Gaming Whatevers and Stuff

[sweetooth706-blog]

So someone I knew on Facebook wanted to talk about #AllLivesMatter...

So I started typing up a response to him about why it isn’t All Lives Matter and what I believe Black Lives Matter is really doing. I didn’t post it to avoid starting a shitstorm because I live in a rural county in Northwest Georgia (not the country for clarification) and people would shit all over me. But anyway here’s what I was going to respond with...

All lives do matter but that's not the point of this #blacklivesmatter movement. With the recent string of police shootings innocent African Americans among other things, it's been put out in the public eye that civil rights for all hasn't really come that far in 50 years. Even though it's not a contest it's pretty easy to see that African-Americans are still treated like 2nd class citizens when compared to white people. Some people will look for any excuse to get an african american into trouble or in some worse cases, shoot one. Why? Because people will more readily believe that a black man started something before they would blame the white guy. How many times do you see an African-American on the news that isn't in trouble in some way? Compare that to a white person. You were right about the fact that the news tends to report more negative than positive, but when it's an African-American it just reinforces stereotypes that people falsely believe. It's been over 200 years since "All men are created equally" was written down, it wasn't practiced then, and it isn't practiced now no matter how true it is. When a black person makes it out of a tough town and does something important or becomes famous it's seen as an underdog success story because it's unexpected. If this were a country of equal opportunity for all then where they came from wouldn't matter, all that would matter is that a human being did something extraordinary. You are not defined by your skin color, where you came from or who you grew up with, you are defined by your actions and it should be that way for everyone, but it isn't. That's what black lives matter is about, protesting against the fact that African-Americans are still treated as 2nd class citizens and are tired of it. The reason it points out blacks is because it is blacks who are still being mistreated, wrongfully accused and discriminated against more than almost any other minority next to Middle-Eastern people. That's why it's not Christian Lives Matter or All Lives Matter. It's not them saying they matter more, it's them saying that in America today they don't matter as much as everyone else.

[big-tiddy-goth-ghoulfriend]

Jontron’s spooky Halloween intro gives me life.

how the fuck has pro wrestling eluded tumblr as a popular fandom when Xavier Woods exists 

[abadmeanman]

i dont know anything about this man but now I must

[siderealsandman]

This

Originally posted by totaldivasepisodes

Is Xavier Woods. Member of the longest reigning tag-team champs in WWE history

Originally posted by mattyyoriginal

Owner of his own YouTube channel that features wrestlers playing video games

Originally posted by frankiemarko

Certified nerd who is the self-described bard of the party who plays his trumpet to debuff the enemy team, was billed out of the Power Ranger’s home town in his NXT days, and showed up to a Wrestlemania match in full super sayin gear with a unicorn horn attached to his head

Originally posted by wrestling-giffer

Basically it’s as though the internet came together to make a WWE superstar and it’s no surprise that he’s part of the best damn act this company has

Originally posted by totaldivasepisodes

TL;DR: Xavier Woods for WWE champ

[reagansramblings]

The New Day are my favourite tag-team right now. Xavier is amazing.

[deadsiteletsfite]

Lest we forget that he also cosplayed the likes of Jem, Krang, Kano and Garnet along with playing the victory theme from FF7 on his trombone, having the Tri-Force tattooed on his arm and name dropping everything from Steven Universe to Hamilton to Pokemon GO in his promos (the latter of which got him boos for proclaiming “Team Valor for life!”), but he’s also achieved his Bachelors in psychology, his Master’s in philosophy and has recently obtained his PhD in educational psychology while still signed under WWE.

Needless to say, Xavier Woods is a damn inspiration. Black excellence with a unicorn horn.

[sweetooth706-blog]

not to mention goes to pro fighting game tournaments when he can and has played a set of Street Fighter 5 with Kenny Omega, a pro wrestler signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling who also loves games in his own right. After the set they played each other at Dance Dance Revolution as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc8iOeB3y4U

[tonightweredrinkingfromthebong]

[onion-souls]

[sweetooth706-blog]

*and giant puppies*

[dnd-5e-homebrew]

Dark Souls 2 Monsters by Braggadouchio

[jollycooperationbrothers]

This is incredible. As a dungeons and dragons fan this appeals to me

[railroadsoftware]

[logmore]

[sweetooth706-blog]

HYPAH BOMB

[sweetooth706-blog]

More Data Mined in Pokemon Sun/Moon Excavation (Spoilers)

It has been quite a week so far for Pokemon fans since the much awaited Pokemon Sun and Moon demo came to the 3ds on October 18th. Starting with Australia, the demo went global and information was spreading like wildfire, with everyone trying to search every nook and cranny they could for some juicy new tidbits of info or perhaps some Pokemon we haven’t seen yet. The demo, however, did not quite sate the fan’s thirst for information.

