Jason Oestreicher knows fighting games!? yesss

Has my wish of a Giantbomb + someone from the FGC finally come true?

No more will fighting games be given quicklooks tantamount to humiliation! Finally someone who doesn't play fighting games for the single player!

No but seriously, great choice! Always nice to shed light on another part of video games, and have someone who doesn't play every fighting game like ST... Kappa ;D

To be fair to the GB crew before today they never tried to disrespect most of the fighting games they played. They admitted they were bad at them.

@sethphotopoulos said:

Haha true, I guess they give sport games the same treatment. Will be nice to have someone proficient in fighting games for when Mortal Kombat X comes out. Jeff can break down the lore, while Jason can break down the gameplay.

Jason can get deep into this stuff. After seeing people complain about the Ultra QL, future fighting game videos are gonna be a complete 180.

They may not be great at them, but games like Street Fighter and MK still get plenty of the spotlight around here. What I want to know if some other fighting games could maybe possibly get some more attention, like the new Guilty Gear. That's the kind of game they'd normally oggle the pretty graphics for like 5 seconds and then move on.

@masterrain: Yeah, he is pretty good. I've played him on several occasions. He definitely knows his shit.

Don't know anything about fighting games myself, but I'd like to point out the dude's name is Jason A-striker. If that name doesn't insinuate he's good at fighting games, then I don't know what would.

I don't know who this guy is but I like him already.

He should drag Jeff and Drew to Evo. Would make a great travelogue.

I look forward to the eventual Jason and Dave Lang Fighting Game podcast.

Maybe next year? EVO is next week already.

Well that's good news. I'm aware of how stupid it is, but watching people play fighting games horribly really annoys me. STOP JUMPING. ARGH.

If he knows his stuff like ppl are saying here, I hope jason becomes the training partner Jeff's always wanted. It would be way cool (and informative) to see a training series or something of Jeff earnestly trying to get good at a fighting game.

@itwongo said:

Have people really been upset with GB's fighting game coverage? As someone who could never penetrate the genre, Jeff's knowledge of and interest in those always seemed pretty deep, and Brad seemed like he was almost as big a fan but had maybe lapsed slightly.

Regardless, it'll be fun to get quick looks that aren't just Jeff dominating for an hour straight.

No, he doesn't.

@dark_lord_spam: Jeff has a pretty good spot in the middle where he knows just enough to "get it", but not enough to play on the level enthusiasts expect. Which is crazy to expect from someone who doesn't practice and generally don't have the time to.

Though yeah, even if I don't take much issue with the fighting game QLs on the site. Having someone who really knows their stuff is gonna be better.

Good, now he can do Encyclopedia Bombastica on KoF 94 - 99. Then Fatal Fury Wild Ambition.

Jeff has already said he won't be going to Evo this year because he's busy that weekend. Still, would be awesome to have Drew there too filming stuff.

I'm not into fighting games at all, but I really love the enthusiasm of that community whenever I watch some streams of Evo or similar events. I'm with Jeff, it feels a lot more "real" than the usual e-sports. I'm looking forward to hearing from Jason on these sorts of games, and Platinum games which he also loves.

Before i make up my mind about Jason Oestreicher i have to know who he plays in USF4. Anyone know?

What if Jason is so good at fighting games that he makes Quick Looks boring (cus he would body everyone who challenges him)? Nevertheless, I hope to see some skillful plays from him.

@dark_lord_spam: Jeff does seem to like fighting games, but for some reason I think he's slightly intimidated and so never gets beyond the surface. They always say, "Well people still playing now are far too good, I'll never beat them", which is not true AT ALL. There are plenty of scrubs still playing ultra SFIV that you could beat just by knowing the bare fundamentals.

@ett: Yeah that's true, what if he plays Yun!

Although Jeff isn't too good now, you're only as good as your competition, so now he has someone to practice against we could see Shin Jeff! He'll be blowing up some pot monsters with some sick frame traps into counter hit setups into hard knockdown, setting up his vortex into a reset red focus stun combo. Then with the life advantage he could lame them out, anti-airing and building meter, winning purely on footsies. What you gonna do when Jeff runs wild on you!?

It's sort of already the case that Jeff wins a lot when they play versus anything, because nobody blocks and everyone just jumps around, so he can kind of win solely by virtue of knowing move inputs or something where everyone else is completely ignorant. If I play fighting games against friends that just play casually, I don't try to fucking steamroll them, because that would be meaningless. I'll go easy and try to evenly share the wins etc, but I do try to at least some of the time play in a way that clues them in to what they might want to think about in order to have better success. So hopefully the approach would be more like that. Not totally dominate, but show Jeff that his gameplan has been figured out and won't work without some adaption. That's unsafe and I can blow you up for free if you do that. You have this habit where you always do this from that range. I bet I can make you use this move right now. STOP JUMPING GODDDD RAWRGHGHG. You know, that sort of thing.

