Soulcalibur on Live Arcade tomorrow Comments by Robert Purchese

"This first appeared on Dreamcast back in 1999 as an updated port of PSone fighter Soul Edge."

Journalism FAIL

edit: Look like some ambiguous wording in Wikipedia might be to blame:
Soulcalibur was ported and released for the Sega Dreamcast with improved graphics and new features and became one of the best-selling Dreamcast titles overall.

The DC Soul Calibur was actually a graphically-improved port of the arcade original, which ran on Namco's System 12. Namco then did a Naomi-based version, which was basically the DC one ported back to the arcade.

SHONKY!

I'm appauled at Robs apparent inability to even google it properly!

Is this the DC version with all the extras? It shouldn't be a problem as other DC games have made it to XBLA.

"This first appeared on Dreamcast back in 1999 as an updated port of PSone fighter Soul Edge."

*cringe*

WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

YES! This is exciting!

/wonders how to make a PS2 arcade stick work on 360

These Dreamcast ports for the 360 are freakin' great! And dirt cheap too!

As everyone has pointed out, Soul Calibur is the sequel to Soul Edge/Blade, not an uprated port of it.

I don't really know what this game would offer for someone who already owns SC2 for the Xbox (and I doubt many people will be buying it in a month when SC4 is out), but for completionists or people who aren't big enough fighting game fans to buy a full-priced game, it's a giveaway at 800 MSP.

Great news but I'm a little disappointed, I have to admit, that the game itself doesn't run in 16:9 screen ratio. I can understand why everything outside the actual combat has to be 4:3, such as the art work and menu screens, but not the engine itself which runs in 3D and doesn't require any additional assets to display in widescreen. :(

Yes it's true it's coming tomorrow \o/
Whos cares if there is no online, back then us console gamers could only play Chu Chu Rocket online anyway! I'm with Diomedes117 I'm loving the Dreamcast games on live, How about Sword Of The Beserk next?



"This first appeared on Dreamcast back in 1999 as an updated port of PSone fighter Soul Edge."

Dear me Rob, must do better mate! :)

Unless they rewrote the camera code, you'd just end up with both the fighters standing in the 4:3 area and huge expanses of empty background at the sides. It might also overly stretch textures and distort geometry too, as the game wasn't designed around a wide FOV. Could be totally wrong though, maybe they're just lazy.

This is a must buy. Its better than SC2 and 3 gameplay wise atleast. If SC4 is as good as this it will be the best fighting game ever made once again. Look at the rating for this on http://www.gamerankings.com. if your not convinced. If you dont get this you might aswell sell your 360 imo.

And Rob you messed up really bad in calling this a port of Soul Blade. I thouth everybody that cared about games new that this is the sequel to Soul Blade.

It needs to be mentioned that Mission Battle has been removed completely. You just get your arcade/time attack/survival modes, with all the unlockable stuff you got in mission battle being available from the outset. And yes, it's 4:3 with black borders. IGN blames the fact that MS lifted the 150MB limit very late in its development for this.

Well said muscleblade!

@ Zomoniac
Did anyone really think Mission battle would be in there? It is a arcade release after all. Besides SC is ALL about Multiplayer :)

Black borders shouldn't be a problem (i hope) if you have a decent HDTV just change the screen type and bingo the borders vanish......

Hmmm, I dunno. It's only a case of altering the FOV to compensate for widescreen and giving the engine a bit more to draw at the edges of the screen but given the game's age the 360 shouldn't have any trouble rendering the extra geometry anyway. I'm no programmer, granted, but SoulCalibur 2 runs reasonably well in widescreen on the Xbox 360 via emulation albeit that version is upscaled but it's also more detailed and has a higher poly count. Whatever, it seems odd to boast of updated visuals when the game still runs in 4:3 mode. I did read somewhere that the reason the game doesn't run in 16:9 is because it was finished before Microsoft raised the 150 MB size limit for XBLA and the developers couldn't fit all the redone art work into that file size. That's fair enough so why didn't they leave the artwork and menus at 4:3 and just have the game itself run at 16:9? That surely wouldn't require any additional assets? :?

Sloppy journos aside, I'm quite shocked that this comes in at 800 and Lumines is still a wallet raping whateveritisnow, 1200, plus addons.

o_O

I suspect it would have been 1,200 points had it included online gameplay.

DC games on XBLA!!! (my Xbox has been offline so forgive me for not having kept up to date on the XBLA front...) How about Jet Set Radio..??? the XBox sequel was lame compared to the DC original.. :D

@muscleblade
I'm curious about your remark - I've never played the game, not having owned a Dreamcast, but have clocked up plenty of hours in Soul Blade, SC2 and SC3 - in what way is the gameplay of this game superior to SC2 (I found SC3 a bit of a let-down, I think not being released arcades first adversely affected it)?

Gnort you fail big time for not owning DC, you really do not know what you missed friend :)

The Dreamcast was never released where I live, before you guys get too judgmental.

Erk; sorry for the historical fail on the origins of the game. I will sleep with the rubbish tonight because I am it.

@ Gnort

Don't worry I'm just kidding! It is a shame though, a great console which deserved much better.

Trust me though if you like SE/B & SC you have to play the original Calibur. Looked better (and personally I thought played better) than the ugly SC2, I must admit I didn't own a PS2 when SC3 came out so never played it so I can't comment on that one.

I've played all the SoulEdge/SoulCalibur games and my favourite, it has to be said, is SC on the Dreamcast, not because it was better than SC2 or SC3, but simply because that is the one I played the most and the one I have the fondest memories of. The trouble with SC2 and SC3 is that being on the same generation of hardware, they didn't feel sufficiently different from SC. I am looking forward to playing SC4 on the 360 next month but I doubt it'll capture the same feeling I had when I played SC on the Dreamcast back in November 1999.

