XBox 360 and VF5 impressions

About Me

Member Since

02/09/2003 05:37 PM (UTC)

Hey all,

Just got an XBox 360 yesterday along with Virtua Fighter 5. Well, here are my first impressions. First about the XBox 360. I have to say it's a great console but I don't like the recent trend of game consoles becoming more and more like interactive media centers as opposed to just gaming.

For example, on the XBox 360 you can save music, pictures, and videos on the hard drive. You can chat and IM with your friends. I personally don't care for any of those features. For me a game console is well, just that..a game console. If I want to watch DVD movies I'll buy a DVD player, if I want to save music and pictures or chat with friends I'll use my PC or my phone. You get my drift.

Don't get me wrong though, I love the 360. It's slick and sexy and it has great interfaces, I just wish they would stick to games cause that's what it's all about.

Now, as far as VF5, I have to say it's an awesome fighting game. Definitely one of the best I've ever played. As in previous VF incarnations, there is no story and the even less character development than before. Because of that reason, it's kind of hard to get into the game. I mean, you start the game and there are some characters there and they can fight. OK, but why the heck are they fighting?! What is my reason to play with one character over another?!

Well, there is a story and character bios but the only way to find out what they are is to read the booklet!?!?

Another little gripe is that you can only play one match at a time on the online mode. That is kind of annoying because after each match you have to go search for a match again or create one and wait for someone to join you. And you have to pick your character before you even go to the online mode. So if you want to change a character it's a huge hustle.

So, with the bad things about the game out of the way, let me assure you that there are plenty of good ones and they heavily outweigh the bad ones when it counts.

First of all, the game looks gorgeous. Easily the best looking game I have ever seen, ever. And that's on a 10 year old TV with RF input! The character animations are flawless and so are the backgrounds. The level of detail is astonishing. For example, in many of the stages you see people in the background cheering on you or just going about their business.

The fighting engine in VF5 is probably the best of any fighting game. Each character has a huge arsenal of moves at their disposal and they all look terrific and very true to real life martial arts. The VF team has elevated the fighting mechanics in the game to perfection and the depth of it all is staggering. I was learning Kage Maru yesterday and just for the heck of it I counted all his moves. He has 202 moves altogether, 14 separate throws, several different stances and moves specific to each stance, separate moves if your back is to the opponent, or if you are against a wall, and so on.

No other fighting game I have ever played has offered that much to learn to the player. Just as a comparison, my favorite character in Tekken 5, Marshall Law, has 100 moves all in all. In Soul Calibur III, Kilik has about 130-140. And in MKD, Raiden has about 50-60.

In short, if you like fighting games, don't much for a great story line and magical, fantasy moves, VF5 is the game for you.

If any of you are playing this game hit me up for some matches.

•12/09/2007 10:07 PM (UTC) •

So you enjoy the 360 then, but aren't all "that impressed" with it more or less?

I hear ya dude, I want one but only for a few reasons such as the old arcade downloads, online play and for fighting games coming out and perhaps a few other games.

The D-pad sucks for fighting games as perhaps you see what I'm talking about now that you have one lol. What do you think of it? Isn't the xbox one so much better?

The fancy stuff it offers like pics, music, movies etc, etc I couldn't care less about once my friend showed me and like you said it's really just more "gimmicks" to try to get people to buy the console like Sony tried to do with the "Blu Ray garbage"...

So I totally see what you're saying.

Well, good luck and enjoy the game online. It plays pretty good, still a little laggy but that goes with the job when it comes to online gaming.

I'm not a VF5 guy personally and obviously more MK, SF and DOA but the game does have nice graphics I'll admit.

Ever play DOA4 on the 360 man?

About Me

a>OWG-OVERLORD :Pig Of The Hut: www.pighut.com: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pighut

•12/10/2007 01:39 AM (UTC) •

thanks for your insight but you lost me 100% when you said you had to pick a character before logging online.....why would anyone do that? So fucking stupid.

Does anyone making fighting games have a brain?

