Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Play Enslaved instead)

[MyNameIsMethodis]

this game looks fucking awesome no wonder xbots hate it, its best on ps3

[demi]

Everyone says it looks great distinguished mentally-challenged fellow. It plays for poo.

[SantaC]

I fully expect Konami to put Kojima's name on everything from now on to fool the idiots.

[naff]

It does look good and they've tried ripping off two games I love (SoTC & GoW) so I think this is going to at least be a rental...

[Junpei the Tracer!]

You guys are harsh. I'm halfway through Chapter 3 and I really like this. I probably suck but the game gets rather difficult at times, my countering isn't too great, and I keep missing a bunch of stuff. I didn't care for Titan bosses. I hope that was the last of them. It's awesome that you change difficulty anytime.

Nice stuff so far.

[demi]

You dont need to counter. You can just roll around, or hold block. Game s boring Junpei. Play Enslaved instead.

[Van Cruncheon]

pretty much every boss through chapter 5 is defeated by rolling, rolling, rolling.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

You guys are harsh. I'm halfway through Chapter 3 and I really like this. I probably suck but the game gets rather difficult at times, my countering isn't too great, and I keep missing a bunch of stuff. I didn't care for Titan bosses. I hope that was the last of them. It's awesome that you change difficulty anytime.

Nice stuff so far.

the game is awesome they just hate that its superior on ps3 therefore it must be trash

[ManaByte]

You guys are harsh. I'm halfway through Chapter 3 and I really like this. I probably suck but the game gets rather difficult at times, my countering isn't too great, and I keep missing a bunch of stuff. I didn't care for Titan bosses. I hope that was the last of them. It's awesome that you change difficulty anytime.

Nice stuff so far.

the game is awesome they just hate that its superior on ps3 therefore it must be trash

I so want this to be you:
[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[MyNameIsMethodis]

hey man dont hate on a fellow xbox fan i just don't think you guys are giving this game a fair shake. it's not bad,  and its better than every other action game on xbox 360 right now since Ninja Gaiden 2 was the last good one.

[Beezy]

hey man dont hate on a fellow xbox fan i just don't think you guys are giving this game a fair shake. it's not bad,  and its better than every other action game on xbox 360 right now since Ninja Gaiden 2 was the last good one.

Bayonetta

[MyNameIsMethodis]

I forgot about that

[demi]

hey man dont hate on a fellow xbox fan i just don't think you guys are giving this game a fair shake. it's not bad,  and its better than every other action game on xbox 360 right now since Ninja Gaiden 2 was the last good one.

Enslaved

[iconoclast]

I started playing this  a little while ago. It's okay so far, but yeah it's starting to get pretty dull and uninteresting and I'm not even done with chapter 2. And the framerate in this game is a joke. Yeah the game looks great, but framerate is far more important than texture quality will ever be.

[iconoclast]

The SotC knockoff bosses in this game are awful, jesus.

edit: Alright, this game is finally starting to get interesting. Took a while (until the end of chapter 2), but I'm starting to like it.

[Third]

Ehh why do I still have to switch discs after having installed both discs on the HDD? The gayest shit ever.

I think I'm in chapter 5 now, and yes, the game is pretty boring. But the game is also pretty and has amazing environments, so I'm going to keep playing.

[SantaC]

hey man dont hate on a fellow xbox fan i just don't think you guys are giving this game a fair shake. it's not bad,  and its better than every other action game on xbox 360 right now since Ninja Gaiden 2 was the last good one.

enslaved is way better

[TripleA]

Tried the PSN demo, game looks great but runs at 2FPS.

[iconoclast]

I'm almost done with chapter 5 now. This game is awesome. It's no God of War clone - it's better than God of War.

Leave it the Spaniards to save 3D Castlevania.

[demi]

1000 Enslaved so now I have to take some 48 hour energy drink to prevent myself from falling asleep to this boring game

[SantaC]

I'm almost done with chapter 5 now. This game is awesome. It's no God of War clone - it's better than God of War.

Leave it the Spaniards to save 3D Castlevania.

The only thing Spaniards are good at are diving in soccer

[iconoclast]

The combat in this game is great. There's only one main weapon (plus subweapons and new abilities gained from armor), but it has some pretty decent variety in the combos available to it. The real fun in the combat is countering. If you are always rolling out of the way instead of doing an instant block counterattack, you're missing out. The level design has been pretty solid too, once you get past chapter 2.

