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Infinity Blade |OT| Free Updates TF2 Style, First Update Next Week

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Shai-Tan said:
looks worse than epic citadel as expected (released screens are bullshots), frame rate also drops a lot (on ipad anyway). gameplay I won't comment on because it seems like idevice games are in a dimension where even mediocre is heralded as outstanding (kind of like anime)
It definitely does not look worse than Epic Citadel and the screenshots were totally legit.

Perhaps you are confused in that the game looks different on different devices. I've tried it on my iPhone4 and iPad and it looks significantly better on iPhone4. The textures are much higher resolution and the framerate is smoother.

The "bullshots" you are referring to were likely taken from the iPhone4 rather than iPad.
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
A good measure of how much a game drains the battery is the amount of heat that's produced during gameplay, seeing as there is a direct relationship between the two.
 

drhankmccoyphd

Neo Member
Just played on my 3GS and man it looks great. I can honestly say it looks on par with a 360 title. Framerate kinda chugs a bit, though.
 

Lazy8s

The ghost of Dreamcast past
The unconditional nature of image quality when rendering with a tile buffer and the budget for texturing afforded by PVR-TC are highlighted by this engine.

People always found the performance of PowerVR based devices to be more comparable to higher cost variants of competing technologies than to the variants that were actually within their range of die/power consumption and consequently had perceptions based off of uneven comparisons (DC vs. PS2, Kyro II vs. GeForce 2 GTS, MBX vs. PSP, etc.); PowerVR has always been this far ahead of the curve.
 
Played it on my iPad last night for about an hour and then on my iPhone4 at work today. The game still gives me a decent dead leg when on the toilet, so it's definitely a keeper.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
this game is soooooooooo good. I expected pretty graphics but mediocre gameplay. It actually very fun, strategic and totally addicting. If Demon's Souls is something like that I need to buy it.

Also I didn't expect a good atmosphere. That's how you do dark fantasy art, Bioware. Music is moody and mysterious, loot looks badass, you want to OWN it.
 
subversus said:
this game is soooooooooo good. I expected pretty graphics but mediocre gameplay. It actually very fun, strategic and totally addicting. If Demon's Souls is something like that I need to buy it.

Also I didn't expect a good atmosphere. That's how you do dark fantasy art, Bioware. Music is moody and mysterious, loot looks badass, you want to OWN it.

Visually, it looks like a close relative to Demon's Souls. Gameplay wise, it's not quite there, understandably.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
subversus said:
Also I didn't expect a good atmosphere. That's how you do dark fantasy art, Bioware. Music is moody and mysterious, loot looks badass, you want to OWN it.

yeah, it's great. the only thing that breaks it is the transition to different bloodlines which is a little goofy.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Shai-Tan said:
yeah, it's great. the only thing that breaks it is the transition to different bloodlines which is a little goofy.

Well, it's hard to do it other way. I actually like the premise. Feels desperate and yet there's hope :lol
 

heringer

Member
As I said in the iPhone thread, I beat the God King in my third bloodline, which is incredibly disappointing if there isn't some kind of twist that introduces a new final boss.

dark10x said:
It definitely does not look worse than Epic Citadel and the screenshots were totally legit.

Perhaps you are confused in that the game looks different on different devices. I've tried it on my iPhone4 and iPad and it looks significantly better on iPhone4. The textures are much higher resolution and the framerate is smoother.

The "bullshots" you are referring to were likely taken from the iPhone4 rather than iPad.

Honestly, the framerate isn't anything near as smooth. Against bigger enemies it's pretty bad actually, even on iPhone 4.
 

markatisu

Member
Downloaded and ran through the 1st bloodline, great graphics and great game!!

Kudos to Epic

Anyone know what the Coming Soon area is for, is that for future DLC?
 

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
Just going to have to wait for that update that's bringing in that new area to explore plus a boss that's harder than the last boss.
 
