Well, I finally felt well enough to play games again (been sick recently), so I spent some quality time with SF4 and finished unlocking all the characters and even a few additional colors.  Still enjoying it quite a bit.

I finally picked up the game this weekend (birthday present to myself ...and I'm enjoying it very much. Feel free to add me on PSN if you want some easy wins (I'm still a SFIV scrub). My handle is Nekobo1.

While this isn't entirely SFIV related, I thought it was really cute!

http://www.imaginismstudios.com/round2/ … cedera.jpg

I believe it's SFII Turbo's entire cast, drawn as kids.

Ah, that was one of the pieces contributed to the fan-driven Udon Street Fighter Tribute art book.  Plenty of awesomely fun renditions like that one in there.

Laughing at Chun Li. She really wants to win! And Dhalsim, all throwin' up the horns! I love shit like this!

So, who wants to participate in some online matches of this?  :)

http://kotaku.com/5208999/rose-ball---p … fighter-iv

Reminds me of when one of my friends and I would have Ken/Ken matches in SF2T and every match would begin with a fireball war until someone got hit.

In other SF4 news, I tried the 360 version last night with both a regular 360 controller and one of the SF4 gamepads.  It's much easier to do the moves with the pad, but I'm not used to the six face button layout, so that was a little weird for me.  On the regular controller, I did better than I was expecting.  I think Capcom's making SF4's special moves so easy to do made this possible since I found HD Remix to be completely unplayable with the standard 360 controller.

That's surprising to hear.  So how were the moves mapped on the regular controller?  One of the only things preventing me from finally splurging on an Xbox 360 or PS3 and SF4 is the added expense of getting extra controllers.

Do a lot of you use the standard control pads and get along fine with them?

I finally got it on saturday and been using the xbox 360 controller as that is what I have. So far no problem at all and all the moves are very easy to pull off. The stick is what I tend to use when I want to do more simple special moves or Ultra attacks. When I want a bit more presision just go for the d pad.

As for music really like the character remixes but some of the music in new stages like small african airfield stand out too. Very happy with online lobby as I can just set up player matches and have fun with a few friends goin in turns.

Will have to get that soundtrack but for now your great sample will do Adam.

For me, it's the opposite.  I've had a devil of a time playing SFIV properly with the 360 controller -- but have gotten accustomed to playing HD Remix to get my moves out about 90% of the time.  For the record, I rely on using the analog stick, as I can't do a thing with the d-pad -- the stick, therefore, might be a wee bit too sensitive for SFIV's easier inputs.   

I really wished it worked out with those FightPads.  I had tried another one after my initial one, but it was no better.  Despite the excellence of the Tournament Edition stick, Madcatz can still suck it.

This may sound awkward but my controller of choice is the Xbox S pad. I bought a special adapter from Lik Sang a while back and I use it for all my PS2 fighters. Its really only optimal for 4 button fighters though. R1 and L1 get mapped to White and Black and the triggers are a pain when you need to spam Hundred Hand Slap type moves.

The PS2 controller for me is the most inept piece of hardware I have ever used. The D-Pad is the result of a Square mating with a Triangle and the back edges of the control around R2/L2 gives me blisters like a big dog on my middle fingers.

That being said the PS3 controller is a little bit better with inputs being softened up a bit.

Oh well. Right now I'm actually in the middle of putting together some arcade sticks. Rose for myself and Vampire Hunter D for my friend. I can't wait to finish those. Fighting game Nirvana!

Edit: Btw Angela how do you get Sakura to not wear her gi in her alternate costume. When I was versing you at least twice the gi was not on the character. Am I crazy or is the game glitching out or is there really a way to make her not wear the Ryu gi. Hmm.

Pretty neat, huh?  That particular outfit's "Color #10" will allow you to deck her out sans the gi.  I wish there were more colors available for the gi-less get-up, but it seems it only changes if both players choose the same outfit/color combo.

Oh, fudge, I probably should've looked through this thread before pre-ordering the PC Street Fighter IV MadCatz Bundle. Is the FightPad really that bad? Thing is, I don't have a USB controller, and the bundle looked like a good deal. Would I be better off getting a PS2->USB adapter instead? And if so, any recommendations?

Can't speak for the more current batches, but after experiencing two separate cases of faulty d-pads, I called it quits on the FightPads.  And, given several more reported incidents of FightPads (and FightSticks alike) conking out these past few months, I'd say MadCatz is continuing to live up well to their checkered reputation.

If you're looking for a good USB-based fighting pad, again, I can't recommend the Logitech Precision enough.  Should be compatible with the PC version of SFIV.