The Soul Still Burns...Now Online(SC4)

You heard it here...Soul Caliber 4 Comfirmed for Online

Looks like Create and Customize a character will also be back...

Can I start hoping for Tekken 6 Online...Believe I will!!!

Article

Despite online multiplayer's growth, the fighting genre has notoriously resisted embracing the feature. The Mortal Kombat series was an early pioneer, but the old dismissal that online networking isn't fast enough for the split-second timing seems to be failing -- or companies have come to terms with it. Either way, the latest issue of EGM spills the beans: Soulcalibur IV will have online networking when it arrives on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2008.

"What's changed this tiema round is that the next-gen platforms have network infrastructure already in place," says Soulcalibur IV Director Katsutoshi Sasaki. "We've heard from fans that they really want the game to be online, so we figured that, with the current environment, we really couldn't make SC4 without online play."

Score one for gamers. But, with the introduction of create-a-character in Soul Calibur III and its assured revamping in Soulcalibur IV, will these customizations go to waste? "We definitely want to allow users to fight with their customized characters during online play. But we're unsure whether or not you'll be able to trade characters with friends."

Sweet!

Being a big fan of fighting games I would have picked this up without the online but having it there is certainly going to make it even more enjoyable for me. Also it makes the customizing feature much more beneficial since it will be very cool checking out all the different player creations.

I should have named the title.... I AM2 Cry Again. As much as I want to say...It looks more and more like Tekken 6 will be apporaching online also with Tekken DR online and now SC. Not to mention DOA, SF, And others. pretty much they are looking to be the odd man out. Funny take all the fighters now...They seem to be the only one now online or have any plans.Acenso

That's because the fighting game genre plays horribly online IMHO. And from what I've experienced and some other fighters I've talking too, online contains to lag, framerate drops, hacking, glitches, and worst of all sore loseres *Oh crap he's about to beat me! Quick let me disconnect before he pulls off his special*. Don't get me wrong these problems can be fixed, but never 100% and the main point of the genre is to show off your skills and beat someone face to face with your friends or local fighting group, can't really do that online.

So much for the technical brilliance of SoulCalibur. Guard Impact will be a hard habit to break.DarkCatalyst

I love fighters so I'm excited for this news.

But I don't know much about online. Are there some downsides to online in fighting games that I should be aware of?

[QUOTE="DarkCatalyst"]So much for the technical brilliance of SoulCalibur. Guard Impact will be a hard habit to break.ASK_Story

I love fighters so I'm excited for this news.

But I don't know much about online. Are there some downsides to online in fighting games that I should be aware of?

In layman's terms, the technical aspects of a lot of fighting games are too fast to work well alongside the bits of lag that naturally creep up when playing games online. The more serious players consider the results of online matches (and thus, the entire online ranking system) completely irrelevant.

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"]

[QUOTE="DarkCatalyst"]So much for the technical brilliance of SoulCalibur. Guard Impact will be a hard habit to break.DarkCatalyst

I love fighters so I'm excited for this news.

But I don't know much about online. Are there some downsides to online in fighting games that I should be aware of?

In layman's terms, the technical aspects of a lot of fighting games are too fast to work well alongside the bits of lag that naturally creep up when playing games online. The more serious players consider the results of online matches (and thus, the entire online ranking system) completely irrelevant.

Agreed, and that's something for some reason most gamers just don't grasp or just plain don't care about. Don't forget those that disconnect and exploit glitches. :angry:

[QUOTE="Acenso"]I should have named the title.... I AM2 Cry Again. As much as I want to say...It looks more and more like Tekken 6 will be apporaching online also with Tekken DR online and now SC. Not to mention DOA, SF, And others. pretty much they are looking to be the odd man out. Funny take all the fighters now...They seem to be the only one now online or have any plans.Dencore

That's because the fighting game genre plays horribly online IMHO. And from what I've experienced and some other fighters I've talking too, online contains to lag, framerate drops, hacking, glitches, and worst of all sore loseres *Oh crap he's about to beat me! Quick let me disconnect before he pulls off his special*. Don't get me wrong these problems can be fixed, but never 100% and the main point of the genre is to show off your skills and beat someone face to face with your friends or local fighting group, can't really do that online.

Don't like online fighting games? It's simple then, don't play the online component. Just because YOU don't like an optional feature doesn't mean it needs to be cut out and ruin things for those who would like to play online.