Jangaroo said:
Just going to have to wait for that update that's bringing in that new area to explore plus a boss that's harder than the last boss.
It'll be fun resetting to bloodline 1 with maxed out stats. :lol
 

Reese-015

Member
I've only played for like two and a half bloodlines thus far, haven't had much time yet. Does the game remain fun after you've killed the God King?
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
dark10x said:
That's just a game design issue. Epic Citadel allowed you to freely explore its locales without any problems. There is nothing limiting them from doing that. I believe they simply focused on making a game suited for mobile play and that is why it is basically "on rails".
And without any character models or other interactive elements.
 

topramen

Member
Is there anyway to sync the save files between the iphone and iPad? can you do that with any universal Apps.

You should be able to, if you can't I feel like its a major oversight

In Other News, I'm really impressed with the game
 

heringer

Member
Reese-015 said:
I've only played for like two and a half bloodlines thus far, haven't had much time yet. Does the game remain fun after you've killed the God King?
Well, it's pretty much the same thing. Enemies get stronger and all, but what you've played so far is what you will play after you kill the God King. It's just an infinite cycle. I guess you can still have fun if you want to master all the armor, weapons, etc.

People keep saying "oh it's just like Punch-Out" and all, and while I did agree with this at first, this game just doesn't come close to match Nintendo's game (which is to be expected, obviously, after all it's still a $6 game). The core gameplay is certainly fun, but there's very little enemy variation. While in Punch-Out every fighter has a very distinct style that forces you to memorize a new moveset every time you progress, Infinity Blade is more about reflexes. The movesets doesn't really change all that much, it's just a matter of getting the timing right. Once you get it, it's a breeze.

It's definitely a good game, but I think the incredible graphics might be clouding people's judgement on that one.
 

oracrest

Member
Hot damn!

This game is really fun. I didn't know what to expect gameplay wise, but it really reminds me of Punch-Out and the melee fights from The Immortal.
 
I'm impressed. Really dig the atmosphere and the music is cool too. Just hit level 4. I can see it getting a little repetitive, if there's nothing more than walking around and fighting random guys 1 on 1. Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm playing a game, on my phone. It looks incredible.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Lonely1 said:
And without any character models or other interactive elements.
So you really do not believe they could have made this free roaming? I don't buy it.

They could keep the structure as they did but allow the player to move around ala Epic Citadel and there would be no performance penalty.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
I've been playing this for 2 hours straight. This game is no good for me.

"Just one more fight. (Done) Well, 2000 more and I'll buy this shield, ok, one more fight. (Done) Well, I have to see what this shield does, right? One more fight. (Done) Well, I'm almost at the end, I'll beat the last guy and leave the King for tomorrow. (fucking DONE). Well, the King will be fast, so I'll finish this. (beaten mercifully by the King). Hm, well lets kill this guy - just for the beginning and THEN I'll be done. (Kills the first one). Wow, I'm almost level 15. Let's kill the one at the gates and I swear this will be over".
 

Mrbob

Member
I thought I read there is a way to drain experience out of your weapons and items? I must be missing it because I don't see a way to do it. Someone can lead me in the proper direction hopefully!
 
subversus said:
I've been playing this for 2 hours straight. This game is no good for me.

"Just one more fight. (Done) Well, 2000 more and I'll buy this shield, ok, one more fight. (Done) Well, I have to see what this shield does, right? One more fight. (Done) Well, I'm almost at the end, I'll beat the last guy and leave the King for tomorrow. (fucking DONE). Well, the King will be fast, so I'll finish this. (beaten mercifully by the King). Hm, well lets kill this guy - just for the beginning and THEN I'll be done. (Kills the first one). Wow, I'm almost level 15. Let's kill the one at the gates and I swear this will be over".
Haha, that's what happened to me last night.

"I'll go to sleep around 11, but let's check out Infinity Blade. Jump in bed with the iPad. Seems easy enough. Oh cool, bloodline 2. Oh neat, awesome weapon. Oh I should master these items. Ah damn, almost beat God King dude. Bloodline 3. Even better weapon! Oh man, I'm chumping these guys. Cool beat God King. Interesting ending. What if... Bloodline 4. Fuck, it's 1 AM."

:lol
 
i love how the shit just starts and you're off and playing immediately. no dumb ass story or anything. chair tells you what you need to know within seconds and it's all brilliantly directed and scripted. i wish more games just got right to it.
 

Tobor

Member
dark10x said:
So you really do not believe they could have made this free roaming? I don't buy it.

