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Viva Las Vader

Namco shows off Soul Calibur IV

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
What happens in Vegas...

Many of us have been decrying the overall lack of gaming gear here at CES, but while there might not be much video game hardware on display at the Las Vegas Convention Center, several video game publishers are in town showing off their latest wares, including LucasArts, Eidos, Microsoft, and Namco.

The latter is perhaps the most interesting, since the title being shown off is the latest iteration of the fighting game Soul Calibur, which first hit living rooms via Sega's Dreamcast console back in 1999. The series features an eclectic cast of medieval Japanese characters battling over a magical sword, and the new entry, Soul Calibur IV, will be available later in 2008 on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

We got a chance to spend a little hands-on time with the game, which will look and feel familiar to fans of the series. The most noteworthy part is the addition of two well-known characters to the mix--Star Wars stalwarts Darth Vader (in the PS3 version) and Yoda (in the Xbox 360 version).

While Darth himself and a handful of Stormtroopers were in attendance, and we got to see some prerendered footage of them in action, neither Star Wars character was included in our hands-on demo of the game, so we'll have to wait to indulge in some Samurai-vs-Sith action.