Wow, i had no idea Mercury Steam made Clive Barkers Jericho. I actually got the game real cheap but havent played it yet. THis is certainly a giant step up for them. Actually im surprised they were still in business to make this, or even got the job after Jericho based on the reviews.
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow |OT| The MercurySteam has Vanquished the Horrible Night
- Thread starter brandonh83
- Start date
To Far Away Times
Member
Keikoku said:
What a horrible night to make a crappy post.
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
Demo impressions from a skeptic:
The game feels good. Snappy and responsive. Framerate doesn't seem to be a problem in that regard.
However, I did notice that it made my eyes feel weird a couple of times, and I think that in conjunction with the very fast moving camera it can be disorienting in ways that GOW never was. I guess this is because the camera follows the character much more closely than in GOW, and so when the character moves, the camera usually follows. And Gabriel can move quite fast. Even during combos the camera seems to jump around a bit.
Combat in general is NOT a God of War clone at all. Direct strikes vs. area strikes is different enough from GOW's weak/strong system, the jump button does launchers, rolling doesn't seem to make you invincible. Despite being based on a ranged melee weapon, it feels quite different.
I still don't like blocking with L2. When I was trying to practice the block-counter it seemed to take a bit too long to bring up the block, meaning I have to press it a bit earlier which is something I'll have to get used to. Maybe this isn't because of L2, it could just be the timing of the block move.
I had defended the writing in the game earlier, and I still think it's perfectly acceptable for a game, but as I read the text on the load screens I started to notice more and more things that I would've written differently. I think people are on to something when they say that Patrick Stewart's voice makes everything seem better than it really is.
Oh yeah, and the graphics are good.
So I definitely want to play this, and I was fully ready to buy it for $40 from Amazon (factoring in the credit) but I'm probably going to Gamefly it now and if I really like it, buy when it's cheaper.
The game feels good. Snappy and responsive. Framerate doesn't seem to be a problem in that regard.
However, I did notice that it made my eyes feel weird a couple of times, and I think that in conjunction with the very fast moving camera it can be disorienting in ways that GOW never was. I guess this is because the camera follows the character much more closely than in GOW, and so when the character moves, the camera usually follows. And Gabriel can move quite fast. Even during combos the camera seems to jump around a bit.
Combat in general is NOT a God of War clone at all. Direct strikes vs. area strikes is different enough from GOW's weak/strong system, the jump button does launchers, rolling doesn't seem to make you invincible. Despite being based on a ranged melee weapon, it feels quite different.
I still don't like blocking with L2. When I was trying to practice the block-counter it seemed to take a bit too long to bring up the block, meaning I have to press it a bit earlier which is something I'll have to get used to. Maybe this isn't because of L2, it could just be the timing of the block move.
I had defended the writing in the game earlier, and I still think it's perfectly acceptable for a game, but as I read the text on the load screens I started to notice more and more things that I would've written differently. I think people are on to something when they say that Patrick Stewart's voice makes everything seem better than it really is.
Oh yeah, and the graphics are good.
So I definitely want to play this, and I was fully ready to buy it for $40 from Amazon (factoring in the credit) but I'm probably going to Gamefly it now and if I really like it, buy when it's cheaper.
brandonh83
Banned
Teknoman said:
That would be nice. Actually the vibe I get from the dev team is that they were afraid to reuse too many things from the series considering that they want this to be a reboot, so they do need to find their own identity with it. They carried over basic formulaic aspects from the original games and included the same kind of subweapons and gothic atmosphere, but doing that and simply reusing a bunch of the same music just to make fans happy may give the impression to some that they couldn't make something original-- I know the game borrows combat elements from GOW and the titan bosses are like SOTC-- but I'm just talking about cosmetic things like the music.
When you do a reboot of something, it needs to carry over just enough aspects so that people can still attribute the name to it, but it also needs to be fresh, sort of like Casino Royale or Batman Begins. I think this sort of explains why more classic themes aren't super-prevalent but as I said earlier in the thread, I think Cox said to not rule out sequels so they may be saving some music for future installments. Kind of like, again, in Casino Royale how the Bond theme appeared at the very end, or how Hans Zimmer introduced the new Batman theme in Batman Begins, but didn't completely bring it out in full until The Dark Knight.
