Blog 2: So-Called Soul Calibur Perversion & Geometry Madness.

By SaitenMar July 28, 2008 1 Comments

Hello My Fellow GiantBombers!

How nice it is to speak with you again, I hope that everything as been well. Over here in the UK the weather as been hot and unconfortable for most though some folk seem to be enjoying the weather. I have no problem with that, its just that when I see a shirtless fat man walk into Asda Supermarket with Sunglasses on, I remember why I hate the hot weather so much. Despite being born in the Summer (August 2nd) I have grown to hate this time of year, I hate being hot, sweaty and unconfortable, and would much rather be in the freezing cold anyday compared to a summers burning hot day with no breeze to chill you out. Even my trusty fan as had a hard time of it these past few days. Thankfully this heat hasn't affected me from visting GiantBomb.com and have started getting into the Editing Mood that as filled all GiantBombers. I hope to do some more editing when I get the time and its a great method of involving the sites fans in everyway. Anyway, lets get onto what I want to discuss in Blog 2.

SO-CALLED SOUL CALIBUR PERVERSION!

With the excitment of Soul Calibur 4's release this Friday, its no surprise the game is being heavily talked about by both fighter fans and gamers in general. But strangly enough, most of the talk doesn't suround the fact that Star Wars Characters are playable in the game (though it as caused some unrest for even the most hardcore fans) but the fact that many feel the Developers have taken the female form to new levels of Perversion. I have read many different comments concerning this matter and have been somewhat surprised at the fact that most of the anger is coming from Male gamers. It's perfectly fine to have a view on the female form, and its kind of nice to hear that fans feel there is a limit you can go with these types of things and hopefully some developers will understand this. Yet I can't help but feel its a little bit of a pathetic arguement to put forward. I bring before the court 'Ninja Gaiden 2' which could be as criminal finger pointed at for the same matter as much as Soul Calibur 4 as been of late. For those that have experiene Ninja Gaiden 2, you'll know what I am refering to when I speak of the huge assets some of featured ladies have. Yet I don't recall a great outcry when that game was released a few months back, it's an odd thing yet maybe its because folk have come to expect that from Team Ninja who of course also do the famous Dead or Alive games, which includes those somewhat desturbing beach volleyball games. So thats one of the reasons why I find this arguement a little on the pathetic side. I have never recalled female gamers I have played with getting upset about seeing a huge breasted women jumping around, be it a tomb or an arena. Lara Croft is a fine example of this, in the 90's she became a Icon for both men and women. 'Women wanted to be her, Men wanted to be with her' was a common line when refering to Ms Croft in the 90's and it probably still holds true today and she is still seen as one of the most strong iconic women in gaming. You can't doubt that Lara had some very nice assets and it became one of her charms, at least it did for me as a growing teenager (but we won't get into that) But we aren't here to talk about the Tomb Raider games, we are here to discuss the fact that quite a large amount of the Soul Calibur fanbase got a little upset about how big Ivy's assets had become when the game was first announced back in 2007.

I'll happily admit that a change as been made to the breast sizes of some of the lovely Soul Calibur ladies, yet I still found it strange that such a responce came when Ivy was first seen when the game was announced. Being a 19 year old myself, I wouldn't say I would be on the frontlines picketing for the game to be changed as it doesn't make a huge difference if big breasted women are in a game or not. But as a happy male I see no wrong in seeing a little bounce here and there, the Dead or Alive series as been doing it for a good while now and as often been an interesting topic of discussion with fighter fans. It's also worth mentioning that the women in Soul Calibur have always been strong representations of the female form. Characters such as Taki, Sophitia and Ivy are all powerful figures throughout the series and are great rolemodels for female gamers. Yes you could argue that large breasts are simply not needed in a fighting game, or any game to think of it. Yet there will always be a crowd to please and this small change is definantly aimed towards that audience, the kind of audience that leave comments like 'wow, look at her big boobies'. The respect for women is important, but when it comes to virtual women things change a little. This is why I don't agree with many fans calling it perversion because it simply isn't, if your to bring that arguement forward then why not bring forward female abuse because the game allows you to use a male character to beat down on a female character. The argument as no grounds and I find it hard to agree with the majority who have left hate comments towards it, are the male gamers speaking out just to sound sensitive and impress a lady friend or two? Why Soul Calibur 4 when Dead or Alive and the Ninja Gaiden games have had it for sometime now. There will be those that may find it a little unconfortable, and I don't doubt some females will be a little angry about seeing such figures and bouncy physics in action when the game gets release. But for the most part I find it hard to bring a worthy argument to agree with those that say it is perverted, it simply isn't and your a little to late to bring that arguement forward when you look at a number of other games that have featured large breasted women. I find it odd that a game which presents such strong, tough and hard fighting forms of women gets so much stick yet the Dead or Alive Beach VolleyBall games are seen more as a joke. I also find it hard to believe that many of the men who bring up this point truly feel this way, because I don't know many men who hate the idea of large breasted women in a game or two. So is this all a little silly, well in my personal opinion the female form is a beautiful thing, and for instance ivy's figure in the new Soul Calibur game is art. Thats exactly what it is, Art and Art should be admired. So admire these beautiful figures of art and stop acting like you care about how women feel about it. I'm sure some female gamers will play Soul Calibur 4, but I'm also sure most if not all will just ignore the fact that some of the female characters in the game have had their breasts expanded a bit. The female form should be admire not argued about.

