I was reall excited about finally getting own my own copy of SF4 but after playing for over 20 hours during the past 6 days, I can safely say I'm a little disappointed with how the game plays.
First off, Seth isn't hard. He's cheap. I know this because I played the game on Hardest and beat everyone without using continues. This is because the fighting system, the most important part, just boils down to slow, spamming, turtle fest. I main Cammy in this game as she the only character I stand a chance with online and when I played the CPU on Hardest with her, people started dropping like flies. That's not to say SF4 isn't difficult at all, it's just that I usually back away from my enemy and spam attacks when they're open and this actually works, both offline and online.
In fact, SF4 seems to punish you for being aggressive. I'd jump at people and always got counter by an uppercut by those with that move. This resulted me backing up and jumping over fireballs whenever Ken, Ryu, or Sagat made the seen. I hear this fireball spamming is called "zoning" and is just a technique. That's understandable considering that SF4 gives you barely any options in regards to how you can attack. Cammy has no projectiles so I usually end up jumping over fireballs and using Spiral Arrow over and over until I win, if I win.
The controls also don't feel like they were meant for a PS3 controller. Sure, I should probably get a fight stick but I shouldn't NEED one, I should just want one. SF4 felt like it tried to hard to make the gameplay excessible and ended up with characters like Guile and Vega. I know they are good in the right hands. Hell, I even get killed by them but, no way in hell I'm I ever learning how to use those characters with such imprecise controls and akward input commands. Compared to characters like that, why would I even bother to learn their moves when Cammy is so easy to use.
One thing that really got me was that the extra modes weren't even worth the time and effort. All I'd ever unlock is some artwork, taunts, and colors. Trial Mode is flawed because the combo system is as akward as it could possibly be. Apparently the folks at Capcom expect you to preform a move within a move to link it. This just barely works but so combos seem pretty useless to me when turtleing and using Spiral Arrow at the right time seems to work wonders.
I was also disappointed by the online play in general. It wasn't "OMG TERRIBLE!" but it felt pretty dated to not even have a proper lobby in the game. I saw some variety in the characters I faced online even if Ken, Ryu, and Sagat appear a little too often. What killed me though is that not matter who I fought, if they picked M.Bison or Sagat, they would play almost exactly like the last M.Bison or Sagat yet they're a different user.