Vanquish

[dwarf]

Well just in the way that they're shooty and fast/combo focused. I hear yo' though.

[Dan_Dare]

Epic's game reminds me alot of BLACK and Borderlands, which is good. I loved both.

[dwarf]

Have you seen Rage? It's about as Borderlands as you can get. But it looks way better than Borderlands:

[Dante]

Blog has been updated.

 

New Trailer

 

GameTrailers Preview

[drahkon]

Looks absolutely mental. :awesome:

[Mundi]

Starting to get very excited with this game as this game reminds me a lot of God Hand and is being made by the same team.

 

God Hand is only my favourite action game ever.

[Daft]

Finally saw a video for this. Looks dross.

[Dante]

Site update and blog updated.

 

 

Edge Interviews: Shinji Mikami

 

Today, we get the definite feeling that Shinji Mikami doesn't want to be interviewed.

 

With a designer ball-cap pulled down over his face and his body slouched deep into his chair, Mikami is far from appearing the firebrand revolutionary that his work on Resident Evil 4 might hint he really is. But his apparent reticence is not entirely unwarranted. Undoubtedly jet-lagged and tired from a packed day of interviews, it's probably a case of catching him at the wrong time and the wrong place.

 

When we mention P.N. 03, however, he noticeably perks up, keen to point out the differences between that title and his new game, Vanquish. We go on to discuss why Vanquish is the game Mikami hoped P.N.03 would be, the difficulty of balancing eastern and western tastes and the importance of iterative design.

 

 

Director of Platinum Games, Shinji Mikami

 

When Vanquish was initially announced a lot of people compared it to P.N. 03. Would you encourage that comparison?

Hmm. There are similarities, but only so much as there are a lot of things in Vanquish that I would have loved to do in P.N. 03 but couldn't due to time or technical constraints. Unfortunately, I'm very aware that P.N. 03 didn't sell as well as anyone hoped, and we're doing a much more solid job on Vanquish. Really, I'd just like to assure those people not to worry about Vanquish being anything like P.N. 03.

 

Well, we think the comparison was supposed to be positive. What were you unable to put into P.N. 03 that you've been able to put into Vanquish?

I wanted to make sure the main character would shoot guns! In the early stages of P.N. 03 Vanessa had guns, but because of schedule constraints we weren't able to create all of the animations for the guns, so we had to take them out. I really wanted her to shoot with guns…

 

Anyway, P.N. 03 was what I'd consider an older style of design. You run, you shoot. Vanquish takes that to the next level with the addition of boosting and cover. It allows you to take on your opponents in a much more fluid way. The one thing that Vanquish is missing is P.N. 03's sexiness, however. It would be just too odd if Sam Gideon shook his ass like Vanessa.

 

 

 

Was boosting part of the original concept for Vanquish?

It was the idea I had from the very beginning. In fact, most of the ideas I had after that have been cut from the game…

 

Such as?

I had created a partner character, a dog, that's no longer there. The idea was that it was a 'combat support robot' that, depending on the situation, could fly apart and attach to your suit to augment its powers or supplement the weapons. That was the original idea.

 

Did it not work, or did you find you didn't have the time to evolve it?

In the case of the dog, we got to a certain point of development, and all different kinds of people were asking me, "Isn't it odd to have a dog on a battlefield?" So he's gone.

 

 

 

When designing a game, do you generally react to other people's opinions?

When I begin designing a game, rather than approach it form the overall macro level, I start with the details. I go down to a very detailed level and I think about what kind of things I can put into the game that will please me. First I ask, "How does this make me feel?" then I ask, "How do I think this will make other people feel?" If it feels right, then I'm good. But if there's anything in there that makes me feel nervous, I will take it to the other team members, get their input, and see what needs to be done.

 

Do you focus group your titles while developing them?

Yes. With Vanquish, for example, the original idea for the story was for China to invade the US, but when we started testing that with western audiences they didn't understand it; they couldn't get their heads round that idea. So it was changed to Russia versus the US… well, actually, initially the game is about Russia versus the US. I can't really talk about the story but not everything is as it seems in the beginning.

 

The player score is a very big part of the HUD; is the scoring mechanic important to Vanquish's design?

No, it's just in there so that the game can have online leaderboards, which are very popular.

 

 

 

It seems that Vanquish has been designed very reactively, to hit all the beats that will attract the (western) massmarket. Is that true?

No, not really. Reaching the massmarket wasn't part of the decision. It's just turned out that Vanquish is what I wanted to work on.

 

Are you concerned that Japanese game developers are increasingly homogenising their work to reach the massmarket?

Perhaps, but one of the reasons is that the scale of game development has become so much larger. Massive. I think of Japanese game developers as craftsmen, not an assembly-line, and these craftsmen do not have the space to be creative in the current climate where detailed, realistic graphics are the mainstream in the west. The more stylized, artistic approach to graphics and design seen in Japan can get some positive coverage in the western press, and by some game players, but it just doesn't sell that well.

 

Consider Ico, or Okami. They didn't sell as well as I think they should have. If Ico had sold, like, five million copies worldwide maybe Japanese publishers would have taken notice and it would be much easier for Japanese game developers to make the games that we want to.

