Capcom vs. SNK 2 was in the extended lineup. It’s great to see those passionate communities still playing those games 25 years later, even with plenty of new blood, though I will admit that both games fall into a situation where the top tier characters are so dominant that you don’t get a lot of variety in character selection in top 8, which can dampen the excitement a bit.
I hope Capcom brings an optional mode for new balance, like they added the option to disable roll cancel. The game is too unique with its mechanics, I think it’s one of the most interesting games ever with the modes, but the balance just isn’t great, which is holding the game back.
I was lucky that Strive top 8 were played early, so I could enjoy them at a decent time despite being in CEST. Bit unfortunate with the character variety, a lot of HC and Goldlewis matches and Johnny has proven to be very strong as people predicted. Would have preferred to see Ram win. Not that she’s weak, but in my opinion more interesting and somewhat underplayed. But alas.
Strive has excellent variety right now. Out of eight players, we had eight different characters. The nature of a tournament is that you’ll see repeats of the characters played by the people who stay in longer. The problem with a game like CvS2 is that you see those same characters over and over again throughout the pools stages, and you see very similar teams across the players in top 8. That Ramlethal player won the ArcSys world tour very recently, also.
I guess you’re right, my complaint was mostly about about the part of groups that I watched that was I think three Goldlewis matches in a row.
I don’t think the balance for Strive is in a really bad spot, and character skills can outweigh statistical advantages. Maybe it’s just that I dislike Goldlewis and HC due to their oppressive playstyles that I remember them as negative examples.
Didn’t want to complain really, the matches were hype, I got some really good laughs out of them too when RedDitto grabbed opponents in the most insane situations. Good stuff all around
I’ve competed on stage in a rural village in F-29 Retaliatory head2head tournament (over serial cable) around 1993. I’ve gotten to grab first place in a Bo3 single elimination format, defeating my nemesis, Lil’ Cloud, in the finals. I took home a mobo for a 286 (but no cpu, PC case, peripherals or anything else). For a bonus prize, they’ve pitted me against the final final boss, the IT admin from the neighbouring town. I’ve beaten him 4:1 in a Bo7, and my reward was an AdLib card. I did end up using this one in a 386 SX build that my dad bought me a couple months later.
Despite being on stage, I do not remember having any stage fright at all. I remember the crowd around us, but everything got drowned out by the sound blasters screeching the noise into my ears through some cheapo cans. I just remember being baffled that after having my toughest final against Lil’ Cloud, I suddenly have another challenger I have to sit down against.
Around '97 I got sucked in by Quake II in PC cafes, mostly playing FFAs on LAN. However the Q2 scene gradually moved on to QuakeWorld, Quake 3 Arena and Counter Strike. Since my PC was always lagging behind in performance, I chose to stick with QuakeWorld, and mostly played in 320x200 software rendering so I could aim for 120Hz + 120 fps vsync as time passed.
Around this time, between 98-2003 there were a couple LANs in and around Budapest that were CPL feeder events, however QuakeWorld has long been dropped from the biggest international events, and was relegated to mostly online tournaments and smaller local LANs only. Despite this, they always allowed QuakeWorld players in and even offered prices for first three places within categories. However the participants gradually declined from 50:50 Q3/QW to 50:40:10 CS/Q3/QW to 75:20:5 CS/Q3/QW by the end.
In the last LAN where they still allowed QW players in, must have been around 2003, I think we had no more than 50 players out of 600+.
I’ve competed, but not on stage, in the 1v1 category, choking due to nervousness around the quarterfinals, dropping to Loser’s Bracker. I did lose my LB match as well, the nerves never recovered. I remember one of my buddies talking over my shoulder, asking me wtf was wrong with me that I’m making all these mistakes. I came out as a sweaty mess from both matches, feeling totally defeated and unable to process why things were going the way they did. It haunts me to this day and gave me flashbacks to it in online competitive play, like WoW’s Arena 2v2/3v3.
I also competed in 2v2 at the tournament with my best bud as my partner later that day. The nerves were still pretty bad, but I was relying on my partner’s skill to carry us, along with some clever map selections. It was a Bo5, and we knew that with my nerves shot we had to focus on just one map that had mixed shaft (lightning gun)/rocket launcher (RL) play in order to take the series, as otherwise we could dominate maps that relied on RL only, as predictive spawn lockdowns was our forte, in contrast with raw skill/aim. Basically the moment we won first draw for map selection, we knew we could make it a 3:1 or 3:2 at worst if we selected our least favoured map and won it. I’ve still made a lot of mistakes in heated moments, and we did have to draw out one map by deliberately avoiding respawns near the end of the match in order to deny our opponents a win, but in the end my partner carried us to victory.
While the 2v2 finals were not exactly on stage, they did put a cam on a big screen and we also had a bit of a crowd forming around us. Smoking a light joint an hour before the match did help though. I forgot what we won. I just remember receiving a trophy at the finals ceremony and feeling completely undeserving of it. And then moving out of my parent’s basement and in with my buddy, getting high 24/7 for the next 6 months.
As for the question is it even worth it: yes, yes it is. Not when you are older though. At 20+ you are already aged out, and the commitment required is tremendous just to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Better stick to turn based strategy.
I been competing in fighting game tournaments for over a decade. Its a blast, even if you suck. The fighting game community is one of the most welcoming competitive environments I’ve ever been apart of. 10/10, highly recommend.