Also updated the OP with about 14 new screens. Apologies for the quality of the Gamespot screens, they look washed out and extremely jaggy (though the game does have a bit of a jaggy issue, the Gamespot screens seems to be even worse).
Just to get this out there... Why does a game's score need to be high for it to be a good game? Does someone else's opinion mean so much to you? I mean let's be realistic, even with movies that get low ratings, doesn't mean they're bad, right? For example I'm sure there are a lot of people who like the movie Con Air. Look at how shitty the reviews on RT are for that. Of course many classics are indeed going to have higher ratings, but seriously, even movies that have high ratings, aren't really that great all the time. Bullitt for example, certainly an ok movie, but does it mean you'll like it? I posted a topic on GAF about the movie maybe a year ago, all anyone remembers about it is one car chase scene.
Should I be putting this into a game perspective? Even if I do it seems GAF always has to be picky about what review site (or reviewer) to believe and what one to not believe and it turns into this big orgy of bromancing over their favorite reviewer for his style or something he did once. Honestly, I'm not looking for a review to tell me if this is going to be good, I'm looking at the videos and who's making it then trying it out myself. There's only one way to find out if the game will be good for you, and that's to play it yourself.
Should I be putting this into a game perspective? Even if I do it seems GAF always has to be picky about what review site (or reviewer) to believe and what one to not believe and it turns into this big orgy of bromancing over their favorite reviewer for his style or something he did once. Honestly, I'm not looking for a review to tell me if this is going to be good, I'm looking at the videos and who's making it then trying it out myself. There's only one way to find out if the game will be good for you, and that's to play it yourself.
truly101 said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one that lined those dots up. :lol
Teknoman said:
Yea, I probably see myself getting SOTN after I play Lords of Shadow.
BTW, for those that care, here is a youtube clip of me playing the game. Sorry forr the so-so quality of these, it bothers me that I didn't line up the shot staright, so the angle is crooked.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDGb2XK9_vQ
To Far Away Times
Member
A little.Keikoku said:
brandonh83
Banned
Siyou said:
Not that many of us are swayed one way or the other by what the reviews say. We're just deconstructing the criticisms. IGN says it's not Castlevania enough, but some of us who played the demo do feel that it's Castlevania enough, and that leads into a whole new debate. There is a lot of arguments about the reviews, but it's just to find points of conversation to have while waiting on the game to release. And then you have people who take the couple of 7.5's way too seriously, as if those are the only two reviews that have been released, like those two 7.5's murdered all the 8's and 9's that the game has already received and tossed the bodies into a ravine.
To Far Away Times
Member
brandonh83 said:
1 bad review is worth more than 10 good ones, 7.5/10 is a bad review, and game reviews are super important and the reviewers are better qualified to make decisions based on games than we are.
Playing the demo a second time, this game has seriously spectacular visuals. And from what I've seen in trailers the level of quality is maintained throughout the entire, top-notch production values and presentation. I'm quite liking the combat too, it does enough to be its own thing and the chainwhip animations are pretty awesome. Their QTE mechanic has totally grown on me too.
I hope a couple of boneheaded reviewers don't deter people from buying the game. I want Castlevania back in the limelight with all the other current AAA franchises.
I hope a couple of boneheaded reviewers don't deter people from buying the game. I want Castlevania back in the limelight with all the other current AAA franchises.
palpabl_purpura
Member
mjc said:
I think the average consumer will play games like RDR, Bayonetta, FF13, Castlevania, etc and enjoy them on either system. It's only the framerate whores who post on online internet boards that give a shit. Seriously, some of those guys on Beyond 3d and Digital Foundry need to move out of their parent's basement.
brandonh83
Banned
To Far Away Times said:
I can't tell if you're joking or not I mean it really could go either way.
Siyou said:
it's not GAF, it's pretty much everyone. it's like people who go to Rotten Tomatoes to decide if they're going to see a movie or not.
CJUNDERGROUND
Banned
Keikoku said:
Not sure if serious??
