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[JB1981]

Is it just me or does "folklore" look suspiciously like an HD Fable?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA H A

 

[Ploid 3.0]

That Kai scene reminded me of Gollum also. Heh, and the guy that played Gollum is playing the King this time around.

 

[LJ11]

Is it just me or does "folklore" look suspiciously like an HD Fable?

The similarities are uncanny. You have a good eye Columbo. :lol

 

[tanod]

Oh and I just saw the Folklore Japanese trailer on Gametrailers. Wow, I'm actually really interested in the game now. I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't really sold, now I'm seriously considering buying it. I can't wait for the demo.

Is that the one with the japanese rock band singing? I loved that trailer. GET!

OT: Oh and since people here have PS3s, make sure you're folding, at least over night. No reason not to.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I don't know if I buy into the idea that Lair is going to look all that much better when seen in person. It just has this cluttered and genuinely messy look going for, as if F5 was trying to cram as much impressive technology into the framework with little interest in actually creating a visually balanced and attractive product. Maybe other environments will be different, but this just plain doesn't look very appealing.

 

[Schrade]

Oh and I just saw the Folklore Japanese trailer on Gametrailers. Wow, I'm actually really interested in the game now. I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't really sold, now I'm seriously considering buying it. I can't wait for the demo.

I posted the full res trailer links here if anyone wants em: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6486003#post6486003

 

[Mifune]

I don't know if I buy into the idea that Lair is going to look all that much better when seen in person. It just has this cluttered and genuinely messy look going for, as if F5 was trying to cram as much impressive technology into the framework with little interest in actually creating a visually balanced and attractive product. Maybe other environments will be different, but this just plain doesn't look very appealing.

I find I go back and forth on Lair. I was all about buying it on day one but these latest videos have me a little less enthusiastic. Definitely giving me a strong "bit off more than they can chew" vibe.

The demo will clear this mess up.

 

[Kittonwy]

Oh and I just saw the Folklore Japanese trailer on Gametrailers. Wow, I'm actually really interested in the game now. I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't really sold, now I'm seriously considering buying it. I can't wait for the demo.

I was talking about the Lair gameplay videos. FolkLore looks pretty interesting.

IZ DAT CHU MOTHA???

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I find I go back and forth on Lair. I was all about buying it on day one but these latest videos have me a little less enthusiastic. Definitely giving me a strong "bit off more than they can chew" vibe.

The demo will clear this mess up.

Yeah... I mean, it is one hell of a showcase for what the PS3 is capable of and there are certainly scenes that are awe inspiring, but it just doesn't feel balanced. I'm assuming this will be a reference point for other developers, though I can't help but wonder what it could look like had the focus not been on scale, and scalability.

 

[kaching]

In the name of "balance" it would help if we had videos of someone playing the game who knew how to do more than just FIREBALL FIREBALL FIREBALL...

 

[Evolved1]

Factor 5 games are always a mixed bag. They set the bar for visuals and do flight combat pretty well... the dragon 'melee' reminds me of those 'on foot' segments from their SW games.

What I'm curious about is whether or not they can tell a decent story. This is the first time I'll be playing one of their games that isn't Star Wars. So... they have a lot of freedom to do something interesting. I wonder if they're up to it.

 

[msdstc]

nice comparison. someone from nd said that they overshot the ps3's shader capabilities with that original trailer, but imo it looks better now -- the texture detail and foliage density seem intact, and the lighting and colors are now more striking. i liked the old baseball shirt though -- it should be a toggle option, like jak's goatee in jak 2.

was reading through the thread and I noticed this post... This is the second time I heard this, does anyone have a link to this statement? I'm 99% sure the first trailer was confirmed to be all in real time, so how could they have overshot the capabilities, if it had already been done?

 

[Kittonwy]

In the name of "balance" it would help if we had videos of someone playing the game who knew how to do more than just FIREBALL FIREBALL FIREBALL...

It would work if it was street fighter.

 

[ROFL]

Any HD ratchet and clank trailers lying about?

Not sure if you mean other than these, but:

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=4572

 

[Yixian]

Most of you obviously know of Andy Serkis through LotR and King Kong, and no doubt have high expectations because of his work there.