The demo itself was very linear and showed us what we already knew but put those ideas into the player’s hands. Team Skull, Ash Greninja, replacing HMs with specific Pokemon, island trials, totem Pokemon, Z moves and snapping Pokemon pictures were all showcased in the demo. The only new bit of information comes in the form of a seemingly random event involving an NPC noticing a Pokemon far off in the distance, with the Pokemon being Alolan Dugtrio. This was not enough for some, and a few savvy players delved into the games files hoping to find anything at all no matter how small or how large. What they found was a goldmine of information that has sent the internet into a frenzy.

When the demo for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire was released, it was data-mined and anything that was meant to be hidden until release was revealed to the world. This seems to be turning into a tradition of sorts with the leaks from the Sun and Moon demo, even with GameFreak taking more precautions this time around with removing all the sprites for Pokemon other than what’s in the demo. There was only one problem with this: the Shiny sprites for what is assumed to be the entire list of new Pokemon and Alolan forms were left in the demo somehow. The opinions of the new Pokemon have been mixed ranging from people being genuinely impressed by a design to making fan art pointing out how ridiculous they feel some Pokemon are. Along with the Pokemon, base stats have been excavated for some of the new Pokemon and have got the competitive community of Pokemon talking and already theorizing sets and builds. The most recent development involves items, moves, TMs and a new type of Pokeball. and sheds more light on the technical aspect of the game such as Save Data and how well it will stand up to hacking.

In Sun and Moon there will be a total of 719 moves Pokemon can learn. which is 98 more than Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire had. Of these 98 moves, 29 of them are the new Z-Moves introduced, having one for each type and 11 unique Z-Moves tied to specific Pokemon. No word yet on which Pokemon can learn these powerful Z-Moves, but they can only be used once per battle and are shaping up to be an important battle mechanic much like the Mega Evolution was when it was introduced in Pokemon X and Y where it completely shook up the meta game. HMs (Hidden Moves) are no longer in the game. These were moves you could teach Pokemon that aided the player in the over world by letting them cross water, fly to a different own or cut down a tree in the way. They have been replaced by specific Pokemon you can call into the over world with a special item, with Tauros being the Pokemon that was used in the demo to move faster and smash through giant rocks blocking your path. Some moves that were HMs have been converted into TMs which can also be used to teach Pokemon new moves, so Surf, Fly, and Waterfall are still in the game. No word on if they can be used in the over world or are purely battle specific moves. 3 brand new moves have replaced old TMs, but have not been revealed as of yet. Oddly, the TM for the move Dig has been replaced by the Bug Type move Leech Life, which saps your opponents health and gives it to the Pokemon who used it, leading some to speculate it has received a damage buff since it has long been considered one of the weakest moves in the game.

 There are 145 new items in the game, with just over one-third of them being related to the new Z-Move mechanic. There are 58 Z-Move items, with all 29 Z-Moves having two separate Z-Crystals for them to be used with. We don’t know yet how these different Z-Crystals will affect the moves. One of the new items can be used during battle that will also have a held-item effect, much like a Berry which can be used on a Pokemon to heal it/restore conditions such as paralysis, confusion, frozen, burned or asleep, and can be held by a Pokemon for it to use the Berry whenever the conditions are met. Another item that will cure all status conditions will be added in, much like a Full Heal of past games. We do not have names for these items yet.

18 new items will be used to change the new Pokemon Silvally’s type. Whenever it holds one of these items it type will change and its signature move, Multi-Attack will also take on that type. There will also be 6 new held items for Pokemon that will affect them in some way, similar to items like Leftovers that heals a Pokemon every turn for a small amount. Some other new items include a new evolution stone, 4 items that changes an unspecified Pokemon’s form, a new key item that does the same and a new type of Pokeball. It is not known what effect the new Pokeball has, but it cannot be bought or sold, and its design is leading some to believe it is used for capturing the new Ultra Beasts.

