I return to say that have achieved basic competency at Tekken 8. 😀

Which to be honest was more of a mental endurance thing more than me learning anything new or getting much better.

You want to rank up? Sleep at least 6 hours and 45 minutes a night, eat regularly, and never EVER salt queue.

And ANOTHER ad. How much did this cost lmao?

It's weird seeing the amount of ads Fatal Fury is getting. I know the Saudis are funding this... but why this much? See my pfp, I like Fatal Fury, but there's no way it is making this money back. Do they care? Or does the Prince just really like Fatal Fury? Guess we will see. Game will be good tho.

Do remember that on launch even pros were saying Devil Jin was busted. Turns out he had a really good Heat Smash and then a bunch of gimmicks people didn't understand.

Once the gimmicks were understood the threat was mostly gone. The nerfs did the rest. Try to be a little patient.

Give Tekken 8 a few days. Maybe you'll like it more, maybe you'll hate it more. But at least give it a shot other than seeing a bunch of up arrows and complaining. And play online too, don't just do practice for an hour. There have been comprehensive system changes. It will take time to learn.

The new Tekken 8 season has a lot of buffs in it, but if the sidestepping/walking has truly been made better in all aspects then I think we're good. It's just that people will have to adapt. Also it 'seems' that some characters have crazy damage but everyone seems to ignore gray health. It matters.

Kingdom Hearts 2 still holds up. I should play it more and practice my combos.

Girlfriend got me a Tekken Tag board for our anniversary. So happy for this. Should be a ton of fun.

Frankly, I think we need some more "tough guys" who just make right-wingers look stupid.

A lot of the appeal they have is macho-shit. Belittle them. Be mean. Go low. Cherrypick the dumbest of them and make those the "face" of right-wing men.

On this, Elon Musk is a wonderful target. Good lord.

We're seeing this now, obviously. What happened to the "Blue Wall"?

I think this is primarily an issue of optics and communication, though.

There needs to be male figures on the left who may not be "perfect", but at least appeal to young men enough to sway them from dipshits like Andrew Tate.

Right-wingers will play into those old expectations of masculinity and thus typically have an easier time swaying struggling men.

Meanwhile, the left's long-term focus on minority rights without much appeal to white or even "traditonal" men has sharply damaged left-wing parties politically.

To continue, I understand the issues with a lot of "traditional" masculinity and how the right often causes the issues they then offer "fixes" for.

A lot of policies on the left improve humanity overall but do hurt the ability for men to perform old masculinity as well. For better and for worse.

When men can not afford to "provide", have no hope of owning a home, are stuck to self-esteem killing online dating, tend to isolate themselves from women (often inadvertently), it's sadly not surprising to see this. We need to see popular male voices on the left with new adaptations of masculinity.

My favorite part of 3D fighters, which I think many would agree with, is the level of expression you can achieve with such long move lists put against interesting enemies... but when I've only got a few rounds each Ranked Match, it is too stressful for anything other than a perfect day. Shame.

It's remarkable how well playing Tekken informs me of just how stressed I've been that day. If I'm good, I am calm playing the game. If I've been stressed, then I just want to smash something on the ground.

It's not always easy to tell if you're just one annoyance from a rage you get stuck in.

- The 2 lb. silver tension spring does wonders for the Sanwa-JLF. I have heavier, but this is my sweet spot. Way less accidental up inputs but generally feels the same.

- If you have a cheap Mayflash/JLF lever, please try a new spring. It can help a lot, and it is the cheapest upgrade you can do.

- Lever taken from the SoulCalibur V stick.

- I have better parts, but I wanted a stick this size with JPN parts to imitate my friend's Qanba Drone. I'm teaching him Tekken stick fundamentals, and it was the closest I could do.

- I ran out of 24mm Sanwa lmao so I put the Qanba buttons there.

Modded Fightstick #4

Custom ArcadeShock Traveler

8 30mm Sanwa-OBSF - 4 Black/4Orange
2 24mm Sanwa-OBSF - Black
4 24mm Qanba Gravity - Red
Old Sanwa-JLF w/ 2 lbs Tension

Created quickly to imitate cheaper arcade sticks. I move parts on this case frequently as modification is easy. More info below.

When I say I am the USA's number one Fighters Megamixer... I'm not joking around.

"Don't call her bear". What? What? You mean "Kuma" right? translating it makes it sound so stupid you don't even realize that this image says Jin has "serious daddy issues".

This is a screenshot from the GameCube game SoulCalibur II. On the left stands Isabella "Ivy" Valentine in her Costume 1, while Link (the guest character) stands to the right in his Costume 2. Goodness gracious, there is a remarkable height difference between the two. Phew. My word. "Woof" I say; perhaps even a "bark". Alternative caption: 6'0" vs. 5'11"

good heavens

I know. Toyota requested it, weirdly.

I'm saying that referring to arena fighters generically as "fighting games" isn't useful right now.

This can change. If arena fighters shift to being more nuanced and competitive, they could attract the same audience. Then using the generic term makes sense.

This is like "de jure" true, but "de facto" false. Arena fighters have come to appeal to a strongly different audience. They are not made for competitive play. This is fine.

It's like how Gran Turismo & Mario Kart are both racing games, but Mario Kart shouldn't be at Gran Turismo's EVO equivalent.

- I have a TE2 and it is far more mod friendly compared to this, but this wasn't hard to mod. So many screws though.

- This is "fine" in every way. It is heavy enough to be comfortable on your lap, but it has no anti-slip pad.

- The 360 version of this is a decent budget choice for PC gamers.

- Interior screws have a weird wax on them.

- The mounting plate is blasted to the bottom metal plate.

- I had to un-mount a PCB to get the lever to fit. However, the space is so tight it cannot move.

- 360 version works out of the box with Windows.

- This uses more screws than it needs to.

Notes:

- This is the non-removable Nobi lever. I have a removable Nobi lever in a different stick.

- This does use a unusual button layout by default to match the SoulCalibur arcade cabinet. I have changed it to be the normal arcade button layout. I'll remap in-game.

- 24mm Crown 202s do not fit.

Modded Fightstick #3:

Mad Catz SoulCalibur V Arcade Stick SOUL Edition (Xbox 360)

8 30mm Crown SDB-202C - 4 Red & 4 Blue

2 24mm Sansa-OBSF White (Stock)

Seimitsu LE EVO 2024 LSX-NOBI-01 PRO

Got this cheap. Was working perfectly, but suffered some color damage and the inside was... odd.

- The 24mm buttons use the original plastic molding. New cap and switch, but there was no way to make it look authentic otherwise.

- It works how I wanted 100%, but I don't like the stock JLF much. Stock stiffness too. Because of this my next TK stick mod went in a different direction.

The original mounting plastic on the TK4 Hori stick cut down as low as it can go so the Sanwa-JLF can be mounted here.

On the right side of the image you can see a cut peg from the restrictor gate (squircle) that I use for the arcade stick. If you don't do this the screws will prevent the restrictor gate from attaching.

The bottom side of the Sanwa-JLF lever after installation but before the restrictor gate is attached. Note the use of the original screws to screw in most of the housing.

- In order to fit the lever, I had to cut the preset pegs on the board to almost nothing left.

- I cut off a few pegs from the restrictor gate, removed the mounting plate, and used the original screws to attach the Sanwa-JLF to this.

- Generally, this was not worth it. But I learned a lot.