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PlayStation (Games)

The Soul Still Burns 71

Posted by Zonk from the taki-wins! dept.
1up.com has up an in-depth preview of the PS2 exclusive Soul Caliber 3. From the article: "... Yotoriyama and team Calibur's latest effort -- a true PS2 exclusive set for release this fall -- will be packed with gameplay modes (we'll get to those later) designed to entice all types of newcomers. 'We developed [Soul Calibur III] with features that will appeal to a variety of consumers in order to get them to pick up the game and experience that great gameplay. That goal hasn't changed since we developed the first Soul Calibur [on Dreamcast].' On the gameplay side, not a whole lot has changed either -- which, for many Soul devotees, is a good thing."
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The Soul Still Burns More

The Soul Still Burns

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  • I still want SC3 on XBOX 360 ... Gorram it!

  • Soul Calibur 3 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25, 2005 @05:15PM (#13160621)
    not Soul Caliber 3.
    • not Soul Caliber 3.

      Kind of a pet peeve of mine - is it so hard to just copy and paste the correct title?

      For those that don't get the reference, it's spelled "bur" as in "Excalibur". That's where the "Calibur" in "Soul Calibur" comes from. It's a play on words.

      But really, even if you don't understand the pun, have you never even looked at any of the previous games? Never seen the title screen or game artwork?

  • Considering... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    that the ps2 version sold the worst out of the 3 multiplatform releases of SC:2, it's almost a certainty that sony made some sort of "agreement" to secure exclusivity of this title. I just think it'll bite the devs in the ass, they have to mostly build a whole new audience for this game now, it's franchise popularity means very little to the success of this game.
    • "Exclusive" doesn't mean what it used to mean. Consider Resident Evil. I expect to be playing this on my magical purple lunchbox of joy within six months.
    • ps2 version sold the worst out of the 3 multiplatform releases of SC:2

      wtf are you talking about?!

      the ps2 version was the best (mostly due to the superiorly designed controller).

      perhaps you mean that the PS2 version had the worst exclusive character (haiachi)?

      I never used spawn on the xbox version. I couldn't play that one more than a couple minutes since the controller sucks so bad and makes my wrists hurt almost immediately after I begin playing it.

      the gamecube one was ok (link is pretty awesome), bu
      • [Considering] that the ps2 version sold the worst out of the 3 multiplatform releases of SC:2

        Sold the worst. Not "was the worst."

        Slashdot - where basic reading comprehension isn't required! :)

      • The PS2 controller sucks. It seriously is horrendously awful. A lot of people have been using it for so long, they no longer realize precisely how much it blows. Your hands will cramp when holding it for long periods of time, the buttons are cryptic with an excessively steep learning curve, the shoulders weak, the analog sticks are positioned poorly... Ugh. Give all 3 controllers to a non-gamer, cover up which system it's for, and no one is EVER going to pick the PS2 one.
        • hey bro, you keep replying to my posts. =P

          the thumbsticks don't really bother me since the only game I've ever used them in was katamari Demacy (which they're perfectly fine for). They're way too sensitive for use in a fighting game and I do fine with the D-pad.

          The d-pad on sony controllers is split, which leads to some painful thumbs, especially after playing Narutimet hero for hours on end, but I'm curious what you're favourite controller is.

          The gamecube one is, by far, the most comfortable, but not su
          • Hah, you replied to me/Sielwolfs back and forth! And appear to have gotten the joke. You rock.

            I love the dreamcast controller as well. My favorite of the current gen is probably the Gamecube, even though it's horribly suited to a few genres(like console FPSes). It just has an incredibly shallow learning curve, and it's layout makes sense mentally. It's comfortable, and it's analog stick is probably the most like an actual joystick out of all of the controllers. Plus the wavebird is excellent. One of
            • yeah, I try. fortunately for you guys I don't have an attention span long enough to actually read that crap and post something real.

              I was gonna give the NES controller honorable mention, but when I get on a roll typing I lose my point, so yeah. NES controller was great, albeit, too small for a adult's hands.

              my hands cramp up worse when using oldschool NES controllers than the enormous XBox cuntroller.

              I'm not familiar with the Xbox S. I assume that's the mini-controller the japanese were crying for.

  • Stealing thunder? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by askew1 ( 902544 )
    It makes me wonder why they decided to make it an exclusive. I'm sure they'd sell millions of copies if it was an XBOX360 launch title. It might even look better. I don't think it could play any better.

    But I guess considering the history of the game and the sheer number of PS2 consoles sold they're guaranteed to sell more copies of it. If they release before the XBOX360, they could steal some thunder (and funds) from M$ as well.

    • Re:Stealing thunder? (Score:3, Informative)

      by ZakuSage ( 874456 )
      It's easier, faster, and makes the game look better if it's focused on one console. Porting the game to X360 wouldn't be wourth it, as they'd make more money just selling it on PS2. Same goes for porting it to GCN or XBX. This is especially true for PS2. To make something look great on PS2 it really has to make good use of the console, which is obscure in archetecture. Porting away from this archetecture takes time, effort, whatever, and while it would be good fan service, it's a lot easier for them to foc
      • it's a lot easier for them to focus on one console and the one with 91 million sold is an easy choice (a 65 million console lead on the nearest competitor).

