Author: Franz "d3v" Co

As part of their resurgence, SNK has been doing its best to use its characters and IPs in multiple projects, outside of their traditional arcade and fighting game domain, to help bolster the company. It seems their latest move in this direction is towards the budding medium of virtual reality.

It was recently announced that SNK would be partnering with Studio Roqovan to bring content from the former into the latter’s VR projects. The studio, which is made up of former Disney and Infinity Ward employees, is mostly known for creating the class-based VR first-person shooter World War Toons.

Whether or not this means we’ll see SNK characters appearing in World War Toons, or if we’ll eventually see a new VR game featuring one of SNK’s IPs, is yet unknown. That said, the announcement stated that the first collaboration–and the specific IP–would be announced later this year.

Source: PR Newswire via r/KoF

The Electronic Software Association recently announced that this years Electronic Entertainment Expo will be open to the public, for the first time. The annual trade fair–the largest in the industry–has for the longest time, been a closed event with only media and industry representatives able to attend.

This means that, for the first time ever, the general public will get its chance to see and try out many of the new games and technology that companies showcase at the event. This of course, includes fighting games.

For many years now, companies have chosen to use E3 to draw attention to the fighting games that they’re working on. Either by showcasing them at the event, debuting new characters and features for the attendees to try, or flat-out announcing them at E3. Expect the same this year, with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite on the horizon, and content for games such as Street Fighter V and Injustice 2 in full swing.

Now, while top players have usually been invited to come to E3 to help try out the games and even join tournaments, the change of direction this year means that now even the average fan can come in and try these out.

For anyone interested in going to E3, a total of 15,000 tickets, each costing $250, have been allotted for the general public. Sales begin on Monday, February 13, with those who buy early able to avail of an early bird discount and get them at only $150 each.

Source: GameSpot

Throughout the years, Evo has had something of an interesting history regarding console versions of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game was originally played on PlayStation 3 before eventually going to the community-preferred Xbox 360 version. Now, with a new console port, alongside the fact that it’s once again going to be on the Evo main stage, the question of which version of the game will be played arises.

In a recent tweet, Evo head honcho Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar announced that the recent PlayStation 4 version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will be the one played at Evo 2017.

We will be using the PlayStation 4 version of Marvel for the grand finale of UMvC3 at Evo 2017! #Evo2017

— Joey Cuellar (@MrWiz) February 8, 2017

The decision to use the PlayStation 4 version should come as no surprise. It has generally been well-received, and has already been confirmed for use in other major tournaments such as CEO 2017, as well as last weekend’s Undefeated. Though there were some initial concerns on whether or not it had any additional lag, the only sort of lag that has been found happens during the “super flash” when a Hyper move is activated–something that only minimally affects gameplay.

Source: Joey Cuellar (Twitter)

NetherRealm Studios recently hosted one of their “Watchtower” streams for Injustice 2. As part of this, they made a number of announcements regarding the game’s current closed beta. The biggest news is that Black Canary will be joining the playable cast in the beta sometime this weekend. Black Canary was recently announced this past weekend via a trailer first shown by IGN.  Those interested can check out the existing gameplay footage of her in action.

In addition to this, NetherRealm mentioned that the fourth wave of Injustice 2 beta codes would be released at about the same time that Black Canary would become playable.

Regarding the beta itself, NetherRealm also hosted a small question and answer portion to address some player concerns. They clarified that they were looking into ways to improve certain things, such as getting into competitive mode. You can read a recap of these over on community site Test Your Might.

Source: NetherRealm via Test Your Might

For some of us “console peasants,” one of the things we have to deal with in Street Fighter V is the game’s rather lengthy load times.  This can be especially frustrating when compared to the PC version of the game, where loading goes by much quicker. However, it seems that some relief is on the way, at least for those who upgraded to a PlayStation 4 Pro.

Sony recently opened beta testing for firmware version 4.50, which adds a special boost mode for games that haven’t been optimized for the PS4 Pro. One of the benefits of this mode, it seems, is a boost in the game’s loading times. NeoGAF poster farisr–who’s part of the beta–did some tests on Street Fighter V’s loading times with boost mode, and he’s found that there is a significant reduction.

With the firmware version 4.50’s new boost mode turned on, it now takes about 3.4 seconds less to load a match. Take note that this was on a specific stage (Hillside Plaza) so the times may change on other stages. Additionally, other areas of loading, such as the title screen as well as going into versus saw even more significant reductions in loading time.

You can check out the exact results over on NeoGAF.

Source: NeoGAF

Throughout its six-year history, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 games have been a continual source of hype stories and matches for the fighting game community. The seemingly endless amount of passion and energy that its players pour into the games can feel  quite overwhelming at times.

For those who are interested in learning about the history of the game and its community, a fellow by the name of Richter Gorgon has begun a project to create a written record of it on the internet–the Hyperpedia.

The Hyperpedia does its best to go over the history of competitive Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while at the same time giving focus to its luminaries. As part of this, it also pays tribute to both the masters of the game such as Justin Wong, Christopher “NY_ChrisG” Gonzales, and Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez, as well as the “master killers”–those waiting in the wings to rise up and challenge those on top. In addition to this, it also pays homage to the North American fighting game “gurus” Eddie Lee, Alex Valle, and John Choi, who’s styles influence not just these but other players from other games as well.

Beyond this, the Hyperpedia goes over the seven years of the games history in the competitive circuit. This includes the shifts in the games meta, as well as the players and specific moments that helped define it. As part of this, the Hyperpedia includes links to hundreds of important matches that have taken place throughout the games competitive history.

Now the Hyperpedia itself is only about 80% complete, however Gorgon has decided to open it to the public now to help drum up support for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at Evo 2017.

Interested readers can check the Hyperpedia out by clicking here.

Source: Hyperpedia via r/MvC3