i approve of this thread.
i approve of this thread.
[quote=“Shadow”]My friend played the demo, disliked it and then showed me a video on Youtube of said demo.
God it looks really camp, and doesn’t seem to have any kind of personality at all. I’m not sure whether it’s meant to be a fun game that doesn’t take itself seriously, or something that’s trying too hard to be taken seriously. The main character is just generic (and why does she walk that way!?) and there are RINGS in the game. It’s like playing Sonic!
Typical of the kind of game Sega has been pushing in the last few years.[/quote]
Well, I wouldn’t say the main character is generic. I mean, she uses her hair for her crazy moves. I don’t think anyone would have thought of that!
I’m really looking forward to Bayonetta, it was barely on my radar before but the demo impressed the hell outta me. The camp works better for this than it ever did in DMC, and the very novel reward for doing more spectacular attacks plays into that quite well…
I was immediately struck by how much they appear to acknowledge the refinements to the formula made by other games in the time since they themselves basically created it. It has an immediate accessibility closer to God of War, yet the control dynamics manage to be closer to Ninja Gaiden than perhaps anything else so far. But the animation is what especially stands out for me, it’d be tough to explain, but it may be the closest thing I’ve yet seen to regaining what’s been generally lost in translation from 2D to 3D animation. And it’s also one of the first next-gen games that seems to have resolved the relative image quality of the best examples from last gen into the higher resolutions… that also might be hard to explain exactly what I mean.
Looks great, plays great. I don’t expect to care about the story or anything, but then I never do anyway.
The short answer is yes, but I’m going to give a long answer since reading the article Parn linked got my interest going…
Oddly enough, the one main thing PS2 was undeniably great at, compared to all the other systems last gen, 360 has a clear edge in this gen. Layered effects like blending (transparencies) and mass particles particularly burn up bandwidth to the frame buffer; and even aside from a slight edge in peak fill rate, if the 360 render process is set up optimally, that render target bandwidth may effectively be 2-3 times higher than that of the PS3. And it sounds like Platinum’s engine is definitely riding the 360 the way it’s meant to run.
Between PS3’s bigger OS footprint, and 360’s embedded RAM on the Xenos processor - which also happens to be the reason for the above bandwidth discrepancy - PS3 also has a little less work memory in practice. With the BluRay drive it might have a better streaming solution than 360, except for the fact the drive is slower than current DVD drives. So the standard HD is more of an advantage there, but good streaming takes work, and the game needs to be designed around it for dramatic results.
I’d only picked up on a couple vague hints previously, so I didn’t really know, but that article also indicates superior texture compression options on 360, which if true only compounds the memory issues. That’s similar to why Dreamcast games tended to have more/larger textures than PS2 games, despite having less total RAM. PS2 didn’t have any built in texture decompression. And in general the advantage of the unified shader architecture of Xenos seems to be proving itself, for many multiplatform games that look nearly the same on both systems, the performance is just not consistent on PS3.
The SPEs (Cell architecture) in PS3 can certainly do some interesting stuff that 360 never could, not in the same way at least. And Insomniac / Naughty Dog are showing some impressive tech for sure. But purely in terms of visual effects, putting the Cell to work augmenting the output of the GPU still adds render target bandwidth redundancies, where it is already at such a disadvantage. And in terms of what the GPU is capable of directly, the 360 is overall more powerful anyway, hands down.
it looks like it’s coming out in just four days now.
I thought the demo looked pretty sleek, and the music was pretty catchy, but it really ripped off Otogi, in my opinion.
I got it a few days ago (I ended up buying the Xbox360 version… and an Xbox360) and just finished the game on Normal, it’s really as good as the reviews say it is. This really is the next standard for action games: the controls are near perfect, the level and enemy design is equally impressive, the graphics and animation are great as well (on the Xbox360 at least), and there’s plenty of replayability value. The stages with gameplay reminiscent of games like Space Harrier and Outrun (accompanied by remixes of those and other Sega arcade game sound tracks) are also a nice touch. It’s just an incredible polished game, easily the best game Sega has published in recent years, perhaps even since they left the hardware business. That makes it all the more painful to see Sega mess up the PS3 port of this game…
Or more painful than that, is the fact that SEGA In-Houses Teams aren’t capable of making a game this good any more
At least their deal with Platinum Games was a good decision, and with all the references to old Sega games Bayonetta has it might as well be from an in-house team. The only problem I see is Sega’s marketing, or lack thereof. It’s a new IP so it could really use a strong marketing campaign, and I’m not sure if Sega is going to able to accomplish that. DMC 4 sold around 2 million copies on PS3 and Xbox360 combined in its first two months of release, it’ll be interesting to see if Bayonetta can even reach those numbers.
I doubt Bayonetta will see the numbers DMC4 saw. It doesn’t seem like a particularly marketable game, especially given how unusual the lead character looks right from the get-go.