The last bit of info goes over some miscellaneous bits such as no new fossil items and that evolution tables have been wiped from the demo, so we don’t know what conditions have to be met for any of these Pokemon to evolve or when they do. Lastly, and ironically, the security for the game has improved since the last generation of games. The security wall that stops people from hacking specific saves and altering them has been heightened, and the system as a whole is tighter to stop hackers from messing with the games code or inserting unobtainable/hard to obtain Pokemon into their game. This doesn’t mean that it won’t be broken however as we saw with the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire QR Code hack fiasco.

The majority of the game play info has been revealed to the public, not leaving much to the imagination of Pokemon fans when it comes to how the game is going to play at this point. The entire Pokedex, new moves, new forms and new game play mechanics have all been dragged out kicking and screaming from the demo, much to the dismay of GameFreak. Does this mean that we know everything there is to know about Sun and Moon until the game launches on November 18th? Quite the opposite actually. A lot of the more detailed information has not been uncovered concerning evolutions, new moves, the region itself and the story. So while some may be disappointed by this new info, maybe GameFreak still has a few aces up their sleeve. 

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUx8yi0740c5An0fWdFDvw?spfreload=5 

Check out Kaphotics channel for rundowns of the info that has been data-mined from the demo

http://www.serebii.net/

Head over to Serebii.net for up to date info on all media Pokemon related and check out the message boards for some juicy information that might get a Cease and Desist if advertised on the main page

[sweetooth706-blog]

Overwatch is scientifically proven to be SICK. And here’s proof courtesy of me.

[sweetooth706-blog]

Dark Souls 3: Should You Buy It?

Short Answer: Yes. Absolutely. Possible contender for GOTY, good online mechanics, fantastic design, good challenge level, great soundtrack and the main reasons anyone wants to play a Souls game: the bosses.

Long Answer: While this is a pretty much a must own for the current console generation (and PC if that’s what you’re rocking), I can admit it’s not for everyone. If you’re a busy person who doesn’t have a lot of time for video games and can only play an hour or two a day or less, then it’s going to take you awhile to finish this game. If you just like jumping into a game like this and you’ve never played a previous souls game, the weapon system and stats can all be overwhelming at first so a little research before hand is recommended. If you like a straight forward story that tells you everything from the beginning and holds your hand through it like a carnival haunted house, then you’re not going to enjoy this. If you’re not a patient person and throw your controller at the cat at the first signs of a struggle, save your cat the harm and don’t buy this game. If you’re not willing to throw your face against a (metaphorical) brick wall until it starts to crumble, then you’re going to have a bad time with this game.

On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who likes a good challenge and the feeling of overcoming that challenge is worth the multiple tries you’ve put into it, then this game is for you. If you like piecing together lore from item descriptions and small references in a game that doesn’t tell you the full story, then this game is for you. If you like helping other players with areas you’ve been through so many times you can navigate it better than your own house, or enjoy jumping into another players game to try and kill them, then this game is for you.

Dark Souls has always had a sort of legend behind the series. Some people claim it’s the hardest game series ever, and it is quite hard but not even close. People neglect to mention you can make the game almost trivial through the mechanic of being able to summon in other players for help. Stuck on a boss? Summon in another player, or two, or with the Dried Finger item, even 3 other players. The drawback is you don’t get as many souls, which is the main currency of the game for everything from levels to items to upgrades, but you get to progress and sometimes that’s all you want to do. Even if you play offline the game is still very doable on your own. That being said one of the later boss fights gave me so much trouble because of my build. I built a Sorcerer that used some high damaging spells, but even with my melee weapon fully upgraded, this boss was hyper aggressive. I didn’t have time to cast a spell, but I stuck with it and after literal hours, I finally downed the boss. It was a feeling of relief, triumph and ABOUT DAMN TIME. To sum that little anecdote up, everyone will have a boss that is their “wall.” Some bosses are huge and hard to hit with a melee weapon, and the boss I fought didn’t give me time to cast spells, so a heavy spell-caster build might struggle there. What brings it all together however, is that none of these bosses are unbeatable no matter what your mind might be telling you on your 23rd try on the same boss.

