Street Fighter IV
Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Jul 18, 2008
After nearly a decade in hiatus, Capcom's signature mainline fighting game series resurfaces with its fourth main installment, combining the traditional 2D gameplay with modern fully-3D graphics.
Street Fighter IV (PC) Review Update
Capcom has released Street Fighter IV for the PC this week, following up on the February releases for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The differences are few, but still meaningful for PC owners. For a more detailed take on what makes Street Fighter IV so great, check out our full review, which has been lightly updated to account for the new PC release. This article will mostly focus on the specific differences found in the PC version of the game.
From a gameplay and features perspective, Street Fighter IV is identical to what you'd get on consoles. The game supports Games For Windows Live, giving it a set of achievement points and a player matching setup that, for better or worse, is just like it is on the Xbox 360. That means that you'll still occasionally run into cases where you can't connect to a match after the quick match option gives you a list of available players. Also, the game ships with the Championship Mode update that was released as a free patch for the console versions of the game. It would have been nice to see cross-platform support between the 360 and PC versions of the game, but so far, at least, there seem to be plenty of players on the PC who are looking for a fight.
The game certainly has support for the keyboard, but that's not how you want to play Street Fighter IV. You should consider a joystick or gamepad as a requirement if you want to enjoy the game, and don't forget that you'll need two of those things if you want to enjoy playing the local versus mode. I used the Xbox 360 versions of the MadCatz Arcade Fight Stick TE and the MadCatz gamepad, both of which are pretty ideal for controlling the game. As it does have keyboard support, players with joysticks that map to keyboard presses should be in luck, but I want to stress that I didn't test that out for myself. Additionally, online reports state that the PlayStation 3 versions of the MadCatz controllers released alongside Street Fighter IV PS3 work just fine.
The other options come in the form of graphical tweaks and settings that you'd expect to see in a PC game. These options let you tweak the resolution, filtering, v-sync, shadow quality, and so on. The good news is that Street Fighter IV was originally developed for the Taito Type X2 arcade hardware, which is really just a coin slot hooked up to a Windows machine--and not an especially beefy one, either. I wouldn't call my machine state of the art, but I was able to turn every setting up to the maximum and still get my frame rate up to the 59.97 frames per second that you'll want to achieve for the most playable results.
The other interesting option is a set of additional shaders you can enable to give the fighters a slightly different look. They're fairly subtle, with one adding a bit of an ink effect that hovers around the edges of the fighters, another giving the characters a watercolor-like palette, and posterize effect that flattens the look of the characters out a little bit. Watercolor is probably the most striking, but I prefer the default look of the fighters.
As this is a Games For Windows Live game, it offers support for downloadable content, none of which seems to be available on the GFWL Marketplace as of this writing. It seems reasonable to assume that the same alternate costumes made available on consoles will eventually make their way to the store.
As it can run in a higher resolution that the console games and offers more graphical settings, this version of Street Fighter IV has the ability to look better than the 360 and PlayStation 3 releases, but the differences aren't major. Provided you've got the right controller for the job and a good widescreen monitor, the PC version of Street Fighter IV is a perfectly capable version of the game that, like the previous releases, is positively terrific.
Capcom has released Street Fighter IV for the PC this week, following up on the February releases for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The differences are few, but still meaningful for PC owners. For a more detailed take on what makes Street Fighter IV so great, check out our full review, which has been lightly updated to account for the new PC release. This article will mostly focus on the specific differences found in the PC version of the game.
From a gameplay and features perspective, Street Fighter IV is identical to what you'd get on consoles. The game supports Games For Windows Live, giving it a set of achievement points and a player matching setup that, for better or worse, is just like it is on the Xbox 360. That means that you'll still occasionally run into cases where you can't connect to a match after the quick match option gives you a list of available players. Also, the game ships with the Championship Mode update that was released as a free patch for the console versions of the game. It would have been nice to see cross-platform support between the 360 and PC versions of the game, but so far, at least, there seem to be plenty of players on the PC who are looking for a fight.
The game certainly has support for the keyboard, but that's not how you want to play Street Fighter IV. You should consider a joystick or gamepad as a requirement if you want to enjoy the game, and don't forget that you'll need two of those things if you want to enjoy playing the local versus mode. I used the Xbox 360 versions of the MadCatz Arcade Fight Stick TE and the MadCatz gamepad, both of which are pretty ideal for controlling the game. As it does have keyboard support, players with joysticks that map to keyboard presses should be in luck, but I want to stress that I didn't test that out for myself. Additionally, online reports state that the PlayStation 3 versions of the MadCatz controllers released alongside Street Fighter IV PS3 work just fine.
The other options come in the form of graphical tweaks and settings that you'd expect to see in a PC game. These options let you tweak the resolution, filtering, v-sync, shadow quality, and so on. The good news is that Street Fighter IV was originally developed for the Taito Type X2 arcade hardware, which is really just a coin slot hooked up to a Windows machine--and not an especially beefy one, either. I wouldn't call my machine state of the art, but I was able to turn every setting up to the maximum and still get my frame rate up to the 59.97 frames per second that you'll want to achieve for the most playable results.
The other interesting option is a set of additional shaders you can enable to give the fighters a slightly different look. They're fairly subtle, with one adding a bit of an ink effect that hovers around the edges of the fighters, another giving the characters a watercolor-like palette, and posterize effect that flattens the look of the characters out a little bit. Watercolor is probably the most striking, but I prefer the default look of the fighters.
As this is a Games For Windows Live game, it offers support for downloadable content, none of which seems to be available on the GFWL Marketplace as of this writing. It seems reasonable to assume that the same alternate costumes made available on consoles will eventually make their way to the store.
As it can run in a higher resolution that the console games and offers more graphical settings, this version of Street Fighter IV has the ability to look better than the 360 and PlayStation 3 releases, but the differences aren't major. Provided you've got the right controller for the job and a good widescreen monitor, the PC version of Street Fighter IV is a perfectly capable version of the game that, like the previous releases, is positively terrific.
" To bad there is no cross platform support that would have been cool.Why people insist on shouting first is beyond me - it's pointlessBTW FIRST"
I understand that fighting games are best played with an arcade stick or gamepad but using a keyboard is not too bad, actualy in my case I've been able to perform combos and special moves far more quickly and easily with the keyboard than my with my gamepad. As far thegame goes it's pretty good but for no more than 5-10 min quick plays.
This is good for my friend who only has a good gaming PC. Now he can train and then we can have an actual battle on my PS3.
I tried it on the PC, all thanks to a pal, at max settings on 1440x990 (or something similar) and I did not noticed differences between the console versions.
Of course, it has better AA and the new filters (that aside from the one called INK, are not noticeable at all).
Still, a good buy for those who cant afford a PS3 or a 360. Still, I recommend not playing it below 60fps.
The only problem I'm having with the game thus far is finding good opponents with good connections. Is it this bad for Xbox Live? The indicator for the fights are also extremely misleading. There have been a couple of matches with people who supposedly have 4 bars, but as soon as the matching starts, I end up fighting with the lag.
Agreed on the lack of cross platform support. It should have no problems integrating with Xbox users since you don't have to worry about accuracy differences between mouse versus thumbstick. Perhaps down the line. More games need cross platform support, even if it is of the Live variety.
" So does SF4 support cross platforming? "No.
@ThomasP said:
" I read the review, but I'm still unsure of one thing... does this game has vs (two player), or can you only play against someone online? "Yes, it supports local 2 player versus. The only problem is that the 2nd player must use a controller. There is no option to set the 2nd player to keyboard.
" Street fighter on the PC sounds desperately pointless. Let's face it, once you plug a 360 controller into a PC you've just got an expensive and unstable Xbox 360 . . . with Excel. "But playing online through Games for Windows is free. I think I'll take $0 a month to the 360's $10 a month. Sounds like a damn fine deal
to me. Plus the PC version of the game is $20 cheaper.
I actually prefer a keyboard over controllers (except for doing 360° motions), though of course a stick exceeds both of those.
The good thing about the PC version is that you can use either PS3 or 360 sticks for it, making it the "universal" version. It probably won't be adapted in tournaments since no one wants to set up a bunch of moderately expensive PC's, but it's a pipedream of mine.
"Perhaps said person has a heavily developed gaming PC and prefers the art of manipulating his/her games without the need for a console?Who ever plays SF4 on a PC. it's fucking crazy just get a 360 or something JEEEEZE LOUISE
"
I have it and love it, this version looks fricking awesome at max settings at the highest res. I don't care much for the shaders but everything else make this game look notably better the PS3 and 360 versions. When I ran the game it shocked me how good it looked, the lighting and particle effects look so much better.
Capcom have done an amazing job.
Capcom surprisingly is the only one Japanese publisher whose entry to the PC market has been successively marked with ports that look as good if not better than their console counterparts, cheaper, and runs on a host of multiple configurations. To call their foray into the PC business a success on their part is a profound understatement. For $40.00, at 20 dollars cheaper than the price of the console version, with host of controller and graphics options and full range of multiplayer and DLC possibilities, they had gone beyond the requirement of a simple direct to port job and enthrals PC users. The only downside to this is the ever present copy protection scheme that resides on every install, which is something every PC gamer has to abide with nowadays. PC users should reward Capcom for their smashing job by actually purchasing and supporting their product for once.
