thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live player

excuse me for duplicating some of a previous
post i made talking about the vf5 update for
the xbox 360...but i just wanted to add some
more comments.

background
----------
i am new to the xbox360 (as of 2 weeks), new
to vf5 (same), and xbox live (as of last week)

i have played vf1/vf2..skipped 3/4/evo etc..
i am an average player, best chars : sarah / pai

impressions:
------------
vf5 is amazing (despite some qualms about the
major gameplay changes, (see my post vf = fv
under console)...looks great, and is easy to
play, hard to master.. i was looking forward
to playing, but wondered about online play,
as i have never played anything online, and only
played vf2 in the arcades against other players
(which wasn't very many).

i signed up for an xbox live account, found it
easy, and worked as described..

i don't have an internet account, so i went to a
friends place, and used their high speed connection..

playing time day 1: 6 hours, day 2: 8 hours
day 3: 8 hours (straight)..played during
evenings (US East coast), and a few times in
the morning..

notes:
------
started off in the non-ranked mode for day 1,
i connected about 80% of the time, and had a
lot of fun, almost 0 lag, even with gray box..

i lost most of the matches, but that was due
to 1 - most players were experienced-expert
2 - played with standard controller (no joystick yet)
3 - didn't know how to defend against a lot of the
new characters..

regardless, it was still a blast, and i didn't notice
any cheaters, low punchers, or repetitive combo players.*
(note on this later)..

i don't have a mic, or webcam..so i didn't hear or notice
anything bad...most players were very helpful, left comments,
or wanted to play again, even if they crushed me..

i made the mistake of replying to some japanese players,
because i didn't realize they couldn't speak english..

i think i would have kept playing , but at that point
it was 5am, and i would have passed out..

so verdict : all is good

2) day 2, ranked matches...ok , i thought i practiced
enough with the unranked...

the ranked matches were a mixed bag, although once
again it was highly populated by awesome players..
i ended up with a very sucky 40w-120losses, eventually
2nd dan....once again, i found most players helpful,
left comments, etc... not much response here,
and also it seemed harder to rematch against players
without that options..

i think due to competitive nature of this, i did
see more players doing safe combos, multiple strings,
and repetitive moves (low punches) etc, some i was
able to counter, but not all.... i did not have
any pullers, but disconnected from a few matches,
due to bad connection....there was lag in a few matches,
and i was able to connect about 70% of the time fairly
quickly....

i think i was more frustrated at my lousy play, and
seeing good players that were losing resort to
questionable tactics (ring outs, low punchs etc) if
they were about to lose..personally i could care
less about my record, because i think i picked up
about 1 years worth of strategy in the last couple
of days, (that playing in the quest mode would never
have had)...

day 3) mix of ranked, and non-ranked, honestly i think
i like playing the unranked matches because people will
go all out, and not worry about playing conservatively
or not....it was great to see all the awesome combos,
floats, etc from akira, sarah , pai etc...i was underwhelmed
by all the brads/gohs/lei feis etc that seemed to do an
endless strings of hits/floats/stomps, and grapples
that drained all your health after a few hits, and even
when you blocked/countered, got interrupted etc...
ok, so maybe i'm a sucky player, but still...


wishes, final notes:
--------------------
great intro to online player (even for better play)
smooth connections, but wish there were more options,
lounges, and better replay viewing options..
(do you think they will ever have a way to watch
matches between other players?)..

i wish more players experimented more with
their moves, did counters, use all the throws,
etc...and varied their gameplay, i know i do,
and yes, i resort to some basic tactics, but
never do the same moves over and over, and have
never used low punches to win..i even try to
do counters (badly), and different throws for fun..

finally, maybe i'm a casual player, but i think
some players take the win/loss too hard (which is
their perogative i guess)...but we are here to
have fun, eventually, aren't we....i think i got
discouraged after losing about 20 times in row,
so that's why i went to unranked, not because i
was losing, but because i wasn't being enough of
a challenge to most of the players....granted when
i started winning, or maybe losing 2/3 i stayed around..

i hope others will give online play a chance,
an not constantly criticize it, but try to
improve the overall scene...

later
-1

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

cliff notes?

I'm second dan too. However, I'm waiting it out in player matches before really giving ranked a good run. My record stands around 35-7, and I usually work anyone around the 5th dan level.

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

I stopped reading after he called low punching and ring outs questionable tactics.

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

yeah, it was a long post..
anyways, what i meant, is that i don't have a problem with
that..(since it's part of the game)..

what i was commenting on were, there would good players,
that resorted to that in the ranked battles , (not in
unranked battles), since they were worried about their records,
instead of concentrating on playing..

yeah, i could have had a better record if i played that
way too...

later
-1

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

short version:
vf online is good

1) ranked matches sometimes cause people to worry more
about winning causing them to resort more to boring game play
2) unranked matches are a lot more fun

later
-1

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

both are fine to me, I just prefer one over another due to the way in which people play

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

You lost me after that first paragraph.

 

Re: thoughts/impressions from a new xbox live play

You get strange topic makers on every forum I guess.