This Week On PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Free Avatars, Oh Kratos... you continue to goof.

[Solkia]

I had fun with Brawl for about 2 weeks and never touched it again.

Same with Melee

The only reason I bought brawl in the first place was for Sonic. And he was even more boring play as than of the previous characters.

I haven't tried the beta yet, if it's even still up, but I doubt it will be any better or any worse than Brawl in my eyes.

[Zone Seeker]

Yeah it's still up, but Wednesday is when it's going offline.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Zone Seeker

[Chooch]

The problem with Battle Royale's mechanics is that it's too obtuse to penetrate and it leaves so many characters susceptible to bullshit practices. Sweet Tooth, my favorite character in the game so far, has an absolutely fucking ridiculous Level 3. I managed to easily build meter just by shotgunning and doing spread attacks and the rest of the battle just involved me scoring 14 kills.

I know you may not want to consider this, but in the match where you scored 14 kills, did you ever think the people you were playing were just bad at the fucking game? Seriously.

There are countermeasures built into the game to prevent people from just mashing buttons until they build level 3 and mop the floor with everyone. Level 3s aren't even fucking practical to get most of the time unless the skill level between you and your opponents is really noticeable. Kratos is a fucking asshole in this game. He has ridiculous range, he is easy to use, he builds meter insanely fast and every single one of his supers is good. A lot of Kratos players in the beta just try to build up to level 3 and kill everyone in a clean sweep since he builds meter so fast.

These Kratos players fucking suck. When I notice a person's game plan is only to build for level 3 I use the tools available to me to stop them from doing it. Multiple items in the beta knock AP out of opponents as well as environmental hazards. You know what else knocks AP out of opponents? Fucking grabs! Grabs are easily one of the best tools to prevent people from building meter too fast. They can easily open up an overly defensive opponent who blocks too much and they actually knock out more AP than items do.

You can steal the AP you knock out of people and build up meter really fast that way. The beta's been available for days now for regular PlayStation Network members and I still don't see the vast majority of players ever using grabs. People need to learn how to play the fucking game.

Landing hits in any other fighting game feels rewarding because you're building yourself that much closer to a goal

This is no different in PlayStation All-Stars. What are you talking about? Edited October 28, 2012 by Chooch

[buba]

The beta's been available for days now for regular PlayStation Network members and I still don't see the vast majority of players ever using grabs. People need to learn how to play the fucking game.

Grabs and blocking/evading.

When someone gets a super I just see people running for the hell of it or hiding in those lower platforms in the Hades stage. For the love of God, you can air dodge most of the supers.

[Zone Seeker]

I've had people who still try to attack me while someone else is using a Level 3 such as Kratos, wouldn't it be better if we you know stop and run away?

Edited October 28, 2012 by Zone Seeker

[SilentDoom]

Thats funny... thats exactly my experience of playing Smash Bros...

No really it is. I don't honestly get why people keep saying "Whoa not as good as smash bros, you're just hitting each other with random attacks mindlessly" when thats exactly what you do in smash bros.

Smash bros defender: Ah well actually I think you'll find.

Oh cut the crap. In smash bros all you do is mindless jump around hitting each other regardless as to what the people who organise tournaments want you to think. Back when brawl came out, I picked up that game expecting it to be this incredible god like experience considering how much praise people here were giving it, only for then to find out the only reason they were was more or less for nostalgia since the game is pretty much just randomly jumping around hitting people and hoping said special moves land.

[BlueTidalGamer]

It really makes a diffrence when you pull off a combo in this game. I've been sticking with Parappa and getting some good combos with him. Building up meter is much faster using it.

I hope there's a feature to disable voice chat from other players. It's really annoying to hear other people through the Vita versions when you don't wanna hear them.

Edited October 28, 2012 by BlueTidalGamer

[NGw00d]

There are countermeasures built into the game to prevent people from just mashing buttons until they build level 3 and mop the floor with everyone. Level 3s aren't even fucking practical to get most of the time unless the skill level between you and your opponents is really noticeable. Kratos is a fucking asshole in this game. He has ridiculous range, he is easy to use, he builds meter insanely fast and every single one of his supers is good. A lot of Kratos players in the beta just try to build up to level 3 and kill everyone in a clean sweep since he builds meter so fast.

