New Heavenly Sword Info (screens included)

"Sacred Genitals" would make a great name for a rock band.

 

http://blog.deanoc.com/?p=90

I remember the debate about the wallpapers of HS.

Now:

http://generationdreamteam.free.fr/afrika/heavenlysword/HSmaibis3.jpg

Impressive.

 

Very very nice... my only complaint is still that the speculars are far too orange-ish... to make them white, the color itself should actually be pushed into blue as when it's added on top of the skin, it'll be closer to white...

 

Some non-shaky-camera gameplay from a HD source (videos are still compressed flash):

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=66366

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=66361

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=66356

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=66358

 

I love the cinematics, but it would be lovely if the transition wasn't quite so jarring between them and the live action, or if there were some slower, quasi-cinematic moves you could pull off to "bridge the gaps," as it were.

Doesn't hardly dull the excitement, of course, but it was the only thing that really stuck out to me.

 

Kotaku apparently reported on a hands-on preview that the frame rate chugged, at least in certain parts?

 

I was trying to look for that article but couldn't find it. Do you have a link ? The closest one I found is a hands-on preview that talks about button mashing in HS.

 

I think it may have been the button-mashing preview one.

I skimmed it and someone else characterized it as slowdown.

 

The guy sounded reluctant to go through the learning curve as well...he didnt want to use the stances by the sounds of it either. The 1up guys summed it up best...there's so much depth to the fighting, that it isn't button mashing, you have to learn it and then once you get the hang of it you can make her look incredible.

 

But he didn't talk about framerate in that article...

My only real complain is, what in the world is "Twing Twang" ?
It sounds like... yeah Nariko... let's play Twing Twang together.... you and I.

 

lol it didn't sound like a game. It sounded more like a character or something she had to do. Such as "you'll have to play twing twang"..."you'll have to play lookout" or something...

 

1-Up Podcast discussed HS

Just listening to 1-Up's Podcast where they discuss various aspects of HS.

QTE's
They comment on the use of QTE's as being lazy. I can't agree with this. I definitely think QTE's have a place in some games. It's basically adding interactivity to what would otherwise be a movie.

Lack of footage.
They complained that last year we saw 2 minutes of footage, this year there was a 2 minute demo.

They question whether HS is far along as the developers have been saying it is. Where are the large battles sequences? the adventure elements? Rumours that the project is having troubles.

Gameplay
They were positive on the gameplay and graphics.

Exclusivitiy
They mention that MS passed on this game.

Anyway, I suggest people listen to the podcast. It's pretty interesting. How much truth there is to the above, only NT knows (and maybe will answer here ).

 

Ms never passed on this game. They choose Sony because MS want to buy Ninja theory and move all the staff at Redmond.

 

It's exactly what Microsoft does with their studios - buys them and moves them to Redmond so that they are more creative this way.

 

It makes more sense in the full games context...

 

LOL Don't you *love* chinese whispers!!!

I think Tam once mentioned that a large publisher wanted to buy JAM (we were JAM in that phase of the game) but mentioned no names. MS's name seems to have appeared from the internet 'fact' factory...

 

Worked wonders for Rare, although they were getting shit when they were still with Nintendo in fairness.

 

Yes I never interpreted it as Microsoft. I actually interpreted Microsoft as the one who either wanted it on the Xbox, or only wanted to give you the third of the funding hehe I wonder which one is right.

And yuh of course it'll make sense in context...it's just fun speculating what Twing Twang is.

Ps. I can't stand 1up most of the time. The only thing they were disappointed with was that they didnt see enough...so I suppose that's a good thing. So complacent and moany grrr.

 

Personally, I always thought it was EA, but that they passed when they realized you'd let quality delay the release date.

 

It seemed as if the other female character schizophrenic. When the "other" character says we'll find a place to hide, it seems as if she was referring to an imaginary friend.

The way I take it twing twang was related to the bazooka she kept in her back and since she seemed mentally unstable it was to her, like child's play.

Did that make sense?