[quote=“D-Unit”]
At least their deal with Platinum Games was a good decision, and with all the references to old Sega games Bayonetta has it might as well be from an in-house team.[/quote]
I don’t like the idea of SEGA paying others to make great games for them , while wasting the talent of it’s own In-House staff .
Why is SEGA paying BIG bucks for a multi Platform next gen games , with worldwide appeal , while it’s own staff is forced to make single platform games, like VAL II or Yak III .
It makes me sick to my core, and its almost like a kick in the Teeth to the SOJ staff . These days SOJ is so poor , one wonders why any staff, would want to join SEGA or stay with the group .
That said SEGA to their credit , its pushing Bayonetta quite hard inthe UK with Prime Time TV adverts , and the game isn’t even out yet
In the US, I’ve only seen magazine/online ads, nothing on TV, I’m afraid (at least the channels I watch). I don’t know if it’s a budget issue, but Sega needs to get the word out on this game or else it will be like Valkariya Chronicles; a great game that nobody played.
True, but I wonder if they can actually afford to sell any less than 2 million, the game was in development for 3 years after all.
I’m not sure if they’re actually being forced to work on single platforms. Bayonetta would very likely have been an Xbox360 exclusive if it hadn’t been for Sega.
They seem to be running the same “In for the Kill” TV ad in the US and Europe, so at least it shouldn’t go entirely unnoticed like VC.
It’s an issue of math and return on investment. Will expenses on a traditional advertising campaign via 30 second commercials on TV and what-not be outpaced by income from potential increased sales?
I’m sure Sega has concluded that that’s a no, and based on anecdotal evidence among some of my casual gamer friends, they’re likely betting on the right horse. They won’t play Bayonetta based on its appearance. This doesn’t look to be a game that will sell a lot of copies. Most of the folks who would be interested are likely already aware of it.
You certainly have a point, but Sega’s already made a bunch of questionable decisions in the past (Yakuza 3 being the latest). Investing into an advertising campaign for a game that’s got an average 93 Metacritic score doesn’t seem like such a terrible bad idea in comparison. I just hope we don’t get another repeat of Valkyria Chronicles (which sold only 70k copies in the US in its first month).
Bar SONIC , every BIG Budget console exclusive has been onthe PS3 or Wii . A hopeless and pathetic call . SEGA for the 2nd Generation in a row has called it wrong , now wonder they’ll never make a profit
Yes, but SEGA would rather splash the cash on pushing the likes of SONIC, rather than a sustained promotion for new IP . Sonic will sell regarless, new IP needs to get pushed . I look at the like of Ubi and Capcom and when they launch new IP that’s getting rave reviews, they tend to go on a 2 week TV advertising blits (not always granted ) .
SEGA on the other hand don’t and watch new IP like Val rot
Though to be fair to SEGA Europe , they’re pushing Bay hard with a rather brilliant TV ‘In for the Kill’ advert , that’s being aired prime time .
I would imagine like every Sonic Team game , NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams had a decent size budget, and for a Wii title was a biggish spend . Could well be wrong though, granted
Played the first three chapters. The game is amazing, save one thing. Quick Time Events are stupid. They were stupid in Shenmue, they were stupid in Uncharted, and they are still stupid in Bayonetta. Get rid of them game designers, I’m begging you.
Yep it’s a really good game… though I could also do without the QTEs. What’s really too bad is that the cinematic rewards are better than probably any other game I’ve played, but the cues are the worst… too many times I’ve missed one only cause I didn’t quite realize it was a QTE. And completely different icons for certain events as well. The game’s biggest problem boils down to arbitrary cues all around, so much trial and error at bosses, no way to know for sure what to avoid till you get screwed by it. And the stupid death and time penalty keeps me seeing nothing but “Stone Award” trying to get through the first time, in spite of doing well on the medals… gets rather annoying.
But to the good, it is a fantastic looking game, of course 60fps is always a big plus for me. Mostly solid (barring some bad frame tearing every once in a while, even on 360) and it just sprays multi-layer transparencies around like they’re going out of style. Tons of great looking attack options that all feel relevant; some genuinely funny dialog (not all the time though… ); varied and inventive levels (within the constraints of this genre); and it’s just plain fun. Great stuff all round.
I have yet to get my copy, but from what I’ve played of it so far on other people’s games, it walks the fine line between beautiful chaos and utter incomprehensibility. When you’re in the heat of battle, there’s just so much stuff going on that you feel like you’re about to lose control over everything that’s happening at any given point. But you never do (or rarely, at least). The combat is very well polished. I haven’t gone through a QTE sequence yet, so I can’t speak to that, but I do think that the story that I’ve seen so far has been absolutely horrible haha
fun fact: I need to get a 360