Soul Calibur 4

[Cyrus]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172469.ht ... lt;title;0

Exactly what I thought would happen... It will be for X360 as well as the PS3 but not on the Wii. Sony hasn't sold nearly enough PS3s for Namco to make SC4 a PS3 exclusive like SC3 was, and the Wii is too shitty to handle the game.

I'm planning on buying the game once it's released assuming they don't fuck it up with severely unbalanced shit by granting certain characters instant automagic ringouts or infinite combos or any of that other shit via variable cancels or other glitches like SC3 had.

The only problem is now I don't know which console to buy next year when this is released. The PS3 costs more than the X360 but has a free online play and more poweful hardware... I'm leaning towards the PS3 because monthly payments piss me off almost as much as Microsoft in general does. The PS3 is $798 and the X360 is $627 (full package with 120GB HDD) here, taxes included. $1 CAD right now is 94 cents USD and they say it will hit $1 USD in a few months but I seriously doubt prices of items will drop.

[Neo Kaiser]

The only thing that i dislike about the PS3 is the RSX GPU who is weak and the colors of the games looks like someone used Clorox on them.

[Deathlike2]

...and the Wii is too shitty to handle the game.

That's just a retarded comment. It has more to do with who would pay that dev company tons of money to get their game available for their system.

Of course, the comment doesn't quite beat this quote...

The only thing that i dislike about the PS3 is the RSX GPU who is weak and the colors of the games looks like someone used Clorox on them.

How about blaming the developers who wrote the game? The video on the system is based on the NVidia Geforce 7800 IIRC. 99% chance that someone was colorblind or that whoever took the pictures was stupid enough not to get the cleanest signal possible (on a good TV to boot) to take the best pics.

[Cyrus]

The only thing that i dislike about the PS3 is the RSX GPU who is weak and the colors of the games looks like someone used Clorox on them.

Actually the RSX is a powerful G70 based GPU, I don't know what was the cause of that colour problem but the GPU is likely not to blame as much as other factors, who knows. It can't compare to a Radeon HD2900 or GeForce 8800 but at the time the PS3 was being developed the 7800 series was just made so they went with the G70 core.

...and the Wii is too shitty to handle the game.

That's just a retarded comment. It has more to do with who would pay that dev company tons of money to get their game available for their system.

Retarded comment? Do you honestly think they wouldn't sell it for the Wii if they could? Why do you think they came up with an adventure Soul Calibur game for the Wii? To make up for lost customers.

[Neo Kaiser]

It happens with ports of 360 games being ported to the PS3 like Call of Duty 3 for example. Unless IGN is laying and making the TV colors bright.

[Deathlike2]

The only thing that i dislike about the PS3 is the RSX GPU who is weak and the colors of the games looks like someone used Clorox on them.

Actually the RSX is a powerful G70 based GPU, I don't know what was the cause of that colour problem but the GPU is likely not to blame as much as other factors, who knows. It can't compare to a Radeon HD2900 or GeForce 8800 but at the time the PS3 was being developed the 7800 series was just made so they went with the G70 core.

...and the Wii is too shitty to handle the game.

That's just a retarded comment. It has more to do with who would pay that dev company tons of money to get their game available for their system.

Retarded comment? Do you honestly think they wouldn't sell it for the Wii if they could? Why do you think they came up with an adventure Soul Calibur game for the Wii? To make up for lost customers.

I think you totally missed the boat. I'm sure Nintendo would love the game on the Wii, but since you are not paying the developers who make Soul Calibur to develop for the system, then there's no incentive to make the port.

There are times where the demand doesn't go the way one would like. Since the series is successful, they have the console makers by the balls if they want that game available for their console. I mean, what's more profitable.. a game that would obviously sell for the given port.. or the being paid off by the console maker AND sell for the given port. $$$ talks. It is not as tough a decision when you have complete control of the situation.