THE GEOMETRY WARS CONTINUE!

When the XBOX 360 Launched theres no denying that the so called 'XBOX LIVE Arcade' was pretty average at best. I only recall Uno being of great worthy mention when that game was released and its fair to say that it was one specific game that made everyone stand up and take notice, both gamers and developers. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was a updated HD Version of the popular MiniGame found in Project Gotham Racing 2 for the Original XBOX. Retro Evolved was a deserving name for it evolved the classic 2D Shooter style that was once famous in the arcades and evolved it in graphical ways. The game kind of came out of nowhere and was a huge hit on the Marketplace, and is still to this day one of the most played LIVE Arcade games to date. The gameplay is both simple and dynamically challenging, though I have personally never been peticulary great at Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. I have always loved it as a game, its addictive and can easily suck you into the experience, not to mention the fact that with a nice piece of your favoured music can become a quite relaxing experience. That is great credit to the game considering there is only two modes in Retro Evolved. Retro Evolved is one (the HD Updated Version of the PGR3 Minigame) and Retro Mode (the classic Minigame which was found on the PGR3 Disc). Its gameplay saw you using your little ship to travel around the square arena and destroy coloured pixel icons that travelled around and often came straight at your little mini ship, you controlled movement with your left analog stick and you controlled firing your weapon in different directions using your right analog stick. It works perfectly and is a blast to experience, and in my own opinion made the game oh so much more fun. Retro Evolved was also popular for its outlandish art style, on a full HD TV it can look spectacular as you go around destroying ship to ship. Often the action can become intense, the game will often throw large amounts of enemies your way and the skill to getting high scores in Retro Evolved is to understand how the game works.

If you have played the original LIVE Arcade game to death then I have great news for you, although you probably already know this. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is coming this Wednesday the 30th of July. Quick I know, its a rarity for a game to  have its release date bought forward but its welcomed none the less. Geometry Wars 2 was actually announced at Microsoft's E3 Press Conference and is looking great. For 800 MS Points the game will offer quite a few extra modes including some co-op modes. Sadly tho, Bizzare Creations (developers of the game) have confirmed that there is no online co-op. That seems insane to me, not to have any co-op in a Geometry Wars 2 game is a downer but we have faired well enough so far with the original and to be fair the argument that it would be to much for LIVE to handle is understandable with everything blowing up so beautifully, it would cause hell for the LIVE servers.  Speaking of Beautiful, its fair to say that the newest Geometry Wars is looking even better then the original. What can only be called as a  'special extra effect' as been added which gives the game more of a colour glow feel and looks great especially in action.  Its hard to see this game being nothing but a huge success on the market, will it be as successful as the original LIVE Classic who knows? but I suspect it will become a much loved game. The Arcade currently as some real gems that I have only started to experience of late, and with games such as Mega Man 9 on the way we have every right be excited about what LIVE Arcade will have on offer in the coming year or so. I'll try and get a review up of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 up once I have spent a good amount of time with the game. I am also getting a Pyromat Sound Rocker S2000 Chair this week hopefully if delivery goes well so I'm looking forward trying that out properly after only experience a short time with it at my local PC Hardware store. Should be great and I might discuss that a little in a future blog. As for Geometry Wars 2, well look forward to that on Wednesday the 30th of July (aka, This Wednesday) and I already predict you must download it.

EXTRA NOTE OR TWO!

This Saturday seems me turn 20, I'll admit I hate birthdays with a passion since I've got older though I still know friends who act like 4 year old kids when there birthdays come around. I hate being the centre of attention so I hate birthdays. Also it comes at a bit of a bad time. My Birthday will probably get in the way of me playing Soul Calibur 4 in my new chair which is never a good thing. Probably won't do anything although some friends have put a few ideas forward. Probably won't do any of them tho, I don't drink or smoke so to my friends I'm a bore in many ways. But I'm content, happy and not to bothered about turning 20. I'm sure when I look back I'll regret a thing or two. Its just I hate doing things that just don't interest me. If I have time I also hope to get some more editing done on the site, sadly submissions are still taking ages. Not sure where people got the 48 hour length from as it took a whole week for my Broken Sword Images to be submitted. Though this delay is understandable considering how busy the site must be right now.

So thanks for reading Blog 2, please leave a comment if you wish and have a great week.
SaitenMar - True English Gent.

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