psychobrawler
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I got around to trying out Psychonauts and Pariah from the new OXM demo disc last night. There's also a demo for Darkwatch, but it froze on the Renderware logo every time I tried to load it. But for anyone interested, here's my take on the said 2 demos....
I've been a little curious about Psychonauts for some time now, though I'm not a huge fan of platformer games. I threw the demo on just for a taste, and I sat hooked to the tv for 40 minutes or so. The game is like Mario 64 on acid. The art work is completely awesome. If you're a fan of Tim Burton's stuff like Beetlejuice or Nightmare Before Christmas, you'll love just looking at this game. The music even seems fit for a Burton movie. The gameplay itself is typical platformer stuff, but it's very well done. Smooth framerate, cool animations, and very funny humor. Everything seemed clever and well thought out. The best part is how original it feels. There's no other game quite like it out there. And there certainly hasn't been a platform game since Mario 64 that has hooked me so quickly. Can't say I'd pay $50 for it (there are few games I will), but I will definately be looking for a great cheap ass deal to come around for this one.
Pariah has nice graphics, smooth animation, and feels like every other FPS that's worth a damn. Not to say it won't be good, but it's not the best demo. There's only a couple of weapons to sample - the bulldog and a grenade launcher. The weapons handle and feel great with cool sound effects. The upgrading of weapons could be quite cool in the finished game, but there just wasn't much to work with here. The worse part of the demo is that it's locked into "easy" mode. So while the AI showed some intelligence in the way they behaved, it was hard to test them in battle. One thing that was nice to see was some major environmental descruction when you start spraying the souped up Bulldog at hiding enemies. Some of their cover just gets ripped to shreds. Very cool. Basically this was a 10 minute demo that didn't really give much of a demo. It neither sold me on the game or turned me off from it. I'm pretty much in the same place I was before playing it: waiting for some reviews and wondering how it will be.
Darkwatch is a game I've been eyeing for a while, but haven't had much hope that Sammy Studios would really succeed. If the demo is any indication though, this game is going to be a blast. The weapons are damn cool (the crossbow may be a new favorite for me). The sniper rifle is the coolest this side of Halo, and the gameplay is fast and fun. Very run and gun, but nice added touches like the ability to lean to slow you down a hair in tight quarters. Graphics are good, but certainly not going to wow fans of Chaos Theory or Doom 3. Part of the demo consists of riding horseback and chasing down a train while blasting demons off of said locamotive. Very cool. All in all this demo has restored my hopes that a FPS may still surface and offer a slightly new (though not revolutionary) experience on Xbox. Multiplayer will definately have some potential. I'll probably be looking for this one when it releases in July.
I've been a little curious about Psychonauts for some time now, though I'm not a huge fan of platformer games. I threw the demo on just for a taste, and I sat hooked to the tv for 40 minutes or so. The game is like Mario 64 on acid. The art work is completely awesome. If you're a fan of Tim Burton's stuff like Beetlejuice or Nightmare Before Christmas, you'll love just looking at this game. The music even seems fit for a Burton movie. The gameplay itself is typical platformer stuff, but it's very well done. Smooth framerate, cool animations, and very funny humor. Everything seemed clever and well thought out. The best part is how original it feels. There's no other game quite like it out there. And there certainly hasn't been a platform game since Mario 64 that has hooked me so quickly. Can't say I'd pay $50 for it (there are few games I will), but I will definately be looking for a great cheap ass deal to come around for this one.
Pariah has nice graphics, smooth animation, and feels like every other FPS that's worth a damn. Not to say it won't be good, but it's not the best demo. There's only a couple of weapons to sample - the bulldog and a grenade launcher. The weapons handle and feel great with cool sound effects. The upgrading of weapons could be quite cool in the finished game, but there just wasn't much to work with here. The worse part of the demo is that it's locked into "easy" mode. So while the AI showed some intelligence in the way they behaved, it was hard to test them in battle. One thing that was nice to see was some major environmental descruction when you start spraying the souped up Bulldog at hiding enemies. Some of their cover just gets ripped to shreds. Very cool. Basically this was a 10 minute demo that didn't really give much of a demo. It neither sold me on the game or turned me off from it. I'm pretty much in the same place I was before playing it: waiting for some reviews and wondering how it will be.
Darkwatch is a game I've been eyeing for a while, but haven't had much hope that Sammy Studios would really succeed. If the demo is any indication though, this game is going to be a blast. The weapons are damn cool (the crossbow may be a new favorite for me). The sniper rifle is the coolest this side of Halo, and the gameplay is fast and fun. Very run and gun, but nice added touches like the ability to lean to slow you down a hair in tight quarters. Graphics are good, but certainly not going to wow fans of Chaos Theory or Doom 3. Part of the demo consists of riding horseback and chasing down a train while blasting demons off of said locamotive. Very cool. All in all this demo has restored my hopes that a FPS may still surface and offer a slightly new (though not revolutionary) experience on Xbox. Multiplayer will definately have some potential. I'll probably be looking for this one when it releases in July.
. This game seemed pretty smooth....just with the top left trigger did something different....like grenades or something like Halo.