[Cyrus]

With the massive amount of success the Soul series has had I'm sure Nintendo would pay up to have it ported to the Wii if it were possible. We'll just have to wait until someone explains why a port to the Wii won't happen. I still say it's the el cheapo hardware, even with a game 100% optimized to run on a specific set of hardware the Wii seems just plain too weak to run a game such as SC4. Even assuming that's not the case, it eventually will be with future games considering consoles easily last 7+ years.

[Deathlike2]

With the massive amount of success the Soul series has had I'm sure Nintendo would pay up to have it ported to the Wii if it were possible.

Sometimes they are either too arrogent, or are not putting up enough $$$. It's one or the other 99% of the time.

We'll just have to wait until someone explains why a port to the Wii won't happen. I still say it's the el cheapo hardware, even with a game 100% optimized to run on a specific set of hardware the Wii seems just plain too weak to run a game such as SC4. Even assuming that's not the case, it eventually will be with future games considering consoles easily last 7+ years.

Sometimes people take too much of the PR+propaganda+specs too seriously when it comes to game development. I doubt you will actually hear a peep from the source... except maybe some rumors here and there.

[Neo Kaiser]

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii can disprove that the Wii is a weak system. Look at those graphics people.

[Joe Camacho]

Seriously, the Wii is great and all, but seriously, IT CAN'T DELIVER THE GRAPHICS THE PS3 AND THE XBOX 360 DELIVER.

Anyway, SC already has an exclusive game for the Wii, so it's all good, no?

[Deathlike2]

Seriously, the Wii is great and all, but seriously, IT CAN'T DELIVER THE GRAPHICS THE PS3 AND THE XBOX 360 DELIVER.

I doubt it to an extent, but it is the weakest of the bunch. Considering that both the 360+PS3 use graphics cards that are available now, that's a bit ahead of the Wii.. which uses a custom ATI video card that simply is not at the same height Sony+MS are using (this is Nintendo after all...). Note that Sony was smart enough to realize that having a video rendering system based on what PC makers have today would certainly be a good marketing tool for the consumer and devs.. too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

[Cyrus]

Well... Sony pushed Bluray into the PS3 not only to give Bluray a boost but to prevent piracy and so far it's worked wonders. Almost no one has a Bluray burner to make copies of games. There are no PS3 modchips out yet and there might not be for a long time. Even the firmware mods haven't had any real success yet. On the other hand the X360 has several modchips availible already and a type of modified firmware which cannot be detected by Microsoft (though who knows, it might be in the future) so therefore won't get you banned from online play.

With what I said in the main post along with this info... which would you guys choose? The X360 or PS3?

[Starman Ghost]

too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

No, thier ultimate blunder is the cell processor, which is very difficult to program for and tends to scare away all the small third party developers.

[blackmyst]

I'm rofling at anyone who can seriously, with a straight face, say "SC4 can't be done on the Wii".

On the Wii it would be exactly, and I mean exactly the same game, except maybe for some higher texture resolution or something that would only be noticable in extreme close-ups.

It's a one-on-one brawler for Christ's sake, people! It's rock-paper-scissors! It's not Oblivion, or Heavenly Sword. And there just isn't much more than can be done with those type of games, graphically, that hasn't already been done on last-gen systems. I mean duh.


Then why? I don't know. Maybe it's just that with the Wii being so popular, they feel they can experiment (with the SC adventure game) while still being assured of reasonable sales, while they keep the more traditional "safe" game concept on the other systems. Who knows.

Seriously, the Wii is great and all, but seriously, IT CAN'T DELIVER THE GRAPHICS THE PS3 AND THE XBOX 360 DELIVER.

Whoa totally RANDOM CAPITALIZATION FOR the win.

[Neo Kaiser]

too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

No, thier ultimate blunder is the cell processor, which is very difficult to program for and tends to scare away all the small third party developers.

that's because the idiots leaved it with less than 1MB of cache. With just 256Kb per core and 512KB on L2 I have to question Sony's decicion. Why the hell they didn't modified the Cell to use at least 2MB of cache per core? This resulting in Bandai-Namco developing more games on the 360 and tri-Ace developing games for M$ Studios.

