Soul Calibur V critic reviews

I use to love Soul Calibur but found IV rather disappointing and after this:

soul-calibur-5-ad.jpg


and this

soulcalibur_v_ad.jpg


I have chose to stop supporting a franchise that has clearly lost the plot and should really go and watch THIS & THIS

We constantly lament the lack of maturity in the industry. We blame everything from the Developers to the Publishers for what we consider cheap selling points or pumping out another sequel in a long line of sequels that lost its "IT" factor back in the last decade yet we are the idiots going out and buying the newest Modern Warfare, we are the childish dimwits that fork out for something thing like Soul Calibur V, Bulletstorm or Duke Nukem Forever and then wonder, blissfully ignorant, why its so hard for gaming to be taken seriously as entertainment or art.
 
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@Omegaphoenix

Dont you think you're a tad too... extreme? If those adverts make it to SA shores I get it but remember that Jap culture you're looking at. If thats your stance then you shouldnt want to watch 80% of all anime/manga out there.

Marketing is based on your target audience. Jap people are very different... If I can say that. Check English marketing before being judgemental...
 
Ze Snake said:
@Omegaphoenix

Dont you think you're a tad too... extreme? If those adverts make it to SA shores I get it but remember that Jap culture you're looking at. If thats your stance then you shouldnt want to watch 80% of all anime/manga out there.

Marketing is based on your target audience. Jap people are very different... If I can say that. Check English marketing before being judgemental...
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Agree 100%
 
Ze Snake said:
@Omegaphoenix

Dont you think you're a tad too... extreme? If those adverts make it to SA shores I get it but remember that Jap culture you're looking at. If thats your stance then you shouldnt want to watch 80% of all anime/manga out there.

Marketing is based on your target audience. Jap people are very different... If I can say that. Check English marketing before being judgemental...
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I dont care if they just show it on a remote moon of Uranus, the internet has reduced the world to a global village as using the excuse "its part of their culture" just doesn't cut it anymore. I am fully aware of Japanese Mange/Anime trends and that is their business. The point is if we, as gamers, want gaming to be treated like the other "serious" entertainment mediums this kind of childishness has to be discarded. The reason games like Six Days in Fallujah got discarded to the cutting room floor on the grounds of the controversy caused by its announcement is wholly due to the fact that games cant treat serious subject matter maturely and these kind of adds only act to re-enforce this issue, the people that dont know about games, those that love to condemn gaming as "murder simulators", also dont give a flying fart about who's culture the ad was conceived for, it just blankets the entire industry. I agree its wrong but its what people do, gamer should know this better than anyone because we love doing it ourselves.

I also think you misunderstand, my problem isn't that the women in Soul Blade/Soul Calibur have always been grossly disproportioned, like I said I use to love the series, my problem lies with those adds specifically.
 
OmegaFenix said:
The point is if we, as gamers, want gaming to be treated like the other "serious" entertainment mediums this kind of childishness has to be discarded.
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While agree with your stance somewhat - I don't really believe that statement is in any way true.

The movie and music industry are both quite broad - and both use sex and so-called "childish" focuses to sell their products on a regular basis. Just go look at the multitude of album covers that feature T&A quite predominantly. The same can be said for many movie posters (especially those based around sex). Magazines, movies, music

My point is, marketing like this is hardly a gaming thing; it's wide-spread across all entertainment mediums. You don't have to agree with it or like it - but it's definitely not anything new or unique to gaming.

So no, I don't think this has much to do with gaming being taken more seriously as an entertainment medium - it's tacky, sure, but Soul Calibur has been about Ivy's breasts for the past, what, 3 games now?
 
qornea said:
While agree with your stance somewhat - I don't really believe that statement is in any way true.

The movie and music industry are both quite broad - and both use sex and so-called "childish" focuses to sell their products on a regular basis. Just go look at the multitude of album covers that feature T&A quite predominantly. The same can be said for many movie posters (especially those based around sex). Magazines, movies, music

My point is, marketing like this is hardly a gaming thing; it's wide-spread across all entertainment mediums. You don't have to agree with it or like it - but it's definitely not anything new or unique to gaming.

