With the past couple of years dominated by Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat-style 2D fighters, it's nice to see the return of one of the big 3D fighting franchises. That is, unless you're a game reviewer. Then it's time to step into the critical ring.

Picking up the story of SoulCalibur and the Soul Blade seventeen years after the events in SoulCalibur IV (I'm assuming everyone was wiped out by that little green bastard, Yoda), SoulCalibur V features a lovely mix of characters both new and old, a cameo from one of Ubisoft's most popular characters (Rayman? YAY! Oh, Ezio. Nevermind), and deeper character customization than ever before.

Do these new features add up to big review scores? See for yourself.

Quarter to Three
However you felt about Soulcalibur IV, you have to give it credit for its own sense of style and identity. I can safely say there was no other fighting game quite like Soulcalibur IV. I can say no such thing about Soulcalibur V. Because there are, in fact, several other fighting games quite like it, most of them recently published by Capcom.

Some of the new gameplay in Soulcalibur V smacks of "make it more like a Capcom game". For instance, your new supermeter can give some attacks a "brave edge", or you can can store up supermeter juice for a powerful "critical edge" attack. As a strictly casual fighting game fan who could never pull off the last Soulcalibur's soulcrushes and soulbreaks and whatnot, I actually approve of this. It's a simple and gratifying alternative, on par with the latest Mortal Kombat's super moves. I can build up my meter and then stroke a pair of quartercircles with a three-button mash to trigger a quick cutscene of my dude doing something fancy. It's not quite as spectacular as what my dudes do in Marvel vs. Capcom, but this game's spectacle is all about the 3D models. Watching their breakway flashy ass-kickings is nearly reward enough. The extra damage from the attack is just gravy.

Videogamer
In peak moments this is swift, balletic combat that's beautiful in full flow, though beginner players (like me) can find themselves immediately flicking from a smooth rhythm to stilted, lumpy weapon swinging. It's a faster game than its predecessors, too, with flurries of attacks springing out of characters despite the overall movement speed feeling similar.

But some of the series' main problems quickly make a return. Soul Calibur (SoulCalibur?) has continually struggled to establish its own enticing title character, instead drafting in gimmicky guest appearances to bolster its ranks. This time round it's the turn of Ubisoft's colossally successful Ezio Auditore to step up, giving the game an iconic cover star to sit alongside the ranks of a refreshed roster that's mostly filled with the descendants and protégés of various mainstay characters. Thankfully, Ezio is easily Namco Bandai's most successful guest star to date, and his careful and considered implementation goes a long way to remove the bitter taste left by Soul Calibur IV's disastrous inclusion of Yoda and Darth Vader.

Official PlayStation Magazine
You have three basic types of attack: horizontal, vertical and kick. Horizontal attacks slash enemies to prevent them sidestepping around you, whereas vertical attacks break an enemy's guard when they crouch. Kicks? They're for kicking people. Whatever your opponent does, there's a counter to it. If you can understand that – and you win a custard cream if you got it first time – there's no reason why you can't become an effective fighting force in Soulcalibur V.

It obviously gets more complex than that, since every fighter has a weapon with a different speed, strength and reach, but you don't have to mash buttons or practise for days to get wins. Speculative inputs quickly become deft strokes, and the training mode could scarcely be clearer. Everything is logical – there's a fluid grace to every fight. Once you learn the simple stuff, much of it becomes intuitive. And no, intuition is not the same as guessing.

GamesTM
Mechanically speaking, SoulCalibur V arguably sees the series hit a level it has always promised but never really attained. It's not without its curious design choices – such as having throw escapes do chip damage, rather than just making them less mash-friendly in their execution – but on the whole, the new engine makes for some absolutely stunning fights oth for players and spectators. Clashes are back, so two similar attacks can bounce off one another and reset the playing field once the sparks have dissipated. Double-tap sidesteps improve the 8-Way Run evasive arsenal, even if a lack of definition (read: something like Virtua Fighter's categorisation of linear, semi-circular and full-circular attacks) sometimes makes it difficult to judge hitboxes in 3D space; even a perfectly timed evade can be stuffed by some of the annoying auto-tracking moves or falsely advertised area attacks, though most linear hits can still be strafed and punished accordingly.

