I can't believe I'm fucking doing this.....

If you've been playing SF5: Arcade Edition for the last couple weeks, you'd know about the new Extra Battle mode. This is the renewable fight money source that was implemented to replace the exhaustible FM gains from Survival mode. The reason behind this change was that too many people weren't skilled enough to actually finish their Survival runs on Hard or Extreme, so the rewards might as well not have ever been there. I can't say I blame anyone for giving up when even the top players reportedly had a hard time doing it.

SO the Gold Shadaloo Soldier battles are here to compensate as an easier alternative to gaining more FM. There has been a small FM fee to participate in these challenges (500 per battle), and for a limited number of times. If you can win all three attempts against these soldiers, the reward you get can be pretty damned big. In the first challenge from last week, you'd have been able to get up to 7,500 FM. And the one that just started two days ago could net you 10,000 EXP for each batte, which meant even more FM if you picked a character that was still at a low level. I did this with Sakura since she just came out, and I got an easy 8000 FM from winning all three attempts.

And wouldn't you know it? Despite this FM being easier to obtain than playing through Survival, and DESPITE the still on-going weekly missions to help you gain back any FM lost.... I've somehow run into some dipshit casual COMPLAINING that the Extra Battles are just a way to scam you out of your FM.

WTF is this? I knew casuals typically sucked ass at fighting games, but when you have a mode that essentially requires you to gamble an incredibly TINY fraction of your FM (it's just $1500; who gives a shit?), you have to expect somewhat of a challenge to it. Did you really think the AI for these soliders would be set on EASY?

For fuck sake. They don't come anywhere close to being as hard as Shin Akuma, and they're most certainly NOT on the level of intermediate human opponents who actually know what they're doing. I've read accounts of people cheesing the soldiers out by doing basic stuff, like repeatedly jumping in with a roundhouse and sweeping them on landing. I don't know how there can be so MANY people losing even one of these fights.

But moreover, I can't understand for the life of me how anyone can blame Capcom for their own failed attempts. Since when did THEY become accountable for your losses? This is beyond ludicrous. Why do you people want EVERYTHING handed to you on a silver platter in this genre? What's next? You gonna report them to the Better Business Bureau for not giving you a WIN button? God. I wish there was a way they could just straight up BAN you from playing online for being stupid.

People wanted a challenge with a reasonable balance between risk and reward. We got it. If you're smart, you'll accept and make the best of it. Because if you can't even beat the fucking CPU, controlling a deliberately shitty NPC, you have no business even touching fighting games. End of discussion.

- ED23
SF5: Arcade Edition launched a week ago. And whenever it comes up on social media, or on fighting game forums, you STILL have these casual scrub pieces of shit coming out of the woodwork to trash the game. Complaining about things that have either been "fixed" by this update, or about things that were NEVER an issue. If they're not doing either of those, then they're repeating that tired "Ultra Hyper Omega Super Duper Edition" joke when it no longer applies to the game's current business model. And then, as if that wasn't hinting enough at how stupid they are, they say they'll run to Arc System Works and pick up the new Dragon Ball FighterZ game coming out. As if that company can do NO wrong.

Let me address the elephant in the room first: anybody defending Arc System Works or talking them up like they're the greatest developer out there is a corporate slave, a shill, or a fucking fanboy. Their DLC practices are the worst. In fact, they're doing EXACTLY what people claim Capcom was doing to rip us off with the SF4 updates. Why is it that when they put out a small update to Guilty Gear or Blazblue, we're expected to pay full price? That's $60 for the same exact game, adding only a few characters and very little of anything else. Super SF4 Arcade Edition and Ultra SF4 weren't even priced that high; they didn't deliver that much content on their own, which is why you only had to download them for $15 a piece. Not that it matters to these fucking scrubs though, since they had neither the intellect nor the reading comprehension necessary to see that the $40 discs were OPTIONAL. The discs were made for people who haven't already bought Super SF4 yet, or for tournament organizers. Yet these illiterate assclowns want you to believe you're being FORCED to get a new disc, when the trailers provide sufficient evidence to the contrary. Not unlike the current situation with SF5 actually.

