of a good analogy right now. Point is, the rhythm of the gameplay feels a smidge different. Not even necessarily slower, just... different. I think they might have gone a bit overboard with the guts ratings this time around. Characters look like they take about four to five times as much damage at full health than they do when they're down to their last 10%. Every single match in this game is going to be crazy hype, haha.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved Maximum Hype.