The other side of it is that Jason could maybe better show the online components of a game. I think it was... the Super Street Fighter IV Quick Look, they did an online endless lobby and somebody was just running a train on everyone with a totally crap DeeJay vortex that I think was just cross-up every single time. Although it was funny, it would be a better video if there was somebody that didn't happen to :P

Somebody with some fundamentals could also make quick looks for certain games MUCH better. The others in the office are dismissive of games like Marvel 3 or Skullgirls or whatever just because they acknowledge that they can't really get a grip on them. Maybe there's some valuable consumer advice there if the average person would struggle to penetrate the game, but it doesn't show the game itself in a very good light. Guilty Gear Xrd is also likely to fall prey to this. The Ultra SF4 Quick Look was terrible because they were completely uninformed in regards to what was actually new or different and hadn't taken any time to look into that before hitting record. I don't think the videos would be boring if they actually had somebody who knew what was up.

I ask him on twitter who he plays

Been maining Rose since vanilla after Mike Ross told me she was garbage. Been trying to prove him wrong ever since. Also, Guy, Fuerte.

Dude at least knows the lingo if nothing else. While I don't expect or even want GB to cater to the FGC, it would be nice to have someone in on QLs who has a clue what he's doing and can speak intelligently about fighting game mechanics.If nothing else, it would be a welcome change to Brad's endless DOTA chatter.

Rose playing probably got a huge boost because of Evo.

@masterrain said:

It feels like both Jeff and Brad have game reviewer syndrome, where they've become so accustomed to playing games for review (pre-release), where the only other people playing online multiplayer are other video game reviewers (all soft), so they like the feeling of winning a majority of matches despite barely understanding the ins and outs of the game. Then once the game releases and a bunch of obsessive teenagers figure the game out, Jeff and Brad stop playing because their limited skillset and level of knowledge suddenly wins them a minority of games.

I don't feel like I'm mischaracterizing them, because I'm pretty sure both of them have acknowledged this scenario on more than one occasion. At least Brad gave his best at getting good at Starcraft 2 and Dota 2, bless his little heart. Not sure what multiplayer game from, like the last decade, Jeff has actually put in the time to get good at. Probably Call of Duty.

Motherfucker also plays Guy? Well then, dude's alright by me.

Rose and Guy were my mains in Alpha 3, the only Street Fighter game I played to death.

@bisonhero: I hope Jason will show them all you need to start winning matches in ultra is stop jumping, start anti-airing and learn a combo starting from light attacks. Takes about an hour. Or I guess you could say "WOAH WUTS A FRAME? Fighting games are too hard."

If he's a Rose main he must have been losing his shit on Sunday. I know I was.

What you think is a deep knowledge and interest is only for fighting games of previous generations. Jeff doesn't know shit about current fighting games because he's paid zero attention to them (playing them and watching them eg. EVO) outside of hearsay for the last 6 years and then does Quick Looks where he fully exercises the zero attention that he's paid up to that point for all to see.

So when we see Jeff and Brad flailing around and not having a clue what it is they're supposed to be showcasing, as they did in the Ultra Street Fighter IV Quick Look, it's not entertaining nor is it creditable buying advice.

You could never penetrate the genre so you're not going to get anything out of it and we've no need for people with no interest in getting on our level of basic high-level knowledge doing amateur hour Quick Looks so it's utterly pointless content. It serves no-one.

BUT

That's all in the past now, Jason has a solid knowledge of fighting games.

I don't understand a single fucking thing you just said.

But... but I kind of want to.

I'm fine giving them a pass on having deep knowledge going into a quick look but there has to be a limit. They weren't even sure who the new characters were... I don't pretend to know a ton about fighting games, I get most of my news from @flstyle blogs, but that was just bad. Hopefully Jason can jump on the other side of the camera occasionally to help them out.

I think I've kind of accepted that Jeff and Brad haven't really bothered to understand fighting games any more complex than Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 2-3, and maybe Jeff played some KoF '98 or something. I doubt they're ever going to progress past those. Too set in their ways. You'll pry their jump-forward-all-the-times and their hadouken-at-full-screens from their cold, dead hands.

But yes, let's hope that Jason basically leads every fighting game QL from now on.

@bisonhero: That's a little harsh. They have to play as much as they possibly can in order to be "in the know" and informed about the industry and its newest directions. Every week, there are 5-10 (or even more) Quick Looks where they have to be at least passably knowledgeable about a game in order to have an informative video. On top of that, it sounds like they have forced meetings several times a week, especially Jeff.

I think that expecting them to have enough time to get truly good at every game before doing a video is downright unreasonable. If that were the case, we would get maybe one or two videos a week. None of them has the time to get good at a game because they have to be already going to the next one--except for rare exceptions for games they really like (like Brad's Dota 2 obsession).

I'll believe it when he hosts the inevitable Xrd QL this winter and actually knows what's happening.

That's assuming he knows anything about Arc System Works fighters.