But I thought I'd let you in on something - LotR and King Kong are the very tip of this guys acting ice berg. Being a Brit actor, he works mostly on TV, and if you don't live here you probably won't have seen his other performances, but as a cinemaphile, let me tell you I make no reservations in saying that this guy is one of the greatest living actors.

No. shit. He is the most sincere actor I know of, and that translates as utterly captivating performances.

Simon Schama's Power of Art - Vincent van Gogh. Nuff said.

 

[Dante]

Most of you obviously know of Andy Serkis through LotR and King Kong, and no doubt have high expectations because of his work there.

But I thought I'd let you in on something - LotR and King Kong are the very tip of this guys acting ice berg. Being a Brit actor, he works mostly on TV, and if you don't live here you probably won't have seen his other performances, but as a cinemaphile, let me tell you I make no reservations in saying that this guy is one of the greatest living actors.

No. shit. He is the most sincere actor I know of, and that translates as utterly captivating performances.

Simon Schama's Power of Art - Vincent van Gogh. Nuff said.

What's his characters name in HS?

 

[Raist]

:lol

Lair seems like it'll be too easy, especially those ground battles. Have some archers shoot back at the dragon or soldiers try to rope it or something at least.

Dude... you're on a freaking dragon :lol

Those beasts are barely vulnerable to arrows, and usually dragons make people freak out. I think the difficulty of the game will be to complete the objectives and get the max rewards. Soldiers are just here to allow you to go on a killing spree IMO. Notice that there doesn't seem to be any health bar. But if there was one, I guess on foot soldiers wouldn't hurt you at all.

 

[Yixian]

What's his characters name in HS?

King Botan.

Actually from the tiny, couple-of-seconds clips I've seen of him acting he's been a bit too over-the-top, but I'm sure that's just bad editing. If anyone can take video game storytelling to the next level, it's Andy frickin Serkis.

Heavenly Swords acting and vice capture approach, with professional direction, and Naughty Dogs deep animation system, are two things Sony should really capitalise on. Develop some kind of schema for each and demand it of all first party titles within relevant genres or something - artistic depth is the one area where Nintendo and M$ seem to be least interested, but I think it's by far the most important step gaming needs to take.

 

[Tieno]

What's his characters name in HS?

He Who Has Sacred Genitals

 

[gogogow]

Notice that there doesn't seem to be any health bar. But if there was one, I guess on foot soldiers wouldn't hurt you at all.

I really haven't read too much about Lair. If there's no health bar, how do you know when you gonna die when you get attacked by other dragons?

Or do you mean there's no health bar when you are on the ground?

 

[Dante]

King Botan.

Actually from the tiny, couple-of-seconds clips I've seen of him acting he's been a bit too over-the-top, but I'm sure that's just bad editing. If anyone can take video game storytelling to the next level, it's Andy frickin Serkis.

Heavenly Swords acting and vice capture approach, with professional direction, and Naughty Dogs deep animation system, are two things Sony should really capitalise on. Develop some kind of schema for each and demand it of all first party titles within relevant genres or something - artistic depth is the one area where Nintendo and M$ seem to be least interested, but I think it's by far the most important step gaming needs to take.

My friend at work said that gaming is now at that developmental stage film was previously at.

Fog City Mavericks springs to mind.

exciting times indeed.

 

[Yixian]

I think you can definately make parralels between the history of cinema and game, and I'd say that gaming is still at quite an early stage.

All of gaming up until the points either this gen or the next, when the uncanny valley is overcome to the extent that you can feel genuine emotion for realistic characters, has been the equivalent of the development of the camera. Everyone in gaming so far has been a Lumiere brother.

Because cinema has such a huge status in the world today, there are many examples of games that have already attempted to be rich, cinematic, storytelling pieces, but the art form in general isn't there yet.

Where as gaming today has endless bald marines, mindless FPSs and unoriginal sequels, cinema in the early 20th Century had endless loops of ferris wheels, fun fairs, cars driving around - people would go tot he cinema just to see the trickery of the projector, just for a bit of eye candy - it was never taken as a serious art form.

I think that somewhere between this generation and the next, we have to make that step into real storytelling to become culturally relevant.

