Virtua Fighter 5 (360/PS3/Arcade)

Rented this last week on the PS3 and in my opinion it was crap.



Me and my mate used to play VF4 for ages and eventually we found our favourite characters, stuck with them, memorized the movesets as well as each others and we'd pull off some epic battles now and again.

parrying the attacks and then counter attacking, having that blocks and then jumping over a sweep or ducking a jumping spin kick while attempting a sweep. Just really cool things.

But we played this for a few hours and both agreed it just didnt have the wow factor anymore. Like the fun was missing.

It just felt very button bashery and the 2 new characters didnt add a load of new fun to the game.


I my give it another look at if they have it in for rent again and im bored just to see if i can find the fun and im just missing it.... but at the moment this felt like a huge let down.
 
Played it for 10 minutes but was bored out of my mind. I have really lost interest in this series. The scenery is very nice though... so are the graphics in general.
 
Virtua Fighter games, 5 included are brilliant fighting games, but absolutely dog-boring for folk as they learn to play the game or only have the computer to play against.

Thing is until you get to the stage where both you and your opponent can start with the throw-escapes, stagger combos and recoveries, fights on Virtua Fighter games seem no different than any other fighting game, maybe even less rewarding at beginner level.

The learning curve in VF games is crazy; unlike other games it's not even a case of knowing what moves the character you pick can do, more so than many other games except the good 2d fighters it's how and when to use them and work them into to combos and setups.

Between two beginners trying to learn it's just a bit of ''punch punch...oooh flashy elbow....oh nice that's a throw''. It's not as beginner friendly as games like Tekken or Soul Caliber and so often the incentive to learn all the tricks and skills isn't there. The game is relatively unforgiving, but the CPU opponent follows patterns and does not do any of the mind games a human player can pull off, of which VF is all about.

Playing against the CPU is good in that it can teach you what moves can be blocked and give you a free-hit afterwards but little more than that, but VF games need time to learn all the in's and outs; which blows stagger or counter which other move, which moves hit side-stepping opponents, how to break and counter throw. Then several attack patterns and counters to that come into play, but only with people who have spent quite a lot of time on the game playing opponents who have a similar skill level which forces them to use all the deep tactics VF games have.


I would say to folk thinking about getting VF 5 it's definately worth it if you are going to be able to find a regular bunch of people to play against.

If (and i would be suprised if they can due to the way the some moves are frame-specific) they can make it play well online that's a good start, if not just to get whooped all over by someone who then makes people want to get into the game and raise their game more.

I'm a big fan but the learning curve of the game can be pretty offputting and is really the games worst enemy, again it only comes into it's own between two players who really know all the tricks of the trade. If you can persevere and will have the folk to play against it's great. Otherwise it will likely bore you.

Shame i was a bad boy and my Box is banned from Live, i'd definately be into this and trying to learn the ropes again after having not played it for a while. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnlXECot4Mk&mode=related&search=
 
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I've never really noticed this myself apart from trying to master Akira over the past decade. I tend to go with Jacky and more letely the shaolin monk, Lei Fei.

Used to play with Lau and Pai, very fast combos with powerful sweeps at the end, I think they changed them a bit in 5 to balance the game a little more.
 
so it plays online ok???? Because it looks great from what i have seen in the demo, i have spend a lot of time in this series on saturn, dreamcast and plaastation2!

i hope it is also good on the 360(online)!
 
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