Posts Tagged ‘soul calibur 4’
EVO 2009 wraps up, Daigo wins Street Fighter IV
EVO 2009 wrapped up yesterday, deeming Japanese player Daigo “The Beast” Umehara the victor of the Street Fighter IV finals. Of course, the other games of the event are not to be forgotten, but the main attraction of the evening was definitely Capcom’s newest fighting game. Here’s a list of the top eight competitors for the SF4 bracket:
- Daigo Umehara (Ryu)
- Justin Wong (Boxer, Abel, Rufus)
- Ed Ma (Akuma)
- Sanford (Akuma, Cammy)
- Long Tran (Akuma)
- Eduardo Perez (Boxer, E-Honda)
- Dan (from Japan) (Ryu)
- Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
I caught a few minutes of the Marvel vs Capcom 2 semi-finals as well, and was very disappointed to find out that I’m not as good at the game as I thought I was.
Anyways, a new documentary titled King of Chinatown is also being released, focusing on runner-up Justin Wong’s road to this year’s EVO. However, the trailer makes the assumption that he is, in fact, the best Street Fighter IV player even though it was made official at EVO that he is not. Regardless, the documentary still looks very interesting.
Read (Kineda)
Soul Calibur IV Game Review–Long Or Short Term, Still A Value
Fighting games seem to be thinning out of late, buried under a slew of first person shooters and sports games, but one particular gem has managed to emerge from the fray to continue a following that goes back decades, back to a simpler time when there were arcades in malls and most people got their head-to-head action from a room full of bleeping machines. Today we’re talking Soul Calibur IV, part of the long running series.
Featuring all your favorite fighters, and a panoply of new ones (including for reasons that still escape me Garen Malek, Darth Vader and Yoda depending on what version of the game you buy and whether or not you go in for the downloadable content), you’ll plunge headlong through the stories of all the various fighters, which is why you’re not getting a plot synopsis of the game this time around. It would just, plain and simply, take too long. Each character has his or her own individual story, and occasionally, it even overlaps with other characters’ stories to make this strange sort of massive latticework of plot over the whole game. I’m actually very impressed that this ridiculous brawler game is getting THIS kind of plot.
And your involvement with that plot won’t even feel all that minimalist. You’ll be fighting all the other characters, sometimes one on one, other times two on two, and sometimes even four against one as you advance through the stages to find out what your character’s particular connection to the legendary cursed sword is this time around.
I’m actually very surprised by this—normally fighter games, for me, have been pointless button mashers where you try to memorize lists of moves for use against opponents of varying and in some cases downright ridiculous skill levels, but this time I got access to a whole array of moves that required little more than a controller direction and a button press, plus a whole bunch more if I wanted them. I could use Yoda’s force powers to fling myself headlong around the screen, or if I wanted to, I could just use his surprising agility to make short hops and bash my opponent into oblivion with my light saber. There was a LOT of variety here, and frankly, I was glad for the opportunity to just sit down with the game and let the smack down go on. I even got little nuggets of plot regularly as I beat an opponent or series thereof, just enough in just close enough increments to make me want to keep moving. I got through Yoda, Voldo and Ivy’s plotlines in maybe a half-hour’s play time, but man, I wanted to catch everybody else’s plots too.
This game might be a bit big for just one rental—and if you’re a party game sort you may want to buy a copy just to keep it on hand—but even just a short time with it won’t leave you disappointed or missing a whole lot of the plot. This is a game with lots of surprises that looks beautiful and plays even better. I don’t recommend fighting games very often—maybe because I don’t get many of them TO recommend in the first place—but I can’t see a way you won’t have fun with Soul Calibur IV.
Soul Calibur Going Portable
With any franchise it’s only a matter of time before some spin-off is made that deviates wildly from what made the series popular. Mortal Kombat has had several adventure focused titles, Resident Evil is soon to see a second rail shooter and Soul Calibur made an effort recently with Soul Calibur Legends. As is so often the case, the game was a bit of a disappointment, so they’re taking it back to basics for their next game.
Namco Bandai has revealed that for the first time you’ll be able to take the epic battles of Soul Calibur with you wherever you go on your PSP. Fully titled Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny the handheld game will feature many of the existing characters as well as some brand new ones, including one named Dampierre. Namco says that although all of the existing gameplay elements from the console version are being brought to the small screen they’re attempting to create a mode that’ll help to teach new players the ins and outs of the series’ fighting system.
The classic Arcade, Story and Survival modes are all included and thus far multiplayer is confirmed for Ad-Hoc wireless, but not for internet wireless. The game is due out this summer.
Best Buy Holds Video Game Clearance Sale
Best Buy is holding a large video game sale for most consoles like the Xbox 360, Playstation and Wii today. Prices have all been marked down to $9.99, a far cry from their original prices which started at $60.
Over 100 games are on sale, but if you don’t want to wade through the whole list, here’s a few recommendations. Xbox 360 owners could do a lot worse than C&C: Red Alert 3, Condemned 2, and Devil May Cry 4. On PS3, Pure, Guitar Hero 3, and Soul Calibur 4 are good choices. On the Wii, the selection’s not quite so good, but Samba de Amigo’s a great choice if you like off-beat rhythm games.
Just like the famed sales made by Circuit City some months back, you better get to Best Buy quick if you want to get hold of those games for a steal!
(Source) Yahoo
Then and Now: How the PS3’s graphics have progressed
Push Square has recently put up a great article comparing and contrasting ingame graphics from PS3’s launch titles to more recent titles.
What you see above is their comparison of Resistance: Fall of Man and Killzone 2. As you can see they both look rather stunning, but Killzone 2’s realistic lighting, debris, and general effects really puts Resistance to shame. That’s not all though, they also compare games like Ridge Racer 5 and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, and Virtua Fighter 5 with Soul Calibur IV.
They came to a verdict that developers are definitely progressing in terms of graphics when it comes to the PS3 in particular. There is still room for improvement though, if what Sony says about the PS3 having a 10 year life span is true, we’re sure to be seeing more and more hardware capabilities unlocked as time progresses.
Soul Calibur 4 Sells 2.2M
Namco Bandai today announced that Soul Calibur 4 has sold a total of 2.2 million copies since its July 2008 release. The game was reported to have shipped over 2 million copies one week after its July 31 launch on PS3 and Xbox 360.
The fighting sequel has also helped Namco report a profit of $99.7 million profit for its third quarter ending December 31. It was largely aided by this game and Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit which sold 730,000 units.
Soul Calibur 4 is the latest in the longstanding series. It features Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Yoda as playable characters, as well as Vader’s secret apprentice from Star Wars Force Unleashed, which has also sold quite a few million units.