HeavenlySword
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Some pretty new Heavenly Sword scans
Hmm, call me crazy, but I'd rather take Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning out for coffee than Heavenly Sword's Nariko. Why? Uhhh... check out the latest screens/scans from the latter's game and you tell us. Yeah, you'd feel safe if Nariko was having a good time and you suddenly get surrounded by a plethora of ninjas, but what if she asked for decaf and you forgot? Something tells me she'd be less receptive than Lightning.Anyway, these latest scans show the long red-haired heroine dealing some major deathblows to some masked peons, as well as Jeux-France's confirmation that indeed, the game is due out in March for the North American crowd. Which is really strange, since the latest EGM threw this title out in their "Fall '07" lineup. But of course, this is the same EGM who hosted a poll asking "What's wrong with the PlayStation Store" and 55% of the voters said "It's not XBox Live". I mean, I don't like cheese because it isn't ice cream. Sure, both are dairy, but I'm ignorant and take advantage of a poll without any screening questions.Wow, we're getting off topic. Although, not much to be on topic about. Check out the scans and get pumped up for March!
Heavenly Sword still on track despite PAL delay
Or is it? Says Nina Kristensen, Ninja Theory's co-founder, "We've always been a launch window title so it hasn't affected us at all," referring to the PS3 delay in Europe. However, lead animator Guy Midgley said "No, it's going to be next year...but we haven't announced a specific date yet." So... it's a launch window title (which should be before 2007, right?) but it's not coming out until next year in the US?Oh. Launch window for Europe! Well, if you put it that way, it makes sense. So, for those of you wondering, Heavenly Sword hasn't been moved forward in the launch frame, nor has it been delayed. The difference between Japan/North Ameria launch window and the European launch window might have caused a few rumors to spark into existence, only to be snuffed out by a little bit of common sense.
TGS 06: Best in Show, according to CESA
The mighty Computer Entertainment Software Association of Japan revealed the eleven titles they thought were the "best in show." Of those titles, two were exclusives for the PSP. Here are the winners, in no particular order: Elebits (Konami) for the Wii Gyakuten Saiban 4 [Phoenix Wright] (Capcom) for the DS Gran Turismo HD (Sony) for the PS3 The Eye of Judgment (Sony) for the PS3 Seiken Densetsu 4 [Dawn of Mana] (Square Enix) for the PS2 Tales of Destiny (Namco Bandai) for the PS2 Blue Dragon (Microsoft) for the Xbox 360 Heavenly Sword (Sony) for the PS3 Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (Konami) for the PSP Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom) for the PSP Lost Planet (Capcom) for the Xbox 360 This should come as no surprise. There are so many excellent games at TGS this year, that it must've been nigh impossible to even narrow the list down. But, for those of you that are battling a fanboy war, you might want to note that PSP got two titles, and the DS only got one.[Via Joystiq]
Heavenly Sword screens and vid... Sony owns TGS!
Maybe that last phrase was unnecessary, but it doesn't matter. There has been so much eyebrow-raising at Sony's stuff at the Tokyo Game Show that all the bad news prior seems to be fading into, er, oblivion. Anyway, Heavenly Sword has a few high-res screens up here, and also a video to download. Just navigate around the question marks and the video's under the blue question marks next to the "mpg". If that doesn't work, you can always look for another video... there's a few over at IGN. It's more arena brawling, but it doesn't matter when the game looks this fun. November is so far away... not that this is a launch title, but even so, we want our PS3. We knew the Tokyo Game Show would change many people's minds! Hooray![creds to Ruliweb for the image (and Sony, of course)]
Heavenly Sword Q&A -- quick and awesome
The producer of Heavenly Sword, Mat Hart, sat down for an interview recently and talked about this much anticipated PS3 title. Here's what he had to say: The inspiration for the action scenes came mostly from film -- films like Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... stuff that's over the top, but really, really cool. The combat system has been in the works for two years, from scratch! They're really trying to reach a deep combo system, what with juggling enemies and the like. "You know, you go into power stance and you feel the weight of the weapon, and you're hitting people across the room, but then you flip over into speed stance, and you're dancing all over the place, spinning the blades around, just whacking guys up into the air." Yay! Ever play Kung Fu Chaos for the XBox? A lot of their ideas spawned from that game. They've been working on a camera system and seem to be thinking about incorporating the tilt sensor as a camera system. Maybe not in this game, but in the future, they believe it could be a very interesting concept. How has developing for the PS3 turned out? Let's just quote this one: "It's been great! To be fair, I've not had anything to compare it with, because we're only developing for PS3, this is a PS3 exclusive. I can't comment on other SKUs or anything like that. But certainly we've found Sony to be a fantastic partner to work with. The actual architecture of the console, the power of the PlayStation 3, is what gives us the ability to give you an environment that's alive, a combat system that gives a unique experience, and a story, an emotionally driven, character-driven story, that pulls you through the game." A half-dozen "chapters" of single-player gaming, one weapon with three different stances (ranged, speed, power)... and they're still tweaking the idea of a "sense of urgency". Will the heroine's life deplete slowly throughout a level? Maybe. It was an interesting interview, but not too much was revealed that we weren't aware of. The fact that we've only got one weapon to use is kind of annoying, but with the different stances it may help spice up combat to keep us entertained throughout the game. Check out the whole interview if you're looking forward to this PS3 game.
