Name: Soul Calibur 4

Platform: Xbox 360

Yeah I think I spent more then a few hours just making my characters bad ass. I dont think I played as a stock character till about the second or third day I had the game. The story mode is pretty cool. I mean what type of fighting game has a story mode anyway? Yeah go beat up this guy and do something... yeah cool game over. But the cool part of this game is the versus mode, whether offline or online its pretty fun. Its not as good as Soul Cal 2 but better then 3. So its cool I had a shit load of fun with it. I got my ass kicked online quite a bit which made me stick to off line practice. Yoda sucks. The Apprentice is pretty awesome but a pain in the ass to play as. I think I would rather have the ps3 version with Vader but meh. What can you do? Alright as with most games that involve some sort of multiplayer game play this game is more fun with the more booze and the more people playing. Knock back a few beers get some friends and start a little tourney. There is really no other way to play this. 4 beers.

Graphics:
Graphics is one area which the developers have put a lot of work on, thus making it inch perfect. The game is very colorful and lovely to look at. The characters, their clothes and their attributes are highly detailed. The environment just looks gorgeous with every stages beautifully rendered in HD. The graphics in the game is just a work of art.

Graphics: 9.6

Presentation:
SoulCalibur IV unlike Street fighter is a 3D fighting game and hence everything in the game reacts to the way you play. The arenas have their own advantages which the players can exploit to gain an edge over their opponent. Sometimes when the fighting gets intense the arena breaks apart thus making it behave differently, which opens up new opportunities to gain an upper hand over the opponent. The game does not suffer from any hiccups or frame rate drops, especially the PS3 version as it comes with an optional installation feature.

Presentation: 9.2

Controls: 
The controls are rock solid with no problems what so ever. We have the standard controls such as the X for guard, circle for kick, square for horizontal strikes and triangle for vertical strikes. The awesome thing about the controls is that it can be customized depending on your style of play. Another thing is that the game allows you to stack up combos for every button ie, you can assign button combinations for the R1, R2, L1 and L2 buttons, thus helping you to pull off some cool moves, thereby making your opponent look like a complete idiot.

Sound:
The sound in this game is just mind blowing. I mean for real, the characters have their own dialogue pieces and taunts with which you can tease or insult your opponents. Every weapon has its own sound, the sound directors have done a great job documenting the various weapons, their characteristics and how they sound when ever they strike any object. The in-game music is cool and they differ with the various arenas. Ya how can I forget, the game also has an announcer who initiates every battle.

Sound: 9.0

Gameplay: 
Let me start off by saying button mashing helps you a great deal to move forward with the game. Gameplay kicks ass and is one of the best I have come across in any fighting game. The PS3 version gets Dark Vader and Apprentice who are guest characters from the star wars universe.

The game screen has the life bar, the soul gauge and armor pieces. You can hold upto 3 armor pieces but these vary according to your costumes. The armor pieces can be broken if you are getting attacked constantly. As you fight, the soul gauge fills up and when it fills up fully, you can unleash a devastating move. This move is different for every character. The game also has combos for each character which you can master.

Game modes include the Story mode with various cut scenes and story sequences for every characters but only lasting for 5 rounds thus making it very short and giving a feeling of wanting more. It is funny that every story ends with the fight against Nightmare who is the bad guy in the game. Versus: The standard versus mode is basically, pick a character and fight till the end while special versus is more or like a tag team match up. I really had a lot of fun playing versus mode with my friends, talking trash and kicking ass at the same time.  With the tower of lost souls game mode, you can select a character and fight your way up or down the tower by fighting against a lot of enemy AI.

As you play through your characters level up and with that their skills and play styles evolves which in turn opens up various customization options. Speaking about customization, the game offers tons of ways to customize a character. You can customize an existing character or even create a new character with a unique fighting style. The customized characters can also be taken online. The way you customize your character gives you combat bonuses which gives you an edge in the battle. For example, The auto counter helps you to pull off a counter very easily. Similarly you can make the horizontal strikes more powerful than the vertical strikes. Even combat bonuses have their own advantages and disadvantages to level up the playing field.