Lastly, a few tips if this is you’re first souls game.

1. Be patient. I cannot stress this enough. Nothing will get you killed quicker in this game than losing your patience and just trying to blaze through an area or go super saiyan against a boss. This isn’t Bloodborne, being aggressive isn’t as rewarding as it was in that game. Duck in, get a few hits, and either shield up or roll away. One of the best ways to play this game is like a surgeon. Be precise, calculated and calm, and while being reckless and blowing a hole in the patient with dynamite can be effective, it just makes a big mess in the end.

2. Do research into the stats and what they affect. From what I’ve seen and played in my over 100 hours in the game, there are no real “jack of all trades” builds that are effective. You can’t just even out your stats and expect to be able to do everything well. If you don’t specialize, you’ll only be able to use the middle of the road spells, equipment and weapons. Some weapons and spells require an extremely high level of stat investment to be able to even wield, and you’ll be able to get a single stat up to that requirement near end game unless you grind like crazy. Also, get a weapon you like and try to stick with it. Upgrading a weapon fully in this game takes a lot of work, but upgraded weapons are going to affect your damage output in the game much more than the stats until end game. As a small side note, keep your equipment load under 70% at all times. This might require some points into Vitality which affects equipment load, but using heavier weapons and armor will require this if you still want to be able to fast roll. Fast roll has the most invulnerability frames and is the fastest roll naturally. 70% or above and you fat roll, less invulnerability frames, much slower recovery. I think about 90%, maybe higher makes you not able to roll or run at all. AVOID THIS.

3. Explore. This game has a lot of secrets. A LOT. Fake walls, items in places where you never would’ve thought to look, entire areas of the game you can miss. Two of the best areas and bosses in the game are easily missed if you don’t explore and pay attention. More exploration=more souls, more items and more NPCs to find.

4. Lastly, the most important part that is centered around these last few tips, DO NOT GET ATTACHED TO YOUR SOULS. If you die, you lose your souls and have to go back to where you died and retrieve them. If you die again before you get them, they’re gone forever. Do not let this discourage you. Early game 3000+ souls can do a lot for you, and losing that many souls that early is a soul crusher (pun absolutely intended). But then you get to the boss and kill it, you get more souls than that and even the boss’ soul that you can use to get more souls or a special item. The other side of this coin is don’t be afraid to spend your souls. If you have enough for a level, spend it. If you have enough for a nice upgrade or piece of armor, buy it. You make a little bit of character progress and don’t run the risk of losing a large amount of souls. The most expensive item in a new game is a key at 20,000 souls, which pretty early on is a little intimidating but pretty soon you’re getting that and then some just running through an area or killing a boss.

So go, get this game, enjoy it, don’t get too frustrated over it and throw your controller at the cat. This game is an experience so just enjoy it for what it is and what it’s trying to do in an industry that puts out games that hold your hand and are designed to be blazed through just to tell a sub par story and make a quick buck. This game has so much to offer, so accept it’s gift on the rusty sharp dinner plate it serves itself to you on.

[sweetooth706-blog]

The Brook Game Controller Super Converter for Xbox 360/Xbox One to PS4.

So with Street Fighter 5 being exclusive to PS4 and the PC, and my PC not being able to handle Street Fighter V (I assume it can’t, not going to waste the time) I was heartbroken once I realized I would have to get a new arcade stick for the PS4. Once the super converter was released, I was excited about being able to use my MadCatz stick for the 360 for Street Fighter V. That is, until they sold out faster than any Amiibo that isn’t Mario. The other problem I had was that I had ordered a Hori Fight Stick Mini WHICH IS A FINE STICK AND ALL (it’s a little small and your hands start to hurt after awhile because of how they have to sit on the stick, and you have to adjust your inputs for the smaller joystick, but it is very responsive and decently sturdy for its size) a week prior, and it came in the same day that news broke that Brook released these converters. So after a few weeks of feeling like I wasted money (not because the stick was bad etc. etc.,) they finally came back in stock and I purchased one.

