Ed’s going for those instant kills online: feast your eyes on some footage.
As part of the current Capcom Fighters Network beta test for Street Fighter V, both console and PC gamers can get a shot at trying out the next upcoming DLC fighter before his official release. Ed is now in the hands of the general public, so how’s the Psycho-boxer holding up? We rounded up some footage for you.
Naturally, Capcom released an official intro video to better detail Ed’s playstyle and unusual inputs. Matt Edwards breaks Ed down for us here:
A lot of great footage is appearing online as notable players give Ed a go. YogaFlame24 has uploaded some of the early “first look” gameplay, as well as some match footage of PIE|Smug vs. Floe!
Here’s a compilation from RektScrub, featuring CYG BST|PR Balrog tearing it up with his namesake’s student in online matches:
You can hang out a bit with VesperArcade as he studies, learns, and fights with Ed online a while:
Mr Slaynman plays a bit with Ed’s V-Trigger here, to see what combo fun can be found.
Xuses has also compiled a highlights reel of Ed match footage from the CFN beta, from a variety of different players.
Just can’t wait to play Ed in the main game? There’s already a PC mod to help with that, if you feel like chancing it!
Arriving at the end of their pre-release coverage for Injustice 2, PND|Ketchup and Mustard complete their “What’s Changed?” mini-series by looking at another veteran hero, Oliver Queen, otherwise known as the Green Arrow.
Though he was recently broken down on an Injustice Watchtower live stream, this video is a great supplement to that breakdown, as the PND brothers touch on specific property changes on his strings, such as his 2,2,3 string now launching opponents, instead of his 1,1,3–as the former string starts off as a mid, making it much more reliable punishing tool. B23 is now a mid-hitting hard knockdown, and his Injustice: Gods Among Us corner combos are no longer possible. Gaining the ability to meter burn his Hurricane Bow has resulted in the Hero of Star City having much greater damage output, in addition to possessing a reliable mid-screen opener for a bar. The Ice Arrow has also been nerfed to simply suspend foes in the air, as opposed to always restanding them on the spot, in an attempt to encourage diverse usage of all types of arrows. Though since Ollie deals more damage overall, this shouldn’t prove to be much of a problem, particularly when factoring in Shock arrow and Straight arrow extensions.
Finally, after briefly covering his new Boxing Glove arrow and the ability to hold them while moving, Ketchup notes that the Emerald Archer’s new Super is no longer an unblockable, like its predecessor. However, despite losing the inescapable resets and guaranteed damage, this could be seen as a buff; as now his super can be used normally, as he deals greater damage across the board–as opposed to being forced to rely on those reset situations. Players won’t have to fear immediately losing a clash after going for max damage, since they won’t always have to spend an entire meter to gain a life lead, only for adversaries to immediately heal it all back with you being helpless to stop them.
Catch their other “What’s Changed?” video, focusing on Cyborg, here.
Will these changes convince you to take up the quiver this time around? Tell us in the comments section.
Injustice 2 will be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next Tuesday, May 16th.
Though the spotlight and many curious eyes were on the Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 tournament at this past weekend’s KVO x TSB 2017, BlazBlue: Central Fiction–which will also be an official part of the Evo 2017 lineup–was on display as well. A myriad of top players from all over Japan were in attendance to wage war over the Azure, ranging from the likes of Rikutoe, Monster (competing under the name Kaibutsukun), Souji, Yoshiki, Makki, BE TSB|Dora, Shino, Koike, Iwashi, Murishin, Barell, Naoto, the legendary Fenrich, and more. You can see the full qualifying rounds, as well as the top 4, with English commentary, in the videos below.
While we previously posted the top 8, majority of top 16, and team tournament, we also have pools action from Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, featuring names such as Cyclops Osaka’s Dogura, Ogawa, Omito, Dei, LOX, Nage, Rion, 2rio, Samitto, Kuni, Hasegawa, Anco, TopGaren, Saryu, Takehara, Spike, Nakamura, Zadi, DC, Tomo, TheArm, Ryan Hunter, Sabamiso, ET, Kedako, Zettai REID, Isamu, and even Stickbug himself. You can enjoy even more anime fighter action below.
If you’re still craving even more action from KVO x TSB 2017, you can catch the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 top 4, featuring Mabusin, RF, the Black Eye’s Takumi, and TMP|Cross here.
