In a couple of weeks’ time, I’ll be going away for the weekend with a group of male friends for a sort of “stag-free” stag weekend. It’s become a regular fixture over the last few years and gives us an opportunity to indulge in matey banter and high-adrenaline jinks free from wifely interference.

Last year, I took my Xbox console with me and we had great fun playing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas into the early hours.

This year, I’ll be taking the excellent Street Fighter IV – the latest incarnation of everyone’s favourite beat ‘em up. Playing the game brought back memories of playing this for hours down at the local amusement arcade back in the day. All the usual characters are back (Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangieff) together with some new ones: Abel, Crimson Viper, Rufus and El Fuerte.

I’ve been trying to get some practice in, but am finding the combo system difficult to get to grips with. I managed to find an excellent Wikipedia entry which describes some of more esoteric aspects of the system in more detail.