Also, you can only play one at a time. Pretty stupid as well.

I like games where I can sit and play without that hassle, seems more like a choir or task I have to complete and just aggravates me.

About Me

"The only way to get all you want is to risk all that you've got!" - Trax
Ð¢ÑÐ°Ñ... Ð ̧Ñ Ð° ÑÑÑÐμ Ð¡Ð°Ð1⁄4ÑÑÐ°Ð ̧

•12/10/2007 02:13 AM (UTC) •

Pighut Wrote:
thanks for your insight but you lost me 100% when you said you had to pick a character before logging online.....why would anyone do that? So fucking stupid.

Yes, so fucking stupid!

Pighut Wrote:
Does anyone making fighting games have a brain?

errrr... Obviously not!

I was really astounded to see that I was stuck with one character for all my online matches. I thought to my self, "which dumb ass would approve this shit for online play?"

About Me

a>OWG-OVERLORD :Pig Of The Hut: www.pighut.com: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pighut

•12/10/2007 05:37 PM (UTC) •

yea.....just makes me think o;iwudoi;sudoisudfoiwudrowieurwoi arghhh in my head to why some idiot would say in a meeting "yes, that's a damn good idea."

Iori9

@Iori9

•12/11/2007 02:12 AM (UTC) •

Akira and Kagemaru are my mains, Akira for his fast thrusts and Kagemaru for his combo's and decent lows.

•12/11/2007 02:25 AM (UTC) •

The game plays pretty well online surprisingly for a fighting game my friend has it and that's what he told me.

About Me

"The only way to get all you want is to risk all that you've got!" - Trax
Ð¢ÑÐ°Ñ... Ð ̧Ñ Ð° ÑÑÑÐμ Ð¡Ð°Ð1⁄4ÑÑÐ°Ð ̧

•12/11/2007 05:34 AM (UTC) •

It plays well online but you only get to play as one character. There is no select screen. And for that reason alone, I hated the game. Maybe I'm lame but I think my reason is valid. No flexibility at all!

About Me

a>OWG-OVERLORD :Pig Of The Hut: www.pighut.com: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pighut

•12/11/2007 06:11 AM (UTC) •

you're dead on

About Me

•12/11/2007 02:39 PM (UTC) •

Iori9 Wrote:
Akira and Kagemaru are my mains, Akira for his fast thrusts and Kagemaru for his combo's and decent lows.

Hey, what's your gamertag man? We need to get some matches in. My main character, and only one so far, is Kage Maru because he is a ninja! And I love ninjas.

The online plays pretty well. I've been playing for 3 days now, granted that's not enough time to make an accurate assessment, but from what I've seen there aren't any serious lag issues. There definitely is the occasional lag but it doesn't affect the gameplay.

Eventually you get used to the one match thing, but being limited to just one character per online session is a major flaw in the online mode. Actually you can change a character, but you have to do it before you search for a match or create your own, which is a hustle because you have to go through 3 levels of menus just for that.

One good thing though about the one character limitation is that it prevents counter picking, which was quite of an issue in MKD and MKA.

And again, this is only from 3 days of playing, but so far I have not noticed any one character dominating the others. They are all pretty even and thus the gameplay is quite balanced. Due to that, the insignificant lag, and the elimination of the character counter-picking problem, winning in VF5 is determined a lot more by your skill than any other factor.

And finally, there is a LOT of competition online. So far I've never had to wait more than about 1 minute for a match.

OmertaC

@OmertaC

About Me

•12/11/2007 03:46 PM (UTC) •

Hey Raiden, is there a strategy site or message board that you could point me to? Something similar to this, MKAC, or DOACentral.com? I'd like to check all that out and see if this is worth investing my time. Appreicate it, amigo.

About Me

a>OWG-OVERLORD :Pig Of The Hut: www.pighut.com: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pighut

•12/11/2007 07:12 PM (UTC) •

OmertaC Wrote:
Hey Raiden, is there a strategy site or message board that you could point me to? Something similar to this, MKAC, or DOACentral.com? I'd like to check all that out and see if this is worth investing my time. Appreicate it, amigo.

you should start one at mkac, ask the admin. I wouldn't mind at east trying it once with you omerta.

