So, as most of my friends know... (my xfire hours counter too) I play a fair amount of Stepmania. I recently tried the new release: Stepmania 4 Alpha, Supposedly an upgrade based on the 4.0 CVS betas. It offers the new(ish) Stepmania Online functions, along with all the peppy, shiny colors we've come to expect.... From a new children's game on the Wii. As far as gameplay goes, its pretty much the same thing. Menus are changed around a bit, and everything is in a different font. I wasnt able to find a window mode either... which kinda bugged me.

They've somewhat thrown out the old difficulty system, and grading; Instead, we've got Easy (green), Medium (Yellow), Hard (Red), and I believe Challenge (blue). Instead of AA's you'll recieve a grade of SS (super star)... and if you fail, the game menu still registers it as a "D" It seemed to throw out the old -Excellent Excellent- *etc Systems... Which made it much much easier to get Fantastic!'s. Toasty system still works though~

If you're upgrading from 3.9... Alpha is really a nice change; Options are various... but you'll have to get used to quite a few changes. There is a major leap from 3.9 to 4. I'm not quite sure if theyve made any changes as far as X-fire in-game stuff goes... scroll lock x still wont work, and i didnt even bother trying to manually sync it.

If you're considering switching your 4.0 CVS for Alpha... I'd suggest checking out some screenshots yourself. Most of the changes are Asthetics, but there are tiny tweeks to the game itself. I, personally wont be switching, until they come out with something less fluffy.

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A few added notes:
It seemed like Alpha threw out the ranking system on your previous scores. There was no "Machine record# 1" box flashing when i scored an SS

Difficulty settings must be adjusted inside the game itself. There is no longer a menu that allows you to set it prior to starting.

Loading menus seemed a little bit more lengthy.

There was a good adjustment to grading. Once you've finished the song, a menu shows you how many of each step you actually hit, in numbers as opposed to the graph system in CVS. Each Jump you hit, for example, is put next to your score (along with how many jumps there were total)

--This game is quite reminicent of 3.9, and some people may like that. I prefer CVS. Overall, the rounded edges, and white backgrounds dont do it for me. I prefer my blocky darkness, my annoyingly particular grading system, and my self-competition. (ESPECIALLY MY AA's!)--