Blu-ray = Success! says Jez San of Heavenly Sword
Jez San was recently interviewed on his take about the PS3 and he said it would succeed, if only because of Blu-ray. He also said: "I think the combination of a next-generation games machine and a next-generation DVD player that plays full high-definition movies is very compelling, despite the huge price. Remember price is just a function of time and volume. It doesn't matter what the PS3 comes out at, it's what it gets down to, over time, that's important." Yeah, but Sony has said they don't intend to drop the price for a while. Even so, he does have a point.Some analyst agreed with Jez San, but really, there are so many market analysts it isn't surprising that one of them agreed. Although the analyst agreed, he did admit that Sony has a rough ride coming up, what with all the negative press going around. San finishes up the piece by saying that each console has a unique market appeal and the war may end up in a 3-way tie. Armistice, anyone?
Gollum's meatspace counterpart does PS3 title
After groundbreaking roles playing digital counterparts Gollum and King Kong in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and King Kong respectively, Andy Serkis, the world's most famous motion capture-actor, is giving video games a shot.He'll be playing the role of the villainous King Botan in Ninja Theory's upcoming PS3 action title, Heavenly Sword.The BBC is running a short piece, with some gee-whiz tech jargon thrown in to wow the unwashed masses ("one of the processors inside the machine is solely devoted to recreating the movement of clothes and hair") as well as some interesting details on Serkis' specific involvement, noting that he's "taking care of all the performance capture, the casting and is heavily involved in writing."Hollywood involvement in games is nothing new (remember Bruce Willis in Apocalypse?) but Serkis is the Marlon Brando of motion capture and, as such, might be able to bring some real talent into the acting backwater that is video games. Then there's the whole question of whether or not that belongs in video games ...See also:PS3 Impressions: Heavenly SwordMajor PS3 titles missing launch date[Thanks, ben]
Warhawk, MotorStorm, & other bootleg GDC PS3 videos
So, are you tired of bootleg stills from the upcoming PS3 titles featured at GDC? (Or bootleg videos from current-gen titles like God of War 2?) Well, it looks like you're in luck, as we've got a few fuzzy PS3 videos from Phil Harrison's speech, courtesy of the embargo-ignorin' folks at Multiplayer.it.What we have above is a clip from the developer demo of Warhawk for the PS3. A voiceover describes the "ambient warfare" to be used in the air-combat simulation game, as well as the innovative mix of "Cell-based software rendering with RSX-based hardware rendering" to produce the graphics. For all you coders out there, it was also interesting to note that the programs running on the Cell's SPUs were not written in low-level assembly (easing development, but possibly degrading performance).While we wait until E3, when a playable version of Warhawk was promised to be delivered, here are a few more PS3 videos from GDC that you might find interesting (with a few unfortunately quite incomplete): Streamed video of MotorStorm GDC footage, also with a voiceover. Streamed speeded-up video clips (no audio) of Warhawk, Getaway 3, Lair, the Havoc physics demo from Heavenly Sword, the bullet-ridden car model demo, and even that video concerning Rachet & Clank. Streamed (basically) audio-only video from Resistance: Fall of Man. [Thanks, Reaktorleak89, Fan, & Da'Cheez; via PS3 Fanboy & QJ.net]See also: MotorStorm, Resistance and more: pictures from Sony's GDC keynote God of War 2 GDC video leaked online Multiplayer.it's report on Phil Harrison's GDC keynote (in Italian)