They could keep the structure as they did but allow the player to move around ala Epic Citadel and there would be no performance penalty.

Yeah, this was a time decision, not a technical one.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Amazing looking game, and yes it is fun to play too! I really wish they didn't skimp so much on gui elements though. From the uber generic looking icon (logo on a stock gradient icon sample...) to every single button and text label in the game, it all feels in stark contrast to gorgeous looking graphics and moody music and voice acting. It seems like it was two completely different groups of people working on UI and the game itself. I only feel bad about it because the game clearly tries to be as immersive as it can, and seeing such crappy looking UI from time to time breaks this a bit.

Another small problem is that there's typical UE3 texture pop in on characters from time to time, but seeing how great the textures and shaders are here it's hard to complain.
 
Lazy8s said:
The unconditional nature of image quality when rendering with a tile buffer and the budget for texturing afforded by PVR-TC are highlighted by this engine.

People always found the performance of PowerVR based devices to be more comparable to higher cost variants of competing technologies than to the variants that were actually within their range of die/power consumption and consequently had perceptions based off of uneven comparisons (DC vs. PS2, Kyro II vs. GeForce 2 GTS, MBX vs. PSP, etc.); PowerVR has always been this far ahead of the curve.

It does lack dynamic lighting though. Everything seems to be prebaked.

The polygon models, textures and normal mapping (which the PSP can't do) are definitely above the PSP (plus the iPhone 4 utterly crushes the PSP in terms of screen resolution, while 3GS is above as well) but the game does cheat with its lack of lighting or any kind of special effects like volumetric fog or motion blur. Plus the framerate isn't the smoothest.

It's impressive no doubt, but I'm not sure if we should be saying that it decimates PSP.

Anyway. I just got my arse handed to me by the God King and am now starting bloodline 2 :D

Has anyone beat the God King on their first attempt?
 

soldat7

Member
Barkley's Justice said:
i love how the shit just starts and you're off and playing immediately. no dumb ass story or anything. chair tells you what you need to know within seconds and it's all brilliantly directed and scripted. i wish more games just got right to it.

Seriously. I love how the game is not weighed down with story. It's you, a castle, and a bunch of bad dudes. Loving it so far.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
I'm surprised there's no RAGE vs Infinity Blade opinions yet, I wonder if the 30+ smoother framerate of RAGE would win over the people who are a bit disappointed with IB's ~20ish performance.

Written thoughts on visual comparisons that is. Another interesting fact is RAGE is over 2x larger in size than IB as well.

Well, time to load it up and see it for myself! :)
 

Reese-015

Member
About the lack of free roaming: I was concerned about this when I read previews and stuff, but when I actually got the game... Man oh man... This stuff is so tight, the fighting is so much fun, it just totally 'clicked' with me. Not only do I tolerate the lack of free roaming, I don't *want* to walk around in this game, I just wanna slash up all the bad guys, if I could roam I'd just run up to the next guy. But of course I do understand not everyone shares this sentiment.

Minsc said:
I'm surprised there's no RAGE vs Infinity Blade opinions yet, I wonder if the 30+ smoother framerate of RAGE would win over the people who are a bit disappointed with IB's ~20ish performance.

Written thoughts on visual comparisons that is. Another interesting fact is RAGE is over 2x larger in size than IB as well.

Well, time to load it up and see it for myself! :)

I find the two hard to compare. Not only because Rage has a really nice smooth framerate, but also because it shows off a very different feature set: a bunch of enemies on screen instead of just one, constant streaming of data as you're moved through levels that are quite big and most of all: megatexturing. I know it won't make much of a difference to most people but Carmack and his team really did something exceptional here. The game has no 'repeating' textures and it makes its levels feel very real to me in a sort of organic, gritty way that Infinity Blade doesn't have at all. And the game's filesize speaks volumes of the amounts of constantly fresh texture data that this game is throwing at you all the time.

All in all, Infinity Blade is more in-your-face amazing with its shaders, anti-aliasing and excellent art direction. But technically, even though it's more subtle, Rage also does some pretty damn amazing things that I personally find close to or equally as impressive.
 

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
And I'm done. First beat the God King on my 3rd bloodline. Maxed every item,and am at level 40-41 right now. Still never
sided with him
though.

