Gamescom: Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 - PC version announced

I remember the first game being really slow to start, then around chapter 4 taking off and being incredibly fun to play, and then coming to a screeching halt with a terrible final chapter or so.

Hope the second's more consistent, but it should look great, at least.
 
I'll buy a port of the first game in less than a heartbeat if it happens :)

I wonder if the higher framerate will help with some of those timed impact skills?
 
I loved LoS for what it was, Level design was amazing IMO, but I too love openworld games, I thought AC was amazing in that aspect, Im just glad they are making it bigger.

I just think things can get a little too vast, a little too over the top. AC wasn't very visually attractive to me, the "overworld" I mean, but its smaller areas were okay if not convoluted. AA on the other hand impressed me because while it had plenty of space, it was one large and connected environment that made it feel Metroid-ish. Dark Souls did the same kind of thing and it was phenomenal.

I'm just saying that while the concept of big overworlds sounds good on paper, I've rarely actually had fun with it. The Infamous games are a big offender when it comes to this. I realize I may be in some minority, but I do not enjoy traversing gigantic overworlds with samey visuals. Large interconnected environments as found in Arkham Asylum and Dark Souls are vastly more entertaining, fun to explore, and impressive to me. I like good, focused level design over anything. I don't care how big the world is if I'm not having fun, or if I don't feel like I'm having a tight gameplay experience.

I don't know how many times while playing Dark Souls, where I said "holy shit that brought me all the way back here?" But then when I thought about it geographically, it made sense and really blew my mind.
 
Loved the demo of the first one on PS3, but just couldnt buy it because of framerate.
Great decision Konami, if the port will be decent, i'm in.
 
Loved the demo of the first one on PS3, but just couldnt buy it because of framerate.
Great decision Konami, if the port will be decent, i'm in.
I'm in the exact same boat.

Dark Souls-style PC port
European Developer.
(And actually, I remember something about the devs wanting to make a PC version for the first one as well and Konami not buying it or something like that)
 
I just think things can get a little too vast, a little too over the top. AC wasn't very visually attractive to me, the "overworld" I mean, but its smaller areas were okay if not convoluted. AA on the other hand impressed me because while it had plenty of space, it was one large and connected environment that made it feel Metroid-ish. Dark Souls did the same kind of thing and it was phenomenal.
I found the open-world in AC pretty annoying. It was impressive to look at but it was a chore to find stuff sometimes. I agree with the other guy who said that AA felt way more like an actual Metroidvania game with it's smaller, connected overworld sections.

I hope they don't go fully open-world with LOS2. A hub-world to which the player returns to after each mission would be nice though.
 
LoS wasn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination. But it COULD be. It has a shitload of potential. Just need to fix a few things.

-Better, more consistent framerate.
-No more awful fuckin' Titan boss fights
-Maybe hire a writer so you don't have Patrick Stewart droning on with that stuffy, superfluous melodrama at the beginning of every chapter, and you won't feel the need to keep TELLING us about Gabriel's condition and can actually SHOW us.
-Better platforming, with a consistent rappelling distance and techniques. Maybe a jump that doesn't feel like you're jumping with a pair of cement shoes would be nice.
-Get rid of the shaky cam when you're standing still. That's just annoying.
-Longer is not always better. There's so many silly, tedious, clumsy, unnecessary filler sections that cause the game's pacing to flag. Just ditch the animal riding for one thing. It's never fun, and God forbid you ditched it before you get to the inevitable door you need to bust down, because that means running back into the awful fixed camera to find another one.
 
Really? there were someone from gaf who confirmed both the 3ds version and wii u version of this....

That was an E3 rumor but I don't think that it was ever confirmed. I'm not really sure if any Japanese 3rd party games are confirmed aside from the few showcased at E3 but NOJ is supposed to have an event for that sometime soon.
 
I just think things can get a little too vast, a little too over the top. AC wasn't very visually attractive to me, the "overworld" I mean, but its smaller areas were okay if not convoluted. AA on the other hand impressed me because while it had plenty of space, it was one large and connected environment that made it feel Metroid-ish. Dark Souls did the same kind of thing and it was phenomenal.

