SoulCalibur IV Comments by Richard Leadbetter

you should probably have checked your facts with this statement regarding VF before you brought it up as it isn't true. up sidesteps or triggers defensive move when done at the right time.

I played 5 on PS3 very briefly before getting very bored, could've sworn up was jump. It certainly was in 1, 2 and 3 and I didn't think they'd have changed the 'magic hardcore formula'.

you can only jump if u attack at the same time, has pretty limited use as it should.

perhaps you shouldn't mash buttons, i presume you probably were as i can't imagine how u could otherwise fail to grasp how to move in the 'up' direction, a simple move requiring no buttons.

Having briefly played the game this morning in Story mode using Yoda, I can say this game looks jaw-droppingly gorgeous, is slickly presented and plays extremely well. The revamped Story mode which has you fighting five opponents one directly after the other (this caught me out!) in the same stage makes it feels a bit different from the previous games and the linking cutscenes are all very well done even if they don't make much sense narratively. You unlock stuff as you play (not sure what Style levelling up is though) so that certainly adds to the addiction as it did with the previous games. With fighting games tending to be fairly shallow, earning rewards is what keeps me playing them for hours on end. Looking forward to checking out the rest of the game's single player modes later on.

Oh and loading times are around 5 seconds between stages in the 360 version so I'm not sure that there's any real need to install the game to the HDD on the 360 come autumn when we get the new dashboard. PS3 Fanboy's comments on the PS3 version suggest that it takes 30 seconds to load stages without the HDD install and less than 10 with but I can't vouch for that as I've not got that version of the game.

"And don't act like you are some type of expert on fighters, none of you bought Virtua fighter 5. None of you are worthy of licking the boots of VF5"
er... I did. I also completed 100% of VF5. But I don't claim I'm expert on fighters, I'm just very good at VF. Only VF.

yeah..., I have this crush on VF which I can't realy explain why. Not a particular big fan of all fighting games but I'm crazy for VF. I probably overstated the fact of beeing very good, Japanese kids oftenly beat me online. ;)

I did complete the whole VF5 though, +2000 fights.

The 1up review might be a little misleading then. With the ~2-3GB HDD install on PS3, load times are about the same in both versions. Without it, they're a bit longer on PS3.

Also, the 360 verion looks a tad smoother because it runs at a higher resolution. Its ~1365x960 on 360, and 1280x720 on PS3. Neither version has AA.

Flicking between these comparison images, there are fewer jaggies and slightly sharper textures on 360 as a result of downscaling to 720p. The difference is very slight though.

360
PS3

More here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yoda-dip-jp/20080731#1217490078

Load times in seconds from that SC4 comparison:

_______________________360__PS3 not installed__ PS3 installed
SIEGFRIED vs NIGHTMARE _12 __16______________10
XIANGHUA vs IVY _________ 8 __16______________10
HILDE vs TIRA____________ 8 __18______________10

It seems that load times are quite a bit longer on PS3 without the install, and very similar with the install.

So the PS3 has a slight edge here then, because you get Vader instead of Yoda, and you can always choose NOT to download Yoda later on ;-)

If only they could make an option to go into a lobby with people who are not playing Star Wars characters, that'd be even greater.
Since my cousins absolutely hate Yoda, I will be using him a lot against them however :D

Anyway, this is a great time to be a 360 or PS3 owner. I hope the online fights will have about the same amount of lag as Smash Bros Brawl, that was very playable on most games for me.

@warbo - Those figures really do highlight how slow the PS3's BD drive is compared to the 360's DVD drive. A difference of 2 seconds is hardly worth shouting about and, in fact, the 360's DVD drive beats the installed PS3 version by those 2 seconds in two of the tests!!! LOL

It'll be interesting to see if loading times are reduced on the 360 after the autumn dashboard update as we'll have the option to do HDD installs. I reckon people will only see a couple of seconds difference at most but it could be more useful where the game constantly accesses the disc, e.g. the ingame menus in Devil May Cry 4 and Oblivion.

@warbo - Those comparison shots are interesting but what makes you think the 360 version doesn't have any AA? If you look at the 4X zoomed in shots on that link you posted you can clearly see that the 360 does have some anti-aliasing but the PS3 doesn't... or maybe it's a result of superior downsampling. In fact, the "AA "on the 360 version makes the game look softer but I prefer that to the more jaggy-edged sharper looking PS3 version. Certainly my playthrough of the Story mode with Yoda in the 360 version didn't reveal a horribly jaggy looking game as you'd expect from a title that doesn't use AA. I mean this is definitely no Halo 3 or PS3 GTA IV!!! LOL

One more Halo bashing comment and I wont log in to EG ever again.

Bah!

I'm glad popularity of this genre is falling because the way it handles women is disgusting. What are they going to pull for SC5? The chicks are already physically pumped to the limit of what's humanly possible (and still be able to move at all). Simply a disgrace.

I totally agree with Pulsar. Any genre within which one or more games have images - whether polygons, sprites, or even simple vectors - of unrealistically proportioned human female facsimiles, is immoral and disgusting and deserves to die. This is also why I'm glad that shooters are horrendously unpopular after playing that porno one a while back. Same with Tetris clones and puzzle games in general. Same with FPSes. Same with RPGs, platformers, adventure games. Also a lot of bemani games have music videos which are offensive to women, so I don't play those either. And racing games often have those offensively-clad women holding scorecards. And a lot of text adventures, except with those the images are written down, because they're too obscene to be displayed in image form.

