Aside from practicing, is there any additional measures one can take at not be terrible at this game?

Yes.

* Block. Know the main reason why pro's are so great? They 're hard to hit because they block instead of throwing out stupid stuff (ok not 100% accurate but pretty much, defense ruels). If you're standing next to your opponent and he's waking up, it's better to block than throw another shoryuken because "maybe this time it will hit?!?!?"
* Throw. Throws rule the game. Any time you think you can throw, you should, throws are probably the best attacks in the game.
* Learn a 2hit combo. Takes about 5-10 minutes and doubles your damage output. If you play Ryu, just learn say c.mk and/or c.mp into a fireball, and now you're twice as good!
* FA -> dash. Better than parries. Stand next to someone and begin charging an FA, then backdash just before they get up. Watch them burn off an Ultra or fly fist first into the air, then go nuts on them. best part, scrubs NEVER LEARN.
* Play Sagat. Or Zangief and press KKK all the fucking time, anytime anywhere. Or you can play Blanka, block all the time and basically be a fucking annoying untouchable turd.

tl;dr: block, throw, play annoying characters. Don't play Ken.


I love Ken. I love people who pick Ken, it's turned into fucking comedy by this point, watching someone flicker around the characters for 20 secs, stopping at Zangief for a few secs, flicker around a bit more, brief pause at Rose.... then at fucking lightning speed, blip blip blip blip BLIP BLIP BLIP BAAAM KEN!!!

It's it's... its the spinning kick, and... and.... what next?? OH MY GOD??? SHO RYU KEN??? NO WAY!!! NO FUCKING WAY MATE!! NO FUCKING WAY!!

PPP not KKK, KKK is the quick short version
and his SPD is the good part not that, that's just scrub bait
here's a vid of it eating a shro
i dont think you know what you are talking about bisse let me show you

hahaha

Did you know in SF2, with the proper spacing, you can beat even a reversal shoryuken with SPD.

I never got that into SF2 as you saw that one day but Gief is a LOT um, stronger? in SF4 than on SF2 from what I've know
Gief is a beast and you don't really have to think a lot on your toes as him. Sometimes I feel lousy when i win with him because i know i didnt have to try that hard.

FYI I just thought I'd restate: Using Gief's PPP you can perfect the AI over and over. Use it to unlock stuff easily.

And yeah, most new people don't block or throw (which means getting thrown) enough at all

Okay if anybody wants to play, I'm down.

Xbox 360 version, Nightblade or somebody, I don't care.

Yeah I'll play as well I guess(Xbox 360) GT is GI j0int. I'm not the best but I honestly couldn't care less as long as I enjoyed the match.

ahhhhh jesus christ GIEF SIM for fuck's sake they are two syllables.

well the shift key is pretty easy to hit too there bud sooooooooo....


 

LT, you're going down, champ. I'm taking your belt. Gen style.