BardicKnowledge

Something nice about a game with a big roster is that I can have it both ways. I practice with X-23/Spencer/Trish and keep those characters near the peak of the metagame. Everyone else I just screw around with and have fun. Generally, if someone chooses a completely new team for our 2nd match, I will then also start picking totally new teams. If they stick with the same team for match 2, I will continue to play characters I have experience with.

The fact that TIE Fighter is not going to win its category saddens me deeply, seeing as it is easily the best space-sim ever made. I'd pay $50 for a graphic/audio overhaul without any extra content whatsoever...that game was amazing.

Didn't see this last night, but I get it! ...hahaha.... seriously though, let's make pyros not suck so bad and NOT give demos new toys every patch. Back on topic, I think people still need to experiment with characters they don't normally play. I've still got X-23/Spencer/Trish as my base team with Phoenix as a substitute for Spencer now and then... ...but I also want to be able to play with more of the cast. I'm currently looking at Arthur / Trish / MODOK for an all chip damage team, and Haggar / C. Viper / Morrigan for a secondary team that plays something similarly to my current group. There's a TON of possibilities to the game that I don't think anyone has broken the surface on -- this one is going to keep developing for a long while.

Thor doesn't do well against a ranged chip-based character like Arthur or Trish. He holds his own against anyone that needs to get in close though, even fast chars like X-23 and Wolverine. Of course, as GT has said, I almost never see Thor players online so he's not currently an issue for me.

It's useful to make them safer, assuming that feinting them recovers faster than the natural recovery. You should probably feint-cancel EVERY blocked one (and jump cancel the ones that hit so you can combo them, iirc).

So, X-23 can cancel any of her grounded normals into her feint jumps, as some of you have seen fighting me. New trick: if you're holding S prior to performing the feint prep she instantly cancels the feint back to a standing position... ...giving her a 1 frame recovery for all of her standing normals, hit or miss. C (cancel) C (cancel) C combos, for instance -- as does ABC (cancel) ABC...without X-Factor. Or if it's blocked, C (cancel) is only -1 on block now. Happy! It (so far) doesn't seem to open up a lot of new damaging options except the the triple C into launcher, which gives her 555,000 off of one meter instead of 477,000 that I usually do. Since the 477,000 is guaranteed I'll probably still continue to take it anyway -- it just is a nice way of making her moves much safer on block.

Hooray! Though I must say that after Gold/Silver I generally lost interest in the franchise because the core gameplay never evolved. I played through Platinum and couldn't get into the endgame content. I'm planning on playing through White -- hopefully there's at least something new for us to discover there.

Woot! You'll get up to speed quickly, I'm sure.

Can't believe I played that for as long as I did lol. That's 5 minutes I'm never seeing again, haha.

Seriously, why haven't I bumped into you yet

Why? That's what the guide says about Arthur too lol (just got it today, it's great). Doom / Iron Man beam assists ftw. Shoryuken has a video series of how to kill Phoenix during the transformation, including the Akuma vid.

I don't think this specific case is game-breaking enough to warrant a patch. Just force Akuma to cause the transformation in midair. If Akuma is on top of his game enough to 1) save up 3 bars and 2) kill you with a ground combo ending in fireball, he deserves the kill imo.

I agree that the community at large could stand to be more mature -- Extra Credits has argued this in the past also (though not dedicating a whole episode to it). However, at this point we're equating the behavior of amateur fans to professionals. It's one thing to have an immature response from people who are essentially children (I don't see a lot of 27 year old married people bitching online, and would argue it's mostly the younger demographic doing this). It's another to have that type of response from professional business people, which is why I feel that EA is the bigger problem currently.

Agreed completely. Reading the letter at the end was the perfect way to close it. Hopefully large VG marketing people everywhere take note. And Malaki, while I agree that there are whiny 12-year olds all over the FPS scene (which is part of why I don't have any big FPS games on my console), EA's recent marketing has specifically been hurtful to the industry, and there's no other good way to say it.

Play as Arthur, Doom, and Morrigan with Arthur on point then. Morrigan's assist builds a ton of meter for more Goddess Bracelet / Gold Armor, while Doom's assist throws even more projectiles onto the screen. Always have the screen full of stuff and just go for chip damage to get the job done. Sounds crazy but will work well against most players.