As for Dragon Ball FighterZ? Lol. I'm amazed at how these same idiots are totally oblivious to the fact support for this game has been faltering as of late. The game's launching this month, yet Arc has already announced eight DLC characters. EIGHT. And you'll have to buy a $35 season pass to access them. To top that shit off, they don't even have the decency to add these eight characters to their collector's edition, which is already gonna set you back by $140. WTF is this? Are you DBZ fanboys actually OKAY with this practice? Are you that willing to guzzle so much cock from Arc simply because they're giving your favorite anime franchise a legit fighting game?

Capcom might still be announcing DLC characters on day one, but at least SF5 gives you the OPTION to earn them all for free. I got all twelve characters from Season 1 & 2, and I didn't have to pay a fucking dime for any of them. You don't pay real money for content unless you choose not to grind for in-game currency. Which isn't even that fucking hard to begin with; yes, winning Ranked and Casual matches won't get you that much in fight money, but you know something? That EXP system is there for a reason. Playing the challenges and leveling characters up will get you FM. I'm no tournament player by any means, but I managed to earn over 2,500,000 by doing this. If I could net that much from viewing demonstrations, playing trials, survival, all the story modes and all the weekly challenges, anybody can do it. And the human trash comes seeping in to whine about being nickel-and-dimed, WHY?

I'm thinking that's just a past time with some of you at this point. I've even had one deluded cocksucker tell me you won't be able to get that FM since playing the game, and grinding...... isn't fun. THAT is purely subjective, you dumb fuck. Is it really Capcom's fault that you suck at it? If you want to criticize a game, you don't do it by asserting personal bullshit like this. As if EVERY one of the 2.5 million people that already bought SF5 share your experience. Go to hell, and go fuck yourself.

Oh, and say what you will about Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. I don't give a shit about that game myself, so using that as evidence to trash SF5 will just make you look like an even bigger tool. Don't even try it.

And lastly, arcade mode..... it's finally here. The ONE thing these scrubs have been clamoring for since the game's initial launch. Six different paths, multiple difficulty levels, hundreds of pieces of ending artwork and bonus artwork to unlock.... and that's not good enough? Yes, it IS late. But a real fan would accept that it's been included with so much extra content bundled with it at all. A real fan would appreciate that you can now BUY the retail disc at a discounted price, with all Season 1 & 2 characters included. A real fan would appreciate that all this new content is FREE for existing users. But because it's late, that's reason enough to keep trashing SF5, proclaim your love for ASW and express your desire to get raped in the ass with DBFZ?

Jesus Christ. THIS is exactly why fighting games should go back to being niche again. I don't care if they do make the most of a game's sales numbers. What good is giving all the filth more for their money's worth when they're too ungrateful to see they ARE getting more, and not less?

Fuck, I hate scrubs. They've already made up their minds. They're having more fun bashing this game than they ever will playing it. Regardless of all that, SF5 is definitely a better product now. There's no arguing against this. And if they're that willing to opt out of a great experience, I sincerely hope they never come back for SF6. Or 7. Or 8, 9 and 10. The less of this scum we have to put up with online, the better.

- ED23
I've stated many times before that arcade modes in fighting games were worthless. Playing through the game just to get an ending for every character, most of which are contradictory to actual canon events, would offer very little in terms of replayability. At best, practicing against the CPU can get you accustomed to the system faster, but it's in no way a good training tool. I know this because I managed to beat Gill with Dudley back in New Generation. I thought I knew the character fairly well after accomplishing this, but by the time I started using him against human opponents in Super SF4, I got my ass brutally handed to me.

Despite all this, it remains the ONE thing about this genre that casuals care about. Why that is, I still don't have a fucking clue. Because once they've seen all the endings, they're likely to just trade the disc in at Gamestop for a real single-player game that happens to be the next popular thing on the market, like Destiny or The Last of Us. And these games are typically just one-time roller coasters themselves; they're too dependent on story-telling. Is there really any incentive to play through it a second time after you've seen how everything plays out? Fuck no. Yet the story presented in a fighting game is often presented as an even shorter, highly convoluted mess due to the nature of having a vast selection of characters. It gets worse when you include an actual cinematic story mode, such as SF5's, since that's the ONE mode that gives you everything you need to know in terms of what happens. Everything in the main story mode is canon. Why waste time and resources implementing individual character endings that don't adhere to it?