It's not going to dethrone the kings of the genre, but this is about as good as any western action game has ever been.

[Van Cruncheon]

why would you counter? it's much easier to roll. this game's combat is awful awful awful, especially at 20 fps

[demi]

The combos hardly work and attacking is cumbersome - everything is a sponge as well

[iconoclast]

Countering leaves the enemies open to more damaging combos, fills your yellow meter at the bottom instantly, and it's just generally more fun to do since it takes some timing and knowledge of the enemies' combos.

I've got no problems doing any combos. Some of the enemies have a lot of health, but you can rip them apart pretty quickly with counters and shadow magic combos.

[demi]

PLAY ENSLAVED this game is poopoostink

[MyNameIsMethodis]

i disagree enslaved is poopoo generic looking while this is awesome

[demi]

Rock Titan fight was awesome.

edit: And just like that the awesome goes away with the supid Black Knight fight

[demi]

This game is so poo. It is like forcing myself to play this for one more level.

I lol'd that Chapter 3 only has 2 stages though

[cool breeze]

The game was ok, like around 6-ish.  It's less of a Castlevania game than I expected going in, and I wasn't expecting a Castlevania game.  It is God of War 1 with much less polish, major pacing problems, and a different theme.  Other than the throwaway references to old Castlevania games (this includes Gabriel's last name being Belmont), there isn't anything there that would make you think it was a Castlevania game.

and yeah, the frame rate sucks.  There are a few times when nothing is on screen and it smooths out and it starts looking really nice.  Then you move, the camera jumped around, because they designed it to be a disorientating asshole, and the game gets rough again.

[demi]

lol. yeah its not even his real last name. he chose it because "he loves mountains"

[cool breeze]

also, enemies take forever to kill.  even using power attacks with the dark magic it feels like the enemies take too much damage.  and the QTEs suck.

The SotC knockoff bosses in this game are awful, jesus.

edit: Alright, this game is finally starting to get interesting. Took a while (until the end of chapter 2), but I'm starting to like it.

yeah, the game gets better after Chapter 2.  But the first two chapters are the longest, so...yeah.

The game is long for an action game (~16 hours for me, though, some of that was idle).  The beginning and end are the longest and most boring sections.

[iconoclast]

Yeah, I don't know why chapter 2 has like 10 stages, but everything after has only had a handful. Not that I'm complaining; I prefer to wrap an area up quickly and move on to something completely different than stay on the same path for ages.

Also, the art team who worked on this game needs a raise. Amazing stuff so far.


And for some reason, this game makes me want to play Demon's Souls. Must be the dark-fantasy theme. And seeing those glowing corpses slumped over reminds me of the cover art.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

So is this better or worse than GOW3?

[demi]

worse

Dante's Inferno is better than this

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Well shit.  Maybe I'll take this out of my queue and replace it with Medal of Honor or something.

[demi]

Might I suggest Enslaved, which is way better

[MyNameIsMethodis]

you keep saying that demi but you really haven't produced any points as to why Enslaved is better. Everything i've read says Enslaved has worse combat.

[demi]

you keep saying that demi but you really haven't produced any points as to why Enslaved is better. Everything i've read says Enslaved has worse combat.

I've never said Enslaved had good combat

Hope this helps

[MyNameIsMethodis]

so if castlevania has better grpahics and combat how is enslaved better

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Well shit.  Maybe I'll take this out of my queue and replace it with Medal of Honor or something.

Dude, no. It's 4 hours long and you can't play MP without spending $10.

Get Enslaved, which seems to be the biggest surprise this holiday.

Enslaved has been at #1 on my list for the last couple of weeks but it's out.  Just checked yesterday and they shipped me Nier..... :/.  I forgot I even put that on there.  Thinking about just sending back 3D Dot Game Heroes and Nier back and just wait for them to ship me Enslaved.

[demi]

so if castlevania has better grpahics and combat how is enslaved better

It's more enjoyable to play

Also Castlevania has crap combat too

[SantaC]

Well shit.  Maybe I'll take this out of my queue and replace it with Medal of Honor or something.

well this is only castlevania by name. It's a mindless GoW clone with bad framerate, sluggish combat and horrible voice acting.

