If memory serves, I actually do believe it is. And will likely stay that way for the time being given both SFV and KI are console exclusives and MK is the only one out of the three that isn't and thus gets a sales advantage.

Still not reversing their decision to release on PS3/X360, are they? So 'for once' is more or less accurate.

...Yes i'm still hurt by that sting of betrayal like a Kamidogu dagger to the heart.

i'm glad they're listening to fans regarding this at least. So props to the NRS team for fixing Online mode. This is a welcomed thing and it will perhaps make the game's life span longer instead of becoming dead so quick.

"Aaaw Damn!"

I can't wait. Hope I can squeeze in.

Couple things:

MKX might be the best selling fighting game of 2015 but it really doesn't mean jack when less than 90% of your playerbase is gone. Some will come back but probably not as many as people think. SFV and KI won't sell as much but they're in it for the long game.

SFV looks great. MK's realistic look in fights is boring as shit. I never understood why a game that's all about over the top everything has fights that look so boring.

Who the hell even wants to help NS for their beta for free ? Are you crazy ? What they did for you for free ??? Yeah, that's right nothing! Plus beta testing would be interesting for doing free if the game wasn't released. Now it's straight up job, but you won't get paid. If they give me the opportunity to purchase Noob Saibot and Blaze I would help them. If not I'm sure there are a lot of you who don't have what else to do, but to work for free.

I lol'd.

Is it weird that I can see why you'd make that comparison? Lol. But then again, SF's art style has never done it for me anyway.

I just want to be able to consistently punish and anti-air online. Jump ins and crossovers are outta control.

Also, it will be absolutely fantastic being able to use my full length BnBs. No more sacrificing 2-8%.

Never understood the logic behind that to be honest. Most games active player base diminishes greatly after the first month or so. That is why Call of Duty releases annually and it is much more profitable. Only a very few select games can retain their playerbase. Call of Duty sells ten of millions of copies and nine months later a fraction of that install base plays.

People got other games to play and other things to do. Even if a person liked MKX, only a month later people bought The Witcher 3 and played that. Then you had Batman: Arkham Knight after that.



I doubt SFV looks great is a universal opinion of the game since I can clearly remember a lot of fans questioning that game's graphics when it got revealed. A lot of people did not even think it was that much of a leap from SF4. Also I read a lot of complaints about the art style form SF4 and SFV. If there is anything MKX had little complaints about, it was the graphics.

What I do not understand is that MKX engine is based on Unreal Engine 3 and SFV graphics engine is Unreal Engine 4. SFV should blow MKX out of the water when actually it is the other way round.

CoD is a bad example. Even if the playerbase diminishes, it still has a considerably larger playerbase than a fighting game. And it's not just because of the sales, it has more to do with the barrier of entry. CoD is a very simple game to play, fighting games are not. Even though they can be played at a basic level it still takes more time and dedication.

But let's look at SF4, it's been years but it STILL has a very active playerbase. Is it as high as it was at launch? Absolutely not. But it still retains a shit ton of players. MKX has a flickering playerbase and it hasn't even been a year yet. Bad timing is a part of it as well as the netcode. Only time will tell if MK can bring life back into itself.

Is it a universal opinion? Probably not but I don't care if it is or if it isn't. The fuck do I care if people think it looks good or not? I think the character models, stages, and effects look great. Oh and the smoothness, my god is the game smooth. It flows with such fluidity. Do the characters look bulky? Yes but they still look good so I'm happy.

But I wasn 't referring to graphics when I was talking about the realistic approach. I was talking more about the fights themselves. When you hit someone there's no exaggerated effect or anything. Blood spills and eventually the floor becomes a slip and slide. It's so basic and boring. And a lot of the hits lack any kind of meaningful impact.

SFV fights as a whole are much more entertaining to watch to me because they know how to make fights look interesting. Whereas MK thought a realistic approach to a game you punch a guy so hard in the dick his fucking head comes off was a good idea. The fights should be so much more exciting than they are in MK.

As for the engine, I think they wanted to focus on what was important like the gameplay and netcode. Whereas MK wanted to look pretty but play like shit online.

Played a few rounds online last night. Got worked by a Jaqui, and played a few frustrating games with a scorp/predator. Everything is so unpunishable, haha. I may actually play online if this new code actually forces something other than brain dead jump ins and yolo armor moves.