Brook makes these converters for multiple other console setups, but as I said before I purchased the Xbox 360/Xbox One to PS4. The box came with instructions for more than just the set up like custom buttons, how to get the 360 controller to emulate the touch pad and how to set up a turbo button. All pretty in-depth and simple in it’s explanation and from what I’ve seen from others they all work as intended, but I only needed it for the converter aspect. It’s about the size of a thumb-drive from 2010 and colored dark lime green. I get it confused with my lighter from time to time, but it’s convenient in that it’s just a small attachment you plug in to the PS4′s controller port. That’s about it really. You plug in the attachment, the small LEDs light up to let you know it’s functioning. Plug your controller up and you’re ready to go. The compatibility list of controllers is staggering. Roughly 20 different controllers work with it, including ones such as racing wheels and Guitar Hero peripherals.  I have the MadCatz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2, and it works wonderfully. Only problem is that every roughly 8 minutes or so it drops connection and I have to unplug and replug the converter back in. Brook has said that they are working on a fix for this however and should have a firmware update coming soon. 

Overall, I am very pleased with the Brooks Game Controller Super Converter. It’s easy to use, easy to carry and the price tag of $44.95 isn’t terrible when considering the price of buying a brand new PS4 fight stick. The prices vary depending on which setup you buy. The converter dropping connection is an issue but once Brooks fixes this then it will be the ideal converter for this current console generation. Here’s the link to the official Brook Accessory website with more details on it and where to buy one: 

http://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/86711304/

And if you’re interested in buying, they have them on Ebay or you can buy them from the site I did:

http://arcadeshock.com/products/brook-converter-various-configurations?variant=10684576513

[sweetooth706-blog]

So I just bought a Brooks Super Converter that lets me play my Xbox 360 controllers on my PS4. I have a MadCatz Arcade Stick Tournament Edition S+ for the Xbox 360, and I plugged it in and it works just fine. Problem is, after a few minutes of play, the controller just stops responding. The light on my stick and the adapter are still on so it’s still plugged up, but no response from any of the buttons. Normally I can fix this by just unplugging and replugging it back up, but I don’t want to have to do this every time especially if I’m playing online. Anybody got any ideas on how to remedy this? Please?

[blackfashion]

Name a celebrity with the same birthday as you and what you have in common.

[zonecassette]

Sept 30 - T-Pain - loved and adopted by millions

[cologneoscopy-deactivated202010]

Aug 23 - K.K. - we both sing Bollywood songs

[jabroni-in-law]

Dec 3 - Ozzy Osborne: literally nothing

[thoracs]

Dec 22 - A wrestler named Mistico: can bring the smack down 

[kafkaesque-meat-deactivated2025]

June 25th- Orwell. I guess we’re both pretty critical of authority? Also we both have somewhat similar feelings towards Dali.

[doctorbutler]

September 6th - Chris Christie - We both live in New Jersey…  Keep you enemies closer, I suppose?

[shadowcow]

December 21st - Kim Kap-hwan - A strong, inherent sense of justice; the innate ability to tell whether or not someone is evil or holds dark intentions just by looking at that person. 

Whenever fighting against an evil character, assume a special opening pose, glare menacingly at the evil opponent, slowly raise a hand to point at the opponent, saying “Aku wa yurusan!” (Japanese for “Evil is unforgiveable!”) “Hah!”, then jump into a fighting stance.

[sweetooth706-blog]

September 4th - Jason David Frank. We both have an unhealthy love of the White/Green Ranger, his a little bit more extreme than mine.

[sweetooth706-blog]

Alex has been out for almost two days now and here’s my thoughts: Alex in the SFV system is better than Alex in the 3rd Strike system. 

First off, Alex looks and animates beautifully. The hair is a little off but a few characters have that problem as well. But who cares? What matters is how he plays.

I’ve been messing around with him and played some online matches with him and these are the major strengths he has: moderately high damage and stun, FANTASTIC pokes for a mid-range game, great command throw mixups and a ton of ways around fireballs with his armored EX Elbow Slash, his stomp and his jumping headbutt grab. He has a pretty fast forward dash for a grappler as well. His corner game is SUPER strong and so is his anti-air game with one of his better anti-airs hitting super high and crush counters. Mid-screen you can’t do much after it without meter but in the corner it can lead to some high meterless damage and his anti-air grab is FAST with meter and does good damage, but i would recommend using his normals to anti air until you get the meter. His EX Elbow Slash gets a hit of armor with it and can punish fireballs at pretty good ranges. His meaty game is strong especially with cr. hp since it hits twice and is punishable but you won’t eat too much damage for it. His st. mp can also be used for a meaty and be used as a counter hit setup as well. He has great tic grabs as well. His cr. lk isn’t cancellable but has good recovery and causes little enough hitstun and blockstun for all versions of his command throw to be able to grab when cr. lk is used as point blank range. Also his moves have a great amount of corner carry, which is where you want to get your opponent as soon as possible. His aerial moves have great range, and his jab is decent on wakeup as well.