Gameplay: 9.5

Multiplayer: 
Multiplayer is bandwidth hungry and is enjoyable only if you have a 1 Mbps connection or more with good latency. Otherwise you cannot connect with other players online and even if you do get connected by any chance, the game is so damn laggy and frustrating. Multiplayer offers the same game modes as the single player, the ranked and unranked versus and special versus modes. As you win battles you gain gold and experience points. The gold is like the in-game currency with which you can buy new weapons, costumes or even unlock some characters. With experience points, you level up.

Multiplayer: 6.5

Overall: 8.8

Good: 

—Technically proficient graphics.
—Jaw dropping presentation.
—Rock Solid controls.
—Tons of customization options.

Bad:

—Short story mode making you feel left empty and wanting more.
—No additional game modes like in other SoulCalibur games.
—Laggy Multiplayer if your connection is less than 1 Mbps

So here we are from right to left, Colby, D. Sazster, Gracie, and J.P.!

Tradução que tava nos comentários do Youtube

"A cup is way to small, that only shows that u lack of self-confidence. There's no reason to be affraid of boobies! Get a hold of urself!"

He concludes by saying:
"We've seen many different kinds of boobies now, but what I wanna say in the end is just that it is not a good thing to juge girls from their breasts! lalalala (etc)"

Créditos:
Sidnei Starnini (Direção)
Emerson Fox (Piloto, edição)
Lucas Patricio (Narração)

Link da vídeo análise - http://www.mediafire.com/?g1srzgd3tv4
Site oficial do programa - http://www.santagames.com.br
Site oficial da emissora - http://www.santaceciliatv.com.br/

After playing this game for atleast a month, I am rather bored and unentertained with the game.  Whereas the gameplay is very well polished, the online gameplay is flawed.  Frankly, there are too many people who try to obtain the best win ratio through many devious and cowardly deeds.  Although this is most common in numerous fighting games, one cannot escape those conveniently induced lag-spikes or have the opponent purposely lose connection (resulting in a draw for online purposes).  On the other hand, there are plenty of good-elite online players who play purely for fun or competition.  One just has to suffer a few hold-up matches until the SC4 server actually finds a good opponent by random (it doesn't take that long).

For the most part, stick to playing with your friends locally for good time fun, and use online play for laughs (colonel sanders custom creation).

The game will certainly praise your gaming collection, but the replayability is rather limited.  At most, SC4 probably has the shelf life of possibly a month to a few months for the truly dedicated.  Nonetheless, I would have to say that this is probably the best Soul Calibur game I have played as of yet.  Think of SC3 without all the fluff and that is exactly what SC4 is, except with online capabilities.

Overall - 8.5
Rent the game first, before buying it.

Brief list of changes (updated periodically):

Character-specific Changes
- Algol's projectile combos no longer possible (as in, it won't pick up opponents)
- Algol's 8A+B pushes airborne opponents backwards
- Algol's 66A+B throw pushes opponent back further

- Amy's 3BA does less damage

- Astaroth's knee is more unsafe on block

- Cassandra's 66B+K does not relaunch

- Cervantes's 11K has less advantage on block

- Ivy's infinite gone
- Ivy's unblockable (6A+B) from whip stance does less damage
- Ivy's Criminal Symphony throw has a wider window for the JF version
- Ivy's whip 3B has worse recovery

- Kilik's B+K now GIs vertical attacks, and has a shorter window to GI attacks

- Raphael's B does not track as much

- Setsuka's A throw does less damage (25 -> 20)
- Setsuka's JF moves are easier to pull off (?)

- Siegfried's 3 has slower recovery (3B no longer is a combo, etc), shaves off more soul gauge damage

- Sophitia's BB does less damage (36 -> 28)
- Sophitia's 3A+B only hits airbone opponents once

- The Apprentice's A+B throw break has quicker recovery

- Tira's infinite against Talim no longer possible
- Tira's 2A no longer whiffs

- Talim can't dance around in the air

- Voldo's BT 236A does not stun anymore

- Xianghua's command throw works on Astaroth

- Yoshimitsu's aB+K has less recovery time (aB+K(CH) 3AB is no longer a combo, can't do aB+K during combos), does less damage (30 -> 20)

System Changes
- Soul Crushes are harder to pull off (moves generally take off less from the soul gauge)
- You can JI throws

*
pelo que da pra ver, combo de bolinha do Boss e infinito da Ivy pro saco.
já é um bom começo
=)

Soul Calibur roda a 60 FPS (frames por segundo). Isto significa que em um segundo, 60 frames estão passando diante de seus olhos e mostrando o que está acontecendo. Entretando, o “frame data” avançado irá ser baseado apartir do tempo de execução de um movimento (quer dizer, quantos quadros um movimento executa depois de ativado), vantagens e desvantagens desses quadros, etc.

