Vanquish looks pretty awesome

[Random Sample]

New game from sega called Vanquish. I remember reading about it after E3 that it was going to be pretty great. It was done by the same guy who did Resident Evil 4. It has been getting pretty good reviews from what I have been reading. It was designed on the PS3 and supposedly it plays better on the PS3. I think I might pick this up.

Trailer:

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Gameplay:

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Official Site:

http://www.sega.com/vanquish/index.php

[Sigma]

It's a great game, but it's not very long and there's no online play. It's one of the best single player shooters I've played in a long time. Non-stop action. It's quite a challenging game too, especially some of the bosses.

The 2 versions of the game are virtually identical. The only real differences are that the PS3 version is V-synced and the 360 version has marginally better controller response. The PS3 version has a forced install of about 3 GB, while the 360 version obviously gives you the option to install the game in full. The developers have done a great job with this game, so IMO, the only deciding factor if you own both consoles is whether you prefer a particular controller, or whether you prefer achievements or trophies.

[Seiko Flossberg]

It's one of the best single player shooters I've played in a long time.

[Balzac]

watched the ign review and i'm sold.

sigma, what do you mean by vsync?

[Random Sample]

I played the demo last night, not sure if I like it.

[Sigma]

sigma, what do you mean by vsync?

The long answer from Wikipedia: -

In video production and computer graphics, changes to the image are often kept in step with the vertical synchronization pulse to avoid visible discontinuity of the image. Since the frame buffer of a computer graphics display imitates the dynamics of a cathode-ray display, if it is updated with a new image while the image is being transmitted to the display, the display shows a mishmash of both frames, producing a page tearing artifact partway down the image.

Vertical synchronization eliminates this by timing frame buffer fills to coincide with the vertical blanking interval, thus ensuring that only whole frames are seen on-screen. Software such as computer games and CAD packages often allow vertical synchronization as an option, because it delays the image update until the vertical blanking interval. This produces a small penalty in latency, because the program has to wait until the video controller has finished transmitting the image to the display before continuing. Triple buffering reduces this latency significantly.

The short one: -

It eliminates screen tearing, although even if V-sync is disabled, it doesn't necessarily mean that screen tearing will be present. I haven't noticed any while playing the 360 version of Vanquish.

[ric]

how short? game looks DOPE. action looks great but talk to me about length and style of play. is it an inventory heavy game like an RE4/5? or is it more of 'have a few guns, go wreak havoc and accomplish goals' like killzone? are the missions varied enough to not fall into so much repetition a la god of war?

[Sigma]

how short? game looks DOPE. action looks great but talk to me about length and style of play. is it an inventory heavy game like an RE4/5? or is it more of 'have a few guns, go wreak havoc and accomplish goals' like killzone? are the missions varied enough to not fall into so much repetition a la god of war?

It's about 5 or 6 hours long, but there is replay value as there's different skill levels (and the normal skill level is tough), the 25 stages each have leaderboards so you can try and better your scores/times, and just because the game's so fun.

You fight as part of a team, but you are the badass of the team as you're wearing a suit that gives you certain abilities. You can slide around really fast on your knees. You can temporarily slow down time (and this happens automatically when you're close to death). You can even push a button while in cover and you'll pull out a pack of cigs, take one out and light out, take a few puffs, then flick it away before getting back into the action. It serves no purpose other than it's cool to do it. When you switch guns, your gun morphs into the newly selected weapon.

It's not inventory heavy. You'll see all of the weapons on offer in the first act (there's 5 acts in total, split into different stages). You carry several weapons at a time and grenades, plus you can do melee kills. It's a cover-based shooter, but it plays differently to a game like Gears of War. The developers are the same people who created Bayonetta, and I suppose you could call this the Bayonetta of shooters. It's the best bits of other games you've played, mixed up with that certain feeling you get when playing games that come from Japanese developers (and I mean that in a good way) and if you like shooters, you have to either rent or buy this.

[Balzac]

oh fuck if its the bayonetta team then its gotta be good. that game was amazing.

[frank b]

It's not exactly the same team who made Bayonetta. It's Shinji Mikami, who made Resident Evil 4 and God Hand, among others. Bayonetta was directed by the guy who made Devil May Cry. I imagine that some of the same talent worked on both games, though.

Anyway, this is my favorite game in a long time, maybe since RE4. Super fun and challenging.

[ric]

@ sigma