I'm just saying that while the concept of big overworlds sounds good on paper, I've rarely actually had fun with it. The Infamous games are a big offender when it comes to this. I realize I may be in some minority, but I do not enjoy traversing gigantic overworlds with samey visuals. Large interconnected environments as found in Arkham Asylum and Dark Souls are vastly more entertaining, fun to explore, and impressive to me. I like good, focused level design over anything. I don't care how big the world is if I'm not having fun, or if I don't feel like I'm having a tight gameplay experience.

I don't know how many times while playing Dark Souls, where I said "holy shit that brought me all the way back here?" But then when I thought about it geographically, it made sense and really blew my mind.

I see what you are saying and I agree for the most part, it is amazing a tight level desing and for the most part is preferable to openworld design, is just that the things that you metion that are not that great in a openworld designed game I find them great for myself, Im the kind of gamer that can make his own fun in a big sandbox, and Im in the camp that thought AC was better than AA.

If LoS 2 mantains the LoS level desing but with bigger levels to allow to some exploration that would be awesome, no need for openworld I agree but a little more open to discover some stuff around could be great take the series to higher level.
 
I found the open-world in AC pretty annoying. It was impressive to look at but it was a chore to find stuff sometimes. I agree with the other guy who said that AA felt way more like an actual Metroidvania game with it's smaller, connected overworld sections.

That was me :p

Yeah I just don't like this kind of game design where you have a large open world and repetitive tasks. Assassin's Creed is particularly annoying with this, as is infamous. Collect 100 feathers! Find 350 shards! Find that ringing phone real quick 12 times! I'm not saying those games are bad and I'm not saying those particular things compromise the entire game. I love Assassin's Creed and enjoyed the infamous games enough.

But there's a lot of questionable game design decisions going on in all of them IMO, with a lot of repetitive tasks that aren't fun and just there for the illusion of the game having more to do. There's no indication that LOS2 will be like this, and I don't think it'll be like this, but I'll rest easier knowing for sure.
 
The combat in LoS is one of the few things they get absolutely right. It's unfortunate you have to slumber through HOURS of middling opening chapters with lackluster platforming, tedious animal riding, horrendous rote-memorization Titan bosses, etc before the combat system finally opens up to you with the light/dark. It makes every single fight that much more fun, that variety of options and building of different meters and special moves.

I also think AA was better then AC. It's fun to fly around the city as Batman, but for me it was just took longer to get to the action, unless you just LOVE dinking around in open worlds for hours looking for hundreds of whateverthefucks and repetitive side missions. I think I had my fill of that with Rare's games on N64.
 
Wow, I didn't remember a pc porting with all those flaws ... really there are game locked at 30 fps & 720p on pc?

There is exactly ONE game that has had those problems. So, of course, it is therefore completely rational to assume or worry that every other game from now on will have the same problems.



I'm very excited about this news. I loved the first game and I have moved strictly to PC gaming since it came out, so this news is a gift.
 
The combat in LoS is one of the few things they get absolutely right. It's unfortunate you have to slumber through HOURS of middling opening chapters with lackluster platforming, tedious animal riding, horrendous rote-memorization Titan bosses, etc before the combat system finally opens up to you with the light/dark. It makes every single fight that much more fun, that variety of options and building of different meters and special moves.

Didn't mind the animal riding, the Titan fights last all of 2-3 minutes-- but I agree that the first 5 hours or so could have been paced much better than they were. There weren't even any stages that I disliked really, but there were just so many that are kind of dull on replays. Not bad, you just find yourself wanting to get through them to get to when the game really picks up and gets better, which for me was right around the Crow Witch level.
 
I also think AA was better then AC. It's fun to fly around the city as Batman, but for me it was just took longer to get to the action, unless you just LOVE dinking around in open worlds for hours looking for hundreds of whateverthefucks and repetitive side missions. I think I had my fill of that with Rare's games on N64.

Some people find fun to collect everything in games, I had a great time collecting every single Riddler stuff.
 
Didn't mind the animal riding, the Titan fights last all of 2-3 minutes-- but I agree that the first 5 hours or so could have been paced much better than they were. There weren't even any stages that I disliked really, but there were just so many that are kind of dull on replays. Not bad, you just find yourself wanting to get through them to get to when the game really picks up and gets better, which for me was right around the Crow Witch level.

