PS3 Fanboy

The upcoming online update to TEKKEN 5: Dark Resurrection will cost $9.99. The update, which will be available later this year, will include Opti Match, Quick Match, Custom Match and Friend Match, "making it easy to find opponents to fight with anywhere, anytime." While waiting for their turn to battle, players will also be able to study their opponents by watching battles in the lobby. Online will also include two new single player modes, including Practice mode and Survival mode.

A new Online News Ticker will post the weekly, monthly and overall rank leaders at any given point. According to the press release, "Players will fight their way to the deadly Dark Lord to prove that they are worthy of battling it out in the online TEKKEN ranking." Whatever that means.

"It is beyond words how excited we are to finally be bringing our famous fighting franchise, TEKKEN, online for the first time," Makoto Iwai, Senior Vice President and COO of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. said. "Not only is TEKKEN 5: Dark Resurrection Online a great value, but it now features the largest evolution in the franchise to date."

Here's a tasty bit of news that should have fighting enthusiasts drooling at the mouth, mostly because we've yet to get a great online fighting experience on the PS3. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is going to have an update soon that allows for online play!

In addition to standard fighting online, there will also be online rankings to show off your mad skills. If you haven't played in a while or are unfamiliar with the combo system, the new Practice mode should help get your online ranking up a little faster -- because you'll train and get better.

There's also the addition of Survival mode, adding in yet another option to an already worthwhile purchase from the PS Store. However, these additions aren't free. To get all this stuff tacked on, you may be charged anywhere from 1,000 - 2,800 yen. We're estimating for the Americas that our addition will come around $7.99 - $9.99, but those are just guesses. What do you guys think? Is it worth the extra output for a lot of extra input content?

So, this title has been out for a little bit, but we've had our hands full with other stuff lately. Until last week, this game went relatively untouched. Things change, but one sad truth remains: I suck at Tekken 5. What's worse is that when I reverted back to Virtua Fighter 5 after playing this PSN title, I sucked at that too. It seems a friend was right -- you can only play one 3D fighter at a time. In any case, here are some review numbers given to Tekken 5 by some big sites... our review will follow after you click that "continue reading" link.

• IGN: 8.2 / 10
• GamePro: 8.5 / 10
• GameSpot: 8.3 / 10
• 1UP: 7.5 / 10

With the release of this hotly-anticipated title coming soon for the US PlayStation Store (end of February, we're pretty sure), there's no shortage of screenshots seeping through the cracks of the internet and into our minds. We present to you a half dozen, minus one, of the latest.

These screens show that, while missing that dramatic next-gen sheen many have come to expect, the game still looks darn good for a downloadable title. With 1080p and an extra character to play as (Jinpachi Mishima), this is a great "in the meantime" title as we keep our eyes peeled for Tekken 6. Speaking of fighting games... isn't Virtua Fighter 5 out today? The GameStops around here usually don't get them until the day after it's released, but let us know if you ran out and successfully grabbed your copy!

If you've got access to the Japanese or Hong Kong PlayStation Store, you may have noticed a nice little surprise: Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection has appeared for download. The game boasts a few nice features -- full 1080p visuals, the boss Jinpachi as a playable character, extra play modes and more. The download is around 830 MB and requires about 1.5 MB of save space. The cost? Sorry guys, this one isn't free, but comparing it to the cost of a new game, putting you back only $17 is a gift. This will eventually slide into the US store, but if you know the tricks of the trade, you can get it now. Enjoy.

Let's first get this out of the way: the guy who wrote the original article (Dean Takahashi) is a graphics freak. Loves them. "A kind of obsession," he says. The PS3, he says in that regard, doesn't have perfect animation but "it's pretty darn good looking." He also says (not us! He said this! Don't shoot the messenger!) "If you'll recall, Microsoft had high hopes that Sony's first-generation games would look cruddy." I bet they were hoping that, because, you know, it's not the gameplay that matters. Not at all (sarcasm).

Mr. Takahashi continues to say how the PS3 games are looking quite nice, even for first-generation games! He even went so far as to say, "by and large, the games I saw looked BETTER than Xbox 360 games." Oooh, that's a pretty lofty claim. But, he said, not all the games were necessarily worth the price difference in the consoles. Ridge Racer 7, he says, looks far better than Ridge Racer 6 for the 360. Also looking better than the competition is Resistance: Fall of Man. Falling short of expectations was the build of Virtua Fighter 5 -- not quite as pretty as DOA4 for the 360 (and with those ladies, who'd argue?). Lair is also looking good, but Takahashi didn't focus on graphics, possibly because it's way too early to decide. Anyway, overall, we can get pumped up for the PS3 (again...) and know that we'll get a few very enjoyable titles at launch and early next year.