Ninety-Nine Nights Demo on Xbox Live

[ReaverX]

According to Major Nelson's site (http://www.majornelson.com/), a demo for Ninety-Nine Nights is now available on Xbox Live.

I've been wanting to try this one for some time, glad to finally see a demo for it.

[Heretic Machine]

I'll definetly give this a spin. I'd really like to know if the gameplay is varied enough for it to not get old.

[rainbowblack]

download in progress

UPDATE:
While not a fan of the DW series i enjoyed the demo.

What bugs me is that continuous button mashing for a level is all well and good
but then imagine going through X amount of levels simply button mashing. Then add the 6-7 other playable carachters playing though those same levels button mashing and suddenly this game is less appealing to me

Other than that i thought everything else was great. Graphics, music, sound effecs. The voice actors werent terrible but not great. its tolerable. i think DW crowd will have a blast with this. I'll be all over this game once it becomes part of the "greatest hits" collection

[Yadneb]

Seems pretty similar to the Dynasty Warriors series to me. I was never a huge fan of that series, I am interested to see what the fans of Dynasty Warriors think of N3 so far.

[Returner]

I loved the DW series, N3 looks to be just as fun. Can't wait to play the demo.

[torrefaction]

I'm pretty amped to try this demo. Unfortunately, my 360 and me will be in a cabin with no internet in North Carolina for a week and a half. So it'll be a bit.

[Wyrm]

Hmm, I'm curious to hear about this. Too bad live anywhere isnt out yet or I'd set it up for download at work... :(

[Tharsis]

How is it?! I can't believe it has been 3 hours and no one has said if it is good or not!

Anyone?

[Savok]

How big is this? Start of a new month soon means 10Gb more to play with, may be worth looking into if the size is right.

[Ferong]

From my standpoint, it seems to play out just like Dynasty Warriors. Button mash, 800 hit combo, 3000 kills!

For me, the gameplay doesn't seem to be varied enough to keep from going stale.

[Morangie]

Its 588mb and I'm enjoying it more than I expected to having never played Dynasty Warriors.

[Savok]

Awesome, that can definately be fit in, thanks Morangie.

[Lord Nerdious]

Pretty fun, I like the RPG elements of it. Good animations, good gameplay overall. Try using different special attacks for some really cool effect. (Right Trigger+Y is flippin sweet)

[51|RandoM]

Hmm, I'm curious to hear about this. Too bad live anywhere isnt out yet or I'd set it up for download at work... :(

I was just thinking this myself. the 360 is on at home, if I only I could tell it remotely to download the demo.

[Jack B]

I was just thinking this myself. the 360 is on at home, if I only I could tell it remotely to download the demo.

Same thing here... Live Anywhere will be useful in many ways some are yet to realize... If it was on my cell or Xbox.com, I could kick off the demo while at work...

I think people will start to see the value of Live Anywhere once it's working.

Many laughed at Live Arcade and Marketplace too, but they proved valuable (and yes, I know it's "valuable" to Bethesda and others... wahwahwah). :)

[Achilles]

Which character’s featured in the demo?

[Lekon]

Only just started playing. You start as Aspharr, the blonde, spear wielding guy from the movies. He's got the angel wings in some clips.

Big Dynasty warriors fan, and I admit: I like this game, the combos are pretty, very flashy, and lots of enemies with no clipping/enemies magically appearing right next to you. Great draw distance, and the armies look like armies when you can count them out insead of just guessing from the radar blips. Strange observation: Do the goblins look like they are from Lineage 2 to anyone else?

[Achilles]

Only just started playing. You start as Aspharr, the blonde, spear wielding guy from the movies. He's got the angel wings in some clips.Ah, Aspharr is like a tiny god. He's probably the most dangerous character in the game. Try stabbing a guy with your spear and swining him around as a weapon, not sure what the move combo for that is, but if he's high enough level he should be alble to do it.

[Kamalot]

Cool! I'm excited to give this a try!

[Lekon]

The combo seems to be R-Trigger and Y, then keep hitting Y to spin em around like a weapon. The other one I found is Y-X, to stab then swing them into the ground behind you, infront of you, etc.

[TRiLoGY]

This demo is great! :)

[Kefkataran]

Nice! I'm definitely going to check this out.

[Wyrm]

But is it actually fun? Dynasty Warriors gets un-fucking-believably boring after like two levels.

[Intruder]

Never played Dynasty Warriors at all, but N3 has been on my rader for a while now. I found the demo very fun and enjoyable, however I am not sure that it will be $60 worth of fun and enjoyable, I worry about the repetition. Here's hopeing that it will be worth it.

[Achilles]

Never played Dynasty Warriors at all, but N3 has been on my rader for a while now. I found the demo very fun and enjoyable, however I am not sure that it will be $60 worth of fun and enjoyable, I worry about the repetition. Here's hopeing that it will be worth it.Wouldn't it be $50 because it's published by MS?

[Morangie]

Wouldn't it be $50 because it's published by MS?

Yeah, this is a $50/£45 game. Jesus the UK gets ripped off.

[Animated X]

I have been waiting for this game since before the 360 even came out. I am a big fan of mindless hack and slash gameplay, especially with a midevil type setting.

I have to go slash something now.

Thanks for the heads up that the demo is out, I would have never noticed....I only download something on live when Evil Avatar tells me to.

Baaah.

[51|RandoM]

It looks and plays pretty nice. I did get some weird framerate spikes here and there, like it was loading in the background.

Characters look nifty, but they don't let me play the ones I want to in the demo, lol. The witch looks interesting, as does the arcanist(first guy in the video, looks like a wizard/druid or something) and the rogue.

The orcs have the white warpaint, sorta like Uruk Hai in the LotR movies, coincidence?

Music was good too, good at keeping the suspense going in the demo mission. Is a good one to crank the volume on and start button mashing your way across the map. The cannon fodder is just that, but there are captains in each group who know how to block/dodge and put up a good fight, plus the mini-bosses like warlocks and the big bosses like the Ogre.

Think my biggest combo was 695, but that was from calling the light in the final battle of the mission, lol. Funny to watch all those guys fly up into the air, then come streaming down to the ground, all dead except the Ogre and a couple captains.

I'll probably buy this one once I know there are enough missions to keep me going. Could be some good coop fun in it too, are they putting that in?

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

How big is this? Start of a new month soon means 10Gb more to play with, may be worth looking into if the size is right.

Haha you're on crappy bigpond too, eh?

Characters look nifty, but they don't let me play the ones I want to in the demo, lol. The witch looks interesting,

The witch is really frustrating, the difficulty ramps up all of a sudden for her levels, and she is quite useless until you level her up to level 4 or 5, and even then her moves just don't feel quite solid enough and seem to randomly go through enemies moreso than other characters.

Could be some good coop fun in it too, are they putting that in?

No co op.

It's good there's a demo out for this game, people really should try this one before they buy. It's entertaining enough if you know you are able to sit through a dynasty warriors game, but if you're expecting anything more you're gonna come away dissapointed. It's dynasty warriors minus the small amount of strategy it has.

[Savok]

Haha you're on crappy bigpond too, eh?
Yep, though the amount I use GameArena makes it a lot less crappy :p

[Intruder]

Anyone else think that the sound effects and music sounded tinny? You know high piched and sharp? No other game or music sounds like that on my XBox, it just seemed off somehow.

[Savok]

Damned tinny words (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXBzpo2wfRQ)

[sir feces face]

This demo proves that the Japanese are stupid people who like stupid games. It's no surprise to me that the 360 is failing over there when this is what their studios come up with. It's just Dynasty Warriors with better graphics. The draw distance still sucks and the gameplay still blows. I will never touch this shiny turd again.

[Savok]

Oh that's just too easy....

[RevGored]

This demo proves that the Japanese are stupid people who like stupid games. It's no surprise to me that the 360 is failing over there when this is what their studios come up with. It's just Dynasty Warriors with better graphics. The draw distance still sucks and the gameplay still blows. I will never touch this shiny turd again.

So how does American Chopper 2 make you look?

[Kefkataran]

So how does American Chopper 2 make you look?

Like a feces face.

[Savok]

Well having now played it, it's Dynasty Warriors Lite. I didn't think that was possible but there you go.

It's basically DW with the interesting stuff removed, those LOTR sidescrollers without the sidescrolling and shitty collision detection. Combat is STILL not viceral enough, when are they going to add some blood to these things, not gallons of it, just enough so you know your pointy thing has gone into something squishy.

The art... dear god the art, Padme, they have fucking Padme in there, Portman shaved her head for a reason and it wasn't just V. It's Star Wars meets high fantasy (that giant spear isn't giant enough, and I can still see his face, more giant ornate armour plates!) meets middle-aged white guy golf attire. Voice acting sucks but that's to be expected, sadly they can't pass it off as humor like DW. Number of enemies on the screen was nice though, had moments of slow down but I couldn't tell if it was a bug or a feature.

All that said, it's staying on my 360, I'd never pay money for it but the demo is nice when you get the urge to just slaughter a pile of things.

[laggerific]

Same thing here... Live Anywhere will be useful in many ways some are yet to realize... If it was on my cell or Xbox.com, I could kick off the demo while at work...

I think people will start to see the value of Live Anywhere once it's working.

Many laughed at Live Arcade and Marketplace too, but they proved valuable (and yes, I know it's "valuable" to Bethesda and others... wahwahwah). :)

What horrible people laughed at the idea of a live arcade? It's been done unofficially for the past 10 years or so in the form of emulation. I'm glad they finally figured out a business model that actually works for so many of those old school games. Might actually see more than the stable that's been rereleased a billion times over the years in arcade collections by so many publishers out there...

[Johan]

All games like this (Kingdome Under Fire, etc) are highly uninteresting to me, as they become button-mash-fests (and yes, I did play the demo...didn't enjoy jamming away at the buttons like I had OCD).

[dena miscreant]

I played the demo for a few minutes. Suckfest.

[JudasGoat]

All that said, it's staying on my 360, I'd never pay money for it but the demo is nice when you get the urge to just slaughter a pile of things.

Man, you said a mouthful. Your entire summary was spot-on. I fail to see how this demo could be an entire game.

[antoniogaud]

I never played a Dynasty Warriors game, and at first I thought, "Boring" - but then I got into it and understood it more and.. amazingly enough... now I like this game!

If it wasn't for Xbox Live I would have NEVER played this game. THANK YOU XBOX LIVE! :)

[miah]

I just finished the demo this morning.. I thought it was fun. I'm a fan of Dynasty Warriors and the Kingdom Under Fire series. I'd say this game is more comparable to KUF, because you can level your characters, and get new gear, which I've never really seen in DW. DW is endless button mashing with no control of your armies, KUF you have really good control over your armies and you can end up in some great battles. I tried to get the army control down in the demo of N3, but I couldn't really get it to work well, maybe I just need practice, but in the other games it was simple to pickup, here it seemed all I could make them do is sit still and not fight. I thought N3 had some good battles, and awesome graphics. With all of the enemies appearing on the screen I didn't once feel the game start to stutter like I've seen happen so many times with DW. The magic casting in this game looked awesome and it worked well, special moves were similar swinging goblins around as they're inpaled on my spear and beating down other goblins at the same time was cool. I'm impressed with N3, and am looking forward to the release to try it out again.

*note* I have played DW on PS2, Xbox, and PSP, and its laggy on every system. I have not played the 360 DW Empires game.. I have both KUF games on Xbox.

[Achilles]

I never played a Dynasty Warriors game, and at first I thought, "Boring" - but then I got into it and understood it more and.. amazingly enough... now I like this game!

If it wasn't for Xbox Live I would have NEVER played this game. THANK YOU XBOX LIVE! :)I think the demos on Live are the cause of the ridiculously high attach rate the 360 has for just this reason. People who would have never played a boxing game, but they downloaded the Fight Night demo and then went and bought one for the first time. People who would have thought Prey was just another FPS, but then they downloaded the demo and found out it’s not. If the PS3 doesn’t have downloadable demos for their games I imagine their attach rate will be hanging around 2 as it did with the PS2.

For the Dynasty Warriors comparisons earlier in the thread; I find this game much more fun than dynasty warriors. Combat is simply more engaging and more rewarding.

[Achilles]

I tried to get the army control down in the demo of N3, but I couldn't really get it to work well, maybe I just need practice, but in the other games it was simple to pickup, here it seemed all I could make them do is sit still and not fight.There's not nearly the same level of control as there is in KuF. The armies can either be ordered to follow or to stay behind, if they follow than they're nothing more than a distraction for the enemy while you're doing all the work in killing things. There are some items that increase the defense and attack power of your troops, so maybe if you tweak your character out with those they'll be worth something, but I haven't had the chance to experiment with that yet.

[bapenguin]

the one thing this game has over Dynasty Warriors...no more Chinese history! I'm bored to tears now with Lui Bei, etc etc.

[Morangie]

There's not nearly the same level of control as there is in KuF. The armies can either be ordered to follow or to stay behind, if they follow than they're nothing more than a distraction for the enemy while you're doing all the work in killing things. There are some items that increase the defense and attack power of your troops, so maybe if you tweak your character out with those they'll be worth something, but I haven't had the chance to experiment with that yet.

When I had the flag of valour equipped I noticed my troops survived a lot longer and I ended the level with less kills than I did when I hadn't used it so they can be worthwhile. The time with the flag equipped my HP didn't drop quite so low either, but that might have just been me playing better.

[Kamalot]

The combo seems to be R-Trigger and Y, then keep hitting Y to spin em around like a weapon. The other one I found is Y-X, to stab then swing them into the ground behind you, infront of you, etc.
You know, you could always hit Start and check out the list of moves.

[Kelegacy]

Well, I can say with a certainty that I hated it. I have never played Dynasty Warriors, but this shit gets old fast. I thought it was fun for the first minute or so, then I was bored from then on. Deleted right after the demo completed.

[The Iron Weasel]

I've been hankering for a hack'n'slash such as this, so I'll definatly be buying it, I personally was way into the demo.

[miah]

There's not nearly the same level of control as there is in KuF. The armies can either be ordered to follow or to stay behind, if they follow than they're nothing more than a distraction for the enemy while you're doing all the work in killing things. There are some items that increase the defense and attack power of your troops, so maybe if you tweak your character out with those they'll be worth something, but I haven't had the chance to experiment with that yet.

Right, and even then I couldn't get them to actually follow me half of the time. The thing that bugged me about the troops is when I was fighting a small group of goblins (less than 10) they all basically sat around. There were a few gob's on the other side of my troops and basically a group of troops was standing around while one or two troops faught the goblin. I like hack'n slash games for mindless entertainment, and the 'rpgness' of this game makes me like it. I just really wish the troops didnt suck so much ass. When I was finishing the level I just left my troops behind and went forward without them.

[Savok]

For the Dynasty Warriors comparisons earlier in the thread; I find this game much more fun than dynasty warriors. Combat is simply more engaging and more rewarding.
I disagree, while the combat itself is more interesting, the reward for combat in N3 is... more combat of the exact same nature, maybe with a caster or tower thrown in this time.

DW, there's quite a massive impact on battlefield conditions, you have to really think about where you should strike and then keep an eye on the rest of the map to make sure nothing too awful happens that needs your response.

And yeah - as someone who maxed every character in DW2 and almost all of them in DW3 (I hated 4) - Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are blood brothers, we get it, only so many times you can hear it. That said, it's still better then KUF's horribly generic/cliche fantasy crap (I hate KUF) and this winning formula of Padme and bishies with penis issues.

[MrMeatshake]

what this means is: the demo was quite good. i think i'd buy it.

btw: i also hate KUF. what a PoS those games are.

[sado]

God the demo sucked!

Makes me remember why I only watch anime in the original language it was made in.

[Kelegacy]

My troops died early on, and I made it through the entire demo by myself and the other "heroes". That's a flawed game design right there. Yeah, I probably did a horrible job keeping them alive, but if one man can wade through that many enemies without aid, I grow bored easily. The same thing bothered me about Diablo, inevitable boredeom, but this game lacked the subtle fun of Diablo. Animations, choppy cutscenes, uninspired field visuals, highly repetitive gameplay--and even the title screen had stuttery water-ripple animation. I had a feeling at that very instant something wasn't going to feel right about the game.

I don't know if we live in a masochistic gamer society, but people who spend their money on bad or mediocre games just confuse me.

[Kamalot]

I found the demo mildly entertaining. I may pick up the title once it reaches $20, but it wouldn't be worth $60 to me. I'm sure others love it though since, compared to Dynasty Warriors, it seemed a hell of a lot better.

One thing though, they should completely ditch the voice acting and provide subtitles over the original Japanese. There is no excuse for such shitty voice acting.

[51|RandoM]

All games like this (Kingdome Under Fire, etc) are highly uninteresting to me, as they become button-mash-fests (and yes, I did play the demo...didn't enjoy jamming away at the buttons like I had OCD).

You're not being fair to KUF. There is a lot more 'game' in KuF than there is here.

[Johan]

You're not being fair to KUF. There is a lot more 'game' in KuF than there is here.

Point taken and granted! For my personal tastes in gaming, I'm not really into the massive-armies-massive-kills type games (I don't really know how else to state that...but the games with 500 kill combos just aren't that interesting to me). But your point is well taken and correct; I just don't like any of that style of gaming.

[Morangie]

I don't know if we live in a masochistic gamer society, but people who spend their money on bad or mediocre games just confuse me.

This may shake the foundations of your world to its very core, but sometimes people may like different things to you.

[Animated X]

I've been hankering for a hack'n'slash such as this, so I'll definatly be buying it, I personally was way into the demo.

Same here. I have beaten Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, and this definately seems like an entertaining hack and slasher.

[Kelegacy]

This may shake the foundations of your world to its very core, but sometimes people may like different things to you.
Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that they are shitty games. Taste isn't a factor here, but criticism of formula and game architecture. People who dislike Resident Evil 4 cannot say the game isn't well put together, a marvel in nearly every respect. People who like Ninety-Nine Nights are similar--they cannot say that the game is well put together and a marvel in nearly every respect.

[Savok]

Here's the amazing thing, Kel, not every game has to be perfect. Take Soul Reaver 2, as a game, complete waste, but it's worth playing just for Michael Bell and Simon Templeman's voices as the two verbally spar.

Name just about any game you enjoy, Kel, I'll likely rip the lungs out of it because lets face it, I hate everything, doesn't mean you enjoy it any less.

[Adam Blue]

Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that they are shitty games. Taste isn't a factor here, but criticism of formula and game architecture. People who dislike Resident Evil 4 cannot say the game isn't well put together, a marvel in nearly every respect. People who like Ninety-Nine Nights are similar--they cannot say that the game is well put together and a marvel in nearly every respect.


I can't agree. I think Act of War is a marvel in nearly every aspect. But I doubt you agree with me. But let's face it, these guys made a kick-ass game. Every part of it.

I think Resident Evil 4 could have looked better. Yes, the textures were good, but it was jaggy as hell, even with the GC component cables. I think they were sloppy there. The argument doesn't work all the time.

[Kelegacy]

I can't agree. I think Act of War is a marvel in nearly every aspect. But I doubt you agree with me. But let's face it, these guys made a kick-ass game. Every part of it.

I think Resident Evil 4 could have looked better. Yes, the textures were good, but it was jaggy as hell, even with the GC component cables. I think they were sloppy there. The argument doesn't work all the time.
Ah, but you are talking about looks with RE4. Games can look great (N3) and play horribly. Games can look like absolute crap and kick the hell out of prettier games in the gameplay department.

It always comes down to gameplay. If a game looks cutting-edge, simply magnificent, it will never sell me if the game plays like my crippled grandmother in the sack.

I know everyone has their own tastes. People love Halo and I only think it's good, not great. But I can respect that the game is very well orchestrated, and fans of FPSs are going to pretty much enjoy the title. It would be silly to say Halo was absolute trash, even if you didn't like it yourself. It comes down to play mechanics, as those are what triggers the "fun" characteristic. A game need not be perfect, as Savok says, but a game does need to be fun and play well. I can't imagine anyone playing N3 and coming away feeling euphoric, happily content with the way the thing played. I just can't.

[Kelegacy]

Here's the amazing thing, Kel, not every game has to be perfect. Take Soul Reaver 2, as a game, complete waste, but it's worth playing just for Michael Bell and Simon Templeman's voices as the two verbally spar.

Name just about any game you enjoy, Kel, I'll likely rip the lungs out of it because lets face it, I hate everything, doesn't mean you enjoy it any less.
Hmm. Right now I am enjoying Kameo. You can try to rip that apart if you like. :)

[Jack B]

Hmm. Right now I am enjoying Kameo. You can try to rip that apart if you like. :)

I remember from your taste in games you might like Cloning Clyde. It's not my style, but it's gotten some decent reviews. Worth a try at least.

[Achilles]

Ah, but you are talking about looks with RE4. Games can look great (N3) and play horribly. Games can look like absolute crap and kick the hell out of prettier games in the gameplay department. With RE4 you can't tell me that not being able to move while you reload, and having reload on the same button as 'turn around' was a good idea in a game where there are enemies that can kill you in one hit. RE4 ain't perfect in the gameplay department. It's great for a Resident Evil game, but it's got tons of problems.

For N3, to me, its only advantage is that the basic gameplay of killing 100s of guys is fun. The game isn't that polished, there are no checkpoints in the levels so if you die you can lose 2 hours of progress, the american voice acting is bad (I have no idea why they just don't hire the companies that dub modern anime), a level can end before you've collected the experience the last guy drops, a cut-scene can happen in the middle of your super move, which will cause it to do no damage, your troops get stuck on things, and sometimes items can fall outside of the collision so you can't reach them. However at the end of the day, for many people including myself, the game makes it fun enough to kill 100s of guys that none of that stuff matters all that much.

[Kamalot]

Hmm. Right now I am enjoying Kameo. You can try to rip that apart if you like. :)
Ugh. Kameo leaves an odd taste in my mouth. It wasn't a bad game, but the control schemes were very counter intuitive and complicated. What really struck me was the art style. It came off as Dark Crystal meets Candy Land. Every surface in the game looked like it was made out of plastic, like toy playset plastic.

You'd think that after so many years in development (GameCube, Xbox, Xbox360) they would have worked out a decent control scheme instead of the mess they ended up with.

Having said that, I didn't dislike the game, but it wasted a lot of potential. I bet the extra man-hours for developing the control scheme went into putting plastic-shiny-maps on everything.

[Kelegacy]

For N3, to me, its only advantage is that the basic gameplay of killing 100s of guys is fun. [...] However at the end of the day, for many people including myself, the game makes it fun enough to kill 100s of guys that none of that stuff matters all that much.

But if you want to kill 100's of guys, you have many other games to choose from. This has been done to death, and even in the other games where you can kill armies on your own (which is a bit silly if you think about it--I killed 3000+ guys in N3's demo without the aid of my goddamn army) it was incredibly repetitive. If you want to play this game, why not just pick up Dynasty Warriors instead? Both are repetitive as hell (and I can't imagine how DW has so many sequels despite being thus) but at least DW is out now.

I don't know. I'm just not going to be convinced that this is even remotely a good game. If people can glean even a bit of fun out of this, it's still a big mess of a game.

(And if you can run and gun like any other action game in Resident Evil, it would ruin the game. It's Resident Evil, not a 3rd person equivalent of Doom)

[Kelegacy]

Ugh. Kameo leaves an odd taste in my mouth. It wasn't a bad game, but the control schemes were very counter intuitive and complicated. What really struck me was the art style. It came off as Dark Crystal meets Candy Land. Every surface in the game looked like it was made out of plastic, like toy playset plastic.

You'd think that after so many years in development (GameCube, Xbox, Xbox360) they would have worked out a decent control scheme instead of the mess they ended up with.

Having said that, I didn't dislike the game, but it wasted a lot of potential. I bet the extra man-hours for developing the control scheme went into putting plastic-shiny-maps on everything.

Bapenguin said his big beef with PDZ was controls, which I had no problem with. (my problem was nearly every other issue with gameplay and fun) Kameo took me a bit to get used to in the demo level, but after that there simply is no need to mess up with the controls. The X,Y,A,B buttons pick which character you use, the triggers initiate the attacks. That isn't difficult to remember, after the first area anyway.

And I find the game very fun. There's lots to see and do, and the characters you control are all useful. I haven't regretted the game, and I sometimes grow bored with platformers. This isn't a collect-a-thon, it's just a great adventure. And I think the production values are excellent.

[Achilles]

If you want to play this game, why not just pick up Dynasty Warriors instead? Both are repetitive as hell (and I can't imagine how DW has so many sequels despite being thus) but at least DW is out now.

(And if you can run and gun like any other action game in Resident Evil, it would ruin the game. It's Resident Evil, not a 3rd person equivalent of Doom)There's a difference between running and gunning, and having a random chance of being locked in place for upwards for 4 seconds when you meant to turn around and get away from the chainsaw guy. There's ways to build suspense that don't involve control quirks.

For N3, I enjoy the combat more in N3 than in DW or KuF, that's why I'd play it instead of something that's already out. As far as combat goes in one of these games, N3 has the best combat. If I want to control some armies I'll go play KuF. I don't know why I'd play DW but some people do like it. This game's not about controlling your arimes, if you're going to get hung up on how useless they are than you're going to be disapointed; it's about 1 guy/gal killing a ton of people.

I should say that if it is possible to deck your character out in such a way where your guys are useful, it's still not the way the game was meant to be played. You can play it that way, just like you can go all the way through Prey using only grenades, or you can beat Dune 2 using only towers. But that's clearly not the primary way they intend you to play the game, and whenever you play the game in a way different than the way it was intended you're going to run into some problems, especially on a game with as little polish as this one's got.

[fitbabits]

the one thing this game has over Dynasty Warriors...no more Chinese history! I'm bored to tears now with Lui Bei, etc etc.
Not to mention giant crabs!

[Kefkataran]

I played a bit of this tonight. It's a perfectly good-looking game, but the gameplay is boring. What's with the lack of AI for troops and enemies and no collision detection at all on towers? Blah. It seems like a perfectly suitable rental, but 60 bucks? Nah.

[Savok]

Hmm. Right now I am enjoying Kameo. You can try to rip that apart if you like. :)
Haven't played it due to the fact Rare hasn't made a decent game since Goldeneye (except perhaps the last half of Conker). Just for you, I'll dl the demo when my bandwidth cap resets tomorrow.

[Siraris]

Is it true a lot of the enemies in this game just stand there and wait for you to attack them? My friend told me this happened in the Japanese release and I don't know if it was fixed.

[Achilles]

For the "not worth $60" crowd, it's $50. Not that the difference is that great between the value of $50 vs $60, but just for accuracy's sake.

Is it true a lot of the enemies in this game just stand there and wait for you to attack them? My friend told me this happened in the Japanese release and I don't know if it was fixed.In a way. The enemies look to be on very slow attack cycles. So every 10 seconds or so they'll throw out an attack. Sometimes it looks like they're standing there. When there's a whole mess of them you don't really notice it, and if they attacked more frequently they'd probably kill you very quickly (every time you're hit you take insane damage). but if you get one by themselves the illusion breaks down.

[Kefkataran]

Is it true a lot of the enemies in this game just stand there and wait for you to attack them? My friend told me this happened in the Japanese release and I don't know if it was fixed.

It was true in the demo, at least. I started running forward at one point only to have a friend point out that I still had some enemies left to kill. So I ran back and saw ONE enemy left with a huge arrow over his head. All of my troops were just standing there watching him, and he was just circling around them not attacking. Sooo lame.

For the "not worth $60" crowd, it's $50. Not that the difference is that great between the value of $50 vs $60, but just for accuracy's sake.

Aha, my bad. Well, I still wouldn't pay $50 for it. Maybe $20 or $30, but a rental still seems best.

[Kelegacy]

Haven't played it due to the fact Rare hasn't made a decent game since Goldeneye (except perhaps the last half of Conker). Just for you, I'll dl the demo when my bandwidth cap resets tomorrow.
Man, it must suck to have a cap. And if you didn't live in Australia and have region locking, Kameo is only 20 bucks now (at certain places).

Don't judge the game too harshly on the demo level. It is probably the worst level I've played so far (the first level in the retail game, too), and the rest really outshines it.

[Savok]

It's still $90 ($60-$70US) or so here, my cap resets in 30 minutes (plus I get my 1500k upgrade). There's two demos, does the second include the first because it's twice the size.

[Savok]

Well I got the smaller demo, having played it, I wonder how it took so long to make.

There's nothing special about this, I'm even a huge, huge fan of any sort of shapeshifting (I'm talking Odo shit here, I can admit the coffee table looks mighty appealing to me sexually being the 20 something virgin I am, but furries just aren't my thing at all) in games, I love my Diablo 2 Werewolf, I love my Werewolf in Morrowind, I loved Geist (not changing shape persay, but you possess all sorts of things) until that god damn motorbike bit. Castlevania: SOTN was extra special in this regard as well. My Druid in WoW (pity she'll never get played again), I mean shit, I own Vortex for the SNES and that game has aged badly, damn thing is unplayable these days.

Anything that drastically changes how the game is played at will, I really dig.

But the controls and camera in Kameo are just such a god damn battle, I can't get into it. I hate it when the camera decides to swing off to wherever the hell it pleases in the middle of running around. This leads to the (at times) clunky shapeshifting feeling more like a utility belt then changing forms, on top of this is the level design and the whole thing just feels like a very generic obstacle course.

But as you say, the demo level sucks so maybe the rest of the game feels more whole.

This doesn't pass the design horror of shoehorning useless abilities into the game, something Rare has always loved doing with their platformers. The ice ape and the ball, awesome, but that plant thing was completely useless until there came a point in the level where you're so obviously forced into using it, you want to stab the designer.

