SFXT? Tournament worthy game or scrub friendly?

So not sure what my feelings are on this game. I think it's kind of fun, but just the way it is seems like on some levels it's a very competitive game with a lot of aspects that I really like. But at the same time those elements also cater to the scrub.

Lets look at the footsies element to take for example. So normally in most games like CvS2, 3S and AE footsies were very important. You tried to punish bad buttons from your opponent and if you were on your game you could take a good chunk of someones life if you knew what you were doing..

In SFXT this element is there, a bad button can cost you somewhere between %30 and 60% of your life. Although this is dependent on team composition and somewhat on execution. The chain combos now make scoring that 30/40% punish much easier for your average player. When you face someone who knows what they are doing it's not just throwing out buttons hoping for a hit into a chain, it's a hit into a chain tag into a really damaging combo with a possibility of mixup on the wakeup.

But there is your difference between what I would call the scrub player and a more competent player. %30 damage vs %50 damage on a good tag.

So rather than guessing wrong 3 times, you only get 2 bad guesses. And lets face it even a broken clock is wright twice a day. Anyways, one other thing that I think kills this game is the stage length, lets be honest if you want to walk back blocking for most of the match you really can do that for quite a while before you are cornered, combined with a fast game clock it makes for some really irritating play.

I still have mixed feelings on the game right now, right now I'm playing Ryu/Lili. Ryu is very solid in the game with a great walk speed, good poking tools, cancelable sweep and solid damage. Easily hits 350 damage off a poke with one meter. Lili is a good up close pressure character with some solid frame traps, a number of overheads which can be linked into for big damage (300+) with no meter or close to 400 for one meter. I might consider Hwoarang due to his good overheads and pokes, we shall see.

I've been in the lab a lot with AE 2012 working on some stuff. I'll post more about it in the future. Take care people.

Crawling out of 1000pp

Wassup everyone,

So just a little update here on a slow day at work. I finally have my Xbox back and have been getting in some playtime online with 2012. I'm happy to say that there are some definite improvements. It's taking me a while to rise through the PP but that's just been due to a lack of time put in due to being sick. Right now I'm at about 1300pp and 3800 BP

But anyways, I'm handling most people under the 2000pp range rather well and can defeat most people at the 3000pp range.

Improvements:

My footsies and zoning have improved a lot due to Air's guidance and helping me build a solid foundation. I've started to implement more variety into my gameplay by including empty jumps, counter hit setups and some specific anti-crouch tech setups into my play. My AA has gotten way better but I still need to punish jump in attempts more, I lost a match the other night simply because I hesitated on a shoryuken. But my auto-correct DP has gotten loads better.

I've gotten much better at observing my opponent. I notice patterns and habits much more easily. I can also test and read the reactions to a degree now. Also I'm getting more observant of their meter and Ultra gauge. Overall my gameplay feels much more natural and thought out, rather than just kind of a flowchart and reactionary.


Needs work:

As far as what I need to work on, I need to work more on some of Ryu's punishes and links. I drop c.mp, c.fp too much. I need to start working on c.fp/s.fp xx lp srk FADC U1 and putting that into my gameplay.

There are some other trouble spots that I know I need to work on, one would be doing srk FADC U1 on the 1p side, it's just going to require me to take more time out in training mode to grind it out.

Transitioning to doing the shoryuken from a crouching position more could use some more work. Also I need to be more aware of my meter and Ultra gauge, there have been a few circumstances where I could have done MP srk FADC U1 but simply did not because I wasn't aware I had the Ultra ready.

Overall:

I feel way better, I'm going to dedicate at least 30 min a day to links and combos and grinding out my trouble execution spots. The rest of my time will be online ranked matches.

On another note, I've been noticed certain matchups I have trouble with include Cammy and Balrog. I've read up on them but Cammy is pretty nasty, I would classify her as a counter-hit, mixup character. She is like Cody, you have to be careful when you push buttons or your going to eat a very damaging combo and be put in a bad position. Balrog is one of those matchups I'm going to talk to one of our local players about.

Anyways, have a great weekend everyone and feel free to hit me up on XBL: JBourne001.

P.S. Most likely will main Ryu Jin/Akuma in SFXT.