This is why I only play Pong.

@viper_h

I bet you would tough guy, but what I was saying is that people on Live use one or two moves constantly with him, I didn't say you can't use him properly. Don't get so worked up.

@Pulsar

Yeah, I agree. The way it deals with men is dreadful too. Young, attractive, muscular. Some of them are even tall. Most of them have hair!

Fuck them, man. Fuck them all. Where's the love for the average man?

Having played for about 20 minutes now I can confirm that a) you can change the voiceovers to Japanese, and b) it's fucking brilliant.

Soulcalibur IV rules. My brother bought it today when it was released and this game just rocks! Awesome!

this is shite online. lag, button bashing and more lag.

Proof, finally, that the PS3 is the console of the "Dark Side"...

Something to add for the people with small old tv's: the text and icons are really small and it is hard to make out the special properties of the weapons. The game looks very nice though and plays just a little slower than before it seems. I like it a lot already

I agree with Nick_JC1: Eurogamer review of the game is as bland and dull as any other from this game in the whole world wide web. I really doubt that when the reviewers are talking about concepts as "deept of gameplay" or "just frames" they understand anything about his own words.

Soul Calibur IV is great. Is like a SC III remake with better balance between characters and very improved graphis, plus semi-decent online. Not a "10" but easily the best fighting game around.

Much better than SSBB or DOA, and more widely enjoyable than Tekken 5DR or VF5. I'm like a bit more the Tekken series, but if all my friends likes more the Soul saga there's nothing bad about this, and I enjoy all SC games to date. But the review is still lame: aside for the jar-jar-mydichlorians assault, the game is easily the best fighting game in the actual generation of consoles, and deserves a lot more than a prure crap tha in this turbulent times a shitty "8" means. But is not weird, because is writed by a reviewer that probably hasn't done an EWGF is his life.

Excuse my english, I expect that at least the concept behind my words to be clear.

@Buran: what is an EWGF? I'm not a native English speaker.

I agree with your description of the game and I find Hilde is making up for Yoda :-)

Electric Wind God Fist. It's a move for Kazuya in Tekken. It's a punch in which lightening comes out of his arms. It's not actually all that powerful, but if timed right you can keep them in the air by doing it repeatedly as they fall. There are videos on YouTube of people chaining 15 in a row, taking someone's life bar from full to empty without their feet even touching the ground.

@Darren

There's no AA applied at 1365x960, but downscaling 1365x960 to 1280x720 = SSAA.

@Zomoniac, thanks for the reply. Kazuya was one of my favourite Tekken characters but this combo is new to me.

Btw, I feel like they missed a chance with the Star Wars characters. I'd love to beat up Jarr Jarr Binks!

@Skywise: EWGF or "Electric Wind GodFist" is the just frame version of the Wind GodFist (f,N,d/f+2 or f,N,d~d/f+2) from Kazuya Mishima in Tekken. Is esentially a more faster version of the WGF which also is safe on block. Since is also a juggle starter, EWGF is one of the best punishing moves in the game and give time to deploy much powerfull juggles than the "normal" WGF . Other Mishimas as Heihachi, Jin and DJ have alse their respective EWGF.

http://tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/showthr...

But EWGF is not overpowered because demands a lot of skill and training to do it consistently, the only way to take full advantage from Kazuya's juggles potential. I'm not talking about this move because his power but because the skill requirements. Usually the fighting games reviews are done by "casual" players. It would be much more interesting to see here some words about the smaller window to Guard Impacts, the changes in the stepping system, the absence of the Soul Charge or Leaping Attacks, the nerfing in the overall damage from the characters, the lesser effectiveness of the ring out attacks, etc... Instead the typical comments about the size of the breast or the SW guest characters. A review oriented to hardcore players.

Eurogamer and some other webs don't will gain my respect scoring low some long awaited games, but talking deept about his gameplay roots and so.

I'm reading this on my PS3, after my first, mammoth session with the game. First off, regarding fighting games, there's only so much you can do. These games are designed for competitive play, with the solo elements being just something to do between 2P matches. What really matters in this respect, is the balance between the characters, as well as the variety of playing styles on offer, the fun that can be derived while experimenting with the new characters, and the depth of the fighting system. AFTER a team gets all those things right, then and only then should they start fiddling with stuff like character creation and 1P modes.

Sadly, while the Eurogamer review is well-written, it doesn't touch upon the things that really matter. Some genres, especially those that are traditionally "hardcore", can only be appreciated by devotees of the genre. Goes without saying that a review in a mainstream site should take into account all kinds of gamers, it's just that as it is, it's pretty much worthless to anyone bar the most casual dabbler in the genre, and that's me being overly generous. It's fine trying to come up with a review earlier than most, I would just like to see some more substance in there. Please take your time when reviewing games, what really matters is the opinion itself, not how quickly you can get a review up.

Now that this mini rant is over, I can say that I agree with the score, but not with the arguments that support it.

WHERE THE FUCK IS TEAM BATTLE MODE?????????????

It was in Soul calibur 1, 2 and 3.

SO where the fuck is it now?

If Namco charge me via downloadable content for something that should be in the game in the first place then I'm gonna fire bomb the fuckers for ripping me off.

RANT OVER.

i'm very disappointed with soulcalibur IV, high value of eye candy but the gameplay has is too slow.