[WrikaWrek]

The game does so little to engage me. Funny, it's like the developers never really paid that much attention to the game itself, they were more worried with the art assets and shit.

[SantaC]

The game does so little to engage me. Funny, it's like the developers never really paid that much attention to the game itself, they were more worried with the art assets and shit.

A typical Kojima game (even though he barely is involved)

[Van Cruncheon]

enslaved has vastly better platforming, pacing, and the mechanics actually work

plus it has an engaging vidjagame story with great acting

[iconoclast]

Well shit.  Maybe I'll take this out of my queue and replace it with Medal of Honor or something.

Dude, no. It's 4 hours long and you can't play MP without spending $10.

Get Enslaved, which seems to be the biggest surprise this holiday.

Enslaved has been at #1 on my list for the last couple of weeks but it's out.  Just checked yesterday and they shipped me Nier..... :/.  I forgot I even put that on there.  Thinking about just sending back 3D Dot Game Heroes and Nier back and just wait for them to ship me Enslaved.

Nier is way better than this and Enslaved combined.

Enslaved is okay, but it's one of those 'cinematic experience' games that are all style and no substance. It practically plays itself.

[demi]

lol, of course a JAP game will be better to you

[cool breeze]

I'm gonna go back to Kmart this week and see if they have Enslaved.  Originally I planned to pick up Castlevania and Enslaved at the same time, but they only had Castlevania at that time.

also, about the Castlevania ending

spoiler (click to show/hide)

there is a post-credit CG scene that looks completely different from the rest of the game.  Not just talking about the what was in the cutscene, more just the look of it.  It reminds me of PS2-era CG from games like Drakengard.  What it actually shows doesn't really relate to the main game story and it is the only point with a meaningful Castlevania connection.  Seems like something that was decided on after everything else.   

[close]

[Diunx]

I hope that all this talk about the framerate is just the usual internet people overreaction.

[bork]

I hope that all this talk about the framerate is just the usual internet people overreaction.

Try the demo and see for yourself.  It's pretty low.

[cool breeze]

It's a fact that the game runs poorly and it just depends on how much you can tolerate it.

[bork]

I'm gonna go back to Kmart this week and see if they have Enslaved.  Originally I planned to pick up Castlevania and Enslaved at the same time, but they only had Castlevania at that time.

also, about the Castlevania ending

spoiler (click to show/hide)

there is a post-credit CG scene that looks completely different from the rest of the game.  Not just talking about the what was in the cutscene, more just the look of it.  It reminds me of PS2-era CG from games like Drakengard.  What it actually shows doesn't really relate to the main game story and it is the only point with a meaningful Castlevania connection.  Seems like something that was decided on after everything else.   

[close]

Since this was some generic GoW clone that they decided to add the Castlevania stuff to after production, that makes sense.

[iconoclast]

Yeah the game doesn't run very well, especially in the earlier chapters. It seems to get better the more you play, or maybe I just got used to it. There aren't any massive frame drops, it's just constantly running at less than 30 fps. Game's still fun though.

I found Dead Rising 2's framerate to be way more annoying.

[demi]

The wolf fight also stupid

The entire game is just not fun

Then they give you a checkpoint mid-fight where you are forced to have ZERO health like WTF do you want me to do? So you have to start all over. What a crappy game.

[cool breeze]

Yeah the game doesn't run very well, especially in the earlier chapters. It seems to get better the more you play, or maybe I just got used to it. There aren't any massive frame drops, it's just constantly running at less than 30 fps. Game's still fun though.

I found Dead Rising 2's framerate to be way more annoying.

yeah, the game is consistently in the mid-20s from what I can tell.  It never drops, but occasionally it smooths out when you're in a closed off area.

Dead Rising 2 would seem more annoying because of the camera control.  No that I wouldn't want camera control in Castlevania because there are times (I say this like its rare) that you are fighting enemies off screen, or the game focuses on a puzzle instead of you fighting enemies, or it just decides to switch to a completely different angle and disorientate you.

[demi]

Did they really just make me run in a circle beating up statues? Jesus christ

[cool breeze]

If you failed during the QTE part, they would have made you do it again.

[Beezy]

lol, of course a JAP game will be better to you

Nier is awesome.

[demi]

It probably is. Still havent played my copy.