But even if we do, gaming's The Godfather and Citizen Kane are still decades away.

 

[TTP]

Dunno why but felt like doing this

 

[Raist]

Is it just me or does "folklore" look suspiciously like an HD Fable?

wow thanks man. Been wondering for 4 days now what game was Folklore reminding me, and you nailed it !

Thanks

Spoiler

lol

 

[sol_bad]

I take it that Blim won't be uploading any of these gameplay videos or ANYTHING from SGD at all?
I was really hoping he would. Darn, darn, darn, darn.

 

[Dizzan]

I take it that Blim won't be uploading any of these gameplay videos or ANYTHING from SGD at all?
I was really hoping he would. Darn, darn, darn, darn.

Me too.... sad

 

[buckfutter]

I think you can definately make parralels between the history of cinema and game, and I'd say that gaming is still at quite an early stage.

All of gaming up until the points either this gen or the next, when the uncanny valley is overcome to the extent that you can feel genuine emotion for realistic characters, has been the equivalent of the development of the camera. Everyone in gaming so far has been a Lumiere brother.

Because cinema has such a huge status in the world today, there are many examples of games that have already attempted to be rich, cinematic, storytelling pieces, but the art form in general isn't there yet.

Where as gaming today has endless bald marines, mindless FPSs and unoriginal sequels, cinema in the early 20th Century had endless loops of ferris wheels, fun fairs, cars driving around - people would go tot he cinema just to see the trickery of the projector, just for a bit of eye candy - it was never taken as a serious art form.

I think that somewhere between this generation and the next, we have to make that step into real storytelling to become culturally relevant.

But even if we do, gaming's The Godfather and Citizen Kane are still decades away.

I like to maintain a hope that we're still going through the whole "cinema of attractions" period of development, but I think the modern commercial model has limited the possibilities for growth. At any rate, we're progressing slower than cinema did.

 

[gofreak]

MTV has a little article post Gamers-day. I guess the most interesting bit might be the answer to the question put to Uncharted's line producer, as to what he did in the last week...I guess it's a good insight into how busy game development can be.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1560187/20070521/id_0.jhtml

He said: "We created a demo. We ran a focus group for three different age groups on the title. We got two trailers done. We voice-cast one actor. We recorded about 10 percent of the dialogue for the game. We managed to get the title into QA [Quality Assurance, meaning the testing department]. Yeah, that was about a week for me just on this title."

Steve Totilo also has some other articles that have gone up in the last day or so with his impressions.

 

[Yixian]

I like to maintain a hope that we're still going through the whole "cinema of attractions" period of development, but I think the modern commercial model has limited the possibilities for growth. At any rate, we're progressing slower than cinema did.

A LOT slower. This partly a generational thing - our generation is perhaps more apathetic than any before it, and doesn't seem to hunger as much for profound historical or political statements in media - and partly because of the increased consumerisation of this ****ing planet, like you said, with giants like EA controlling so much of the industries output.

Film hit at the right time. By the end of the second world war it had to become a way for society to talk to itself.

Games have hit a middle class market, still only really in developed countries, right smack in the middle of a historical lul in social change - this is lowest trough in the boom bust cycle I think we've ever had.

I mean look at music - middle class pop music in the west is now tending to replicate the music of past generation - I can't think of a single instance of this occuring in history. We are the first generation that seems to be really uninterested in changing anything about society. The ultimate conformists.


I mean shit, even Ziggy Stardust was rebelling in a fashion sense - kids these days wear ****ing flares! WTF?

 

[Phife Dawg]

Factor 5 games are always a mixed bag. They set the bar for visuals and do flight combat pretty well... the dragon 'melee' reminds me of those 'on foot' segments from their SW games.

What I'm curious about is whether or not they can tell a decent story. This is the first time I'll be playing one of their games that isn't Star Wars. So... they have a lot of freedom to do something interesting. I wonder if they're up to it.

I always thought the flying portions were pretty meh as well. Still got both Rogue games for GC, just because I'm a big Star Wars nut. Playing the first in co-op in Rebel Strike is pretty fun though.

Watching the gameplay trailers doesn't really raise my hopes for great gameplay this time around either but they still have some time left. Maybe they can deliver an overall great product this time around.

