Where's my Soul Calibur?
To follow gamespot's scoring system, I will first talk about the graphics.
The graphics, while it's almost identical to that of Soul Calibur 2, is still beautiful and detailed, and I'm actually quite glad that this factor was kept as it is. Last thing I would want to see is Namco trying something new only to end up developing a bad game.
The sound is also actually very similar, but you guys should probably don't take my words into consideration (just my sound section) because I am one of those gamers who gets too deeply involved to even worry about sound. I still think that it's done pretty well, considering that I've heard a lot of worse in game soundtracks as well as sounds itself.
Gameplay is where many changes have been done. First of all, many of the modes seem new and different, but are badly executed for the most part as the gamespot reviewer also said. Some moves also seems to be changed as my favorite character Mitsurugi was doing some weird moves instead of the old crazy move that I used to do on the original Soul Calibur and on Soul Calibur 2, no matter how much I kept on spamming only to realize a few minutes later that the moves have been changed. This makes me more angry every time I think about how hard I tried to master Mitsurugi's moves. My other big disappointment was the change of modes and menu designs, as it was a lot harder and confusing to access to different options. Speaking of confusing, the mode Tales of Chronicles was also confusing and extremely dull for the most part. Lastly, I noticed that the game has gotten more difficult than previous games but then again, maybe I forgot to change the difficulty setting to easy. Though I remember ignoring doing so because I think I read someone's review about difficulty options not existing. That will be the first thing I'm going to check next time I play Soul Calibur 3. I guess other factors of gameplay such as responsiveness of controls, intensity of gameplay, and addictiveness of multi player mode are all still the same as before.
Value actually depends on the person. Personally, I find the new modes extremely retarded, therefore replay value goes down on my part. For someone else who likes to try new approaches might favor the inclusion of new modes. But then again, it's still very engaging to try to unlock all the features of the game and to play with friends. Sadly, I can play with friends only so often as most are PC gamers. If they added an online mode (why didn't they? PS2 is online enabled...) I think I would totally forget about the new uninspiring modes (because I love fighting random people) and therefore, give replay value a full 10/10. However, that's not the case and I'd say it would only be about 8/10 if I had to score it.
As for the tilt, being a fan of Soul Calibur series, I'd say I still like it despite the fact that there are some main features (what made Soul Calibur so great) that are missing (arcade mode and battle mission mode from original Soul Calibur) and disappointing new features that are added. I continuously play game since I bought it last month and I am still enjoying it. So I guess I'm more in favor of this game.
Finally, if I had to recommend this game to anyone, I would recommend it to only Soul Calibur fans and hardcore fighting gamers who likes variety. If you have never tried Soul Calibur, then you are better off buying used Soul Calibur 2 for $5 than paying $20 to get Soul Calibur 3. (well, I got mine for $8.99 at gamestop because it was in clearance. I don't know about other gamestop stores or gamestores. I'm just assuming that it's $20. but either way, I doubt that used SC3 is $5)
BUT...if you have extra cash, try to get a Dreamcast and get the original Soul Calibur because I'm telling you, it's the one of the best damn fighting games ever made. In the end, I'm recommending Soul Calibur 1 to all newbies to this franchise.