Changes to gameplay:
Saving Attack: If you eat an attack, now your grayed-out health can be regained as long as you aren't blocking. So, you can go on the offensive while your life charges back. It comes back fairly quick as long as you are not abusing SA. Saw a guy eat 6 Ryu fireballs in a row with SA, then he took a hit and lost 1/2 of his life.
Super Meter: Ultra Meter resets after every round, but now your Super bar carries over to the next round.
I have seen quite a few instances where people were getting crumple stun off SAs that didn't even last half a second. I'm trying to figure out how this can be done. It may be a timing issue or something.
Everything else seems to be the same.
New Setup at the Arcade: There were 5 machines, 4 for dedicated LAN fighting and one called a "mode-select" cabinet. You could play 4 different modes on this cab, but it also linked to the 4 other cabs and it would make you play human opponents on the LAN every once in a while.
Back to the modes, there was Arcade Mode, Beginner Mode, and a few other modes that helped you earn money to spend on your character.
They also took off the 7-win streak limits. Now you stay on as long as you are winning.
Cosmetic Game Changes:
New character 2D portraits in character select screen for the following characters:
Ryu
Ken
Chun-Li (no more "man-hands" portrait, possibly because of complaints)
Guile
Abel
C.Viper
Chun-Li's 3D model got changed... again. The 3D modeler really does have a boner for her. No love for Viper as she looks the same as she always has in the 3rd loketest. Ken also looks revamped. Give Viper some love please... she looks plain compared to the rest of the cast.
Bison's win pose is now his CvS1 taunt, where he takes off his hat and grazes over his bald head with his free hand.
Chun-Li seems to have a few new kicks.
Character changes:
Dictator is way improved now... now he's actually too good. Can connect short kicks to scissors kick attack very easy. Hard to punish, even when blocked, and comes out fast. Really annoying tactic and most characters have a hard time countering. Psycho Crusher is now hard to punish and goes a lot faster. His Saving Attack is also pretty effective, as the range is pretty solid.
Zangief is still great, but is slightly nerfed. EX Banishing Flat now knocks down when it hits flush, and now you cannot SPD as easily afterwards if blocked. His crouching roundhouse is not reliable either... sometimes it doesn't connect when you need to hit someone immediately. Regardless, his SPD range and priority is still insane. I got a 7-win streak with him, and I never play Zangief.
Honda is solid... he has a great normal with towards+roundhouse (or away+roundhouse, either one works the same). Comes out fast and has reach. His crouching roundhouse is not as effective. Standing fierce is horrible as anti-air, and as a move in general. Too much start-up time.
Claw got nerfed pretty hard. His rolling attack is slow on startup, and can be punished after it's done rolling. Don't know if this depends on what button you use, but yeah it's slow now. Good and bad in a way... last loketest it was kinda abusable. His slide kick attack is now slow as well.
Boxer has been improved. His charge punches (back, toward + punch) go faster, especially the jab one. He has an overhead, but I don't know how to use it.
Viper can track with her EX Seismic Hammer again, but now they changed her ranges on her regular Seismic Hammers. Instead of close for jab, midscreen for strong punch, full screen with fierce... the distance is changed and now you have to eyeball the distance better. Her Seismic Hammers will not ground an opponent as well as it used to... now people can jump away much easier. It takes away a decent amount of her game, and I don't think I really agree with it. Her EX Thunder Knuckle is still slow as hell, but if you happen to land it, it will give the opponent a crumple stun. Her Ultra still really sucks, but at least her regular super is slighly improved... you can recover slightly faster if blocked or whiffed.
Rufus: Yes, he's improved and now he has a decent shot of beating people. He can finally dash, not like last loketest. His dive kick comes in handy once in a while, but he still dies to people that have fireballs.