[Joe Camacho]

I'm rofling at anyone who can seriously, with a straight face, say "SC4 can't be done on the Wii".

On the Wii it would be exactly, and I mean exactly the same game, except maybe for some higher texture resolution or something that would only be noticable in extreme close-ups.

It's a one-on-one brawler for Christ's sake, people! It's rock-paper-scissors! It's not Oblivion, or Heavenly Sword. And there just isn't much more than can be done with those type of games, graphically, that hasn't already been done on last-gen systems. I mean duh.


Then why? I don't know. Maybe it's just that with the Wii being so popular, they feel they can experiment (with the SC adventure game) while still being assured of reasonable sales, while they keep the more traditional "safe" game concept on the other systems. Who knows.

Seriously, the Wii is great and all, but seriously, IT CAN'T DELIVER THE GRAPHICS THE PS3 AND THE XBOX 360 DELIVER.

Whoa totally RANDOM CAPITALIZATION FOR the win.

The Wii is fun, it's popular because it's fun. But seriously, it has the weakest hardware of the bunch, I plan to buy a Wii, and I still know that I won't be able to see graphic heavy games.

And it's kind of bothersome to see when a company will release a game for the PS3 or the Xbox360 and everyone is "WHY NOT RELEASING IT TO THE WII?" Damn, they are different mediums, PS3 and Xbox360 with heavy graphics and traditional controllers. The Wii with motion sensor and fun games, but not really graphic intensive.

Then you are going to tell me that Devil May Cry 4 should be released on the Wii, and that Metal Gears Solid 4 should also be released on the Wii.

But no guys, there are some games the Wii can't handle. It doesn't matter how much money Nintendo could throw at the developers.

There is a reason why Namco is already planning on releasing an EXCLUSIVE game for the Wii with the SC franchise, so what's the big deal?

And hey, maybe the Wii *can* handle SC4, if they downgraded some graphic effects, polygons, what have you.. But why cripple a version when they are able to release a prettier game on another console?

Hey, but I'm talking "against" the Wii, so someone is going to pick up my post and rip it to shreds anyway.

[Cyrus]

too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

No, thier ultimate blunder is the cell processor, which is very difficult to program for and tends to scare away all the small third party developers.

that's because the idiots leaved it with less than 1MB of cache. With just 256Kb per core and 512KB on L2 I have to question Sony's decicion. Why the hell they didn't modified the Cell to use at least 2MB of cache per core? This resulting in Bandai-Namco developing more games on the 360 and tri-Ace developing games for M$ Studios.

Developers only add as much L2 cache as is needed. Why do you think Pentiums have so much more L2 cache than Athlon 64s? For great justice? I think not, it's because they need more.

[funkyass]

the WII graphics are like from 2001, but faster,

You do not get high-precision HDR, nor normal mapping, or even descent bump-mapping.

you'll notice it without looking hard at all.

[Gil_Hamilton]

And hey, maybe the Wii *can* handle SC4, if they downgraded some graphic effects, polygons, what have you.. But why cripple a version when they are able to release a prettier game on another console?

*sigh*
I miss the days when they were porting custom-hardware arcade games to consoles that were massively weaker.
No one whined about a game being crippled because it wasn't as pretty as the arcade version.


Blackmyst is right. SC4 COULD be done on the Wii with just a graphics scale-down.
And it'd PLAY exactly the same(assuming a "classic" controller).
In the end, isn't that what matters? Not whether you can see Ivy's photorealistic boobs reflecting off her sword?

[Joe Camacho]

And hey, maybe the Wii *can* handle SC4, if they downgraded some graphic effects, polygons, what have you.. But why cripple a version when they are able to release a prettier game on another console?

*sigh*
I miss the days when they were porting custom-hardware arcade games to consoles that were massively weaker.
No one whined about a game being crippled because it wasn't as pretty as the arcade version.


