PS2 VF4 Update on ps2.ign for insiders

It seems http://ps2.ign.com/ has written their hands-on impressions of vf4 ps2. Of course, it's only for insiders. New screens too says they.

 

Well I read it but it was such a piece of shit article (written be the equally piece of shit Doug Perry) that I didn't post it. But here it is anyway:

Hands-On Impressions
After all this time, it's still quite amazing to see what AM2 can do with the once spectacular Virtua Fighter series. I mean it's one thing to create one of the world's best fighting systems, replete with memorable graphics and a roster of now classic characters -- always backed up with incredible technology -- but it's another thing to create a fighting game that re-emerges time and time again with freshness and likeability that's this irresistible. Street Fighter and Tekken fans, of course, will disagree, but Virtua Fighter is a game of subtleties and style, and is far more appreciated in Japan than in the US.
But regardless of what fighting faction you belong to, Virtua Fighter 4 is quite a game to see. While I have not spent nearly enough time playing Virtua Fighter 4 on PlayStation 2 to know its every intimate detail, I am not only impressed with its look and feel, but because of this game alone, I'm excited about fighting games in general again. And let me tell you, that's a feat in itself. I thought I was going to have to wait until Soul Calibur 2 to feel this way.

In development by AM2, led by Yu Suzuki, who's taking a more directorial overview position on the project, while a dedicated team gets to grips with the hands-on elements of Virtua Fighter 4, Sega's fighting game is both visually impressive and, after having played every one of the games in the eight-year old series (Virtua Fighter made its debut in 1993), it feels familiar and surprisingly new.

Those familiar with the series will instantly notice that on the surface, the game feels very close to past Virtua Fighters. The default timer is set at 30 seconds, it still has ring-outs, the jumping and aerial combat is still a wee bit floaty (although it's much better than before), and you can pick up your old favorites and instantly pull off classic moves with three-to-four combo simplicity.

But beneath the familiar veneer, however, is a slightly more complex combo system, and a game with more offensive weapons, defensive moves, and a whole new layer of individualistic flair and veracity. It's not like the game was ever flawed in the first place, but Virtua Fighter 4 returns to its earlier roots. Not even the most enthusiastic fans of the series appear sorry to see Virtua Fighter 3tb replaced with Virtua Fighter 4, a game that is more reminiscent of Virtua Fighter 2 in several ways.

For instance, the game is deeper in defense than before. Characters demonstrate a greater capacity for counters and defensive moves, with new moves and animations to complement them. And with fewer sloped areas, and a return to more basic, square levels, the ability to create wall combos appears much more prominent in some arenas. However you decide to peel this onion, the game promises depth and longevity, which I have simply not begun to uncover at this point. With regard to the single player game, it appears loaded with rewards, too. Virtua Fighter 4 offers them in spades, packed with a handful of extra costumes per character, tons of accessories, including modifiable ones (sunglasses, hairstyles, etc.), and items that enable characters to get super powerful moves that can be unlocked upon achieving certain goals. Also, several of them can instantly change their stances in mid-game for different fighting styles.

But honestly, the first thing that's most noticeable about Virtua Fighter 4 is its slick graphic appeal. The game bears an extraordinarily resemblance to its arcade brethren, which runs on Sega's Naomi 2 coin-op board in the arcades. What the PS2 version does so well, despite critics' complaints about textures, is to deliver excellent looking textures. Everything from the backgrounds to the characters themselves are amazingly detailed, from body parts, such as naturally flowing hair, human-looking character faces, and realistic musculature, to highly refined backgrounds and environments, such as wrinkled clothes, good-looking moving water, powdery falling and fallen snow, great particle effects (sand, electricity, fire), and excellent realtime lighting techniques.

Some of the new levels are quite entrancing looking, especially the snow-draped castle rooftop. It shows off a foot or so of snow underfoot which, as characters starting moving around in it, instantly creates paths that look uncannily realistic. In what appears to be a virtual tech demo, players also find themselves battling in an arena about one foot in water. And levels such as Jeffry's Island, which has always looked good, have returned as well.

Perhaps even more exciting about the visuals are the character animations. These characters flow with the ease of nearly real creatures. The smooth-moving fighters are incredible quick, moving at a nearly constant 60 frames per second, and each and every move in their fighting vocabularies appears perfectly interpolated from one to the next to create fluid movements, natural-looking combinations, and some of the most gorgeous throwdowns we've seen in a while. If you're not impressed with the graphics (and you'd have to be pretty lame to dispute these visuals), you will be moved by the animations.

The characters don't seem as large in scale, in fact, they appear a wee bit smaller than in VF3TB. And while we're on the same subject of characters, 11 members from the former VF rosters grace this game, with the addition of two new ones: Lei Fei, a quick, hard-hitting Shaolin Monk, and Vanessa Lewis, a burly straight-forward fighter. The only non-returning character is the giant sumo wrestler Taka-Arashi.

