"Long live the 3D fighter!" I hear you chant, and with Namco Bandai's latest addition to the Soul Calibur franchise, it appears that it's here to stay...

For the uninitiated, "Soul" began way back in 1996 on the humble Playstation 1, under the moniker of "Soul Blade" or "Soul Edge" (depending on region.) It recieved critical acclaim, as it was one of the only Weapons based fighters of that era. After numerous sequels on the Dreamcast, Gamecube, Playstation 2, xbox, 360, PSP and ps3, as well as numerous "guest characters" along the way, we have now come to Soul Calibur V....

Is it as polished as the first 3? Can I still create silly characters? Is it still "mash pad" for the win? Read on....

One of the first things you'll notice when you load up Soul Calibur V, apart from the lush opening cinematics, is that the character roster has had a complete overhaul......Kilik is nowhere to be seen, sophitia is gone, Seung Mina, Hworang etc etc...

Now before you dismiss the game just because your old pal Hworang et. al, aren't there, what will please you is that the new characters have a certain air of familiarity about them. A lot of the move sets have been shifted to the new characters, and tweaked slightly. So this allows previous players to be quite "at home" with some of the new characters. Also along for the ride is everyone's favourite assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze from the "Assassins Creed" franchise. Nice fan service.

There are a slew of different game modes to dabble with, firstly Offline Mode. Here you will find your run of the mill arcade, legendary, quick battle, versus and training modes.

Arcade mode pits you against 6 random opponents in order to gain battle/player points as well as incorporating a time attack mode at the same time. One thing to note, it is a very empty mode, as there are no cut scenes or endings for the characters you complete it with, which is unusual for the series.

Legendary mode is fairly similar to the above, but add one more battle and a huge difficulty spike. Whereas Quick battle lets you choose from a variety of custom made opponents to defeat in order to unlock titles (think emblems on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3).

Now once pitched in battle, the character models move gracefully and fluidly. Soul Calibur is known for its amazing character models, and SCV does not disappoint. New updated versions of Mitsurugi, Maxi, Astaroth and the crew look amazing, wildly swinging their weapon of choice.

The control system remains mostly the same to previous outings, bar a few new additions. The "Guard Impact" or parrying system from previous versions has been changed. Whereas you used to have to time the opponents attack perfectly, as well as height, with either forward or back pressed simultaneously with block,(phew...) now it's just a button/s press. And height is not an issue either; as long as you have perfect timing you'll be fine.

Another addition is the "Limit Break" super bar, (think revenge/super gauge from Super Street Fighter 4). This fills as you take damage and allows you to do flashy "super moves" to either finish off huge combos or plot a potential late round comeback. These moves are the usual double quarter circle button combo to pull off, and luckily the old 360 joypad was very forgiving with the inputs.

The arenas too are more detailed than ever, providing dense green forests, old crumbling castles or huge sea ports in battle in. One in particular stage takes place on a huge battlefield, where soldiers can be seen in the background waging war on the enemy as huge plumes of smoke fill the fiery red sky....pretty epic stuff.

And to accompany such an epic scene, you need epic music of course! The levels are filled with the usual dramatic orchestral scores that Soul Calibur is famous for. Some of the pieces of music really set the tone and get you pumped for the battle, with huge orchestral crescendos and choirs roaring like a Conan movie. Alas it can be let down too, by overly bright and cheery music which kind of doesn't fit.

Sound wise the usual effects of the weapons clanging and slashing sound very impressive and have a decent punch to them. One thing you must do before you start playing, IS TURN THE ENGLISH AUDIO TO JAPANESE!!! The English voice overs, as in most fighting games, are terrible. Corny one liners, like "you'll never catch me" really grate on the nerves. Trust me, they sound WAY cooler in Japanese.

The story mode of Soul Calibur V, is where most of the meat is. After experiencing the somewhat hollow arcade mode, I hoped for something better in the story section.

The story follows 3 main characters only, Patroklos, his sister Pyrrha and another newcomer Z.W.E.I. Now to be honest, it's a fighting game, so story really does not interest me too much. Basically it's the usual cinematic, read some text, fight someone, rinse and repeat. Despite the story being graced by the occasional cutscene, we are mainly dredging through the story via colourless still pictures and lots of text. To be honest....i pressed "Skip"....alot.

It consists of 20 chapters and can easily be conquered in around 2.5 hrs. Some of the battles can be pretty easy, but later on, there are huge difficulty spikes, where the enemy must have a mind reading device, as it seems to know exactly what you are doing. Either that, or the opponent gets the first hit in of the round, juggles you for an eternity...and then you die. This can lead to frustration and potential "Rage Quits", or broken controllers. One problem I did find is that if I went into full "mash pad mode", I would win.......hmmmmmm....

Now onto Multiplayer. Upon entering the online battles mode, once again we are greeted with the usual Ranked/Player matches. You can also create region specific lobbies where likeminded combatants can chill, text/chat and hang out prior to doing battle. You can enter/create rooms, much like the "Endless Battle" on Super Street Fighter 4 where you can have a slew of friends waiting to do battle in a "winner stays on" style of game.

Now unfortunately, when I was reviewing the multiplayer portion of the game, the only opponents I could find were either in the U.S. (surprise, surprise...) or Japan, so I went for the U.S.

Now what was surprising was that the matches were pretty lag free. There were slight delays, but very minimal. I managed to get 8 wins in a row against my American opponents. (YAY!) Once you win, much like any fighting game, you accrue "battle points" to; I guess, brag the world that you are awesome and have a huge e-penis. All in all, to find matches was a painless and easy affair, and I enjoyed many a battle without any problems.

Another feature retained from Soul Calibur 4 is the "Create a Character" mode. This is your chance to play virtual Barbie. Selecting basic body and head templates, you can dress and customise your fighter to the nth degree. From Joker replicas to afro sporting musclemen in underwear, the world's your oyster. Once your creation is complete take it out for a spin online! There are some pretty hilarious fighters out there, as well as some really cool ones too.

With all that said, is Soul Calibur V for you? At the end of the day, it's very Soul Calibur. If you have followed the series for a while, you know exactly what to expect. It's not as deep as say, King of Fighters, Marvel vs Capcom or Street fighter 4, but it is still a blast to play.

Looks amazing, sounds great, online is easily navigated but content is a little thin.