Resumindo, “frame data” é o número de quadros de animação que um ataque leva ao ser executado e da quantidade de frames que um oponente pode introduzir com outro comando em resposta. Você pode basicamente observar o “data frame” como uma forma de determinar a velocidade exata de tudo o que acontece no jogo. Isso inclui ataques, contra-ataques, agarrões e até mesmo o bloqueio.

O estudo dos quadros é imperativo se você quer maximizar suas chances de vitória. Afim de compreender como o “frame data” é aplicado a um jogo de nível profissional, um movimento possui vários conjuntos de “frame data”:

- Informação sobre a velocidade de impacto;

- “Frame data” no ataque e na defesa.

1) Informação sobre a velocidade de impacto;

Esta é uma medida de velocidade de um movimento. A notação “i#”, onde # corresponde um número, implica que aquele movimento causa # quadros de ligação após ter sido executado. Por exemplo, o 236B de Sophitia é descrito como i13. Depois de executar o último comando de 236B (o B), são 13 quadros que realmante passarão antes de garantir um acerto no oponente. Valores menores são melhores.

Existem também um 1 “frame buffer” quando o ataque é bloqueado que deve ser levado em consideração. Então procure colocar uma margem de diferença na execução de outros comandos (trate, por exemplo, um movimento de i10 como se fosse i9 pois esse golpe causa impacto no 9º quadro mesmo possuindo 10 quadros).

2) “Frame data” no ataque e na defesa.

Um outro aspecto extremamente importante do “frame data” é o tempo de recuperação de cada ataque. Essa é a forma que jogadores profissionais determinam quais ataques são seguros e quais ataques podem ser punidos. Quase todos os ataques no jogo deixam o atacante em situação de desvantagem se o ataque for bloqueado. Isto significa que o atacante não será capaz de bloquear, atacar ou mesmo se mover por um determinado número de quadros após o ataque bloqueado. Estes descrevem a recuperação.

Imagine esse acontecimento. Se Cassandra ataca Sophitia com um AA e Sophitia defende, ambos personagens experimentarão um breve período de inatividade, onde eles não poderão fazer nada. Depois de um curto período, ambos personagens podem atuar novamente. No entanto, eles não irão se recuperar de um estado onde possam agir livremente ao mesmo tempo (provavelmente). Obviamente um personagem irá se recuperar primeiro (exceto em casos raros de recuperação simétrica). Essas relativas recuperações são descritas em ±# quadros, acompanhados pelo “on hit”(acerto) ou “on block”(defesa), essas recuperações relativas são obviamente diferentes para ambos os casos.

Se dissermos "236B is -14 on block", queremos dizer que quando o 236B for bloqueado, o atacante ficará em recuperação (incapaz de fazer alguma coisa) em 14 quadros por mais tempo que o defensor. Então, qualquer movimento que possua 14 quadros de efetuar dano será considerado um “dano garantido”. Um movimento que possua 15 quadros, ou mais até o impacto, será bloqueado. Entretanto, existem implicações destes dados negativos.

Vamos supor que um movimento é “-1 on block”. Ao mesmo tempo parece um valor insignificante, e se ambos executarem um movimento de mesma velocidade? Obviamente o defensor do último movimento irá ganhar.

Desde os mais rapidos ataques executados , se algum ataque for bloqueado deixará o atacante com uma quantidade negativa ou menos e isso pderá ser considerado um ataque seguro. Basicamente, o adversário não poderá garantir um contra-ataque. Se um ataque bloqueado deixar o atacante em um ponto ou mais, o adversário pode usar um ataque de mesma quantidade de quadros que o atacante não será capaz de evitar.