Granted, the PS2 two version isn't done, Sega says it's 80% complete, and so graphically, there is still some work to do. Whether these visual obstacles are fixed in the final version or not, we're not sure, but there are some instantly noticeable quirks. The most noticeable visual problems come in the form of flickering, shimmering backgrounds, and some relatively noticeable jaggies. The arcade game itself demonstrated some of these same dilemmas, but not to the extent that this version does. But before we all jump on the bandwagon and start ripping on the PS2 (some folks just can't help themselves), the gorgeous graphics, wide palette of textures, and exquisite effects, in addition to the sleek character designs (for instance, Sara looks far foxier in this version than in VFtb), certainly overcome any flaws the game presents.

Even with a few noticeable graphic disparities, the game offers off a surprisingly slick and polished feel at this completion stage (80% complete). I'm still counting the abundance of subtle touches and extras. I mean, things as little as the interface are quick, intuitive and innovative, and like so many things that are hard to explain about games, Virtua Fighter just feels right.

As usual, we'll have lots of extra updates and more impressions of Virtua Fighter in the upcoming weeks. But mark my words, Virtua Fighter 4 should deliver a knockout punch when it hits stands this March, and it shouldn't be missed.

-- Douglass C. Perry

 

Amazing how people can write so much and say so little:

"VF4... [insert background of developer here]... graphically excellent, some details lost in the conversion... more complex combo system... go buy the game (so we can justify our advertising fees)... blah blah blah (more mental masturbation)".

Heh.

 

Dave and Chris,

all this new info is coming from the lastest "fight club" event, which was on thursday night. Noah had wanted me to come, but I couldn't make it (since I had just been there a week before playing with you two...)

He's gonna let me know about the next one (should be 1 more before the US version's release) more in advance, so maybe we can all go and show those fools what's up!

Bryan

 

Thanks Yamcha.

Funny, this was supposed to be PS2 impressions yet most of these impressions could have been taken from the arcade version. What did he write, 1 small paragraph about ps2 VF4?

"The smooth-moving fighters are incredible quick, moving at a nearly constant 60 frames per second"

Nearly constant 60 huh?

 

Yeah, one of Jason Cha's friends works at SoA, so he was trying to get Jason and I passes to last Thursday's event in SF as well... but, no dice. There is an off chance that I might be able to play PS2 VF4 this weekend (cannot disclose how, unfortunately), and if I do, I'll post my comments on VFDC (to the extent that I don't get anyone in trouble... we'll see).

If Noah can get us all in to next month's event... I'll personally bring the import VF4 Hori sticks to the fight club so we can show these foos what's up. =)

 

God, I'm not that great myself, but I could only imagine how those fools were playing at the event. If just someone from VFDC could get into the next one, that'd be something to see. "Wow, you're good!!"

BTW, the new screens they have are the same as ones we've all seen in the other thread (except with an IGN logo on them).

 

I think Jason Cha actually went to one of the earlier fight club sessions, and after he had a long winning streak, they bumped him off so other game editors could play. Haha.

 

Yeah, I remember when I played Vf3 at it's us debut at the amusement show in Dallas, game mag writers were getting pissed at me (Nick Rox) for beating them, and I sucked as well... After a while most of them just wanted to fight the CPU

Hey Chris, are you getting the VF4 sticks from a friend who's sending them to you, or are you doing it through a store?

According to Noah, SOA's PR actually WANTS some of us to come, I just didn't have but about 2 days notice this time, so I couldn't go. Next time for sure...

Bryan

 

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Yeah, I remember when I played Vf3 at it's us debut at the amusement show in Dallas, game mag writers were getting pissed at me (Nick Rox) for beating them, and I sucked as well...

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Dude, you beat the shit out of that idiot? For that you have my eternal respect. ^_^

 

Hey Chris, are you getting the VF4 sticks from a friend who's sending them to you, or are you doing it through a store?

Hehe, right on both counts. I'm getting the VF4 sticks from a friend who works at a game store. (Actually, that would be Don, you met up with him when you were at SVGL).


According to Noah, SOA's PR actually WANTS some of us to come, I just didn't have but about 2 days notice this time, so I couldn't go. Next time for sure...

w00t! We definitely need to go there in full force next time round. Just give us all the heads up, and I'll round up the crew =)

 

Heh, Nick Rox, wonder whatever happened to that guy. Last I heard, he was in LA trying to become an actor.

 

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Heh, Nick Rox, wonder whatever happened to that guy. Last I heard, he was in LA trying to become an actor.

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That wouldn't surprise me, given his lack of any sort of writing talent. Although, I've seen him credited at the GIA a couple times, and a few times in some of the guides put out by Versus Books.
Although, I think it is the responsibility of the gaming public to do everything it possibly can to make sure he gets his crap published as little as possible. The industry doesn't need any more stupidity than it already has.

 

It's not like Nick Rox was a good player, or we played a lot...

He used Lau, and after I won, he scowled at me and said "Dude! You're badaaasss!!!" all sarcastically... then walked away .

Chris, do you think Don culd help me get some sticks as well? If everyone up there is asking for them and it's a pain in the ass, I understand...

If you think it's possible, I could just contact him myself.

Bryan

 

Bryan,

Next fight club is March 11.
I don't think everyone and their mother can come, but the VF4 PR team was interested on pushing a profile of some serious hadcore players.

Call me and let's talk about it.

Best,

Noah

 

Woo! Bryan, you gotta get us in! =P I can bring 2 PS2 VF4 joysticks... and I think we qualify as hardcore players, right? /versus/images/icons/smile.gif