Heavenly Sword Comments by Tom Bramwell

My take = Short

My take = 720p only 'True HDlol'.

My Take = Short but Sweet

I enjoy playing it again and again, but would have liked to have seen a few different gameplay facets other than the hacking.

I didn't even notice that it was only in 720p. Is that something that really seriously matters to people?

My 'real' take is here.

morriss is a stealth troll that's all.

@kanga: If your TV only displays 1080i and 720p scale 'down' and not horizontally because of the PS3 being the 'only' HD device on the market not to do it, thus resulting in all Sony games being played in 480p then yes, it becomes something you'll care about.

The demo is too short, but it sold the game to me :)

My take = 20% of gross

I saw footage of it in the latest 1up show. Haven't played the demo as I don't have a PS3 but the games looks fun. They also showed quite a bit of the cutscenes and the voice acting and the acting is indeed one of the best I have seen so far in games.

I have a question how the fudge do you do air combo's I've only done it twice ever... and i've been flicking my controller up like a prat.

Come on Jump Nariko, Leap Woman. *flick* *flick* *flick*

Incidentally, Lair got a dreadful review in EGM this month - 6.5 and 5.5 out of 10 from the 3 panelists.

Didn't Blue Dragon also Bomba?

It's definitely a game I'm interested in provided the learning curve is gentle and the game isn't as teeth-grindingly difficult as Ninja Gaiden was. God of War and its sequel are more my level of difficulty (on Normal or, ahem, Easy!) so I'm hoping Heavenly Sword is equally as forgiving but I couldn't really tell that from the demo as it was too short and it's not clear how far into the game you are.

As for the QTE sequence in the demo, I liked it, it was cool and added an element of interactivity to what is effectively a cutscene. I loved the QTE bits in the God of War games too, particularly the boss fights which were made more interesting by them.

@morriss

I'm not sure I quite understand. My TV doesn't display 1080p, it only displays 1080i and 720p. Now when I played the demo I'm pretty sure it wasn't in 480p.

If it was running in 720p, it looked fine to me. I can often only really tell the difference between 720 and 1080 when I am actually LOOKING for the difference (in other words, my gaming enjoyment suffers not one bit and whether 720 or 1080 is in effect never crosses my mind).

So what is it that I am supposed to have seen?

Is what you are talking about the issue that the PS3 has with certain old HDTVs? As I recall, it was an inability of the TVs in question coupled with the limitation of the PS3 that causes the 480 res to be used. I can't remember the exact details, but I don't think it was what you might call a widespread problem.


On a more general note regards the demo being short. From a player's point of view I totally agree that it is a pity as it doesn't really allow you to get the best idea of what the game combat may really be like.

But from a dev's point of view I totally understand that they have a game to finish, and truthfully we as gamers really would actually prefer in the long term that they make the final game as good as possible rather than spend an excess of valuable time on a demo.

I couldn't really tell that from the demo as it was too short and it's not clear how far into the game you are.

The heavenly sword guy Taneem Antianodote (whatever) said it was the level right after the tutorial, something about wanting people to just jump in and hacky hacky than go through the tutorial.

@Steroyd - Yeah, EGM gave Blue Dragon 6.5, 7.5, 6.5 I think, which is really worrying.

"Oh, and the lip-syncing is non-existent in the foreign versions of the game. "

Yeah I noticed something similar in the Kazakhstan version of the Departed. Leo DiCaprio didn't bother to mime the dubbed language track.Slack! *rolls eyes*

I wouldn't look too much into that, EGM always give low scores what's more important is what they said about it.

And Ratchet and Clank, and Uncharted.... >:[

My take = not very good.

@kanga. My TV doesn't display 720p, it's 1080i 'only'. Sony first-party titles are 720p only. The 360 for exapmle, when faced with a situation like this just auroscales the image to 720p, the PS3 doesn't, it downscales it to 480p.

@morriss

Ah, now I get you. That does actually sounds like a big pain in the behind. Maybe selling your TV on ebay and getting a replacement (I totally recommend Samsung for a decent economical HDTV) is the best option for you.

I realise it would be better if the PS3 could upscale internally, but I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

I think (or, rather, hope) that it'll only be a matter of time before Sony adopt the same approach as Microsoft and allow all PS3 games to be upscaled to 1080i/p. The Xbox 360's Xenos GPU does all the scaling so I don't see why the RSX or Cell cannot do likewise on the PS3.

erm... Ratchet does have Jump....

Maybe your talking about Uncharted not having jump?

Well if you go by review scores off one source I can easily turn Folklore into a must have title....
Why are you so quick to downplay the PS3's holiday?

@kang: I bought it in late 2003 for £2200. I'm not going to sell it just yet.

As I said I've no problems with any other HD device including the 360. I'm not getting a new telly because Sony can't implement a scaler.

Also, to get an idea of how widespread the problem is, Google "PS3 1080i". :)

theres no jump button.

You guys do know there are aerial combos right?

