The Bourne Conspiracy Demo Impressions

The playable demo for The Bourne Conspiracy just showed up on Xbox Live so I took it for a quick spin despite never having seen any of the Bourne movies and not really having followed the development of the game.

From what I've played so far it seems like a potentially cool title with some repetitive gameplay. It is certainly the most cinematic action game I've ever played. The developers did a good job of making gameplay look like a fast-paced movie. Gunplay works very well, but Bourne's basic movement is a little sluggish. For the most part you're either fighting or shooting though, moving is just a means to get to the next firefight or brawl, so it's not a big deal.

My biggest problem with the game is the hand to hand combat, which looks incredible in action but is also extremely repetitive. You basically jam on X and Y to do punching combos and you can also hold down the same buttons for an unblockable kick attack that takes a couple seconds to activate. Successful attacks build up a meter which can be used to execute "takedown" attacks which will usually finish a regular enemy off.

You'll often fight 4 or 5 guys in a row and your health meter will only refill in between battles, often resulting in you getting killed by the final guy and having to restart from the last checkpoint. Bosses are similar to fighting multiple guys in a row because they can withstand 5 or more takedown attacks before finally giving up the ghost. My other problem is that the kick attacks are sketchy and often won't activate even though you held the button down for like 3 seconds. This just leaves you open to getting your ass whooped, making the kicks a huge risk to use.

Even more baffling is that the couple of bosses you fight in the demo are both guys who are clearly twice Jason Bourne's age. Being that Bourne is a government secret weapon, it doesn't make much sense that it takes him 10 minutes to knock out some 50-year old guy and even less sense that said 50-year old can knock Bourne out in no time. Of course, it's a game and there needs to be some sort of challenge, but the fights don't need to be dragged on so long. It just makes it that much more annoying to play over when you die right before you're about to beat them. They also have that classic video game trait of all of a sudden pounding the crap out of you when they're almost finished, making it hard to even get an attack in. Even if you never got touched the entire fight they can deplete your entire health meter in a couple of barrages. Again, who's the specially trained government super weapon?

Despite the weak fighting system I was actually pretty impressed with the game. It looks fantastic and overall plays very smoothly, I just hope that hand-to-hand fighting isn't as prominent in the final game or else it might be a deal breaker for me. It's fine to break things up a bit here and there but I don't want to be kickboxing every boss in the game.

There is also one short driving level in the demo but it is over so fast it's hard to tell how well driving will be implemented in the final game. You tool around in a little Mini Cooper, which controls fine, trying to shake the cops who are chasing you. I would imagine driving won't be a huge part of the game and that's just as well.

The Bourne Conspiracy is currently scheduled to ship on June 3rd, which puts it awfully close to titles like LEGO Indiana Jones and Ninja Gaiden II. They probably should've pushed to get the game out a couple weeks earlier, especially since nothing is really coming out in May anyway.

Study Suggest Demos Hurt Game Sales

I just love studies that explore one facet of something and make wild declarations that supposedly pertain to the whole. You know, like when someone does a study that finds that 95% of serial murderers ate bread several times a week and then proclaim that we need to do away with bread immediately. EEDAR's latest findings simply replace serial murderers with "poorly selling games" and bread with "demos". The conclusion is the same: demos should be done away with.

The study has found that games which are promoted only by a video trailer, with no playable demo available before launch, sell significantly better than games that do have playable demos. The conclusion being that developers shouldn't put out pre-release demos because they only hurt sales.

That is, of course, mind bogglingly narrow minded.

They never consider WHY games without demos are selling so much better. Let's see, what games without demos have gone on to sell huge numbers: Halo 3, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4. Even though it isn't out yet, GTAIV will not have a demo and will undoubtedly be the biggest selling title of the year. See a trend here? Pretty much any game that a publisher KNOWS is going to sell like mad anyway isn't going to get a demo because it'd just be a waste of time and money. The rules don't apply to games like this.

Claiming that the success of these games has anything to do with the fact that they didn't have demos is just insane. Is there any doubt that they would've been just as successful if there had been demos? I don't think so.

Also, think about the fact that almost EVERY game that comes out nowadays has a demo. That separates those uber-franchises even more, meaning that the line that represents "no demo" games is pretty much exclusively made up of the Halo's, COD's, and GTA's.

Now, I don't disagree with them completely; I think in regards to games like Turning Point or Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, having playable demos available probably did hurt their sales more than if they just had a trailer. But that's because the games weren't very good.

So essentially, the lesson is just common sense: If your game is good, by all means, put up a demo. If it sucks, (and come on teams, you know when your game sucks) you might want to think twice. It's easy to make a game look good in a trailer, but it's tough to disguise crappiness when someone can actually play the game.

[ MTV Multiplayer via Joystiq]

Folklore Demo Impressions

Today, the Japanese PSN Store saw the release of the demo version of Folklore (or FolksSoul as it's known in Japan) an action RPG from Genji developer, Game Republic.

As it is all in Japanese the subtle nuances of the story escape me, such as why there is a giant blue rat wearing an oversized 19th century European suit, complete with extremely tall top hat. But, I'm sure it all makes sense though...really. Regardless, the game is flat out awesome.

I knew little about the game until Sony's recent Gamer Day and from that I learned you can suck the souls out of your enemies and not much more.

As I write this I am walking around a fairly nondescript European style pub in an equally non descript town perched on a cliffside. This pub, however, is populated with a number of fantastical creatures, not what I was expecting upon walking in.