So no, I don't think this has much to do with gaming being taken more seriously as an entertainment medium - it's tacky, sure, but Soul Calibur has been about Ivy's breasts for the past, what, 3 games now?
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Yes cheap sales tricks have been selling Ice to Eskimos for years & the Movie, Music & Literature industries all make use of this, however they have the benefit of being significantly older than Gaming. There is a really good webisode somewhere that actually expresses my thoughts on the alot better, I'll look for it and post.

My point with the original post is that poster doesn't tell you anything about the game or even the character for that matter. Take this (Slightly NSFW) it is the film poster for the american version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In it Daniel Craig has his arm around a topless Rooney Mara, her naked chest only partially obscured by the film's title. Immediately upon looking at it you see that Mara's character is a badass & Craig's character is protective of her. Ivy's ample bosom, while fun to look at, tells you F*@"£ all about the game or the character. "Go big or go home" while a nice tag line would have more context in terms of gameplay than bigger tits.

But, like most things, its entirely subjective so its probably just me & there is little doubt that the boob physics deprived masses are even now forking out for this title. I have however made up my mind to not support this franchise, just like I chose not to buy DNF regardless of my love of DN3D.
 
qornea said:
While agree with your stance somewhat - I don't really believe that statement is in any way true.

The movie and music industry are both quite broad - and both use sex and so-called "childish" focuses to sell their products on a regular basis. Just go look at the multitude of album covers that feature T&A quite predominantly. The same can be said for many movie posters (especially those based around sex). Magazines, movies, music

My point is, marketing like this is hardly a gaming thing; it's wide-spread across all entertainment mediums. You don't have to agree with it or like it - but it's definitely not anything new or unique to gaming.

So no, I don't think this has much to do with gaming being taken more seriously as an entertainment medium - it's tacky, sure, but Soul Calibur has been about Ivy's breasts for the past, what, 3 games now?
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Yup, like DOA's bouncing breasts feature back in the day.
 
Well I wouldnt have seen those posters if you didnt post them here...

Anyway my point is why NOT use breasts to promote if it works for everything else? Why should games be any different from everything else? Is it right? No. Is it reasonable to say games look childish because of this? No as well. What about other industries like movies, Music video's, Anime... Comics....

I've never been attracted to SC's boobs. If they've been using it for the last 3 games im pretty sure its working for a reason. Will It lose popularity because of it? No. Will it be used less in competitions? No. Will it offend gamers?

Gears of War 3 chainsaw kills are crude and disgusting!!!
GTA's aduklt nature and gameplay is tasteless!

What you're saying is... Its ok to voilently massecre people in some games, headshots, fatalities, swearing, sex for health... But exaggerated cleavage is where you draw the line?

You're looking at this game as if its the only game pushing boundaries. You must see my point.
 
Ze Snake said:
Well I wouldnt have seen those posters if you didnt post them here...

Anyway my point is why NOT use breasts to promote if it works for everything else? Why should games be any different from everything else? Is it right? No. Is it reasonable to say games look childish because of this? No as well. What about other industries like movies, Music video's, Anime... Comics....

I've never been attracted to SC's boobs. If they've been using it for the last 3 games im pretty sure its working for a reason. Will It lose popularity because of it? No. Will it be used less in competitions? No. Will it offend gamers?

Gears of War 3 chainsaw kills are crude and disgusting!!!
GTA's aduklt nature and gameplay is tasteless!

What you're saying is... Its ok to voilently massecre people in some games, headshots, fatalities, swearing, sex for health... But exaggerated cleavage is where you draw the line?

You're looking at this game as if its the only game pushing boundaries. You must see my point.
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Watch the Sex in video games & Facing Controversy links I posted and you will understand what Im trying say.

EDIT: Its not about violence or sex or swearing in the games, it has its place in the medium, its about the image we send out into the world by advertising what could be a great game in this fashion. I am a gamer, have been for years, I study game design, I love what games allow me to do, I love the content games has the possibility to let us explore but this medium will never reach its true potential if we keep treating it like a toy, something that isn't taken too serious.

I'll say it again, watch the vids in those links I posted, I am 99% sure it will make sense.
 