Agora que você entendeu o básico, vamos entalhar um pouco as coisas. Diferentes ataques tem diferentes dados nesses quadros. Embora qualquer ataque não-seguro pode ser punido com um movimento muito rápido, sendo um jogador profissional, significa tomar vantagem de todas as oportunidades em sua plenitude. Se você bloquear um ataque que deixe seu adversário em -18, usando um movimento de 11 quadros não será muito interessante. Você pode garantir com 14,15 ou 17 frames de ataques ou ultilizar até 18 frames de ataque que isso também será garantido. Com isso, é possível tirar total proveito dos quadros, mais para isso, você deverá conhecer o “frame data” de seu adversário, bem como conhecer o “frame data” de seu personagem com a palma da sua mão. Você precisa saber como obter o máximo de dano possível em todas as oportunidades.

Sabendo o “data frame” pode também contribuir para que você venha com extrema profundidade em suas estratégias. Por exemplo, Cassandra preferiu agarrar. Isso significa que apesar da velocidade de seu ataque, sua melhor jogada de punição é relativamente ruim.

Por isso, um jogador de Cassandra deverá decidir se executa um agarrão de i16 que não é garantido ou um ataque de i16 que é mais aconselhável. Se Cassandra executar um agarrão de i16 frames que não é garantido, o oponente pode atacar depois da execução do agarrão e atacar Cassandra na tentativa de punir o ataque bloqueado. Entretanto, se o atacante que assume Sophitia tentar enquadrar um agarrão de i16 frames ao ataque dela, o jogador de Cassandra pode usar um ataque próprio dela para vencer um ataque do adversário desde que o adversário sequer comece a executar uma recuperação nesse tempo de intervenção. Como você pode ver, incorporando o “data frame” é possível acrescentar um novo nível de estratégia para SC.
Não somente você poderá fugir de situações de decidir com o que punir unicamente baseadas em frames, mas também você pode manter uma vantagem. Digamos que o AA de Sophitia seja “+5 on hit” e que garantiu dano em Cassandra. O jogador de Sophitia (desde que obviamente conheça sobre “frame data”) saberá que possui uma vantagem de 5 quadros de diferença no início. O mais rápido movimento de Cassandra é i11 e leva 11 quadros até o momento do impacto. Sophithia com seus +5 pontos de vantagem, poderá usar algum movimento até i16 (devido o dano inicial) e deverá ter um embate ou contra-atacará a opção mais rápida de Cassandra.

Além do mais, alguns ataques mesmo que causem uma quantidade negativa significativa, podem ser usados de modo que possam manter uma certa distância do oponente, ou causar outros tipos de efeitos que reduzam o tempo de resposta mesmo que o oponente tenha bloqueado o ataque. Se executado com uma boa distância, um agarrão não funcionará, mesmo tendo bloqueado. Portanto, embora o agarrão possa oferecer um bom dano nesta situação, o oponente poderá usar um ataque ao invés de um agarrão para ter certeza que será conectado devido a distância que eles estão de quando o ataque foi bloqueado.

Existem também, em número limitado, “frame traps” (armadilhas de quadros). São movimentos que fazem com que o atacante recupere-se mais rápido que o defensor. Digamos que 4[A] é “+1 in block”. Se o defensor bloquear o 4[A], e ambos personagens executarem um movimento de mesma velocidade imediatamente depois, o atacante irá ganhar.

No dano, o atacante sempre estará com um ponto de vantagem. Depois do dano, o atacante se recuperará mais rápido que o defensor. Geralmente, de qualquer maneira.

Conhecendo o “frame data” você poderá decidir uma série de coisas essenciais:

“Se o oponente bloquear o movimento, ele terá um dano garantido?”

“Se o oponente bloquear o movimento, será sensato atacar a seguir?”

“Se o oponente for afetado por algum ataque, quanto tempo de recuperação ele terá?”

“Se eu receber um ataque de # quadros, isto significa que o oponente terá bastante vantagem para não ser interrompido?”

