It means that by the game arrives on console in September, it will have already been out on Arcade in Japan for over a year. We were lucky enough to get a few rounds in during Eurogamer 2011 on a arcade machine, in which we were taught a lesson by some hardcore vets. If you have played the first Tekken Tag game though, this is definitely a must purchase for you as the looks better than ever with tons of characters at your disposal.

Speaking of characters, it looks like Namco Bandai will be giving something back to console gamers to somewhat make up for the delay. The developer has confirmed that the console version will feature brand new characters that are not available on arcade at the moment, meaning that on the PS3 and Xbox 360, you can expect to see more than a staggering 50 characters, compared to the 44 fighters that are available on arcade machines at the moment.

There’s also some brand new game modes to mention as well, the most notable being pair-play, which will allow four-player tag battles with four separate players. This is on both versions just to let you know, unlike Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken game which bizarrely doesn’t support this mode on the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Another pleasing aspect which brings a smile to our face, is that Namco has insisted that this won’t just be a port of the arcade version. They are taking their time on the game to ensure that the console version is unique in its own right, and judging by the extra characters and game modes – we’d say they’re doing a pretty good job of that so far.

If we were to make one request though, we would love to see a return of Tekken Force Mode. We absolutely loved that from Tekken 3, so if Namco were to bring that mode back in its full glory, consider us sold on this one for sure. We also loved completing the game numerous times to unlocks characters and extra movies in the theater mode, so let’s hope that Namco sticks to their roots and don’t make the game with DLC in mind.

It comes in the form of none other than a Gundam game, yeah that Japanese robot franchise that hasn’t really taken off over here, contrary to its popularity in Japan, China and Hong Kong.

What better way to kick that trend though, by announcing that a new Gundam game on the way will be going free to play much to our delight. The official name of the game will be Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation and thanks to Siliconera and the latest edition of Famitsu, we now know that the game will be available at the end of June as a downloadable PlayStation title only.

The game will feature 6 vs 6 online battles with the main objective to basically eliminate your opponent power ranger style using a variety of weapons and other gadgets available. You’ll be familiar with the style of gameplay if you have played one of the various PSP Gundam games, but if you need a taster we’ve added a clip from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn which will play in a similar mold to Battle Operation.

The game will be free to play, but there is no information yet on how Namco Bandai plan to monetize the game. Like CCP and DUST 514, there’s no way that the game is going to be completely free, but giving PS3 owners a preview of online battles for free is a very good way to tempt users into supporting the game with a small fee.

If you are interested in trying this out, you should bookmark this site as this will be the place where you can register for participation into a closed beta. The website is not live at the moment, but it will be towards the end of this month so stay tuned for that.

Are you a secret fan of Gundam games? We wish this Japanese favorite would be joined by a PS3 version of Korean rhythm series DJ Max, but we can’t get too greedy can we? It’s great to see this going free to play though, it looks like a good year is ahead for PS3 owners – long may it continue.

Namco is more than partial to the odd guest character appearing in their Soul Calibur franchise as most of you are probably well aware. Soul Calibur IV featured none other than Yoda and Darth Vader from the Star Wars universe, and this time players will be treated to Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed as a playable character on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

For those of you that are already playing the game, you are probably wondering how to unlock some of the secret characters in the game. You’ve probably figured out that characters such as Edge Master, Elysium, Alpha Patroklos and Pyrrha Omega can easily be unlocked by simply completing story mode. However, a few other secret characters are more difficult to obtain, such as Kilik and Algol. To unlock these two characters, you’ll have to go through Legendary Souls Mode, defeat each respective character and then complete the mode fully to unlock both of them.

These are the secret playable characters in the game, but we can tell you that Namco has inserted one other hidden feature in the game, and it is going to make a lot of you who played Tekken very happy. It turns out that you can unlock the fighting style of Jin Kazama as his alter ego Devil Jin. You won’t get the actual character from Tekken, but just his fighting style which is still pretty good.

If you want to see what we mean, we’ve included a video below showing the ‘soul of Devil Jin’ in action. Let us know what you think of the game so far and if you have discovered any more notable secrets other than the characters we’ve mentioned above.

It has to be said that while graffiti and tagging is frowned upon and is actually an offence, when it is permitted, in this case as part of an art project, it does produce some pretty impressive artwork. The piece itself is part of the art project called the Great Eastern Wall, which is being carried out by Rockwell’s aerosol art group ENDoftheLINE. The project is situated in a place called Shoreditch, which is part of London.

Several marketing ploys similar like this have been used in the past and in London also. The West End played host to a drop-in house which was covered in Monster Hunter artwork, a project commissioned by Capcom. ConceptArts, another art group was also commissioned to create a painting on the side of the Westfield shopping Centre, promoting the launch of Halo Reach.

The latest project took three days to complete but luckily for us the progress has been recorded in a video that compresses that time down to just over five minutes. The finished piece also features guest character Ezio Auditore as well as new comer Patroklos and the familiar Nightmare. If you are interested you can watch the video below. What do you think of the finished piece? Do you think this method of marketing should be used more often?

This will come as a very pleasant surprise indeed for Dark Souls fans, as it was widely believed that the game would not be receiving any DLC after launch, evident in the fact that Dark Souls as it currently stands is pretty much a complete package.

The game has become a huge success, and perhaps Namco Bandai are now responding to that with a no brainer push for new content via DLC – it would make perfect sense from a business perspective of course. According to an ‘exclusive’ report published by EGMNow, DLC content for Dark Souls is already well underway and thought to be releasing on the Xbox 360 and PS3 soon. Their report even claims that the DLC may be titled ‘ “Yami no Mori”— which when translated from Japanese becomes “Forest of Darkness” or “Dark Forest”.