This sort of attitude is like saying "LCDs still can't produce true black, therefore, production should be halted on all LCD TVs."

[QUOTE="Dencore"]

[QUOTE="Acenso"]I should have named the title.... I AM2 Cry Again. As much as I want to say...It looks more and more like Tekken 6 will be apporaching online also with Tekken DR online and now SC. Not to mention DOA, SF, And others. pretty much they are looking to be the odd man out. Funny take all the fighters now...They seem to be the only one now online or have any plans.GalvatronType_R

That's because the fighting game genre plays horribly online IMHO. And from what I've experienced and some other fighters I've talking too, online contains to lag, framerate drops, hacking, glitches, and worst of all sore loseres *Oh crap he's about to beat me! Quick let me disconnect before he pulls off his special*. Don't get me wrong these problems can be fixed, but never 100% and the main point of the genre is to show off your skills and beat someone face to face with your friends or local fighting group, can't really do that online.

Don't like online fighting games? It's simple then, don't play the online component. Just because YOU don't like an optional feature doesn't mean it needs to be cut out and ruin things for those who would like to play online.

This sort of attitude is like saying "LCDs still can't produce true black, therefore, production should be halted on all LCD TVs."

If the online and offline modes didn't affect each other I wouldn't/won't care, but more likely than not games in which the on and offline modes are developed concurrently will have less precise (in input terms) offline modes in order to ease the development of the online modes.

I can't say I care too much about what happens to SC4. SC3 was garbage (not merely because of the lack of balancing, but also because the strategy game was a bad idea and the character customization was an interesting idea poorly done) and SC2 before that wasn't quite as bad, but it was an extremely conservative sequel with gimmick characters that wasembarassed by VF4: Evo. Soul Caliber was incredible though, and I even have a soft spot for Soul Blade (Li Long was a farbetter character than the Elvisimpersonator that replaced him).

[QUOTE="Acenso"]I should have named the title.... I AM2 Cry Again. As much as I want to say...It looks more and more like Tekken 6 will be apporaching online also with Tekken DR online and now SC. Not to mention DOA, SF, And others. pretty much they are looking to be the odd man out. Funny take all the fighters now...They seem to be the only one now online or have any plans.Dencore

That's because the fighting game genre plays horribly online IMHO. And from what I've experienced and some other fighters I've talking too, online contains to lag, framerate drops, hacking, glitches, and worst of all sore loseres *Oh crap he's about to beat me! Quick let me disconnect before he pulls off his special*. Don't get me wrong these problems can be fixed, but never 100% and the main point of the genre is to show off your skills and beat someone face to face with your friends or local fighting group, can't really do that online.

Still, doens't hurt to have the OPTION to play online, does it? After all, it's not like there's going to be any official tournaments online. On a good connection day, online could be invaluable in order to master the game.

I just don't get why people are disappointed if an online mode is ADDED. For many people online is essential for a fighter because there's just too little or no fighting fans in the neighbourhood, so you'd be limited to fighting AI except for once in a week or so. If they get a good netcode for the fighting games, I think it'll play just fine. You can't make something successful if you don't even try. 11Marcel

I just don't get why people are disappointed if an online mode is ADDED. For many people online is essential for a fighter because there's just too little or no fighting fans in the neighbourhood, so you'd be limited to fighting AI except for once in a week or so. If they get a good netcode for the fighting games, I think it'll play just fine. You can't make something successful if you don't even try.11Marcel

Well, here's how I'd do it. One of two ways.

1) Make it a just-for-fun, no-stakes mode for people to go into and play to their hearts' content, flaws and all. Do the entire online mode like the rotation play in Street Fighter II` Hyper Fighting or Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the 360 - that is, no stat tracking whatsoever. Since the lag makes results meaningless, let's not insult the serious players by pretending online matches actually have meaning.

2) Elitism FTW. If you're going to record statistics, then set connection standards for ranked matches. If your connection gets latency at or above 1/60 seconds, you don't get to play. Hitting above 1/60 seconds at any time during a match constitutes a drop. That would lead to very few ranked matches actually reaching a finish, but every match with a meaningful result would be recorded - rankings would mean something.

Record-keeping for laggy online matches would have no merit and thus be insulting to actual competitive players.

