Well I just got a hold of the limited edition Xbox 360 version of this game today and predictably enough I am enjoying my experiences with it so far. Before I go any further I think the last Blazblue game I played properly was the original 'Calamity Trigger' although I do own the second PSP game as well but play it very little as I was too busy with Tactics Ogre at the time.

Anyway first of all the bad news, the limited edition is kind of crappy when compared to other games of this type. The sketch cards are of nice quality and so is the CD but my main problem is that while they put a lot of effort in to producing the CD is only has 6 tracks, 6 TRACKS!! It was the main reason I brought the limited edition as I really dug the Arcana Heart 3 soundtrack and the Guilty Gear sound tracks which had way more tracks on the CD.

Anyway now that I got that out of my system I shall give my thoughts on the actual game itself. Now I don't remember if the previous BlazBlue games had this but I got to give credit where it's due, this game really has a good tutorial. That's right folks THIS IS A FIGHTING GAME THAT ACTUALLY EXPLAINS EVERYTHING from the very basics like how to perform speical moves and do super jumps to more advance strategies like explaining to the player how to effectively control space around your character and the dreaded "wake-up game". The game even goes in to character specific strategies too, each getting their very own tutorial, all of which has full voice over of one of the characters and has the player performing the attacks and techniques with easy to follow instructions. If you are a pro or new there is something here for you and we now has a fighting game that looks after everyone, not just the pro's which is great.

The game also has a lot of single player content. A voiced story mode spanning the first two games (the first of which being "remastered" to fit in with the new characters and such I am guessing, it's been awhile since I played...) as well as a crazy challenge mode, and various arcade, score attack and survival type modes, one of which allows you to upgrade a character as you play while trying to reach the bottom level of "Kagutsuchi". The mode I have been playing mode after the tutorial (so that I could give an opinion of it) is the arcade mode which is still as fun as ever.

I also tried out some online, not many people on but a couple of matches I played where great, lag free experiences not surprising since good netcode has been a hallmark of this series since the start. The new team modes also look fun but I have not had the chance to try them yet I am afraid. This is the most up to date version of the game though, so there have been a lot of "balancing" since I have last played and the new characters (well new to me anyway) seem to be well thought out and new overpowered like when Capcom introduces new characters in their games, I am looking at you Yun and Yang!

Anyway I am off to play some more now, so what do you guys think of the game?

I think... well shit, it's not out here yet.
 
Who're you trying to get to grips with anyway? Thinking about maybe trying to organise another Giant Bomb semi regular fight night again...

Right now I am keeping things simple so Ragna (again not played this in awhile) mainly because he is the character in the tutorial mode but I have also been playing as Noel. I am going to try and get in to one of the newer characters but I have not played the game enough to decide on a favourite as of yet.