Of Ethernets and Class Warfare
Sterling: Funny that Miguel brings up the sorts of social conventions that have defined fighting game culture for the majority of this decade. It's why I'm happy to see Soulcalibur IV's online multiplayer allow the series to flesh itself out in ways that the PS2's hardware likely couldn't have handled in Soulcalibur III. The developers appear to have set up SC4 with the concept of "the virtual couch" in mind. You can host up to four players in an online session, which can be dull and boring if you're playing with total strangers (five minutes in spectator mode is excruciating), but with three other friends it's brilliant stuff. I wish there was a faster option for two player-only matches, but unfortunately, there's no quick filter system in place, so you'll have to customize your searches.
Although our Xbox Live experience was comparatively lag-free and lacking in issues, PlayStation Network has some problems as of release day. A small percentage of games had some lag, our game froze after being booted from a round, and the network booted us another time. It's nothing game-breaking, but it'd be a disservice not to point out these issues. Otherwise, the experience has been consistently fun, and in spite of the self esteem-crushing nature of most online games, SC4's mass-market appeal gives it more diverse (read: defeat-able) competition than the likes of, say, a hardcore brawler like Virtua Fighter 5. That's more of a positive than a negative.
Miguel: I've encountered a small bit of lag on the Xbox 360, but nothing as frequent as what I witnessed happening on the PS3 version when loitering around Sterling's desk. In any case, it's hard to tell how stable the online game will be over the long term -- the performance this early into day one probably doesn't constitute critical mass. Let's just hope the game remains in the eminently playable form it's in now.
I have to say that I'm actually pretty satisfied with the online multiplayer UI. I suppose it could stand to work a bit more fluidly, but when I actively search for two-player games (and thus avoid the "online couch" effect), I find that I'm only really one superfluous button press away from a quick rematch. Filter options would be welcome, though -- specifically, I'd like some that prevent competitors from picking the "Star Wars" or anime characters. It would be nice if something like that were on the update horizon.
Speaking of superfluous, I'm not yet sold on the Special Versus mode; I guess I like my Soulcalibur unadulterated with character-advancement and RPG conventions. I'm not against the idea inherently -- I just think that the potential for game-breaking character builds needs to be mitigated by a hawkish post-release attitude toward balance and expansion on the part of the publisher, and I have no reason to believe that Namco Bandai will adopt this approach.
