September 17, 2003 Fanboy’s Corner Culture ¢ the other press © Soul Caliber 2 Nick Hog OP Game Guy V. 2.0 If you own any of the major console sys- tems you should stop reading this right now and go out and buy Soul Caliber 2. Why are you still reading this? At any rate Soul Caliber 2 is quite a rarity. It’s one of those mass appeal games that doesn’t fre- quently come along, and despite the fact that it is a fighting game, it is something that can be enjoyed by both newbies and hardcore gamers alike. The story isn’t what I'd call impressive, although it’s a fighting game so story is more or less just character background, and it ranges from interesting and inter- connected to “hey look I have a sword.” Although the story isn’t why you should run out and spend your cash—it’s the game play, the graphics, and the music. The game play is easy enough for begin- ners to get a hang of the battle system, and unlike Virtual Fighter, this system is for- giving of newbies. But the moves list ranges up to the level where you actually have to know what youre doing, and gives hardcore fighting fans something to sink their teeth into. Now for game modes, they went all out beyond normal arcade action. First off is a mode called Weapons Master, where you take part in a series of challenges, skill building exercises, and dungeon craws, while you earn money, which can be used to buy bonus modes, weapons for characters, and new character costumes. As well there is a set of extra battle modes that allow for the use of bonus weapons purchased in weapons master. One of the funniest things was the inclusion of gag weapons, _ like Nightmare’s Boat oar, or Xianghua’s Calligraphy brush, or — Voldo’s Tambourines, these can makes a serious bout hilarious when’s your up for a good laugh. Since this is a multi-platform review the graphics play out a little different on each system, but if you are using the regular RCA system hookups, the differences are very minimal with most versions looking the same graphic wise. The PS2 version looks the worst, although I'd like more games that look this bad. The Xbox and Game Cube versions look relatively the same and do a good job, keeping up the fame rate during heavy combos scenes with Inferno. Both these versions shine when using progressive scan and compo- nent cables. Each system comes with a dif- ferent bonus character exclusive to it. This is probably not the best way to decide which version you want if you own multi platform. The Xbox got Todd McFarline’s Spawn, which fit the worst into this story, not only did he not make sense, he also doesn’t fit style wise very well into the game. Game Cube has Link, from a num- ber of Ze/da games. He fits well because he uses a sword, but he’s still an elf and that doesn’t quite cut it, although his story makes slightly more sense than Spawn’. Lastly there is Heihachi from Tekken, story wise he fits better because he’s form the Namco universe, but he doesn’t use a weapon in a weapons fighter, although they did leave in his ten-hit combos from Tekken, so it’s not a total loss. Most people will probably rarely use these characters because there is a great selection of charac- ters to choose from in the regular game. At the end of the day we have a great looking fighting game on all systems that beginners can easily pick up with lots to master. And despite its many modes, youll spend most of your time playing versus your friends and yelling obscenities at them after they beat you one too many times in a row. Contact the Student Services Centres at Douglas College. We provide: ® Career information and resources ® Counselling — career, personal,and educational @ Peer support and assistance @ Services for First Nations students e@ Services for students with disabilities e Women’s Centre In any relationship, one person always does the heavy lifting. Alien Biggs Channing DeVito Fallon Ricci DREAMWORKS PICTURES resenrs sx ascocunion wink GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS “ANYTHING ELSE” WOODY ALLEN JASON BIGGS STOCKARD CHANNING DANAY DeVITO JIMMY FALLON CHRISTINA RIC SR JACK ROLLINS, CHARLES H. JOFFE ASE STEPHEN TENENBAUM nonce HELEN ROBIN '*°"3 LETTY ARONSON (sumecrrocusincanon ON Joc BS RR WOODY AA) eeamWwonxs ‘£2008 GANVER PRODLTIONS, NC ALL, A GHTE RESERVED SSRN TES 9 SRAM OE TMBETION SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 http://www.otherpress.ca e Page 15