A jovial, but rotund, witch with a hedgehog on her shoulder sweeps by the fireplace, while an elegantly dressed blue-skinned lady with a parasol floating above her, (who looks like a less stylized version of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride) looks on. The bartender is nothing so much as a 7 foot tall Cousin Itt, only with a straw hat, long ears, and bulging eyes. Sitting at a table across from him is a massive pig-like creature with an upturned blue snout and white hair covering his eyes. He sits with the aforementioned blue rat, who is actually quite tiny. The cutscene, and the fact that he is wearing what looks like a man's suit that is 6 sizes to big for him, lent him the appearance of being much bigger than he is.

As I exit I am accosted by a lamp-wielding scarecrow-looking creature who looks like a darker, more realistic, version of the Skull Kid from Zelda: Majora's Mask.

I notice the name of the bar, in English, above the door: "The Little Neighbors".

After finding myself at a Stonehenge like ruin and meeting with another scarecrow, my decidely modern looking clothes are magically replaced with more appropriate fantasy attire and I am teleported to a world where the creatures in the pub would feel at home.

Soon enough I am in battle with the indigenous creatures, and the combat system is fantastic. You begin with two powers, which you can assign to any of the 4 face buttons, and use them to attack. After pounding on a monster their soul will become visible above them, this is your cue to hit the R1 button at which point a beam of energy links you and the creature's soul and you draw it in, jerking the Sixaxis towards you like you're pulling in a fish. You gain experience and new powers in this way although I'm not sure if the experience is for your character, for increasing that particular power, or both. It seems capturing multiple souls at a time gives an experience boost.

What is awesome is the creatures you face are your weapons and magic. Your basic "sword" attack is a leaf skirted wood sprite who quickly appears in front of you to attack, the very same creature you will face all over this first area. As you defeat new enemies their powers become your own and they can be utilized at the push of whatever button you assign them to.

If it sounds cumbersome, it is anything but. Combat is fast paced and fluid and the use of the Sixaxis to capture souls works perfectly, a slight tug is sufficient to draw it in and it feels natural in the midst of battle. The L1 button lets you lock on to the nearest enemy Zelda-style for focused attacks. The battles are reminiscent of Zelda but even faster paced. It plays how all action RPG's should.

The music and sound is gorgeous: ethereal and spooky, full of soft chimes, evoking the Harry Potter films. Wolves can be heard howling off in the distance.

Graphically, the game is extemely impressive, which is saying something seeing as it is downscaled to 480p on my 1080i-only HDTV. I refused to buy Resistance because it looked terrible on my TV but I would have no problem playing this game in 480p. It might even convince me to upgrade my set because if it looks this good in SD it must look amazing in HD.

Cutscenes are presented in a graphic novel style using the game engine as well as still art. Very well done.

Needless to say, I am kind of blown away by the game so far, and it may very well be the first actual PS3 game I ever play on the system I've owned since launch. Hopefully the game will live up to the promising gameplay shown in the demo, it could easily end up being somewhat of a disappointment if there are limited areas and creature souls to devour.

FolkLore hits Japan in a few weeks and will be releasing this Fall in the US.

Eternal Sonata Demo Impressions

A fully localized playable demo of Eternal Sonata showed up on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace today, much to the delight of RPG fans everywhere and so far it looks like a winner.

I used to be a big RPG fan but have long grown tired of the random, turn based battles which make up the vast bulk of gameplay and discourage exploration. I never liked the feeling of wanting to know what was down a particular hallway or tunnel but then realizing I didn't care enough to fight a battle every three steps all the way there and back. Especially when nine times out of ten it's just a dead end or a treasure chest with some throwaway item. That one time you find the "Fierce Sword of Ass Kicking" or "Platinum Halberd of Reprognification" just doesn't seem worth it. I'll just stick it out with the Satisfactory Rapier of Spanking and the Armor of Adequate Defense, thank you very much.

While Eternal Sonata's battles are still turn based they are done in a fast paced way that feels more like an action RPG. Monsters can be seen, and easily avoided, but they'll give chase if they get wind of you. This allows you to fight when you want to and explore when you want to.

Once in battle, which takes place on a separate battlefield, each character has a certain amount of time on their turn to get into position and pound the crap out of the enemy. Melee characters for example will need to run over to an enemy and then jam on the A button. Ranged fighters can shoot from a distance and therefore spend less of their turn running. When their time is up, control switches to the next character until it is the enemy's turn.

Things can get quite hectic in a battle with multiple enemies, but the real time system makes it much more fun to play than simply selecting "Fight" from a menu. Also, while limited in the demo, it appears that there will be multiple ways to adjust how battles play out, depending on your play style.

Load times going into and coming out of a battle are quick and painless, another important part of keeping the game moving and not making battle something to dread.

What really stands out about Eternal Sonata is the graphics. It is simply beautiful in HD, particularly the characters. It never looks "cel-shaded", it just looks like a cartoon. The attention to detail is admirable and gives you the impression of exploring a story book.

One minor issue is that the game periodically hiccups when running around outside of battle. You'll be moving along and it's almost like the game pauses for a split second. It happens frequently enough to be annoying, so hopefully it will be fixed in the final version. The US version is currently scheduled for a September release so they still have plenty of time. Eternal Sonata looks to be a nice alternative to the uber-hyped Blue Dragon, which is supposed to be as traditional a Japanese RPG as they come.