Game Informer
The new fighters won't convince me to move away from my traditional mains (Mitsurugi, Xianghua, and Siegfried, for the record), but they're interesting additions. Fiona has powerful long-range attacks with her orb, and she strikes as fast as anyone in close, but her mid-range game seems weak. Z.W.E.I. is harder to get a handle on; his toolset focuses on summoning a spirit wolf and is unusual to the point that I had a heck of a time coming up with any decent tactics. Ezio seems less overpowered than previous guest characters, lacking an easy-to-execute close range get-away move to get back to his stronger mid-range distance. Patroklos is very reminiscent of Cassandra, with explosive mid-range moves and easy launchers that reward a poking playstyle. Nightmare and Kilik are, of course, still complete cheese.

Games Radar
It's often tough to gauge the netcode for a fighting game on launch day, so we can't guarantee that your online fights will clip along at fluid pace, but the social features, such as the Global Colosseo, add a nice touch. The Colosseo is a lobby set up for local players to hang out and set up matches. If you live in a city where there are organized meetups, it might not be as useful, but in case your local area doesn't have anything in place, it could be useful. For what it's worth, the matchmaking and games we played flowed smoothly and we didn't encounter any lag.

Kotaku
Whether you're an acolyte for whom the soul never stopped burning or someone whose embers glow weakly, SoulCalibur V will satisfy your need to slash, pummel and kick. Pulling in a superstar character from another franchise enriches the offering rather than debasing it and the goofily addictive character creation serves as a driver to continued gameplay. Project Soul's given people loads of reasons pick up their latest effort and even more reasons to stick around. SoulCalibur V's a beautiful weapon, go sharpen your skills and find someone to cut.

In the bleak corporate future of Syndicate, an intracranial DART 6 chip brings you before the "gateway into ultimate consciousness." This infomercial oozes Snow Crash-esque fiction, and know that in-game, you can toggle this augmented reality on and off. It coats your environment in a weird topographical aesthetic, highlights friends and foes through walls, and gives you extra firepower. If you haven't given the game a spin yet, give the multiplayer co-op demo a shot, out now on PSN and Xbox Live.

"Hey, you ever feel just a little strange? That we're hopping around all these planets and humans are the only intelligent life forms out here?" Halo: Helljumper, the fan-made web series centered on marine culture in the Halo universe, begins before contact with the Covenant. These greenhorns won't be finishing the fight. They've only just started it.

If you missed it the first time around, be sure to check out the series' teaser, and their official website.

Battling their way out of the post-holiday shortage, Activision and Toys for Bob have unleashed a trio of new Skylanders at retail, including one that should be familiar to hardcore Spyro fans, should such a thing exist.

It's nice to see some new faces on retail shelves, isn't it? Three new toys are hitting store shelves as you read this, including the Magic Skylander Double Trouble, the Undead Cynder, and Slam Bam, a four-armed yeti that comes packed inside the Empire of Ice Adventure Pack, which also includes an entirely new level for the Skylanders games.

Fans of Spyro, the name Activision chose to throw onto the back of the branding for name recognition, will remember Cynder as the black dragon that served as Spyro's love interest in the Legend of Spyro series of games. She still has dark powers, but she uses them for dark lovins now. Rawr.

Flip through the gallery for bios, videos, and shots of the new characters in action, and then rush to the store to discover they've been sold out.

Slam Bam

Element: Water

Primary Attack: Yeti Fists
Secondary Attack: Ice Prison

Upgrades include:

o Arctic Explosion
o Yeti Ice Shoe Slide
o Ice Knuckles

Bio: Slam Bam lived alone on a floating glacier in a remote region of Skylands, where he spent his time ice surfing, eating snow cones, and sculpting amazing ice statues. It was a peaceful life, until Kaos destroyed the glacier, stranding Slam Bam on an iceberg that drifted through the skies for days. He awoke on Eon's Island, where he was taken in and trained to become a Skylander. Now his ice sculptures serve as a frosty prison for any evil-doer.

Double Trouble

Element: Magic

Primary Attack: Eldritch Beam
Secondary Attack: Conjure Exploding Double

Upgrades include:

o Summon Magic Bomb
o Arcane Eldritch Beam
o Magical Cataclysm

Bio: Double Trouble was an adept spellcaster. On an expedition to find exotic ingredients for his potions, he traveled in search of a rare lily that was said to multiply the power of any spell. So thrilled was he when he found it, Double Trouble instantly ate the plant and performed a spell. Suddenly, there was a loud pop… then another… and another – until Double Trouble was surrounded by exact copies of himself. As it turned out, he had misunderstood the details about exactly what would multiply. But it didn't matter, for he quickly realized the clones were delightful companions… never mind that they were only half his size and would explode on contact.