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video's are blocked at work :(

I kinda do know what you're trying to say. But my point is the same logic should apply to everything not just 'sex' in games. When you draw the line for one game you need to see it from every point, not just intolerance of using sex to promote. Violence and swearing in games always tends to go under the rader...

What I can say is that games where sex and body parts are used to promote a game... these games should have a rating of age 16+ for the least.

Not that it matters though... i play gears of war 3 online and I've come across gamers age 9 - 12. Thats one area that should be tackled. How parents allow certain age groups to play games with an 18 age restriction.
 
But by image you have to look at the images promoted for SA gamers or UK gamers. I really honestly doubt that adverts and posters like that would make it to SA shores. And that brings me back to my main point of Jap culture...

What posters/ads do we have here that can be compared to those posters/ads? I saw a Pic online of a game in Japan Called 'Rape Mon' Or something to that effect... Can you really bash the whole industry for a game that clearly targets a specific group or audience? Hentai games are part of what they like... So... this poster is prob the norm for them... Its not the norm here so we wont see it here.
 
I am with Omega on this.

What you guys seem to forget is that kids play these games, its the same with the argument over the pic used for the steam collumn. Sexually suggestive, if I were a parent I would just not buy this, but unfortunately we seem to be living in a society where this seems acceptable, where people rather choose to ignore shit like this and I am sorry..

If you're a parent and you think this is ok...You're a fucking idiot and you should never have been allowed to have children.
 
Ze Snake said:
I think you guys are missing my point...
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No you seem to be missing the point.
This is happening more and more these days, adult orientated stuff being pushed into games and onto game covers, just so they can sell more is kinda pathetic.

What does T&A have to do with a fighting game? Please explain to me?
You never saw this in the fighting games of old.
 
Ze Snake said:
video's are blocked at work :(

I kinda do know what you're trying to say. But my point is the same logic should apply to everything not just 'sex' in games. When you draw the line for one game you need to see it from every point, not just intolerance of using sex to promote. Violence and swearing in games always tends to go under the rader...

What I can say is that games where sex and body parts are used to promote a game... these games should have a rating of age 16+ for the least.

Not that it matters though... i play gears of war 3 online and I've come across gamers age 9 - 12. Thats one area that should be tackled. How parents allow certain age groups to play games with an 18 age restriction.
Click to expand...

I see where the problem slipped in. I am not, not buying SC5 because of its portrayal of female characters. They can dance around naked in game for all I care as long as its marketed properly. Like the example I gave with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Sex, violence, etc all has its place in games like they do in film, literature, music but those "sensitive" subjects should be treated responsibly. Literature, Film, Music have all had their time under the "corrupting the youth" label - the miss conception of many bands as "satanic" is directly because of this irresponsibly in marketing material - my feeling is just if a game resorts to cheap marketing tricks like this it doesn't have anything gameplay/plot wise worth mentioning so it resorts to something that will pull people in. Postal has been doing that for years. If I see an add for Gears of War say...


Gears_of_war-2-005.jpg

This one.
It tells me something about the game, the struggle, the loss (let it be known I am not a huge fan of gears) etc immediately I know something about it.
Where as if the poster was just this:
gears-of-war-2-screenshot-gory-chain-saw-gib.jpg


Anybody (who isn't a gamer maybe one of these dreary video game lobbyists) who sees it thinks "Another Murder simulation" or whatever.

Make sense?
 
My point number 1)

the game has an age 16 rating on PEGI. So Only 16 old and up should be playing it. I can quote you about parenting at this point... If people took these rating systems seriously (they SHOULD) then underage people wouldnt be exposed to this.

My point number 2)

The posters are released in Japan... Home of Hentai and Anime where cleavage is the Norm. If these posters.... IF!!! they are shown here in South Africa... then there would be a problem and I would agree with you both! But.. i seriously SERIOUSLY doubt it will.

A target audience is targeted here. Not us South African Gamers. There's no English on the poster!!!
 
I think i'm going to end at my previous post. I'm not saying you're wrong, I agree with your logic about gaming and cheap marketing tricks. I just hope those posters/ads dont make it to our shores, and that parents realise what they allow their children to play.
 
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