Healthy Living Books Video Games
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Video Games : Soul Calibur IV (Xbox 360) .
Rating: 
- Awful. Just awful.
Let's start with what's probably the reason why I'm so disappointed by this game - SC3 was fantastic, incredible. Even nearly 3 years after I got it, I still play it a fair bit, in fact I've kept my PS2 just so I could keep SC3. The Chronicles of the Sword mode gave it unbelievable replay value, and at the same time made it easy to get about half of the collectible items (the clothes, character models etc). The Tales of Souls brought a lot more relevance to each individual character's story, and each different path you could take with each character meant you could play through it again and again and go on a different journey each time. You'd think that SC4 would at least replace these modes with some just as good, if not better? You'd be wrong. SC4 is a horrendous disappointment.
I can actually only think of two things that are better than SC3, the first being, of course, the graphics, which are truly astonishing. The backgrounds and character models are so well-drawn, they're the best graphics I've seen recently along with Gears of War 2 and the PS3's Resistance: FoM. Also, the critical finish addition is great, and not crazily complex to pull off like the fatalities on Mortal Kombat (the old old ones at least) - just push one buttons at a certain time and it's all done. Um... that's about it. Oh wait, the addition of Yoda and the Apprentice (and, for a few hundred MS points, Darth Vader) is a masterstroke.
The new equivalent of the Tales of Souls mode is boring. It barely gives any relevance to the story of each character, is over in half the time, can only go one way... I did 4 stories in it and I was already bored. Also, the Chronicles of the Sword mode which was so fantastic and gave SC3 its replay value is gone completely, replaced by a trip up or down a tower (which replaces the cathedral from SC3 as the "focal point"). This gets stupidly boring after about 5 or 6 levels. All that's left now is the arcade and VS modes. There's just so little to do.
My advice? Stick with SC3. It's such a shame that a fantastic franchise is ending like this.
Rating:
- Amazing Arena Fighter!!!
wow, i have to say 1st off it was good by simple attacking. Then, i got a bit better and i started doing lightning, fire and cool magical attacks. Usually i'm not that impressed by these games, but this has really nailed it. I've also played virtua fighter 5... Rubbish compared to this.
Gameplay 5/5
Addicting 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Overall 5/5
There is only 1 flaw with this game and it is..............Getting annoyed when losing to friends RRRRRRRRR
Overall this is a highly addicting, good playing, and probably one of the top 5 xbox games known to man (27th november 2008)
Rating:
- Teenage boys dream!
Having enjoyed past SC games I was looking forward to playing this. And it is a lot of fun to play. It's good for some mindless video game violence but does become fairly repetitive.
The single player modes lack something. Story mode is a bit of a joke really, and there's not much sense of achievement in arcade mode. OK, Tower of lost souls does provide something else but there's little variety really. Online play lags a lot at times but can be entertaining. It is a problem that if you get downed once, your opponent can pretty easily hit you with several attacks and you've lost. As usual with xbox live, the majority of players are only concerned with stats and levelling up, so you're unlikely to find many matches where they are trying out different moves/combos etc, it's usual standard button bashing in an effort to win, which detracts from the entertainment value.
It can be fairly repetitive in all modes, though in some ways that is a problem of any fighting game. There is a good selection of characters but a lot of them have the same fighting style. Yes, we get Yoda rather than Vader, but really that's a minor point and really shouldn't affect your decision to buy the game or not.
Graphically it's pretty good, and to link in with the title, I'm sure the ample breasts bouncing around on the female characters will do no harm to the games sales amongst certain parts of society!
Overall it's a decent enough game but not one that's likely to hold the attention for months on end. If you want a good fighting game though, look no further.
Rating:
- Pretty Good
Having never bought any of the previous Soul Calibur games, I didn't really know what to expect in terms of depth and replay value, and, having always been terrible at this kind of game, was rather apprehensive about buying this. However I put these worries to the back of my mind as I needed to get something to ease the wait for Star Wars The Force Unleashed, and as this introduces characters from the Star Wars Universe, it was the perfect choice.
The game looks fantastic, each character's detail is superb and the thought and effort that has gone into the environments is great. The character motions are sleek and smooth, giving it a very impressive appearance.
The Single Player options are good, ranging from Story mode where you can play as any character through a series of stages, to The Tower of Lost Souls, where for each set of Levels on the Tower you have to select a certain amount of characters who are then put up against many more opponents. This can be quite challenging when you are only allowed to chose 1 character for a set which contains say 3 levels, each with 3 opponents on.
This is overcome by using the game's Character Creation mode, which as well as allowing you to completely create your own character, can be used to unlock new characters, and modify existing characters with new equipment to make them that little bit stronger in order to progress through the game.
