Ben-DutkaEnslaved: Odyssey to the West and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow come out on the same day (October 5), and we already have the Enslaved demo, so…
Well, maybe we should expect the other one soon. We've heard that Konami and Sony have placed the Lords of Shadow playable demo on the European Store . But there's a catch- it's only available to PlayStation Plus members. Ah, we knew that membership would start to pay off in different ways! The question is, can North American Plus members create a Euro account and nab it, or will that not work…? Maybe it won't matter, because we should probably see that demo this week or next; it wasn't part of the American Store update before Sony conducted their PSN maintenance yesterday, but that's okay…we can really only handle one big demo at a time, you know? Both deserve hands-on looks, and I didn't really feel like doing both last night. You can view the Enslaved hands-on if you like, and provided you have some patience , you'll see the Lords of Shadow one in due time. Heh.
Even though we don't get both demos at the same time, both games will still be here on the 5th, and we gots bad news for your wallet…both just might be must-buys.
Related Game(s): Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
I'm still trying to understand the idea of making demos exclusive to memberships. Why in Konami's right mind would they want to limit the exposure of the demo for their upcoming product to a select minority?
Once again, if the demo is ready by Konami, then we ALL probably would've had this demo sooner if it wasn't for PSN+. Sorry I know I'm sounding like a broken record but it still urks me that this value added service sometimes rubs me as a wolf in sheep's skin.
Thems the breaks. The way I see it is that it's just little perks and "thank you's" for people who gave a bit extra. I don't see it being any different than giving preorders early demo access. When a person preorders and gets early access people just count it as a perk and don't get too ruffled, so this really shouldn't be any different.
I could be biased though because I have PS+ and think the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Last edited by coverton341 on 9/22/2010 11:49:15 AM
Yeah, I'm just being grumpy about it. I don't expect everyone to agree. But I'm sure there's a few people out their who can relate where I'm coming from on the matter.
The truth is, there's value in demos and publishers know that. I'd rather cling to the idea that demos are demonstrations of a product and should be given freely for exposure and increased sales.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 9/22/2010 11:53:26 AM
I totally get where you're coming from and understand the level of frustration. I myself have been one of the ones to complain about the early access to demos because of preordering a game. I full well understood why they got it but it didn't make me any less irritated about it.
At any rate, I imagine even if PS+ members do get the demo early, like dillon said below, it will most likely hit a week later for everyone. But, who really knows this might be a special thing just for the EU like the LBP demo was on launch of PS+
An excellent point Temjin001. Demos are nothing more than advertising. Limiting their ads to some elite membership is self-defeating.
Unless that's the idea. Maybe their game will only sell to people who throw their money away?
Even though I'm a plus member I have to sorta agree with you Tem.
Enslaved is a good gift game, as in if you buy me it I will like to play it, but there's plenty of better games imo to be had between now ad Xmas. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed the demo of Enslaved, but it wasn't imo as good as Heavenly Sword.. or at least it didn't make me feel the way HS did back then.
as for this demo Castlevania, im downloading it now.. I saw this level being played by some Japanese kids on youtube.. to be fair maybe the shine of these DMCesq games has worn a little dull on me, I dont know.. it just didnt looks great. still I will have a better view in a bit.
and as far as I know the rest of the EU will get this demo next week, so im sure that means you guys will too.. or at least you will be able to download it.
if you were to set up and and pay for EU PSN plus from the states, then yes it would work…
If Plus becomes the gotta have feature it seems to be becoming, I'll gladly commit.
Pft, I'd rather have the Castlevania demo. I'm sorry, while Enslaved shows promise, that demo is kind of crappy. Why can't devs get it together and fix the damn screen tearing in their games. This is a step backwards for Ninja Theory. i don't remember Heavenly Sword having the same technical problems. Heavenly Sword was a prettier game too and it was released in 2006 correct?
As for being able to sign up with a Euro account, won't work. Need to be a European Plus member.
Last edited by Jawknee on 9/22/2010 12:08:39 PM
Actually. HS could've been sub-titled Heavenly Screen tearing and frame-rate drops. Enslaved fits their M.O. of pushing graphics detail over performance.
I only played the Heavenly Sword demo, so I can't comment on the full game but the demo for Heavenly Sword compared to Enslaved was much better.
There's no excuse for tearig. There are countless games, many of them multiplat and many of them made with Unreal that look better than Enslaved and have little to no tearing. It's pure laziness on the developers part.
