SF IV - I had to trade it in already - it was makikng me look bad!

[Magnific0]

you're old :P not really, but as a veteran SF player judging from your post I can see some of the reasons for your disappointment/frustration:

You said you couldn't pull anything off with the controllers, maybe you needed to get accostumed to the pad before trying the more complicated SF4 (quite more complex than SF2 for sure) I'd recommend buying Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix from the PS Store, it's just 15.00 and worth every penny, you will definitely play a lot of online and (win) on this on this one but more importantly you'll get used to the pad while you have *fun*. Trust me on this one, you owe yourself to play that game.

If your PS3 has BC (can play PS2 games) or somehow you can get a hold of a PS2, you should buy a couple of PS2 games for cheap on ebay: Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, the first includes Street Fighter 3 which is very similar in timing and speed to SF4 and the latter includes all SF Alpha games which also share a good amount of technical similarities with SF4. Note that I'm not implying you have to play any of this games to be any good in SF4, but I think if you can find it for cheap there's no hurt in having a taste of what you've missed. At least go buy that SSF2 HD Remix from the PS Store NOW!

Maybe someone already answered this but you could've solved the "loading problem" with the "install" option included in Options menu. Yes, the PS3 version sucks because Capcom sucks and they'd rather screw their japanese fellows with a run-of-the-mill 360 port than taking the time to do the appropiate programing for the PS3.

Seth is just cheesy, even in EASIEST, so if you are inexperienced or unskilled (or both) you'd be better off beating he cheesy too, the good ol' crouching kicks for the most part work almost flawlessly. Some characters have it easier with Seth or perhaps he's difficulty setting gets all messed up, I'm not sure. I'd stick with the cheesiness until being able to perform at a good skill level. It's not really that hard, I have a friend who never touched a SF2 game after the 16-bit era (or any videogame actually!) and he just recently bought a PS3 and SF4 and he's been able to beat Seth on Medium at couple of times (and he hasn't played more than 4 or 5 hours, in Arcade mode, with friends, etc. Really) So what does that say about you my SF2 Arcade veteran friend? You must give the game a chance.

PS. You say you're "calm", but the promptness in returning SF4 makes me think you did hurl that controller, a little too many times ;)