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Heavenly Sword acting better than Beowulf News
PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Wii News by Robert Purchese
Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades believes we are so used to seeing poor cut-scenes that we've developed a bit of a sour taste for them.
He feels the dramatics his team conjured up for Heavenly Sword using a real-time engine were not only better at conveying emotion than CGI extravaganzas such as Beowulf, but also around 15 to 20 percent cheaper.
"I think gamers are used to poor cut-scenes. That's one of the reasons they are disliked so much," Antoniades told GamesIndustry.biz. "I do honestly believe that the best cut-scenes in Heavenly Sword surpass the best scenes in Beowulf in conveying emotion.
"I see CG as digital make-up. So as long as the performance is there to start with and the CG data reflects the original performance, then it should be easy enough for a skilled animator to reach the emotional resonance of the actor.
"If you aren't able to convey emotion, then somewhere along the line something isn't working as it should be. We did a lot of research in this area and know where the 'gotchas' are. So our next project will hopefully improve on what we learnt," he added.
Unfortunately what that project will be is still unknown, although it will certainly not be a sequel to Heavenly Sword.
It will focus on the core story-telling, cinematic and combat strengths of Ninja Theory, and will also potentially coincide with a self-created animated feature film - Heavenly Sword tested this route with a series of artistic CGI shorts.
Ubisoft recently revealed it also wanted to saunter down a similar path, as co-developing a film and game side-by-side while sharing assets will apparently be hugely beneficial to both.
Head over to GamesIndustry.biz for the full interview with Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades, where he explains why he sees the Wii in the same toy-space as Simon Says or Buckaroo.
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Comments: 1-43 of 43 in total
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squarejawhero
12/06/08 @ 09:06
0
Sheesh. The problem with games developers is when they beat their chests like this. It's frankly slightly unprofessional - by all means be proud of your work, but not through denigrating that which is supposed to be the top mark. Let others be the judge.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/06/08 @ 10:07
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alimokrane
12/06/08 @ 09:11
-1
Fine, may be you won the best cutscene battle but the gameplay s***ed BIG TIME! and guess what you're making a game.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/06/08 @ 10:11
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Bigglesworth
12/06/08 @ 09:16
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He's pretty much correct, although as spongebob said, Beowulf is hardly a benchmark for CG film-making. Pity about the blowing of one's own trumpet, true, but remember this is came from an interview - not a press release.
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Madafunkola
12/06/08 @ 09:18
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Did anyone else find Kai strangely attractive?
No..? Just me.....? :/ |
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squarejawhero
12/06/08 @ 09:21
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Beowulf is considered a considerable benchmark. As pretty as HS is, it's certainly not up to those levels.
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+1
Game had fantastic acting and characters. Easily a cut above the usual dross we are served up. Shame that they couldn't just transplant the combat engine from God Of War in there.
Still was enjoyable enough, and the third chapter of the game was excellent. If the plot and scripting wasn't there, you wouldn't have had anywhere near the attachment needed to the characters to care. |
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asphaltcowboy
12/06/08 @ 09:36
+1
He feels the dramatics his team conjured up for Heavenly Sword using a real-time engine were not only better at conveying emotion than CGI extravaganzas such as Beowulf, but also around 15 to 25 per cent cheaper.
The actual quote was that they could do something like Beowulf for 15-20% of the cost. |
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Bigglesworth
12/06/08 @ 09:42
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Beowulf is considered a considerable benchmark.
Yeah, I'm not sure how that happenned =/ Personally, it still takes a lot to beat Final Fantasy's CG, which for me is the best in the industry and puts Beowulf to shame (they just need a little work on their dialogue, though FF XII was much improved in that area, if you can take high fantasy =) ). I do think HS got pretty close to that standard. |
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dominalien
12/06/08 @ 09:49
+1
A very good game IMHO. Will have to replay it someday without worrying about getting all the coins or tokens or whatever in every chapter just to enjoy the action and the story.
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-1
He feels the dramatics his team conjured up for Heavenly Sword using a real-time engine were not only better at conveying emotion than CGI extravaganzas such as Beowulf, but also around 15 to 20 percent cheaper.
Yes it looked more than 50% cheaper mate and there was precious little gameplay included in your so called game! Maybe you should watch Beowolf again and note their hair, skin textures, backgrounds etc. etc. Heavenly sword didn't come close to that level of detail. |
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Derblington
12/06/08 @ 10:06
-1
"The actual quote was that they could do something like Beowulf for 15-20% of the cost."
No, it says better than Beowulf and cheaper. He's horribly wrong on the first point and I don't care about the cost. |
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asphaltcowboy
12/06/08 @ 10:14
0
Derb, I was just referring to the actual article - I thought it phrased the point rather strangely!
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+1
...except that an awful lot of the "ingame" cutscenes were prerendered in order to improve loading times (I'm amazed the xbox fanbois didnt find this out at the time)
Still a great game though, the combat was fun, and the storyline and characters were very emotive - I don't think I've ever hated a boss as much as Flying Fox (poor Kai) Right, m'off to play twing twang... |
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MasterNameless
12/06/08 @ 10:53
0
After watching Beowulf, the 3D version at the IMAX no less, I spent a week trying to supress the urge to gouge my own eyeballs out with a spoon. I enjoyed it that much.
Never got far enough with Heavenly Sword, couldn't even be bothered to get to the end of the demo. Which I heard was short anyway! Probably didn't help that I was playing Ninja Gaiden 2 just before it, the combat seemed terrible in comparison. I'm sure there's probably more to it, but if it's just 'cutscenes that are superior to Beowulf'... no thanks!!! |
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+1
He was not talking about the level of detail in the cutscenes but the performance of the acting, which was without doubt excellent and a cut above anything else I have seen with a complete cg performance. Remember, it was directed by Andy Serkis, who played Gollum and King King which are the two greatest cg performances ever.
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StanleyPointLarge
12/06/08 @ 11:00
+1
i thought the cutscenes were very good, and the acting was amazing, much better than what you usually get in games. OK the game was stupidly short but I did enjoy the game. I just wish Micrsoft would add backwards compabilty for Kung Fu Chaos so that i can play it again.
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MasterNameless
12/06/08 @ 11:07
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@StanleyPointLarge
Have you tried burning and running that backward compatability disc from Xbox.com? A friend of mine wanted to play Project Zero 2 from the original Xbox, which wasn't listed as a backward compatible game on the website and neither would the Xbox update automatically in order to run the game. He had to download and burn the BC disc from xbox.com, and after that it worked perfectly! Xbox customer support told him to try it, even though it wasn't listed as compatible, we both thought they were making it up at the time too, and was very, very surprise for it to actually work! |
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farticusmaximus
12/06/08 @ 11:25
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"I just wish Micrsoft would add backwards compabilty for Kung Fu Chaos so that i can play it again."
Amen to that! KFC was an awesome game, and desperately needs a sequel. Games night with the lads sorely misses pass the princess and the iceberg game! As for heavenly sword: Pretty cutscenes, but terribly dull gameplay, far too short and it had QTE's all over it. Stinker, in summary. |
Comments: 1-43 of 43 in total
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