Graphically, it looks fine until the camera catches the wrong angle then you're playing Virtua Cop 2 on your Pentium 90 again, what the hell happened there? The sound was completely forgettable on that note, I can't even remember the voice acting come to think of it, being the VA nut I am I normally retain that stuff above everything else.

It's a pretty good N64 title, maybe I've been spoilt by Prince of Persia and ICO, but I expect more then that two (one and a half being a launch title one could say) generations down the line.

[Kelegacy]

The abilities are far from useless, as the rest of the game will prove. Each character is important.

I never had problems with the camera or controls (barring the first few minutes with the character switching buttons). I don't know, maybe I just adapt to control layouts easily.

[Savok]

The abilities are far from useless, as the rest of the game will prove. Each character is important.

I never had problems with the camera or controls (barring the first few minutes with the character switching buttons). I don't know, maybe I just adapt to control layouts easily.
I know they aren't useless in that regard, I'm saying if they weren't forced into the game there'd be no point to, the vine is really only useful against enemies tailor made for it and the fact that none of the gates open properly.

Meanwhile, we have a combat handy ice ape that can climb walls, and a rolling ball of death that gather quite a bit of speed. Now were that vine thing a rabid vole with admantium claws or something, we'd have a decent ability, he could dig under stuff. As it is you might as well turn into something that can limbo, least it'd be funny.

And the controls are more fighting with direction then anything else, very little is fluid in the game, again makes it feel like a N64 Rare game.

[Kelegacy]

I know they aren't useless in that regard, I'm saying if they weren't forced into the game there'd be no point to, the vine is really only useful against enemies tailor made for it and the fact that none of the gates open properly.

Meanwhile, we have a combat handy ice ape that can climb walls, and a rolling ball of death that gather quite a bit of speed. Now were that vine thing a rabid vole with admantium claws or something, we'd have a decent ability, he could dig under stuff. As it is you might as well turn into something that can limbo, least it'd be funny.

And the controls are more fighting with direction then anything else, very little is fluid in the game, again makes it feel like a N64 Rare game.
Luckily (if you beat the demo you'll see this in the cinematic) Kameo loses all of her abilities and has to accumulate them again in typical platformer style. This means that levels are custom built to each character's abilities, but it also means there are lots of things in early levels you must come back for with characters aquired later.

I use most of the characters equally now, and have to to secure secrets and complete areas, but I have a fondness for Major Ruin.

[Savok]

A level built around that useless vine thing?

I don't think I could cope with that.

[Achilles]

Well I got the smaller demo, having played it, I wonder how it took so long to make.They started over from scratch like 4 times. There are some animatics you can unlock that show what kind of game it was through various iterations. After watching them I'm sure you would be glad they didn't release it back on the Xbox or N64.

[Savok]

Yeah but you'd think they'd carry over design ideas and so on, that's a lot of time to polish the art and other non-engine related things. Could of cranked out a decent tune as well.

[Achilles]

Yeah but you'd think they'd carry over design ideas and so on, that's a lot of time to polish the art and other non-engine related things. Could of cranked out a decent tune as well.Some of what they showed were actually game design and story ideas (boss battles, etc), all of which changed dramatically. At one point you had a pet that would follow you around and eat things, and that was your creature, Kameo couldn't shape-shift. It was some crazy stuff. I couldn't help but sit there and think "my god I'm glad this wasn't the game they made."

[Savok]

Wait, they were gonna make A Boy And His Blob?

God dammit

[Kefkataran]

A Boy And His Blob = love.

[torrefaction]

A Boy And His Blob = love.

Far and away one of the best games ever made.

Also, one of the most frustrating, if you used certain beans in the wrong places.

[torrefaction]

The abilities are far from useless, as the rest of the game will prove. Each character is important.

I never had problems with the camera or controls (barring the first few minutes with the character switching buttons). I don't know, maybe I just adapt to control layouts easily.

Yeah, I never really got the hate for the controls. Even the underwater scene (while a bit jarring initially) came to me very easily.

[torrefaction]

the one thing this game has over Dynasty Warriors...no more Chinese history! I'm bored to tears now with Lui Bei, etc etc.

No fucking shit. I mean, it was cool when I was playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms back on my fucking SNES over a decade ago, but I'm way over that shit.