This. The great thing about fighting games is that today is one of the best times to join: there’s lots of online activity, long past the days in which you needed a local tournament to actually play. You will find a passionate player about literally any fighting game on earth, no matter if it’s an indie title (I suggest Punch Planet!) or an old KOF classic. Hell, good rollback implementation even makes playing on (decent) wi-fi actually acceptable.
Mass effect had this weird metamorphosis across the series where the character writing and gameplay improved noticeably between each game in the series while the story and mechanics took big steps back. Andromeda had some of the best movement/power sets in the series, not to mention your own build-a-gun workshop, while absolutely failing at everything else it tried to do. “My face is tired” indeed random not-the-citadel lady.
LOVED RDR1. Wanted to like RDR2 but… it just kind of really sucks to play?
The “cinematic” movement makes me feel like I am piloting a giant- no, actually an Atlas would control a lot better. I don’t know WHAT RDR2’s problem is but it just feels horrible to actually move around.
And the controls in general similarly feel… way more complicated than they should be? Feels like I have five context specific modes at any given time. Like, I play some fairly complex games and have a long love of HOTASes. But RDR2 is the only game where I was ever regularly afraid that I would hit the wrong button and even managed to punch a Stranger in the face once while trying to talk to them. Like… for probably three or four months of my life I could start a frigging F-15 from memory but RDR2 just breaks my brain somehow.
Will probably try again some time. But bopping that one rando and potentially losing out on a cool quest after like 2 hours of tutorial was just… no.
I agree with this. RDR2 pushed so much on realism, it actually made me realize how I don’t want to be as slow as a person in the real world in videogame. Realism in general really doesn’t cut it for me in videogame form.
I think you are alone. Most people were disappointed. There were too many thing that were set to automatic. It was kind of hard to even play the game. More like just watching.
I played in a UT2004 tournament at SCALE or LinuxWorld back in the day. I got 2nd or third place and won a Sun backpack and some other swag. First place was a whole ass Sun computer. I played a few Starcraft 2 tournaments but I hate competing in it. It’s a lot of waiting, playing on far servers with worse ping, and playing against much better people a lot of the time.
1 was great, though the economy was overly complicated. 2 fixed all the issues of 1 and made combat more fun. 3 removed everything I liked and replaced it w/ a weird realtime RTS system.
I spent a ton of time on LotR II and it’s expansion. I distinctly remember finding the box for 3 a few years later and just being confused that they didn’t seem to know what was good about their game.
Had a complicated time trying to get 2 running a few years ago, I think I ended up setting up a Win95 VM specifically for it. But now it looks like they’re just on GoG and Steam. Might have to grab it there.
I replay it every couple years because it has so much nostagia for me, and it runs perfectly on Steam on Linux (and I assume GOG). They even fixed the incredibly annoying mouse issue that I dealt with for years where it wouldn’t scroll down or to the right.
Daggerfall was awesome and Morrowind blew me away. Going into Oblivion I had the highest hopes. Bought the Collectors Edition, took the day off…and biggest disappointment from a game ever. Granted I like Skyrim. Not as much as Daggerfall or Morrowind, but far more than Oblivion. So I guess it didn’t kill the franchise for me.
Bonus popular game that actually killed the franchise for me: GTA4. I loved the Trilogy, but I could not stand IV. All the main characters annoyed the piss out of me, the driving and gun play weren’t nearly as fun…I tried to play it but got burned out around 1/3rd of the way in. Tried to play GTA5 a few years ago and I felt burned out after 40 minutes.
Man, GTA IV is my favorite, and GTA V is my least favorite, and largely for the same reason: the main characters.
In IV, I really liked Niko and wanted him to succeed. I really didn’t like Roman, but I could relate since everyone has that annoying cousin. I just really wanted Niko to succeed at having a second chance in LC.
In V, I hated Michael, Trevor felt shallow (more backstory could’ve helped), and Franklin was a disappointment (what happened to his dream of owning a business?). Maybe they’re fleshed out more in GTA Online, but I never played it. Honestly, I was fine with them all dying since they all seemed like a waste of space, yet I had to play as them. Franklin was the least disappointing, but I really wanted him to have some interesting side content instead of an attempt of a story w/ his friend that ultimately went nowhere.
GTA SA is mu favorite because CJ’s arc is just so good.
I’ve played a bit of it ( haven’t finished ) and so far it’s pretty good. I totally wish I didn’t see a playthrough of their other game, Detention, around 2018, so I could go in for a completelt blind playthrough like I am for Devotion.
Gonna be controversial but Monster Hunter World for me. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the game a lot at first and put 100+ hours into it. But it marked the departure from the silly, cozy, slightly under-the-radar franchise to something that’s just too big for my tastes. I feel like each entry is trying to top its predecessor in new mechanics, bigger maps and stuff and end up getting lost in the sauce.
I started playing on PSP with Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite and moved over to 3DS when the games came out for that. The games were never unpopular per se, especially in Japan where they’ve been a staple since the PSP days, but they always felt a little more niche and unknown. They felt more focused, more streamlined, tighter. All the new combat mechanics added in newer installments definitely help the fluidity of the gameplay and add a lot of fun and variety. But that’s it for new additions that I’d miss when going back to older titles. These huge open-world-esque maps just don’t cut it for me.
Rise would likely have been last MH that I could enjoy since it’s a good mix of classic MH with good QoL features added in to make the game more modern, but even that one didn’t quite catch my attention for too long.
I don’t know, I feel like Monster Hunter kinda lots its charme in chasing industry trends of open world games and more realistic graphics and physics in favour of character, silliness, and focus.
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