It makes me sad but I think Sega are a spent force. The majority of their new games are utter shite, some are average and there is the occasional decent one. Seems to me when the Dreamcast died they pretty much gave up on quality control.

Fighter fans are a fickle force. Make major changes to a beloved franchise, and suddenly you have truckloads of typed out yelling and death threats hurled in your general direction. Maybe a graphically improved VF4 with three new characters and stages is what Sega shot for with this game? Although that may turn off gamers who weren't into the earlier titles, it definately means that the already established fanbase will be pleased.

And considering the popularity of the Virta Fighter series overseas, that might not be a bad thing for Sega.

I thought exactly the same but with better graphics was what "next-gen" meant... But in fairness, how much can you really change a fighter from a series without changing it utterly, thereby pissing off most of the fans. If they wanted to do that, they'd make a different game. Also, from a 2 minute trailer, soul calibur 3 might look very similar to 2, but it was still a much improved game.

I must say though, that engrish voiceover won me over completely.

drac*. Sorry for getting your name wrong there, bud.

There was a time i loved fighters. then somthing happened. i got old, my friends all got jobs and i had nobody to play fighting games with on a daily basis.

I try to play online. and it upsets me that I cant push my opponent off the couch when hes spamming the same move thinking its funny. god what i would do to hold one more Tekken 2 tournament.

nice to know the fighting genre is dead, I'm not missing out on much.

I never really go into fighters, but its kind of a shame that the way its gone has left a lot of people out in the cold. With any luck someone will come out with a fighter that actually does justice to its self.

Also, Nex, wtf new icon? You look like my cousin.

Nah Soul Calibur 1 on DC will always do it for me.

Also who broke the D-TOID?

Also cocks

shoryuken.com to anyone who thinks the fighting genre is dead or dying. just because the lot of you like to shoot vulgar 10 year old hicks online or frolic with elves and stuff doesn't mean there aren't a ton of gamers who prefer the pure, man to man, competitive genre that is the fighting game.

anyways... the new characters look pretty sweet, i'm interested in that tourney mode thing (the online will probably be too lag to be playable tho), but most of all.. the commentator is fuggin AWESOME!! i hope they keep the japanese dude for the english release!

You know I'm going to ask, why is there so much hate for this game around here? Whoever writes the article about VF5 always has some comment like "Why should we car?" or "Looks like a VF4 clone" or something else trying to put it down. No one here has even played the game and they assume its the Tekken series(sorry Tekken but you suck after 3).

Now from someone who actually plays the game quite often at the arcades, liike me, I can say that this games definatly does not feel like VF 4. First off lets tak about the inclusion of the new characters Eileen and El Blaze. I myself had doubts about El Blaze since I find it hard to take Lucha Libre as a serious fighting style. However, when I have to fight someone who knows how to use him he can kick my ass quick if I'm not careful. His moves are fresh and quite different from the other characters with throws that can come right after he finishes ceratin comboes to deal even more damage. Eileen adds something as well with her monkey style, although I fear El Blaze users more then Eileen users. Eileen has a lot of low starting comboes which make you have to predict where the next attack is coming from more then other characters whose comboes usualy have it ending low.

Next I hear the complaint about the back grounds and the areas people are fighting in. I can not vouch for the back grounds but they are of little concern to me because playability is more important in my book. In VF 4 there were three types of arena; the open air no walls area, the area with walls that can be broken through, and the area that has high walls where it is imposible to through out your opponnent. I can say the arenas are not much different in VF5 since he breakable walls are not replaced with low walls where if you do the right combo you can out an opponnent. They also added size information with the stages where high walls are 10X10, low walls are 12X12, and open air are 16X16. This is a little nice since you know the size of where you are fighting but nothing groundbreaking.

Next The thing I hate hearing the most from peope here who have never played the game or had only 5 minutes with it is that this is a VF4 clone. You need to get that idea WWWAAAYYY out of your head. Of course like any fighting game you will have returning characters that players love from the series. However, that does not mean they play the same as they did before. If someone said that SF3 was a clone of SF2 simply because its a sequel and Ryu can do hadouken. If you have played SF3 you know thats where the smililarites pretty much end. Same can be said of the Virtua Fighter Series from 4 to 5 although I can say its doesn't feel as much a radical change as it did from SF2 to 3. Unlike the Tekken series that keeps moves pretty much the same, been using pretty much the same move for Law from 3 through 5, and only adds characters; the new VF has changed every move set for every character. Granted some comboes and moves will be the same like say a PPP combo, but there is a lot more added to each character. When I started playing I though I could use my VF4 skills to take on the other players yet I got my ass handed to me very badly. If you want to see the most proof of the difference, you should watch a serious Shun Di player. I think his moves changed most of all with all the crazy comboes I've seen him do. Other then added moves another stratedgy added is the ability to juggle your opponnents way more then you could from VF4. Akira is really cheap in this aspect since he now has a throw that lift the opponnent high off the ground, about as high as Kage's, and can make the opponnent stay in the air for quite a while which opens up options for ring outs in the low wall and open air arenas.

Sorry for this being long but I thought that I should show the truth instead of the udeserved hate bandwagon this game is getting just because of it being a sequal. If there is anything that you might want to know about the game, just ask me and I would be happy to reply.

I've never understood one-on-one fighting games. Even if there's a stiff challenge, there's not much sense of progress.

Now, the street-brawler fighting games are fun. There's more to do.