First let me say I have been a Soul Calibur enthusiast not just from Soul Calibur 1, but from its often forgotten  predecessor Soul Blade on PS1, remembering vividly the crazy hours I dedicated to the world tour mode in order to get every possible sword!

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about the next gen title, and I must say I am quite pleased. First of all if you haven’t already seen, the presentation is incredible. The lighting, character models and overall art style is masterful. However it may at times feel a little congested, the simplicity of the older games due to less graphical capability made it feel more raw and precise. Here characters have so much beautiful follow through and secondary action with cloth, armor and hair, albeit stunningly gorgeous may be a little much (just a little). Yet every time I pop that game in I am taken back by the beauty of it.

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I’ve been a fighting game fan as far back as I remember. I’ve played most of the iterations of both the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games in the arcades on the first day of their respective launches. I would have even done the same for Street Fighter 4 had there been an arcade anywhere in Montreal that had it. Although I love the genre to death, that doesn’t mean I hold all of its constituents to the same esteem. In fact, I’ve preferred the Street Fighter series hands-down for many reasons.

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When Kotaku first revealed that Capcom wanted to “do to video games what Marvel did to comics”, I have to admit I was disappointed. Overall, the Marvel movies sucked. The only good ones that come to mind are the first 2 X-Men and Iron Man. I mean, come on, all the Spider-Man’s were bad and the Hulk was awful and those were pretty much the runner ups too. Besides, Capcom already has a bunch of Resident Evils and Street Fighter: the Movie which I have not seen to this day (and will never see despite being a former die-hard Street Fighter fanatic).

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Great news from Capcom! What seems to be the last boss in Street Fighter IV is finally revealed! I’m really happy about this announcement because I’m just that much closer to not caring about Street Fighter IV at all. His name is Seth and he’s a Urien clone that seems to have vertebrae on the front of his body as well … not to mention he’s naked.

I loved Street Fighter 3, the game played very well, but we could have done without the likes of Twelve and Q. Necro and Urien were not horrible but were also not very good either. Still, they managed to introduce Dudley, Alex, Ibuki, and Makoto. So why is Street Fighter IV only copying the bad and forgetting about all the good new innovations Street Fighter III had?

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I don’t get Capcom these days. Don’t they care what their fan-base wants? I understand it might have been too late to switch Street Fighter 4 back to its 2D roots even though many of its loyal fan-base pretty much gave up on the game, but if they’re going to announce yet another Capcom vs game, wouldn’t you think they would learn their lesson?

Apparently not. According to Famitsu, the newest VS game will be in 3D that a co-worker of mine said looked straight outta the Dreamcast era. I can’t help but agree. I guess this gives me even more of a reason to convert to SNK… For shame Capcom, for shame!

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A few days ago, yet another new character for Street Fighter 4 was revealed. Rufus … a 500 pound tub of lard with a pony-tail and what looks like eye-liner. I kid you not, someone at Capcom actually thought this guy would bring joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces!

Actually, I think Capcom is too smart to think we’d like this character. I have two theories on way Rufus was made to begin with.

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Finally buckling to years of pressure from fans, Capcom Japan has just announced the ever anticipated Street Fighter vs Care Bears game. Slated for a January 2008 release, this title promises to be the most anticipated VS title since Capcom vs the Muppet Babies. Experts are also expecting Street Fighter vs Care Bears to outsell all previous Capcom titles.

The delay in releasing this oft-requested game was primarily due to difficulties in balancing gameplay. Apparently, it was hard to make a level playing field between the Street Fighter characters and the Care Bear characters. The Care Bears are simply too powerful.

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Inspired by the many dedications to video game characters I’ve seen around, like this one of Mario, I’ve decided to make my own dedication to my favourite Street Fighter character: Ken (a.k.a. Ken Masters) from the Street Fighter video games/movies/comics.

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I tried my hand at making a Joe Madureira tribute PS3 theme and I’m actually very happy with the result! For those who don’t know, Joe Madureira is one of the best comic book artists ever and definitely my favorite.

To name a few comics, he’s worked on X-Men, Street-Fighter, and the Ultimates ! Not to mention a short-lived series of his own creation called Battle Chasers. He’s also made a lot of concept art for video games. The man is a living legend and is one of the biggest reasons I draw today.

Anyhow, if you’d like to download and use the theme, you can do so here directly from your PS3’s browser! I’d really appreciate if you would also give my theme a 5 star vote if you like it

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As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a Street Fighter fan. I remember the very first time I played Street Fighter II in the arcades. I was 12 years old and I had taken my then 5 year old brother with me to the arcades. I chose Guile and he chose Dhalsim and I wasn’t able to land a single hit on him.

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