For the longest time, this single-player format has been a complete joke for that sole reason. Thankfully though, if you've been keeping up with all the announcements about the upcoming arcade mode for SF5, that's no longer the case.

If you're really into the lore, the game will include over a 100 endings: one for every character, for each of the arcade branches pertaining to the rosters from previous games. A lot of these endings may be repeats, yet for characters that weren't featured in games prior to their official debut, I imagine they'll probably get an ending that details something factual about their whereabouts during their absence. So if you want to know what Alex was up to in the days of SF Alpha or SF2, you can have him fight through all the SF2 characters and find out.

But all this is merely a surface attraction. In addition to providing yet another good way to accumulate fight money, this arcade mode will actually give you the chance to earn a free premium costume each month. For ONCE, the leaderboards actually serve a purpose. Back when arcades were still a prominent business in the US, nobody really cared if you beat the final boss and got the highest score. But now? Competing to get the highest score possible, against millions of other players around the world, means you get to save real money and unlock a costume you want for free.

I'm so glad that Capcom hasn't settled on keeping the arcade mode basic again. THIS is how single-player modes in fighting games should be done. It not only draws more and more casuals into buying the game, but it's engaging enough to keep even competitive players occupied. There's INCENTIVE to come back for more. And that, by definition, means more replay-value for all buyers; the one component to any video game that actually matters.

So to all the scrubs clamoring for more content: Be grateful. Arcade Edition is truly shaping up to be everything SF5 should have been on launch. It's a free automatic patch for existing players. But if you haven't bought the game yet, you get to access these new features and all the previous content released at a discounted price. Anyone who still wants the game to fail at this point is a lost cause. And a fucking imbecile.

Looking forward to this patch on January 18. See you online.

- ED23
This game is bombing. Badly. But when you have character models that look like ass, UI presentation that's horribly lacking, a core roster without Doctor Doom or ANY X-Men, and very few characters on either side that are new, can you really be surprised?

What's more insulting is that a lot of the characters that ARE new have been reserved for DLC. And they're bundled with costumes right out of the gate. That means unless you buy the Season 1 character pass, you have to spend even more money to download each individual one than any of Street Fighter 5's DLC characters. Infinite doesn't even have the in-game currency system that SF5 does, so there's no way to unlock them for free. I don't know WHAT they were thinking, but Capcom completely dropped the ball on this one.

I know some casuals may be taken aback to hear it coming from me. But NO, I don't support everything Capcom does. So if you took me for a shill after all my vehement rants over Street Fighter 5's performance, you can shut your mouth now. For me, characters are everything in a fighting game. If I don't see enough characters in the cast that spark my interest, the odds of me enjoying the fucking thing are practically non-existent. I don't subscribe to Combofiend's stupid-assed belief that characters are functions. Because if I don't like a character on the surface, why would I invest my valuable time in learning them? I pick my favorites on design, personality and story only. And only THEN can winning with them become fun.

As it is, Jedah's the only one I'd want to play in Infinite. I've been wanting to see him and Demitri in a Marvel game ever since MvC2, so I'm glad they finally decided to bring one of them to the core roster. Jedah's moves translate well, and he's one of the few characters that look amazing on a graphical level. Now if they hadn't gotten rid of my main DOOM, at the behest of those Marvel executives that are salty over Fantastic Four movie rights, I might have pre-ordered this game on day one. How badass would a Soul Stone Jedah/Doom team have been? On the other hand, if they'd compensated by adding the Punisher, the only other character I like from Marvel which they actually DO have the film rights to, I'm sure I would have gotten Infinite eventually. Not having either is depressing as hell. There's just not enough there. The game almost feels like a blatant copy-and-paste job of Ultimate Marvel 3, and Capcom seems more than content with banking on all the new characters making additional income through DLC sales.

It's vanilla Street Fighter 4 all over again. I only bought that game because it was the first SF title to come in ten years. I wanted something new, and it sickened me that the initial roster was mostly SF2 characters, with only a few Alpha characters added to the console release alongside the new ones. Beyond Sagat, I've had enough of the World Warrior cast. But more than that, I've had enough of waiting on characters I've enjoyed from other SF games to come late, simply because the millions of wannabe fans who bought SF2 on the SNES never got to experience them (more like "never cared to").

