Red Steel 2

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It's like wishing Mario Kart was a super realistic driving sim. Red Steel 2 is what it is, and looks pretty good. It's weird to wish it was something completely different. Wish for another game to be 1:1.

[Sprite Machine]

It's like wishing Mario Kart was a super realistic driving sim. Red Steel 2 is what it is, and looks pretty good. It's weird to wish it was something completely different. Wish for another game to be 1:1.

Okay. Which one?

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Okay. Which one?

Fucking hell, you're intolerable. WISH SOMEONE ELSE WOULD MAKE A NEW 1:1 SWORD GAME. It'll be loads worse than this though, and this might not even be very good!

[___]

Okay. Which one?

How about this one?

[The Sarge]

Weapons Featurette.

[scottcr]

Jeez that looks good!

... for some reason I assumed you would have a pistol and that was it. Also keeps the whole focus time thing from RS1 as well.

I LIKE IT

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Out there. It's a bit annoying, the sword fighting should have just been small gesture based instead of making you do big motions. Maybe I just need to change the settings.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Yeah, much better with swing strength set to 'relaxed'.

[Pikkewyn]

And the gunplay? In the mood for a shooty game on Wii, but if this is mostly motion-based sword fighting, I don't think I'll bother.

[boybrown]

Out there. It's a bit annoying, the sword fighting should have just been small gesture based instead of making you do big motions. Maybe I just need to change the settings.

yeah i did the same.

The gunplay is fine so far. not too far in though but looking very good so far.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It's fine. Definitely wants you to use the sword more at the moment. Bit of a pain that there isn't a button to switch between sword and gun which disables turning or something.

[The Sarge]

Super Powers

[Vemsie]

How's the level of challenge, guys? One of the main criticisms on the Invisible Walls podcast was that what they've played contained little challenge for the player, which unfortunately seems to be a bit of a Ubisoft staple these days.

[___]

Are the deadzones and other gubbins configurable a la CoD: Reflex?

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Are the deadzones and other gubbins configurable a la CoD: Reflex?

Yeah. Massive deadzone for Y-axis seems to be the way forward, you rarely have to aim up or down out of your field of vision.

It seemed pretty easy from the half hour I played, there's plenty room for it to get harder once it throws a few better equipped enemies at your though.

[diggler]

I think it's pretty awful. Looks nice, but there's absolutely zilch here that makes me feel like MotionPlus is at work - I wouldn't have noticed if I was doing a blind taste test.

Was hoping this would be the proper 1:1 sword fighting game we've been waiting for. It's not much better than the first though sadly.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It sits weirdly between making you do the full motions while still being gesture based at the default swing sensitivity. I don't want it to be 1:1 at all because it would just be an awful chore to play, so once you've got it set up and can get away with smaller motions it's a lot better.

I don't really understand why it's using Motion Plus either. All it needs to do is distinguish between horizontal and vertical slashes and a couple of strengths for each - could they really not do that with the remote on it's own?

[rgraves]

I don't really understand why it's using Motion Plus either. All it needs to do is distinguish between horizontal and vertical slashes and a couple of strengths for each - could they really not do that with the remote on it's own?

I remember seeing/reading something from the developer who said that Motion+ gave them much more detailed information on the strength of the swing (they deliberately wanted to stop people from just doing little movements), and also confirming that while every slash passes through the centre of the screen, the actual angle is completely determined by your swing - it's not just 4/8 pre-set slashes.

I do hope you're intending to buy it once it's out....

[A Hen]

One of devs pointed out that unless you're good at real sword fighting, you're not going to very good at a realistic sword fighting game. But still, I want one, so I can find out how rubbish my martial arts sword moves are (probably very); it would be a useful training aid.

However, I don't think that a FPS is really the format for it. What I want is a first-person beat-em-up where you use weapons, and with 1:1 Motionplus control. In theory, you could use any style of sword fighting from any culture (European, Japanese, Chinese, African, etc.), and if you were any good it would work - it wouldn't need to rely on knowledge of every martial art, or pre-programmed moves, by the developers - they'd just have to put a variety of sword weights into the game (light-weight parrying swords, heavy broadswords, and so on). Admittedly, they'd have to do some research for the AI, though, so it fought realistically.

In effect, you could pit any two fighting styles against each other. It would be sort of like that American TV show where they set up fights between historical enemies (Pirate vs. Zulu, or whatever) that have ridiculous outcomes, except not shit.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Bushido Blade, basically. I'd like to try it, but the people who are disappointed that this isn't it are missing the point a bit.

