My tolerance for blowing $80 on this will be dependent on the availability of a Japanese OST for this game.  If there's a Japanese OST, I don't think I'll be needing this.  If there isn't, then I really have no choice.

Fingers crossed for $300 Xbox bundle with hard drive, SFIV, and extra goodies.

The unboxing of the FightStick!  I'm geeking out!

http://www.capcom-unity.com/kramez/blog … nt_edition

Well, I went ahead and put a down payment on the PS3 Tournament Edition Fightstick today.  Part of me is beside myself with excitement that I'll finally, FINALLY be able to own a fully decked out Sanwa joystick.  The other part thinks I'm on some sort of potent crack to pay $160+ for it.  One thing's for sure, my recreational budget will be a barren wasteland till at least June.  (That sure didn't take long, huh?)

I splurged on a Hori Real Arcade Pro a few months ago (same price...$160) and it REALLY makes a world of difference in my playing. On a stock Hori stock, I cannot do dragon punches on the right side for the life of me. Now, I can do my Yun roll combos with no problem anywhere. On a game with really forgiving inputs (Guilty Gear), you can really feel the difference in quality. I'm impressed with this MC stick overall, but I love my HRAP too much to convert. Only thing I wish for is a button layout more closer to the Dreamcast Agetec (that is, the shape of the buttons).

I was glad to read they really made this out of high quality parts, unlike the usual Mad Catz atrocities (their Fender Bass looks so cool, but it's SOOO awful to actually play on...the blood drains out of my arm trying to reach the frets, the knob is impossible to use as a whammy substitute and the one my friends and I use has one dead strum bar and one that works when it wants to).

I remember.  You've got the HRAP2, correct?  Have you found a way to make it work for the 360 yet?  SF4's comin' up fast. :)

I was considering going for the HRAP3 myself.  Amazon's carrying it for $89.99, but modding joysticks is way over my head, and I wanted to go all Sanwa right out of the box.  My only concern is the ball-top stick.  I'm sure it's something I'll get used to over time, but I grew up playing arcade fighting games with bat-tops.  They've always felt better to me.

Nope. Might just do the PC version if I don't find a worthy converter. They HAVE to make one, I would think.

$90 is a great price. Mine was a Special Edition (came with Sanwa buttons already installed). Good thing too, because I'm too afraid to mod stuff. Still, I can probably make due with buttons of any kind...The stick itself is always my concern. My friend had one and I used it and was like, "Dude, I NEED one of these!" after about 30 seconds.

I basically play my ball-tops and bat tops the same way. The general looseness of Japanese sticks makes both doable (the Saturn stick was a Japanese stick with a bat top...).

I guess the main problem is getting a joystick to bypass the security chip access on the 360.  If a converter ever does come to fruition, they'd likely have to implement the interfacing chip in the converter itself.

I too am holding out hope that it'll happen.  I'm sure there's going to be times when I would want to use the joystick for 360 games, too.

Changing the buttons on the HRAP3 is nothing, really, and I've never modded anything. This review has a great guide on how to do it.

http://www.high-scoreonline.com/archives/148

I just made sure to do one button at a time so I didn't mix them up. You could also jot down which pair of colored wires corresponds to each button. I went for a PS controller color scheme complete with gray L and R buttons and a gray ball top. I had to settle for white select and start buttons since they don't make gray 18mm ones. **EDIT** Actually, I've seen gray 18mm buttons on the special HRAP3 but not for sale individually.

To Angela, you can use a Sanwa bat top on a ball top stick with an adapter which you can get here

http://www.lizardlickamusements.com/pag … icks.shtml

These guys rock!

Thanks for the heads-up, Nick.  I'll see how much I like the ball-top on the TE, and if I'm really uncomfortable with it, I'll find some way to attempt a bat swap.