Needless to say I enjoyed it. Chair are some damn talented folks, from a technical point of view, to both game and visual/art design wise.

Hopefully they support it (and thus my addiction) as much as they say they will.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Lonely1 said:
Which system are you using?

Stutters randomly on the iPhone 4 (all over the place, cutscenes, battles, etc - but not like every other second or something) so I imagine all of them. Very fun for the short while I just played, though I can see how it may be short lived. Lots of potential though, if they update it and expand on the world and engine.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
dark10x said:
So you really do not believe they could have made this free roaming? I don't buy it.

They could keep the structure as they did but allow the player to move around ala Epic Citadel and there would be no performance penalty.

Well, I think that (good detailed indeed) dynamic character models with dynamic lighting would have an impact alongside rendering all the beautiful (but static) scenery.
 

eznark

Banned
Lonely1 said:
Which system are you using?
iPad. It's a cool little game but...I think I heard too much hype surrounding it. Looks good but people saying it looks better tha 360 games? Cool little concept but it's not some revolutionary handheld gaming experience.

I like it but damn, too much overblown hype.
 

Kibbles

Member
People are talking about iPad and 3Gs versions. If I have a 32GB 3rd Gen iPod Touch (which has double the RAM of the other iTouch's/3Gs), can I get the superior version?
 
Gonna say what I always say about "big" portable games: where the bloody f**k is my TV-out? The iPhone is even worse than the damn portables because it has a TV-out, but it's disabled most of the time. Someone tell me it's been enabled for this game, and they'll get a sale.
 

Mrbob

Member
I think it is just people excited about seeing UE3 on the itouch devices. I agree about the over hype though, some of the reviews seem to be as sickening as IGN's GTA4 "Oscar worthy script" garbage.

People are talking about iPad and 3Gs versions. If I have a 32GB 3rd Gen iPod Touch (which has double the RAM of the other iTouch's/3Gs), can I get the superior version?

I have a 32GB 3G itouch (Isn't this the same as the phone 3GS?) and the game runs and looks fine. Not sure what you mean about superior version.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Kibbles said:
People are talking about iPad and 3Gs versions. If I have a 32GB 3rd Gen iPod Touch (which has double the RAM of the other iTouch's/3Gs), can I get the superior version?
Seems to be iPhone 4 > iPad >> iPhone 3GS/iTouch 3
Doesn't run on lower. I would bet the iTouch 4 to be bellow the iPad, but with the same RAM and slower CPU, maybe is behind the 3GS due the lower resolution!?
 

eznark

Banned
Mrbob said:
I think it is just people excited about seeing UE3 on the itouch devices. I agree about the over hype though, some of the reviews seem to be as sickening as IGN's GTA4 "Oscar worthy script" garbage.



I have a 32GB 3G itouch (Isn't this the same as the phone 3GS?) and the game runs and looks fine. Not sure what you mean about superior version.
Exactly what to came to mind for me.

I'm sure it's a technical marvel and a stunning fear, but I dint care really. That said, great price for this!
 
Lonely1 said:
Well, I think that (good detailed indeed) dynamic character models with dynamic lighting would have an impact alongside rendering all the beautiful (but static) scenery.
But, this game is still rendering the scenery, alongside two of these character models. the fact that you can't choose where to move doesn't change the fact that you are still moving through the scenery. Choosing where to move wouldn't change the performance one bit.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Dreamwriter said:
But, this game is still rendering the scenery, alongside two of these character models. the fact that you can't choose where to move doesn't change the fact that you are still moving through the scenery. Choosing where to move wouldn't change the performance one bit.
Um, Yes, it can. And by a wide margin. Specially when you are controlling the environment so much that you don't need to worry about actual movement...
 

soldat7

Member
Lonely1 said:
Anyone has tried an iTouch 4?

Yup. Runs great.

Minsc said:
Stutters randomly on the iPhone 4 (all over the place, cutscenes, battles, etc - but not like every other second or something) so I imagine all of them. Very fun for the short while I just played, though I can see how it may be short lived. Lots of potential though, if they update it and expand on the world and engine.

They mention another area, more monsters, weapons, etc as a future update.
 
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