I've played a couple of hours more, scott is going to lose his shit once he plays it. His gushing will be so over the top it will completely drain any enthusiasm I have for the game.

[Robo_1]

You've had fair warning there Scott, restrain thyself.

Anyway, isn't Scott's OMFGW outpouring part of what gives these threads character? I'm really looking forward to it anyway.

[Rudderless]

Isn't MotionPlus only used for blocking and the like? AFAIK, you can move the remote around in any direction but there's canned stuff for attacks because it wouldn't really work properly otherwise. I imagine it has more effective detection for the kind of swipes you're doing, too - games using just the normal remote in the past have often had trouble differentiating between vertical and diagonal swipes, and I imagine this is perhaps where the enhanced precision comes in.

I imagine. Perhaps someone who's actually played it can clarify.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Although it's all canned (apart from blocking, which does track your movements about as accurately as in WSR sword fighting) the strike are in the same direction as your movements. The thing is that it doesn't really make a difference, the only important directions are vertical and horizontal and the two strengths for each.

I'm sure it's making the gesture recognition more accurate, it's just not an all singing all dancing demonstration of Motion Plus that some people probably wanted as it just seems like stuff it should be able to do anyway. The incidental uses like opening safes and turning switches show it off a bit better, actually.

[Rudderless]

Although it's all canned (apart from blocking, which does track your movements about as accurately as in WSR sword fighting) the strike are in the same direction as your movements. The thing is that it doesn't really make a difference, the only important directions are vertical and horizontal and the two strengths for each.

I'm sure it's making the gesture recognition more accurate, it's just not an all singing all dancing demonstration of Motion Plus that some people probably wanted as it just seems like stuff it should be able to do anyway. The incidental uses like opening safes and turning switches show it off a bit better, actually.

So it feels slightly smoother if inessential? Do you think they could easily have made it compatible with the standard remote, then?

[Massive Invisible Dog]

I don't know about "easily", but I don't think it's so far beyond what is capable with the remote that it couldn't be done. It's hard to say though because the accuracy of remote gesture recognition varied so wildly between games, I don't think I ever really had a handle on exactly what was and wasn't possible with it. RS2 does manage to distinguish between swipes left to right, right to left, up to down, down to up and stabs without many hiccups. Maybe it'd be possible with the remote on it's own, but I don't recall playing anything that tried it.

[Pikkewyn]

MID, game mechanics aside, are you enjoying the game? Is it worth a download/purchase?

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It'd pretty good, yeah. Depends what you go in expecting, it's really not an FPS in the traditional sense. It feels more like a character action game like Bayonetta to be honest; you wander around, some enemies fill and area then you clear it then move on. The combat is very satisfying, especially once you've unlocked a few of the more interesting techniques. You need to fiddle with the various control options first though, it wasn't great with the default sensitivities and dead zones. I'm always surprised by how excellent pointer shooting is, it's going to be great once it's a standard option in all PS3 FPS.

The levels are kind of open and you take missions in them, once you've done a few you move on to the next one. It seems it's possible to move on without finishing everything and it doesn't appear to let you go back, although it does warn you.

So yeah, I like it at the moment. I didn't play much of the first one so I have no idea how it compares, but I think I would probably have hated it.

[Pikkewyn]

Hmm, this is shit. The backtracking to and from the safehouse is annoying, the game world is tiiiiiny and despite there being combos to use, I mostly just waggle my way to victory. Also, there's no insentive to use the guns as they don't reward combos. I'll carry on, but this wasn't what I expected. I wanted a linear shooter ala Conduit (except not excruciatingly shit) and this ain't it.

Sure is pretty though. Scott's GOTY.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

I wondered if there would end up being more depth to the combo system. I don't understand why there isn't something a bit better, then the gun would work as a way of keeping the chain going.

I didn't mind the backtracking though, I just used the time to look for the hidden coins.

[Pikkewyn]

My problem with the backtracking is this. The majority of the missions I've played are ridiculously short. You travel there, smashing scenery along the way, get there, have your 2 minutes of fun, leave, smash the scenery on your way back. I think I spend more time smashing barrels, vending machines and phone booths than I do fighting. It doesn't help that I'm a compulsive loot whore and feel compelled to grab every available coin, but it's still annoying.