gamingeek said:Agnates said:This preview has 60 fps videos which show the game's true beauty (most flash videos are 30 fps, these aren't).So many videos, will have to check out tomorrow, thanks
Wow at the gamersyde videos, just checked out the first two. It looks like the concept art from the first game in motion. Everything is so clear and vibrant and crisp and smooth.
And there also seems to be much more diversity to the levels then I imagined before.
Also, new stuff:
Red Steel 2 Updated Hands-On GS
Red Steel 2 Interview With Roman Campos Oriola GS
Three more interviews
"Now, Red Steel 2 is a Wii exclusive and we're not going anywhere with it. This is going to stay Wii exclusive."
Second interview here
Damn this is painful to read:
What did you think of the first game?
I was really excited about the first game. As a game developer it was hard to play, but I could see the team's experience. Even before I knew the team I was like 'Oh God... these guys just needed an extra three weeks.' They were right there. There were issues with the controls schemes and it just wasn't done. It wasn't really finished.
Everyone could see it. I want a new play control version Ubi. 
Agnates said:Plenty of previews as well. IGN, G4, Eurogamer, Kotaku, all positive. But those 60fps videos from gamersyde in my last comment win hands down. Joystiq has a few paragraphs filled with inaccuracies and insane complaints. Sigh. Shit, I'm skeptical about the game's final quality myself, but that dude is being way absurd.
Thanks for these. 
It would be cool if you posted these updates in the news section.
I'm going to read them now.
IGN
"I was only allowed to plow through the first few missions, but these at least show the variety of levels and the balance and variety they have. In some you'll just have to take down waves of bad guys from the other clan, while in others you'll have to seek out their trucks and blast them out of commission. Along the way you'll find crates, barrels, bottles and other items that can be opened and smashed for cash, and you'll turn this extra money into additional moves and weapon upgrades. There are even hidden treasures like Sheriff Stars tucked away that'll earn you even more money. "
G4
"Fantastic swordplay would have been enough, but judging from the couple hours I spent putting the game through its paces, Red Steel 2 fixes and awesome-ups everything about the original. It's just pure, drool-inducing video game fun. Red Steel 2 looks amazing; The shooting game is spot-on, the Wii MotionPlus-exclusive controls are as tight as a rich guy’s fist, the action is frenetic and non-stop, and while there's nothing heavy and "important" here, it's all-out, kickass jaw-dropping action fun... and isn't that what's really important?" 
Eurogamer
"The main difference between Red Steel 2 and the original, however, may not be the improved controls so much as the fact that you'll genuinely want to put in the time to master them in the first place. With a sugary rush of missions, dungeons, and upgrades riddled with collectable Sheriff's badges and oddball unlocks, 2010 might just be the year that face buckles finally go mainstream"
Kotaku
"Its combination of broad and precise motion, its colorful aesthetic, come together to deliver an experience far more fun than the original Red Steel. Being only about half-way through the title, it's too early to tell if there will be enough of those complex fights and blending of motions to make the game the sort of deep experience I want, or whether the end result will be a game that feels too light, too easy to be satisfying."
Joystiq
"Red Steel 2 may have received a cosmetic makeover from its predecessor, but it's still lacking a key element: fun. Perhaps 2010 will change all that, and I'll be able to enjoy an inspired version of Red Steel 2 ... on my space ship, with my robot buddies "Chuck" and "Max." I can't wait for 2010!
Best of luck,
2009 "
WTF is that^ Joystiq?
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Agnates said:Yeah, tell me about it, lol. It's weird, he only mentions the Dojo so it's like he played a different version of the game than the other outlets did. Maybe the other previews are from more recent play sessions that Joystiq wasn't invited to. Or the guy decided to spend the trip with call girls and wrote the piece out of his @$$.
I would like to see that if it was possible. A pen, finely balanced between the ass cheeks so well that you can actually write with it 
gamingeek said:Agnates said:Yeah, tell me about it, lol. It's weird, he only mentions the Dojo so it's like he played a different version of the game than the other outlets did. Maybe the other previews are from more recent play sessions that Joystiq wasn't invited to. Or the guy decided to spend the trip with call girls and wrote the piece out of his @$$.I would like to see that if it was possible. A pen, finely balanced between the ass cheeks so well that you can actually write with it
It's possible.