 

[Lord Error]

But even if we do, gaming's The Godfather and Citizen Kane are still decades away.

I can argue that we are technically already way past the "attractions" stage with games like Grim Fandango, Ico or SotC. Those games never reached any true mass popularity though, and they are extremely few and far between.

 

[tanod]

I can argue that we are technically already way past the "attractions" stage with games like Grim Fandango, Ico or SotC. Those games never reached any true mass popularity though, and they are extremely few and far between.

SotC was a greatest hits title. That would mean at least 500,000, wouldn't it?

 

[Metalmurphy]

SotC was a greatest hits title. That would mean at least 500,000, wouldn't it?

I remember seeing an interview where they claimed Ico didn't even sell 1M but SotC sold "just over" 1M.

 

[theBishop]

I remember seeing an interview where they claimed Ico didn't even sell 1M but SotC sold "just over" 1M.

I had to jump through a few hoops to get ahold of ICO used. I couldn't even order it on Sony's RLS page, which has nearly all SCEA first party releases at least listed if not available.

As far as I can tell, ICO is completely out of print. If they brought it back as a greatest hit, I bet it could sell at least 400,000 on word of mouth alone.

 

[deepbrown]

I had to jump through a few hoops to get ahold of ICO used. I couldn't even order it on Sony's RLS page, which has nearly all SCEA first party releases at least listed if not available.

As far as I can tell, ICO is completely out of print. If they brought it back as a greatest hit, I bet it could sell at least 400,000 on word of mouth alone.

I found it eventually and sneekely got it for half price, because they had the wrong sticker on it

I wanted to get SOTC...but it was priced at £35 when I did eventually find it. More than PS3 games :/

 

[Dali]

I had to jump through a few hoops to get ahold of ICO used. I couldn't even order it on Sony's RLS page, which has nearly all SCEA first party releases at least listed if not available.

As far as I can tell, ICO is completely out of print. If they brought it back as a greatest hit, I bet it could sell at least 400,000 on word of mouth alone.

I don't know about that. This is totally anecdotal, but I always see a used copy anytime I go to a retail store. The packaging is always in very poor condition, but the game is never hard for me to find.

 

[tribal24]

uncharted website is open if not posted already>.>

http://www.us.playstation.com/Uncharted/

 

[buckfutter]

I can argue that we are technically already way past the "attractions" stage with games like Grim Fandango, Ico or SotC. Those games never reached any true mass popularity though, and they are extremely few and far between.

Not only that, but they still borrow heavily from other mediums. Don't get me wrong, they're just about the best examples we've got, and all major mediums have borrowed a lot from others, but the fundamental problems of the interactive narrative are still not solved. Warren Spector did a really good job at GDC of pointing out the four or five different narrative techniques that all games employ to some extent, and none of them has been honed to a defined code. Beyond the commercial factor, the limits of technology and the extremely loose definition of what a game actually is means that it'll be a long time before we can really compete purely on the medium's unique merits.

SotC does a brilliant job of blending linear narrative with the interactive, though, by establishing a connection of motive between the player and the character. Half of me believes that the solution lies in games like Deus Ex or Planescape with interactive (yet guided) narratives, or even in games with a player created narrative. But when I started analysing SotC I realised that the interactive relationship between the player and the character (definitely a character, not an avatar) they control could also be extremely fruitful.

On the topic of sales, ICO was actually re-released in Europe when SotC hit, and it was branded as a cult classic in the advertising. I think it did pretty well the second time around. In Japan and the US it didn't sell for shit, but Sony released it on the Greatest Hits line in Japan all the same. SotC did much, much better.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

If there's no health bar, how do you know when you gonna die when you get attacked by other dragons?

Old-school 1-Hit Death confirmed!

 

[mckmas8808]

You'll have it soon. I'm going to re-encode the Yahoo trailer when I get back home.

What are you using to re-encode these videos to MP4s?

 

[Raist]

I really haven't read too much about Lair. If there's no health bar, how do you know when you gonna die when you get attacked by other dragons?

Or do you mean there's no health bar when you are on the ground?

I meant on the ground.

I think I remember seeing some footage showing what could possibly be a health bar (was a vertical thing, with Rohn's helmet going up or down)