Multiplayer is also strong - I have not had much experience playing it on Live due to my subscription ending :(, but when I did I experienced no lag and enjoyed the challenge of playing people who were clearly more adapted to this type of game. Offline multiplayer is fun and fast paced, but if there was one thing I would like to see in multiplayer would be an option to include more than 2 players and have a system similar to the Tower of Lost Souls whereby you can switch to a different character. This is just my opinion though, and in reality the multiplayer is as much, if not more fun the excellent single player modes.
Overall this is a game that I really have been pleasantly surprised with, it is fun and action-packed with some great visuals.
Rating: - Can't think of a decent pun..."may the soul be with you?"
I think, the main problem with Soul Calibur IV is, that, with the step into the 7th generation of videogames, the era of super awesome graphics and mainstream online gaming, the game tries so hard to fit in with the crowd, it has lost it's a way a little.
This isn't to say Soul Calibur IV isn't a good game, it is, it's a great game, in fact, and I recommend you buy it, I just don't feel it's as good as the previous titles in the great series, and no amount of Star Wars characters can convince me otherwise.
What I had noticed, is that, well there's a distinct lack of things to actually do. Single player modes are very limited. With only Arcade, which is fun, but only there to earn money. Story, the very title is an overstatement, it consists of 5 stages and one unique cut-scene for each character, and Tower of Souls, which is actually pretty decent and challenging, but not enough.
Offline Multiplayer, if anything, has been downgraded from the previous installments, there's Standard and Special verses, that's it. Unless there's a mode I've not unlocked yet, and I certainly hope there is, that's just not enough. Character creation has been simplified, but I'm happy to report that there's loads of customisable options, and you'll be spending a lot of time there.
One of the main new additions is online play, this is, well, what it says on the tin, the lag is frustrating and it certainly slows the pace, but at least it's there.
The characters are varied and interesting, but I wanted there to be more new additions than given, and more with unique styles and weapons, but the roster is impressive nevertheless. The Star Wars characters are fun to use, even though Yoda is annoying battling against due to his height.
Overall, it's a great game, but it just feels like there's a load missing, maybe it was to save space, who knows, or to put more power into generating the beautiful graphics. If you're a fan of the series, you may be a tad disappointed, but if you're just looking for a decent fighter, this is the way to go.
- Awful. Just awful.Let's start with what's probably the reason why I'm so disappointed by this game - SC3 was fantastic, incredible. Even nearly 3 years after I got it, I still play it a fair bit, in fact I've kept my PS2 just so I could keep SC3. The Chronicles of the Sword mode gave it unbelievable replay value, and at the same time made it easy to get about half of the collectible items (the clothes, character models etc). The Tales of Souls brought a lot more relevance to each individual character's story, and each different path you could take with each character meant you could play through it again and again and go on a different journey each time. You'd think that SC4 would at least replace these modes with some just as good, if not better? You'd be wrong. SC4 is a horrendous disappointment.
I can actually only think of two things that are better than SC3, the first being, of course, the graphics, which are truly astonishing. The backgrounds and character models are so well-drawn, they're the best graphics I've seen recently along with Gears of War 2 and the PS3's Resistance: FoM. Also, the critical finish addition is great, and not crazily complex to pull off like the fatalities on Mortal Kombat (the old old ones at least) - just push one buttons at a certain time and it's all done. Um... that's about it. Oh wait, the addition of Yoda and the Apprentice (and, for a few hundred MS points, Darth Vader) is a masterstroke.
The new equivalent of the Tales of Souls mode is boring. It barely gives any relevance to the story of each character, is over in half the time, can only go one way... I did 4 stories in it and I was already bored. Also, the Chronicles of the Sword mode which was so fantastic and gave SC3 its replay value is gone completely, replaced by a trip up or down a tower (which replaces the cathedral from SC3 as the "focal point"). This gets stupidly boring after about 5 or 6 levels. All that's left now is the arcade and VS modes. There's just so little to do.
My advice? Stick with SC3. It's such a shame that a fantastic franchise is ending like this.
Rating:
- Amazing Arena Fighter!!!wow, i have to say 1st off it was good by simple attacking. Then, i got a bit better and i started doing lightning, fire and cool magical attacks. Usually i'm not that impressed by these games, but this has really nailed it. I've also played virtua fighter 5... Rubbish compared to this.