@ Darren

That surpeises me with your keen eye for graphics :)

Did you not think SC had superior graphics playing SC2?

@bad09 - Actually I thought the graphics were definitely better in SC2 in terms of detail, textures and animation but the character faces looked odd and arguably better in the Dreamcast original.

bring on Shenmue

@ Darren
I see what you mean about detail and textures but for me there was maybe too much detail and that made the game kind of messy, and on the whole it didn't look as sharp or clean as CS which made it look to me. Even now SC looks pretty damn good,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jEnq60dznc

Mind you SE still looks pretty good...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhJCMxoluuk

I've read enough praise for the game to agree that SC was a better game in 1999 than SC2 was in 2003 or SC3 was in 2005, I think it's almost universally accepted that the series has never taken as big a step forward as it did from Soul Edge/Blade to Soul Calibur. However, I'm not sure that it will be a better game in 2008 than its sequels.

The good news is that I can find out for myself tomorrow, can't I?

Its better than its sequels because it has a better balance between the characters. The overall feel of the game is better than its sequels too. This is pretty common knowledge btw.

@bad09 - I watched a video from the XBLA version of SC yesterday and although it doesn't look awful, the characters and arenas do look sparse and less detailed than those of SC2 IMO. That's to be expected though as the PS2, GameCube and Xbox all had not only more memory than the Dreamcast's 16 MB but also more powerful hardware so they were pushing more polygons per second too. If SC2 had looked worst than SC bar the character art, which is subjective, I'd have been appalled. I think SC looked awesome for its time, without a doubt, but I can't deny that it was bettered by SC2 and SC3 technically.

SON OF A BITCH!

I JUST had 800 points and I WASTED them on those STUPID Prince of Persia themes.
Please, please please, people. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE PRINCE OF PERSIA THEMES. You can get the same images on the internet and transfer them to 360 with a USB for free. Don't make the same mistake as me.

I'm off to complain to Ubisoft now, excuse me.

Awesome! Been looking forward to this for ages!


"Its better than its sequels "

Personal opinion will dictate that. I absolutely love, and still play, SC2 as it's my favourite beat-em-up apart from fight night.

@ bad09

I always find that the \o/ thing looks better with the O-umlaut: \ö/ (obviously, you'd need a foreign keyboard layout :))

@ Razorus

I feel your pain, I got points this weekend and spend 'em all. COD4 maps, GTA theme (grrr, paying for themes!) Sonic 2, but the sad thing is, I wasted 800 on Commando 3 just to play SSF2HDR beta when I could of been playing this tomorrow :(

Lesson learned right there......

(actually C3 isn't that bad, it's quite fun)

re: 4:3 in SC.

Does the old trick of setting the Xbox to 480P work in order to get widescreen on old games? According to the MS help page on Xbox originals:

"Xbox Original titles that are designed for 4:3 (non-widescreen) displays will show black boxes on either side of the screen when played at 720p or higher resolution, in order to avoid distorting the original game images."

@bad09

I played C3 alot more than expected. Only need one more achivement and that is the rescue all POWs one. We where only missing one sucker last night when i played it with my nabour. Going for it to night i think.

@ muscleblade

Yeah I only played it last night but it is kind of cool made me a little happier about buying it just for the beta (I didn't even try C3 first went straight for the beta!)

Next up is shenmue! fingers toes bollocks crossed.

DC games on XBLA? This is great stuff.

Soul Calibur is one of very few one-on-one beat-em-ups I actually liked. I might get it, but it will have to have super-cool updated graphics or something as I still have the DC version.

Never played Shenmue 2, hope that comes out sometime on XBLA.

And now I'm thinking about beat-em-ups, I want an updated Fighters Megamix!

No mission mode is a huge disappointment, but it's still a good deal for 800 points.
Oh, and it may not be better than SCII, but it's easily better than the third game, which was utter trash.

Hopefully they haven't made the same mistakes for the fourth, I'm really looking forward to that.

Just give me shenmue 1&2, jet set radio and headhunter, and I'm all smiles and giggles.

Could not get any better news than this!! DC's Soul Calibur remain one of my fondest game and must have on DC and now coming to X360!

Shame about not taking advantages of widescreen but hell that not gonna stop me!

Never played Shenmue 2, hope that comes out sometime on XBLA.

The Xbox version is BC so no excuse.

Hmm. This (i.e. paying again for something I owned back in the day), or SC4?

Also: +1 for Chu Chu Rocket nostalgia (not that I'd ever buy it, mind). Them were the days.

And Sega Swirl. Full game that only ever came on an ODM cover disc (and Sega Smash Pack vol 1 in the States). Amazingly addictive multiplayer. Me and my mates would play that until the sun rose back in the day.

"Does the old trick of setting the Xbox to 480P work in order to get widescreen on old games?"

Sure. Any game in 4:3 can be utterly distorted by stretching the graphics to fill out the whole screen as long as you are running a non widescreen resolution like 480p.

ive got the DC soul calibur, and GC soul calibur 2.

on a technical note soul calibur 2 pushes a lot more polys in the environments (uneven floors), and the characters are rigged better.
the texture resolution seems to be higher in the DC soul calibur (and looks sharper overall) - theres probably fewer, but larger textures in the scenes. the character textures in particular look really nice on DC.

gameplay wise the DC SC wins for me. 800 points is a bargain.

oh yeah - and remember this is a first generation DC title....absolutely awesome at the time and stands up against SC2/3 released years later.