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Soul Calibur III (PS2)
by rashedon89
In my heart no fighting game will ever top Soul Calibur 3! Even with the release of Soul Calibur 4, Soul Calibur 3 is still a masterpiece and although there are improvements made in SC4 they take nothing away from this game.
The storyline of the game revolves around the idea of two powerfull swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur ... and as always the cast of characters are all fighting to destroy or gain pocession of the swords. All the favourites (apart from Heichachi are back) and graphics are pushed to the max, a great way to end the series on the PS2 before its transition to PS3.
What i loved most about this game is the longetivity of it, there is so much to see and do and fighting games can get boring quickly if the gamer isn't given a lot to work with. At first I was irritated by the amount to do but having played SC4, which I found both repetitive and short, I now really do appreciate SC3.
Firstly the story mode is great because your character can choose differnt paths, this leads to different enemies being fought allowing you to unlcok new characters and new weapons. I have to admit sometimes it was frustratingly difficult to defeat the extra enemies but well-worth the reward as a good fighting game should have plenty of characters.
The stages are varied and all look fun with interesting twists such as a windmill that spins round and can blow the cahracters towards one direction. The cut-scenes and the fighting look great and are all fluid. Soul Calibur is renowned for its 8-way-movement system and for the fact that you can use weapons. The game really challenges you and its not a case of button bashing. You need to time carefully to perform guard breaks and counters to win a battle.
The old characters like Kilik and Misturugi maintain their unique and awesome fighting stlyes but there are plenty of new and interesting characters, especially Tira who fights with some sort of metal disk and Setsuka whose sword is contatined in an umbrella!
SC3 was the first game that allows the create-a-character mode which really lets you customize every element of your character with huge variety of outfits for each part of the body. Also there is an extensive pallet for you to chose the colour of each item, clothing or body.
Unlike SC4 which makes you model the character on one of the already exisiting arcade players SC3 really lets you make your own creation and you can find online some interesting creations including Ada from Resident Evil. Also you can choose the fighting style of a character by giving them a type e.g. monk or dancer.
Another challenging mode is a sort of mission mode that requires the gamer to perform tasks in a time limits, such as collect a certain number of coins when fighting an enemy etc. This challenge begins with an easy mode progressing to a hard mode, which should be renamed impossible!
My favourite mode is the Chronicles of the sword mode. Some argue the addition is worthless but in my opinion it gave you something more to do in the game. Using your created character you employ your forces in a tactical manor to go an defeat the enemy army. Your character levels up as you progress and although the levels seem repetitive there is a basic story to keep the game going and most of all it just varied the fighting experience.
Lastly, I don't pay much attention to it but the sound in the game was terrific, the voice acting isn't oscar winning but it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game. The only thing SC3 lacks is a stronger story like Tekken where things are developin rather then repeating themselves.
Overall this game, for me at least, has everything, terrific graphics, sound and most importantly gameplay and longetivity. Definitely a must have!!!
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King of Fighters XI (PS2)
by briangilmour
It took me a long time to get into 3D fighting games, i'm not sure why as I loved the 2D ones a lot but from Tekken and Battle Arena Toshinden although I liked them and appreciated how good they were, they never really clicked for me. After years though of playing things like Soul Calibur and newer Versions of Tekken I really started to ... enjoy them and Id heard a lot about the King of Fighters games. What I didn't realise was though that I was going back to the old 2D fighting game by purchasing this. I saw the 11th instalment of such game for just £8.99 in Gamestation and seen nothing to lose.
What you get is your usual to be honest. Unlike usual fighters though instead of just 15 indicidual characters to choose from, this time you get 47 all in and they're split between 11 different teams.
Graphics - Each character looks awesome, I mean really cool , it's funny how animated they look though compared to the almost static background they play in front of but to be honest its hard to complain.
Gameplay - Fast , it's really quick but not to the point that garners frustration, its a good balance and all moves are easy enough to pull off once you get to know them all.
Sound - Japanese rock/dance mix here and to be honest it works fine, it's not my choice of music by a long shot but it works here.
Overall - Well i'm not sure it's quite in Streetfighters Alpha's league but this was certainly and enjoyable fighting game, plenty of characters to play as and moves to do to keep you coming back too. Thumbs up.
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Soul Calibur III (PS2)
by briangilmour
We're back with some more 3D fighting action here with Soul Calibur 3. I remember playing the very first Soul Calibur game on the SEGA Dreamcast. The difference between this and many other fighting beat-em-ups is of course that here you get some nasty sword action mixed in with the usual 3D Combat!
Another interesting part of ... the game is the innovation of creating your own fighter, fully customizing him or her and then taking to stage to fight.
The graphics are awesome and I'm not sure if the fighters moves have been motion captured or not but the animation of each move and each characters movement.
Each fighter that you choose has a different story or path to go down so when you play the "Chronicles of the Sword" mode you'll be back to play it time and time again with so many different variants to see. This adds majorly to the longevity of the game.
The music is dependant on what fighter you choose which is a nice little touch, there's a decent array of little tunes, all of which really add to the atmosphere of the game and the setting.
All in all this is a fantastic fighting game and really gives the likes of Tekken a real run for it's money, many fans of the game would prefer this even to Tekken which is probably the biggest compliment it could get. Thumbs way up in the air and swords very much at the ready!
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