@wemibelec90 said:

True, they generalize in a lot of games, but they still have types of games they play on their own time. I posit that as much as Jeff is "the fighting game" guy and generally leads those Quick Looks, I don't think he's played many of them on his own time much since the 90s. Maybe a few dozen hours of Street Fighter 4, sounds like he played only a bit of Super and then really nothing past that, and he played through the story mode of Persona 4 Arena. And he played a bunch of MK9.

I know the staff can't have singular focuses, but look at Brad. Even if he's not the best player of Dota or Starcraft 2, I respect the fact that he generally understood the strategies, the nitty gritty of SC2 and Dota 2. When he Quick Looks an RTS (few and far between) or a MOBA, he's better to lead that Quick Look than Jeff or Vinny or something, even if Brad is largely just reframing everything into something comparable from SC2 or Dota 2. He gets the mechanics and gameplay.

At least Jason has a game that he has bothered to properly learn the systems of (Street Fighter 4, from the sounds of it). That won't necessarily translate to him knowing how to play an Arc System Works fighting game, but the fact that he has learned one fighting game on a fairly technical level is a good start for him knowing or caring what the fuck he is talking about for other games. Yeah, that's largely speculation, but Jason certainly sounded more enthused about getting way deep into a fighting game than I've ever heard Jeff be in the past few years. While Jeff is like...pretty good at Smoke in MK and was better than all the scrubs in the Scrub League, I really don't think he knows that much about fighting games, aside from the historical context of just knowing a bunch of them, old and new.

@bisonhero: I agree with what you have just said. I can't wait for the next fighting game quick look with Jeff and Jason. Hopefully, it'll be fun and informative.

Aside from outlets like Shoryuken which are targeted at fighting enthusiasts, i'd say most sites have pretty middling coverage of fighting games, likely because they tend to jump from game to game and genre to genre constantly to produce coverage, instead of putting in the time to get good at any one game. Someone has to spend that time (on their own time) to really progress in anything as competitive as fighting games.

A good example, is also MOBAs. Another genre that involves heavy playtime to be good at and really understand. Brad will talk your face off about DOTA, but nobody at GB cares about League of Legends or any other MOBA, because none of them have taken a personal interest.

MMOs, same deal. And the only good MMO coverage i've seen is from Phil Kollar over at Polygon, because he likes playing them even when not producing content for the internet.

@corvak: This. It only takes dozens of hours to become good enough at fighting games for casual play, but it takes way more time to become truly knowledgeable at them. I should know, I've put hundreds of hours into Capcom vs SNK 2 and I'm still a scrublord.

I was curious typing that up to see what the response of someone who doesn't go as deep into this stuff thought about my comment and I'm really pleased to see that you agree. It's one thing working for Giant Bomb or any gaming site to not have the time to play something for an extended period of time but, as you say, to be figuring things out like who the new characters are on the fly during the Quick Look is nuts. It would've taken 60 seconds to look it up on Wikipedia before recording started. And this is the level of attention I'm taking about, zero.

@bisonhero: I think they can progress, really easily! I don't want to sound like a dick, but when Jeff and Dan were playing MK and Dan said he won a 'tournament' I laughed. They were talking like they were competent, while in reality they were playing MK like a bad ST player and Dan didn't even know all the characters moves. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, as they only played other kids at arcades.

I know I'm a bad person, but I'm looking forward to someone (Jason) who knows fighting games to show them the light through merciless beatdowns. Doesn't even have to be a complex game like SFIV. When they are playing MK3, a game they are 'good' at, they would be 1000% better if they stopped jumping and didn't play like it was street fighter! You could literally beat all of them by sitting there, anti-airing and punishing unsafe moves. Once they learn this they will enjoy fighting games much more! Its the same with DOTA, you get past the stage of spamming all your skills and hoping to win, and you see the chess game underneath.

I hope I didn't sound too mean, but I want everyone to love fighting games, and if someone is playing like an idiot they'll never learn if they think they're good... ;)

Yeah I mirror most of what's been said here, the Ultra QL sucked for me just because I wanted to see the new characters and it was my first exposure to Ultra gameplay and they showed like one of the new characters. Also I look forward to seeing Jeff getting bodied instead of Jeff being the body..-er?

I'll let Chris Hu explain:

I'm with the dude at the end, but I am suddenly super intrigued by this world and its intricacies. I might go fall down an EVO hole pretty soon here.

@punkxblaze: If you wanna fall into wonderland, I'd recommend watching streams like http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky (live now), Spooky streams a tournament called Battle Circuit every wednesday at 8ish New York time. Its not some esports tournament, its a bunch of dudes hanging out and playing games, super casual but highest standard of play. Also shoryuken.com, eventhubs.com and http://www.reddit.com/r/kappa are great starts.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 comes out August 5th in retail for really cheap, the retail disk comes with all costumes ever released too!

@masterrain said:

Maybe Jason can do a subscriber series where they show the rest of the dudes the ropes and subs can watch along and learn as well! Hahahaha!

Chris Hu has all the answers.