Soul Calibur IV

[Bleck]

3d fighters are almost infamous for being horribly broken.

this is truth

[I-n-j-i-n]

See this is why I only play 2d games competitively. 3d fighters are almost infamous for being horribly broken.

God willing with the current generation of consoles they'll start doing patches to fix this kind of potential bullcrap.

2D games can be broken too, but you normally don't have to worry about people wailing on you when you're on the floor, unable to do anything because *some* people love throwing out automatic mix-up moves with Amy or Xianghua. I can understand the need to balance the speed/power/range ratios, but if someone is good enough, the speed is all that really matters in this game. Good thing I still actually win about 70% of online matches, but against really good spammers, there's really nothing to do but spam or be spammed. Also, 2D game characters usually have very similar kind of timing and attack frames compared to 3D games (which is why Virtua Fighter is considered to be very well balanced, because they take into account the frames of animation a lot better). With all the exotic moves in Soul Calibur, the potential for abuse is in a lot of moves. Especially the fast, annoying ones with auto-parries (again with Amy). Oh, and the 8-way run almost doesn't matter since most characters are too quick to connect the next attack horizontally anyway.

I wonder how the 2D scene for Street Fighter 4 will be. Maybe the unranked battles will have people having fun and ranked will have people spamming all the time.

[Mirai Gen]

Fortunately SF4 is 2d on a 3d graphic engine. Thank friggen Christ.

Oh, and the 8-way run almost doesn't matter since most characters are too quick to connect the next attack horizontally anyway.

Oh man what pisses me off the most about 8-Way Run is that it doesn't fucking work.

Like, okay, it's supposed to counteract vertical attacks, except that not only is it too slow to do anything like you said, but half of the attacks you could even use the 8-way run on can be spammed effectively!

I love Soul Calibur but around the point when it becomes abusable and ridiculous bullshit is the time I go back to Guilty Gear and Street Fighter.

Not that those don't have their own sets of problems but at least there's a surefire way to block that involves holding back.

[Archaon]

Not that those don't have their own sets of problems but at least there's a surefire way to block that involves holding back.

Not if you're fighting Eddie there isn't!

[Bleck]

EDDIE GORDO lol

[kupernikus]

Eh this game isn't balanced, and it rewards spammers, but its stillhella fun.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I'm sorta happy now because I found a way to exploit Amy. I know I shouldn't be angry, but Astaroth players keeps giving me headaches with the long range throws. Also, even in ranked modes, some games, typically with total newbies at least turns into a non-spam affair. Like maybe 1 out of 5 matches.

And it really was a strange day a few days ago with all the trashtalkers. Tonight there weren't any, thank god. But it's really weird when you get killed by a low ranked player and they just have to rub it in the fact that you're level 40+. Because we know all high level players can't ever lose and if they ever do, they're total scrubs. /blatant sarcasm.

[Mirai Gen]

Heh, I started fighting a guy without a microphone, won twice, so he changed his character to Xianghua so he could (presumably) scrub me out of the #1 spot in the server. It was pretty funny listening to him - literally - talk to nobody for the longest time, about how "I aint playin with ya dog I an't playin with ya" and "I'mma solve this problem right now, solve the problem" and other such irritating speech patterns.

I have to wonder, when he shadow-boxes, does he talk to the wall like that? When he plays chess, does he talk to his opponent like that?

[Bleck]

how could you hear him if he did not have a microphone

[Gollgagh]

lol english

[I-n-j-i-n]

But some players do that. They are all silent until they feel the urge to trashtalk.

[JCvgluvr]

Heh, I don't use the mic a lot, personally. I like to keep it by me tho, just in case I get schooled by someone with actual skill. I make sure to let them know they're playing the game the right way.

One time after I thrashed this guy (I never spam), he kept telling me, "You're f***ing garbage!" He even felt compelled to send me a text. I couldn't believe it. Did the Halo community just all migrate to SC IV or something?

[Ramaniscence]

Did the Halo community just all migrate to SC IV or something?

Well duh. Isn't that true for most games on XBL? EVERYONE thinks they're "good at Soul Calibur" because "they beat their friends all the time." Frat boys, 13 year olds, and cool guy high school jocks around the world are learning just how NOT GOOD they are, and they just can't handle it (

[Mirai Gen]

Hah, yeah, that's part of what I dig about Soul Calibur, finally getting a chance to beat up the people who "totally rock at Soul Calibur" because they suck.

Like, fight someone who "Beats all his friends at Halo 3 but doesn't play online" and see how well they do.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I find it funny when a spammer called me a spammer for countering his own spamming. Seriously, the SC4 community itself is broken because everyone is so dedicated to abusing moves. Last night it was pleasant enough. Tonight, it was full of same-move spammers. Now I know why so many people just dislike the scrub-tactics of fighting games. Because it's true. Spam spam spam and rake in the wins. Don't even bother making it fun or interesting because god forbid, you'll lose!

[kupernikus]

I find it funny when a spammer called me a spammer for countering his own spamming. Seriously, the SC4 community itself is broken because everyone is so dedicated to abusing moves. Last night it was pleasant enough. Tonight, it was full of same-move spammers. Now I know why so many people just dislike the scrub-tactics of fighting games. Because it's true. Spam spam spam and rake in the wins. Don't even bother making it fun or interesting because god forbid, you'll lose!

This is why the only fighting games I own are Tekken 5 (I suck and can barely beat the computer) And Tobal no. 1 (Im an unstoppable force of death and destruction.) No other game is as exploitable as fighting games, with FPS's outside of spawn camping there is nothing like this, and since I only FPS on consoles, there's no spawn camping. Racing games, nope! Sports games, not so much! Could be worse though, halo has the worst gaming community on the planet....

