Ahead of its release next Tuesday, Iron Galaxy has released footage of the final Ultimate coming in the second Ultimates Ultra Pack. It’s finally the turn of the robotic director of Ultratech ARIA to unleash her wrath, and her finisher doesn’t disappoint. Splitting up into her three drone bodies, ARIA plays pinball with her opponent before running them through with a dramatic flying stab. It’s one of the more cinematic Ultimates that have been released so far, currently tying with Tusk for my personal favorite.
Ultimates Ultra Pack 2 will be available for free on May 2nd, with one set of Ultimates left to go. The final pack will include finishers for Mira, Glacius, Hisako, Sabrewulf, and Aganos, with Iron Galaxy currently keeping quiet on whether any more characters will gain Ultimates in the future. If you don’t want to download all the packs piecemeal, there are plans for a Ultimate Monster Pack which will contain all 15.
VesperArcade has continued his good work in explaining the upcoming changes to Street Fighter V’s soul-carnivore, Necalli.
A lot of the big changes of the latest patch actually already impacted Necalli: namely, the universal Dragon Punch changes. Necalli DP’s will therefore remain unchanged. He’s also getting a bug fix on his Heavy DP, which currently has no counter hitbox. The only other significant change he’s getting is his charge move, Disc’s Guidance: His V-Trigger version was buffed in the previous patch to be -4 instead of -6. The change seems to simply be a reversion back to Season 1’s version of V-Trigger Disc’s Guidance. Overall, most of Necalli’s fixes seem to be minor quality adjustments.
Quietly, Sector-K Games has been making a lot of great visual and gameplay progress on it’s sci-fi indie fighter, Punch Planet. Recently, they showed off a quick first-to-two between developers, and new combo footage for the current two characters, Cid and Roy.
The footage comes hot off the heels of the developers’ recent trips at NYC Gaming Center and NorCal Regionals, which got some love from some familiar FGC faces.
Wisely wanting to build off this momentum, Sector-K promised new footage of the character Dog will be coming soon. There’s little information to go on now–the announcement itself is buried in the description of the above combo video. Going off the website’s information, the canine character will be focused on heavy rushdown. One can only imagine that he will make extensive use of the game’s many combo cancels, but we’ll have to wait and see how hard he can bite.
Teased in the final Shattered Alliances trailer, NetherRealm Studios have finally shown off how main villain Brainiac plays in Injustice 2. A master of the mid-range, Brainiac uses his mechanical tentacles and stolen Kryptonian technology to wear down his opponents and steal victory. Based on his sheer number of tentacle based attacks, you’d think Brainiac had been going to Doctor Octopus for his combat training.
In what could be his character trait, Brainiac summons a miniature version of his flagship to sail across the screen. It can be commanded to fly across the middle or top of the screen, with it dropping an energy bomb as it closes in on its opponent. In the trailer, we see Brainiac use this bomb to cover his approach, with him using his tentacles to swing from the top of the screen and close the distance between him and Superman. Combined with his divekick and tentacle-boosted shoulder barge, Brainiac’s mobility is pretty solid.
They aren’t just used for attack though. Brainiac can surround himself with his tentacles, electrifying them and stunning any attacking opponent. He can also make these electrified tentacles sprout from his back, for continuing a combo or blocking a jump-in. If you need some heavy ordnance though, Brainiac can also summon an orbital laser to juggle opponents, allowing him to start a combo. Brainiac is definitely a fan of the laser strike from orbit, as his super has him ordering his bio-drones to hold an enemy in place, while he blasts them with a giant blue laser from his flagship.
The wicked Kais awaken their power alongside the ruthless leader of the Galaxy Soldiers!
Bandai Namco will release the DB Super Pack 3 for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on April 25 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. Headlining the DLC are the three new fighters, Zamasu, Super Saiyan Rosé Goku Black, and Bojack. The DB Super Pack 3 will also include three additional Parallel Quests, five new skills, four extra costumes, five super souls, and two unique emotes. The pack itself will cost $9.99 but is included within the season pass.
Bandai Namco released a trailer to celebrate the upcoming release of the new content, check it out below!
But wait, there’s more!
For those wanting more information about the DLC before committing to a purchase, Bandai Namco also held a live stream showcasing the new characters and the additional Parallel Quests one can find within DB Super Pack 3. Odds are the publisher will broadcast one more live stream for the fourth and final DLC pack which has yet to be detailed.
Here’s another look at the new fighters
YouTuber Rhymestyle, goes into a further analysis of the characters on his own channel. He recorded the gameplay while visiting Bandai Namco for the live stream. Rhymestyle is not alone during this gameplay showcase, he and other players provide insight into the competitive Xenoverse scene. Those wanting to watch the fights without the commentary can view all the gameplay here.
