It's Vin Diesel Week! Wheelman / Dark Athena demos for 360 and PS3

darleysam

I tried The Wheelman last night, and.. damn, that was surprisingly fun. The cars have tonnes of grip, absurdly unrealistic, but then so is the rest of the game. It's entirely preposterous and silly, but then hitting 'down' on the d-pad, spinning your car 180 degrees, shooting (in slow-motion) either a bunch of dudes on explodable motorbikes or opponents in a race, then completing the 360 degree spin, and driving on to happiness.

Brilliant.


By contrast, Ninja Blade is utterly ridiculous in exactly the wrong way.

DrunkMc

darleysam wrote: »

I tried The Wheelman last night, and.. damn, that was surprisingly fun. The cars have tonnes of grip, absurdly unrealistic, but then so is the rest of the game. It's entirely preposterous and silly, but then hitting 'down' on the d-pad, spinning your car 180 degrees, shooting (in slow-motion) either a bunch of dudes on explodable motorbikes or opponents in a race, then completing the 360 degree spin, and driving on to happiness.

Brilliant.


By contrast, Ninja Blade is utterly ridiculous in exactly the wrong way.

That was exactly my thoughts, an absurdly fun unrealistic car chase game. I mean.....air jacking? Fucking sweet! I want GTA to implement that!

But I had fun, I am not sure it's worth $60, but if it drops in price I could def see this becoming a good arcade racer.

Chance

I gave the Dark Athena demo a spin, but having never played the original my skills are not quite paying the bills. My main question:

How do I pull off a counter-kill? When I get into melee combat with an enemy, occasionally the blades will flash white. I've tried hitting L1 when they flash - and I block. I've tried hitting R1 - nothing. I've tried blocking, waiting for the flash and hitting R1 - nothing.

Once I pulled it off by accident and it was awesome. I'd just really like to be able to do it on purpose.

darleysam

DrunkMc wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

I tried The Wheelman last night, and.. damn, that was surprisingly fun. The cars have tonnes of grip, absurdly unrealistic, but then so is the rest of the game. It's entirely preposterous and silly, but then hitting 'down' on the d-pad, spinning your car 180 degrees, shooting (in slow-motion) either a bunch of dudes on explodable motorbikes or opponents in a race, then completing the 360 degree spin, and driving on to happiness.

Brilliant.


By contrast, Ninja Blade is utterly ridiculous in exactly the wrong way.

That was exactly my thoughts, an absurdly fun unrealistic car chase game. I mean.....air jacking? Fucking sweet! I want GTA to implement that!

But I had fun, I am not sure it's worth $60, but if it drops in price I could def see this becoming a good arcade racer.

Yup, if I'm buying one game at full price, it'll be Dark Athena (Chance, I'd love to know that too, actually). But Wheelman felt kinda like Burnout in places, with a whole barrel of crazy awesome thrown over the top. Certainly one I want to spend more time with, and provided it reviews decently enough, could see myself getting when the price drops a bit.

Kay2

Is the Dark Athena demo available for non-Gold-scrubs yet?

donhonk

So the PS3 demo for Riddick...

Its awful. And I'm not one of those guys that does in depth game comparisons. It looks washed out, grainy, jaggy, and blurry. Hell, it doesn't even look 720p. More like 600p. What a disappointment, avoid if you can.

Elimination

xboxxer wrote: »

Yeah, so haven't d/l'ed the Riddick demo, but the screenshots do not impress.

I feel badly for Starbreeze/Tigon. The first Riddick game was awesome -- it was innovative with the fading HUD, the true FPS camera, the amazing normal mapped graphics. Shame it wasn't a blockbuster hit.

And then ... everyone else in the industry caught up and passed them.

The Darkness was OK fun, but the graphics seemed very weird, and not impressive at all. They didn't ramp up enough with the 360. It was _definitely_ not the leap that Butcher Bay was over everything else on the oXbox.

Ditto this. The graphics seem on par with other contemporary games.

And then, to have the game be largely a rehash of a game I already played? Not excited, sorry. (though I understand that they're adding a bunch of NEW content, I'm not sure why they didn't just do a whole new game). Not sure why they're doing this -- Killzone 1 didn't do that well on the PS2, but you don't see Sony rereleasing a ramped up version on the PS3 -- they went ahead and made a full on sequel. If you didn't play K1, too bad.

You hav't read up on the game much have you. It isn't "new content" its a 10 hour long new campaign, piled on with a remake of the old game. Its a ridiculously good deal. And the graphics bad? Really? They looked pretty damn awesome to me when i played the demo. Also The Darkness also has pretty good graphics, maybe we aren't playing the same game. o_O

donhonk

Elimination wrote: »

xboxxer wrote: »

Yeah, so haven't d/l'ed the Riddick demo, but the screenshots do not impress.