Cynder

Element: Undead

Primary Attack: Spectral Lightning
Secondary Attack: Shadow Dash

Upgrades include:

o Cynder Flight
o Black Lightning
o Shadow Reach

Bio: While just an egg, Cynder was stolen by the henchmen of an evil dragon named Malefor and raised to do his bidding. For years, she spread fear throughout the land until she was defeated by Spyro the dragon and freed from the grip of Malefor. But dark powers still flow through her, and despite her desire to make amends for her past, most Skylanders try to keep a safe distance… just in case.

Battling their way out of the post-holiday shortage, Activision and Toys for Bob have unleashed a trio of new Skylanders at retail, including one that should be familiar to hardcore Spyro fans, should such a thing exist.

It's nice to see some new faces on retail shelves, isn't it? Three new toys are hitting store shelves as you read this, including the Magic Skylander Double Trouble, the Undead Cynder, and Slam Bam, a four-armed yeti that comes packed inside the Empire of Ice Adventure Pack, which also includes an entirely new level for the Skylanders games.

Fans of Spyro, the name Activision chose to throw onto the back of the branding for name recognition, will remember Cynder as the black dragon that served as Spyro's love interest in the Legend of Spyro series of games. She still has dark powers, but she uses them for dark lovins now. Rawr.

Flip through the gallery for bios, videos, and shots of the new characters in action, and then rush to the store to discover they've been sold out.

Slam Bam

Element: Water

Primary Attack: Yeti Fists
Secondary Attack: Ice Prison

Upgrades include:

o Arctic Explosion
o Yeti Ice Shoe Slide
o Ice Knuckles

Bio: Slam Bam lived alone on a floating glacier in a remote region of Skylands, where he spent his time ice surfing, eating snow cones, and sculpting amazing ice statues. It was a peaceful life, until Kaos destroyed the glacier, stranding Slam Bam on an iceberg that drifted through the skies for days. He awoke on Eon's Island, where he was taken in and trained to become a Skylander. Now his ice sculptures serve as a frosty prison for any evil-doer.

Double Trouble

Element: Magic

Primary Attack: Eldritch Beam
Secondary Attack: Conjure Exploding Double

Upgrades include:

o Summon Magic Bomb
o Arcane Eldritch Beam
o Magical Cataclysm

Bio: Double Trouble was an adept spellcaster. On an expedition to find exotic ingredients for his potions, he traveled in search of a rare lily that was said to multiply the power of any spell. So thrilled was he when he found it, Double Trouble instantly ate the plant and performed a spell. Suddenly, there was a loud pop… then another… and another – until Double Trouble was surrounded by exact copies of himself. As it turned out, he had misunderstood the details about exactly what would multiply. But it didn't matter, for he quickly realized the clones were delightful companions… never mind that they were only half his size and would explode on contact.

Cynder

Element: Undead

Primary Attack: Spectral Lightning
Secondary Attack: Shadow Dash

Upgrades include:

o Cynder Flight
o Black Lightning
o Shadow Reach

Bio: While just an egg, Cynder was stolen by the henchmen of an evil dragon named Malefor and raised to do his bidding. For years, she spread fear throughout the land until she was defeated by Spyro the dragon and freed from the grip of Malefor. But dark powers still flow through her, and despite her desire to make amends for her past, most Skylanders try to keep a safe distance… just in case.

Looking at a random aerial shot of Dubai might lead you to think you're looking at a future New York. Or London. Or Hong Kong. But this place actually exists, newer than those places and more remote, too. The hyperreal city sits on the edge of the Arabian Desert, boasting skyscrapers and man-made islands unlike those found anywhere else. And, soon, if 2K Games and Yager Interactive get their way, it'll be the next memorable video game locale, the place where thousands of players will shoot their way through a story of what happens when society's rules crumble in a land of excess.

It's more than just the sand that makes Dubai the perfect setting for 2K Games' upcoming military shooter Spec Ops: The Line. Yes, the game's signature mechanic comes in the form of mounds of shifting granules that you can dump on top of enemies. But, in Dubai, developer Yager Interactive gets a locale tailor-made for the kind of action and story they want to present. The principality in the United Arab Emirates holds monuments to human excess that make Las Vegas seem tame in comparison. Lead designer Cory Davis says, "Dubai is the place where the most amazing architectural projects on the planet are happening."