“Data frame” é algo quase obrigatório se você deseja se tornar um jogador profissional, em qualquer jogo de luta. Muitos profissionais usam como livro-base na formação de próximos jogos. Basta saber o “frame data” e ultilizá-los adequadamente para o seu benefício para ter um impacto significativo sobre o seu nível de habilidade.

tradução, adaptação e redação:

Alhazard

fontes:

caliburforum.com

gamefaqs.com

thecgs.com

Seguindo a análise do meu amigo Alhazard, ai está o frame data oficial do Sc4 postado pelo Denis

Official Frame Data Thread

Perhaps the most compelling argument for LBP is just how much stock Sony is putting in the game's all-things-to-all-people mascot, Sackboy.  He's truly a modern icon for the consumer generated content era: a blank (albeit cute and cuddly) slate to take on whichever identity makes the most sense for your game.  Whereas Mario (nee Jumpman) injected a little character into stacks of pixels nearly 30 years ago, Sackboy and his crew can be infused with all the personality you need.  Sony's even releasing an 80G hardware bundle featuring LBP in Europe.

Perhaps most importantly, LBP is the latest in a line of unbelievably good titles that aim to occupy the space somewhere between a game and full-blown platform.  Rock Band and later editions of Guitar Hero continue to deliver weekly content to suit a wide variet of tastes, from The Who to Nirvana song packs.  Nintendo packed a robust level editor into the already-superb Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and the community still pumps out engaging level designs almost 6 months after its release.  Soul Calibur IV is currently flying off the shelves, due in large part to one of the deepest create-a-character modes ever seen in a console brawler.

While it's true that these games rely heavily on the efforts of an engaged community, they also require a substantial commitment from developers.  LBP developer Media Molecule has made it clear that they have no followup project in mind yet.  For the months, maybe even years after it ships, they will be in the business of supporting and expanding LBP. And I applaud the effort.

Can LittleBigPlanet deliver on expectations?  Will it truly make us all one step closer to self publishers?  Will it finally deliver a sustainable experience supported by smart, effective in-game advertising?  Only time will tell, and I can hardly wait until October to find out.

]]> http://atomsplit.wordpress.com/?p=398 Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:59:58 +0000 guerrilla808 http://atomsplit.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/game-over/ Well, I finally finished every thing there was to do in Dot Hack G.U. with the completion of the Forest Of Pain. It lasted roughly 130 hours. From Memorial Day to two days before Labor Day. The Forest Of Pain wasn't that tough to begin with, but it was a beast at the end. I kind of didn't want the whole thing to end because it's such an awesome game. I was kind of thinking well, if I play this long enough maybe they'll put out a third series, but then if that happened my head would spin around and I would have a heart attack from excitement and that wouldn't be a good deal at all! After the Forest Of Pain I could pick someone to marry. As a personal rule I don't usually go to weddings because marrying somebody is totally unimpressive. However, staying married to somebody 25 or more years is quite impressive. Anyway, since it was my wedding, in a videogame, and took about five minutes I attended that wedding and sure enough there was a third allusion to another series. I hoipe it comes to pass!!! Anyway, I'm finally ready to put Dot Hack away and start on Soul Calibur 4 hardcore. So let the souls burn on!

Name: Soulcalibur IV
Category: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Language: English
Genre: 3D Fighting
Release Date: 29-06-2008

Description

When Soul Calibur was released for the Dreamcast in 1999, it set a new standard for fighting games on home consoles. Subsequent entries in the series have changed very little as far as the weapon-based fighting mechanics are concerned, and have introduced new features and gameplay modes with varying success. Soulcalibur IV is no different in that respect; the series-first online play is a great addition, but though the visuals have improved and the gameplay has undoubtedly evolved, it still feels very familiar. And that's no bad thing.

The majority of the characters on Soulcalibur IV's roster will also be familiar if you're a fan of the series, though only around half of the 30-plus combatants are available at the outset, including Yoda on the Xbox 360 and Darth Vader on the PlayStation 3. Others are unlocked by defeating them in the single-player Story and Arcade modes, and by purchasing them with the gold that you're awarded for winning fights. There's more than enough variety on the roster to ensure that you can enjoy playing as at least a handful of different characters, and a robust customization system gives you the freedom both to edit their appearances and to create your own fighters from scratch.

Regardless of who you play as, Soulcalibur IV is accessible enough that even first-time players will have no trouble performing some powerful and great-looking moves. Rather than memorizing lengthy combo attacks and knowing how to attack your opponent, the challenge here comes from knowing when to attack, when to block, and when to sidestep around the arena. That's not to say that the combatants in Soulcalibur IV don't have impressively large repertoires of moves, because they do, it's just that very few of them are tough to pull off.