SteelAttack said:gamingeek said:Agnates said:Yeah, tell me about it, lol. It's weird, he only mentions the Dojo so it's like he played a different version of the game than the other outlets did. Maybe the other previews are from more recent play sessions that Joystiq wasn't invited to. Or the guy decided to spend the trip with call girls and wrote the piece out of his @$$.I would like to see that if it was possible. A pen, finely balanced between the ass cheeks so well that you can actually write with it
It's possible.
Since it's you saying it, I know that you've tried it. 
gamingeek said:SteelAttack said:gamingeek said:Agnates said:Yeah, tell me about it, lol. It's weird, he only mentions the Dojo so it's like he played a different version of the game than the other outlets did. Maybe the other previews are from more recent play sessions that Joystiq wasn't invited to. Or the guy decided to spend the trip with call girls and wrote the piece out of his @$$.I would like to see that if it was possible. A pen, finely balanced between the ass cheeks so well that you can actually write with it
It's possible.
Since it's you saying it, I know that you've tried it.
Yup. My asswriting quality exceeds the handwriting one. I have to be careful with small-ish pencils, though.
Agnates said:Yeah, tell me about it, lol. It's weird, he only mentions the Dojo so it's like he played a different version of the game than the other outlets did. Maybe the other previews are from more recent play sessions that Joystiq wasn't invited to.
Yeah, the review says it's from playing it back in december but ign seems to say they played it this month. Unless they played it back in december and are just not bothering to say. The joystiq guy keeps clamoring for 1:1 so I don't think he'll like any build anyway.
He just seemed to not delve into it much, if any. He had other weird comments like the level variety even though he only played the Dojo level, that enemies don't die from shooting which is wrong as many of the minions appear to be vulnerable to guns, and that you can only hit enemies from behind to damage them which is also wrong, only the big hammer wielding dudes need to be struck from behind so far. It just seems so half assed.
He also noted it's slow and dull when the other outlets said there's barely any break from the fast action and stuff.
Most of those can be seen in early videos, not just the latest, so it's not that he didn't see the improvements.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds while the pessimist fears this is true. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Agnates said:Anyway. I'm back to being excited after the recent videos, especially GamerSyde's. It's like one long Zelda dungeon in first person or something, with more emphasis in the action. I always loved Zelda combat personally and this actually seems quite similar despite the motion controls and first person view. You still lock-on enemies, you still press a button and a direction on the stick to quickly hop circles around the enemies and avoid hits or reach weak points, etc. Heck, even the 360 slash is right out of Zelda. Though they have even more special moves and stuff. Link's Sword Training would have been similar to this if made, and so much better than Crossbow Training :-P
Its like metroid prime only with a sword rather than a gun. And metroid prime based its combat on zelda.
Give red steel 2 some intricate environmental puzzles and you're there.
That only will transform a day one in a " let's see lots of review first"
Mekere said:I don't know. That's typically the kind of game I would like, I love the art, the screen are gorgeous (yeah I know bullshots but still) but but but.. one thing is really bothering me the ubisoft logo on the game case :/
That only will transform a day one in a " let's see lots of review first"
I pre-ordered it yesterday on amazon because it was a good deal considering it basically packed in motionplus for free. My curiosity will get the better of me so I know I will get this. I just hope no shocking reviews come out before then.
Are you going to hang around the NEWS pages Mekere for the nintendo summit in about an hour? There's a large comments section where everyone usually hangs out under all the news that's posted.
Of course I'm in! But, it was supposed to be in half an hour isn't it?Mekere said:Ohhh good to know
Yeah you're right, we need to find a live feed. I'm going to jump back into the news page.
NGamer preview
http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=236506
Consider our expectations slashed. Red Steel 2 takes what you thought you knew and carves it up.
Travelling to Paris to stink up Ubisoft's offices with a MotionPlus-enabled sweat, our three-hour playtest reveals a game quite unlike its forebear.
Just as Yakuza lop off pinkies, so the knife is taken to Red Steel's digits - the zeroes and ones of the original code. Bar the sword and gun combo, everything you loved about the first game - the corridors, the other corridors, those last few corridors - has been sliced off.
Try this on for size: Red Steel 2 isn't really an FPS. Sure, it's in first person and you shoot, but bullets are just a fraction of a sprawling combat system. Barmy as it sounds, DNA is shared with the third-person action of a Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden.
Just as the brains at Retro Studios squeezed perfect platforming into Metroid Prime's first-person view, so Ubisoft plonk you inside the eyes of a melee master. Where Samus was a jetpack-powered hoverfly, Red Steel 2's protagonist - the nameless Swordsman - picks darting athleticism. Yes, he borrows Samus' sidestep, but only to bolster his repertoire of viper-fast strikes.