        While true, I would still make since to port it also to other systems, a la Soul Calibur II. While the PS2 has 91 million units sold, you are only going to get a subset of that number. If you add in the subset of the numbers for the GC and the XBox, then you are talking about much more value for you game, and extra revenue.

        I still would not have it
    • yeah, but porting the entire engine and game would be one serious headache. i have no idea how the engine runs under the hood, but porting it to either of the parrallel running architectures of the next gen systems would be one serious headache.

      granted the game would probably sell pretty well since there are few launch fighting titles, but still the userbase for the next gen systems will be alot smaller than the current generations. it took namco a while to learn how to harness the power of the current gen

  • PS2? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ElleyKitten ( 715519 ) <kittensunrise AT gmail DOT com> on Monday July 25, 2005 @05:41PM (#13160803) Journal
    With the 360 and the PS3 releases so soon, it doesn't really make much sense to make it for PS2, let alone PS2 only. The Gamecube version of SC2 sold much better than the PS2 version anyway, so I think they definately choose the wrong system to be exclusive to.
    • While I can appreciate someone who is fond of ye olde Nintendo, there is a counter argument. SC2 sold well to the cube audience, but if you consider SC3 to be a product that caters more to the audience on the ps2 that didn't buy last time might make the franchise more popular overall. As for the exclusity, I can only imagine that they expect the sales boost from the other two franchises to not be worth the extra cost. Or hats of money, but that seems a bit silly.

      Basically, you have no sense of business. F
      • >>Basically, you have no sense of business. Follow the money. The games industry is an industry first, an art a distant second.

        I wasn't saying it should be on Cube because it would be more artsy or whatever you were going for here, I was saying it should be on Cube because SC2 sold the most on Cube. Now, some of them will probably buy SC3 on PS2, but some don't have PS2s, some won't buy SC3 for other reasons, and some will realize the only reason they bought SC2 was for Link (and there were a lot
      • also, we still do not know what additional costs namco incurred by including the three different characters in sc2. obviously since they are the owners of the tekken IP, including heihachi didnt cost them anything. they ported over several of his moves/animations from tekken, so thats less work; they saved there. licensing spawn and necrid from todd mcfarlane for the xbox version undoubtedly cost them. im sure that nintendo didnt just hand over link for free either, but that's debatable.

        once those licensin
    • The 3 versions were identical save for a) graphics and b) a single extra character. The PS2 lost in terms of graphics, as could be expected; Gamecube was much better, and XBox a little better than the 'cube. As for special character, XBox got Spawn, PS2 got Heihachi (from Tekken - a boring, pointy-haired old Japanese man), and THE GAMECUBE GOT LINK.

      So, given the choice, fans of the series obviously went for the Gamecube or XBox version, with the only people buying the PS2 version doing so because they're
    • With the 360 and the PS3 releases so soon, it doesn't really make much sense to make it for PS2, let alone PS2 only.

      I think it's really pretty simple:

      PS2 installed base > 360 and PS3 launch sales

      Ease of coding on PS2 > ease of coding on new console

      Ease of coding on one console > ease of coding on many

      As great as the Soul Calibur series is, it's really just a rehash of Street Fighter 2's sales formula. They've found a great gameplay engine with very few bugs, which is all that any fighting gam

  • SNES-itis (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shoptroll ( 544006 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @05:52PM (#13160865)
    Just let the system die already!

    Seriously, I think after playing GTA3 + VC exclusively on PC i've become a bit biased towards the system (PC version looks magnitudes better... San Andreas' PC Screens look mint), but hasn't the PS2 been around for almost 5-6 years now?

    Namco would've been better off doing the cross-platform release again.

    • Re:SNES-itis (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jclast ( 888957 )

      Maybe not SNES, but I don't think we should just move on. With all the backwards compatibility, does Alien Hominid 2 really need to be on the XBox 360? Will ports and remakes really take up all the room on a BluRay?

      I know I'd buy a lot more compilations and ports if they were released on the last generation's media. After all, I'll be able to play PSX, PS2, and PS3 games on my PS3, right? Why not port Final Fantasy III or Front Mission to the PSX? You've got a huge pre-installed base, and you can still mak

      • >>Why not port Final Fantasy III ... to the PSX?

        Wow, someone else besides me actually cares that they haven't done that! Seriously, I have FF 1-9 minus 3 on my playstation, and that's really annoying. Supposedly it's coming out for DS, but it's just not the same. Of course, I'ld probably buy it for both systems like I did with FF1+2, but that might just be because I'm dumb.

        Ok, that was horribly off-topic and rather pointless. But more on off-topicness, what's wrong with SNES-itis? The SNES
      • Actually, Front Mission was ported to PSX (as Front Mission 1st) to coincide with the release of the 4th game in the series. However, 1st was never released stateside.

        I think the idea nintendo might be trying to pull off with the revolution is that if you don't need all the features of the Revolution, make an N64 or SNES game if you want for their digital distribution (maybe for indie developers, homebrewers, or enthusiasts). It'd be an interesting to see if thats where things go eventually.

