Soul Calibur III, Incase you missed it. Options

[Vitamin D]

For those that don't know, Soul Calibur III has been released. There are a WHOLE lot of features, like create a character and some strange but really fun real time strategy game thingie and of course bunch of stuff to unlock. The new characters are pretty damn cool too (there's Black dude with a scythe mang!), and they also tweaked some of the exisiting characters (yeah.. gotta learn Ivy over again man... DAMN!). So if your soul hasn't burned in a long time, you know what you have to do. and sure, you could rent it, but you KNOW you'll end up buying it anyway haha.

[Wiryu]

This was the one game i was looking forward to yesterday, and since i was working i figured i would pick it up when i went in. It was the ONE game i was looking forward to, and the UPS guy didn't deliver 1/7 packages. Can you guess what package that was? That's right.......Ratchet and clank........Oh yah! And soul calibur 3! >:(

[Alisha]

as long as it still has talim ill be getting it >.>

[Crushinator]

I just picked this up yesterday, and its damn excellent. The graphics are top-notch for PS2, and it has a metric shit-ton of characters. Every one who was ever in any Soul game is there, plus a ton of new and "bonus" characters, including the ORLY owl. I think I counted 41 selectable characters in total, plus you can have 10 custom characters per memory card.

The "Tales of the Soul" story mode gives you a complete story for every main character, including branching baths and QTE-action story events, plus lots of cutscenes with dialogue.

Then there's the "conquest of the sword" mode (I think that's what it is called), which is like a strategy game mixed with SC type battles. You build your army with story and player-created characters, set their class/unit type/weapons/armor and then battle to take over bases and fight various bosses and challenges. It's a lot like Ogre Battle, but instead of RPG fights you do SC missions.

Then there is the regular arcade type fighting mode, where you just fight 7 random opponents in a row, and the boss, and try to get the best time/score. But there is also a tournament mode that has elimination and round-robin type tournaments.

SC always has a lot of unlockables, and SC3 doesn't disappoint. You earn gold for pretty much everything you do in every mode of the game, and you can spend that at the Weapon, Armor, and Item stores. The item store is where you get all the bonus stuff like art galleries, weapon demos, more modes, more playable character classes (ninja AND pirates!) etc.

The character creation is pretty fun, you get a lot of parts and job options, but you can't adjust your characters proportions! SC is famous for its amply busomed characters, but you are stuck with one size-fits-all homebrew characters. Crushinator am cry. I got the right parts to make FFXI AF THF Crushinator though .

If you liked any previous SC's 3 will not disappoint.

[Wiryu]

I have to agree with crush, i finally put it down after many hours. Battle system is as smooth and unbelievable as usual, the stages look unreal, and the stories are very cool, complete with interactive movies (ex. RE4) Voice acting for the majority is also really good so far, and in english. (siegfried is the man!) Another gimmick i like, is they have 4 costumes for each main char, the first two are the default costumes, but after that, they have color costumes which allow you to change the colors of the characters.

Wide weapon selection has returned, i think 8 or 9 for each character, and the ever popular ring out hasn't gone anywhere. I think the only gripe i have is the fact that they don't really have a difficulty setting for the story mode, and each story battle is one round. The game is difficult enough, but once you set yourself into a groove and figure out the game, it's not quite as hard after you finish the learning curve. Either way, if your looking for something to keep you busy and you enjoy fighting games, SC3 is certainly one to add to your collection.

[Crushinator]

Yeah, the AI in the story mode is wonky as hell. Some fights are a total pushover, and then it will suddenly ramp up to where they Just Guard Impact and counter every throw without blinking an eye. It's more even in the Soul Arena mode though, but you don't get much money to unlock stuff in that mode (or at least I don't because I suck.)