Version 2013 hits tomorrow, with UI, mechanics and character balancing changes. It has been confirmed that this version of the game will be a main tournament game at EVO 2013 in July and will be a 1 on 1 competition as opposed to Vanilla SFxT's 2 on 2 competition. It will also feature prominently at the IGN Pro League this year.

The latest member of the FGC to join Capcom Combofiend, Peter Rosas, has been going through character specific changes in detail in a bunch of videos.

Who's planning on trying it? Will it be laughed off the stage at EVO? Are there any fans of Vanilla SFxT?

I think it'll have a following, it is a Capcom game after all, but only the top players will give it a chance. It has a lot of work to do to win back players who don't intend to make money from it. I'm just happy to see less time-outs, less jab jab jab jab and more KOs. It's impossible that it could somehow be a worse game with the update than without it.

Tom Cruise hates Street Fighter X Tekken!

I never bought the game before and don't plan on getting it now.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure if this update is enough to get people interested in the game again. It's a nice gesture, if nothing else I guess.

Not related to the game at all but it's so sad to hear such a charismatic guy as Combofiend, read off a script like a robot.

That gif never fails to make me laugh. Have you got the one where someone tries to catapult the game away and it slams back into them with 2013?
 
I'll probably play it once or twice and see what they changed, but that's all. I don't think there's going to be a big reuptake of the game. Seemed improved and a bit faster at SCR but it was still mostly the same game.
 
This video sums up my feelings pretty well. 

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I never bought the game before and don't plan on getting it now.

And I'm sure many people will do the same.

@ArbitraryWater said:

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure if this update is enough to get people interested in the game again. It's a nice gesture, if nothing else I guess.

Well it was practically a necessity at this point, the game was fundamentally flawed, regardless of what video game journalists who don't know any better reviewed it as. As you say though, even to people who gave this a go, bridges have already been burnt.

@Humanity said:

Not related to the game at all but it's so sad to hear such a charismatic guy as Combofiend, read off a script like a robot.

So true! I realise that now he works at Capcom he's probably their go-to public face, but they better have something better that those videos for him.

@Petiew said:

That gif never fails to make me laugh. Have you got the one where someone tries to catapult the game away and it slams back into them with 2013?

I'll probably play it once or twice and see what they changed, but that's all. I don't think there's going to be a big reuptake of the game. Seemed improved and a bit faster at SCR but it was still mostly the same game.

This video sums up my feelings pretty well.

hahaha I've never seen that video, Aqua is a genius. Can't find the catapult video, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Still no word on Tekken X Street Fighter?

I'm still holding out for Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter. Now there's a game I would actually play!

@FLStyle said:

I'm just happy to see less time-outs, less jab jab jab jab and more KOs. It's impossible that it could somehow be a worse game with the update than without it.

So have they fixed Rolento? Because watching EVO last year, wow, his super safe pokes are horseshit. That shit was so dull to watch. Whatever, Infiltration earned his win at what looked like a pretty crappy game full of timeouts.

@MooseyMcMan said:

Still no word on Tekken X Street Fighter?

I am so concerned for that game at this point. I know they were focusing on Tekken Tag 2, but seriously, hardly anyone gives a fuck. Just get on with Tekken X Street Fighter. I mean, c'mon, you're Namco Bandai and all of your flagship series are shadows of their former selves (though mad props for publishing Enslaved and Dark Souls). Tekken X Street Fighter is your best chance to actually make some money.

I won the Vita version in a contest. Have yet to put it in my Vita.

I never understood all of the hate that the game gets. I thought it was fun the way it is. Like any new fighting game, it had its balance issues to sort out (gem system included), but the game is the most fun I've had playing a Capcom fighter in years.

Sometimes I think about buying this game, but then I just pop in SFIV: AE or TTT2 and then I'm okay with not buying it.

@Hailinel: Only playing it at a friends house I found the whole gen system to be a huge turn off. The concept is neat but the execution is poor. I'd be curious about dlc sales of this compared to other Capcom fighters.

@msavo said:

@Hailinel: Only playing it at a friends house I found the whole gen system to be a huge turn off. The concept is neat but the execution is poor. I'd be curious about dlc sales of this compared to other Capcom fighters.

Yeah, the gems were kind of wonky, as was the game's whole DLC situation in general. But I still maintain that I had more fun with it than any iteration of Street Fighter IV or MVC3 despite all of those issues.

feels considerably faster. still had a timeout but whatever the pace is more rushdown oriented.

I just hope the game is more fun to watch now. More character variety, more damage, less jab pressure, etc.

Once it's live on Xbox 360, then I will try it. I was watching the 2013 Exhibition at SCR and it seems like the pace of the game is still slow to me. Still, I will give it another chance.

I had fun with the base game too but I got it because I gave some TF2 hat to some guy and I had never played a capcom fighter before

Found the big list of changes from CapComboFiend.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/street_fighter/go/thread/view/7411/29622625/sfxt-complete-character-change-log

My team is Heihachi/Zangief. Heihachi mostly got buffs and Zangief mostly got nerfs.

Probably too little too late for the tournament scene. But the changes are definitely a step in the right direction. Seems faster and more offence oriented. That and they haven't nerfed my characters, so yeah I'm pretty pleased with it.

On paper all these changes are exactly what the game needs to be a top-tier competitive fighting game. Unfortunately there may be nothing they can do to overcome the negative opinions most people seem to have about the game. I'll definitely pick It back up once I fix my joystick.

@BisonHero Rolento was actually mostly fixed shortly after Evo.

@StarvingGamer: Good to know. It's a game I didn't follow much outside of EVO, as you can probably tell. It didn't make a great impression while watching the top 8.