I feel badly for Starbreeze/Tigon. The first Riddick game was awesome -- it was innovative with the fading HUD, the true FPS camera, the amazing normal mapped graphics. Shame it wasn't a blockbuster hit.

And then ... everyone else in the industry caught up and passed them.

The Darkness was OK fun, but the graphics seemed very weird, and not impressive at all. They didn't ramp up enough with the 360. It was _definitely_ not the leap that Butcher Bay was over everything else on the oXbox.

Ditto this. The graphics seem on par with other contemporary games.

And then, to have the game be largely a rehash of a game I already played? Not excited, sorry. (though I understand that they're adding a bunch of NEW content, I'm not sure why they didn't just do a whole new game). Not sure why they're doing this -- Killzone 1 didn't do that well on the PS2, but you don't see Sony rereleasing a ramped up version on the PS3 -- they went ahead and made a full on sequel. If you didn't play K1, too bad.

You hav't read up on the game much have you. It isn't "new content" its a 10 hour long new campaign, piled on with a remake of the old game. Its a ridiculously good deal. And the graphics bad? Really? They looked pretty damn awesome to me when i played the demo. Also The Darkness also has pretty good graphics, maybe we aren't playing the same game. o_O

EDIT: Oh sorry read this wrong.

Elimination

donhonk wrote: »

Elimination wrote: »

xboxxer wrote: »

Yeah, so haven't d/l'ed the Riddick demo, but the screenshots do not impress.

I feel badly for Starbreeze/Tigon. The first Riddick game was awesome -- it was innovative with the fading HUD, the true FPS camera, the amazing normal mapped graphics. Shame it wasn't a blockbuster hit.

And then ... everyone else in the industry caught up and passed them.

The Darkness was OK fun, but the graphics seemed very weird, and not impressive at all. They didn't ramp up enough with the 360. It was _definitely_ not the leap that Butcher Bay was over everything else on the oXbox.

Ditto this. The graphics seem on par with other contemporary games.

And then, to have the game be largely a rehash of a game I already played? Not excited, sorry. (though I understand that they're adding a bunch of NEW content, I'm not sure why they didn't just do a whole new game). Not sure why they're doing this -- Killzone 1 didn't do that well on the PS2, but you don't see Sony rereleasing a ramped up version on the PS3 -- they went ahead and made a full on sequel. If you didn't play K1, too bad.

You hav't read up on the game much have you. It isn't "new content" its a 10 hour long new campaign, piled on with a remake of the old game. Its a ridiculously good deal. And the graphics bad? Really? They looked pretty damn awesome to me when i played the demo. Also The Darkness also has pretty good graphics, maybe we aren't playing the same game. o_O

I mean, the graphics are butchered on PS3, I hear the 360 version is much better looking. I mean I was getting it for PC anyway but this disappointing.

Ohhh i tried it on 360. So they butchered it on PS3? That sucks. I guess you can tell which system they are focusing their attention on. Though to their credit the 360 is a lot easier to develop for than the PS3 is. Still, sounds a little lazy on their part, the PS3 version is obviously just a sleezy port.

Echo

I'd pay good money for a movie with nothing but Riddick escaping from triple-max slams.

Steel-Lion

Echo wrote: »

I'd pay good money for a movie with nothing but Riddick escaping from triple-max slams.

Who wouldn't? I mean come on, it's got awesome value, AND Vin diesel.


What could be better?

elliotw2

Update topic, demos are out in US PSN

ThePrimm

Recoil42 wrote: »

mastrius wrote: »

Sam wrote: »

what happened to vin diesel's carreer?

Fast and the Furious.

Fast and the Furious is the movie that made him.


Pacifier is what killed him, for a while.


Thankfully, he's back.

Spoiler:

Anyone who thinks this movie is going to be anything less than off the fucking hook is crazy.

The first Fast and the Furious was awesome, and it was all because of Vin Diesel.

There, I said it.

not all because of vin diesel 30% vin diesel 70% being a point break remake with cars ... and if you don't like point break fuck you too:P:lol:

Dodge Aspen

Wheelman has some really cool mechanics implemented in an game that needs polish. It was a lot of fun, but It felt a little sloppy, somehow.

elliotw2

The Dark Athena demo froze just at the end of the stage for me, or something close to a freeze. The flashlight and eyeshine could be toggled, I could pause and look at the journal, and the mercs still taunted, but nothing else happened

Triple B

Am I the only one who disliked the Dark Athena demo? (in before "Yes")

elliotw2

It showcased the wrong part of the game, just like Butcher's tutorial did. Show off the shooting and such, hide the real meat of the game for when you buy it

Triple B

Well I think they're doing it wrong, then. Because I thought the shooting was utterly god-awful.

