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| Okay, that needs clarification - here's my real first impressions of VF4:Evo by curst 08/18/2003, 12:04pm PDT | ||||
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| VIRTUA FIGHTER 4:EVOLUTION
It is exactly that, an evolution, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to be much of one. However, I only say that because I'm not impressed by the new characters at all, and they're pretty much 99% of the appeal. Also, at $20, it's hard to feel ripped off, especially since I traded in the original and somehow got $10 worth of credit from the deal. It certainly doesn't do anything to screw up the great VF4 formula, so it's still a fantastic game. The only real improvements aside from the new characters are a slicker-looking graphics engine and many more unlockables. I haven't gotten to play it enough to really get a feel for how they changed around any of the old characters, assuming that they actually DID make changes to everyone. Vanessa and Lei Fei, who are by far my favorite characters, certainly seem to play very similarly. So far my favorite new unlockables are these little movie clips you can get that show VF4 experts playing the arcade version of game. It certainly crushes the ego to think that here I am bragging on my six-hit combos with Vanessa, and then I see this clip of a guy sort of sleep-walking through a 15+-hit Kage combo only using one hand. I seriously have to wonder if that guy does anything else BESIDES playing VF4 every waking moment of his life. I really don't like the new fighters much, but that's only because I have yet to have advanced to the parts of the game where you fight against experts, and as such I have no idea how tough they can truly be. Again, they're just too generic to offer any kind of immediate payoff. When I first played VF4, Vanessa and Lei Fei instantly hooked me. Every one of Vanessa's moves just looked like it just hurt worse than a motherfucker, and Lei Fei had enough kung-fu-flick Shaolin skeelz to rock my face right off of my head. So in Evo we now get... Brad Burns, a totally bland kickboxer-type, and Goh whasisname, an 3dgy blue-skinned/scarred judo fighter who on first glance fights like *every single character in Tekken*. I have the feeling Goh is worth trying to master since I did see the occasional flashy move, but Brad - no. Maybe I'm totally off base here, but they just don't do it for me. I miss the AI feature of VF4. It actually helped me a great deal in learning the mechanics of the game. Now I feel like I'm really out in the cold, except of course for my two favorite characters. Finally, I have a newfound respect for Lion. I've NEVER seen anyone use this guy effectively, including the hard AIs in VF4, but included on the Evo game disc are a bunch of replays. Look for ones starring a Lion player named Chibita (a guy who I guess just rips shit in VF tournaments consistently), and stare in awe... dude pulls off some pretty amazing stuff that almost makes me want to learn how to use the punk. |
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