Don't like online fighting games? It's simple then, don't play the online component. Just because YOU don't like an optional feature doesn't mean it needs to be cut out and ruin things for those who would like to play online.

This sort of attitude is like saying "LCDs still can't produce true black, therefore, production should be halted on all LCD TVs."

GalvatronType_R

You know I put IMHO for a reason? :|

If the online and offline modes didn't affect each other I wouldn't/won't care, but more likely than not games in which the on and offline modes are developed concurrently will have less precise (in input terms) offline modes in order to ease the development of the online modes.

I can't say I care too much about what happens to SC4. SC3 was garbage (not merely because of the lack of balancing, but also because the strategy game was a bad idea and the character customization was an interesting idea poorly done) and SC2 before that wasn't quite as bad, but it was an extremely conservative sequel with gimmick characters that wasembarassed by VF4: Evo. Soul Caliber was incredible though, and I even have a soft spot for Soul Blade (Li Long was a farbetter character than the Elvisimpersonator that replaced him).

CarnageHeart

For once I actually agree with you, if online affects the gameplay then I'd be totally against it, however I doubt this will happen with SC4, only when online becomes the main focus in multiplayer. Trust me I've played many games that got canned because their online modes. Metroid Prime Hunters is an example *though not too good for obvious reasons*

I guess the fear of online play would be that it would start to take the focus over the offline. Clearly from the looks of it many people want online play in their fighters, far more than those that want a hardcore fighting game. So what happens when the companies start realizing that making their game work online would get them more money than focusing on the offline. To make the game work as its intended online they would have to rework many of these fighters to make them LESS technical, less percise cause with lag its impossible to play the game as its intended. So what you get is a dumbing down of the offline mode to accomidate the online mode. I assume that is why the move to online is scary to some.

As long as they never effect each other sure it doesn't hurt but this is a buisness, when they see there is more money in just putting out an online mode whether it works right or not it will definetly effect the offline mode.

dvader654

You pretty much hit it right on the nail, excellant post. Personally I feel this whole everything online thing is just a fad like the whole splitscreen thing in the late 90's, or the must have co-op in the late 80's/early 90's, or the let's make everything open world/non-linear of the early 2000's. I think it'll probably just fade away once something new comes by, hell it already is for the DS

[QUOTE="11Marcel"]I just don't get why people are disappointed if an online mode is ADDED. For many people online is essential for a fighter because there's just too little or no fighting fans in the neighbourhood, so you'd be limited to fighting AI except for once in a week or so. If they get a good netcode for the fighting games, I think it'll play just fine. You can't make something successful if you don't even try. toment

Pretty much why the fighting genre has become a niche one...Pretty much the fanbase and devs who felt like shoving reharshes and remixes down people's throats.

Thats why the best game in Fighting....In SSBM. Easy and enjoyable enough for anyone. Hard to master. Kind of how Starcraft or most Blizzard games are. There is a reason why they are the best. As they say...The mark of an intelligent man is one who can reach the masses with high brow words. Its pretty much combining High Brow Literature into a Pop Lit Story. Anyone can do either...But few can do both.

For the most part...Outside of a few games. We are looking at almost complete irrelvance for the genre for this gen.

Um what?!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166921

He apparently is in the know, everyone trusts him... VF5 online for 360, I am going to be pissed if true.

dvader654

Um what?!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166921

He apparently is in the know, everyone trusts him... VF5 online for 360, I am going to be pissed if true. (I would be angry cause I got a PS3 version that is not online even though it would probably be a mess to play but it should be fun.)

dvader654

I'll consider buying it then...

Either way if it is true or not...Megaton on Neogaf comfirmed

Really sucks for the PS3 owners if it is true

Um what?!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166921

He apparently is in the know, everyone trusts him... VF5 online for 360, I am going to be pissed if true. (I would be angry cause I got a PS3 version that is not online even though it would probably be a mess to play but it should be fun.)

dvader654

Very cool.

Like SC4 I was going to buy this anyway but having online gameplay makes the purchase that much sweeter. I'm not looking for the exact same expierence as in the offline mode but I am certainly expecting to have alot of fun playing against human opponents and their unpredictable nature, although sometimes they can be very predictable also. :P

On one hand I am surprised because it really didn't sound like Sega would be putting online gameplay into VF5 but on the other hand it doesn't surprise me to see the 360 version get an online mode since MS makes it much easier by taking care of all the server stuff themselves.