Your goal in Soulcalibur IV, of course, is to defeat your opponent by depleting his or her health bar. Alternately, you can win by knocking your opponent out of the "ring," which is possible in almost all of the game's beautifully realized arenas. New to the series--though reminiscent of a feature in 1997's Soul Blade--is the soul-gauge system, which appears alongside the health bar and changes color if you spend too much of your time blocking attacks and not retaliating with your own. When the gauge turns red and your health bar starts flashing, you're just an attack or two away from entering a defenseless "soul crush" state, at which point your opponent can perform a one-hit-kill critical-finish move. It takes a long time for that to happen, so the soul gauge isn't always an effective deterrent as far as overly defensive players are concerned, but it at least discourages online players from trying to score cheap victories simply by landing a couple of blows and then blocking until the time runs out.

Online play is where Soulcalibur IV really shines, though there aren't many different modes of play available. The action is fast-paced and free of lag for the most part, though if you have a slow Internet connection, you might find that your character takes a split-second longer to respond to your inputs than you're used to, which can prove fatal against a skilled opponent. You can choose to play ranked battles online against random opponents or join up to three other players in an unranked lobby, in which the winner of each round gets to stay in the fight as spectators get their turn in the ring. Both Arcade and Special modes of play are available online, the difference being that in Special mode all of the characters' move lists are augmented by special skills bestowed on them in part by weapon and clothing choices. Disappointingly absent from Soulcalibur IV, both online and offline, is an option to pit teams of fighters against one another. Team battles have appeared in the series previously, and given that the tagging mechanic is present in the single-player Tower of Lost Souls mode, its omission is baffling.

Considering that Arcade mode does nothing new and Story mode is really short and text-heavy, the new Tower of Lost Souls mode is where you'll find the majority of Soulcalibur IV's compelling single-player content. Taking control of one to three fighters, you must ascend (and later descend) the tower one floor at a time by defeating multiple groups of enemies without ever having your health replenished. Variety comes courtesy of opponents with carefully tailored skill sets, as well as battle-specific challenges that can be completed to unlock treasure chests containing new armor and weapons. For example, you might have to defeat three fighters who all have the ability to leech health from you, or who are impossible to force out of the ring. Optional challenges during these fights can be completed by meeting very specific conditions, such as landing the final blow as the timer ticks down to zero, performing four or more counter hits, or for defeating all opponents by knocking them out of the ring. As you ascend the tower, the difficulty level can ramp up pretty quickly, and you might find that you have to revisit the character-customization mode to prepare your chosen combatant for certain challenges.

How you go about customizing or creating a character for Soulcalibur IV depends on the use that you have in mind for the character. For Arcade mode, the only thing you need to concern yourself with is how your character looks, and you'll find that the number of armor pieces and weapons available for you to choose from increases quite dramatically as you spend time playing. For other modes, you'll have to consider the pros and cons of everything that you equip, even if that means ending up with a character who looks like he or she has just stepped out of a medieval thrift store. That's because just about every item has an impact, not only on your basic attack, defense, and health attributes, but also on the distribution of skill points, which fall into five distinct categories labeled power, impact, boost, gauge, and special. For example, equipping an executioner's breastplate will give you 30 power skill points to spend and will boost your attack and defense attributes, but at the expense of health points. There are dozens of items to choose from, and they're balanced so that it's possible for you to make more specialized fighters but not to gain an unfair advantage. Even skills such as temporary invisibility, unblockable attacks, and health recovery--which on paper sound like they'd break the game--are kept in check because to get any real benefit from them you have to forgo spending skill points in other areas. It's worth mentioning that more powerful (and costly) skills can be used only if you've played your character enough to reach a certain "style level," but reaching the level-nine cap doesn't take very long.

Style is something that Soulcalibur IV certainly has no shortage of. The nicely detailed character models look even better when the flamboyant animation kicks in, and the sheer variety that's on show in the arena locales can't fail to impress. The orchestral soundtrack ends up feeling a little too epic for its own good in places, but that's largely because it's paired with cheesy character dialog and an announcer who delivers his melodramatic lines without even a hint of irony. Fortunately, this isn't a game that's ever in danger of taking itself too seriously, as evidenced by the presence of Star Wars characters, animal costumes, novelty weapons, and plenty of amusing arena details.

