Heavenly Sword: Part Deux

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"Nerve-Damage"

Regular
Heavenly Sword Developer "Mike Ball" Interview


Q: Have you been able to break new ground in the challenge of showing emotion in players?

A: I truly believe so. The performance capture of the actors was all handled at Weta in Wellington. We were able to capture the facial expressions, body movements and vocal data of up to 5 actors all at the same time. A first for games and movies. The capture system really liberated the actors under Andy's direction to give a really powerful and convincing performance which was in turn captured in extreme detail.

In conjunction with a really powerful rendering system on PS3 we were able to replicate the actor's expressions extremely well. It's the subtle movements such as a lip tremble that makes for really convincing and believable expression.
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Q: The early demo looks stunning including the amazing detail. Graphics have come so far recently. Is there a limit to how realistic games can get? What examples can you give of the eye candy achievable through being designed for PS3?

A: I really don't believe that there is a limit to how realistic a game can get. Look at film. At the high end the rendering techniques that they require uses hundreds of processor cores cranking calculations for many hours to produce a single frame of the movie. In games we have a small number of processors (admittedly far more than we had in the past :) to generate a frame every 30th of a second. To do that we have to be much more cunning about the techniques we use and generally we end up with approximations of the techniques used in film. We'll learn new techniques and new hardware will come along allowing us to improve even further.

To see some of the eyecandy PS3 allows, just look at the skin detail of Nariko's face when the game boots. It's incredibly realistic, down to the tiniest pore.
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Please keep this thread on point!
 
The musical Composer needs some love too…

Interview with Heavenly Sword composer Nitin Sawhney

M4G: How did this musical opportunity come about, and what attracted you to do this epic action adventure? Are you a gamer?

Nitin Sawhney: Originally, Andy Serkis apparently told Ninja Theory about my work as he had checked out my albums and thought it made sense. When I met the creators from Ninja Theory, I thought the same and was blown away by the artwork, attention to detail, depth of plot, characterization, etc. It felt like the distinction between film and games had been turned on its head. I came from the world of albums and film scoring so it was a very cool revelation.

Yeah, I’m a gamer but until recently it was all about PSP, Grand Theft Auto and Spiderman
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M4G: Please tell us about the musical textures, instrumentation, or any vocal accompaniment we can anticipate for this martial arts adventure.

Nitin Sawhney: The musical textures take in everything from Hollywood, European and Chinese cinema to Indian and middle eastern instrumentation through the orchestras and soloists hovering between sonic tidal waves and reflective moments of intimate grace. Natacha Atlas provides much of the vocal pyrotechnics and subtler emotion along with brilliant vocalist and instrumentalist, Ashwin Srinivasen.
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Bah. I don't see what everyone's issue is with the game. I don't pay too much attention to reviews or let them decide my purchase, but for some reason HS reviews are bothering me (I love the game but not the reviews, lol)
 
tirminyl said:
Bah. I don't see what everyone's issue is with the game. I don't pay too much attention to reviews or let them decide my purchase, but for some reason HS reviews are bothering me (I love the game but not the reviews, lol)
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It's not out yet..
 
tirminyl said:
....I know....
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How can you love a game that your experience with is at best, a 5 minute long demo???

And how can you go around question reviews of a game your total experience with is a 5 minute long demo???
 
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Personally, I could care less about graphical quality in pre-rendered cut scenes. I care about the graphical quality during game play.

I played the demo for Heavenly Sword on my standard definition TV. To be honest, the graphics looked very good, but not spectacular. It did not "stand out" tremendously to my eyes. Perhaps the game is designed to look spectacular on a HDTV. That could be the case.

I'm very curious about techniques that can be utilized in the future to create even more realistic in-game graphics.

For example, what techniques do developers think can be utilized THIS generation to enhance the quality of graphics?
 
Ostepop said:
How can you love a game that your experience with is at best, a 5 minute long demo???

And how can you go around question reviews of a game your total experience with is a 5 minute long demo???
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*sigh* How about this: From my 5 minute game play, and from watching the various online videos and making of, this game has captured me in a way that I am sure it will not let me down. Rarely do I get excited about a game and come away unpleased. Gears, GoW1, GoW2, and Bioshock have all been games I have been extremely excited to play and own. HS will be added to that collection despite me only playing the 5 minute demo. Once it is released, I am sure I will love the game as I love the demo.

Is that good enough or do we need to analyze how one can "love" a product before it is released?
 
Sounds like you'll need to play this on a higher level of difficulty before you are forced to get the most out of the fighting. Then we'll see if the fighting mode stands up. If I understood it right (not from this review, btw), you can replay any level you like, yes? That would be important, because you'll not want to do all the shooting levels again if you want to just dive deeper into the fighting.
 
Levels & Story

"Nerve-Damage" said:
The musical textures take in everything from Hollywood, European and Chinese cinema to Indian and middle eastern instrumentation
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I do not know because I have not played this game but it would be amazing if a story in a game (any game, not heavenly sword) was also like a journey through the different parts of the world where the music comes from. Indian elephant battles, mongolian horseback fighters, easter european/russian knights, magic carpets.

Look at this great painting:

http://www.abcgallery.com/V/vasnetsov/vasnetsov80.JPG

Magic Carpet:

http://www.abcgallery.com/V/vasnetsov/vasnetsov29.JPG
 
well i'll say congrats. It seems to be doing decently at gamerankings, scoring an average of 80% with most reviews in the 70-85% range, so at the very least a rental if not a purchase in my opinion. Just missing Gamespots' review from the big review sites i believe which i suspect will problably be in line with most of the other scores. Not a bad reception at all.
 
Play Magazine seems to deal out very high scores for PS3 games, 20-30% higher then average. What kind of mag are they, Playstation only?
 
The UK magazine, or the US one? If you mean the one published by these guys, they seem to be the UK equivalent (one of?) of PSM, but even THEY don't give out-of-bounds reviews.

Guess it depends on the publication. Play Magazine does seem to... "aim up," as it were.
 
watching the GT review just made me want this game more despite their score (which isn't too shabby). it shows a lot more gameplay elements and it looks like a lot of fun. i'm definitely picking this game up. that one level where there are thousands of enemies on screen is impressive. :oops:

hopefully if there is a HS2, they lengthen the game a little and add more variety to the enemies and weapons. i hope they do make a second title. :smile: ;)
 
lighting

djskribbles said:
watching the GT review just made me want this game more despite their score (which isn't too shabby). it shows a lot more gameplay elements and it looks like a lot of fun. i'm definitely picking this game up. that one level where there are thousands of enemies on screen is impressive. :oops:

hopefully if there is a HS2, they lengthen the game a little and add more variety to the enemies and weapons. i hope they do make a second title. :smile: ;)
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What is most amazing for me is lighting. Look at this video. Also, it looks very fun to shoot people. Look how one man was hit in the head. Only problem is when they are hit they are still low lod and looks bad. Rest of the time it looks amazing. I also like how shooting upside down is.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24664.html
 
Laa-Yosh said:
Play Magazine seems to deal out very high scores for PS3 games, 20-30% higher then average. What kind of mag are they, Playstation only?
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Nope they are multiplatform, their reviews are just OFF. They gave Sonic for 360 a 9.6 I believe. :oops:
 
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