http://www.soulcalibur.com/ (or http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29535.html )

Watch the trailer; the 'new' guys appear near the end of it.

When I heard that first breath, I thought "they wouldn't... they couldn't..."

"...oh God, they did."

Dumbest addition ever.

And the best part is that each of those guys is exclusive to a different version of the game, so you can't put them against each other!  (Unless of course Bamco decides to microtransact you out of $4 or something down the road.)

I have no problem with them being in the game.  If you don't like them, don't use them.  It's no dumber than Spawn or Link being in the series.  Of course, I'd sacrifice Yoda in an instant to have Palpatine instead.  Since Vader is exclusive to the PS3 version, unless better news surfaces that they are not console exclusive or other exclusives dictate a change in plans, I'll be getting it on PS3.  Hm, they could still add Palpatine to the 360 version (to go vs Yoda) and Luke to the PS3 version (vs Vader natch), and then I'd get the 360 version.

People, why are we making spoilers of something the makers of the game are letting everyone know!?

Still, cool addition though, me likey.
I ain't getting a PS3 just for HIM though.

They look great but I reckon it's an utterly shit idea. They should have gone all out and made an actual Star Wars Jedi fighter. This shows Namco have no faith whatsoever in the game itself. None.

And the 'if you don't like them, don't use them' thing doesn't wash. It's a fighting game. Even if you don't use them, others will. Fighting games are as much who you play against as who you play.

I'll use spoiler guards too; why break pattern?

I'm actually kind of annoyed with Star Wars being all over at this point. I've no interest in Crisis Core, but I found the Cloud-&-Company-branded White PSP to be pretty darn cool-looking. And then I was disappointed when Sony America went went dumb ol' Vader instead for the US one. I admit that I haven't followed this stuff in about 7 years though...is it really still popular enough to afford this kind of ubiquity?

I agree with Amazingu that spoiler-blanking out comments regarding a non-hidden, well-publicized, non-story related feature seems a bit silly.  I admire you guys' amount of consideration though

As to the feature, I must say that V__ looks awesome but is completely out of place, and given the progressively ridiculous directions Namco have taken with character design I have little interest in the title in the first place.  And it is pretty cheap on their part that they're splitting up the special characters by platform when neither character has anything to do with the respective console companies.

It wouldn't surprise me if Namco and their new partner are using this as an opportunity to test the waters for a dedicated fighting game for the other franchise.

I did it to preserve the WTF factor for first-time viewers. It just wouldn't have the same jaw-dropping impact if you were expecting it. Although by now, it's all over the gaming news sites/forums anyhow.

At first I thought it just doesn't fit at all, and I still don't, but as the saying goes, "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." my brother and I joked that shit, this changes the canon for both series. Expect a re-re-re-re-release of Episodes 1-6 with SC characters sprinkled throughout, "the way they were originally intended [featuring characters that didn't exist 20 years ago]".

Heh good stuff.  Speaking of which, whatever happened to production on the Soul Calibur movie that was supposed to happen along with two dozen other video game adaptations?  Soul Calibur has the makings for a pretty good movie, unlikely though it may be that it'll actually happen that way.

Destructoid just posted some additional info:

http://www.destructoid.com/ces-2008-new … 3885.phtml

I have to agree that the new characters should appear in their own game.  They did have their own fighting game on the PS1.

Totally agreed! I actually think V_ and company would be a great addition to Smash Bros! In Soul Calibur, seems kinda silly. I mean, a sword vs V_'s weapon... come on! Shouldn't V_'s weapon be able to cut through anything?? Yeah, cheap ploy seems to sum things up well.

cheers,

-avatar!

Ugh, man, SC has really gone downhill.  I really enjoyed what I played of the first game and the second game was pretty fun (certainly, it got so much tournament coverage so it couldn't have been bad.)  But this is just silly.

I have to say I feel the same way, I mean this is coming from someone whose only real experience with the series was Soul Edge/Blade - I just though some of the characters introduced in Soul Calbier clashed with the original cast, like Astaroth.