Assuming the information is real, it now provides all sorts of exciting possibilities for fans. What new content could they possibly add to the game to make it even better? Is there one area in particular where you feel content is lacking and could be one option as DLC? We predict that a lot of people are going to buy DLC for Dark Soul without a doubt, so the ball firmly rests in Namco Bandai’s court to see what they can come up with. If the DLC maintains the same quality as the core gameplay, then we’re all in for a treat.

What would you like to see as Dark Souls DLC – is the game easily one of the best you’ve ever played?

The game is set to release in the US January 31st 2012 with Europe set to get it a few days later on February 3rd. While Soul Calibur V is not set to break any sales records and is unlikely to prove as popular as other more established fighting games like Mortal Kombat, it still looks very impressive and judging from the character customization feature it is a very detailed game.

The publisher has been treating fans of the series to several screenshots recently, a total of 30 new ones to be exact and has also released a new trailer that gives us a sneaky peek at what the graphics are going to be like during the game’s cut-scenes. The new screenshots include images of the characters giving their best fighting faces, or as CVG explains ‘angst’ expressions, and close-ups of their weapons during gameplay scenes. The collection also includes cut-scene images and shows some of the characters for the first time.

In the trailer, which can be viewed below we can see cut scenes with descriptions that highlight some of the key features of the game. It is introduced as being 17 years on from the previous title and some of the descriptions include returning characters as well as new successors and clues as to the plot of the game by saying the sword’s power seemed to have been lost. Check it out for yourself below. You can also view all 30 new screenshots by hitting the CVG link above.

Are you looking forward to playing the new game?

While details on the game have been scarce so far, we have still managed to bring you some analysis of the debatably poor graphics thanks to an article by Alan Ng. The new details revealed about the game are definitely positive this time, with the video showcasing an extensive customization feature that will not only allow players to create their own character but also edit the existing ones.

From the video which can be viewed below, we can see there are several options to choose from when customizing a character, making it look quite complicated. Luckily series producer Tago, is there to help us with a walkthrough of what can be done. He shows us that almost anything can be customized including height and build, muscle tone (editing individual body parts separately), facial features, hair and costume, even the voice and the whites of the character’s eyes can be edited.

Overall this is a great improvement from the previous creation mode, as Tago explains in the video. The game is expected to be released January 31st in the U.S and in Europe on February 3rd. all the characters from the series are expected to appear as well as a few guest additions like the one we explained about earlier. A special edition version of the fighter has also been announced bringing some extra content with it.

Are you impressed with what you have seen of Soul Calibur V so far?

For those that aren’t aware, Soul Calibur V will be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime next year, although we did get a first play of the game at the Eurogamer Expo in September – shame Ezio wasn’t playable then.

He is however, very much present in the following video, and it comes courtesy of a 90 minute stream that Namco Bandai recently uploaded to U-Stream. Our Japanese is non-existant at the moment sadly, but the general jist of the video runs gamers through some of the critical edge hyper moves in the game, and the controls needed on the pad in order to execute them successfully.

If you skip to the 28 minute mark, that’s when you see Ezio take to the main stage and you’ll see the developers testing out some of his move set against some of the other characters in the Soul Calibur V roster.

We’ve seen some early criticism of the graphics featured in the new game, but we don’t think they are disasterous by any means, especially compared to Soul Calibur IV. Don’t forget that this stream isn’t a very good representation of the game’s visuals and since the game is not out until 2012, it’s probably a very early build anyway. We’re looking forward to seeing some true HD graphics of the game so that fans can get a better idea.

If you are a Soul Calibur fan, what are your thoughts on the graphics – are they as bad as everyone is making out?

The confirmation came from the developers who said the character will be appearing in PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the Soul Calibur V, quashing any rumors that the leaked image was a fake Photoshop edit. Some were convinced due to the artwork similarities that the character has with Pyrrha, as it turns out they were in fact wrong.

Other guest appearances will come from Dampierre, who originally appeared in Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny on the PSP. For those that are unfamiliar with him, he is described as a comical character but will only be available to those gamers who purchase the game with a pre-order, unlike Ezio who will be available to all. Metro also reported that the game will feature music from the Ubisoft series as well as having a stage in the game dedicated to Assassin’s Creed.

Along with the confirmation of Ezio’s cameo, came an announcement of a released date for the game. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can get hold of the fighter on February 3rd. earlier today we brought you news that there was to be an Assassin’s Creed movie, being developed with Sony Pictures. Feel free to check out the trailer introducing Ezio to Soul Calibur V which we have embedded below. What do you think of this guest appearance? Do you think there will be any others? Let us know who you would like to see or think we will also be seeing in the game?

The Namco Bandai fighter game has built itself a bit of a reputation when it comes to guest appearances in their titles. The first to appear was Heihachi from Tekken, who appeared in the PS2 version of Soul Calibur 2. The Xbox version also featured comic book favorite Spawn and the GameCube version featured Legend of Zelda’s Link. A whole host of other names have since starred in the series including characters from God of War and Star Wars. This gives us reason to believe that the photo could indeed be real.

Skeptics are less than convinced however, pointing out the similarities that the Ezio image has to existing character Pyrrha, insisting it is nothing more than a Photoshop edit. According to Gematsu the image came from the live blog, PS3blog at a Namco Bandai event. Of course the image could well be real but simply was exposed to early, hence the sudden removal from the live blog. Until we get official confirmation from the publishers we can only speculate.

A release date was also mentioned on the live blog, indicating January 31st 2012 has some significance. Again nothing official was mentioned from the publishers although we previously brought our readers news that the game was confirmed to be released in 2012. What are your thoughts on the image? Is it real or fake?