After creating a series of “Getting Started” guides for Injustice 2 newcomers Scarecrow, Dr. Fate, Gorilla Grodd, and Deadshot, PND|Ketchup and PND|Mustard have decided to round out their pre-release coverage with a pair of “What’s Changed?” videos, looking at a pair of returning Injustice: Gods Among Us veterans that haven’t seen much of the spotlight, in order to see what new tricks they may have up their sleeves in the sequel.
The first subject of this brief series is Cyborg, one of the three characters who has yet to receive an official breakdown from the Injustice Watchtower. Unfortunately for the cybernetic Justice League member, Victor Stone found himself among the worst characters in the original Injustice, to the point that he barely saw any competitive play whatsoever. He is fundamentally the same character in Injustice 2, following the path of his fellow legacy characters in retaining large amounts of his previous playstyle, but he’s received several technological upgrades.
For starters, he has a new upward version of Nova Blaster, mapped to DB1, that can be charged and dash-canceled like his regular fireball. Using this in the sky provides him with an air fireball, similar to Akuma’s, which can be meter burned to fire a second air projectile in a straight line. “Think of it as like a reverse of what the old projectile does,” Ketchup advises.
His uppercut, Power Fist, has been remapped to DB2 to make room for his diagonal fireball, and the meter burn extension has been adjusted to now strike enemies back down to the ground as an overhead strike, as opposed to launching foes upwards like it did previously. This affords Cyborg new mid-screen follow-ups and greater damage, but at the cost of forcing him to readjust his corner combos to compensate for the reduced launch height. He also couldn’t meter burn on block in this pre-release build, so he may not have mixups with it. Target Acquired has been changed from an unblockable projectile to an overhead, potentially giving him hard-to-blockables with his low-hitting B2.
Cyborg’s most notable change is his completely-new Trait. Gone is the health-replenishing Repair Circuit, as it’s been replaced with a pair of summonable droids: an air bot that tracks the opponent before dive-bombing them, and what’s essentially a Roomba that slides across the ground for OTGs. These should prove invaluable supplements to his zoning, setup and offensive games. You can catch the full video below, and check back soon for their coverage of Green Arrow.
Are you excited for these Cyborg changes? Will you be trying him out with these new tools if you avoided him the first time around? Tell us in the comments.
Injustice 2 will release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this Tuesday, May 16th.
Group C’s finals at ELEAGUE ended up being an intense spectacle for a lot of reasons, and both of the players interviewed by FGC News‘ David Gama were largely at the center of that hype.
On one side of this coin was Splyce’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez, the storied Marvel and Street Fighter pro who came so close to making it out of Group C, only to fall in a last round vortex versus 2013 Evolution Street Fighter Champ RZR|Xian. Conducted just after his elimination, FChamp vents and reflects on his path both in Street Fighter V, and in the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
And on the other side, Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot, coming off his win against the same threatening Ibuki, Xian. Wolfkrone kept it brief: offering advice on how he personally leveled up, expressing his frustration with some characters, and his general love of ELEAGUE. And, of course, he talks about what caused his now-legendary beef with EG|K-Brad.
Focusing their efforts on the remaining villains in Injustice 2, NetherRealm Studios have devoted their latest Watchtower stream to showing off Black Adam, Brainiac, and the Joker. As Injustice 2 releases in the US next Tuesday, there was plenty of stuff to run through.
Newcomer Brainiac is the big bad for Injustice 2, descending on Earth to catalog its inhabitants and eradicate the last remnants of Krypton. His tentacles make him the perfect fighter for someone who loves playing the neutral game, but beware of the long recovery on most of his normals and specials. While a master of whiff punishing, he is also prone to being whiff punished himself.
Black Adam retains much of his toolkit from the original Injustice, keeping his role as a defensive powerhouse that excels at punishing the slightest misstep. His new special Riddle of the Sphinx is a three-hit rekka that ends with a powerful lightning blast, which is great for hitting opponents who over-extend. Many of his strings are still the same, so old Black Adam players should be right at home with this new iteration. He hits super hard, so beware of challenging this Egyptian champion.
Finally, the Clown Prince of Crime has indeed returned in Injustice 2, bringing with him a bag full of various lethal gags and pranks. While his normals have stayed the same, many of Joker’s specials have received a noticeable rework. His Gun Shot now has a meter-burn option, with Joker firing out a Bang! flag which sticks in the enemy and explodes after a short delay. Joker can now run full screen with his Crowbar, similar to Leatherface’s chainsaw charges in Mortal Kombat X, with it turning into an unblockable once he breaks into a run. It can even be meter-burned to gain a hit of armor. His character trait no longer requires him to land a parry, Joker can just start laughing to speed himself up. As long as Joker keeps laughing, he’ll retain his speed boost but continuous laughs do decay the meter faster.