Gameplay 5/5
Addicting 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Overall 5/5
There is only 1 flaw with this game and it is..............Getting annoyed when losing to friends RRRRRRRRR
Overall this is a highly addicting, good playing, and probably one of the top 5 xbox games known to man (27th november 2008)
Rating:
- Teenage boys dream!Having enjoyed past SC games I was looking forward to playing this. And it is a lot of fun to play. It's good for some mindless video game violence but does become fairly repetitive.
The single player modes lack something. Story mode is a bit of a joke really, and there's not much sense of achievement in arcade mode. OK, Tower of lost souls does provide something else but there's little variety really. Online play lags a lot at times but can be entertaining. It is a problem that if you get downed once, your opponent can pretty easily hit you with several attacks and you've lost. As usual with xbox live, the majority of players are only concerned with stats and levelling up, so you're unlikely to find many matches where they are trying out different moves/combos etc, it's usual standard button bashing in an effort to win, which detracts from the entertainment value.
It can be fairly repetitive in all modes, though in some ways that is a problem of any fighting game. There is a good selection of characters but a lot of them have the same fighting style. Yes, we get Yoda rather than Vader, but really that's a minor point and really shouldn't affect your decision to buy the game or not.
Graphically it's pretty good, and to link in with the title, I'm sure the ample breasts bouncing around on the female characters will do no harm to the games sales amongst certain parts of society!
Overall it's a decent enough game but not one that's likely to hold the attention for months on end. If you want a good fighting game though, look no further.
Rating:
- Pretty GoodHaving never bought any of the previous Soul Calibur games, I didn't really know what to expect in terms of depth and replay value, and, having always been terrible at this kind of game, was rather apprehensive about buying this. However I put these worries to the back of my mind as I needed to get something to ease the wait for Star Wars The Force Unleashed, and as this introduces characters from the Star Wars Universe, it was the perfect choice.
The game looks fantastic, each character's detail is superb and the thought and effort that has gone into the environments is great. The character motions are sleek and smooth, giving it a very impressive appearance.
The Single Player options are good, ranging from Story mode where you can play as any character through a series of stages, to The Tower of Lost Souls, where for each set of Levels on the Tower you have to select a certain amount of characters who are then put up against many more opponents. This can be quite challenging when you are only allowed to chose 1 character for a set which contains say 3 levels, each with 3 opponents on.
This is overcome by using the game's Character Creation mode, which as well as allowing you to completely create your own character, can be used to unlock new characters, and modify existing characters with new equipment to make them that little bit stronger in order to progress through the game.
Multiplayer is also strong - I have not had much experience playing it on Live due to my subscription ending :(, but when I did I experienced no lag and enjoyed the challenge of playing people who were clearly more adapted to this type of game. Offline multiplayer is fun and fast paced, but if there was one thing I would like to see in multiplayer would be an option to include more than 2 players and have a system similar to the Tower of Lost Souls whereby you can switch to a different character. This is just my opinion though, and in reality the multiplayer is as much, if not more fun the excellent single player modes.
Overall this is a game that I really have been pleasantly surprised with, it is fun and action-packed with some great visuals.
Rating:
- Can't think of a decent pun..."may the soul be with you?"I think, the main problem with Soul Calibur IV is, that, with the step into the 7th generation of videogames, the era of super awesome graphics and mainstream online gaming, the game tries so hard to fit in with the crowd, it has lost it's a way a little.
This isn't to say Soul Calibur IV isn't a good game, it is, it's a great game, in fact, and I recommend you buy it, I just don't feel it's as good as the previous titles in the great series, and no amount of Star Wars characters can convince me otherwise.
What I had noticed, is that, well there's a distinct lack of things to actually do. Single player modes are very limited. With only Arcade, which is fun, but only there to earn money. Story, the very title is an overstatement, it consists of 5 stages and one unique cut-scene for each character, and Tower of Souls, which is actually pretty decent and challenging, but not enough.
Offline Multiplayer, if anything, has been downgraded from the previous installments, there's Standard and Special verses, that's it. Unless there's a mode I've not unlocked yet, and I certainly hope there is, that's just not enough. Character creation has been simplified, but I'm happy to report that there's loads of customisable options, and you'll be spending a lot of time there.
One of the main new additions is online play, this is, well, what it says on the tin, the lag is frustrating and it certainly slows the pace, but at least it's there.
The characters are varied and interesting, but I wanted there to be more new additions than given, and more with unique styles and weapons, but the roster is impressive nevertheless. The Star Wars characters are fun to use, even though Yoda is annoying battling against due to his height.
Overall, it's a great game, but it just feels like there's a load missing, maybe it was to save space, who knows, or to put more power into generating the beautiful graphics. If you're a fan of the series, you may be a tad disappointed, but if you're just looking for a decent fighter, this is the way to go.
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