I'm delighted that there's now another place here in NYC that has SF4 available for play. Peter Pan Games here in Bayside is a heck of a lot easier for me to get to than Chinatown Fair, so I guess I'll know where I'll be spending my next few weekends.  :)

Oh, and if you guys haven't seen it yet, there's an AMAZING Guile combo video out, accompanied by a pretty clean version of his SF4 theme track.  I'd hate to match up with this guy online. o_O

http://www.shoryuken.com/?p=573

The latest (and possibly last?) SF4 trailer is a total knockout.  Clocking in at an exciting five minutes, this one features all twenty-five World Warriors -- which includes tantalizing new gameplay bits for the console-exclusive characters:

http://blog-imgs-27.fc2.com/t/o/k/tokka … =sm5773286

Protip: De-select the little birdie on the bottom right-hand side of the screen to take away the scrolling text.

I wonder if showing Seth in more than one stage background is the tip-off that he will unlockable as a playable character in the home version.

He's all but confirmed as a playable character.  Remember that shot of the character roster?

Here's the SFIV CES 2009 media round-up, courtesy of Gamespot and the Street Fighter Blog.

Ryu's Anime prologue from Street Fighter IV
http://streetfighterblog.blogspot.com/2 … treet.html

Capcom's Seth Killian talks about the Madcatz SF4 Controllers
http://streetfighterblog.blogspot.com/2 … dcatz.html

Seth Killian shows you the new Challenge Mode in Street Fighter IV
http://streetfighterblog.blogspot.com/2 … -mode.html

Seth Killian shows you the console-exclusive new characters (Rose, Cammy, Gen, Fei Long, Dan):
http://streetfighterblog.blogspot.com/2 … nsole.html

---

Ten taunts per character, customizable win quotes, the ability to individually set the English or Japanese voice dubs for characters (Cammy sounds great in English), new stages, and Dan's gonna be a riot to play.  Also, only 3,000 Tournament Edition sticks are being made?  I'm REALLY hoping my preorder somehow doesn't fall through.....

Thanks for reminding me.  Those options you list in the next post are interesting.  I suppose (and hope) one of them will be to turn the annoying announcer down so he isn't commenting every two seconds.

Word on the street (ha, get it?) is that there's two options.  The first is "OFF" which turns the announcer off completely, while the other is "Advertise Only", which restricts him to a bare minimum, like the pre-match intro, and "Get ready..... FIGHT!" and "KO!" phrases.  Here are two videos showcasing the options:

OFF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohthV1DXCOk&fmt=18

Advertise only:
http://ces.gamespot.com/video.html?sid= … deos;img;2

Nifty.  I think I'll go with the Advertise Only since it's too quiet to have no announcer at all, and this mode makes it feel the most normal.  So glad that this option exists so you don't have to hear the constant rambling that I've seen in some of the other videos.

New Story Trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44551.html

The English voices are pretty awful (with the notable exception of Cammy who is spot on).

Yeah, they went with a good choice with Caitlin Glass for Cammy.  But Wendee Lee, while being a great voice actress, just doesn't seem right for Chun Li.  A bit too much on the high-pitched, perky side.

Half of the rest aren't bad, though.  Digging Ken's cockiness (it's DMC's Dante!), and Rose and Vega sound pretty good, too.  Honda, Dhalsim and Sagat all appear appropriately voiced, and Zangief and El Fuerte are excellent in an over-the-top way.  And I could never get used to Guile's Japanese selected Engrish, so I figure he's gotta be better in native English.

But I think the most important thing we could take out of this video is that it fully confirms who everybody's rival matches are, since these voice clips appear to be taken during those particular sequences.  So, with the help of Neogaf's compilation:

Ryu <-> Sagat
Ken <-> Rufus
Guile <-> Abel
Honda <-> Dhalsim
Zangief <-> El Fuerte
Blanka <-> Balrog (Boxer)
Chun Li <-> Vega (Claw)
Viper -> Chun Li
Bison (Dictator) -> Viper
Akuma -> Ryu
Gouken -> Ken
Cammy -> Viper
Sakura -> Ryu
Dan -> Sakura
Fei Long -> Abel
Rose -> Ryu
Gen -> Chun Li
Seth -> Guile/Bison (Dictator)

Wikipedia says (I know, funny joke there) that Chun-Li is actually Laura Bailey. That said, I have trouble pulling Wendee's voice out too - I confuse her with Sherry Lynn a lot.

