This past weekend saw the first closed beta test for Dragon Ball FighterZ. The test saw a number of lucky players get a chance to test out the game, and its online play.
Now, seeing as this was a beta test (and not just a glorified demo) Bandai Namco Games and Arc System Works are looking for feedback from those players who participated in it. As part of this, they’ve put up a survey over on Survey Monkey so that players can send in their feedback and impressions. If you’re one of the players who participated in the beta test, you can find the survey by following this link.
As fighting games move out of the arcades and into homes, online beta tests like this are beginning to become as important as the arcade location tests of old. They’ve become another way for companies to get feedback from actual players before release. That said, this only works if the players do their part and send the feedback back to the developers.
If you thought that the road to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s launch was full of leaks, it looks like that will be nothing compared to how things will be now that the game is actually out. Data miners are seemingly busy looking at everything related to the game for more information. One of these places data miners can look into is the SteamDB site, which displays data from the actual Steam database.
Known data miner X-Kira has recently shared some findings based on SteamDB. It seems that the database Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite on Steam has entries for 45 pieces of DLC.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. 45 DLC not utilized by Steam were listed recently at SteamDB (Info) pic.twitter.com/dfDEh45yFp
What these DLC items are is unknown. The entries seem to be placeholder entries for future DLC (the currently available DLC costumes from the Deluxe Edition are clearly labeled) The DLC itself doesn’t seem to be on Steam’s servers yet, let alone on disc. However, it’s likely that most of these will be for more alternate costumes (some of which have already been hinted at), on top of the characters from the 2017 Character Pass.
For nearly seven years, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 provided its players and fans with a spectacle rarely matched in competitive fighting games. The game brought with it many memorable hype moments from various content creators from over the years.
Now, with the game stepping out of the limelight to make way for its successor, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, one of these content creators — Flying High — has put together a compilation video of some of the most amazing moments that he has captured on his channel. The video is a combination of unexpected tech, glitches, salt, and more. You can check it all out in the video below!
One of, if not the most outspoken people in fighting game development today is none other than Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada. The Tekken producer is no stranger to giving out his opinion on social media, especially when it comes to his own game.
Gaming industry site Gamasutra has gotten a chance to sit down and conduct a massive interview with Harada. The interview covers a large number of topics — almost too many to list, really. However, some of Harada’s answers do stand out. The one that may interest competitive players the most is what he says about how they changed frame data for online play. According to Harada, around a decade or so ago, not just the addition of online play — but the change to LCD based hardware itself — meant that it became harder to react to fast pokes due to the additional delay. With this in mind, they made a conscious effort to change the frame data and slow down the pokes, increasing their frames from around 8 for the fastest attack, to 10 or more in their later games.
Of course, he acknowledges that this doesn’t fix everything, and that online play is affected by the network infrastructure of a region. That said, he does state that he would like to continue to tailor the game to “absorb lag.” Though he does admit that there is a limit to how much he can do so, as it also affects the game’s tempo.
Another interesting topic he comments on is the growth of fighting games in esports. Harada states that “esports” for him is simply another term that the fighting game community is using to help communicate what they’re doing to other people. The community itself has been doing competitions and tournaments for fighting games for a long time now, long before “esports” entered into the scene.
Harada also talks about crossovers, including adding guest characters into Tekken 7. Surprisingly enough, he doesn’t really expect a large amount of players from the characters home franchises to cross over to Tekken (though admits that that does happen). It’s more about promotion and granting awareness of Tekken itself. These crossovers, he states, can create a lot of buzz around the game online. He also talks about the process of actually adding these characters into Tekken, stating that the goal is to make said characters play like they did in their home series, while still fitting into a 3D system.
Of course, this is just a small taste of what Harada talks about in the interview. Head on over to Gamasutra to read the rest of what Harada has to say.
For some time now, we’ve been wondering at who the final four unrevealed characters for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s first wave of DLC characters will be; we now know that Monster Hunter, Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Venom (but not Gill, it seems) will be coming to the game this year, in the wake of Sigma and Black Panther. Capcom has released the information via MvC:I’s pre-release Capcom-Unity blog post.
Most of these characters have previously been hinted at in the many leaks surrounding the game’s development. Some of these, such as the Monster Hunter, have already been spotted in the game’s story mode. However, this is the first mention of Black Widow. Her inclusion seemingly imbalances the roster by giving it 4 Marvel characters and just 2 Capcom characters as DLC. That said, we’d like to note that there is also a Capcom character called Black Widow that comes from Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II. Though this instance referring to her is unlikely.
While no release date for the characters has been set, all six will eventually be released later this year.
Capcom is no stranger to hosting launch parties for their fighting games, from the various “Fight Clubs” during the last console generation, to Street Fighter V‘s big launch event. Now, with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s official launch coming in just a few days, Capcom has dropped the details for the game’s official launch event.
The Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite launch party will take place on the night of September 18, at the Folsom Street Foundry in San Francisco, CA. Players may recall this as the same place that Capcom held the launch party for Street Fighter V last year.
Doors to the event will open at 6:00 PM PT and the event itself will run until 10:oo PM PT. For those who wont be able attend the event, the official live stream will start at 6:30 PM PT and end at 9:00 PM PT.
In addition to this, executive producer Yoshinori Ono who will also be doing a signing session at the nearby Gamestop at 830 Market St. from 8:00 PM PT onward. Players can purchase their copy of the game early there so for Ono to sign.
Though its official release is still a couple of days away, not only has Capcom given some players early access to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, but some players have been able to purchase the game via stores breaking the street date. The result is that we have even more videos showing off the game, even if it isn’t supposed to be out yet.
First up, we have some Dormammu videos from Olaf Redland. The concept behind the combos shown here is using flight cancelling to continually loop his opponent with his Dark Hole special.
We’ve talked to Olaf a bit more about this, and sadly for anyone thinking we’ve found something gamebreaking, the combo itself isn’t a true infinite. That said, it’s still a pretty good combo, especially with how he can pull it off from nearly full screen.
Speaking of loops, Rynge has shared a video of one way Zero can set up mid-screen lightning loops.
Next up, we have Panda Global’s RayRay showing off a combo for the team of Gamora and Ultron. He seems pretty impressed with the team and says that it’ll likely be his first team in the game.
Meanwhile, Echo Fox’s Justin Wong has been playing around with a number of characters. One of these is Captain America, who Justin demonstrated a pretty damaging Power Stone combo for on his stream in a clip that was shared by Panda Global.
Flash was also on hand in Justin’s stream and showcased some stuff as well. Here he demonstrates a set up for the team of Rocket Raccoon and Doctor Strange.
HiFight also clipped this bit from Apology Man’s stream, showing him teching two throws from a tag in. The interesting bit here however is basically how it demonstrates that players can use tag ins to set up a second throw after the first attempt is teched.
He’s also demonstrated a Soul Stone Infinity Storm extension combo for his particular team of Ryu and Strider Hiryu.
Speaking of teams, Evil Geniuses ChrisG has been hard at work with the team of Jedah and Morrigan, aka “Team Darkstalkers”. The king of Morrigan in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has put together a video demonstrating some concepts for the team.
Last, but not least, UltraDavid shared this un-rollable ground reset for Thor.
#MvCI Thor corner unrollable ground reset w meaty. Pushblock beats overhead/low but grab beats pushblock & grab startup can be tag canceled pic.twitter.com/2QF6hastTu
Funko recently unveiled photos of their upcoming line of Pop! figures for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Now while this is news in itself, what’s interesting about the revealed figures is the fact that some of them hint at alternate costumes that have yet to be announced by Capcom or Marvel.
The figures in question are coming in 2-pack sets for Captain Marvel and Chun-Li, Rocket Raccoon and X, Gamora and Strider Hiryu, as well as Ultron and Sigma. Of these, 4 of the characters are in unannounced alternate costumes: Chun-Li is in her casual wear from her Street Fighter II ending, Rocket is wearing his Marvel NOW! costume, Gamora is in her costume from the Annihilation event, and Ultron is in his multi-eyed Phalanx form from Annihilation: Conquest.
In addition to these, the 2-packs will also receive special alternate colors available only in select retailers. This seems to hint that the alternate costumes will have alternate colors in game, unlike in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
For those interested, you can check out images of the figures in the gallery below.
As some of you know, this weekend will see the first round of closed beta testing for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Select players have been given the chance to try out the game and play it online by Bandai Namco and Arc System Works.
For those who are in the beta — or are looking forward to people streaming it — the beta isn’t exactly available for the entire weekend. Rather, Bandai Namco has set specific times during which the beta will be live and people can log in. You can check the beta schedule out below:
USA (California) PST
EUROPE (France) CST
JAPAN JST
1st Session
2:00am-5:00am (Saturday)
11:00-14:00 (Saturday)
18:00-21:00 (Saturday)
2nd Session
10:00am-1:00pm (Saturday)
19:00-22:00 (Saturday)
2:00-5:00 (Sunday)
3rd Session
6:00pm-9:00pm (Saturday)
3:00-6:00 (Sunday)
10:00-13:00 (Sunday)
4th Session
1:00pm-4:00pm (Sunday)
22:00-1:00 (Sunday/Monday)
5:00-8:00 (Monday)
Now, whether or not further beta tests will be opened is as of yet unknown. However, some players who applied have reported receiving emails from Bandai Namco stating that, while they didn’t make it in to this testing cycle, they have qualified as “potential candidates” for future beta tests should they occur.
As previously reported, Gundam Versus is getting a couple of new DLC mobile suits later this month. These are the EMS-TC02 Phantom Gundam and the MSN-04II Nightingale. For those wondering how these two mobile suits will look and play like in the game, Bandai Namco has recently released trailers for them.
Coming from the manga spin-off Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Ghost, the Phantom Gundam, piloted by Font Baud comes with its “Butterfly Busters,” “Flame Sword,” and of course, it’s vaunted “Minovsky Drive” which provides the suit with a number of buffs, including the “Wings of Light.”
Meanwhile, the Nightingale from the Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack – Beltorchika’s Children novelization, piloted by the famous Char Aznable, is a buffed-up version of the MSN-04 Sazabi from the original movie. It features an impressive array of weapons, including the infamous “funnel” attack drones that allow it to fire an impressive spread of beams.
Both of these will be available for purchase in over the PlayStation Network in Japan for ¥602 on September 26. Meanwhile, Gundam Versus hits North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe on September 29.
