Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

[Starkiller]

Hey broken record, what does it matter to you that Enslaved is an original IP and Lords of Shadow is not? You've already admitted that you know jack squat about Castlevania anyway so it's all new to you.

That said, usually I do advocate supporting original games, so if it weren't for Lords of Shadow I'd probably give Enslaved a shot. From what Ive gleaned from Metacritic, these two games are getting scores within the same bracket.

You're getting dangerously close to trolling.

I know I have a Castlevania game on my R4, and it's annoyingly slow and uninteresting. I think you play as a girl in it if I'm right.

Because the new exciting Enslaved I feel is going to be the better game and the better buy here. New fresh games can definitely be better than the 20th game in a series. That and the new castlevania feels exactly like another God of war clone just as Dante's Inferno was and other less successful renditions. It's GOW in mid-evil times with werewolves and tron horses that talk with bad scottish accents.



I hardly make any ignorant comments dominishin. But you saying I do is in fact quite ignorant.

 

[plasmid303]

I'm all for new and original games, but being an original game doesn't always equate to high quality (Hydrophobia proves just that). I'll take the 20th game in a series (which is a poor way of describing Lords of Shadow) over an original title any day if the former is better than the latter.

 

[Starkiller]

I'm all for new and original games, but being an original game doesn't always equate to high quality (Hydrophobia proves just that). I'll take the 20th game in a series (which is a poor way of describing Lords of Shadow) over an original title any day if the former is better than the latter.

Hydrophobia is a cheap XBLA and PSN game that cost $15. It's not meant to blow socks off, just a little 3rd person action game you can buy for cheap and have fun with. No one is expecting the same quality as a retail game. That's a very unfair comparison when I'm talking about Castlevania to say Enslaved.

And the former isn't better than the later, so then in your words you should take the new original IP.

 

[plasmid303]

Hydrophobia is a cheap XBLA and PSN game that cost $15. It's not meant to blow socks off, just a little 3rd person action game you can buy for cheap and have fun with. No one is expecting the same quality as a retail game. That's a very unfair comparison when I'm talking about Castlevania to say Enslaved.

And the former isn't better than the later, so then in your words you should take the new original IP.

Please, you're the king of unfair comparisons. And I was speaking generally about choosing a good game in a veteran series over a new IP if the former is better, but in this case it just happens to be fairly true, though not by much.

Frankly, I don't care whether a person gets Enslaved or Castlevania. I'd just rather not have someone invading a thread bashing one while suggesting that the other is miles better.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

Frankly, I don't care whether a person gets Enslaved or Castlevania. I'd just rather not have someone invading a thread bashing one while suggesting that the other is miles better.

Especially when the game isn't released yet, and the demo didn't really show much of anything.

 

[Starkiller]

Please, you're the king of unfair comparisons. And I was speaking generally about choosing a good game in a veteran series over a new IP if the former is better, but in this case it just happens to be fairly true, though not by much.

Frankly, I don't care whether a person gets Enslaved or Castlevania. I'd just rather not have someone invading a thread bashing one while suggesting that the other is miles better.

I want what you taking to call me the "king of unfair comparison" Mr. I just compared Hydrophobia to Castelvania. To prove a point about a totally different game on top of that. In this case it isn't true though, your obviously haven't played both demos yet. But it's okay there's still time for you to go do so and come back and change your mind.

If you read through my posts, which you don't of course (you selectively pick through them) you would see that I said that Enslaved is slightly edging out Castlevania in the reviews. And also that Enslaved while being the better game will get written off because of the name Castlevania. I'm not bashing here defensive al, I'm bringing up valid points about a games flaws.

 

[SSC_Nerd]

If you read through my posts, which you don't of course (you selectively pick through them) you would see that I said that Enslaved is slightly edging out Castlevania in the reviews.

You're the one "selectively picking" which reviews to best prove your point, yet if you bothered to check the overall concensus of reviews (which you liekly did) you'd see that Enslaved is hardly inchin past Castlevania when it's Castlevania getting better reviews.

I'll just lay it all out. You come into this thread "seemingly surprised" that a Castlevania game is coming out. You said you never heard of it, which is almost impossible since you seem to usually be up on your news, and there has been oodles of buzz for this game since it was revealed last year. Then you go on and on about how you don't care about Castlevania. That's well and all, but you kep going. You then proceed to go on and on about how generic looking it is, when we showed multiple things about how it is anything but generic with it's over the top production values. Next, you read one somewhat negative review, and things "aren't looking good." We show you 10 other reviews absolutely loving it. You "selectively" ignore these by then going on about how you're getting Enslaved over this generic and dissapointing Castlevania game when the reviews say otherwise.

Who's "selective" now?

 

[plasmid303]

I want what you taking to call me the "king of unfair comparison" Mr. I just compared Hydrophobia to Castelvania. To prove a point about a totally different game on top of that. In this case it isn't true though, your obviously haven't played both demos yet. But it's okay there's still time for you to go do so and come back and change your mind.

If you read through my posts, which you don't of course (you selectively pick through them) you would see that I said that Enslaved is slightly edging out Castlevania in the reviews. And also that Enslaved while being the better game will get written off because of the name Castlevania. I'm not bashing here defensive al, I'm bringing up valid points about a games flaws.

Actually, I have played both demos and I have read through your posts, and since this thread is short enough, I'll go ahead and quote all of the relevant ones now. I'll even pick some from the Enslaved thread while I'm at it.

There's a new Castlevania coming out? Never been into Castlevania ever.

Ha I don't follow Castlevania so shoot me, but normally I even know when a big release is coming out. I could never ever get into it. I think it being so japanese and the anime thing and all really turned me off to it?

I am a Castlevania noob by choice I guess then Plasmid. It's one of those things I will never get I guess.

