November 10, 2005

OXM and stuff . . .

I finally received the latest copy of OXM. I have been eagerly anticipating this issue for the video demo it has on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for 360.

Quick impressions of the video. First of all, I don’t think the video was showing the 360 version of the game. It looked to be the PC version, ‘cause it definitely appeared as if the on-screen cursor was being manipulated by a mouse instead of an analog stick. The video is broken up into sections. The Introduction shows the beginning of the game, which has your character locked in his jail cell as the king and his guards barge in to use a secret pathway that happens to be right in your cell. The graphics look pretty spectacular. The textures and lighting really have a next-gen look. The physics are also impressive, as the character manipulates some hanging chains and bones that are scattered on the cell floor, they all react with convincing real world physics. Another video shows off the game’s forest environments. These virtual forests look fantastic and are by far the most impressive graphical aspect of the game. Individual leaves and blades of grass sway in the wind and are affected by the realtime weather of the game. There is a video devoted to stealth and another about the game’s advance A.I. The NPC characters all follow their own individual 24/7 schedules. They sleep when they are tired, eat when they are hungry, and do different things when they are bored. The A.I. video showed a lady taking target practice with a bow and arrow. When she realized she sucked at it, she walked toward the desk and drank a potion that improves accuracy and then she couldn’t miss. She ate and slept and even reprimand her dog who was being noisy. All these actions were dictated by her A.I. and were not preinstructed actions according to the developers. Pretty impressive stuff if you ask me.

However, there was one problem I had with the game. Graphically, as I stated, the textures, lighting, character models and physics come together to create a pretty impressive visual feast, but the animation has some problems. The NPC characters tend to walk a bit stiff and robotic and combat does not look fluid or realistic at all. It is understandable, considering the way the game is played, but it was the one glaring flaw I saw from the video. I’m sure it is completely unnoticeable to the player who is caught up in the heat of battle though. The effect is also enhanced because the visuals look so amazing that the awkwardness of some of the animation stand out even more.

But overall, I gotta say I came away impressed. This is one of my most anticipated 360 games. I’m worried though that with its complicated A.I. system and the fact that it is such an open ended game, that it will be extremely buggy when shipped. It’ll almost surely require a few patches. Man, I never thought I’d be saying that about console games.

As far as playable demos, the disc has a few of them. Most notable I guess could be Castlevania: Curse of Darness. Now, I don’t know if it is because I have been playing Ninja Gaiden Black for a month now, but the Castlevania demo was god awful. And I mean awful!!! The graphics were pathetic (I thought Konami had more talented programmers than these?) And the gameplay was extremely shallow and boring. I was bored after two minutes of play. Really, this game was bad. I hate to judge games based on demos because I’ve seen many demos that don’t do justice to the finished product, but man, go play Ninja Gaiden and tell me if that game doesn’t run cirles around this Castlevania crap. And I love Castlevania!!! Symphony of the Night is one of the greatest games ever!!!

The Spartan: Total Warrior demo was also kinda blah. Kindom Under Fire: Heroes was boring. Heroes of the Pacific - a flight sim - was actually pretty cool. I have yet to play the other demos, I’ll probably get to them tonight. I really want to try the Without Warning demo, because the magazine ripped the game a new a-hole by giving it a 1.5 review score, calling it one of the worst X-Box games ever. Shame, it has a cool premise and concept.

I’m curious, if there is anybody out there that has the retail version of Castlevania:Curse of Darkness, let me know your thoughts. Because based on the demo, all those 7's I see the game getting in magazines and websites seems high to me.

On a different note, tomorrow is my birthday and I’m staying home all day and will be bumming out. I’ll play some more Ninja Gaiden (I’m by that Alma-bitch-of-a-boss again, only on hard this time. Arrgghh!!!), and I’m trying the time attack mode in SotC. That should keep me entertained for a while. I might watch the Episode III dvd too. Not sure.

2 comments:

Gabe said...

Let me be first on here to wish my good friend Tanis HAPPY B-DAY !!!!
May all your gaming wishes come true.

Tanis said...

Ah, thanks man!