VF4 play test and VF.Net information

Hi all...
Just a heads up for all yall about a news story I just posted to <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.fighters.net>Fighters.net</A> about an upcoming play test for VF4 at Sega's Ikebukuro GIGO. Also in the news story is a ton of details of the VF.Net system which will also be being tested parallel to the game itself.

dodee.

 

No sir - don't like it...it automatically selects your character? NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo...let me choose who I like thank you very much....other than that, great idea.

"Victory can be anticipated, but not assured" Sun-Tzu

 

Think there is a chance this card feature will make it to the states? I dont

Under the surface of the most jaded cynic lies a dissappointed idealist- George Carlin

 

hi all

i played VF4 location test ver today with one of my freind from Gamespot
got my ass tharashed just like in the loc-test of VF3
i just didnt know how to operate.

anyways the first thing one notices upon looking at this game
would be its awesome graphics.
it has changed.
however it hasnt changed as drastically as it did from 2 to 3. The rendering or mapping in 3 was so good that it was almost perfect. In 4, its like 3 with more lighting effects such as shadow. But thats not the biggest gfx change. Id say its the stage gfx that changed the most. In the snow stage, the snow actually gets brushed away each time a character pushes it away
(i.e walking through snow, falling on top of it). so at the end of the round, ull see many parts of the ring clear from snow. The background also had improvements, In a Jacky-like stage, there was a crowd behind steel cages, and they were all moving (randomly?) in the background, like the crowd in VirtuaStriker3.

anyways, ill move on to gameplay. The E button is dead, the back dash seems little use now, and the heavy weight characters are slow. Thats my impression as of now, and most of u guys have read these stuffs on other sites, so ill just pass here. Some things i have noticed that looked lame was the "attention signs". This was seen under a special condition, when a character got hit by an elbow whilst crouching and stumbled. Once the character stumbles, a little sign of a joystick appears and tells u to waggle your joystick for recovery. I felt that was lame, as everyone knew, but i guess it was aimed for beginners. Also, many read about hit-marks being incooperated into the system, like the tekken and SF series. In a sense its there, in a sense not. Whenever a character receives a counter-hit, the character shines for a sec, as if the body suddenly glowed like a light bulb. its not really a hitmark. but i guess it works as a measurement of a counter-hit.

as for the card, its pretty cool. its not like one of those papery thing, but more sturdy like a credit card. it works fine with the slot,etc. the only drawback is its exp (500yen) and it might not be used outside japan.

ill give u more detailed report on wed, i plan to play again on that day

also, i might go see Tekken4, just for comparison

 

thx for the news neogamer.......

crowd in jackys stage cool.

I presume the whole action takes part on the ring, no action outside of it, allthough the envoirments are so huge.....

No wallthrows either?

cya and thanks

 

Tekken 4 beeing tested..........this is a joke isn't it.......

 

even more info about the vf4 test .this was posted on segatech.com via insider (pay for news, ha!) ignps2.com :

PlayTest: Virtua Fighter 4
We go hands on with the arcade version of Virtua Fighter 4. Impressions galore!
2001-05-12

Virtua Fighter is back! After a most uncomfortable lull in all things VF for the past three years, AM2’s star franchise has come out swinging once again – and if the test version is any indication, VF Mania is ready to put Japan back in its Kung Fu grip.

A healthy number of fans showed up at the game’s first highly-publicized location test, at the Ikebukuro GIGO arcade. The line to play headed out of the basement test area, up the stairs, and out the door – and the area surrounding the four test machines was an ocean of beautiful Sega fanboyism (several gamers showed up in orange shirts with the traditional Sega swirl, and the words Dream Over). As expected, security was tighter than ever, and one audacious fan with a digital camera was beaten down with boken by the GIGO staff. After queuing up for an hour, we snagged our special Virtua Fighter Data Cards (a paltry 500 yen), and sat down to get our game on.

As expected, VF4 looks – and plays – like a turbocharged version of VF2. In recent interviews, creator Yu Suzuki has mentioned the quicker speed of the second game, and a desire to get back to the series’ roots. The handful of matches we got to play were faster and more cutthroat than any VF2 match I’ve ever seen, and were rollicking good fun – I tried playing as the new monk character, who offered a variety of stance-changes. When your character is hit, he or she get a slight case of the “dizzies,†and an on-screen icon prompts the player to wiggle the stick for faster recovery times. The “Evade†button from VF3 has gotten the axe for simplicity’s sake, and 3D movement is now accomplished with the stick.

However, there’s not much need for evasive movement this time around, as all of the environments are flat, square-shaped arenas. Despite enormous backgrounds, all of the action is concentrated in a 20-meter ring, some of which are surrounded by fences. Some fences are unbreakable (Fighting Vipers-style), while others crumble away segment by segment, allowing a traditional ring-out.

