BardicKnowledge

The first 300 or so are much better than the rest -- I haven't read from about 1000 to the end though, so maybe it picked up again.

Happy birthday, Wes! While you're having so much fun in Chambana, introduce one of your belly-dancers to my brother -- he could use a date

Congrats, djp! I hope you enjoy being married as much as I do!

I'm still playing, though SMG2 is going to eat into my sf4 time for the next week or so.

Shadowgate Classic for GBC, Adventures of Lolo for GB (this requires short bursts of concentration, but 99% of the time you can throw down your phone and just wait without any negative consequences.)

Happy birthday!

Throwing in votes for Hakan, Makoto, and Nathan Spencer (please use HQ BC:R artwork). Company = no link for now, will add in later.

Happy birthday, I hope you've had a good day!

Mario 64 did it in such a way that didn't lock you out of exploring the rest of the level. Also, you could find multiple stars that you weren't looking for: in the first area, you can get the cannon island star, the chomp star, or the king-bobomb star all by selecting the first one.

I'll echo the idea of Mario 64's open levels being the ideal design. I dislike having to select which star to find, which traps me in a linear path from start to finish. That being said, Galaxy is still the best game on the Wii (with only Metroid Prime Trilogy coming close), and more of the best can't be bad. Picking this one up asap.

yeah, no car makes things difficult, as every other form of transportation is way overpriced.

I can't believe you're whining about driving from MD to NJ. That's what, a max 4 hour drive? Nothing. That being said, $25 is a huge fee considering that none of us really have a solid Super 4 game yet.

If you like Ibuki, here are the basics for her (she's my main char): First, don't use random neckbreakers, as they are usually punishable. The EX version goes through fireballs and is fast enough to catch anyone but Guile from max distance (you've gotta be closer for him because he recovers so fast). lp mp (hits twice) cr. hk, hk lp mp (hits twice) hp xx neckbreaker When you get a knockdown off of either a neckbreaker (half-circle forward + punch) or a tsumuji (quarter-circle back + kick), you can try what's called a "vortex" mixup afterwards. Watch this video to get an idea of it. Good luck! Ibuki is all about keeping people guessing, so try and do a variety of things with her -- she has a million special moves so this shouldn't be hard.

Because apparently plinking and 1-frame links are easy for you? That's nice, but you don't need to be a dick to the rest of us. Bleck: it's all about the basics -- get footsies down, read the footsie guide Zircon linked earlier.

If you can do (with Ryu, Ken, or Akuma) j. HK, cr.mk xx fireball, you have enough combo skills to be decent. Not saying that's the only combo (or the hardest one you'll have to do), but that is the minimum skill requirement for entry to the game, basically. Practice with us sometime if you're on XBL and we'll give you much more in-depth advice. Believe it or not djp, there are a LOT more 1-frame windows and tighter timing in SF4 than HDR. The only exception is that everyone can do reversals all the time. Everything else is more difficult to do in 4, hands down -- few characters require one-frame link combos in HDR, while much of the cast relies on them here. The biggest change from HDR to SF4 is that meaty moves are next to useless because everyone can reversal you somehow (though some chars, like my poor Ibuki, have to burn EX meter to do it). If you're playing on 360, hit Arek, zircon, and myself up some time and we'll get you up to speed. Fireballs follow the same rule as every other move: Never use it if they could punish you cleanly. If you're at full-screen distance, go ahead and spam it (unless they have a full-screen ultra). If they're close enough to jump over and combo, don't. This rule of "don't do a move unless it's safe" isn't always the right answer, but until you know enough about the game to be certain an unsafe move is the right decision, it's worth remembering. As far as the AI is concerned, it isn't as irrelevant as SC4 where they spam perfect guardbreaks every swing, but by and large your ability to beat the computer doesn't reflect your ability to beat human players. Similarly, being able to do the ridiculous Trial Mode combos is not necessary for the vast majority of the cast (I play a wicked Ibuki and can't do her last one).

I use Chrome as my primary browser for that reason -- I love the low load and fast speeds.

