What happened, Namco?

Dear Namco;

I recently rented your Urban Reign and Soul Calbur 3, and i'll have to say ... i'm surprised. Not necessarily pleasantly surprised, or unpleasantly surprised? but just, surprised in general. What happened, Namco?

Urban Reign is not a bad game, per se, but could have been much better. After the first 30 missions of "take everybody down", there was not a lot of variety. Being able to choose your partner is nice and all, but why not let us choose which character to be the "main character" also? How about, different story branches if you were to complete a mission with a different character? It had so much potential, but it just sort of trailed off in mediocrity. The multiplayer things were nice, but no co-op mode? Why not?

As for Soul Calbur 3 ... i'm not sure what i want to say. Right from the start, I could feel that it's different from the previous two Soul Caliburs. The characters felt sluggish moving around, but the action was faster. All those different new modes were interesting, but at the same time, a bit intimidating. It felt like you were trying to cram a fighting game, an rpg, and a strategy game all into one package. I applaud you for being brave to do it that way, but at the same time, i wonder: why did you not release this game in the arcades as well? One of the biggest reasons why people buy the console version is to play in the arcades against other people. One of the things that always improved my game was watching, and playing other people, and seeing how other people play. By not having an arcade release, you decimated your fan base, for those who would rather spend the value of a Playstation 2 and the game in quarters to people who'll just wait until it's in the bargain bin for $10.

Now, i'm not angry with you. As always, the latest installment of Tekken was perfect. But if you want me to continue to support your Soul Calbur franchaise, please make it more accessible to newbies like us.

thanks for listening,
ky-chan