With any long-running series, there's a delicate balance between retaining the things that people love and refreshing the decor. With Street Fighter V [official site], Capcom have come close to hitting a reset button marked '1991' when it comes to fighting systems and yet this is the most forward-looking game in the series, with one eye fixed on the world of esports. It's a streamlined entry in the mighty fightin' series, for better and for worse, and we sent fisticuffs expert Andi Hamilton into the fray to see how it all works. He returned with these words of judgement.
]]>A month or so ago there was a Capcom weekend on Steam, where some of the publisher's finest cuts were free to play for a few days. Out of curiosity as to whether my old 360 arcade stick would work with it I downloaded Ultra Street Fighter IV [official site]. I have a long history with Street Fighter IV and thought I knew what to expect – but the World Warriors blew me away again, and that once-dusty stick is now part of the furniture. Here's why.
]]>There was a period in the mid-nineties when Rise of the Robots and One Must Fall: 2097 were the only beat 'em ups available on PC. Believing robotic participants to be the future of combat sports, Colin Computer, CEO of PC Incorporated, banned all fighting games containing living combatants. When it became clear that people might accidentally play Rise of the Robots in a two-game market, Colin was chased out of town.
Times have changed. Now you can play the latest Dead or Alive< ! and Mortal Kombat games and a whole lot more. And this weekend, starting right now, you can play Ultra Street Fighter IV for free through Steam.
]]>SSFIVAE is breaking free from GFWL! What does that mean? It means that Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition is snapping the shackles of Games For Windows Live and switching to Steamworks this coming Friday.
This is good news, because Games For Windows Live may soon vanish (though given this is Microsoft, it's not quite that simple) and it's not yet clear which games will make the transition to other multiplayer-enabling services. Unfortunately there's also some bad news for people who bought SSFIVAE DLC through GFWL.
It's a good day for people who love acronyms. Or GDFPWLA, as we like to call it.
]]>In another life, I didn't spend the entire Easter weekend managing virtual football teams, but instead spent it practicing fighting game combos. I like to think that this dimensional doppelgänger has enough good taste to make Street Fighter his puncher of choice. I've never been good at it, but I've read enough to know that it's good. And the trailer below for Ultra Street Fighter IV, due out early June August, makes me wish I could trade places with my other self for a while. Check out the stage with the dinosaurs in the background.
I've button-mashed many a fighting game character just to watch them die, but recently I've been trying roll my fighting game knowledge-train a little further down the line. As reported by Wired, the Street Fighter IV Combo Trainer looks like a good way of doing that. It's a fan-created mod that helps you practice the timing of combo attacks.
]]>I think I know what hell will be like. It will be someone demanding you put all the Street Fighter games in order on a shelf. The latest entry to the entirely garbled series will be Ultra Street Fighter IV, come August next year. It evolves to the next level!
]]>Protest as we might, PC versions of big-name console games arriving later than their disc-bound cousins increasingly seems to be a fact of gaming life. We've heard all manner of excuses in the past, from polish to piracy, but Capcom have just offered their own reasoning for why we see the likes of Resi and Street Fighter amble onto PC weeks later than their console kin.
]]>My choice of feckless, work-dodging pursuit while a student (due to being too poor to afford a PC at the time) was PlayStation man-thumper Tekken, specifically 2 and 3 in the series. While I haven't explored its strange lands of fighting bears and suicidal undead samaurai for many years, a certain nostalgia tickles at my childlike soul upon news that Namco's longstanding brawler is to make its first foray onto PC.
]]>UPDATE: Capcom appear to be reconsidering certain elements of their DRM plans, but removing GFWL is not on the table, and they say that removing the DRM completely is "not feasible". They also discuss removing the DRM from legitimate copies of the game in the event of it being cracked.
Here's a new one. The original Street Fighter 4 sold well on the PC by Capcom's own admission, but apparently some folk found a way to acquire it without paying for it, so they didn't bother releasing the PC version of Super Street Fighter 4 that they had already more or less developed. I hope no one tells them that piracy happens on consoles too, or they'll maybe stop releasing any games, and just produce them for their own amusement. They've had a change of heart for the latest iteration though: they'll be letting PC gamers give them their money if they so choose. Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition is coming to PC, and it's learnt a few new DRM tricks too.
]]>Are we still sore about Capcom not bringing Super Street Fighter IV to the PC? y/n? Well, in case you can't decipher those aconyms in the headline, today Capcom announced that they're working on PC releases of both the enhanced Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV, boasting four new playable characters (Yun, Yang, Oni and Evil Ryu), some balance changes and an impressive new suite of replay features (including the ability to "follow" the replays posted by any players or friends of your choosing), and Street Fighter X Tekken, due out in 2012. Trailers after the jump.
]]>Gamasutra reports that despite strong sales of Street Fighter IV on the PC and the game being built on DirectX technology, Capcom has no intention of gracing our beloved platform with Super Street Fighter IV. The reason? Piracy. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that the company "cannot allow a situation" where the game is available for free on any platform, and that a PC port will only be a possibility if Capcom discover a decent copy protection solution.
Ready for the weird bit? Ono went on to say that a Steam-only release was out of the question because it would be "unfair to PC players who are unable to buy games via the digital distribution platform." What, as opposed to it being unfair for every single one of us? DAMMIT, CAPCOM.
]]>The months since the latest iteration of the evergreen fighting series appeared on filthy console grow longer, and still there's no sign of a release date for the much-anticipaterooed PC version. Let's hope it's a sign Capcom are really committed to getting it right. What we do now have, however, is word on some PC-exclusive new features...
]]>Whilst idly watching Twitter and Facebook continue to fill up with console types nattering excitedly about Street Fighter IV being the best thing since deep-fried cabbage or something, I entirely forgot that I was supposed to be playing it too. There was a PC release due, remember? I became miffed. Like this: grrrrrrr.
]]>As the ravages of jetlag cruelly drag me down, I crawl broken and red-eyed from bed to bring you more news of Street Fighter on PC. Was this really worth getting up for? It's hard to know any more. But it is apparently an EPIC RETURN. That's good to know. Video below!
]]>Good news, everyone. Street Fighter IV is to see a PC release. The part of me that wasn't allowed a SNES or Megadrive when I was young is fair excited by this unexpected prospect of console thrills on my pixel-box of choice, while the sniffy PC snob in me is grumpily WTFing. Striving for objectivity, I'm quite pleased. The PC's done much to shake off its perceived stereotypes of late, becoming more omnivore a platform than ever - plugging a 360 or other decent gamepad into it and Spinning Bird Kicking away could well feel entirely natural.
More wibble and some screenshots beneath the cut, for people who like wibble and screenshots.
]]>
