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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow |OT| The MercurySteam has Vanquished the Horrible Night

LowParry

Member
burgerdog said:
Devil hand from dmc4. :lol There's a skill that pulls enemies toward you, but only while you're airborne.

That was one of the things that I loved about DMC4. In LoS? Goddamn. I so want to play now.


What difficulty are you playing on, btw Burgerdog?
 

Nizz

Member
purple cobra said:
burgerdog, when/if you get a chance, could you please let me know if the final game has an option for switching up block/healing from L2/R2 to L1/R1? Enjoy the game!
Anything?
 

burgerdog

Member
CcrooK said:
That was one of the things that I loved about DMC4. In LoS? Goddamn. I so want to play now.


What difficulty are you playing on, btw Burgerdog?
The hardest that you're allowed when starting the game. Knight, I think.

Take that DR2. Gabriel casts a shadow and reflection!
qHyJjD8


No, can't change any buttons, purple cobra.
 

RavenFox

Banned
burgerdog said:
At this point it would just be a huge plus section. I need to play more to see if there are some minuses.

Okay, people are going to go nuts when they see stage 4 in person. Insane that a 3rd party did this, 360 version, assuming it's identical to the ps3 version, will be the best looking game on the console.
Yeah but remember who was also at the reins. Kojima's PS3 knowledge I'm sure was used.

edit:Holy Moly at that pic. You're making it very hard for me to wait buddy.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
burgerdog said:
Hm, health is not easy to come by in this game. Only found three altars in stage 3 and it took me 40 minutes to complete. Got to a boss with a sliver of health and it wasn't replenished upon continuing. Had to beat the boss without getting hit. I like this.

Do you have the ability to absorb orbs yet?

edit: nice picture you got there
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
burgerdog said:
Hm, health is not easy to come by in this game. Only found three altars in stage 3 and it took me 40 minutes to complete. Got to a boss with a sliver of health and it wasn't replenished upon continuing. Had to beat the boss without getting hit. I like this.

This sounds like Castlevania. Awesome.
 
RavenFox said:
Yeah but remember who was also at the reins. Kojima's PS3 knowledge I'm sure was used.

edit:Holy Moly at that pic. You're making it very hard for me to wait buddy.

This is giving far too much credit to a single man, and of all people Kojima?

Kojima was acting in an advisory role and almost assuredly had nothing to do with nuts and bolts engine coding and platform integration. Mercury Steam is using an in-house engine anyway, correct? Give credit to their team, not to Kojima. Comments like this take away from MS' achievement.
 

gogogow

Member
I have both a PS3 and 360, so which version to get? Are they graphically 1:1?
I've read that the 360 is buggy? But that's just the demo, right?
 

burgerdog

Member
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Do you have the ability to absorb orbs yet?

edit: nice picture you got there

Don't have the ability to absorb orbs yet. Alright, I'm going out for dinner and won't be able to play for a few hours or until tomorrow.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Genesis Knight said:
This is giving far too much credit to a single man, and of all people Kojima?

Kojima was acting in an advisory role and almost assuredly had nothing to do with nuts and bolts engine coding and platform integration. Mercury Steam is using an in-house engine anyway, correct? Give credit to their team, not to Kojima. Comments like this take away from MS' achievement.

I think there was some tech sharing between Kojipro and MS. For instance, the facial animation engine.
 
burgerdog, how's the loading? The demo seemed to load sections long before Patrick Stewart was done talking but I wonder if that was just because it was loading from the hard-drive.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
gogogow said:
I have both a PS3 and 360, so which version to get? Are they graphically 1:1?
I've read that the 360 is buggy? But that's just the demo, right?

If you know the PS3 version is better in any way at all, why would you even bother finding out about the 360 version (or vice versa)?
 
Finally tried the demo.

I'm sold, graphics are incredible for a third party multiplatform, music is great and combat not annoying, that is sufficient for me.

More off-screen pics please, I want the hype the flow strong in this thread xD
 
gogogow said:
I have both a PS3 and 360, so which version to get? Are they graphically 1:1?
I've read that the 360 is buggy? But that's just the demo, right?
Cox said they look the same. IGN says otherwise.

360 is 2 disc also.
 

gogogow

Member
CaptYamato said:
Cox said they look the same. IGN says otherwise.