Blackmyst is right. SC4 COULD be done on the Wii with just a graphics scale-down.
And it'd PLAY exactly the same(assuming a "classic" controller).
In the end, isn't that what matters? Not whether you can see Ivy's photorealistic boobs reflecting off her sword?

Well, but why dedicate time to scaling down a game, when you are already making an exclusive game to the system?

They would be competing with themselves.

And who knows, maybe for some reason SC4 will use textures, polygons and other technical mumbojumbo I don't really comprehend, that can only used on the PS3 and Xbox360.

Maybe it could look close to the same, play with the classic controller, but slower because the system can handle.

[Gil_Hamilton]

too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

No, thier ultimate blunder is the cell processor, which is very difficult to program for and tends to scare away all the small third party developers.

that's because the idiots leaved it with less than 1MB of cache. With just 256Kb per core and 512KB on L2 I have to question Sony's decicion. Why the hell they didn't modified the Cell to use at least 2MB of cache per core? This resulting in Bandai-Namco developing more games on the 360 and tri-Ace developing games for M$ Studios.

Heehee... I missed this one earlier.


And why didn't they just go ahead and make the entire system use the same high-speed SRAM while they were at it?!?!?! Think of how fast it'd perform if ALL the RAM was that fast!111


Here's a hint: The high-speed SRAM used for cache memory is expensive, and Cell is ALREADY far costlier than Sony wanted.

And hey, maybe the Wii *can* handle SC4, if they downgraded some graphic effects, polygons, what have you.. But why cripple a version when they are able to release a prettier game on another console?

*sigh*
I miss the days when they were porting custom-hardware arcade games to consoles that were massively weaker.
No one whined about a game being crippled because it wasn't as pretty as the arcade version.


Blackmyst is right. SC4 COULD be done on the Wii with just a graphics scale-down.
And it'd PLAY exactly the same(assuming a "classic" controller).
In the end, isn't that what matters? Not whether you can see Ivy's photorealistic boobs reflecting off her sword?

Well, but why dedicate time to scaling down a game, when you are already making an exclusive game to the system?

They would be competing with themselves.

Didn't you just argue the exclusive adventure title was because the Wii couldn't handle SC4?

And who knows, maybe for some reason SC4 will use textures, polygons and other technical mumbojumbo I don't really comprehend, that can only used on the PS3 and Xbox360.

Yeah, that falls under scaling back the graphics.
Sure they can't use fancy lighting effects, huge textures, and 8 jillion polygons. But that just affects appearance, not the actual game.

Maybe it could look close to the same, play with the classic controller, but slower because the system can handle.

The only thing the system can't handle is the graphics.
Seriously, there's nothing here that's new over Soul Caliber 2 and 3 in terms of non-visual effort.

It'd look a bit different(closer to SC2 or 3), but run at a similar speed.

[grinvader]

Since when have all of you turned into graphic whores



I expected more of a SNES-nostalgic forum populace, really

/me resumes playing <640x480 fuck yeah awesome fun games with badass music not needing 3GHz to draw BLACK

[Deathlike2]

too bad their ultimate blunder is the Bluray drive, but that's a different discussion.

No, thier ultimate blunder is the cell processor, which is very difficult to program for and tends to scare away all the small third party developers.

that's because the idiots leaved it with less than 1MB of cache. With just 256Kb per core and 512KB on L2 I have to question Sony's decicion. Why the hell they didn't modified the Cell to use at least 2MB of cache per core? This resulting in Bandai-Namco developing more games on the 360 and tri-Ace developing games for M$ Studios.

Dumbass, again with the obsessing over the specs. It is completely irrelevent. You do realize cost is an important factor right? (See PS3 for details.)

And hey, maybe the Wii *can* handle SC4, if they downgraded some graphic effects, polygons, what have you.. But why cripple a version when they are able to release a prettier game on another console?

