Lack of Soul...

Having played Soul Calibur III on the Playstion 2, I greatly anticipated IV to beso much better, but it was really a step down. Soul Calibur IV lacks thegood storyline which III had, better game modes, and the Class systemSoul Calibur III all provided. However, IV makes up by giving onlineplay with ranked battles and a whole bunch of other things.

Soul Calibur IV's storyline is..... meh. You start by selecting acharacter and then reading a few paragraphs of the character's backstoryand then you fight a few battles and then it's over. You can prettymuch finish the story mode in a 5 minute snack break. Still, IV wasnever known for it's story now was it?

In the past years there's been many Fighting games---Street Fighter,Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Fighter to name a few. However, the Soul Caliburseries has always been my favorite of the fighting genre mostly for it'sgameplay (and storyline) it offers. Gameplay is obviously the strongestattribute of a fighting game. Soul Calibur IV is verysimilar to other fighting games, using the formula of timers, comboattacks, health bars, etc. Almost all of the characters made a come backfrom the previous titles. Different characters have different moves andabilities, some are overpowered and some are underpowered. Both theXbox 360 and the PlayStation 3's versions are pretty much the same interms of graphics and content. Except a few characters added added tothe roster like the Xbox 360 exclusive character, Yoda and thePlayStation 3 exclusive Darth Vader. For money-making reasons Namcodecided to allow Xbox owners download Darth Vader for a few extra bucksand Yoda for the PlayStation 3. Another character from the Star Warsuniverse showed it's face in IV, The Secret Apprentice of Darth Vader.

Character customization was in Soul Calibur III, but now Namco 'improved'it with more hairstyles, equipment, and instead using the class systemusing the fighting style's of the characters that already exist, likeKilik and Nightmare. So when you make a character in the customizationmode your making a Nightmare cloned character with different armor? Buthear me out, the character customization is still pretty good in IV it'sprobably even a little bit better. Just a little. :)

Now your probably wondering if Soul Calibur IV has any lag during onlineplay, for me there wasn't any at all. Online play is epic. You canplay'ranked' battles or non ranked battles. Ranked battles will recordyourwins, loses, level, and points you receive when playing withotherpeople online. For those of you that are interested, youtrophy-hunters. Soul Calibur IV does not have trophy support sadly.

The game modes are pretty identical to the previous installment. Ireally didn't check to see what modes were added, but I know that somewere.