OPM demo for January

**Will** · 02 Dec 2003, 07:16 PM

Bought the mag yesterday. Read on the way to school and then checked out the demos at home. The two most notables are R-Type Final and Jet Li's Rise to Honor.

R-Type Final is really, really, really nice looking shooter. Tons of effects and is one of the most impressive looking shooters I've seen so far.

I haven't played the other R-Type games so this is my first time with it but I highly enjoyed it and so will shooter fans. The demo isn't a cakewalk but its not that hard either, probably because its the first level. You can customize the 3 ships available by color, missles and bit select before heading out.

So far I only tried 2 ships, one with regular charge bursts and the other with a longer beam canon which ruled. There are 3 sub bosses and one at the end which looks a bit....odd but has the usual pattern based memorization. The actual level revolves around you which is a cool way to use the 3D worlds but I would have liked to see a more stable less moving level.

The music is well done, sounding kind of like Metroid Prime's somewhat creepy techno. This is going to be a fantastic shooter judging from the demo and the movies(it also has a kickass opening intro).

Rise to Honor kicks ass! It has 360 degree martial arts fight system that you can do combos with using the right analog stick. It took me a few plays to get used to it but it works out pretty well for the most part.
My only gripe is that its not as fast paced as it would feel on regular buttons and Jet runs pretty slow but other than that it controls pretty well. I was surprised at how good it was defensively too.

You can also block, counter, grab +throw, use adrenaline attacks(super moves), use stick weapons and at the end of the demo shoot guns which handles pretty accurately, I would have liked a dive button though. There's a part in the demo that sort of plays like a quick time event making you rely on your timing of the context sensitive button.

Graphically its solid, probably a bit better than True Crime since it has all this nice lighting and texturing. The Jet Li model looks so much eerily like him its amazing and he kicks ass in cut scenes. Regus said it before but I also think Despair and action gamers would dig this game if they liked True Crime and Dead to Rights(which I haven't played but DTR2 looks promising).

The other game I tried was Whiplash which was pretty damn funny especially torturing that poor bunny but I was confused at what goal I had to accomplish but I'll play it again to get more out of it.

Other games included are:
SOCOM 2...which never boots up for me when it loads the game..
Desert Storm 2
Disney Skate adventure
Freedom Fighters
ESPN College hoops
TMNT
NCAA Football 2004
Madden 2004
Jimmy Nuetron

The videos weren't that great except for James Bond Everything or Nothing which looks pretty rad.

**Dolemite** · 02 Dec 2003, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by Will

Bought the mag yesterday.

BOUGHT?!? I have a subscription (present from the gf) and I don't have it yet. And last month's issue was missing the CD. Fucking Ziff-Davis cocksuckers.

**Will** · 02 Dec 2003, 07:38 PM

This newstand I go to somehow receives magazines insanely quick, I always go there to see the latest mag I can read on my journey to class.

**Despair** · 02 Dec 2003, 08:15 PM

I REALLY want to try that Rise to Honor demo. I am very excited about that game, and its great to hear that it shaping out good.

Cant wait for DTR2 as well.

**Shin Johnpv** · 02 Dec 2003, 08:16 PM

fuck we still havent gotten them in work yet i want to try that R-Type demo bad

**Dolemite** · 03 Dec 2003, 03:14 PM

Actually, the mag was in my mailbox when I got home last night.

I dicked around with a few demos, here's some impressions:

Rise To Honor: Pretty dissapointing. The graphics are really nice, and Will was right about Jet Li's likeness being uncanny, but the combat was very simplistic and clumsy. Basically, the developers stole Blade 2's combat system, but made it somehow less responsive. The Blade 2 game had you do hand-to-hand attacks by pushing the right stick in the direction of the enemy. Repeated pushes resulted in a combo. Rise To Honor tried to do this as well, but roughly 1/3 of the time the attack just doesn't happen when you push the stick. In addition, switching the direction of your attack combo when fighting multiple opponents is unreliable, unlike in Blade 2. Not saying that Blade 2 was a great game or anything, but the hand-to-hand system they came up with worked pretty well, and you could mix in sword and gun attacks. In RTH, you can just throw the occasional chair. I ended up getting killed often.

Also, there's one all-purpose action button that's used for interacting with the environment (opening doors and even jumping over objects). Everything about the controls felt so simplfied and barren. You move with the left stick, fight/aim guns with the right stick, shoot with R2, block/interact with R1. Adrenaline attacks are L1. That's it. Face buttons just bring up the help menu.

However, it's just a demo, and I must admit that there's probably plenty about the combat system that I don't know about. I did like that everyone spoke in Chinese with subtitles, that really gave the game that Hong-Kong feel. Also, the game has some sweet-ass motion-captured moves. I'll be sure to rent it when it comes out, just to see how it turned out. It has tons of potential, despite how hard I was on it here. Could be great, but at the moment I'm not too impressed.

Whiplash: Eh. Seemed very generic, but amusing. The whole thing with using a bunny as a weapon was cute but not nearly as funny as I was hoping.

TMNT: Generic beat-em-up. Looks like it would be lots of fun with multiple players, but as a 1-player game it's a bore. Nice cell-shading, but you can say that about any game lately.

Socom 2: Pretty damn good. I bet they game would be awesome online, and I don't give a damn about online games.

Everything or Nothing video: The game looks great. Hey, is that Jaws tossing Bond over his head?!?

Kya video: Gay looking game with supremely lame-ass character design.

R-Type Final: Now this is a shooter. Amazing graphics, and they do some wacky shit with the 3D backgrounds, like there's this one part where it scrolls up and to the left, while this big crab-mech bursts through the wall and comes after you. Sweet.

**Will** · 03 Dec 2003, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by Dolemite

Everything about the controls felt so simplfied and barren. You move with the left stick, fight/aim guns with the right stick, shoot with R2, block/interact with R1. Adrenaline attacks are L1. That's it. Face buttons just bring up the help menu.

Thats one other thing, its very annoying to bring up the menu everytime I think the face button does something or I accidentally press it.

I just think if my right analog stick was more worn out it could play smoother since I barely use that stick. I'd make it customizable to map moves to face buttons though.

Whiplash: Eh. Seemed very generic, but amusing. The whole thing with using a bunny as a weapon was cute but not nearly as funny as I was hoping.

Some of the speech the scientists have are pretty funny too.

R-Type Final: Now this is a shooter. Amazing graphics, and they do some wacky shit with the 3D backgrounds, like there's this one part where it scrolls up and to the left, while this big crab-mech bursts through the wall and comes after you. Sweet.

I like that all 3 ships play somewhat different due to their different charge weapons and such. The highest difficulty makes it better too with more bullets to dodge.

I love horizontal shooters as much as I do vertical so I've played it a few more times and it definitely looks like the shooter to own next year.