hoody

I know they are called HARD challenges, but they're mostly just needlessly long and boring. There's a point where they are just ridiculous, right?

I just got done winning 26 matches on the fourth Hard Survival in Challenge mode. Twenty-six. The only reason I didn't win more is because I was absolutely sick to death of doing Gief's Lariat. Anyway, I won twenty-six matches, and got a silver medal for it.

If there were maybe a few Survival levels that made you go through 20+ matches in order to get the gold medal, it would already be annoying enough, given how much of a grind playing against the AI can be. But I've been through all the normal ones, and now four of the hard ones, and I can't even remember how many times I've had to face almost all (if not all) members of the cast. Each time a new opponent pops up, I'm literally like, "seriously... match 19 AGAIN?" Do there really need to be this many levels that hit 20 and 25 levels? Ugh...

I don't know, it just seems like overkill to me. The heart and soul of the game is the 1-on-1 action, so it really pisses me off that there is so much tied to the single player component - way too much of which is tedious fluff. Bah.

/rant

I kind of have a similar problem as what you've described. It's not that hard to snuff out a Lariat spammer, but I have to admit, the damn move does have some unreasonable advantages. I don't mind that it evades projectiles, since it always has, but it's way dangerous to punish it with a sweep in SFIV, and it causes some pretty brutal block stun, and that gets on my nerves. It's also annoying, like you said, to try to jump kick a spinning Gief, nail him in the head, and still get nailed.

Bottom line, the move is far from broken, but it could definitely stand to be toned down in a couple ways.

Theres seems to be a kind of a stigma around using the shotos (I blame the prevalent Ken abuse), but really, they're all perfectly legit characters (except Dan, lol), and I see no reason why you should feel even the slightest bit awkward or bad about maining Ryu. Dude's a savage, and he's a comfy character. Fuckin' run with it.

I would suggest that if you really, really want to pick up another character, play someone who is WAY different from any of the shotos. Play Rufus. Or maybe C. Viper. Give that weirdo El Fuerte a go - he's more fun than you might think. Point is, do something that totally flips your game on its head and is far, far away from what you might be accustomed to in playing Street Fighter. I don't have anything extremely concrete to back this advice up except that it has worked for me (in CvS2, I mained Blanka, Ken, and Geese, for example).

You're right about T. Hawk too. He's just ridiculous. I push a button, he smashes me. Ugh... it's stupid playing against the AI... don't let it get you down.

My highest is around 2400, and right now I'm at 2006.

That's weird that you guys have been matching up with guys so high up when you choose "Same Skill." I've been going for "More Skilled," and I'm lucky to find people above 1500. Looks like they've got the matchmaking more fucked up than I realized.

I like my "Absolute Perfection" title, and I use it with Gouken's flag.
I also like using "Chick Pea" along with the little headband-wearing chick, and the "Madman" with the mugshot of Gouken.

I did it. Seth gets way too much credit as a final boss... he's a complete pushover. I should make a vid... You want a real boss, try Gill from 3S or Akuma from HD Remix. *shudders at Akuma*

For that combo, make sure that you are holding back as soon as you leave the ground for the jump-in. This is the only way you'll be able to charge long enough to throw the SB after the sc.FP hits.

To learn the timing, crouch near your opponent for a couple of second to charge a SB. When you have one ready, release "down" while you keep holding "back," press FP and then slide into your SB while the FP animation is going. It's not about going fast, per se, but getting the timing right. Keep doing it until you've got the rhythm down. Muscle memory will eventually kick in, and you'll be all set.

"This is too complex, just to unlock characters..."

Yeah, I've said the same thing to myself before. I'll go on a win streak, finally lose once, and in that one shot I lose everything I'd picked up. The highest I've been so far is around 2400, and right now I'm at 2006. I usually hover around 1800 or so because, like I said, I lose one out of 7-8 or so and then *poof*... points gone.

I would laugh my ass off at someone if they literally lost to nothing but fireballs. How much do you have to suck for that to beat you?