E3 06: Virtua Fighter 5 PS3 Conference Trailer Impressions

LOS ANGELES--The Sony press-E3 press conference predictably featured a whole slew of game announcements and game updates, including not one, but two 3D fighting games. Soon after showing a quick trailer of Namco's Tekken 6, Sony showed a similarly short but slightly more informative trailer for Sega's Virtua Fighter 5. While sporting some impressive visuals and new lighting effects, the game looks unmistakably similar to its predecessors, especially since it seems to feature every character from the previous game.

The trailer quickly cut to action poses of familiar fighters like karate expert Akira Yuki, kung fu mistress Pai Chan, pro wrestler Wolf Hawkfield, lovely Sarah Bryant, and many others. The series' newer characters, such as vale tudo fighter Vanessa, made an appearance as well. However, VF5's two newly-announced characters, including a girl who uses monkey kung-fu and a lucha libre fighter, were nowhere to be seen.

Very brief glimpses of what looked like actual gameplay were mixed in. Ambient lighting effects were noticeable in stages that looked as if they were lit by spotlights, rather than ambient lighting. Some solid-looking fighting moves were on display, like one of Wolf's signature body slams and Akira's leaping front kick. At one point, Jacky Bryant performs a quick lateral dodge as his opponent attacks--this might be the "offensive move" technique referenced by Sega as a means of quickly approaching an opponent.

Stay tuned to GameSpot for the latest information about Virtua Fighter 5.