Street Fighter V has been one of the biggest fighters this year. With two new characters already out in the form of Alex and Guile, the game is slowly getting better and better. It was not without its faults during the beta/launch period, with many players not being able to access features, or even the game itself! I still love you Capcom, even if you make me sad. It’s kind of like an abusive relationship, but with DLC. Sure, it’s great that so far both characters haven’t had to be paid for, but there’s one terrible problem looming overhead: Input lag! PlayStation 4 users have native, before internet, 8 frames of input lag. PC users have 4 frames.  What does that mean? It means exactly what it says: There is a fraction of time between pressing the button and the action happening. I do not feel it would be a big issue without crossplay, but that is on the table.

Certain characters are slower out of the box, and certain characters with a very reaction-heavy lifestyle, or footsie game reliant.  Footsies are the mid-screen pokes where you try to gain an advantage over your opponent without diving in head-first.  You have say, Zangief. He can easily be put into positons where he has no choice but to react. And with those extra frames, miliseconds of input lag, that’s the difference between a combo landing, and losing points. And nobody likes losing points. Nobody. I do feel like it is something that needs to be addressed, but I also doubt there’s an answer. You can’t just “turn off the lag”. It’s one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen in Street Fighter V yet; although thankfully, I have Street Fighter V on both platforms, but I play on PC, so I only get the four frames.  #pcmasterrace

Attention, Internet! Ragachak here! This is the first of many editorials by me! Whatever I find interesting at the time is what you will see in this column. Enjoy!

Two AAA titles dropping on the same day is typically a death sentence for one or the other. Say, TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan dropping with Overwatch. No matter how much fun it might be, it’s going to get buried beneath the weight of Overwatch. But Battleborn’s been playable since May 3rd. That’s weeks and weeks before Overwatch’s May 24th. So why all the hate and resentment? It’s been a standard in the gaming community since the days of the NES and Sega. We can’t “like both”, because that’s absurd. The games aren’t the same at all! Sure, they’re both shooters, and maybe Gearbox insists that you don’t call Battleborn a MOBA, but they aren’t the same. Battleborn is an adrenaline filled, foul-mouthed action game that has intense, fast-paced PVP to go along with it. But Battleborn has a story mode that you can explore, and the characters don’t all come unlocked. Its PVP can be ruthless, unfair and all told, pride-obliterating. If you take the PVE mindset into the PVP arena, you’re probably going to lose. You’ll sit there wondering, “Why am I level 2? The entire enemy team is level 7!” and I know this, because that was my experience day one of doing the multiplayer battles!

So what of Overwatch? It’s JUST PVP. The matches are pretty balanced, fair, and you can swap characters freely to meet whatever needs your team has at the time. The feeling of fun is much higher there. While I love Battleborn, you can quite easily be put into a situation where your team is outmatched in every conceivable way, and their team just counters yours. In Overwatch, you can fix that! Want to play the counterplay game? Go for it! But I don’t play Battleborn for the PVP so much. I play for the fun story and engaging characters, and the crude, awful humor. I love Gearbox storytelling as a whole. Why all the hate though? You know what one of the biggest arguments I saw for “Overwatch vs. Battleborn” was? “OVERWATCH HAS MORE PORN. So it is obviously superior.” I don’t even understand that. I don’t want someone to explain it either. Sure, certain websites have a lot of virtual porn for Overwatch, but damnit, I just want to play the game and be happy with other people who are happy about being there. Each game has their own merits, own flaws. It’s 2016, folks. Love what you love.