Perhaps the most amusing, or at least laughable feature of Soulcalibur IV is that Yoda, Vader, and The Apprentice from LucasArts' upcoming Force Unleashed game all have stories that attempt to explain their sudden presence in the Soulcalibur universe. In terms of gameplay, none of the aforementioned fighters from a galaxy far, far away are a great fit with the rest of the roster, but they're certainly not so far removed that they ruin the game or anything like that. Some Force powers aside, Vader actually isn't radically different from some of the other members of the cast. The Apprentice uses the force a lot more liberally and, at least until you figure out how to fight against him, he can feel like a really cheap opponent when he throws lightning bolts and even his lightsaber across the screen at you. Given his diminutive stature, it's no surprise that Yoda feels very different from any other character in the game. He's impossible to throw and, considering that he spends most of his time jumping around very acrobatically, he can also be tough to hit. He doesn't use the Force a lot, though, and he moves around the arena relatively slowly, so he's not so much overpowered as just tricky.

The fact that Yoda and Vader are exclusive to the 360 and the PS3 respectively is easily the most pronounced difference between the two versions, but given that both games have an empty box on the Star Wars row of the character-select screen, it seems reasonable to assume that it'll no longer be an issue once downloadable content starts coming. The only other noteworthy difference between the two games is that the PS3 version offers an optional install to make the load times between fights shorter. Depending on how seriously you take your fighting games, the controllers that you use to play Soulcalibur IV might also be a consideration The PS3 controller's D pad is superior to the Xbox 360's on this occasion, but the latter's analog sticks fare a lot better. The question, then, isn't whether or not you should play Soulcalibur IV, it's which version you should play.

By Justin Calvert

//Mumintrollet

Hmm, så sen blir det till att jag införskaffar Soul Calibur 4 och Metal Gear Solid 4, sedan får jag se vad mer jag blir sugen på att inköpa :)

Nåja detta var allt jag hade att skriva idag...

Ha det gött!

//Mumintrollet

SOUL CALIBUR 4!

SOUL CALIBUR 4!
(that was intentional).

I just cant get that typical arcade sounding 'SOUL CALIBUR 4!' out of my head. And the game's menu designs and (press start) and even the loading scrolls are resounding of the arcadey and nauseous feeling of playing a game from back in the day.

Yet, once you've done the character selection, the game's totally not that. The levels and the characters (but not the music) are definitely new age, albeit Japanese fantasy like. On HD the game looks super sweet; the environments are palpable and the characters believable.

[caption id="attachment_386" align="aligncenter" width="494" caption="oooooooh!:breath:Looks better in HD!:breathe:"][/caption]

Speaking of characters, the fans may already know that everybody's favourite Darth Vader is a playable character in the roster for the PS3 version (the one we received). In the 360 version you can wield the long eared, short guy, Yoda for your fights. In case you're wondering who YODA is, here's a pic!

The great thing about these new characters is that they are made ground up and aren't just skins over existing players of the game. Therefore you wont see Darth Vader doing any of the crazy samurai moves, but he'll definitely play to his weight and also use 'the force'. But enough of the Dark Side; lets pull out some shades for some bright stuff!

Another addition that brings much needed innovation into a fighting game is the character creation model. You do have a certain number of fixed stances and weapons that you need to adhere to while creating your character, but there are absolute heaps you could do with costume and feature customization. Better yet, you can play your character in matches (but of course!) and also take him/her/that online and show off your red underpants! This is one place where crazed fans and normal humans can definitely sink hours and hours in tweaking and tricking out their unholy children.

One of the best things about the game though is the balance that each character is made with. Even though someone would be wielding a range weapon and another a knife, the characters make up for it in other departments. Whereas Tekken may lose in this respect of character balancing, Soul Calibur adds alot of accessories and still pulls it off really well. There is no one super character (not even Darth Vader) and this only makes the game a lot more challenging.