These Kratos players fucking suck. When I notice a person's game plan is only to build for level 3 I use the tools available to me to stop them from doing it. Multiple items in the beta knock AP out of opponents as well as environmental hazards. You know what else knocks AP out of opponents? Fucking grabs! Grabs are easily one of the best tools to prevent people from building meter too fast. They can easily open up an overly defensive opponent who blocks too much and they actually knock out more AP than items do.

[Nintendoga]

Well nevermind, Silent Pyrrhon pretty much said everything I was going to say.

The main menu music for this game is epic. Full of epic win. Downloaded it to my iTunes. <3

[buba]

It really makes a diffrence when you pull off a combo in this game. I've been sticking with Parappa and getting some good combos with him. Building up meter is much faster using it.

I hope there's a feature to disable voice chat from other players. It's really annoying to hear other people through the Vita versions when you don't wanna hear them.

[BlueTidalGamer]

Press start during the match...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is fixed in the retail version.

[Carbo]

I know you may not want to consider this, but in the match where you scored 14 kills, did you ever think the people you were playing were just bad at the fucking game? Seriously.

Considering half of the players in that certain round were actively doing far better building AP up and utilizing singular bars contextually - not really, and considering how chaotic and nonsensical the game turns to be in a four player battle there's fairly little ample time to figure out who is doing things proper. This wouldn't exactly be a problem in most other games mostly because if you'd have a game built around a free-for-all to begin with then it'd make more sense to put less focus on how rewarding you get for being good on singular confrontations.

Sure, there was a sub-par person in a few rounds but frankly getting up to a Level 3 with Sweet Tooth can instantly devalue most of any progress done by other players just because of how ridiculous of a super it is. Most of the Level 3's feel like they were even designed just for the sake of being useful in four player battles. Also, while I understand that "button-mashing" may be a hyperbolic deterrent to the point I'm making it's still a big problem considering the mindset people are actually entering this game in. This;

The beta's been available for days now for regular PlayStation Network members and I still don't see the vast majority of players ever using grabs. People need to learn how to play the fucking game.

Is a problem. Yes, in most games you have to learn to be good, but that doesn't mean a game can't still feel good in the hands of newcomers. Most impressions I've seen are complete opposite of that, and no matter the reason being a justifiable one or one that's actually engaging some slightly more hardcore people who like this mechanic, it's still a problem if it has to come with that asterisk. A game's design isn't merely mutual to itself, it's built around common principles and practices employed in games in general. Recent fighters have attempted more and more to bridge the gap between newcomers and hardcore player, and in a game like this it feels like it gets stuck in the middle trying to accommodate a hardcore experience to casuals. It's not the most graceful transition exactly but there's nothing wrong with that since the game play is still functional enough to satisfy quite a few.

If you're willing to get into the game's mindset then you've gotten yourself a fun game, but thanks to the way it's designed it's just not going to be able to live up to the kind of general audience that people, and in fact Sony themselves, were hoping to reach with it.

Hell, I'm having fun with the game now. But I can see why it's a problem for many and there are a lot of questionable design choices that aren't exactly innovating or that worth remembering.

This is no different in PlayStation All-Stars. What are you talking about?

If you're going to cherry-pick a single sentence without looking at the rest of my post, or the bigger picture in hopes of trying to believe you maintain some sort of intellectual superiority I'll have you know it's not exactly working.

[BlueTidalGamer]

I swear that Sweet Tooth has two voices in the game. It's giving me Riders 1 Eggman flashbacks.

Thank god Kratos is getting tweaked. He really needs it..

Edited October 28, 2012 by BlueTidalGamer

[Zone Seeker]

He is? any specifics? please be forward square.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Zone Seeker

[BlueTidalGamer]

He is? any specifics? please be forward square.

http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/playstation-3-news/superbots-recent-tips-video-gives-us-a-look-at-the-final-playstation-all-stars-menu/

[Chooch]

I don't really get the idea that the game isn't built for free for all. Especially considering I play a character like Sly Cooper who is more or less designed to be played in Free-For-All because his ability to block has been exchanged for the ability to turn invisible. A lot of times when characters do actually build up to the extremely powerful player controlled level 3s in a match, I simply turn invisible and go unscathed because they're in a desperate rush to get as many kills as possible. Because of that, they're mainly trying to make an effort to kill the characters they can actually see rather than waste their precious time chasing after a Sly Cooper.