He's not kidding. Visitors to Dubai can travel to the Palm Jumeirah, a resort built on the world's largest artificial island that's also home to Burj al-Arab, the tallest hotel in the world. In downtown Dubai stands the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. There's money here and plenty of it.

Lots of today's modern war games take place in the Middle East and focus on the more alien nature of that part of the world. You're waging war in a foreign place where the standard of living is shown to be lower and where the player can be made to feel like they're an invader.

The Line's going for something different. "Because it's modern and opulent, it doesn't necessarily feel like you're walking into an extremely a third-world place," Davis offers. "At the same time, Dubai provides us also with a really good opportunity to send our squad into a location that is cutoff from the rest of civilization. We've put a twist into it with cataclysmic sandstorms that have ravaged the area and transformed it into something more exciting."

Players will be controlling military squad leader Captain Martin Walker as he hunts down other long-lost soldiers who lost contact with the outside world when the freak siroccos hit.

The journey through a shattered Dubai provides a thematic complement to the moral chaos of the game's narrative. 2K's Walt Williams, lead writer on The Line, says, "We wanted to make it a personal story of the emotions and the troubles that people come across in just normal combat. It's not about the bigger geopolitical issues in the Middle East or what's going on over there with the various wars and combats." Most of the people you'll meet in The Line are struggling to survive, even the enemies. "We didn't have to create any newer global threat like rogue Koreans or Russians or any fake terrorist organization."

2K's not revealing much more about the plot of The Line, but the sense is that there are going to be questionable actions on the part of Col. John Konrad, the man you're sent to find, and maybe on the player's part as well. "Simply being in combat doesn't turn you in necessarily into a soldier robot," says Williams. "You have all these other emotions and personal things that you're bringing into it, that change your reactions and cause you to see things in a different way."

The hope is that having The Line unfold in a place that's simultaneously a mirror and an envy of the West will energize its drama. "The survivors are making tents out of priceless wall-hangings and rugs," says Davis. "And they're drinking their boiled water out of crystal bowls. These are people that are living on the bare edge of poverty, but that bare edge of poverty is built out of items of wealth that suddenly have no value outside of simply what you can turn them into."

From a gameplay perspective, Davis says that the abandoned skyscrapers and over-the-top structural design of their future Dubai creates great opportunities for vertical combat. "The way that this architecture sticks straight out of the desert causes this amazing amount of contrast and variety that's typically not seen in a military shooter," he elaborates.

Video game creators love cities. The glass-and-concrete aesthetic, tight spaces and overpopulation of urban centers let designers scatter action sequences, random scares and enticing plot points all over environments that audiences know from first-hand experiences or pop culture.

But at the same time, locales like Los Angeles, New York City or London have become too familiar from overuse. The Line wants to subvert any familiarity the player may feel, with a once-beautiful where horrible things are happening. Neither Davis nor Williams can talk about which real-world locations will be in the game, which is being made without the involvement of United Arab Emirates authorities.

Nevertheless, if they do their job right, Dubai—the ultramodern metropolis that improbably sits in the middle of the desert—will take its place next to Rapture, Arkham City and other iconic locations in classic video games. We'll find out when Spec Ops: The Line comes out later this year.

Looking at a random aerial shot of Dubai might lead you to think you're looking at a future New York. Or London. Or Hong Kong. But this place actually exists, newer than those places and more remote, too. The hyperreal city sits on the edge of the Arabian Desert, boasting skyscrapers and man-made islands unlike those found anywhere else. And, soon, if 2K Games and Yager Development get their way, it'll be the next memorable video game locale, the place where thousands of players will shoot their way through a story of what happens when society's rules crumble in a land of excess.

It's more than just the sand that makes Dubai the perfect setting for 2K Games' upcoming military shooter Spec Ops: The Line. Yes, the game's signature mechanic comes in the form of mounds of shifting granules that you can dump on top of enemies. But, in Dubai, the game developers get a locale tailor-made for the kind of action and story they want to present. The principality in the United Arab Emirates holds monuments to human excess that make Las Vegas seem tame in comparison. Lead designer Cory Davis says, "Dubai is the place where the most amazing architectural projects on the planet are happening."

He's not kidding. Visitors to Dubai can travel to the Palm Jumeirah, a resort built on the world's largest artificial island that's also home to Burj al-Arab, the tallest hotel in the world. In downtown Dubai stands the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. There's money here and plenty of it.