360 is 2 disc also.
Ah, thanks, i'll check out IGN, see what they have to say.

thetrin said:
If you know the PS3 version is better in any way at all, why would you even bother finding out about the 360 version (or vice versa)?
The thing is, I don't know which version is better :/
I've only read that the 360 demo is buggy, but what about the full version? Maybe someone have impressions about the full game? But yeah, i'll probably get the PS3 version.
 

NeoUltima

Member
RustyNails said:
WTF. I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by high reviews for this game. 7.5 from both IGN and GS?
This is why I am annoyed that the two lowest scores happen to be from the two most popular sites. :/

Game is 85/87 on metacritic.
 

gogogow

Member
lol, just read the IGN review, they really didn't had many negative things to say, other than that it doesn't feel like a Metroidvania. If the game was just called "Lords of Shadow", I really think they would have given it a higher score.

They welcome a DmC reboot, but they are kinda dissapointed about this Castlevania reboot.
IGN, whatever.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
RustyNails said:
WTF. I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by high reviews for this game. 7.5 from both IGN and GS?

Gamespot review sounded fair enough, but (from what I have heard) the IGN review is largely about how it's not the game he wanted it to be rather than a discussion of the merits of the game that it is. Personally, I find that kind of review to be irrelevant and unhelpful (not to mention narcissistic) so I am happy to ignore them.

On the other hand, Dave Cox (or his twitter administrator) has been heavily promoting smaller sites' positive previews and reviews and it makes you wonder if something shady is going on. As much as people hate big review sites, smaller operations are probably more easily influenced.
 

burgerdog

Member
electroshockwave said:
burgerdog, how's the loading? The demo seemed to load sections long before Patrick Stewart was done talking but I wonder if that was just because it was loading from the hard-drive.
About 5 seconds or so longer than the demo. Not too bad at all. Demo loaded damn fast.
 

Ledsen

Member
RustyNails said:
WTF. I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by high reviews for this game. 7.5 from both IGN and GS?

If you expect a surprise then how could it be a surprise? *mind blows*
 

Blader

Member
DevelopmentArrested said:
not sure why everyone is so upset over IGN's review
Daemon 'every Wii game sucks' Hatfield is a gigantic fucking troll

I'm so glad I don't even know IGN's writers by name anymore.
 

Phenomic

Member
Zeal said:
tried to sucker my local Wal*mart into selling this to me early, but to no avail.

THESE ARE DARK TIMES.

Sad but yeah Wal-Mart won't budge, they get fined I guess or whatever if they break street date which I never really understood the concept of why game street dates are that big of a deal. Perhaps for piracy reasons but whatever 4 days early or not in my eyes a sale is a sale especially on a game which may or may not do all that great.
 

Amir0x

Banned
DevelopmentArrested said:
not sure why everyone is so upset over IGN's review
Daemon 'every Wii game sucks' Hatfield is a gigantic fucking troll

oh here we go, is there any specific reason why this CASTLEVANIA review is bad, or the various other publications who gave it a OMG SO HORRIBLE WAAAAAAAAAH WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY 7.5 review?

Maybe...maybe...the game is just flawed? Or maybe it's not, and it's just this dude's opinion that it is flawed and not a single person who has posted a negative reaction to his review (or any of the other 7.5 reviews) have pointed out a single issue except they seem to be annoyed he thinks it's not "Castlevania" enough?

God, games journalism is a mess, but game fans are fucking worse.
 

Dynamic3

Member
I just got home, copy in hand, I'm taking a big risk here as I strongly dislike linear action games. Thanks for the tip burgerman. I suppose I could provide impressions from the cynic's point of view. I'm most worried about the platforming as I mentioned before. PS3 version.
 
Dynamic3 said:
I just got home, copy in hand, I'm taking a big risk here as I strongly dislike linear action games. Thanks for the tip burgerman. I suppose I could provide impressions from the cynic's point of view. I'm most worried about the platforming as I mentioned before. PS3 version.

Go all out man, if you post negative impressions you won't be the last and you've acknowledged your preferences and there's nothing wrong with that. Eager to hear what a skeptic ends up thinking.
 

Zeal

Banned
I think the key is to have the right people review the right games. I'm not implying doctoring scores, but this guy clearly whines two pages about how the game isn't "Castlevania enough" for him. That's just inherit bias.

