Saints Row demo is up on XBL.

[블라스]

It's stuff like that why I love Penny Arcade

 

[Jericho]

The rag doll is awesome. What really was a pleasant surprise though was a smaller thing...when you're chasing someone, sometimes they turn to see how close you are, stumble and fall before scrambling to their feet, and another time I tried to run some chick over and she jumped up and overr a fence to escape.

It's good to know that they are getting details like that down, which sets a standard.

I understand your interest in the game. I personally was very excited over True Crime NYC and I still like it..I just feel it should have been done for next gen, gotten all of the kinks ironed out...and gave you the ability to fly helicopters or planes as well as allowing you to enter buildings like Empire State and go up to the observation deck. The AI should have been improved. But as it stands the random spawning crimes and unpredictable nature of the peds do keep it fun for a while. It's just frustrating that you can't really the city from more than just street level.

 

[Axid]

Hilarious how you can glitch out of the boundary and explore the rest of the world

 

[Mentok]

Well explore a little bit before you fall through the street and glitch back to the playing field

 

[XwolverineX]

Hilarious how you can glitch out of the boundary and explore the rest of the world

Really?

 

[Manny Calavera]

I played the game again, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was originally, I'm actually going to buy it probably. It's just a really obvious rip off is all, but still pretty good.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Is it really? I seriously can't see this being that good, I just see a poorly made game that probably has a whole lot of clipping glitches and a control set-up that will make you crazy.

 

[Manny Calavera]

It's hard to tell from the demo, since you spend most of the time in the tutorial segment of the game, and those are never fun or a good indication of what the game will be, but what you DO get to see is all pretty good, it's just shamelessly ripped off from GTA. There's too much racial diversity in the game (I realize how that sounds, but really, gangs usually tend to recruit within their own neighborhoods and races, so why are the Triads, Latin Kings, Bloods, and Aryan Nation rip off's all multi-racial, and using the same forced lingo with the same "I'm white and suburban" voice?), and I can tell that I'll be using the custom soundtracks the entire time because unlike GTA the included music blows ash, but from a graphics/gameplay perspective, overall, the game looks pretty good. A nice little time waster before GTAIV hits at least. But, from what I can tell, there aren't any major bugs or clipping issues or anything like that, all of the animations are actually very smooth looking. The only problem is the framerate suddenly loses 20 frames for no apparent reason, and then returns to normal, without anything out of the ordinary happening on the screen to explain it.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Hmmm, I'd keep this game on my radar, but I'll probably be getting two free-roaming games before Christmas such as Superman Returns and Crackdown. Everything else is going to seem like extra space.

 

[Manny Calavera]

Crackdown?

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Crackdown is from the creator of the GTA series, and instead of being another "Average Joe" with gang ties and a few guns, you're a superpowered enforcer who can throw cars around and use much cooler weapons.

The game actually looks awesome. Go to www.gametrailers.com

 

[Manny Calavera]

Buying Dead Rising, N3, Enchanted Arms, Splinter Cell Double Agent if it makes it's date, which it probably won't, and I guess Gears of War if it doesn't blow. Maybe this. Am I missing anything important that isn't crackdown or a comic game?

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Well there's Too Human which I still think is set for Q4, and much different from the E3 showing. I think that's about it though. Bioshock, Alan Wake, The Darkness and the rest are all 2007.

 

[Manny Calavera]

Too Human and Viva Pinata and Blue Dragon are all obvious slips, that's why they aren't up there. And didn't Alan Wake slip into game hell a while ago and get swept under a rug? I've not seen anything since before xbox360 had a name

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I forgot about Viva Pinata, like the rest of the world.

I think that actually needs to make the deadline though, as it's tied-in to a huge TV show and marketting combo, I believe. It's trying to take on Pokemon so it's going to have to make it.

Blue Dragon will probably take forever. They've been showing the same cinematic for two years, now.

Too Human at E3 was a wreck of a build and Silicon Knights said there was a more recent build that just wasn't safe for showing for various factors like engine updates that weren't implemented yet to the various bugs that could arise from such a thing. Still, I guess Microsoft could hold it back, being as Gears of War is the game that everyone's looking forward to this November.

 

[Manny Calavera]

You forgot about Viva Pinata? You do know who's making it, right?