From a set piece perspective(and 4xMSAA), yes, overall HS looks better (not the NPC's though. poorly detailed enemies etc). The camera is always fixed and the devs have the freedom of really dressing up their scenes. But FPS drops and tearing was very evident even from the HS demo alone.
Enslaved's combat segments use a chase cam where you get up much closer to the textures etc. But the facial detail, while good in Enslaved, does seem to have been better on HS.
"Ah, we knew that membership would start to pay off in different ways!"
I'd rewrite that as:
"Ah, I knew we'd have to buy that membership to avoid being screwed!"
How are you getting screwed? It's not like Sony said we would get the demo then only gave it to the European plus memebers. I'm a US plus membe and I don't feel screwed.
The entitlement mentality is not a good quality. It scares away the ladies. 😉
Last edited by Jawknee on 9/22/2010 12:19:45 PM
I'm talking about plus members in general getting exclusive access to demos. I don't like it, since i'm not a plus member.
I dislike it when a person flies by me on a better motorcycle than my because I didn't spend the extra money to get the 1000cc engine.
Lol exactly.
The more I read about PS+ the less I want it. A yearly fee for demos? Good one.
Got nothing better than that? You know there is a lot more than just early access to demos.
Last edited by Jawknee on 9/22/2010 12:34:34 PM
Plus heavily discounted games, exclusive themes and avatars, free games, free add-ons, exclusive access to betas.
Seems like it might be worth it to some people but I could be crazy.
It's cute how PS+ members think they're getting games for free.
Yeah. Free means no strings attached. Games and other stuff being free is a joke. As the free stuff goes away when you are no longer a paying subscriber of PS+. Also PS+ degrades the normal psn experience that the rest of us have. Some demos that would normally be released for everyone are now only for PS+ subscribers and then become available to everyone else at some later point in time.
Ever since I saw that ridiculous God of War Xerox copy video, this has dropped completely off my radar.
Dude, I'm willing to bet Castlevania will be 100X better than Dark Void.
Better than Enslaved by the West too.
I have a feeling Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is going to put Enslaved to shame. I can't wait to get my hands on this demo!
Weak.
downloading it as we speak. i'd prefer beta's though. If it's any consolation i do know the demo will be hitting for everyone in the PAL regions next week, so its only a week early demo.
I wonder if we'll get honest opinions of the LoS demo from these PS+ members. Or will their inflated desire to feel justified over the cost of membership make them gush unwarranted praise upon their exclusive demo?
there's no need to bigging up the demo to make me feel ok about giving PS+ a go.
I'm the Euro PS+, and there are free games and other decent offers. Currently they are selling MGS at half price (down from £8 to £4) and giving away Oddworld plus a couple of minis and DLC for LBP. I can easily see myself saving money and getting net value from my subscription.
I played the Castlevania demo, and was a wee bit underwhelmed. Maybe it's because there have been so many similar games this last year or so. Nothing wrong with it but nothing that grabbed me by the cojones. Dante's Inferno came to mind in a big way whilst playing the demo.
To be fair, it's a very short demo of the games' opening level, and nowhere near sizeable enough to make any sweeping judgements about the combat or other game elements- all you do is slash at some werewolves in a couple of settings.
I thought Gabriel Belmont had more style in his character design than Dante (Inferno, not DMC….) although he did mebe come across a wee bit 'westernised' (heavily built). He doesn't say much so it's hard to judge how cool a character he is. I've only ever played SOTN, and even that quite recently from the US PSN, so I don't know what expectations folk have invested in this – there certainly wasn't any 'Tribute!?! You steal men's souls…' type cheesiness
"Dante's Inferno came to mind in a big way whilst playing the demo."
Good news!
I'd say it looks a bit more polished and stylish than Dante's Inferno, but really how good a game like this is is dependent on how imaginative and challenging (in a fun way) the enemies become. It's impossible to judge therefore with such a short demo fighting the most vanilla of foes
downloading it now, really looking forward to giving this a try tis my first Castlevania game so suffice to say i have high expectations!
it reminded me of God Of War combat, and quite frankly I came away a little disappointed.
Don't tell me that Dillon! Go back and play it again and then let me know :p
just played through it now and kinda seems like its in between dantes inferno and GOW. still not too sure about it and cant really say the demo was mind blowing. however could definately see shades of kojima's story telling in there though.