Ok. Due to my... position, I was today able to play test Street Fighter 4.
I'm not going to lay this out as I normally would my reviews, as this is a preview that I wish to get up ASAP.
The overall fluidity and appearence of the game is phenomenal. From the jaw droping art style of the intro sequence to the animation of the characters, the style of this game consistantly hits you in the face with a big fat slice of Awesome pie. At first, it's weird to see the Characters having such 'visible' faces, compared to sprites they leave a lot less to the imagination, Ryu's face and Ken's face both appear different, yet somehow exactly the same, for example - but when you're fighting there's no mistaking which character you're using. An absolutely fantastic style of graphics and combine that with animation that matches the feel of the classic Street Fighters - you've got a winner.
Which leads me to the next point. How does it play? Over the years, so many people have worried that any 3D version of street fighter just will not play as Street Fighter should. But let me tell you right now, that you can abolish this worry from your mind because this game plays the same way Street Figher 2 plays apparet from one or two character changes. And I mean it. You could probably get 1 control pad linked to 2 systems, one with street fighter 2 and one with Street fighter IV on - and the games would play exactly the same.
There are slight differences, for instance Dalshim's jump is a bit more of a levitational jump, he sort of floats through the air, and generally the jumps seem slightly shorter - but that makes no difference because the other character is affected the same.
The fighting feels so... Street Fighter. You feel each hit as you land it, and fear each hit as it lands on you. Ken's Shou Ryu Ken is still fast and deadly, with ryu you can still land a heavy kick and go straight into Tatsu Maki Sen Puu Kyaku (Hurricain) the game is just Street Fighter. Even though I was using the regular 360 pad, the game still plays perfectly with it, Hadoukens are no problem to use as and when needed. Though I dare say this would be much enhanced with a proper 6button pad.
One wonderful addition is you seem to have a split nano second to pull of 1 more move after the KO, this was demonstrated when I landed a KO Hadouken, and then as the KO came up, I pulled of a super - the game when back in to the animation and after KO I landed the super, adding the perfect injury to the perfect insult - and yes, in that order
The game as far as MP goes is fantastic. All the Characters are so compatible with each other, sure, Zangief (or, Zang, Ee, Eff as the game calls him) is still a weaker char if you don't know how to use him, but some of the new Char's seem to work really well without knowing how to control them right off the bat.
The only down side I'd give it is in sound - and even then in only 2 places.
1. On the intro, the music starts kicking in and it gets you psyched for the game, but then some singing comes on over the music which is very much remnisant of the usual Jap to Eu game convertions where they get some random to sing in english.
2. The Fight Voice over guy annoys me too much - he's constantly blabbering on about the fight at hand and though I didn't look for it at the time, I believe this guy needs a 'shut up' button.
Other than that, I'd give (based on this 1 hour first impresion) the game a solid 9/10 - I never score tens as anyone who reads my Ciao reviews would know, but simply put, street fighter has finally had a worth while update and any SF fan should own this game.
They don't understand the power of the low kick...you really don't need all those fancy schmanzy moves that require 5 seconds and 10 buttons mashed to pull off. You just need good blocking and moving skills and a good variation in high and low kicks. 