A fight is entirely different to a shoot-out - just ask wavy sword guy from Raiders Of The Lost Ark.2 Fighting suggests an exchange, a graceful dance. In Red Steel 2 gunnery is one answer to a multiple-choice question: how the hell do I survive this? Enemies appear. Invisible barriers lock you in (don't worry, arenas are roomy). Up pops a health bar. No regeneration, it exists for one fight only - next fight, you get a shiny new one. Squint and this is almost a beat-'em-up health system.
A fight is entirely different to a shoot-out - just ask wavy sword guy from Raiders Of The Lost Ark.2 Fighting suggests an exchange, a graceful dance. In Red Steel 2 gunnery is one answer to a multiple-choice question: how the hell do I survive this? Enemies appear. Invisible barriers lock you in (don't worry, arenas are roomy). Up pops a health bar. No regeneration, it exists for one fight only - next fight, you get a shiny new one. Squint and this is almost a beat-'em-up health system.
BRINGING A SWORD TO A GUNFIGHT
Sword deflects bullets, shrinking your area of concern to those in arm's length. Crowd control is key, mixing weapons to keep groups at bay and constantly moving to find the best angle of attack.
Here's where MotionPlus earns its keep.3 Moving the remote and seeing the blade tilt and twist is all very lovely, but the magic lies in its swiftness. That you can swing the remote to draw your sword without your view veering horribly out of whack - as it does in almost every other remote-waggling FPS - offers two simultaneous weapon schemes. Swapping between guns and swords is so fast you can stitch together blade and bullets as you see fit. It'll never match the arcade precision of a button, but when did a button let you pretend to gut a man? Precisely.
A 360 spin shunts nearby attackers. BAM. A shotgun punch snags the back-up off his feet. POP. The pistol catches his faraway friend. SHWICK. You're driving the blade into stunned goons still picking themselves up from the spin. Combat is flexible, fast and frenetic, enlivened with flashes of cartoon style and slow-mo for the cool bits. Slow motion enables moves that would be impossible in real-time. Slash a man skywards with an upward swipe and Father Time sits back, stretches his legs and lets you plug the flying meatbag with multiple shots. Realism be damned.
A BEAUTIFUL FINISH
Catch any good action game having a mid-beating breather and it'll tell you that flash is meaningless without functionality. Look past the sparks and screams and Red Steel's outlandish moves bring all kinds of strategies to the table. Take 'the Rush'. Triggered by holding A and stabbing forward, this lurching thrust violently pokes tummy buttons. It not only turns an outy into an inny, it's also an escape strategy, carving a corridor through circling vultures. Likewise, the swirling 360 Storm is a reverse stab into any chump sneaking up behind.
Most sword techniques double as finishing moves if executed in the correct context. Perform the Rush on a stunned opponent and you'll dash in to grind your sword under his ribs. The Guillotine - an aerial chop and (as the American creative director jokes) the one concession to the French devs - lets you kebab grounded foes to the floor. Worked into grand combos they're pace-quickening tactics; apply them to a group of stunned men and the sight of a blade methodically stabbing each one to death seems almost cruel.
Bloodless it may be, but Red Steel 2 still feels ferocious. Claret or not, gouging a stomach is gouging a stomach. Cel-shading blurs the ines, too. Powerful slashes tear colour across the screen - it could almost be a bloody geyser gushing from the target. Weighty hits are emphasised with a gutsy sound mix you wouldn't mess with. Red Steel composer Tom Salta cracks out his bom-bom-bomming Japanese drums; swords shriek and crackle with energy; the lowliest pistol explodes like a nuke.
SWORDSMAN ON A MISSION
Let the blood/ink settle and you go shopping. Hey, even mysterious strangers need retail therapy. Red Steel 2 develops the first game's hint of a hub system with levels branching out from safe houses. Stages echo Metroid Prime's networks of rooms linked with corridors (and long door-opening animations to hide the load). At the heart of each is a shop/ forge (see 'Argh-os Catalogue', right) exchanging nasty poking techniques for your hard-stabbed greenbacks. Yes, the more brutal your takedowns, the more money spills from their pockets.
Safe houses dish out missions and most play out in the sizeable hubs. Bandits need pacifying, beacons reactivating and trucks exploderising. To spice up the linear hub design - step back and they're clearly fight arenas connected by doors - the devs decorate them as they see fit. On one run-through a stage is flooded with hammer-wielding bandits; next time there's a fleet of trucks to detonate. Just as repetition sets in you wave goodbye and make the one-way trip to the next area.