This sequel returns to the basic square arenas of part 2.
Though you can’t actually explore the backgrounds, they do look awfully pretty. Each stage begins with a handful of cinematic cuts and fly-throughs showing off the arena, allowing the player’s jaw to drop. New areas include a night-time Venice stage, which features some of the loveliest water effects since Panzer Dragoon. There’s also an incredible coliseum stage, which is like Sarah’s VF2 stage on crack. Lightning blasts through the sky, and in some instances, actually hits stuff outside the ring – in one sequence, a five-story-tall pillar tipped over and smashed through a healthy chunk of ring-side geometry. You’ll also find neat deformation effects on sandy and snowy surfaces – players make honest-to-god indentations whenever they move their feet or fall down.

AM2 has also seen fit to add completely insane particle effects. There are hundreds of fishies swimming about in the aquarium area, hundreds of birds flitting through the air, and thousands of leaves getting kicked about in the autumn forest area. And just wait until you lay eyes on Jacky’s rooftop, where a helicopter circles the arena and shows off the NAOMI 2’s support for eight hardware lights. It gets even better – one basement arena is enclosed in a cage, and there are several hundred spectators jumping up and down and carrying on in the background as you fight.

The graphics are excellent. Can the PS2 handle it?
Most of the characters are garbed in bright colors, just like the vibrant VF2 outfits. All of the clothes segments are perfectly articulated – the hood of Lion’s sweatshirt flops about, Aoi’s silk pants blow in the wind, and Akira’s gi moves to give us tantalizing glimpses of his manly, chiseled stomach (our boy has bulked up to Wolf-like proportions for this tournament). The characters avoid the quasi-freaky “albino†look of VF3, and now have plenty of flush to their high-polygon faces. Aoi actually looks cute this time around (the character select screen lists her new hobby as “Reggae Dancingâ€Â), and Pai has a little bit of DoA2-style bounce to her; Jacky now wears an “Engrish†leather jacket with “BREAK MASTER†written on the front.

The only strike against the characters is a bordering-on-unnecessary amount of “shininess†– there’s no need for such metallic specular highlighting on skin and cloth textures. Also questionable is the usage of Tekken-style hit sparks, which light up each attack with a flash of yellow. Match replays are also a bit more interesting to watch, thanks to realistic, “fuzzyâ€Â-style camera movements (think Moto GP), and super-intense close-ups. You’ll also get intense camerawork during throws, bringing you even further into the bone-crushing action.

There was a lot of new moves for each of the characters that we only caught glimpses of – it looked like Sarah could **** back her leg for several seconds before unleashing TKD-style kicks, and the New Monk Guy™ seemed to have a number of different mid-game style-shifts. There were one or two animation glitches – Jeffry’s left leg had been improperly boned and was looking a bit dislocated, and Aoi’s DF G+P arm-breaker had her shifting unnaturally to the side of the opponent.

The VF.net system should cause a craze in Japan
And then we have VFNet. Each player can purchase a VF Player Card for a paltry 500 yen, which contains all of your ranking data. Win a match, and you get a certain number of experience points, which are dumped onto the card. The arcade machine saves your win/loss record, and uploads your info to the main global ranking server. Whenever you play the game, your ranking (from ten to one) appears directly underneath your life-bar, allowing you to intimidate your opponent with your crazy Virtua Skillz. Players with i-mode phones were able to get online at the location test site, and input their names and preliminary ranking data for the network’s beta test. VFNet can also email you when your rivals play, and give you the location of where they’re playing. Who will be the world’s top VF4 player? Will it be the elusive Ikebukuro Sarah? The aptly-named Bun-Bun Maru? Or will it be Anoop? With VFNet, you will finally know.

While VF4 looks to be an admirable addition to a classic series, we still have a few worries, such as the total lack of environment interaction and height changes. In any case, you’d better be ready for some fierce competition – and with VFNet, the world will be your battleground.

-- Staff, IGN




<font color=red>PICCOLO</font color=red>

 

do you know what the new female character looks like? Is taka in vf4?

 

Damn..I guess this is a mixed bag of comments... I really have no way to take this...no undulating surfaces -- personally, I really thing that is a big detraction...and not to mention Sega didn't capitalize on what could be a big pluse - exploring the big arenas...this is something DOA2 started to do, but I thought AM2 could have done amazingly well...*sniff* oh well, guess I will have to wait to make final judgments.

"Victory can be anticipated, but not assured" Sun-Tzu

 

You know, I think I'm ripe for a bunch of changes to the VF series.

Some comments tho.. VF3 *does* seem FAST to me. The characters might not be moving like one does in Unreal Tournament, but there's plenty going on at close range for me to worry about. VF2 wasn't quite the same close-combat game as VF3 is imo. Anyways, VF4 is faster, fine.

I think the thing I dread most is the removal of the E button. To me, d, d and u, u are NOT natural movements for my hand to do with the joystick.

u, u, b, f, f+P+K for a dodge, bodycheck? I can tell my wrist is gonna be in for quite a lot of strain already.

