So I've been reading reviews, watching videos and staring as screenshots of the newest in the long line of the Soul Calibur/Edge saga. All that I've managed to do in this research is make me want to play the game even MORE. I've always been a fan of the series it’s a quality fighting game, and my favorite of them, with Tekkin being second.

So here I am trying to figure out a way to pick this game up without disturbing the carefully crafted budget of the summer.. when low and behold my father-in-law surprises me with it as an early birthday present! (apparently my obsession had picked up enough attention for my wife to pass the word along.)

Now that I have the SCIV in my possession, and have had a chance to play it for a few hours.. it's time I reveal my true feelings on the game...

AH-MAY-ZING!

This game is EVERYTHING I expected and MORE. It has the standard things you would expect from a Soul Calibur game:

• Fun combat
• Unique Characters
• Cool Weapons
• Horrible Story
• Ring Outs
• Random Guest Characters

 
Then there are a few new things that give the game that little bit more umph:

• Destroyable Armor
• Ultimate Finishing Strikes
• Online Play
• "Tag Team" Style Fighting

I'm sure I’m missing some of it, but seriously - if you have ever enjoyed a Soul Calibur/Edge game you will enjoy this one many times over, if you like a good fighting game - this one will suffice just fine! If you aren't really into the fighting game scene, it can still be fun with some friends around just smashing buttons and trash talking each other.

I highly recommend this game to anybody able to play it.

According to Kotaku somebody slipped up and the release dates for Rock Band 2 have been leaked. Showing a space of a month between each system's release.

If you're like me, you'll be waiting till October 19th when it is supposedly going to be released on the Playstation 3

Now where's my Diablo 3 release date...

So, last week Harmonix officially announced Rock Band 2, the sequel to the super awesome band simulation game Rock Band. I was immediately excited to hear about this, I’ve spent a LOT of time playing Rock Band, and have downloaded a considerable amount of music for it as well. You can check out all the details from Harmonix's official announcement, but I'm going to give you a quick list of what I’m excited about in the upcoming release:

Backwards Compatibility
You will be able to use all the downloaded content from your original Rock Band, as well as import the music from the first game disc, giving you a HUGE library of music to play.

86 New Tracks + 20 Free Downloadable tracks
With the release of RB2 Harmonix will be releasing 20 extra songs online for free to download making the total number of songs, not including your old music from RB1, is 106. That's a LOT of music! Just using music as a factor alone you're paying roughly 60 cent's a song.

Instruments
They have learned from their mistakes and made adjustments to improve the instruments. The guitar fret buttons are less noisy, and the strum bar is less "Squishy". The drum pads are not much less noisy and a little bouncier, to improve stick action. They have also put expansion ports on the drum kit to allow a cymbal expansion kit to be added on to really give that rock star drummer feel.

I'm pretty excited for this game, The visuals don't seemed to have changed much, if at all. Which isn't a problem in my eyes. I'm hoping for some improvements to the online play for the PS3, better player searching and what not. I'd like to see duals available for more than just two people. Imagine having 4 drummers going at it at the same time! A battle mode would be cool as well. Some way to compete against somebody on a different instrument as well would be fun. We will just have to wait to see.

What is Qore you say?

Well Qore is:

a highly interactive, monthly lifestyle gaming program covering the world inside PLAYSTATION is on its way to PS3. Qore has been developed to give PS3 users early access to game related content at a level of quality, interactivity and depth. Everything is filmed in HD. Qore will feature exclusive news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scenes looks at PlayStation games and special access to game demos, special beta invitations, game add-ons and other downloadable game-related content.

Sounds pretty interesting, and the cost to use is much less than I had anticipated. $2.99 for a single episode, and $24.99 for a yearly subscription, with new episodes downloaded every month to your PS3. It all sounds very interesting, I'll be downloading the first episode to see if it's worth it. I'll be sure to post my thoughts.

This week on the show the guys covered the following things:

• Movies
  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  
  
• Video Games
  Haze
  Prince of Persia: Prodigy (Screen Shots)
  
  
• TV
  Top Gear
  Fringe (Trailer)
  Dollhouse (Trailer)

Their review of Indiana Jones is about what I expected to hear from them, i've heard mixed reviews and the way they had been pumping it up for themselves, I'm not surprised to hear that they didn't like it. They do reccommend it for watching as long as you fall into the "like the Indiana Jones saga" category, those that don't care, or love it - should avoid the movie.

They trashed Haze hardcore, saying it was "every other fps shooter rolled up into one." They also report that it was quite glitchy and buggy. Almost makes me want to hear Yahtzee review it.

The Prince of Persia screen shots look cool, I loved the origional 2D game. I also enjoyed Sands of Time even though it was a bit short, After that I haven't been very interested in the PoP games, maybe this one will bring me back?

Top Gear looks quite interesting, i've watched a few pieces of the show on Youtube, I should look into it. Dollhouse looks cool, and the fact that its another Joss Whedon creation makes me even more excited.