His weaknesses: His inputs. For someone who’s played a plethora of characters this won’t be a problem but for the new player, they might run into an execution wall. He has quarter circle moves, half circle moves a back charge and a down charge move and it might seem overwhelming to newer players. He is a grappler so his jump startup is a frame or two slower than other characters. Alex’s best moves and damage requires ex except his command throw and headbutt grab. He is a meter hungry character so you probably won’t see his Critical Art very often. His reversal game is not great, even with meter all his moves that you could try to use to escape can be hit out of quite easily, even his EX Elbow Slash which gets a hit of armor with meter can be jabbed out on startup. He has decent escape options like his stomp to get out of pressure but it has so much landing lag unless you use meter you can still be punished. Being a grappler his combo game isn’t great. His V-Skill lets him store a counter hit more or less: it’s his taunt from 3rd Strike and it makes his next move act as a counter hit including crush counter. Because of the animation using this outside of full screen is dangerous, but where it really shines is during stun combos. Like I mentioned Alex dishes out a lot of stun, so once you get the stun use your V-skill and continue the combo beginning with a crush counter. His V-Trigger isn’t great. He charges up a clothesline that goes past the opponent on hit and on hit causes a TON of hit stun and allows for combos and is cancellable from his buttons that are normally cancellable. While charging you also get an auto parry on the first hit of it, and it can parry more hits if you’re willing to use the V-Meter. It can be used to punish things that Alex normally couldn’t because of the speed of it and leads to decent damage. The problem with charging it is that it’s very predictable and easy to get hit out of. His buttons become predictable if you want to go for combos. His st. lp is cancellable into his lp Flash Chop but other than that it requires meter to combo. St. hp is cancellable but has slow startup, and his st. mp is a good button and cancellable but his options for cancels are limited. His Flash Chop is a great move to end combos with and leaves the opponent standing minus the EX version, the only problem is his Heavy Flash Chop. It has great damage but the only way to combo into it is off of a counter hit st. hp or a counter hit v-trigger clothesline, which is sad because it’s the only move other than his clothesline that turns the opponent around for his unique back command throws. His crossup game, as expected for a grappler, isn’t great. You can link jabs or light kicks afterwards for tick throw setups, but your best combo is to hit a SUPER deep crossup and st. mp will combo.  

Overall, Alex’s gameplan is a bit slow and methodical until you get them into the corner. His great range pokes keep your opponent out of your space and your anti-airs are good so use them until you get meter for the EX Air Throw. Slowly walk your opponent into the corner and that’s where Alex really shines. His tic throw game is fantastic and he benefits well from knockdown and his far reaching normals can keep the opponent in the corner. Do NOT get knocked down yourself though, you’re best options are wakeup jab or EX Command throw and you want to use your meter for extra damage and powering your way through a fireball game but hopefully by this point you’ve scared your opponent away from being close to you so you may not struggle too much if you’ve peppered in a few command throws and regular throws. His V-Skill and V-Trigger aren’t nearly as useful as some other characters, which is a double-edged sword since it gives him access to his only decent reversal in his V-Reversal. Play the mid-range game, walk them to the corner and keep them there with pokes, anti-airs command throws and your throw mixup game. I feel like they’ve done a fantastic job of bringing this 3rd Strike character into the new generation, he may very well be the best grappler in the game at the moment or at the very least the most fun

Also, little tidbit about his jumping lk: on taller characters if you jump in with a button and it hits or is blocked, you can jump over them and instant overhead with it. So far it works on Birdie, Zangief and probably F.A.N.G. and Bison but I haven’t tested it yet.