Is it any wonder why I love SF5 so much? For once, we have a game that doesn't ride on the popularity of SF2. We actually have VARIETY now. In Season 1, I got Alex. I got Ibuki. I got Juri. I got BIRDIE. And thanks to his voice actor and redesign, Urien just became a new favorite of mine. I didn't even think that was possible. Plus, everyone else got an astonishing selection of Alpha characters that we haven't seen in ages. Karin? R.Mika? NASH? THIS is what fan-service is all about.

But hold on.... vanilla SF4 was actually a success. And SF5 struggled partly because there were too many "newcomers"..... and not enough fan-favorites from SF2. So then..... what the fuck is the deal with Marvel Infinite? Sure, we don't have X-Men characters to mess around with, but that certainly isn't Capcom's fault. And everyone who keeps up with the news regarding the MCU and Fox movies would know first-hand the reason they're missing. Damned near everyone else in the core roster is an old favorite returning from MvC3. And yet.... the casual scrubs aren't buying this game because there aren't enough new characters?

Every time SF gets new characters and omits a few old ones, it suffers. Marvel brings back a TON of old characters and only a few new ones.... and it ALSO suffers. Am I the only one seeing the double-standard here? Regardless of how I personally feel about Infinite, this gives me another reason to hate these scrubs even more. They don't know what the fuck they want.

Capcom: Please stop trying to appeal to these idiots and make all your fighting game products niche again. Doing this can only be an enormous win for both you AND buyers.

- ED23
It's slated for release on Jan 16 next year. And the casual scrubs are still acting like the ungrateful dicks they are.

Don't believe me? Just look at the trailer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1s4ts…

It tells you everything you need to know in plain text. If you already bought the game, this update will be a free automatic download. And it's not JUST going to include that arcade mode scrubs have been whining about since day one. It'll also come with the Extra Battle mode where you fight different CPU opponents from the cinematic story, new V-Triggers for every character, AS WELL AS the entire line-up of DLC characters from Seasons 1 and 2.

If you HAVEN'T bought the game already, you can get all this content by downloading the digital version or picking up a retail copy for $39.99.

And let's not forget that any future DLC characters added will still be accessible for free by earning in-game currency, for both new and existing players.

Capcom has not gone back on their word. One disc is ALL you'll need to keep up with the game's developments. That's a fair way to invite newbies to the fold, isn't it?

Not according to the assholes on social media that are still complaining about nothing. Having the original disc means the update is free, yet they want to cry about having to cough up $39.99 regardless. WHAT?

Buying characters from Season 1 and 2 with real money was, from the start, completely optional. Yet these same idiots are PMS'ing over Capcom "ripping them off" by offering them to everyone else for free. Some of these dumbfucks are even saying that these characters won't be made available at all, and that each of them will still be locked behind a paywall. I'm sorry, but if you paid ANYTHING for these characters, and you start feeling cheated after the fact, you've got fewer brain cells than a rock.

For fuck sake..... does ANYBODY in the mainstream demographic know how to fucking read anymore? Oh, wait. They never could. Because these are the morons that have been oblivious to the fact you could download Super SF4 AE, and Ultra SF4 at a reduced price (just $15), as opposed to paying $39.99 for a new disc each time. These are the manbabies that believe responding to fan demand with new content is the same as nickel-and-diming consumers.

And it gets worse. Despite the fact that SF5 is shaping up to be the "complete product" it was supposed to be on launch, we have some people refusing to buy the game regardless. No matter how much extra content they put in there, giving them the chance to be happy over winning their worthless CPU battles, they still treat it like a scam.

Let's thank these cocksuckers for showing their true colors and making one thing clear. They're illiterate. They're stupid. And most of all, they are not, and never WILL be, true fighting game fans. They are not worth pandering to. And unless Capcom realizes that and brings the SF series back to a niche market (such as the old glory days of CvS2, MvC2 and 3rd Strike), I'm afraid their profits will continue to plummet. There's just no winning scenario for them.

I for one am looking forward to this update, and I hope to see the rest of you online.

- ED23

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