I loved the game but I totally agree it could use some editing to cut out some of the fluff.

One thing I hope they keep is the dramatic camera angles. I know they sometimes got in the way of clarity when platforming and fighting but I think the trade off for the beautiful vistas and the great look and feel it gave the game was worth it. It made the game feel really unique and unlike every other third person action game.
 
Didn't mind the animal riding, the Titan fights last all of 2-3 minutes-- but I agree that the first 5 hours or so could have been paced much better than they were. There weren't even any stages that I disliked really, but there were just so many that are kind of dull on replays. Not bad, you just find yourself wanting to get through them to get to when the game really picks up and gets better, which for me was right around the Crow Witch level.
They should've cut most of the second chapter. Especially the spider caves. They weren't exactly bad but that chapter dragged on and on and on...

The titan fights actually weren't that bad either IMO. I thought the second one was pretty badass even. One titan would've probably been enough though.

But altogether I greatly appreciated the wealth of content the game had to offer.
 
They should've cut most of the second chapter. Especially the spider caves. They weren't exactly bad but that chapter dragged on and on and on...

The titan fights actually weren't that bad IMO. I thought the second one was pretty badass even. One titan would've probably been enough though.

But altogether I greatly appreciated the wealth of content the game had to offer.

The first titan fight was not that fun to do, it had some annoying checkpoints that was easy to fail countless of times.

I agree on the Spider caves, not that great either.
 
Awesome news :D

The inconsistent framerate really bothered me in the first game, hopefully this will not be a shitty port
 
I think what can actually have a great impact on the game are the trials, particularly when it comes to the Titans. I wasn't the biggest fan of the titans on my first playthrough, so naturally when I started doing the trials I was doubtful that I'd be able to do them because of how short the time limits were.

What ended up happening though was something kinda great. In the effort to memorize how to go about taking them down, after repeating the sequences several times, it dramatically improved my speed and overall ease of winning the fights. But more surprisingly, it was fun. I found that taking them out so quickly and getting through the sequences with finesse and near-perfection actually felt pretty good and rewarding.

That's how I feel achievements should be handled. Not by collecting a bunch of worthless shit but by the developers asking you to actually get good at something which can sometimes make the player appreciate things a bit more. I know that, certainly, the titan trials made me really like those fights. And then when I played through the 360 version not long ago and re-did all the trials, I was seriously surprised by how much my memory actually retained from them and I was able to do some of the trials a lot quicker-- especially that light puzzle in the library, which was a fucking nightmare when I was doing it on PS3, and I guess I had just did it so many times that when I did it again on 360 it took me like 2 tries.
 
The combat in LoS is one of the few things they get absolutely right. It's unfortunate you have to slumber through HOURS of middling opening chapters with lackluster platforming, tedious animal riding, horrendous rote-memorization Titan bosses, etc before the combat system finally opens up to you with the light/dark. It makes every single fight that much more fun, that variety of options and building of different meters and special moves.

I enjoyed all these items. Go me!
 
Weird choice to be porting the sequel out of the blue when the first game is not available on the platform. Good news regardless.
 
More PC games are always welcomed, even as I didn't liked the first Lords of Shadow.

If I can mod the hell of the game to use Shanoa, even better.
 
Different selectable outfits this time Konami, and pleeeeease make Alucard playable, that could make this game GOTY when it comes out no questions asked.
 
I remember it was a pretty good port.

The only thing killing it was the blur effect (-10 fps for starters).

I remember Clive Barker's Jericho being a very nice port. The game itself was just OK, but technically it ran great for me.

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That'd be nice, but they'd probably have to get that out before the sequel comes out.
 
This news makes me very happy. Loved the first one but the framerate and aliasing problems were prominent. With a PC version in the works this shouldn't be a problem, hopefully. I'd also buy the first one again in a heartbeat if that got properly ported to the PC as well.
 
Somewhat excited with this. Very worried though for all the reasons mentioned so far. I wish I could wave a magic wand and force all publishers to use Nixxes as their PC port house.

I'm glad I haven't booted up LoS yet, may hold off on the small hope that's getting porting too.
 
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