Soul Calibur III PS2 exclusive

The Soul Calibur franchise is returning to its Sony roots in a deal that will see the beat-'em-up appear exclusively on PS2.

This is a surprising move, considering Soul Calibur II was well received by both Xbox and Gamecube owners, and given how much better it looked on these consoles compared to the PS2 version.

And as anyone who's played the Xbox or Gamecube versions of Soul Calibur II will agree, these latest screenshots on the right don't really live up to that standard.

Still, it's not all about graphics and Soul Calibur III has plentiful additions that could improve the gameplay and lifespan immeasurably.

One such addition is the introduction of the Character Creation mode, which allows players to decide the appearance, weapons and role of their character. It's unclear how deep this feature will go but hopefully it won't be just a simple, light addition. We want to spend ages creating and modifying the balance of our character's attributes.

We want to be able to make a character that is the embodiment of everything we'd like to be, we want to watch it grow, we want to love it like our own child...

Anyway... for those of you who can't be bothered with that, three new characters have been added to the game's roster and are as follows:

Zasalamel
This mysterious man desires to raise the evil sword. He drags those who witness the sharp light from his giant scythe to the abyss of death.

Tira
An angel of death from the darkness with a bird-like grace, she plays with lives using her Ring Blade.

Setsuka
The wandering beauty on a lonely journey. She lives for her revenge with a sword hidden in her umbrella.

So there we go. Let's just hope the game can dispel our initial fears and make good on delivering all of its initial promises.

Soul Calibur III is due for UK release at the end of the year