Lots of today's modern war games take place in the Middle East and focus on the more alien nature of that part of the world. You're waging war in a foreign place where the standard of living is shown to be lower and where the player can be made to feel like they're an invader.

The Line's going for something different. "Because it's modern and opulent, it doesn't necessarily feel like you're walking into an extremely a third-world place," Davis offers. "At the same time, Dubai provides us also with a really good opportunity to send our squad into a location that is cutoff from the rest of civilization. We've put a twist into it with cataclysmic sandstorms that have ravaged the area and transformed it into something more exciting."

Players will be controlling military squad leader Captain Martin Walker as he hunts down other long-lost soldiers who lost contact with the outside world when the freak siroccos hit.

The journey through a shattered Dubai provides a thematic complement to the moral chaos of the game's narrative. 2K's Walt Williams, lead writer on The Line, says, "We wanted to make it a personal story of the emotions and the troubles that people come across in just normal combat. It's not about the bigger geopolitical issues in the Middle East or what's going on over there with the various wars and combats." Most of the people you'll meet in The Line are struggling to survive, even the enemies. "We didn't have to create any newer global threat like rogue Koreans or Russians or any fake terrorist organization."

2K's not revealing much more about the plot of The Line, but the sense is that there are going to be questionable actions on the part of Col. John Konrad, the man you're sent to find, and maybe on the player's part as well. "Simply being in combat doesn't turn you in necessarily into a soldier robot," says Williams. "You have all these other emotions and personal things that you're bringing into it, that change your reactions and cause you to see things in a different way."

The hope is that having The Line unfold in a place that's simultaneously a mirror and an envy of the West will energize its drama. "The survivors are making tents out of priceless wall-hangings and rugs," says Davis. "And they're drinking their boiled water out of crystal bowls. These are people that are living on the bare edge of poverty, but that bare edge of poverty is built out of items of wealth that suddenly have no value outside of simply what you can turn them into."

From a gameplay perspective, Davis says that the abandoned skyscrapers and over-the-top structural design of their future Dubai creates great opportunities for vertical combat. "The way that this architecture sticks straight out of the desert causes this amazing amount of contrast and variety that's typically not seen in a military shooter," he elaborates.

Video game creators love cities. The glass-and-concrete aesthetic, tight spaces and overpopulation of urban centers let designers scatter action sequences, random scares and enticing plot points all over environments that audiences know from first-hand experiences or pop culture.

But at the same time, locales like Los Angeles, New York City or London have become too familiar from overuse. The Line wants to subvert any familiarity the player may feel, with a once-beautiful where horrible things are happening. Neither Davis nor Williams can talk about which real-world locations will be in the game, which is being made without the involvement of United Arab Emirates authorities.

Nevertheless, if they do their job right, Dubai—the ultramodern metropolis that improbably sits in the middle of the desert—will take its place next to Rapture, Arkham City and other iconic locations in classic video games. We'll find out when Spec Ops: The Line comes out later this year.

Remember to come join our last discussion of Portal 2 at Kotaku Game Club tomorrow at 4pm Eastern!

Check out this student-made Flash advertisement for… an iPod skin? We'll take it! Mario and Luigi cope with an invasion straight out of Lemmings and Space Invaders before reinforcements from everyone's favorite Mars-bound marine. Things get 3D, and decidedly less innocent.

Creator Rohan Liston's website is still under construction, but we hope to check in on his past work once complete.

Death and his pal War team-up to save the day this year in Darksiders: The Abomination Vault, a series prequel that takes place a millenia before the opening credits of the first game.

Death might be a new player in Darksiders II, but he's been around as long as people have been dying, giving author Ari Marmell (The Conqueror's Shadow, The Goblin Corps) plenty of material to work with. In this particular heroic tale of anti-armageddoning, Death and War (buddy cops) team up to thwart an evil plan to resurrect ancient weapons of mass destruction and thus plunge the universe into a horrific conflict.

You know, now that I think about it, the entire Darksiders series seems to be about the great length the apolcalyptic horsepersons will go to avoid doing their actual jobs.

Darksiders: The Abomination Vault will release alongside the eagerly anticipated Darksiders II later this year. Random House is handling publishing duties, while Random House Worlds, the publisher's intellectual property building division, will be responsible for developing the series bible for the Darksiders universe.