VesperArcade continues his series of videos breaking down the upcoming balance changes for various cast members in Street Fighter V’s recently-delayed balance update. This time, he moves on to Chun-Li, a character who’s seen a massive decline in both the competitive and online communities–despite getting even more Premium Costumes— since her myriad of nerfs in Season 2. Though some characters who may felt were over nerfed in Capcom’s first attempt at rebalancing are seeing a decent amount of reversions and improvements, the only change Chun-Li has received is that her Lightning Legs now requires five presses of any kick button, rather than four.
As Vesper explains, this quality of life change puts the move in line with other specials that can be alternatively executed with both a motion and rapid button presses, such as Kolin’s Parabellum.
Some players actually prefer this style of input, especially if you use joystick, because you can use the old-school Piano method to quickly execute the move. Capcom also recently gave Chun-Li a buff that allows her Crouching Light Kick to be canceled into Lighting Legs, making her more similar to her Street Fighter IV version, and allowing her to do combos that work well with this classic input. The problem with only making it four inputs, when it should be five, is that players would accidently do Lighting Legs when they didn’t intend to. At the same time, it’s awkward for players doing the Piano method, because you would overshoot with five inputs, since the last input should be the strength of Legs you want.
Vesper then moves on to the bug fixes that Chun received in the Kolin patch, such as EX Kikoken no longer building meter on hit or block, as well as her crouching hurtbox being slightly expanded to make her more susceptible to combos and blockstrings.
As always, Vesper closes with his final verdict on Chun’s changes.
Overall, she’s exactly the same. No direct nerfs or buffs, just a quality of life change. So if you think Chun-Li is weak now, you’ll probably think she’s weak after this patch. Let’s see how the universal changes, such as Jump Back OS leaving and the other character’s changes effect her, but these won’t really change her at all.
You can see the full video below. You can find Vesper’s tutorial on Pianoing here.
There was a lot of talk this past weekend at NorCal Regionals, but no one mouthed off to the degree Bronson Tran did when he played his Winner’s and Grand Finals matches in Tekken 7. In a surprise move by the production staff, Bronson was allowed to play and self-commentate his matches during the final stages of the tournament. Warning: language in this video may not be suitable for children.
While the sound of a grown man’s voice cracking as he mocks his opponent might seem awful to some, it comes as a fresh change of pace from the hugs, patches, and teabag discussions that the FGC has grown accustomed to recently. As a longtime tournament veteran and one of the strongest competitors in the Tekken series in the West, Bronson brings an attitude that will resonate with older FGC heads who can remember the kind of banter that was used in arcades in North America.
This video is courtesy of Esteban aka “The Besteban,” one of the premier videographers of the FGC today (You might also know him as the “Tekken video guy,” or the guy that made that great FGC documentary).
When it comes to big major fighting game competitions such as Final Round, NorCal/SoCal Regionals, South East Asia Major, Canada Cup and others, they are not only drawing more amazing talent from all over the world , but it is getting increasingly more difficult to place high at these events if you’re not fully prepared for high level competition from the word ‘go’. With Street Fighter V consistently being the game with the highest amount of entrants and prize money, don’t be surprised to see at least two to four top players in almost every pool, with some dark horses, and new prodigies in-the-making sprinkled throughout the bracket.
For the second year in a row, NorCal Regionals hosted some of the most brutal SFV competition yet. There were a lot of amazing matches between notable players that that only occurred off-stream and unfortunately, only a few were recorded. Luckily, I was able to record a few of those early matches between some notable players. The Fresno Gaming Community YouTube channel also uploaded some matches of WFX|Samurai’s against some stiff international competition. You can check them out below. As a warning, there is some NSFW language here.
Mark ‘BornFree’ Sheridan got to sit down with legendary FGC player (and streamer!) Ari ‘Floe’ Weintraub at NCR 2017. They talked about Floe’s first tournament in years, game mechanics, philosophy on balance, and much more for nearly an hour.
Floe admits that he is enjoying Street Fighter V more then Street Fighter IV, but has a lot of reservations about the way the game is developing in season 2. He feels that one of the biggest problems with Season 2 of SFV is that the game is too ‘Marvel’-y, equating V-trigger to MvC3’s X-factor.
When talking about overall balance, however, he’s not ready to say that the current top tiers should be weakened. “Buff bad characters, don’t nerf good characters. I like games where everyone is cheap,” Floe admits. Considering his background as one of the world’s best Soul Calibur 2 players, it’s not surprising to hear this take from him.
There’s a lot of ground covered, including Floe’s favorite game of all time (it’s not a fighting game!) and a Floe’s life outside of gaming. Be sure to check it out!
CYG BST|PR Balrog spoke to Yahoo Esports at length about ELEAGUE, character balance, and keeping a positive attitude in the FGC, all while, of course, sporadically breaking into fits of laughter.
The conversation remains on a high note but takes an interesting turn when PR notes how optics play a big role in the way the fighting game community perceive certain characters as top tier. For instance, a top player dominating in a tournament may cause spectators to believe that the character they are using has particular advantages and cause a shift in who players main and regard as high ranking.
You can watch him expand on this and other FGC topics right here:
