Atari 2600. My first gaming system, hand me down from the older bro. Some good memories, but eh, didn't care much for the games.

Modern systems, tossup between PS4 and XBoneX. Neither were bad, just at that point most everything I wanted was coming to PC. So my PS4 was a Bloodborne box and my XboneX was a NGB/NG2 box. Haven't bothered buying their new boxes.

Realistically it's probably some handheld. Would always buy these, they'd end up in a drawer a week later, then eventually just give them away. PSP topping the list of least used.

I understand.

Let's just say I believe in English in my own way. 🙏

Neither religious, nor a person? 🤔

Yeah orange ranks were the wall for a few of my friends, but they eventually climbed. Just gotta keep at it.

Can be frustrating since people are still just unloading gimmicks at those ranks. Upside to that though, they usually commit to blocked/whiffed strings, so you can kinda just hang back and punish. And since most people are still playing "2d" at those ranks, start stepping and launching, **** their whole world up lol

Not really 😅

They're two great games at the top of their respective sub-genres. They're both arguably the best vanilla outings for their series. Can't think of any concrete argument for one being better than the other. And they're both only going to grow and improve in the coming years. If you like fighting games, you're eating good right now. New Fatal Fury already looking amazing too.

I do prefer SF6, that's largely why I bounced off T8, was just missing it. But I've always preferred 2D fighters in general and SF is my favorite take on those.

But yeah as for 2024 games, it'd be pretty insane for anything to top T8 for me.

Tekken 8. Already bounced off of it about a month ago, right after hitting Tenryu. All my boys hitting purps and blues now 😭

But yeah, great game, I'll probably get back to it soon.

Yes, I've considered this one so many times as well. Heat seems flashy enough and has potential to dole out so much extra damage. Rage art comes out feeling redundant, and as you said, paired with Heat? That much more egregious. I know it's here to stay, just gotta deal with it I suppose.

Side rant, but these big cutscene supers in all modern FGs are too much lol. Like the lvl 1 and lvl 2 shit in SF6 is fine. But I swear every time Jamie clips me with his CA lvl 3 I find myself reaching for the start button like I'm gonna skip a cutscene. These FG supers inching towards Final Fantasy summon territory.

Yoshi so sick. 😤

This is my first time maining him, learning all these flash traps has been a great time lol. And all these routes where you swap between 1SS and NSS, hitting the just-frame ender, never gets old landing that stuff. And yeah, been straight up abusing rainbow drop, so good.

Nah I didn't know that about Xiaoyu, though some of my friends asked if I've been to her 50/50 hell yet lol. Surprisingly haven't run into many, mostly an army of Dragunovs and Reinas.

Speaking of Xiaoyu, one of my buds posted this to the Discord the other day, thought it was funny.

Imagine coming at Knee like that. 😭

Yup yup, great stuff, especially for being vanilla. T8 and SF6 are both so foundationally strong out the gate, should be an awesome ride as these games grow.

Yeah I think heat system has potential. Some aspects are already really nice, like OH activators and dashes, along with buffs to char specific attacks while active. Obviously no issues mid string either. I know a lot of the community has been kneejerk about it, but I think heat system is already doing cool things and can evolve into something great. I'm glad it's in.

The issues specifically are the frame advantage on raw Burst and Smash. All reward, no risk. They can't be checked. And sure you can block, but you're still minus. Like Mazui and I were saying, the defender still has to eat a mix just for blocking. So even if I'm being outplayed, I get to weasel my way back to advantage by... pressing a button. If you manage to block the immediate damage, you still have to guess against even bigger damage. In my case I'd actually prefer you blocked since the following mix is so juiced lol.

No biggie long term, I'm certain these will change. Make heat burst zero on block, so that both players are neutral. Making heat smash -15 launch punishable on block like rage art would be nice (not expecting it), but any amount of minus would do. In it's current state it goes completely against all of what Tekken has established, where the biggest moves leave you minus and often very punishable if the spacing is right. All fighting games have guesses, but you don't even have to create the situation here. No earning through positioning or setup, you just hit a button and force a mix lol.

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Raw rage arts, eh. Guess we just disagree on how these games should play. The idea of evening the playing field for the less skilled player to such a degree, so easily, doesn't sit right. Can be outplaying the opponent and then lose to a single button over a whiff, or because they armored through your pressure. I don't see any intensity, I see a timid standoff where the winning player now has to respect that the losing player can melt them for going in. An intense round devolves into baiting. It's not like some game ruining thing, just think a great game would be even better without it.

making it a combo input like SF seems redundant when theres so many other moves at you disposal

Not sure I catch your meaning here. They're already combo-able, that's how I'm usually using my RAs. If you're referring to execution (like 2xQCF or HCB-F), nothing about that would translate to redundancy either.

like you mentioned SF modern controls takes it away anyway.

I was referring to how cancerous modern control supers are lol. Execution layer makes a big difference on how easily you can interrupt with big damage. It's wack in SF6 too. Difference is, it's only available on a control scheme that's rarely seen outside lower ranks. And even then it's heavily scaled. So while I think it's terrible design in SF6 too, the reality is that it's tied to such a lacking scheme that I never have to see it. Whereas here it can be a factor in every round of every match.

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Damn, long post. To be clear, I love this game, there's like no shot another game topples this as my goty lol. Obviously I'm not gonna love everything about it, but it goes that way with any FG. Zero expectations on them doing anything about rage arts, but I'm looking forward to heat system refinements.

Honestly surprised they kept rage arts in, as is. Arguably among the most braindead implementations of a comeback mechanic. I'm losing, so I get a one button traveling armor move that melts bar Zzzz. Game would be better if they just deleted it lol. But like damn, at least lock it behind some execution. Or disable raw use, only to be used as a combo ender. What's most annoying is the threat of having it on deck. Reduces close rounds to this timid game of baiting each other. It's the same issue as modern control supers in SF6, but in this game everybody has it. Just crazy how they'd tack something so obnoxious onto an otherwise brilliant combat system.

Yeah Heat systems a bit crazy, but at least it's something with more nuance, can be tweaked in a variety of ways. Raw activation is a bit dumb, another armored safe on block neutral skip lol. And as a Yoshi main, gotta admit my Heat Smash is all kinds of braindead. Basically can just throw it out for free. If it hits, great, I melted your bar. If you block, great, I can cancel into dragonfly and be in your face at +10. Eat this mix. Current implementation is goofy, but some simple frame adjustments could go a long way towards taming this system.

Otherwise, great game. Most annoyances are outside the combat, weird UI choices, time wasting UX choices, lacking some basic training mode options, etc. The kind of stuff they can easily address.

Online custom Halo 2 matches with the boys, LAN setups for Chaos Theory Spies vs Mercs. Playing stupid amounts of NGB.

There was a lot I liked about the OG Xbox, but those three games made the console worth it.