About Me

•12/11/2007 08:42 PM (UTC) •

Yes,

check out this site:

http://virtuafighter.com/

it's well designed and they have a decent amount of message boards plus some very good strategy guides.

•12/11/2007 09:06 PM (UTC) •

GTrax Wrote:
It plays well online but you only get to play as one character. There is no select screen. And for that reason alone, I hated the game. Maybe I'm lame but I think my reason is valid. No flexibility at all!

Really? that sucks... lol I don't blame ya. I don't hate VF or anything, just not my cup of tea personally but that is a valid point. Why put limits like that online?

MrSchpfmut

@MrSchpfmut

•12/11/2007 09:46 PM (UTC) •

Eileen FTW!
I don't own it yet, but i plan on getting it soonish

While I agree the lack of a select screen is dumb shit, it's a pretty small setback. You do have a friend's list and private chat at your disposal. Hey at least it's online! Maybe they'll update it sometime never.

•12/12/2007 05:01 AM (UTC) •

Yeah...perhaps VF6 they'll have more characters available online

About Me

a>OWG-OVERLORD :Pig Of The Hut: www.pighut.com: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pighut

•12/12/2007 06:02 AM (UTC) •

mkflegend Wrote:
Yeah...perhaps VF6 they'll have more characters available online

perhaps the people who make vf6 won't be idiots and will fix those dumb online choices they made.

About Me

"The only way to get all you want is to risk all that you've got!" - Trax
Ð¢ÑÐ°Ñ... Ð ̧Ñ Ð° ÑÑÑÐμ Ð¡Ð°Ð1⁄4ÑÑÐ°Ð ̧

•12/12/2007 04:11 PM (UTC) •

I know MKA is broken and all, but I like everything about it. I love the fact that it's not based on some real martial arts shit. If I really want real martial arts, I'd watch a good movie.

I like the fact that MK is based on fantasy and that's why I find beat 'em ups that based on real martial arts boring. I like fantasy games like Soul Calibur and appreciate Street Fighter. However, I do understand and fully appreciate why some of you like VF5 and games like Tekken. So I guess it's all a matter of preference.

Having said all that, I'd like to reiterate that fact that not being able to select more than one character online is EXTREMELY ghey!

Trax

•12/12/2007 07:09 PM (UTC) •

GTrax Wrote:
I know MKA is broken and all, but I like everything about it. I love the fact that it's not based on some real martial arts shit. If I really want real martial arts, I'd watch a good movie.

I like the fact that MK is based on fantasy and that's why I find beat 'em ups that based on real martial arts boring. I like fantasy games like Soul Calibur and appreciate Street Fighter. However, I do understand and fully appreciate why some of you like VF5 and games like Tekken. So I guess it's all a matter of preference.

Having said all that, I'd like reiterate that fact that not being able to select more than one character online is EXTREMELY ghey!

Trax

Totally agree dude, that's why I love MK. It mixes a perfect balance between reality and fantasy.

And a lot of the moves/styles in MK btw are authentic though, I'm sure you know which styles like the Choy Lee Fut, Karate, Judo, Kick Boxing, Hapkido etc, etc

Sheevas is obviously fake lol among Drahmins.

Yeah, SF, KI and SC are all fantasy and have no martial arts involved really and are all power moves.

VF, MK(3D ones), DOA4 and Tekken do practice authentic martial arts with some of their characters though.

About Me

•12/12/2007 08:01 PM (UTC) •

mkflegend Wrote:

Yes, I agree also. It is a matter of preference. Some people prefer all fantasy type moves, some prefer ultra realistic. I myself, if I could put it in numbers, would say I prefer a healthy mix of both, I would say about 90% authentic martial arts and 10% fantasy moves.