I don't mind the removal of ungulation. Sure, it's interesting, but as most others, I find myself picking Akira's and Taka's stage more often than not.

I wish a hardcore player would come with comments from the playtest... I want to hear about the gameplay, not how many fishies are swimming around!

- Jan

 

What has me really worked up is the VF.net thing. This is just too cool to be true.
But unfortunately that will propably only work in Japan, bummer. It would really strengthen the community sense in the VF scene.
The monk character sounds a bit like Gen from Street Fighter Zero with his style changes, really interesting. I wonder if he'll get me off my Sarah/Lion/Aoi trip...
Let's just hope an arcade in Denmark gets it in, I'd hate to buy a PSpoo "just" for VF4.

 

i hope there will be enough depth to distinguish bad players from good players(on a long range) . I thought the envoirement-interaction could be bigger then in Vf3........sadly that wont be the case. Dodge with stick, i hope it wont interfare with other commands(f.e Lion Uf+K). Akiras MoSteel preformed in an other way as usual during dodge ....hmmm what about other moves. At least the graphics are beautiful. What about TAKA!!!!! Why such miserable Lightnig effects it's no sience Fiction movie!!!

Most important: i hope Vf4 can distinguish itself from other titels with innovative features in the gameplay department. Please no SoulCalibur Tekken,fightingVipers,daed or Alive,Strettfighter2Turbo,Vf2 Mix

I hope the Soul of the game is still there.......

 

check out fighters.net
new pics

Pai looks sweet~

<font color=red>~~~SummErs' 'enemy SPODED, enemy DOWN~~~'

 

new pic comments

comments...

...on the cab itself..... lovely VF-style artwork above screen, apparently only showing a handful of the characters. no taka on there....

...on the second of fighters.net's pictures.......the character select screen now looks really bland because it is all white. what happened to each character having their own colour of background behind their picture? the screen on the left of this picture (with lau getting sent flying in the snow level) reminds me a lot of when i first saw tekken tag. even the health bars now look tekken-like.

...on the third pic......the left screen looks a great deal like DC soul calibur. the stage and the birds look really sweet on the right-hand screen. also on that screen it says 'challenger comes'. does this mean a change of announcer? i personally really like VF3's announcer.

 

will be
i have an insider info, and according to this source, there will be a NAMCO event sometime this month or next month, and the chances are that Tekken4 will be there \using the new Namco 246(?) board). I will be attending it, hopefully.

 

oh yes, its neogamer btw

 

Maybe it's SoulCalibur 2 on system 256.....remember the picture?.....and i also read that namco did wanna show the game during the aou -Show (on saturday) but they where so impressed with VF4-footage(on friday) that they sent the game back on the drawing board. allthough i doubt that System 256 can Compete with Naomi 2(outpreform naomi 2 graphics)

cya neogamer, I wish I could be there with you playing VF4....

 

i don"t know why anyone hasn't pointed this out yet, but the waggling stick thing is a stupid idea. first, it looks stupid and def. un-vf like. second, whether or not to recover is itself a guessing game, at least in 1, 2 and 3 and i presume 4 as well. i"m guessing sega will allow a player to identify himself as a beginner when setting up an account via the network card, customizing the game so the icon appears (a la f355 and its prompts for beginner's mode).

 

Actually.... I'm curious about the views on recovering out of stagger... I mean, I certainly believe that in VF3 at least (assuming 2 for sure and 1 as well), struggling out of stagger is a guessing game. Was it because of throws or for a good many things like what the opponent would do out of struggling. Basically, I'm curious about the incentive to not struggle. And then, given that it SEEMS that VF4's throws will all be catch throws, then will that guessing game be affected enough to say that it is always best to just struggle out of stagger?

I personally wouldn't like the waggling stick there, but it at least opens a doorway for beginners to get a feel that something happened and figure out what a stagger is.

However, I guess I prefer small symbols over text (though symbols can be distracting). It doesn't bother me all that much, but DoA2 pretty much seems to tell you EVERYTHING that happens in a match/versus/images/icons/tongue.gif. But because of that, it at least popped questions about the system to beginners who play the game (speaking of which, I found out the main arcade in Portland out of nowhere now has a DoA2 machine). Well, icons might be cheezy, but at least they offer some form of advice to somebody who is really new to the system. Then again, I'm sharing a perspective from a person who doesn't struggle enough when he gets staggered...

-Chanchai

 

anything that might help potential VFers to learn to play VF is a good thing. When teaching people the beauty of VF3 it is hard for the learners to appreciate the many 'complex' ideas of the game's gameplay system. Struggling is one of these elements, one that the very same beginner wouldn't have to learn in the namco games. Hopefully, by drawing the beginners in, the on-screen helpers could turn out to be a great way of gradually introducing VF to a whole new breed of people. Personally i am sick to death of trying to teach tekkenites the true genius of VF3 - hopefully the icons will help, and, like ice said, they may be a gradual thing which disappear once the struggling has been done x number of times (done successfully, that is).