Does it? Seth Killian who was the Capcom community manager says that fighting game online diminishes pretty damn quickly.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/20/seth-killian-discusses-rising-thunders-fighter-heresy-online-focus-and-moba-inspiration/2/



Yeah, that is like your opinion and that is great but I do not think the majority agree with it. So there is that for what it is worth.



If they wanted to focus on gameplay they would have stuck to their custom engine since that is the code they are used to and know the best. They are using Unreal Engine 4 for graphics and the cross platform play feature.

Where did you get your 90% fact? Unless you work for NRS, Microsoft or Sony your making it up. So what's the number then? You said less than 90% is 89%, 13% 45%

Yeah it's a guess. I never said it was undisputed fact. It's probably exaggerated but the point is the playerbase is considerably smaller than it was months ago.

I mean, that's the case with any game though. Even with a steady stream of content and being a major AAA title, it's always going to go down significantly because new games come out that take its attention away.

What matters is what the developers do when the player base starts to go and how those who stick around are rewarded. Like GTA: Online for example. Terrible rollout, fun-ass game though. A lot of people dropped off due to the problems but look at the massive amount of content Rockstar is still dropping to this day even for the people like me who stuck around.

With NRS putting out KP2 (despite the fact it's largely shit) and now an improved netcode, that does nothing but benefit me and those who've stuck around and still want to support the game in some fashion. That's an incredibly good thing. The more good stuff that comes out, the more people will eventually potentially come back and see what's going on. It's never going to be as high as it was in the first few months but this, the way they are deciding to handle things now, are major steps being taken in the proper direction and I cannot praise them enough for this netcode business. I literally never thought I'd see the day.

I don`t think it`s much of MKX support, they had to finally develop a civilized netcode, they would not get away with more fighting games with crappy online.

That's odd. I just watched a video of SF5 gameplay and it's hard for me to imagine it less over the top and interesting. Everything looks so choppy and jerky, and I guess you can call that "exaggerated" "impact" but it doesn't work for me. Meanwhile, there is no way I can watch Mileena roll across the screen and combo into a divekick from the sky and repeatedly stab someone in the neck without finding it exciting to watch. More exciting than watching Ryu and Bison hop around and poke each other gently, anyway.

Sure, MK characters don't get splattered with kaleidoscopic cartoon explosions every time they get hit, but that's never been what MK was about. The highlight of MK is the special move carnivals that go into the combos, and the last two games have doubled and tripled down on that.

Different strokes, I guess.

I disagree.

Now sure, there wasn't a large abundance of colors but when you got hit with an uppercut back in the day you saw a blood explosion. They don't need to make it look like a circus of color but they should emphasize the blood a bit more. As of right now, it just kinda comes out and stays on the ground, turning the floor into a slip and slide. Which looks fucking stupid. I'd say the MK2-MK4 games had more interesting looking fights than the ones we have today. Those games embraced the over the top nature of themselves.

But the point I'm trying to make is I find it hypocritical for a fighting game to take a realistic approach to the fights, but still be over the top violent in everything else. The over the top attitude should carry over to the fights themselves.

And it 's not just SF that does a better job to me, KI and Tekken have more exciting fights to watch as well.

I find it interesting that you bring up the blood, and I sort of agree a bit. I actually think it's a problem with the blood color, since in the early games it was a very bright shade of red, and around MK:DA or so they started making it a lot darker, and harder to see. If you play against the Predator, you can see his blood fly everywhere when you're hitting him, but against a normal character, it's a lot harder to see. Might be wrong on this, but yeah, I would like more blood in general as well, and the battle damage needs to be increased. Even though the battle damage in MK9 was insane, when you're done fighting in MKX there's barely any blood on you. It's especially noticeable fighting against Predator, after you're done with the match, there is barely ANY blood on you even though there's green blood all over the damn stage. I like the little cuts they added when fighting against Mileena, or burn damage fighting against Goro, Raiden, or Shinnok, but there should be more imo.

Also, seriously, MK needs some exciting music already. I'm fine with the MK:D style they're doing for this game, but a lot of people aren't, and tbh it doesn't make the fight all that hype. Compared to KI, where the music pumps you up and the stage changes, it really adds to the atmosphere of the match.