I thought that was pretty good considering that it's the day of the trailer's release.

Holy shit yes. The transition into the main theme is the most incredible musical moment I've heard in weeks. Give this game to me NOW. I love this series, and am hoping for two changes from Oblivion: 1) Towns that exist in the worldspace instead of separate loaded zones (like Morrowind, not Oblivion) 2) All of the neat Alteration magic to come back (namely flight), and the architectural options that flight opens up (Telvanni-style dwellings / caves / etc). Also, this game looks like a dream. Hopefully I don't have to upgrade my PC to get it to run.

Delay your jump after the launcher slightly and it'll work.

Wow, if I actually came off that way I totally apologize. There's definitely stuff to be critiqued about the game -- namely X-Factor's high damage bonus imo, though I agree with GT that everyone's damage could come down slightly (I'd be up for any reduction down to 4/5 of the current values). That being said, the vast majority of us are enjoying it a great deal, and are actively working to discover counter-strategies to the first-order optimal play that we've been seeing (namely, Sentinel + Level 3 X-Factor). Since you seem passionate about the topic, why not play a few rounds and post some constructive stuff? Unfortunately, probably no gaming for me tonight -- my wife is on a conference call and I can't make much noise

Yeah, I also can't finish arcade mode on Very Hard yet :p

Level 3 X-Factor makes anyone extremely good -- as GT has said above, it's one of the things that could use some retooling...especially the damage factor (though IMO the speed is a little fast also).

Honestly, the only weapon where passive, random crits are occasionally an issue is the rocket launcher. Usually it's the soldier's 2nd rocket that is the crit because he deals damage to a clump of people on a cart / point with the first shot, raising his % chance on shots 2 and 3. This is a reward for doing well and shouldn't be taken away imo...but if everyone else feels otherwise I won't make a big fuss about it.

No worries, I ran into some Minnesota people I know from Shoryuken instead. I'll catch you next time you're on!

You obviously have not played any of the VS games at a high level. Someone who doesn't have a real gameplan going in doesn't have a ghost of a chance against me -- the people I've played from here can attest to this. That being said, the physical execution barrier between good and great players is certainly less in Marvel 3 than it is in Super SFIV or Marvel 2 -- I happily concede this because I think that it is amazing. It allows more people to play the actual game at hand and begin to think about things at the level that the pros do. The magic series (jab-->short-->strong-->forward-->fierce-->roundhouse) exists in all of the VS games for the vast majority of the characters. In Marvel 3 this "standard" series is light medium hard launch --> medium medium hard launch, admittedly simpler than Marvel 2's series (due to 3 having fewer attack buttons). This is the most basic combo and does indeed exist for 90% of the characters...just like Marvel 2. However, they are NOT the ideal combo for any character and any competent player will destroy you if that's all you can do. Once you understand this, your game will improve dramatically. Certain characters benefit greatly from getting beyond the basics -- Trish, for instance, can extend her air combo and relaunch her opponent twice if she thinks outside the box (try launch, B, down+C xx qcb+A, B,B, double jump B, down+C xx qcb+A xx super!) The removal of specific combo "rules" from Marvel 2 actually invites creativity and invention such as the above -- now that the only rule is hitstun decay, everything you try has a good chance of working. On average, combos are longer now and the pace of the game has changed, but that's neither here nor there. As a SF2 player, I highly enjoy the overall higher damage output that everyone has. There is only one legitimate complaint I can see leveled at the game currently, and that is how Level 3 X-Factor scales damage a little too much. I agree with this critique but it's only a terrible issue for Sentinel and Dark Phoenix. To deal with the two of them: integrate snapbacks into your combos and force them to either burn X-Factor before characters die (while it's not as powerful), or lose their characters because they can't cover themselves with assists.

So far, this is a TON more fun than SFIV. I feel like the execution barriers to the ideal moves at any given time have been removed -- there's no one-frame links, for instance. As a result, the time you put in will equal results much sooner. Hit me up after you've figured stuff out!