Then again, on the other hand, it makes me realize just how fucking fickle and demanding 'gamers' really are. I truly feel for developers, in the respect that these games sometimes take years and millions of dollars and hundreds of man hours to complete, then people simply blow them off in a few minutes because one or two things aren't up to their personal expectations.

Call me cynical, but something about this just isn't fair. I don't even know how the game industry stays afloat with attitudes like this. It's too brutal.
 
Zeal said:
Call me cynical, but something about this just isn't fair. I don't even know how the game industry stays afloat with attitudes like this. It's too brutal.

This is just one of those things that you should keep to yourself because those who don't really care as much are just going to reply with a "wah wah someone doesn't like the game so of course you dislike the review" variation which leads to arguments and a waste of time on everyone's part but I do agree with you. Thing is, everyone, critics included, have their own personal tastes and experiences which must also be taken into account. Plenty of people here think that the demo was Castlevania enough to them, but the IGN reviewer did not. It just boils down to everyone individually, people like different things for different reasons.
 

Gr1mLock

Passing metallic gas
picked it up and fired it up..mini impressions...art is gorgeous. i wont spoil anything but the attention to the backgrounds if really awesome. combat is fun from the very first encounter. graphics are really colorful and vibrant. I like so far
 

Despera

Banned
Amir0x said:
oh here we go, is there any specific reason why this CASTLEVANIA review is bad, or the various other publications who gave it a OMG SO HORRIBLE WAAAAAAAAAH WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY 7.5 review?

Maybe...maybe...the game is just flawed? Or maybe it's not, and it's just this dude's opinion that it is flawed and not a single person who has posted a negative reaction to his review (or any of the other 7.5 reviews) have pointed out a single issue except they seem to be annoyed he thinks it's not "Castlevania" enough?

God, games journalism is a mess, but game fans are fucking worse.

The only review people are having a problem with is IGN's. I don't think game fans are acting childish or anything, it's just that we expected a much more informative read from a big site like IGN.

I don't care about scores. But I know for a fact that low scores will turn away potential buyers, no matter how stupid that sounds. But a game with a minimum score of 7.5 is actually great imo, so there is no reason to be annoyed by that.

Gamespot's review was a fun, informative read. That's an example of a good review right there.
 
I want to like this game but the demo makes the combat seem wonky/stiff, and it was kind of repetitive. Also the horse part was terrible. Not sure which part of all of that was a product of the game or a product of bad demo choices.
 

Foffy

Banned
Well, I had the final boss spoiled to me, considering the strategy guide is out.

You guys have been warned. Spoilers abound.
 

Teknoman

Member
Gr1mLock said:
picked it up and fired it up..mini impressions...art is gorgeous. i wont spoil anything but the attention to the backgrounds if really awesome. combat is fun from the very first encounter. graphics are really colorful and vibrant. I like so far

Hows the framerate holding up?

Foffy said:
Well, I had the final boss spoiled to me, considering the strategy guide is out.

You guys have been warned. Spoilers abound.

Just say this much...is it's design something that'll be a memorable addition to Castlevania final bosses?

Also I wonder if you get something for beating the game on Paladin difficulty?
 
Had a chance to play the demo today.

The graphics are fantastic. I'm usually the last person to notice nice visuals (most of my gaming is done on older consoles), but this game looks fantastic. The rain effect was very nice, and the game is considerably more colorful than most games this generation. The atmosphere is really good and "tangible", and cut scenes are well directed. It's dark and gloomy, but it pulls off that look different than how I've seen other games do it. You won't need to turn up your brightness settings for this one. And its a better game for it.

The tutorials are done in combat and don't feel like a waste of time. You are learning as you play, and the game highlights some of the tactics you might want to try out.

Combat was fun, pretty similar to games like god of war, and was enjoyable. Its similar without being too derivative. Dodging seems to have an important part in combat. It isn't all combos all the time. The sub weapon is pretty powerful and useful. It doesn't feel like fighting enemies is filler.

*QTE WARNING* Unfortunately this game does have quick time events. Grabs have a timing mini game where you can press any button at the right time (not bad), but at least one cut scene had a mash triangle to escape moment. (bad)

The second section of the demo has you riding on horseback. That part was a bit harder and was pretty cool.

The production value is outstanding, from the menus to the voice acting to everything.

I think we've found this year's Batman: Arkham Asylum.
 
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