Levels also lead to self-contained offshoots. The team refer to these prongs as dungeons, but only for want of a better word. Don't expect Zelda's epic tests but quirky rucking spaces. Linear in design they see some old clichés surface (hit two switches to activate a door), but they also enable scenarios not possible in freeform hubs. One bathhouse stage slowly floods with steam, for example, hiding wannabe assassins until the moment they strike. Another plonks the Swordsman on an industrial elevator as flying robo-drones attack - a rare bit of straight FPS-ery.
Only one scene jars with the others: a quick-time event. Only it's not a real quick-time event, but a pre-rendered cinematic (complete with cruddy video artefacts) with button cues on top. Come on, Ubisoft, we're not stupid - Dragon's Lair by any other name would smell just as stinky. The moment in question sees the Swordsman get hit by a truck then struggle to cling on and climb in. Red Steel 2 ably nails first-person physicality elsewhere, so why does it resort to cheap video tricks?
And we have a few questions regarding difficulty. Maybe we hoarded gold a little too efficiently and bought enough moves to outpace the difficulty curve, but our three hours were a bit of a pushover. That said, we played on lazy-boy setting with the swing sensitivity set at 'relaxed' (letting us dish out thwacks with minimal flail) - and we've yet to try 'Ninja' difficulty. Can Red Steel 2 dredge up a challenge worthy of the power it puts in your hands?
Next month's review will fill in the gaps, but until then, one thing's for sure: violent without being violent, an FPS that's not an FPS, Red Steel 2 defies expectations
Preview
http://www.cubed3.com/preview/329/
VandenBerghe astutely describes Red Steel 2 as a "physical skill" that requires a lot of practise and a learning style that differs from most button-based games. Getting players proficient enough with the sword mechanics to be able to use them fluently during combat is no easy task; it requires a hefty dose of tutorials and good deal of repetition. Each new skill is accompanied by a training session and a video demonstration (research showed that attractive female + white top + black background = attention grabber) for extra reinforcement.
Thankfully swordplay is feeling more fluid than ever, preventing the necessary evil of tutorials from becoming too chore-like. Ubisoft has really put the Wii MotionPlus to good use, doing away almost entirely with the unfortunate trait of many Wii games to fail to recognise certain gestures, or recognise those that weren’t intended. Other than the occasional exception when dealing with stronger attacks that require very broad swings, the current build of Red Steel 2 is incredibly responsive and not the least bit frustrating.
Despite the 1:1 mapping possible with the Wii MotionPlus (which is shown off in a number of areas — including sword brandishing) the actual strikes you will be using are limited. While the game might recognise the 79 degree angle at which you’re swinging, it’s still going count it as a vertical strike as far as combos are concerned. While this might sound disappointing, it actually makes for far more enjoyable combat — and it doesn’t force you to be a professional swordsman in order to play successfully.
It also allows you to efficiently tie moves together to create stylish combos (which earn you additional funds for upgrades, discussed below). Combos aren’t limited to just the sword either. One particularly satisfying combos involves shooting an opponent in the knee before finishing with a sword blow, while another allows you to finish a weakened foe with a point-blank shot to the head. The game’s teen 16+ rating might rule out blood and gore, but there is more than enough cell-shaded violence to go around.
Levels in Red Steel 2 are divided into two categories: dungeon-style levels and hub levels. The former, as the name suggests, are linear and battle-centric while the latter offer opportunities for exploration and NPC interaction. The hub levels are also a great excuse to admire the game’s gorgeous backdrops — which incorporate Japanese, western, and modern influences — as well hunt down hidden goodies, annihilate a wealth of destructible objects - "I'm a big a fan of the Zelda grass-cutting gameplay," says Jason - and spend some time in safe houses.
The latter allow you to purchase brand new weapons — such as the fabulously deadly Shotgun and Tommy Gun — as well as ammo and timing window improvements, not to mention increasingly swanky armour, and all-new sword attacks. Safe houses also serve as an interface for interacting with the game's key NPCs in order to initiate story missions, or accept optional side quests — kill x number of y, treasure hunts, etc. — to earn yourself extra money. With so much available for purchase, there's an additional incentive to complete tutorials which also earn you money.
What is up with the quality of this video?
Red Steel 2 Late Game Heroics
Why even put it out there? Has gametrailers f-ed up? It's covered in artifacts from compression.
I tried to comment earlier but was getting a bug. That video you embedded Agnates was great. Will check out the other stuff now.