[Dante]

Demo On The 1st September

SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced that the demo for VANQUISHTM will be available exclusively for download from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, and PlayStation® Store for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system in North America on 31st August, across Europe on 1st September and Australia on 2nd September.

 

The VANQUISHTM Official Demo: Velocity Attack, allows players to choose one level from the two levels of difficulty (Casual or Normal) available. Taking on the role of Sam, a United States government agent kitted out with a futuristic ARS battle suit, players are vying for ownership of the planet’s remaining energy resources against Russia on board a huge space station. On entering the third port lobby of the space station, numerous enemy robots are being brought in by dropships. Players have an array of weaponry and upgrades at their disposal, as well as the ability to hijack “Walkers”, or use the suits unique Boost and AR mode to take down the robots. The demo climaxes with the formidable boss, Argus which you will need to use all your skills acquired throughout the demo to defeat.

 

VANQUISHTM is the hottest title Shinji Mikami has worked on in over 4 years, achieving high tension throughout the game and delivering a new sense of game merged shooting and action in a finely balanced manner. The game is set for release across North America on 19th October, Australia on 21st of October and across Europe on October 22nd 2010 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

[Dante]

[dwarf]

The thought of getting this hadn't crossed my mind til now. Might have to give it a gand at some point.

 

Was online support confirmed at all?

[Aimless]

It's singleplayer only.

 

As a competitive online game it simply wouldn't work due to the mechanics — high-speed movement, constant time dilation — although I suppose some sort of cooperative mode would be within the realm of possibility. Perhaps if they make a sequel.

[dwarf]

I understand some aspects wouldn't work, but I don't see why the speed would make it impossible.

Either way, my interest is perked.

[Aimless]

Well, my understanding is that the rocket knee slide is your primary movement mechanic during combat, i.e. you're supposed to be using it all the time. In a competitive environment that simply wouldn't be fun, as you'd either a) have everyone jetting around the place being almost impossible to hit, especially when you factor in lag, or b) have the knee slide on a severe cooldown so it could only be used sparingly, which when coupled with the lack of time dilation would turn the game into pretty much every other cover-based shooter.

 

I'm not saying the issues are insurmountable, but any competitive mode would need to be very divergent from the singleplayer. It's not like Halo of Uncharted where the mechanics already fit.

[Deathjam]

Im sure someone else has said this, but everytime i see this game in action, it makes me want it that much more. Before I was midly interested, not this could be a day 1 purchase. Still not sure. If it does a resi 4 then I think my mind will be made up.

[Dante]

Eurogamer Hands-on

[Wesley]

This looks terrible.

[Aimless]

I never knew you suffered from dysgraphia, Wesley.

[Dan_Dare]

demo today! Technically!

 

not sure I can play this (I r spaz and have rubbish hands) but we'll see.

[Wesley]

I never knew you suffered from dysgraphia, Wesley.

 

I've struggled with it for a long time.

 

But.

 

I can usually cover it up.

 

Pretty well.

 

Uninspired visuals and tired gameplay.

[Jamba]

I've struggled with it for a long time.

 

But.

 

I can usually cover it up.

 

Pretty well.

 

Uninspired visuals and tired gameplay.

 

I can see how you would think that from the point of view of someone who hasn't played it as it combines stuff that has been done before. But from the words of people who have played it, the combination makes for a new experience.

 

Check out the demo. Which by the way is out today (1st Sept) in Europe. The 31st Aug release day was for the US.

[Aimless]

But not on the Xbox, for some reason. It should be out tomorrow on the Marketplace, but they even seem to have made it unavailable in the US to boot. Not sure what's going on there, but you can always download it via a PC and whack it on a USB stick.

 

Anyway, grabbed the US PSN demo last night. It plays really well, it's just as slick to control as Bayonetta despite obviously being in a different genre. You can shoot from cover just as you'd expect, but that's evidently not what you're supposed to do: really the cover's there to give you a breather and vent your heat guage to which all your suit's fancy abilities are linked.

 

Basically sliding about on your rocket knees, kicking into slow-mo and melee attacking all build up heat. It's quite a bit like Halo in two ways: the heat system itself is like firing a plasma rifle, including the overheat cooldown period if your overstretch, but the gauge itself also acts somewhat like the player's shield; if you get hit into a critical state your suit will automatically kick into slow-motion until you overheat, your primary concern being to get into cover until you're up to full strength again.

 

The demo's not very long but it holds up well to replaying, with several different approaches to each situation. In fact I'm going to give it another go right now.

[Choze]

Game is brilliant. Shinji Mikami knows his stuff. Cant wait for the full game.

 

The shooting is alot of fun and the game plays very well.

[dwarf]

It's kind of how I expected it would be, but it's a bit smoother than I first imagined. I liked the melee attacks and the feel of the weapons. Phat Gun turrets = yes.

I enjoy.

 

The thing they'll need to show a bit more of for me is environment style, and changes in gameplay/gadgets & moves.

[Dan_Dare]

so no 360 demo? displeasing.