Anyways, for people who are interested in the game still: Joystiq interviews the Heavenly Sword writer, Terry Pratchett's Daughter. She also wrote the story design for Overlord.

This article reads like Eurogamer making excuses on behalf of Ninja Theory.

"Remember, children of the internet, the game's not finished!"

Harumph.

OK, first of all let me say this is the game I want a PS3 for. Secondly I haven't played the demo. But when the highest praise this game gets is "amazing cutscenes" I star to worry. I'm not going to buy a game for it's cutscenes I'm going to buy it for the game. Also it doesn't sound like it's living up to the promise of "every game at 1080p and 60Hz".

I shall chime in with that this demo is from a build shown 15 months ago

Honestly Mr Runti i strongly advise you to track down somebody with a ps3 and a copy of the demo if this was the game you most want the system for. I've let a few of my mates play the demo, two of which were really excited about this game, and the all came away disappointed with various elements, notably the combat and 30fps (often sub 30), this isn't to say you will too but you should definitely try it first. Personally i definitely won't be buying this game now, judging from the combat and reliance on QTEs i dont think the game will stand up to other offerings from the genre, including last gen. I can't help but have the feeling that if this game wasn't an exclusive there wouldnt be a fraction of the hype there is.

Bloody hell, Rhianna Pratchett. I used to go to the same school as her - often wondered what she was up to these days.

"it's just that they used professional, movie studio effects teams to do the animation. "

Wrong!

"I shall chime in with that this demo is from a build shown 15 months ago"

What fools would release something so old? Oh how easy it is to spend big bucks on game dev... 6/10 at best (unless reviewers are swayed by cut scenes). And yes, this preview smacked of letting people down gently. Pan it! :)

b..b..but teh power of teh cell!!!!

/logs on the spot

Armchair developers.... *sigh*

Played the new preview build, love the game. Combat gets ever more satisfying the further you get. Would like a jump-button though.

No other great Ps3-titles in the pipe-line? Uncharted, Uncharted, Uncharted! I'm telling you, this game will rock.

Oh, and lair is pretty... but average. Like a sub-Crimson Skies with a crappy faux-epic fantasy-storyline.

"pretty... but average. Like a sub-Crimson Skies with a crappy faux-epic fantasy-storyline."

I'm sure they'll be eager to put that quote on the box ;).

Oh, and lair is pretty... but average. Like a sub-Crimson Skies with a crappy faux-epic fantasy-storyline

Cutting through the spin? ;)

teabagger - The public know when something isn't that great. This certainly looks to be somewhat of a slight let down for many.

Hooray for Mugwum! Probably the most sense I've seen written about this anywhere.

I'd give the demo 8/10, that's marked down for brevity.

Still a must buy for me though, even though I'm not a fan of QTE stuff. I tolerated it in Resident Evil 4 (where it was not well integrated), Tomb Raider Legend/Anniversary and GoW2, so I can tolerate it in this for the pretties, and for the aftertouch arrows/cannons/bazookas, which look great.

@SBfistfun

Seriously, it's not funny or original anymore. Can't you come up with anything new?

Hey maybe you could go to 360 articles and say XBOTS or Red Ring of Death every other post. Or even better, the Wii has a funny name, run with it!

/sarcasm.

"Hey maybe you could go to 360 articles and say XBOTS or Red Ring of Death every other post. Or even better, the Wii has a funny name, run with it! "

ooh thanks for the idea

/responding to pleb off, Ignore on

"I shall chime in with that this demo is from a build shown 15 months ago"


...No chance. No one in their right mind would create a demo of your work that is 15 months old.

I hate short demo.. suspect the game is not ready for prime time yet. The low frame rate is worrying sign. If this shot demo has low frame, the full game won't be smooth.

I heard at the shop, gamers can pick up the whole ACT2 on DVD, is it true?

OK, im going to tell you exatly what was said above me without even reading the forum posts.....

"well now im not going to buy it since (after playing for 5mins) it's just qt event's", or "what, no jump? I'm not buying it".

...lets not forget the xbot cry, "it can't touch Ninja Gaiden's combat" and now since it's being release on the 360, Devil May cry as well.

Then there's the obligatory dipshit with the, "oh! it's in 720p? Well my TV is this and that...Sony why, whine whine whine"

right? right? So Fuckin predictable. *rolls eyes*

Hah ha haaa, the great hope for PS3!! Pah

Oh and Lair's shite as well, lol

Canadian_Mike, your point being? That people are complaining about something that's rubbish? Well whoopdeefucking do!

Your amazing predicting skills are truly ground-breaking.

i guess you were one of them ROFLMAO

Liked the demo. Very short but nicely done. If in the finished product the technical issues are straightened out and there's some variation in the gameplay, I'll definitely consider buying it.

With regards to Lair, wonder wether EGM did review the final version of the game given that it was only finished last week (according to the PS blog) and EGM came out at the end of last week, if I'm not mistaken... But anyway, that alone surely won't account for such low scores. Probably because of the controls is my guess, they complained about that already on 1up.