Soul Caliber 4 in EGM #218 (July 3rd).

[nintenho]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160573

"What's changed this time round is that the next-gen platforms have network infrastructure already in place," says Soulcalibur IV Director Katsutoshi Sasaki. "We've heard from fans that they really want the game to be online, so we figured that, with the current environment, we really couldn't make SC4 without online play."

Score one for gamers. But, with the introduction of create-a-character in Soul Calibur III and its assured revamping in Soulcalibur IV, will these customizations go to waste? "We definitely want to allow users to fight with their customized characters during online play. But we're unsure whether or not you'll be able to trade characters with friends."

It's only for PS3 and 360. I heard that there's going to be scans in it. It's interesting how Sega said VF is too precise for online play but Namco put it in both Soul Caliber and Tekken. I assumed that with Tekken: DR, Namco wanted to test how well online play works with fighters but it seems that if people really want it, they'll just put it in.

 

[Nesh]

When is the online patch going to be available for Tekken5R btw?

I am interested to see how well it will work. Lag is a pain in the ass sometimes

 

[CEO]

i still think its Calibur instead of Caliber

 

[nintenho]

They didn't say when it comes online but people have said the only reason a game like DOA can pull it off is because it's too imprecise/arcadey. Tekken has some pretty hardcore fans so it'll be interesting if they think it works well enough.

 

[Fox5]

Most of those games have run at 30 fps in older versions, or do run at 30 fps, so even assuming a move can start instantly, wouldn't that still give them 33ms to play around with? That's low lag, but not impossible, especially for a 1 v 1 connection.

Besides, twitch shooters have many instant hit weapons, and they still manage to pull it off. Most of the moves in fighting games take many frames to execute (sometimes even several seconds), so the input is only a small percentage of the actual time a move takes up. Not to mention that both sides will be affected by the delay.

 

[nintenho]

yeah but soul calibur uses pinpoint guard moves to parry attacks.

I just saw some screens in EGM. The graphics and lighting are more realistic but there's no self-shadowing which makes Ivy's breasts scarier.

 

[Fox5]

yeah but soul calibur uses pinpoint guard moves to parry attacks.

I just saw some screens in EGM. The graphics and lighting are more realistic but there's no self-shadowing which makes Ivy's breasts scarier.

Couldn't they just delay the input by a bit? The same way guitar hero compensates for hdtv lag? IE, if there's so many milliseconds of lag, then just add that delay onto the time it's ok to perform a move/countermove, or rather, move the entire frame of opportunity up by that time. It would require some work to add it in (and soul calibur already had jerky animations, so it shouldn't look much more abrupt than a guard already did), but it should be doable.

 

[nintenho]

I don't know, I never really played soul calibur games that much but it said something about it in the magazine I think. If you play any game professionally than you'll notice the slightest bit of lag but I think that namco knows they need to make it playable to the average person. DOA was said to be pretty much the same online and off because it's not a very precise game so maybe namco could just change the timing a little for online and let the hardcore players ignore that part of the game.

 

[almighty]

I just got the scans and it looks very very last gen'ish

 

[nintenho]

Ivy's breasts are just scary in this one. Visuals are more realistic this time and the breasts just aren't physically possible in any way. If I ever play as her I would need the 1 outfit that covers more than her nipples.

moving on, you can't really tell much from the scans especially considering it's supposed to be a 1 VS. 1 fighting game. The environments look A LOT more open and the lighting looks much better. I really like the shine on the edge of the fighers.