BT_Rose here and last night I was fortunate enough to fight through the cold and the long wait and was able to take part in the launch party for SF4! I, like many of the thousands of people that showed up had to wait for a pretty long time just to see how close we could get to entering the building. My friends and I knew this was going to be a big party, but never ever expected to see like 4000 people there waiting to go in. But I shouldnt have been that surprised. I mean, it is Street Fighter.

    Last night was a pretty great experience. I met some really cool fans, young and old. The beauty of this was seeing the different kinds of fans that was brought together; men and women of all kinds of backgrounds. It reminded me of how some things in life can really bring people together, and amazingly enough...it was a video game that did just that. Other highlights of the night was seeing various celebrites such as Taboo, and MCD from the new Chun-li movie. We also had a chance to meet and take pictures with Mike Han from Linkin Park, and bumped into the lengendary DJ Q-bert as he was embracing the Street Fighter love with the rest of us. And of course, seeing Seth, Ono-san and David was also a treat. Overall, the party was a real treat for us, especially for me being such a huge Street Fighter nut. I did wish that the event staff wouldve done a better job of organizing. It was so hectic with so many people showing up. I understand that they probably didnt expect to see so many people, but nonetheless a little more professionalism wouldve been appreciated. It was too bad that a lot of our fellow fans and Unity members couldnt get in seeing how a good chunk of people that did go in were just party goers and observers rather than being a real "fan."

    So other than that, the night was filled with great people, great entertainment, great overall vibe for an even more greater game. Then to leave the party with some goodies such as a beautiful poster, ryu handband and an overall memorable event, the long wait in the cold was pretty worth it. Thanks to CAPCOM for a fun night. And thanks for making Feb. 18th seem even more longer than ever! haha. Cheers~!

Some sights of the party:

so i just played a few rounds of HD Remix on my Xbox. I can now officially say that i LOVE HD REMIX. bc i finally got to play the way i can truly play on a quality pad, and not on that craptastic xbox 360 controller.

i havent played on a Saturn controller since i was like 11. So playing with these new Mad Catz fightpads felt a bit foreign to me having played with the dual shock 2 and 360 pad for so long. so im sure these pads will take some time to get used to, but not too long im sure.

right off the bat, the size of the pad is great. for me, i have monster hands so the roundness of the pad itself to me is pretty perfect. in general, to me these actually feel more comfy than the 360 controller. the body has a nice smooth, gloss on it.  the rubber bumpers on the side gives u a more comfortable and steady hold on the pad and i think that was a great move by Mad Catz for putting those on. the button layouts is obviously the main focal point. just like the saturn, its pretty awesome to have all of your buttons right there for u. the quality of the buttons are not as good as the regular 360 pads, but its not at all flimsy by any means. it does have a lighter, more clicky feel than the 360 pad, but it does have a nice stiffness to it. i also like that the start, and Live buttons are on the bottom, and not any where near the primary buttons. so u cant really accidently press it during play.

the 360 d-pad as we know is horrible for SF. its just all kinds of bad. the d-pad on these fightpads feels GOOD. like really good. growing up as a Ryu/Ken player, hadoukens and shoryukens should be second nature. and thats what it feels like on these fightpads. effortless shoryukens. i always said that the ps2 d-pads are as good as they can get. well, the d-pad here is just as good if anything. i like it a lot. dont let the weird structure of it freak u out. it does look funky when u go out and buy it. but once u put your thumb on it, it feels right. its very smooth and user friendly. im glad the d-pad worked out well.

my gripes for the pads arent at all serious. the 360 version as u all know is wired. it does kinda suck, but thats only bc ive been so spoiled by the now standard wireless controllers. so its not all that terrible. the pad itself is as reported from others, very light. it does make the pad feel kinda cheap but once u start playing with it, its a whole different story. i myself would prefer to have some weight on my pads, but then again i do remember the Saturn pads being light as well. again , its just something u have to get used to. i didnt even play with the turbo buttons. its street fighter, who uses turbo???

anyways, my overall experience has been very good. hd remix finally feels real good to play on. like i said before, the moves are effortless compared to the original 360 pad. i was able to get the ken and chun-li controllers and they look pretty cool. if youre a pad player, and u cant stand the 360 pad which im sure u are, i think these fightpads are pretty safe to get. of course this is my opinion, and im a biased Saturn player, but im pretty positive that u guys would enjoy playing with these bad boys.