Any characters standing out as really good right now, or is there a decently large set of characters that are viable for tournaments?

http://www.twitch.tv/team/fgcpros

FGTV and PR Balrog are testing the waters with Version. 2013, Justin Wong is messing around in UMVC3 and Week 4 of the Iron Fist League continues on Arturo's channel.

I think I'm going to drop Heihachi and pick up Ken. I just have problems trying to open people up with good defense with him. I think I will stick with Gief despite his nerfs.

@JJOR64: Good plan!

Been playing these past two nights, and I like what I played. Though I liked vanilla SFxT from the get-go. I feel that the most relevant change among the group I play with is throws getting rid of recoverable health; it makes matches way faster. I used Jin with either Guile, King, Nina or Alisa in vanilla and I haven't changed that much. I still can't pin down a solid partner, so I may go with Guy down the line. Netcode still fluctuates between amazing and intolerable.

Only got a chance to quickly try it out last night since xbox live was down for me for awhile. So far so good but what really threw me off was the removal on the launcher camera freeze. I would rely on that freeze to help me buffer in some of my moves when I would tag in my partner. Now with the lack of the launcher freeze, its much shorter window to pull the same thing off. I understand why it was done but I'm pretty bummed about it as the freeze was a great help, as least for me. I don't know if the patch itself will bring in new players directly, but I think it will make the matches flow better and look more exciting, and bring more people in (or back in) that way.

@JudahJones said:

Only got a chance to quickly try it out last night since xbox live was down for me for awhile. So far so good but what really threw me off was the removal on the launcher camera freeze. I would rely on that freeze to help me buffer in some of my moves when I would tag in my partner. Now with the lack of the launcher freeze, its much shorter window to pull the same thing off. I understand why it was done but I'm pretty bummed about it as the freeze was a great help, as least for me. I don't know if the patch itself will bring in new players directly, but I think it will make the matches flow better and look more exciting, and bring more people in (or back in) that way.

Version. 2013 will only bring in new players when a lot of people see it, maybe at some main events like Final Round or CEO, but EVO will be the big sell on Version 2013 to people who wouldn't see it otherwise.

SFxT Version. 2013 will be on-stream on the Savage Saturdays tournament stream on Team Spooky's channel(which is live right now with AE 2012 and UMvC3).

Thank god for the 1v1 tournament stuff.

Team Poison and Chun-Li going strong since release day!

A lot of the dlc is on offer right now. Thought about getting the characters but Jacks probably the only one I'd use so its not really worth it.

I played a few matches and enjoyed myself. Not something I see myself investing the time in to get good. I'd still rather play AE2012 or TTT2.

PC is never gonna get anything good...

Considering picking it up again just to punish people with my Juri/Hwaorang team.

The biggest things that would get me to play is Ryu and Ken getting nerfed finally and the game having a faster feel to it.

@IrrelevantJohn said:

PC is never gonna get anything good...

Yeah, Capcom isn't the greatest when updating their PC releases. They wait until the patch is completely done on consoles, then they port the patch to the PC version.

Somehow Capcom managed to actually add more infinites. Regardless, my first thought on watching PeacefulJay's stream was WHAT THE FUCK RUSHDOWN IS VIABLE!? I enjoyed vanilla well enough, the game is really good for the fact that you're very safe from getting outrandomed, even with all the flaws in it. I think people will start playing it, and I'm excited to play it.

Team Spooky is going live with the first large gathering of the East Coast to try out SFxT ver. 2013.

http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky/new

I'm really enjoying the changes and having a ton of fun. The game feels way more fast paced now and throws removing red health is a huge fucking game changer.

I almost.... almost want to give this another shot....almost.

@Demoskinos said:

I almost.... almost want to give this another shot....almost.

Do it. It's what your forefathers would've wanted.

@JJOR64 said:

@IrrelevantJohn said:

PC is never gonna get anything good...

Yeah, Capcom isn't the greatest when updating their PC releases. They wait until the patch is completely done on consoles, then they port the patch to the PC version.

So I'm considering maybe, maybe picking up the PC version that's cheap on Steam atm, I just want to be sure that these changes will come to the PC version at some time. This much has been confirmed, yes?

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I never bought the game before and don't plan on getting it now.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I played a few matches and enjoyed myself. Not something I see myself investing the time in to get good. I'd still rather play AE2012 or TTT2.

So what made you change your mind?

@JJOR64 said:

@IrrelevantJohn said:

PC is never gonna get anything good...

Yeah, Capcom isn't the greatest when updating their PC releases. They wait until the patch is completely done on consoles, then they port the patch to the PC version.

So I'm considering maybe, maybe picking up the PC version that's cheap on Steam atm, I just want to be sure that these changes will come to the PC version at some time. This much has been confirmed, yes?

@Humanity said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I never bought the game before and don't plan on getting it now.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I played a few matches and enjoyed myself. Not something I see myself investing the time in to get good. I'd still rather play AE2012 or TTT2.

So what made you change your mind?

I still don't own the game and don't plan on buying it. Not something I want to put any effort into learning. I did enjoy the bit I played.

Anyone know if this 2013 version finally allows two local players to team up and fight against Xbox Live opponents? I know the PS3 version supported this since launch but I was wondering if they ever got around to fixing this on the 360 version.

I'm still shocked this made it into the Evo lineup based on promised future patched in balance adjustments.

Nope.

I've been playing this a lot lately and I still don't know what to feel about the game. It's more fun than the non patched version, but there's a lot of BS in the game and I can't help but feel it rewards stupidity more than skill, which really rubs me the wrong way.