Ah, my mistake.  Seems Wendee is voicing Rose - which is a bit surprising, considering Rose's deeper tonality.  Looks like I underestimated Lee's versatile range. :)

Okay, now I *know* I'm on crack.  I just went ahead and placed an order for the 360 TE Fightstick as well.  Capcom's taking preorders for both versions, though for how long is anyone's guess:

PS3 TE:
http://shop.capcom.com/DRHM/servlet/Sec … =111617600

360 TE:
http://shop.capcom.com/DRHM/servlet/Sec … =111617800

Being a New Yorker, the tax-free and no cost shipping, plus another 10% off if you choose to decline your order at the last minute dropped the price down from the $162 I would normally pay to $134.95.  It was just too tempting.

For fans of Street Fighter art, this site's for you.  The newly opened STREET FIGHTER HD features just about every official piece of artwork in high-res quality.

That site is full of absolute win. I was surprised to see that it wasn't endorsed by Capcom, though. I wonder how they managed to get such high resolution images?

The back of the Collector's Edition packaging appears to confirm that the alternate costumes WILL be treated as DLC that you need to purchase.

http://www.gamestop.com/common/images/b … _lback.jpg

The CE will include tokens good for five free ones of your choosing.

There's no blood at all in this game?

This ain't Mortal Kombat, dude - but now that I think of it, I don't believe they even have the occasional blood or trademark "vomit" hit that was evident in the original SFII.

Still, who needs that when we've got exaggerated facial expressions? :D

For anyone who has yet to experience the arcade game firsthand - and reveled in its native glorious 60fps motion - Ruliweb's got some great videos up:

http://ruliweb.empas.com/data/rulinews/ … ?num=16730

Probably the same way as any other anime/manga scan site: get original art donated or submitted by people and use a really powerful scanner.

Capcom details their DLC schedule:

http://kotaku.com/5147226/capcom-catalo … nloadables

I have less of a problem fessing up the cash for the alternate costumes than I do with the prolonged time schedule. Who wants to wait a full month after the game's release to be able to deck Guile out in the Nash/Charlie outfit?

Reviews for the MadCatz line-up of SFIV controllers are trickling in.  Eurogamer provides one of the better reads for all three peripherals:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mad-c … ent-review

So I picked up my 360 FightPad today, and after giving it a few go-arounds with HD Remix, I can conclude: it sucks ass.

The problem lies in the diagonals.  It seems you have to apply a fair amount of pressure on all sides in order to make them register.  For fighting games, this is an absolute no-no; even doing something as simple as jumping backwards and forward or holding down-back to block is a hurting chore on the thumb.  And you can forget about pulling off any sort of motion-based moves on instinct.  I don't seem to be the only one complaining about the awful diagonals; quite a few people are reporting the very same problem. 

And it's a damned shame, since just about everything else about the pad is pretty aces.  I like the size and the weight, and the buttons have a good spring to them.  The six button setup on the face is something I would need to adapt to, since I'm so used to the typical four face/two shoulder button setup -- and while the floating d-pad feels nice and tactile, again, it's simply not registering those diagonals.  And that earns this pad an automatic fail in my book.

A bad initial batch?  Or MadCatz once again living up to their reputation?

If it costs more than $50 and doesn't work worth a damn, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt, pure and simple.

Reserved SF4 finally, after tossing the decision around. PS3 version, as I'm much more comfortable with its controller and don't give a tinker's damn about Viper and her ridiculous design. I even got a headset in case I go online. I just hope I can get it set up right so I don't sound like a dirty phone call.

Yeah, about headsets, will just any old headset do, or do you need specific PS3/Xbox headsets for each console?
It'd be nice if I could use the same headset for both consoles...

Most USB or bluetooth-compatible sets should work on the PS3.  From what I understand, USB sets won't work on the 360 - you would need to utilize a set that fits into the 2.5mm port on the controller itself.  Other than the official 360 headset, people have recommended those hands-free cell phone mics as a cheaper alternative.