While Injustice 2’s console release may still be a few days away, fans eager to ensure that every battle defines them on the go can now download the Injustice 2 mobile game for free on both iOS and Android devices via the App Store or Google Play.
Weighing in at 914 megabytes (and already updated to version 1.03) the Injustice 2 mobile game will allow you to wage super-powered wars anywhere you see fit, with 3-on-3, team-based card battles, in the vein as its predecessors Injustice: Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat X and WWE Immortals. However, this mobile supplement is bigger and badder than ever, boasting an extremely deep revamped combat system, which incorporates greater movement into the game, with the added ability to jump and crouch under attacks, as well as new rush attacks to close the distance between you and your opponents.
This update also adds Suicide Harley Quinn, Dawn of Justice Superman, The Joker, Green Arrow, and more to the playable roster. You’ll also have access to the same extensive Gear customization as the console version, and perhaps most importantly, the mobile version will include the exact same cinematic story experience you’ll be able to see on console, with Chapter 1 available to be played through right now.
Lastly, we have our first confirmed mobile-to-console unlock, as synching up your mobile and console versions of Injustice 2 will allow you to acquire a Premiere skin for Cyborg, transforming him into the Crime Syndicate’s sentient computer virus, Grid. Don’t forget that if you pre-registered before launch, you’ll be able to exclusively receive access to Catwoman within the first week, whose passive ability is to receive greater rewards upon her completion of an Operations Mission–likely to provide you with quick access to some great loot. You can view the game’s official launch trailer, as well as a tweet from NetherRealm Studio’s Ed Boon, below!
We also caught our first look at Grid, via a loading screen during yesterday’s Injustice Watchtower live stream, uploaded by DR3 GAMING.
The console version of Injustice 2 will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this Tuesday, May 16th.
Will you be playing the mobile version of Injustice 2, and are their any mobile-exclusive characters or additional mobile unlocks you’d like to see, in addition to the Grid Premiere skin? Sound off in the comments.
The second round of NorCal Rivals took place this past weekend at the Gamers Den in Campbell, CA. While the number of entrants were only around half the size of last month’s first round, the Street Fighter V competition was just as fierce as ever, but with quite a few shakeups in the standings.
German “Ultima” Marroquin–the young up-and-comer with the rambunctious Rashid who placed fifth at last month’s event–took the first place spot this time around: shimmying some of NorCal’s best in the winners bracket such as Mattypie, G-Dragon, Pavocado, and ultimately (no pun intended) BJ Unchained in grand finals. With this victory, along with his fifth place finish last month, Ultima has the lead with 500 points in the overall standings.
Brian “BJ Unchained” Jeon, who dismally placed 32nd last month, finished strong in second place and made up some ground to tie for third with his brother Kelvin (who won last month’s event) with 300 points each. His matches were really close throughout the night, with Brian almost losing to BrolyBallz’s solid Akuma and Pavocado’s cold and calculated R. Mika play. He only ended up losing to Ultima earlier in the winners bracket and in grand finals. The fact that the two Jeon brothers are tied for third in the standings will make for an interesting result next month if only one of them can make it through barring some bizarre shakeups. One of three things can occur in this scenario: either only one of the brothers qualify for the 3v3, both brothers make it or none of them do. Everything hinges on what transpires at the beginning of June.
Lets also not forget Pavo “Pavocado” Miskic who has been the most consistent player so far with two third place finishes in a row and is currently in second place overall with 450 points. While I’m sure he’s not satisfied with that result, if Pavo can place in the top three for next month’s event, he will have secured a spot for the Red Bull Proving Grounds finals in Santa Monica to try and win the trip to Evolution 2017 along with whoever his teammates will be.
You can watch the whole tournament below, which clocks in at a little over three hours long. Some NSFW language is used here–so watch with discretion.
In just over 30 minutes of footage, MarkMan demoed some gameplay with Eliza, Akuma, King, and Lucky Chloe. They also show off Arcade Battle to get item unlocks, then go straight into customization mode to equip their spoils. The customization mode is up to par with what we would expect from the Tekken franchise, with the nice new addition of being able to alter and customize the user interface in a way that your opponent can also see.
Can’t stop, won’t stop, just like Ky Kiske’s corner pressure. But rather than seeing the King of Illyria battle again, we’re going to see some nasty mix-ups from Beautifuldude’s Zato=1 against Dekline’s big boy damage from Sin. The Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League continues with new Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- matches.
The other battle is between Ryyudo’s Faust and WindGodDude’s Millia Rage. Let’s learn first about Beautifuldude and Dekline.
Beautifuldude
On the match: “It’s pretty awesome to finally have a chance to play in SSXrd league! Even though the REV 2 demo is currently out, I still feel like I can show a bunch of cool REV 1 Zato stuff in this exhibition match with Dekline. I hope I’ll be able to win, but I know it’ll be a good time regardless of the result!”
On his opponent: “Dekline is a cool dude with lots of Zato experience he acquired by playing his fellow Nebraska bro David Cue, so I’m sure it will not be easy for me to take him down in the slightest. His strong showing at Texas Showdown with Sin proves that he’s not gonna be an easy opponent for me! Also, Dekline is a fellow Mario Party player, so his fortitude has been tried and tested by the rigors of that evil game.”
On his own playstyle: “I would describe my playstyle as DEADMAN’S HAND AT ALL TIMES. If there’s a will, then there’s a DMH setup! In all seriousness, I like to play puppet characters! Not only do I play Zato in Guilty Gear, but I also play Relius Clover in BlazBlue: Central Fiction, who plays somewhat similarly to Zato. I usually play these characters in a somewhat defensive style, as I feel like I can force my opponent to make a bad decision through their oppressive neutral options, then run my game once I get the knockdown.”
Dekline
On the match: “I think it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s nice to be able to have a “serious” set outside of an actual tournament. It also helps promote the game.”
On his opponent: “He’s a solid player. I’ve only played him a few times though, we just don’t seem to run into each other much.”
On his own playstyle: “I think I’m more of a reactive player. I try to feel out my opponent and see what they do and don’t know about a match up, then play around that instead of having a specific game plan.”
Ryyudo
On the match: “Honestly, as much as I want to win, I don’t fully expect to; Millia is a strugglebus for Faust. I felt it was a matchup I understood better with my recent growth as a player… until Northwest Majors where WindGodDude cleaned my clock, putting me in 9th. Talk about a wake-up call! I’m excited for the opportunity to play WindGodDude again! It’s given me motivation to study one of Faust’s hardest match-ups. Our local Millia hadn’t pushed me to learn and LordKnight, the other Millia I’ve played a few times, was far beyond my understanding months ago. Subconsciously, I feel I was waiting for an opportunity to find the next foothold to step up to, and that this is it.”
On his opponent: “His movement is polished, he plays intelligently safe, and his understanding of his and his opponents’ options is well-versed. If he gets started, that round will end quickly for me. I think the biggest miss was not introducing myself after Northwest Majors. He seems nice, and it would’ve been nice to play him after the event, regardless of SSXrdEL, because I feel he would provide great insight.”
On his own playstyle: “I’d call it ‘compartmentalized.’ I have different ‘boxes’ I pull from, per situation, but I have a difficult time mixing up those options to stay unpredictable. As a whole, I appear all-around solid, but I feel once my opponent finds something that works, it takes me WAY too long to combat it because of that compartmentalizing, and I’m too slow at finding answers in a different box. It’s why I’ve begun taking lengthy water and snack breaks after every match, win or lose, at tournaments to give my brain time to search for answers. I plan to do the same here too… sorry stream monsters! <3.”
WindGodDude
On the match: “I see it as a nice way to say goodbye to Millia, considering that I am switching over to Johnny in REV 2. It’s also good practice to help me adapt over the course of a long set while under the pressure of an audience. Above all, I hope to have a good time.”
On his opponent: “I haven’t played too much with him, but I know his offense is strong so I have to make sure that my defense will be at least equal to match.”
On his own playstyle: “I aim to play solid and clean above all. I consider myself to be on the safer side of Millias, however, if the opponent shows patience to match, I don’t mind taking risks.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how those turn out, as it feels it could go either way. As usual, catch the action on Silva_hime’s Twitch channel tonight, starting at 9:30 PM EST/8:30 PM CST/6:30 PM PDT. RaphTx and SamiFish11 will get on the microphones this time.
On the last online Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- set, between DEB and BxA|dotNova, as well as Dead Spike and LTL, things got a little… interesting. While not everything went as planned, enjoy a few additional exhibitions, including an intense Potemkin mirror between the two ex-Potemkin users!