And yeah, it might need to make a deadline, but I doubt it. They could just delay the game by a few months and still ride the wave of success if the show catches on. Blue Dragon is probably getting released in Japan soon, but it'll take FOREVER to localize it here, sadly. Too Human was a wreck of a build, but even so, it was still one of the better games though, despite Zenien's slander. I wish people would give Silicon Knights more credit with this game, it's pretty clear that it's going to be a perfect ten.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I know Rare is making Viva Pinata, but I've begun to lose interest in them. I mean, I've been waiting years, and years, and years for Banjo Kazooie 3, and now I see that the Banjo Team has been working on THIS, while I was certian they'd go to BK3 after the shakily-recieved Ghoulies, which I actually liked.

Perfect Dark was okay, but I'd only go back to play it for it's multiplayer.

Kameo... ehhh... not really my flavor. I play it every now and then, but it's just a slow moving game, not really the kind of game I was expecting from the JFG team.

So basically, Rare's not using their hot IPs. And when they do, (PDZ) they find ways to mess them up.

Rare's going to have to prove themselves to me from now on. I just can't support them blindly like I used to be able to.

 

[Manny Calavera]

I really don't get why people don't like PDZ and Kameo, they're two of my favorite games in a long time, and not just because of Rare's name, and Viva Pinata looks relaxingly fun, and certainly is the most beautiful game on the system. People should really stop hating Rare

 

[WhatsHisFace]

It's not that I don't like them, it's just that there are things I dislike about them that keep me from coming back.

For PDZ I dislike:
1. How they changed Joanna from a Brit to an American.
2. The whole "virtual reality deathmatch" thing bothers me.
3. A lot of the levels have confusing design.
4. Most of the missions just aren't fun. The most fun is probably rooftops.
5. The story is just worthless.

Things about Kameo I dislike:
1. There are puzzles EVERYWHERE. And I mean, EVERYWHERE.
2. Retrieving Warriors is always the same thing.
3. The Battlefield should have been the whole game.

I haven't played enough of it to come up with more, but this game is just too slow moving. I mean, there is literally something you need to use a specific Warrior for every five feet in the game. Whether it's PlantBoxer needing to go underground, or Armordillo needing to move rocks, or even worse, when you need to play Pool with him... It just slows the game's pace to a crashing halt.

 

[Manny Calavera]

The earlier parts of the game, I admit, do require a fair amount of warrior shifting, but that's only a problem for like, ten percent of the game, and even then it's not THAT big a problem. Just stick with it, trust me, Kameo is at least a 9/10 game, you'll be missing out if you don't finish it. As for PDZ, I agree about the Brit to an American thing, that made zero sense, and the story being worthless, but the rest I don't. I'm not sure what you mean about "virtual reality deathmatch", since that was just the first tutorial and a five minute segment of one level altogether, and I didn't find the level design at all confusing since if you took too long to get somewhere the game actually gives you arrows on where to go next, making it near impossible to be confused or lost, and I guess the "fun" is subjective, though I had a blast the whole game through, with the exception of the last part of the jungle segment, as it was unnecessarily difficult and frustrating.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

The earlier parts of the game, I admit, do require a fair amount of warrior shifting, but that's only a problem for like, ten percent of the game, and even then it's not THAT big a problem. Just stick with it, trust me, Kameo is at least a 9/10 game, you'll be missing out if you don't finish it.

I'll get back to it before long then as I'm stuck in all my other games. I really want to like it, but it's just making it so hard save the Battlefield. I feel they should have at least given Kameo a sword, as the battlefield would have been too amazing then.

As for PDZ, I agree about the Brit to an American thing, that made zero sense, and the story being worthless, but the rest I don't. I'm not sure what you mean about "virtual reality deathmatch", since that was just the first tutorial and a five minute segment of one level altogether

Well, the theme of it kind of went straight into Multiplayer, which somewhat makes sense if you view the game as some kind of Matrix-ripoff, but it was really unnecessary, and just seemed like a cheap Deus-Ex Machina to make up for even less interesting plot moments. Like, why even have Joanna play videogames with the badguy when she just kills her for real later?

and I didn't find the level design at all confusing since if you took too long to get somewhere the game actually gives you arrows on where to go next, making it near impossible to be confused or lost, and I guess the "fun" is subjective, though I had a blast the whole game through, with the exception of the last part of the jungle segment, as it was unnecessarily difficult and frustrating.

I guess mine was acting up. Mine rarely ever showed up, and when it did, it sometimes took me to places I already visited. Perfect Dark 1 had, in my opinion, nearly perfect level design, so this was a bit of a step down.