[sweetooth706-blog]

Street Fighter 5 Review

Street Fighter 5 has been out for over a month now, and I’ve had some pretty extensive time with it. So far I’ve been enjoying it, and it’s great for hardcore fighting game fans, but some problems with it are dividing people into two categories: A. The people who enjoy it competitively and believe the game is super solid and has great mechanics and B. the people who say it’s too bare-bones to justify the price tag. Here’s my take.

Now that that’s out of the way, what is the most important thing in a fighting game? The roster. You can have the best looking most technically sound fighting game of all time but it could only have 2 playable characters and never see the success of games with bigger rosters, but a fighting game with too many characters has its own set of problems. As great as Marvel vs Capcom 2 was and is, at the competitive level only a handful of the roughly 50-something characters were ever seen. Street Fighter 5 has a roster of 16 characters with more DLC characters coming (i’ll talk about that in a minute). Not only is roster size important, the viability of the characters is nearly as important as the size. While Street Fighter 5 doesn’t have the balance of Killer Instinct these days, every character is good in their own way and so far no one character just towers above everyone else, so you can get pretty far with whoever you want to play.

Might as well tackle this: the game looks great. For all of you graphics.....uhm graphics enthusiasts out there, you’ll be more than pleased. It animates beautifully, the moves hit harder and look more realistic than ever before. Each character looks super unique, but there are some problems. Clipping is a common issue, but that’s not that big of a deal. The only real issue, is the hair mechanics on a few characters, mainly Ken. Ken has a new do in this iteration, and it looks like somebody caked his hair with mustard. Ew. The fuck Capcom.

Pretty much every generation of Street Fighter has a gameplay mechanic that changes up the gameplan of the characters. SFV brings us the V-System, which helps make each character very unique in how they play. You have a V-meter which fills up by using your V-Skill or by getting hit, similar to the Ultra Meter in SF4. Every character has a unique V-Skill that builds meter and has a use for it that makes each character feel like their own. Ryu’s gives him the ability to parry moves a la 3rd Strike, Kens gives him a dash for rushdown and pressure, and Necallis gives him a ranged move. Each character has different levels of V-Meter ranging between 2 and 3. Using 1 bar of V-Meter gives you the option to V-Reversal, which lets you get out of pressure relatively safely when you’re blocking and balances out the game very well by giving every character a way to get out of pressure. Using all you’re V-meter when its full gives you access to your V-Trigger which can be used to extend combos and gives you a limited buff (except for Necalli’s, which is infinite but also means he can’t use V-Reverals) and functions very similar to Instinct in Killer Instinct. Some gives you new moves, some gives extra stun on moves, Rashid’s creates a giant moving tornado for strong mix up pressure, Birdie’s gives armor to a lot of his special moves. Its a very unique system and helps define characters who otherwise might not stand out as well.

Now for the bad things. The game is very bare bones right now, and for the full price tag of $60, its got the content of a $40 game. No Arcade mode, no option to fight the computer alone, online is very bare bones but has a pretty reliable connection, and no challenge mode. The tutorial is pretty basic but shows you the ropes pretty well. Survival is maddening at higher levels which sucks since at the moment it’s the only way to unlock alternate colors. Theres a prequel Story Mode for each character which is laughably easy and only nets you fight money, which you can’t even spend yet since the in-game store hasn’t been implemented yet. You have to be connected to the server to even earn fight money and experience when you play the different modes, and disconnecting, even if it’s the servers fault during the middle of a grueling Survival Mode ends it no matter how far you are. A lot of the promised features are coming in future updates, the first two updates are coming March 29th and March 30th is the update which will add the first DLC character, Alex from 3rd Strike. What’s that you say? DLC already for a full price game that already was released with the bare minimum of features? Not to worry, with the in game store coming up and the first DLC character, the fight money you earn in game can be used to purchase colors and characters as they are released. 

But should you buy it? If you’re into competitive Street Fighter like I am, then absolutely yes. The game itself is SUPER solid and is probably one of the best vanilla releases of a fighting game that’s ever been seen. If you’re casually into them, I’d wait. You won’t be able to find enough to do in the game to justify the $60 price tag, wait until the first update or maybe until June-July when the full story mode update is supposed to drop. With the lineup of extra features to be added in time and the fact that you SHOULD be able to purchase everything added with money you get from playing the game, this game will be getting updated pretty frequently with new content to keep the game fresh.