Soul Calibur (Xbox Live Arcade)

[BearBoy]

Close Call (15G) - defeat an opponent under adverse conditions (whatever that means)

Just got this achievement. Had about a millimetre of energy left whilst my opponent had over three quarters. Came back to win and unlocked the achievement.

[Matt]

It's been about six months since I played it on the Dreamcast so I cannot be 100% sure but it does not look particularly touched up to me. The only difference I did notice is that it looks a bit darker than I remember. Could just be due to the differing RGB outputs from the Dreamcast and the Xbox 360? Equally could be my dodgy memory.

The 360 crushes colours quite a bit, resulting in a darker image. I'd imagine the game's colour is identical on both platforms, just the 360s output makes it look a bit darker.

[EvilBoris]

Didn't we decide it was that you had the reference levels set wrong for your 360, not that the 360 crushes blacks?

Anyway, moving on. It looks pretty much as I remembered, the game hasn't been touched up at all, the background vistas/health bars/in game fonts are all being scaled, basically the 3D resolution of the characters has been increased, much like if you run an old PC game at a very high resolution.

I'm not sure which version the game is based on as it doesn't have the mission mode, but it does have various survival and Time attack modes.

[Matt]

Didn't we decide it was that you had the reference levels set wrong for your 360, not that the 360 crushes blacks?

Actually it was both I had set my the 360 to Expanded or something silly, rendering GTA4 WAY too dark. Once I put it on standard, I could see a lot more.

However, it's also known the 360 crushes colours, as the chart below from B3D shows. This is one of the reasons why, on those fanboy-bating "review" sites which "compare" games on 360 to PS3, the PS3 version looks washed out in a side by side.

TestPattern                PS3                    
R    G    B               R    G    B        Difference    Deviation
252    252    252        251    251    251        1.00    0.40%
230    230    230        229    229    229        1.00    0.43%
209    209    209        208    208    208        1.00    0.48%
187    187    187        186    186    186        1.00    0.53%
164    164    164        162    162    162        2.00    1.22%
142    142    142        139    141    140        2.00    1.41%
117    117    117        116    116    116        1.00    0.85%
93    93    93            91    91    91        2.00    2.15%
67    67    67            66    66    66        1.00    1.49%
38    38    38            37    37    37        1.00    2.63%
10    10    10             9    9    7        1.67    16.67%
                                    
                                    
TestPattern                Xbox 360                    
R    G    B                  R    G    B            
252    252    252        244    242    243        9.00    3.57%
230    230    230        217    217    217        13.00    5.65%
209    209    209        195    195    195        14.00    6.70%
187    187    187        172    172    172        15.00    8.02%
164    164    164        148    148    148        16.00    9.76%
142    142    142        125    125    125        17.00    11.97%
117    117    117        100    98    98        18.33    15.67%
93    93    93            74    74    74        19.00    20.43%
67    67    67            48    48    48        19.00    28.36%
38    38    38            21    18    19        18.67    49.12%
10    10    10              2    2    2        8.00    80.00%

[EvilBoris]

That's via a 360's component set at standard though and the guy who did it also concluded it was the 360's photoviewing software creating the problems.

[Matt]

Well the 360 outputs darker images, always looked that way to me - and I used component, VGA and HDMI. Look at any "comparison" article to see what I mean. Whether or not it's better is personal opinion.

[Akira]

i HATE them for not including the intro...HATE!

That said,the game has aged beautifully.Shame bout the lack of widescreen and mission mode....but 800 points for one of the greatest fighters ever? yes please!

[Dogg Thang]

They didn't include the intro? Why wouldn't they? It was all real time, wasn't it?

[EvilBoris]

There was a FMV intro I think, was that only in the DC version, is it because this is an arcade port?

[Dogg Thang]

I only ever had the DC version and I was pretty sure the intro was in real time. I could be wrong of course but that's the way I remember it. Actually, yeah, I think you could get different outfits running in the intro too. Maybe. Oh, you mean the FMV intro was in the arcade version?

[Akira]

They didn't include the intro? Why wouldn't they? It was all real time, wasn't it?

'cause they suck!

The DC's intro was all real time,no fmv.The xbla version is definitely a port of the DC version(arcade looked like crap in comparison)albeit with features missing

Edit: here's the DC intro.and yea you were able to edit the intro as well,like which character appeared where and clothing,etc. It was so awesome! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A01FxHkhH18

[atrus]

Just one question:

Is double-nunchuck-Maxi in it?

[Sane]

Man, why is there no online in this? It would've been my favourite online game for sure .

[Skull Commander]

As an owner of the dreamcast version I have to give this a resounding "Meh". Just like the dreamcast version with less features. Also it does look hell of a dark.
A grippy version of a great game.

[Matt]

Man, why is there no online in this? It would've been my favourite online game for sure .

Because that's a key feature to the new SC game Shame, would have got this [soon] if it was in.