*sigh*
I miss the days when they were porting custom-hardware arcade games to consoles that were massively weaker.
No one whined about a game being crippled because it wasn't as pretty as the arcade version.


Blackmyst is right. SC4 COULD be done on the Wii with just a graphics scale-down.
And it'd PLAY exactly the same(assuming a "classic" controller).
In the end, isn't that what matters? Not whether you can see Ivy's photorealistic boobs reflecting off her sword?

Completely on target. This is why SC2 on the XBOX looks the best, but that only matters if you pay attention to details and actually noticed the differences.

[blackmyst]

And who knows, maybe for some reason SC4 will use textures, polygons and other technical mumbojumbo I don't really comprehend, that can only used on the PS3 and Xbox360.

Maybe it could look close to the same, play with the classic controller, but slower because the system can handle.

LOL

"Textures" and "polygons" are technical mumbojumbo? Like "pencil" and "paper" are complex artist's jargon? Right, and you come in here telling people something in all caps about what can and can't be done? I'll remind myself not to take anything you say on the subject of game graphics seriously, ever.

"slower", haha. Well let me spell it out for you again. The exact same gameplay of these 1on1 3D brawlers has been running at 60 FPS ever since Tekken and Soul Blade on the PS1. Nothing has changed. And then you honestly think that the same game on a machine many, many times as powerful as that would have trouble running it?


SC3 still looks beautiful even by today's standards, AND runs at 60 FPS, why would a Wii SC4 be any different? You, and so many other people, seem to conveniently forget about the last gen entirely, when bashing the Wii's processing power. Imagine if 6 years from now, when the next-nextgen consoles are out, people would go like "oh, Soul Calibur 6 on the PS3? Well Idunno if they could do a fighter on that console, maybe if they crippled the game it would be possible. But it would have to run at 15 FPS". See how silly that sounds? That's what you people sound like.

[Joe Camacho]

And who knows, maybe for some reason SC4 will use textures, polygons and other technical mumbojumbo I don't really comprehend, that can only used on the PS3 and Xbox360.

Maybe it could look close to the same, play with the classic controller, but slower because the system can handle.

LOL

"Textures" and "polygons" are technical mumbojumbo? Like "pencil" and "paper" are complex artist's jargon? Right, and you come in here telling people something in all caps about what can and can't be done? I'll remind myself not to take anything you say on the subject of game graphics seriously, ever.

"slower", haha. Well let me spell it out for you again. The exact same gameplay of these 1on1 3D brawlers has been running at 60 FPS ever since Tekken and Soul Blade on the PS1. Nothing has changed. And then you honestly think that the same game on a machine many, many times as powerful as that would have trouble running it?


SC3 still looks beautiful even by today's standards, AND runs at 60 FPS, why would a Wii SC4 be any different? You, and so many other people, seem to conveniently forget about the last gen entirely, when bashing the Wii's processing power. Imagine if 6 years from now, when the next-nextgen consoles are out, people would go like "oh, Soul Calibur 6 on the PS3? Well Idunno if they could do a fighter on that console, maybe if they crippled the game it would be possible. But it would have to run at 15 FPS". See how silly that sounds? That's what you people sound like.

Agh, people like me. Ok ok, maybe I expressed myself wrong. I'm not a graphics whore. I'm just thinking on the possible reasons of why Namco didn't put the game in the Wii.

And I think that having to downscale the game, we don't know exactly how they are going to make it. The possible lack of motion sensoring controls and the existence of an exclusive title are valid reasons to put a game on a more powerful console instead that on the Wii.

Guys, seriously, bash me all you want, but the Wii can't pull of things the other two consoles can do. But in the same time, the Wii does something the other ones can't. Not being able to pull X graphics method *could* be a valid reason to *not* put a game in the Wii.

And yeah "mumbojumbo", I know what a polygon and textures are, but I can't explain how they can affect a game, because I'm not an expert in that stuff.

Like, why can't they put Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Wii, what's HD, what's bump mapping, etc.