New thoughts on Ibuki: Ultra 1 is still really great, as it's a TON of damage (500) and the variety of frame traps to set it up are all very sneaky. It also gives her a 1-frame reversal, which she really needs in certain matchups. However, as Arek demonstrated to me today (by completely whipping me, thanks), when people are aware of said frame traps it becomes much harder to land them and you have to get really creative. Also, Ibuki outputs a crapload of damage without either ultra, as her standard combos all do 300 ish and lead into either resets or vortex, both of which are highly favorable positions. Ultra 2 has a half-screen range and will go through fireballs in addition to being able to combo into it (though this is rare, as the cancel required to do it is difficult). It has a slightly longer (6 frames) start-time than U1, making it ineffective for upclose footsies. New current plan is to take U1 against grapplers, and all matchups where she needs the U1 threat to erase options (primarily Honda here). U2 for anyone with a projectile with the exception of Chun-Li, as she likes to stay close enough that U1 footsie becomes viable. As for the characters that don't outright demand U1, but have no projectile demanding U2, I'm up in the air. I've become comfortable trying frame traps into U1 online for the most part, but don't know if that will work once I get to a high enough skill level. Those of you who took new mains in Super, have you started trying the "other" ultra, and are there matchups it may work better for you? If you haven't, change up your game plan now and then as creative thinking is always a good thing to have. I'm yet to lose against a fireball character since picking up U2...as if Ibuki didn't have enough ways around them already.

The only character who completely gets shut down about fireballs that I can think of atm is unfortunately, Makoto. Rufus was 5th in vanilla 4, and in the highest "non-Sagat" tier. That being said, I don't see him as #1 by any means. I think that this list will be completely changed in another 6 months as more things are figured out. Most of the 3rd Strike and Alpha characters seem especially low -- while that makes sense about Adon (sorry Arek, he's just too spammy) and Makoto (sorry DS, she can't parry fireballs ), Guy, Cody, Dudley, and Hakan will all move up slightly I think.

Are you planning on doing the first part of Heat Man's block portion in order to collect the extra life before you jet through the rest?

Valve is awesome. I'm looking forward to when TF2 hits the Mac platform, as I know a lot of my friends who will pick it up.

If you just want a line or two of text, you can edit that in very easily. If you want a picture, there are a couple threads with the purpose of people asking for signatures here and there -- poke around for them. This question was also answered in this thread -- next time a little searching may go a long way.

Sometime Nario, you should try playing someone in Bushido Blade 2 where both of you only get dancepads. Amazingly fun and I think you'd enjoy it. Nice work on Air Man in the meantime.

Ibuki's best anywhere combo: j. hp --> j. mk, cr. hp SJC (very low/fast) mp kunai, lp mp (2) hp neckbreaker. Follow with vortex forever. Alternatively for less damage but faster reset, finish with lp mp cr. hk st. hk SJC, repeat entire combo if they don't block. If they do block your j. hp, mix it up with empty jump --> immediately ultra 1 on land -- if they don't have a move out before the ultra flash, you win for an extra 500 damage. Note: If you will crossup after the SJC on the reset, you have to do the j. lk --> j.mk target combo, as it will work to crossup where j. hp will not. Also, adding in the cr. hp and the SJC kunai is VERY hard to do -- if you can't get it 100% skip it and just to target combo into neckbreaker, as a vortex / reset is worth more than an extra 100 damage until you get good enough to make it work.

Yes, yes we should. I wonder how many people here have it? Also, running around as Rinoa, Tassadar, or Megaman is awesome -- <3 custom models. Thanks to both of you guys. I may pick this up when it comes out if the multiplayer is improved -- I like the idea of everyone getting one "extra" power, whether that's invis, jetpack, etc. Having to choose will give some variety to the combat. My biggest issue with the series is that it tends to come down to either 1) sniper vs. everyone else, or 2) who can run forward and melee first.

I'll look into that tomorrow for you Agreed that corner combos aren't fun, and imo they aren't very useful either, as most chars have decent ways of getting out.