[caption id="attachment_390" align="aligncenter" width="128" caption="*insert random explicit picture here*"][/caption]

Then again, how can a conversation about Soul Calibur and its aesthetics ever be complete without some female mammary glands? Yes, we're talking about the jiggle effect and frankly speaking its completely unnecessary. Namco Bandai must thank God that Soul Calibur delivers on so many fronts that the cost to add physics to them is nullified but DOA has never been half as good and burning money for such stuff should either be put to better use for the game development as a whole or be paid to grow trees or something. This world can do without some extraordinarily animated breasts which you'll never get to see amidst all the action and armor they are wearing during the fight sequences. And even if you were able to catch a glimpse and get high, then you my sir, seriously need a life! (or a better internet service ;)).

[caption id="attachment_393" align="aligncenter" width="617" caption="FAAEEET!"][/caption]

I dont like to learn things and that's exactly what Soul Calibur's fight sequences force you to do, since the combos are not that easy to pull off and you must learn the moves if you dont want to see just a few punches and kicks and a random body slam that you have no idea how you pulled off. But learning the list is another hassle since they dont directly indicate with X and O etc, they use ABC KGH etc which acts as a legend to the X O and all the buttons. It definitely got my head spinning, and knowing my tendency to give up easily, I didnt even try. Then again when I did pull off something cool, I liked the effect.

In simpler terms, the game actually rides a thin line between the super fast button masher Tekken and the carefully strategic Virtua Fighter series. In that it's slow but it's got precision. It may not be very flashy, but it's got the weapons and the armor, that are actually put to use and are not there for funsies only. Eventually its a good game, and it rewards you for digging deeper into its stomach. They speculate to bring in newer characters for DLC and that could only be good for its longevity.

But as far as we are concerned down here at deculture, we've got enough SOUL already ;)

[caption id="attachment_394" align="aligncenter" width="370" caption=".. and so do we!"][/caption] ]]> http://lefille.wordpress.com/?p=30 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:23:16 +0000 lefille http://lefille.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/sold-my-soul/ Holy Mother of GAMING, this game is incredible.

Okay, let's run down the list, shall we?

1. Incredibly unique individual game play for each of the many characters. None of them seem to play similarly enough to any other character to make any one of them redundant.
2. Beautifully rendered visuals. Everything is stunning, crisp, and, well, pretty!
3. INSANE customization!!! I've never seen a game with such detailed, specific customizable looks. Choose the character you like to play as, and go from there - you can even change their gender! Change muscularity and physique (read: make them slim or insanely ripped, make female characters with breasts the size of tennis balls or watermelons), change facial features, change hair and wardrobe (which you can make better by purchasing more things with money you earn in gameplay), change voice by pitch! And the best part is that ALL of the clothing/equipment colours can be changed to the most minute degree, as though you were editing them in Photoshop yourself. It's insane.
4. Challenging and elaborate gameplay. You can't just mash buttons in this game, and no one is going to beat you doing that, either. I love a game that actually takes skill, and that n00bs (someone who is ignorant of actual game ability, and acts like they are great, for those who don't play video games much) can't ruin for a real player. It take skill and a bit of time to work out the move combos, and some real intelligence to realize that a certain combination of vertical high, medium horizontal, and low moves will render your opponent incapable of retaliation. I've watched my brother and his friends play, and even though they are verygood at video games (I'm not kidding - one of them is internationally ranked), they were getting their asses kicked by some more experienced players. And the game hasn't even been out a month!

Oh, and did I mention the pretty ladies?

Now, I'm usually not very amused by the whole fanboy image, with the physically unlikely curves and barely-there clothes, but give a girl a sword and let her kick ass while bouncing around wearing said clothes, and my inner-Xena-fan is enormously pleased.

If you're a video game fan, buy this game. Or play it with a friend who already has it. I can speak from experience that creating custom characters with your friends is an absolute guarantee for a good time.

Il peso è di 695 MB.

Buon Download.

Ok, everyone I have been working hard to try and get some time and work on some reviews. I had updated the Banner with one I created, I would appreciate if you commented with any comments you have on it. I have been working on the Soul Calibur 4 Review and am trying hard to finish just been real busy with life. High school registration was today so I was gone pretty much all this morning and now im exhausted, so anyway enjoy the site I hope you like the banner and I'll post up the review as soon as I can!

今週、もっとのことをブログにポストしたい。もちろん日本語で :P

先週の写真：
macbookを買った！macbookを買った！今の経験は楽しい～