" The only problem I'm having with the game thus far is finding good opponents with good connections. Is it this bad for Xbox Live? The indicator for the fights are also extremely misleading. There have been a couple of matches with people who supposedly have 4 bars, but as soon as the matching starts, I end up fighting with the lag. "I think that problem's to do with people having a crappy computer that can't handle the game properly. Like most P2P multiplayer games, FPS or net lag will effect both players even if only one player suffers from it.
Fired this up this morning after lugging my behind to the post office, it's pretty amazing what they did. Not sure if I prefer this version as the network stuff suffers from some issues I thought would be obsolete on a PC, but for the price I can't really complain.
" Capcom surprisingly is the only one Japanese publisher whose entry to the PC market has been successively marked with ports that look as good if not better than their console counterparts, cheaper, and runs on a host of multiple configurations. To call their foray into the PC business a success on their part is a profound understatement. For $40.00, at 20 dollars cheaper than the price of the console version, with host of controller and graphics options and full range of multiplayer and DLC possibilities, they had gone beyond the requirement of a simple direct to port job and enthrals PC users. The only downside to this is the ever present copy protection scheme that resides on every install, which is something every PC gamer has to abide with nowadays. PC users should reward Capcom for their smashing job by actually purchasing and supporting their product for once. "
I fully agree, I've been saying the same for a while now, knowing that SF4 would turn out this good, on the evidence of their last game, DMC4 PC.
The PC version of SF4 is awesome, I'm playing at the very hilt on a 30 inch Dell at it looks stunningly, notably better than the 360 and PS3 versions, and I am playing it with my TE and EX SE, so I have no complaints at all.
Capcom have their own PC division and the team work closely with those working on the console counterparts, it definitely benefits the games on the evidence of what they are coming up with these days. I get the impression the PC team like to shgow off what they can do, I got that feeling with DMC4.
There is more Capcom goodness to come from the PC division, Bionic Commando PC is available on July 17th.
" Capcom surprisingly is the only one Japanese publisher whose entry to the PC market has been successively marked with ports that look as good if not better than their console counterparts, cheaper, and runs on a host of multiple configurations. To call their foray into the PC business a success on their part is a profound understatement. For $40.00, at 20 dollars cheaper than the price of the console version, with host of controller and graphics options and full range of multiplayer and DLC possibilities, they had gone beyond the requirement of a simple direct to port job and enthrals PC users. The only downside to this is the ever present copy protection scheme that resides on every install, which is something every PC gamer has to abide with nowadays. PC users should reward Capcom for their smashing job by actually purchasing and supporting their product for once. "Wasn't the RE4 PC version really bad?
" @Nomin said:Sort of. No keyboard, mouse. Also, bad textures when it was released. An update fixed the texture issue though." Capcom surprisingly is the only one Japanese publisher whose entry to the PC market has been successively marked with ports that look as good if not better than their console counterparts, cheaper, and runs on a host of multiple configurations. To call their foray into the PC business a success on their part is a profound understatement. For $40.00, at 20 dollars cheaper than the price of the console version, with host of controller and graphics options and full range of multiplayer and DLC possibilities, they had gone beyond the requirement of a simple direct to port job and enthrals PC users. The only downside to this is the ever present copy protection scheme that resides on every install, which is something every PC gamer has to abide with nowadays. PC users should reward Capcom for their smashing job by actually purchasing and supporting their product for once. "Wasn't the RE4 PC version really bad? "
As Jeff stated, this isn't really a port of a console game. The arcade release was on a PC. Even though they called it an arcade machine, it ran in a Windows-embedded environment.
" @Nomin said:" Capcom surprisingly is the only one Japanese publisher whose entry to the PC market has been successively marked with ports that look as good if not better than their console counterparts, cheaper, and runs on a host of multiple configurations. To call their foray into the PC business a success on their part is a profound understatement. For $40.00, at 20 dollars cheaper than the price of the console version, with host of controller and graphics options and full range of multiplayer and DLC possibilities, they had gone beyond the requirement of a simple direct to port job and enthrals PC users. The only downside to this is the ever present copy protection scheme that resides on every install, which is something every PC gamer has to abide with nowadays. PC users should reward Capcom for their smashing job by actually purchasing and supporting their product for once. "Wasn't the RE4 PC version really bad? "
No, it was terrible. but then it was developed out of house by SourceNext and not Capcom.
Now, there's a lot more focus from Capcom on getting the most revenue from PC versions by producing quality.
It looks fantastic on my 22" monitor and it runs at a constant 60 frames per second. I skipped the console version waiting for this release. It on sale at steam and no DRM.
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