SFV ~ The Problem That is Ed

Let us talk about the glaring pink elephant in the room. The pink elephant that is Ed from Street Fighter V. After hearing online that Ed wasn't going to adhere to Capcom's standards for motion inputs I was intrigued. I thought maybe Ed was going to be an interesting game changer. A character who might influence future fighting game character designs for the better. That is until I found out simply pressing combinations of face buttons without directional motions would deliver instant specials, supers, and ultras. The problem with that is this. There are modded controllers for both the PS4, and PC with single button mapping functions. There are also controller adapters with single button mapping capabilities built in. Devices which can have such special attacks mapped to a single button press. As a result cheesing, and exploiting the already highly exploitable Ed is much easier done. It's as if he was built for this very purpose.

Street Fighter V - What It Needs To Be Good

From the day I picked up SFV to this very day I have been one of the game's worst critics. I haven't really bashed it outside of the initial shock of feeling ripped off, but I have come up with a laundry list of valid complaints that desperately need to be addressed by the developers. The game, as it stands is functionally flawed. It's missing content, and it's missing features that it should have. Not only that, but it's server dependent, and it features two new layers of anonymity that the online community can, and does abuse. Let me not forget to mention the fact that Capcom also made it cross-platform with the PC. The one gaming platform from which all mods, and hacks originate. A platform that is not governed by Playstation moderation.

To start off with I said in all honesty that "Street Fighter V" deserved a "4 out of 10" rating. That's how I felt at first. The more I played it though the more I realized how far it has fallen from it's origin source, and in realizing this I ended up feeling that it warrants an even lower rating than that. I do realize that SFV is a completely different beast altogether, and that such a fact should be taken into consideration, but at this point I feel it's not even worth recommending regardless of it's new nature. Before you start defending the game like some butt hurt fanboy or fangirl allow me to explain what I mean.

Street fighter V is not what USF4 was, especially to people like me who relied upon the online for training. It is also not what any of the previous Street Fighter games were at base level. It branches off almost completely from that foundation formula, and in doing so forces the gamer to endure the eSports elements that the developer, and publisher are pushing. Capcom made it perfectly clear that they were making SFV eSports friendly. In doing so I fear they have compromised the integrity of the game, and the series by seeking an audience that is not the audience which made said series great, and widely recognized. This whole fantasy that is "eSports" has only caused more problems. It has effectively created scrub pros, and not scrubs turned pro. I can guarantee you that you won't find a lot of SFV's online top tier players going to tournaments, because they cheated their way to the top.

Capcom You Done Goofed

This Sunday morning I got into SFV hoping that I could get in some decent matches to share with my Youtube audience. To my dismay I ran into a steady stream of modders, and lagswitchers via the good old PSN. This was made worse by the pitiful excuse that is matchmaking. In SFV you have only two options when searching for a match online. One is regarding the platform of choice (PS4 / PC), and the other the connection quality (which makes no real difference with cheaters in the mix). Without the previous region options, and skill level settings in place the player is forced to play against those online players who are abusing the system. Noobs get paired with wannabe pros, and visa versa. This in itself is a huge oversight on Capcom's part. Their whole ideal of pro level competition is so badly warped that they have overlooked these matchmaking details in an attempt to force players to get better, or fail. With the lack of a proper tutorial mode (combos, setups, ...), and an Arcade mode with competent AI/CPU opponents to fight against newcomers do not stand a fighting chance. Not to say that going up against the world's greatest cheaters is going to make them any better though.