phantom_leo said:Suda's name on it kinda worried me actually. He has great ideas, but his games tend to be a bit... buggy and un-polished. Suda's ideas + Mikami's gameplay style and polish = Win!
Disagree with this. The gameplay is often the best part of Suda games because even though unpolished they're usually doing something very interesting. That's why Killer 7 is so much better than No More Heroes. Suda presentation + Resident Evil should be fun enough, though.
That's what I mean. The gameplay never fails to be intriguing, but there were A LOT of bugs --AND-- seemingly half-finished, filler portions like the city in No More Heroes and the god-awful motorcycle riding. This game looks to have all of Suda's crazy ideas and quirkiness, just now sporting a tried and true gameplay engine, a-la Resident Evil 4! Take that game, inject insane humor and psychotic enemy designs and you get Shadows of the Damned!
I think this game is going to surprise --A LOT-- of people!
phantom_leo said:That's what I mean. The gameplay never fails to be intriguing, but there were A LOT of bugs --AND-- seemingly half-finished, filler portions like the city in No More Heroes and the god-awful motorcycle riding. This game looks to have all of Suda's crazy ideas and quirkiness, just now sporting a tried and true gameplay engine, a-la Resident Evil 4! Take that game, inject insane humor and psychotic enemy designs and you get Shadows of the Damned!
I think this game is going to surprise --A LOT-- of people!
If you have a treid and true engine there goes the best part of Suda games, though. 
The lack of polish is just the experimentation. It's an acceptable loss to me.
I'm still expecting this to be nothing less than excellent, though.
First Fifteen Minutes of the game!
*mostly due to Garcia's accent and tattoos... but the game looks great too! LOVE the slow-mo Head Shots!*
The more I read about this game...
unfortunatey it has been leaked and there are people playing it and discussing it
...the more I expect Garcia Hotspur to become my *Second* Favorite Mexican Man with a Large Johnson... of ALL TIME ! ! !
Some reviews are up! Averaging 87.5 as of 6-20-2011... Not bad at all!
*Keep in mind though, I am getting these from indirect sources and could be subject to change and may even be absolutely fabricated. If I hear differently, I will update accordingly!*
What has been leaked? The large Johnson?
This game has my attention. Let me know any impressions you have on the game.
Looks good but I will get this game down the line some day.
Alright! Game Informers review was legit! It was finally posted on their site and is part of Metacritic now! More scores should be posted tonight!
Watch the AWESOME Launch Trailer ! ! !
Snippets and Images from Gamasutra Interview:
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"I mean, we can go on forever about inspirations, examples from movies and things because we really, really took a lot of inspirations from other things -- not just video games. So I believe you're going to find a homage to movies from the '70s, from the '80s, from the '90s in every single chapter of the game."
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"We're creators and developers which are not kids anymore. So our background is one of like 35 to 40 years old people, right? And we have a huge background of movies and cinema, and we just blend it, mix it. We just come out up with a melting pot; it's not just like taking the single bits. And that makes possible to add a flavor to the game, rather than just like barely come up with the very same situation of the movie."
"I have to be honest, there's a couple of situations in the game where I have personally the fun –- I really wanted to do it, I really wanted to take a specific bit of a movie and represent it in game form just to make the fans happy and just to make people smile and laugh. But I'll leave it to you to find it out, but it's pretty much obvious, I think."
"It's blended to gameplay and that homage is like three seconds, four seconds long, but it's very passionate. So that was really fun and challenging to do.”
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"We added naturally this layer of style and media references and different approach to content that makes, I think, a Grasshopper game a unique game."
"What's really important for us is really to bring the new in, to try and not repeat ourselves too much, and to be confident that you can bring, any time, fresh air in the video game business without necessarily becoming excessively niche. That's our goal."
"EA was really, really a great publisher to work with, I have to say, because they totally left us in complete creative control. They just helped us to refocus a little bit when we were going too much over the top in some portions of the game, and that was probably a little bit too much for normal markets. But on the creative side they 100 percent trust Grasshopper."
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"Culturally speaking, and not just in games, Japan has a totally different approach to visual media in general, and I'm just talking about video games. I mean arts and visual design. So their way of thinking is way more visual than ours, and that reflects very much in games.”
"In the West, it's more likely to being made and portraying things on a realistic point of view. And those two are, for me cultural, not issues, but cultural properties of each different culture. So you know, that's why I think they're complementary. There are no negative points, it's just like you need to take a little bit from that, and a little bit from that and mix them and get something complete."
"From an artistic direction point of view, the main rule, let's say, the main direction, was to create contrast, as well. So we went for a realistic approach, but at the same time it's very surreal and very grotesque. So those two things blended together are kind of unique."
"And at the same time we post processed the whole image using specific graphic techniques that you don't see so often in games. We cross-processed the image to add to the overall frame. So we try to give the feel of the movie, at the same time -- that kind of unique flavor that you probably used to see in some cult B-movies of the '80s for example. That was an inspiration."
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I HIGHLY encourage reading the article Aspro posted today or at least the snippets in this post! It shows just how much of a collaborative effort Shadows of the Damned was --BEYOND-- just Mikami and Suda! It talks about Eastern Influences and Western Influences, Punk Rock References, Movie Homages, Artistic Freedom and working with GrassHopper and EA and the application of the "Western" Unreal Engine in an Eastern Game! So much of this game was a labor of love and dedication to artistic vision --AND-- references to inspirations for this game... It's like an Indie Project with a Big Game budget! I still don't understand EA's marketing or lack there of of this game. Maybe it's meant to be word of mouth like so many indie projects are...? I dunno, but everything I read about this game points in the direction of "Sleeper Hit of 2011!" I hope it turns out to be true!
Reviews updated with The Official Xbox Magazine's Surprising but still respectable 8.0.
They actually DIDN'T like the humor!? That's the first time I've heard that complaint!
How would you think EA would market this game, its extremely hard. I only see this game appealing to Mikami and Suda fans to be honest and they dont need ads to know this game exists.
At least put it on late-night TV during the time-slots where they show B-Grade Horror movies or something! Didn't Sega blitz all of the different media outlets when House of the Dead Overkill came out? Should be the same thing here with --SOME-- kind of reference to Resident Evil 4 thrown in!
One thing I must say: I LOVE the fact it uses the Unreal Engine, but doesn't have the typical brown or grey color scheme! The characters aren't shiny and everything BURTS with color! AWESOME ! ! !
Boooo! Foul I say!
All the smaller sites seem to love Shadows, the major ones seem to not.
I guess that's what happens when EA doesn't splurge for the old money hat!
I'll update with the good and bad reviews shortly and give some hands on (Johnson) impressions later!
phantom_leo said:Boooo! Foul I say!
All the smaller sites seem to love Shadows, the major ones seem to not.
I guess that's what happens when EA doesn't splurge for the old money hat!
I'll update with the good and bad reviews shortly and give some hands on (Johnson) impressions later!
Sweet, cant wait for that.
I dont trust Suda that much but I trust Mikami (even though Vanquish was a let down for me). This game will be like $10 in a month.