I wasn't even expecting it to be on PD1's level though, since this game went through development hell twice and had to meet a strict deadline. I don't know, I just hope PD2 gets a new project lead. Duncan Botwood should stick to Multiplayer only.

 

[Manny Calavera]

That's actually a very good idea, Kameo should have been given a sword now that I think about it. Still though, where are you in Kameo? How many warriors, what level, etc? It sounds like you're still in the EARLY stages of the game (don't listen to people that tell you it's a ten hour game, if you don't rush and do side quests and collect level up fruits and stuff, it's much longer), the game gets a million times better as it progresses, at least for me. I was hating the game until around shortly after the part where you're in the forest and you have to convince the four living trees to let you through a gate, after which it got better and better.

As for Dark fighting her in a game, I think that was just her keeping her cover intact for the moment, and setting that girl up as a "nemesis", even though the story was so piss poor that the effect was lost. And really, the death match wasn't a big deal, it wasn't like the whole thing turned out to be a simulation, just the first level and that fight with the white chick

But yeah, Viva Pinata is going to be a great game. The graphics alone are enough to keep me entertained for a few hours while I look at everything, and the Animal Planet-esque gameplay looks interesting and fun enough to keep me hooked for a long, long time.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

That's actually a very good idea, Kameo should have been given a sword now that I think about it. Still though, where are you in Kameo? How many warriors, what level, etc? It sounds like you're still in the EARLY stages of the game (don't listen to people that tell you it's a ten hour game, if you don't rush and do side quests and collect level up fruits and stuff, it's much longer), the game gets a million times better as it progresses, at least for me. I was hating the game until around shortly after the part where you're in the forest and you have to convince the four living trees to let you through a gate, after which it got better and better.

I think I just got Ash, the dragon, and I'm headed to the Water Temple or something. Yeah, those four trees were kind of dumb, as was the Forest Temple, which I pretty much hated save for that GIANT BEAST (not the boss) which was randomly there and scared the crap out of me.

As for Dark fighting her in a game, I think that was just her keeping her cover intact for the moment, and setting that girl up as a "nemesis", even though the story was so piss poor that the effect was lost. And really, the death match wasn't a big deal, it wasn't like the whole thing turned out to be a simulation, just the first level and that fight with the white chick

Yeah, indeed. That game seemed to have such horrid development that they put the levels in the wrong order by accident and revised the story without knowing what happened.

But yeah, Viva Pinata is going to be a great game. The graphics alone are enough to keep me entertained for a few hours while I look at everything, and the Animal Planet-esque gameplay looks interesting and fun enough to keep me hooked for a long, long time.

In some ways it seems great, like a Sims-type game but without the pissy micromanagement. But at the same time, I'm paying $50 to watch psychodelic animals walk around and have sex with each other while I plant trees.

I don't know... I'm sure there are people out there who will cream themselves over this (probably the Nintendogs crowd and other crap games where you're not actually playing the game) but if I was running Rare, I'd release whatever I had and get to work on Banjo Kazooie 3 while taking a Batman Begins approach to "Perfect Dark 2", which would have awesome levels and a solid story.

 

[Manny Calavera]

You're playing Viva Pinata. Just download the E3 backstage pass video from the marketplace, the games going to be gold. And I don't think they'll do another Perfect dark game for a while, with Halo 3 already coming. Probably just another Banjo game (which is coming, there was a reference to it in Ghoulies I believe, which was another hated for no reason good rare game) and new IP adventure/platformer stuff.

 

[Horrorfan]

It's good to know that they are getting details like that down, which sets a standard.

I understand your interest in the game. I personally was very excited over True Crime NYC and I still like it..I just feel it should have been done for next gen, gotten all of the kinks ironed out...and gave you the ability to fly helicopters or planes as well as allowing you to enter buildings like Empire State and go up to the observation deck. The AI should have been improved. But as it stands the random spawning crimes and unpredictable nature of the peds do keep it fun for a while. It's just frustrating that you can't really the city from more than just street level.

Funny you should mention that....I liked TC:NY ALOT. It felt a little sluggish and like you say, it could have done more, but it was pretty satisfying on the whole, with a wonderful feel to it of being in a living , breathing city.

I also liked Gun as well...how well was that recieved on the boards?

But WHF, Crackdown and SR do look like pretty sweet free roamers, I am there for both, hopefully