Y'know what? This tells me you don't "get" Mortal Kombat. This isn't me being salty, here's my reasoning:

You say that older MK's "embraced their over the top nature". But EVERYBODY knows Mortal Kombat was notable for its realistic elements from day one. Don't you remember how the realism was a selling point? How old flyers and cartridge boxes would say shit like "It's so real, it hurts!"? The digitized graphics made fighters look likelike, and the sound effects/hit detection made every punch you threw feel like death. That was the point.

It's crazy how you use the "blood explosions" as an example of older MK games being more fanciful. Here's the thing: shocked parents and the government took that shit VERY fucking seriously in the 90s. The earliest MK games were created AND received as graphic, brutal depictions of bloodshed, despite some campy elements and comic relief. You only think the gore is silly now because technology ages.

If anything, MK4 was the odd man out since the game became less realistic due to its
early, awkward attempts at 3D fighting. Otherwise, MK, at its core, has almost always tried to mesh realism and fantasy. MKX is no different. If that's "hypocritical" (which is the wrong word for this occasion...I think you mean "jarring"), then so are we for playing it all these years.

So...yeah, I find your criticisms specious. They go against what MK has always been about.

I'd like to know why THIS comment got a Dragon Point.

Lmfao I didn't realize it got one.

SPEAK UP. WHO'S THE SUCKA WHO GAVE THIS POST A POINT.

Did you not read my post? I know you used some quotes but did you actually read it? If you did you'd know I'm talking about the realistic approach to the FIGHTS themselves, not the overall graphics or art style.

I used the blood explosion example to point out that the fights in those games looked more exciting than the fights in MKX. It made the hits look more powerful and brutal. Today the blood just hits the ground and turns into a fucking snail trail.

And please don't tell me what you thought I meant. I know what I meant. I find it hypocritical because the game goes out of its way to be gory and violent, but make the gameplay in fights as realistic as possible. Why is it that they'll go out of their fucking way to make characters sweat after a battle, but take no battle damage? Sure you have X-Rays but they're not worth using so you never see them being used.

Also, when I say the fights looked more interesting in older games, I'm also talking about the soundtrack and the announcer being more of a presence. Not just what's happening on the screen, but the sound too.

Look at KI, that game has blood but it does a much better job making the fights look more exciting and hype. You know why? Because KI makes the fight look over the top crazy and it works. Why can't MK have fights that look exciting to watch? That's what I wanna know.

When I say "The earliest MK games were created as graphic, brutal, depictions of violence", I mean the total package. Gameplay, sound, graphics, everything. But, according to you, I was just talking about art direction.

Even after I noted the games' on-hit sound effects and hit detection--y'know, stuff unique to the in-game fighting--as crucial parts of its appeal, I was supposedly solely focused on graphics and art direction. And using this perspective, you suggest *I'm* not reading thoroughly. Wow.

You, sir, will make a brilliant politician someday...but I digress.

Mortal Kombat's crushingly realistic gameplay was one of its selling points back then. If the in-game combat wasn't as down-to-earth as the rest of the presentation, the series would NOT be as notorious as it is today. Bet on it. Blood effects evolve. While you may have liked the effect back then, it was meant to be as realistic as possible. The streams of leftover blood are what they deem more immersive now. It is what it is.

Killer Instinct is none of my concern. I'm comparing newer MK games to their predecessors, since you seem to honestly think MK wasn't founded on the idea of meshing the lifelike with the fanciful.

That rant about X-Rays made me laugh. You're all over the damn place with this argument, man. X-Ray's aren't very useful in-game, though, I'll give you that.

With that said, MK has almost always saved its more ridiculous ultra-violence for specific parts of the in-game combat. Like...to think that's anything new would be to forget nearly every MK game ever.

That's partly why I was saying "hypocritical" is such a stupid word to use here. You're basically saying "MK is doing the exact same thing it's done since 1991 in regards to its ultra-violent gameplay aspects! What hypocrites!" Do you see why that doesn't make sense?

This is the single best piece of MK news I've heard since WB bought the franchise. And the fact that they are implementing it mid-way through a game's lifespan is insane and shows a level of dedication that I really didn't expect from NRS. This is no small feat. They are basically replacing the first floor of a 10 story house while people are living in it. My respect for NRS has gone up a ton, and hopefully they (and us since there's a beta) can get it implemented well in time for future games.

Hope isn't gone yet.