The game can appeal to casuals. It can be fun even if you don't know how to play the game. It was for me when I was first learning in the beta! The main objective is very simple to understand. A lot of players I've encountered in the beta were young kids and it's not like they weren't able to grasp the super mechanic or how to build meter. Ultimately, I don't think the game is any more difficult to play than Smash Bros. at the end of the day, so I don't get what you mean.

Just because I quoted that specific part does not mean I did not read the rest of your post. I simply highlighted that and responded to it because the meat of that segment was an attempt to justify that statement. You say PlayStation All-Stars is somehow different in that landing hits does not bring you closer to a goal, but only the second phase. I don't believe this is true and subsequently, none of what you else said really makes sense to me. It's really no different from Smash Bros. You continuously land attacks to build up a "meter" which allows you to kill your opponents later on.

You can not reliably kill your opponent in Smash Bros. at 0%. The same way you can not kill someone in PlayStation All-Stars without building to level 1. It does not take particularly long to build up to level 1 the same way it does not take long to build a character's damage percentage up in Smash Bros. to a point where you can kill them. In all honesty, it takes much longer for kills to be readily available in Smash Bros. than in PlayStation All-Stars because you have to factor in the weight of various characters which makes some characters easier / harder to kill than others. PlayStation All-Stars does not have this. If both characters have built enough AP to reach level 1 then they can both kill each other immediately.

Compare this to Smash Bros where one player may be Kirby and the other player may be Dedede. If both characters are at 80% exactly, Dedede is arguably at the advantage. Kirby can easily be hit for a knock out at that damage percentage but Dedede's weight makes reliably killing him harder. Parappa vs. Kratos isn't like this at all. If you're going to argue that landing hits in PlayStation All-Stars only brings you to a second phase, then I can say the same about Smash Bros. They aren't really that different in my eyes.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Chooch

[Jango]

I'm the only who loved the main menu music? XD

Haha, played for more hours, this time with a friend, we won like, 18 out of 20 battles. I was maining Parappa and he Sly. Really loved Parappa's game style, he is float and I always stick with good airbone control characters. Also, his square+down attack is great. His level 3 is just fun to watch, you can do serious shit with level 2 if you have luck. Man, now I have to grab this game

Sidenote, I like how the characters are dubbed in my system's language, tho some of them are still in english (Parappa) and others are in portugal portuguese, not brazilian portuguese. Really loved Sly's brazilian voice

Edited October 28, 2012 by Jango

[YeppersPeppers]

I haven't tried the beta yet (still need to head to a friends place to play it as I do not own a PS3), but from what I've seen it looks pretty fun. The only nitpick I have is the sound effects for attacking. It doesn't sound as satisfying as Smash, and I'm not feeling much of an impact from them. Just a small thing though.

Edited October 28, 2012 by wOrm

[Jango]

Hey, does someone knows how to do taunts? I saw some players doing it, but I don't know how :/

[Chooch]

Just press the L2 button.

[Jango]

Just press the L2 button.

lol what the fuck, how I didn't try that shit before xD Wtf me.

[buba]

Sidenote, I like how the characters are dubbed in my system's language, tho some of them are still in english (Parappa) and others are in portugal portuguese, not brazilian portuguese. Really loved Sly's brazilian voice

When I played the Plus beta some days ago at a friend's house all the characters voices (except PaRappa) where dubbed to Portugal portuguese, but now that I have the public beta all the characters (except PaRappa again) are dubbed in Brazilian portuguese. Now don't get me wrong, but I'm not really a big fan of the BR "version" of the portuguese language and hearing the characters talk like that really annoys me.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Tmsp

[Carbo]

Compare this to Smash Bros where one player may be Kirby and the other player may be Dedede. If both characters are at 80% exactly, Dedede is arguably at the advantage. Kirby can easily be hit for a knock out at that damage percentage but Dedede's weight makes reliably killing him harder. Parappa vs. Kratos isn't like this at all. If you're going to argue that landing hits in PlayStation All-Stars only brings you to a second phase, then I can say the same about Smash Bros. They aren't really that different in my eyes.

