Soul Calibur V

Soul Calibur V better than IV?
Yes and no, better story, fighting system look and feel than SCIV but loss of key characters, stories for ALL characters and lack of modes really make this bittersweet!

Okay, first things first, no question, the fighting engine is the best so far, with a new Brave Edge and Critical Edge system that riffs on Street Fighters EX and Ultras respectively. These (for me) are a welcome addition and a vast improvement on SCIV's awfully implemented Critical Finishes (admitted by the Namco Project Soul team themselves). Brave Edges essentially enhance standard special attacks giving them more damage, possibly a stun or knockdown, or even break through opponents guard! Critical Edges are flashy over the top special moves that work like Street Fighters Ultras, although the command input is the same for every character (which is good, in my opinion, because some of Street Fighter IV's Ultras are tricky command inputs!) you have a gauge that builds up whilst you give and take hits and you can choose to use it for a couple of Brave Edge moves or wait and go all out with a Critical Edge move, of which you can store 2.

The thing most people are complaining about is Story mode and the lack of offline modes.
Well, Story mode is good and bad in equal measure, good because it tells a story with a clear narrative (a little simple maybe). The problem is it centers around 2 new characters, the children of Sophitia, the swords Soul Edge/Calibur and other characters cross their paths, it is a hybrid of it's brother (the teams share the same studio as shown in 'The Making Of' DVD - Project Soul even took you to meet Katsuhiro Harada, creator of Tekken) Tekken 6's narrative and Mortal Kombat's play style story modes, allow me to elaborate; It focuses on two new characters like Lars and Alissa in Tekken and you ONLY play as them, except for a couple of fights, but instead of Streets Of Rage-esque levels it takes the Mortal Kombat approach (as it should) of character vs character battles, changing character when the story dictates but, you don't really learn much about all the other 20 odd characters! Tekken 6 and Mortal Kombat had a seperate Story mode but also an Arcade mode in which you had stories to follow for EACH character so, SoulCalibur should be no different!
Unfortunately there is no stories for other characters which is unacceptable, SoulCalibur IV had stories for all characters (even though it was crap).

Also outside of Story mode there is little to do, there is the standard Arcade (without stories) and Training, there is quick battle (similar to Tekken 6's Ghost Battle mode) and Legendary Souls mode in which you face 'Legendary' characters from SoulCalibur lore (very tough) and finally Creation mode which improves the ability to make unique looking characters but has done away with the ability altering adornments (I am not bothered by that, but some people seemed to be upset about it).
Overall I am enjoying the game, the look and feel is the best the series has been, despite it's failings I enjoyed Story Mode - it's nice to know exactly what happened without having to wait for the next game to find out (for me it's the right direction for the story mode to take in future games, just add more playable characters and it would be awesome).

Excellent fight engine with awesome new Special Attacks and new characters to learn, looks and plays like a dream, flawed but enjoyable story mode and only a handful of game modes make this feel a bit like a reboot of the series, but still, a great edition to the series.

Well let me start with the gameplay in general, i think Namco has done an excellent job with this installment of the soul calibur series. Namco Bandai has definately out done themselves with with gameplay mechanics of SCV which includes an excellent implementation of super meter.

I see a lot of people complaining about a 2 hour story mode, where it is true that the story mode for this game is pretty barebones and unfinished the real gem that is souk calibur thrives in its online capabilities. the netcode for this game is abosolutley the best netcode of any fighting game that has been created up to the date of its release. There's no question about it. Also the character customisation feature of this game add a reall fun factor to it, especially after you see the CRAZY customisations online from Shao Kahn from mortal kombat to a scary bondage looking voldo.

Overall this game is really good if you're loking for a high quality fighter in yerms on gameplay.

Still one of the better 3D fighters, beautiful levels and new character design mode is a real treat!

People saying the Story mode is short and the online mode is weak need to remember that in the old days, before the internet, you used to play fighting games against friends! In the same room! Did SF2 or Mortal Kombat storylines interest me? nope, kicking ten shades of ish out of my friends was what kept me coming back for more!

In a world of online FPSs and ever increasingly epic RPGs, it's nice to find a game you don't have to devote countless hours to and you can just dip into when you've got a couple of friends over and have a good old fashioned ruckus!