        My original
    • The PS2 is the video game console guaranteed to be in more homes than any other game machine, period. Making a game for it still makes sense, especially since the PS3 will supposedly be backwards compatible. I'm betting they'll make "SC3 Championship Edition" or something for next-gen consoles in a little while, just to milk the series.
  • I think the gameplay changes would be the biggest impact for the true fans of the series. I've played sc and scii before, but I have a couple friends who have mastered it and they've tried explaining to me how balanced the gameplay is that any little change could ruin a potentially good game.
    • I played the original sc in the arcade when it was surrounded by swamps of people. sc faded, and I didn't even bother with sc2.

      The fighting game era is over. The last good fighting games are Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament. And that's pushing it compared to the fighting eras of the 90s.

      • The fighting game era may be over for you, but it is not over for us.
      • Speak for yourself. Powerstone II, Virtual On, and Super Smash are specacular games (fitting loosely in the genre). Tekken Tag, meanwhile, is the world's fastest game of Trivial Pursuit. It's just a contest to see who knows the more obscure moves. Soul Calibur, by comparison, is actually _fun_.

        And apparently, the MvsSNK games were a big hit.
    • According to the article, they've only made minor changes: guard impact went back to SC1 controls, and the playfield is smaller to force more 8-way run. Most hardcore SC players I know hated the simpler guard impact system, so this is welcome news.

      Basically, it sounds like SC3 is really just the best of SC1 and SC2, as well as a lot of new modes. No complaints here.

  • Soul CALIBUR (Score:3, Informative)

    by Elkboy ( 770849 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @06:06PM (#13160968)

    It's Soul Calibur, not Soul Caliber. Common unnessecary spelling misstake on the intertron - especially since the game's name is written in big, bold letters on top of the page.

    My guess it comes from Excalibur.

  • I'm waiting for the Xbox, GameCube, Xbox360 or Revolution version of this or Soul Calibur 4.
    I didn't like it on the PS2 and I hate the fact that its PS2 Only. Lets just hope this is just temp.
  • I loved SC2, played it a lot on PS2 and GC, and am looking forward to this one despite their single-system stubbornness. But, where are the online modes? The majority of other fighters have an online mode in at least one of their incarnations, so doing the same for arguably the best 3D fighting series around should be a no-brainer. The character creation mode looks pretty fun. I just hope they can maintain the previous games's balance. Having online battles would have made the custom characters so much
    • i have a feeling that that's partially why we won't be seeing this on XBox, MS probably made online play a requirement, and Namco didn't want to. seeing how online play isn't as popular or widespread on PS2, they could get away with not including it.

  • Visually defeated, but pad still sexy?! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Enti ( 726249 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2005 @12:36AM (#13162878)
    I'm not all that disappointed over the supposed PS2-only launch. The hardware is obviously dated, but I'm sure you guys can stomach only a slight increase in bounce realism as far as Taki is concerned. The real issue is something that everyone else seems to be overlooking - The PS2's perfect controller. I know, I know, 'Link is super sweet omgwtf', but the Gamecube's controller is disgusting when it comes to fighting titles (and some other popular genres). I can't count how many times I failed to chain attacks properly because the adorable (3) bean buttons were never designed to be used the way SCII requires them to be with some of it's characters. The X-box controller is a matter of preference. I think the D-pad feels horribly placed (too low) compared to how the PS2's is located right around the thumb's neutral position. Seriously though, I love the Xbox controller; it's only way to fly right now for PC gamepads (Psychonauts is pure digital love with it in hand)... until the 360's native USB hits and changes everything for the better (is that still a touted feature, or am I ten or so press releases behind?). Don't think that I'm making this call purely based on what I've seen of the GC controller from the other side of a glass case at Best Buy. I purchased it for my GC (only system I have, by the way), and played countless hours. Unfortunately though, it was ruined for me after I was at a friend's house for a bit of gaming. After a half hour on the PS2, I was sold, and still can't bring myself to play it again on the GC. Either way, PS2 takes the cake as far as I'm concerned.

    P.S. I guess you could always just use a converter, but I'm told those do not fly so well in tournaments.
  • Over the years, Sony has slowly released better APIs allowing developers more direct access to the hardware. At the beginning they were really stingy. God of War really shows off the system and gave me faith even though I thought the PS2 was dead. Then again, GOW was created by a Sony team, so I am sure they really have the inside APIs to hit the hardware hard. Perhaps Namco made deal with Sony.
  • I was hoping they were going to release this on Dreamcast 2. But seriously, what the hell, why isn't it going to be in arcades?
  • Too bad it's PS/2 only. I quite liked how Soul Calibur 2 was a tri-console release; have the Xbox and Gamecube versions. Too bad, though; I won't be getting SC3 because I'm not buying the PS/2 for that one game. (And it's the only game that even tempts me...)
  • Soul Calibur, for me, is the greatest console fighter out there. As A PS2 owner, I'm glad that I will be able to play it. I'm sure Namco knows what it's doing.

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