You know, it says a lot about the term "second phase" when Omar himself was the one who chose to implement this specific mechanic to the game and described it as such to Shade Vortex as said earlier in this thread back at PAX. He even equated the idea to Basketball of all things, claiming that the two phases of the game involves getting the ball in your court and then going for a make-or-break hit, which was supposed to set this apart from other games.

It's funny. I haven't even mentioned Smash Bros in my entire line of posts these last two pages, mostly because I felt I didn't have to, and because the mere mention of it is inevitably going to cause a lot of "sigh"s from people assuming they're trying to tout their allegiance's superiority. You bringing up weight as a factor is rather commonplace in fighting games (at least the attributes that would come with characters perceived as such) and it'd be rather obvious that characters such as Kirby have a harder time getting a knockout on Dedede. But if we'd take a character like Diddy Kong, what he has is a ridiculously powerful meteor smash and bananas that can trip up even the most hardened percentage foes, and it's possible at any point to actually K.O. a character even with low percentages.

But frankly I'm not getting anywhere arguing apples to oranges or even trying to argue whether characters from completely different games stack up to other characters from other games. You mentioning Sly ABR as someone made for four-on-four's makes it seem like only some characters are made to work in that kind of scenario which is kind of weird, but in any case that's kind of not important. What's important is that at no point does any fighting game (at least that I know of) ever force you to start from square zero because you missed a decisive hit that you had to actively work to obtain. For many, that aspect of ABR is pretty frustrating, and as I said, it's a means to an end rather than a surefire attempt at getting a score. In many ways as well it also makes it less interesting scoring kills because it has to end on the same note. It could easily be said how there are the reasons for most of it but if most of what I've seeing is continued dispute over how properly a mechanic sounds before you actually get to learn it, I really like to feel I have some reasonable doubt, believing that the game is both trying to have it's cake and eat it in that regard.

But really, I'm only going around in circles at this point, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on how the mechanics actually draw people in. Hell I feel like I'm here arguing Modern Sonic mechanics the more I go on. It's tiring.

[Jango]

When I played the Plus beta some days ago at a friend's house all the characters voices (except PaRappa) where dubbed to Portugal portuguese, but now that I have the public beta all the characters (except PaRappa again) are dubbed in Brazilian portuguese. Now don't get me wrong, but I'm not really a big fan of the BR "version" of the portuguese language and hearing the characters talk like that really annoys me.

Seriously? That's weird. When I was playing: Parrapa was in english, Kratos in BR, Sly in BR, Fat Princess in BR, Sweet Tooth I'm not sure, but I think it's BR and Radec in PT. But I bet you'll be able to select the language in the final version or the game will feature a portuguese version. I just hope they stick with the BR portuguese around here, because most of the portuguese version of the games that are sold here, are in PT-PT, not PT-BR. Uncharted 2 for example.

The BR portuguese dub annoys you? I only find the PT dub extremely funny, but not annoying xD

Edited October 28, 2012 by Jango

[buba]

Seriously? That's weird. When I was playing: Parrapa was in english, Kratos in BR, Sly in BR, Fat Princess in BR, Sweet Tooth I'm not sure, but I think it's BR and Radec in PT. But I bet you'll be able to select the language in the final version or the game will feature a portuguese version. I just hope they stick with the BR portuguese around here, because most of the portuguese version of the games that are soldd here, are in PT-PT, not PT-BR. Uncharted 2 for example.

I'm pretty sure that all characters will be redubbed except the ones that never got a X country voice actor, in this case PaRappa for example.

I'll have all in english anyway, I prefer most of the english voices.

Once again, I'm sure that most of the characters if not all will be redubbed to Portugal portuguese since Sony started to dub most of its game to my language since the PSP days, unlike most video game companies...

All of the last Sony games have been dubbed to PT like the Uncharted trilogy, both Infamous, Gravity Rush and even Fat Princess, the same can't be said of the Batman Arkham games that had in the cover "Jogo totalmente em português!" and then it was translated to BR and I had to read stuff like "Coringa" and "Arlequina".

Edited October 28, 2012 by Tmsp