[atmuh]

my friend owns this game and has been playing it and stuff and he brought it to my house and i had never played it before and i won half the time just pressing buttons and i remembered why i dont like these type games so i played smash bros

[Ramaniscence]

my friend owns this game and has been playing it and stuff and he brought it to my house and i had never played it before and i won half the time just pressing buttons and i remembered why i dont like these type games so i played smash bros

Your friend must suck pretty bad at Soul Calibur.

[Archaon]

It's like they've intentionally been improving only the graphics and gameplay of the Soul series and making everything else worse.

Look at the music as an example. I know I'm not the only one out there who thinks that the soundtrack of the first in the series, Soul Blade (or "Soul Edge", depeneding on where you are) had the best soundtrack by far. I haven't played the game in years and I can still remember the opening song, the character select music and every character's theme, note for note. Hell, the game even had 2 and a half different soundtracks to choose from; you had the original used for arcade machines, the arranged version improved for consoles, and the wholly different "Khan Super Session" one. Tearing it up with Li Long to an assortment of borderline techno, rock and, dare I say it, pop music was a guilty pleasure, true, but it was good so it didn't matter.

As an aside, Li Long > Maxi. To hell with Elvis, give me my badass Chinaman back.

Anyway, over time, the soundtracks degenerated into boring orchestral waffle, with only a few tracks of note here and there. The only tunes I even care to remember from SCIII's soundtrack are Through Molten Caves and Beyond the Horizon, and the latter is just an arrangement of an SCI track anyway. Forsaken Sanctuary is OK, but damn. Go and listen to Bravely Folk Song (you can probably find it on YouTube or something) and tell me that isn't superior penultimate battle BGM. It's a friggin' pirate shanty.

And the endings. Dear god, the endings. In Soul Blade, they had the alternate-ending-on-input thing going on, and it was good. In most cases you got two completely different cutscenes for your trouble. Then they got lazy and started doing endings with just text and pictures. Then SCIII came along and they went back to the original multiple endings idea, except that this time they sucked, and now we just have a host of uniformly disappointing single endings.

That might be setting the bar a little high, though. It'd be pretty hard to top young and foolish Siegfried grasping Soul Edge's hilt and then screaming "OH GOD OH GOD AAAGH AAAAAAAARRRRGH" as it clamped down on his hand and corrupted him into the man we now call Nightmare, but who was once simply "Siegfried!"

Also, bikini Sophitia = best unlockable content ever. Not necessarily because of the acres of soft, pale, blocky, polygonal skin, but just because it's so incredibly corny, superfluous and (while I hate to say it) typically Japanese that it was awesome. This was your reward for 100 percent-ing the game. This is what bonus material should be.

And who the shit is Algol anyway and why should I care? I don't know about anyone else, but I'd have been perfectly happy with another cheap flaming skull monster.

I also don't like what they've done with Raphael, turning him from a sort of tragic, misguided character into some genocidal psychovillain who is apparently now a vampire or something. Jesus.

Jedi don't make up for this crap.

[Ramaniscence]

Note to mention.....

Each character doesn't get their own stage any mode.

Weapon demonstrations are completely gone.

Real character profiles are completely gone.

The art gallery is like 4th'd.

What we get is better gameplay, WAY better graphics, a bigger cast of playable characters (all (most) of which, while some are still pretty low tier, are viable in competition), and online play.

Ehh trade off.

[JCvgluvr]

Don't forget the lack of things like:

Charade (and, to a much lesser extent, Olcadan and the others)

Weapon Master Mode

Having 10 or more weapons per character

Team Battle

A proper shop (SC IV's "shop" system is terrible and sloppy)

2 steps forward, 1 step back, eh?

[The Coop]

Also, bikini Sophitia = best unlockable content ever. Not necessarily because of the acres of soft, pale, blocky, polygonal skin, but just because it's so incredibly corny, superfluous and (while I hate to say it) typically Japanese that it was awesome. This was your reward for 100 percent-ing the game. This is what bonus material should be.

You speak of this, yet provide no links or images of said character for proof. How mean spirited

[Archaon]

You speak of this, yet provide no links or images of said character for proof. How mean spirited

Well, the character is called "Sophitia!!" and Google won't acknowledge it when you put exclamation marks into the search field.

Besides, her SCIV costume is almost as skimpy anyway, and like Ivy she appears to have had some radical breast enlargement surgery since her earlier incarnations.

And yeah, no Charade stand-in sucks. When you play as a top-tier, cheapo character, it's kind of a lose-lose situation. If you win, it's "Well shit, you were using <whoever>. No wonder you won." If you lose it's "HAHA YOU WERE USING <whoever> AND I STILL BEAT YOU YOU SUCK"

With Charade it's the exact opposite. You never lose. If you get beaten; "Well, you know, I was using Charade. It picked out characters I'm not good with. I was at a disadvantage." If you win; "HAHA I JUST BEAT YOU USING THE RANDOM SELECT CHARACTER IN YOUR FACE BITCH"

When I played against anyone else I would always pick Charade. Nothing else is as fun. And now he's gone, the bastards.

Thank God Mokujin still lives.

[Toadofsky]

Thank God Mokujin still lives.

And I thought they put him in a wood chipper....

Shows how much I know...

[The Coop]

Well, the character is called "Sophitia!!" and Google won't acknowledge it when you put exclamation marks into the search field.

Besides, her SCIV costume is almost as skimpy anyway, and like Ivy she appears to have had some radical breast enlargement surgery since her earlier incarnations.

Sophitia is easy to find in all her "soul" forms... very easy in fact. It's screenshots of her in the outfit you spoke of that was the issue.