To Far Away Times
Member
brandonh83 said:
Joking. I can't stand IGN, Gamespot, and similar websites.
notworksafe
Member
A miserable pile of wrong.Keikoku said:
palpabl_purpura
Member
brandonh83 said:
And don't forget that the more hyped the game, the higher the score. Somehow reviews tended to overlook the fixed camera and sketchy platform elements in GOW3, but sure didn't fail to mention it in Castlevania. Nobody talked about GOW3's piss poor replay value and dated gameplay mechanics which were state of the art in 2000. Why is that? Hype. So a game like GOW3 gets 9.5 when it deserves a 7.5. No, I'm not a 360 fanboy. I own only a PS3, so I'm not trolling, I'm telling you how it is.
jett said:
Yeah playing the demo more than once really lets you get into the swing
lol ) of things.Oh and the english voice acting seems to be alot better than japanese...comparing the two trailers anyway. Laura and Carmilla's voice are so much more fitting than what you hear in the JP trailer.
To Far Away Times
Member
mintylurb said:
But current gen consoles are only capable of producing brown, grey, and a faded dark green. Next gen will unlock the other colors.
brandonh83
Banned
To Far Away Times said:
That's a relief :lol
Anyone have any pictures of the European Limited Edition? I can't find any through Google worth a damn and I had a request to put it in the OP a few days ago but haven't been able to actually find anything.
Nizz
Member
Hopefully the final build will have the option to switch the blocking/magic to L1/R1. It would be awesome to have it like God of War and Ninja Gaiden with L1 to block. Feels more natural to me. Putting major actions like blocking on L2 just doesn't feel as good to me.hey_it's_that_dog said:
Here's Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSvmGTFaac
Slightly better camera angle this time.
:lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSvmGTFaac
Slightly better camera angle this time.
:lol
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
Kimosabae said:
Uncompressed rain drops.
Teknoman said:Yeah playing the demo more than once really lets you get into the swing
Oh and the english voice acting seems to be alot better than japanese...comparing the two trailers anyway. Laura and Carmilla's voice are so much more fitting than what you hear in the JP trailer.
I dunno I kinda liked the japanese voice acting too.
metareferential
Member
I guess the cutscenes are pre-rendered, right?
I was wondering if that could be a problem on the 360, for the compression.
I was wondering if that could be a problem on the 360, for the compression.
metareferential said:
I dont think they are pre-rendered since you can pause them. I mean I think thats a good indicator...not really sure.
jett said:
I guess I just dont like Laura's (the scene with the vampire girl "Mother doesnt like visitors...but i'll tell you where she is...if you play!") JP VA really. Doesnt match with the scene at all.
metareferential
Member
Teknoman said:
I trying to think of an example, but I'm not sure that would be a good indicator at all.
After Alan Wake cutscenes debacle, I'm very cautious with that kind of cutscenes on the 360.
Might just get the ps3 version.
mintylurb said:
Oh, that's good to hear.
metareferential
Member
I found this picture for the EU limited edition, it's not perfect, but still:
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
Maybe this has been mentioned already, but you can grind for experience points and unlock more than just the 25p Guillotine thing.
In the second part of the demo, when you're supposed to do the block-counter, you can kill that guy again and again, forever, as long as you don't block-counter and complete the 3 hit combo. You can also fight a bunch of wolves with the big wolf at the end, then die, then kill them again, die, etc. You keep your experience points when you restart at the checkpoint.
Didn't try grinding in the first half of the demo, but it should be possible there too.
In the second part of the demo, when you're supposed to do the block-counter, you can kill that guy again and again, forever, as long as you don't block-counter and complete the 3 hit combo. You can also fight a bunch of wolves with the big wolf at the end, then die, then kill them again, die, etc. You keep your experience points when you restart at the checkpoint.
Didn't try grinding in the first half of the demo, but it should be possible there too.
Enjoyed the demo. Looked fantastic, the music was excellent (though I'm still disappointed about the lack of classic CV tunes), sound effects were a little flat and the combat was serviceable. It's certainly taking more than a few cues from God of War, and I'm ok with that (playing the first GoW game many years back made me think that's how CV should be in 3D).
The horse section was kind of terrible though, but a minor gripe.
The horse section was kind of terrible though, but a minor gripe.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Does this game take place in the traditional timeline?
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