Spoit

The wheelman demo was pretty good. I actually kind of like the looseness in the controls, since it's clearly not aiming to be at all realistic, I thought it suited the other cartoony aspects

Undead Scottsman

Anyone else find it funny that the wheelman started development after the first riddick game, and now there's going to not only be a remake of that first game, but a sequel and decent amount of multiplayer content before Wheelman comes out?

durandal4532

Wheelman is surprisingly awesome. It's loose and stupid enough that my sub-par driving doesn't make me hate playing. And the moment I found out "Air Jack" doesn't mean "carefully get next to the other car, grab it, open the door, and push the guy out" but instead "leap 30 feet, swing from frame with both feet to boot guy out" was one of the better things in a game I've seen.

darleysam

Dodge Aspen wrote: »

Wheelman has some really cool mechanics implemented in an game that needs polish. It was a lot of fun, but It felt a little sloppy, somehow.

My only problem is the Riddick(sorry)ulous rubberbanding going on whenever you're trying to, you know, drive anywhere (the escape mission, the air-jacking mission, even the race). That kind of stuff is what stops me playing Burnout anymore, because it just negates the point of the game, which is driving fast. The faster you go, they faster they go, the more likely you are to crash, and then WHOOPS off they go and win or whatever.

Cut that out, and then we talk.

UnbreakableVow

I just played and am in love with the Wheelman demo.

Marikir

Tried the Wheelman demo last night.

After picking up my jaw, I'm seriously thinking about this game. It went from 0 interest to complete interest. I enjoyed the chase, the air jacking, the race (second time, I focused on blowing my competition to bits).

I can really see myself enjoying the game. I will definitely watch to see what the gaming press says about the game.

darleysam

Marikir wrote: »

Tried the Wheelman demo last night.

After picking up my jaw, I'm seriously thinking about this game. It went from 0 interest to complete interest. I enjoyed the chase, the air jacking, the race (second time, I focused on blowing my competition to bits).

I can really see myself enjoying the game. I will definitely watch to see what the gaming press says about the game.

I'd bet any amount of money that it gets middling reviews, around 4s to 6s. Not saying it deserves big scores, but I think it's more fun than it'll be given credit for.

Marikir

darleysam wrote: »

Marikir wrote: »

Tried the Wheelman demo last night.

After picking up my jaw, I'm seriously thinking about this game. It went from 0 interest to complete interest. I enjoyed the chase, the air jacking, the race (second time, I focused on blowing my competition to bits).

I can really see myself enjoying the game. I will definitely watch to see what the gaming press says about the game.

I'd bet any amount of money that it gets middling reviews, around 4s to 6s. Not saying it deserves big scores, but I think it's more fun than it'll be given credit for.

Yeah, kinda what my thought was too. It was just FUN in a way that some serious games aren't. Good, random chaotic fun. Pretty much how I felt about Burnout 2&3.

I might have to pull the demo for this (and Wanted & Stranglehold) down on my 360 as well to compare them. Something seemed off visually in my demo on the PS3, so I want to see if it's console specific or if it's just the game.

darleysam

Oh, Wheelman looks all kinds of strange. Well the main game itself looks fine, but the cutscenes are just weird. Vin looks like he's been hewn from potato with a combat knife.

Marikir

darleysam wrote: »

Oh, Wheelman looks all kinds of strange. Well the main game itself looks fine, but the cutscenes are just weird. Vin looks like he's been hewn from potato with a combat knife.

Okay, then it wasn't just me that thought there was something...odd about the characters.

UnbreakableVow

Has anyone bought Wheelman yet? Can anyone confirm it actually came out this week? I stopped by three different Wal-Marts tonight and none had it. They also didn't have C&C Red Alert 3 for PS3, but yet they had Wanted: Weapons of Fate (which came out this week).

DrunkMc

GameStop.com has it verified in stock in stores around me.

UnbreakableVow

Wheelman is fucking fantastic and if you don't like it you don't like fun.

Fuck IGN. They obviously hate fun.

tofu

Wheelman had the potential to be a fun game but it needs a whole lot more polish.

At least, that's the impression I got from the demo.

UnbreakableVow

I mean, sure, it's not going to win any Game of the Year awards or anything, but what polish do you speak of besides graphical? This is probably the most unadulterated fun I've had with a video game since Burnout Paradise first hit.

Also, I realized Vin Diesel is a genius. The lines and the story and action that are delivered in this game are something I would roll my eyes at in a film, but they're pretty much pitch-perfect for a video game. It feels like he realized "Hey, XXX would have been a much cooler game than movie" and just went from there.

tofu

I thought the driving controls were a little sloppy and the on foot controls were atrocious.

And for a game that's ostensibly about cars I thought they all looked pretty lame.

UnbreakableVow

The cars control like Burnout, essentially. In other words, throw realism out the window. And I'm fine with that.

On-foot controls aren't terrible, they just take getting used to. I'd liken them to The Godfather.

tofu

See, it was almost like Burnout but not as tight.