MK originally started as a mixture of both as well. MK1 had a good assortment of authentic martial art and fantasy moves (some of the actors they used for the digitized characters actually had martial arts training). Then as the game evolved it became more and more fantasy and less authentic martial arts, until MK4. Then with MKDA they took a step back towards the authentic moves, what with the 3 stances and all.

Then with MKD and MKA again the tendency was to go with more fantasy, not so much MKD but very much so in MKA.

I personally prefer the MK1 and MKDA style of MK games.

As far as other fighting games go, on the ultra realistic martial arts side of the spectrum you have Virtua Fighter. I mean, they are all about realism. And on the other extreme you have games like Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. SNK that are loaded with special moves. I mean, they have some ridiculous combos that can go in the hundreds of hits with all kinds of weapons and magic.

You are wrong about Soul Calibur however. While there are some fantasy moves in it, it's mostly about authentic weapon based martial arts. Same goes for Tekken, but there it's only hand-to-hand combat, except for Yoshimitsu. Nor surprising, considering they were both made by Namco.

I haven't played DOA yet, so I don't know anything about it. If anybody here has played it, can you give us some input.

Quest2be1

@Quest2be1

About Me

Veteran@MortalKombatOnline.com
Moderator@MortalKombatUnited.com

•12/13/2007 12:15 AM (UTC) •

Your input is pretty tight raiden. 1st hand knowledge is always nice. Btw, I have heard a lot of good and bad things about DOA4 For instance I have it since it came out on the 360. I never play it. I don't like how I feel like I am stuck in quicksand while playing that game. I would love to see MKDA on Arcade for 360.

About Me

"The only way to get all you want is to risk all that you've got!" - Trax
Ð¢ÑÐ°Ñ... Ð ̧Ñ Ð° ÑÑÑÐμ Ð¡Ð°Ð1⁄4ÑÑÐ°Ð ̧

•12/13/2007 01:22 AM (UTC) •

mkflegend Wrote:
Totally agree dude, that's why I love MK. It mixes a perfect balance between reality and fantasy.

Yeah, I love that balance. You mix of machines (Sektor, Cyrax), humans (Jarek, Ashrah) and Monsters (Sheeva, Motaro). That's what makes the game fun.

Quest2be1 Wrote:
Your input is pretty tight raiden. 1st hand knowledge is always nice. Btw, I have heard a lot of good and bad things about DOA4 For instance I have it since it came out on the 360. I never play it. I don't like how I feel like I am stuck in quicksand while playing that game. I would love to see MKDA on Arcade for 360.

Yeah, Raiden's is like a veteran when it comes to analyzing games. I suck at it. I just see the surface.

I had DOA4 too. I actually played it for a while. However, I could never take it seriously enough to play at high level. I did like the game though but just never loved it.
------------

Sup Quest?! I'm now in Toronto so if you want to play just PM me and I can try and make it happen.

-------------

Trax

•12/13/2007 01:50 AM (UTC) •

Raidenwins Wrote:

mkflegend Wrote:

Honestly, SC isn't that authentic if you compare it to VF, Tekken, MK(3D ones) they do have real weapons but some of them are also fantasy and their stances aren't really authentic, more fantasy.

All the 3D Mk's use authentic styles, there's of course a few ones made up though for obvious reasons.

Tekken is very realistic, but got their ideas from VF mainly...since VF was the first 3D fighter.

SC does a lot of fantasy weapons like the huge eye sword, magic chains etc. There's some real weapons, but also a lot of fake ones. For some reason it doesn't appeal to me that much.

One thing I'll say about MK, most of their weapon styles are all real except for a few characters due to storyline which fits them appropriate, Shinnok, Drahmin, Baraka etc.

Trax, yeah man you bet. Not only that but a fighting game with an actual good storyline.

Darkness and such. DOA4 btw is also authentic, lots of grapples, parry moves.

Iori9

@Iori9

•12/13/2007 03:23 AM (UTC) •

I did not enjoy SC2-3 that much, those games are basically MKD's Wake-up-50-50 BS, but I supose they could still be fun...if you really enjoy that stuff..