Get ready for your wallet to be upset with you. The Limited Edition SOULCALIBUR V OST is out, and it will cost you a pretty penny. But just look at that thing. It’s gorgeous! Can you really say no to that box?

Aside from the 56 track OST (3 discs), you’ll also get 20 pages of liner notes, a behind the scenes DVD detailing the creative process of the game’s score, and a set of character cards. It’s quite the package.

The soundtrack itself is a diverse mix of composers and performers spanning five different countries. It includes music written by Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana), Andrew Aversa (Monkey Island 2: Special Edition), Cris Velasco (God of War trilogy), Inon Zur (Dragon Age series), and more with performances by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

You can find a handful of sample clips on EminenceOnline.com as well as a photo gallery showcasing that sweet, sweet packaging. I highly recommend checking out “Blood Thirst Concerto” (embedded below). (more…)

In talking with a lot of gamers, I’ve discovered that there’s actually somewhat of a distaste towards fighting games. Many people feel that they amount to simply smashing buttons, and if there is a strategy to it, it’s simply “Use X move at Y moment.”

Either that, or they view them as so impenetrable it isn’t even worth the effort, that studying frame data and practicing moves for hours in Training mode is devoid of fun. So I thought I’d write about my journey with the fighting game, my transformation from hater to lover, and hopefully get people to give them a second thought.

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The Sega Dreamcast was the greatest system that never really had a chance. When most systems die after a year and a half, it is because they are terrible systems with horrendous game libraries (see 32x, Atari Jaguar). The Dreamcast had arguably the greatest first 18 months of any console in history. The unfortunate thing is those 18 months were all we got.

Why did the Dreamcast die?

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