It doesn't look very good.

It just looks generic. I'm not saying it's bad, but it looks decent at best...a rental perhaps. I think Castlevania fandom may be clouding judgements on this one.

I'm going go with the new IP, Enslaved instead of a decent Castlevania.

I know I have a Castlevania game on my R4, and it's annoyingly slow and uninteresting. I think you play as a girl in it if I'm right.

Because the new exciting Enslaved I feel is going to be the better game and the better buy here. New fresh games can definitely be better than the 20th game in a series. That and the new castlevania feels exactly like another God of war clone just as Dante's Inferno was and other less successful renditions. It's GOW in mid-evil times with werewolves and tron horses that talk with bad scottish accents.



I hardly make any ignorant comments dominishin. But you saying I do is in fact quite ignorant.

From the Enslaved thread:

T-minus 3 days.

This seems to be getting pretty solid and favorable reviews. An 8.0 from IGN as well.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west/critic-reviews?dist=positive

Looks like it's slightly edging out the other big action game this month, Castlevania, with reviewers.

Really? Currently Castlevania holds an 85 aggregate to Enslave's 76.

That's pretty close, but doesn't exactly reflect what you just said.

Enslaved holds an 80 and Castlevania an 87. If you take a look at the random no name "reviews" in the Castlevania score it will make sense.
You can't poll critic scores of no name reviewers like, Gamereactor Sweden, 3DJuegos, Eurogamer Spain, Vandal Online...and expect them not to be fluff.

Let's compare the big three thus far, reputable gaming sites:

Castlevania:
IGN - 75
GameSpot - 75
1 UP - 75

Enslaved:
IGN - 80
GameSpot - 80
1 UP - 83


Like I said it's slightly edging out Castlevania. It's really bugging me people writing off Enslaved because Castlevania, an established series has a game out. When in fact the new IP is the better game. Everyone is automatically being drawn to Caslevania, like a moth to a flame just because of it's namesake.

I think if a gamer sat down and tried the demo of each, most of the time they would come away impressed with Enslaved more so than Castlevania.

I don't separate smaller, independent review sites from the more popular ones, especially when you take into consideration that some big-name sites like Gamespot have been busted in the past for taking pay-offs from game studios for a good grade.

If I was to make a point here, it's that the scores are so marginally different that both games are within the same league and that a gamer shouldn't choose based on small number differences. They're both wildly different games though both exist in the 'action' hack-n-slash genre. From what I've gathered, play Enslaved if you want an easy experience with a good story or pick up Castlevania if you want challenge and Castlevania-esque settings.

From what I gather...Play Enslaved if you want a beautiful visualized post-apocolyptic setting in a game in the same vein of Uncharted meets Heavenly Sword.
Play Castlevania if you are okay with a boring blatant, uninspired God of War clone with werewolves and boring gameplay, and cheesy voice acting.

My mind was about to melt out playing the Castlevania demo...I felt like I was playing slightly worse Dante's Inferno.

I don't see the need to continue this, since you've proved to be unreasonably petulant.

 

[SSC_Nerd]

I just read he considers the small review sites as fluff and not nearly as important as gamespot or anything. You heard it here first folks. The opinions of people who don't review for big sites don't matter. That means OUR opinions cant POSSIBLY compare to Gamepot or IGN. This also means I can't trust Starkillers opinions either since he doesn't work at IGN.

 

[plasmid303]

You're the one "selectively picking" which reviews to best prove your point, yet if you bothered to check the overall concensus of reviews (which you liekly did) you'd see that Enslaved is hardly inchin past Castlevania when it's Castlevania getting better reviews.

I'll just lay it all out. You come into this thread "seemingly surprised" that a Castlevania game is coming out. You said you never heard of it, which is almost impossible since you seem to usually be up on your news, and there has been oodles of buzz for this game since it was revealed last year. Then you go on and on about how you don't care about Castlevania. That's well and all, but you kep going. You then proceed to go on and on about how generic looking it is, when we showed multiple things about how it is anything but generic with it's over the top production values. Next, you read one somewhat negative review, and things "aren't looking good." We show you 10 other reviews absolutely loving it. You "selectively" ignore these by then going on about how you're getting Enslaved over this generic and dissapointing Castlevania game when the reviews say otherwise.

Who's "selective" now?

 

[hairlesswookiee]

Lol.....OWNED. That's a lot of multi quoting there Plasmid. I'm going to have to figure out how to do that some day.

~~~So Enslaved is averaging 80 and Castlevania is getting 87 and that's only "marginally" better? Ok, I agree to a point. If the two games being compared were say, the new Metal Gear Solid game and Gears of War 3 (assuming they get launched close enough to each other) and the games were getting the same scores, would that 87 and 80 scores still be marginal?? I doubt it.

 

[SSC_Nerd]

If the two games being compared were say, the new Metal Gear Solid game and Gears of War 3 (assuming they get launched close enough to each other) and the games were getting the same scores, would that 87 and 80 scores still be marginal?? I doubt it.

Regrettably, the quoting of things like Metacritic as gospel are only for things like fanboyism. It's too hard to compare one man's 9/10 with another person's 9/10 rating, so a metacritic score is hardly definitive, but some people take it WAY too seriously. Metacritic, in my opinion, should only be used to guage as somewhat overall look at how good a game is. The dumbest arguements I've ever seen are like, "my game iz 3% higher on Metacritic that urz! hur hur lulz! Itz so much better!" That nonsensical crap bugs me to no end. In any case, both Enslaved and Castlevania look to be 2 very good games, and I hope to play Enslaved over time as well.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

I actually bypass 90% of every review and just read the technical specs for the Pros and Cons of the game. The rest of the review is nothing more than the reviewer's opinion which means nothing to me. I'm also prone to read user (not working for a site/magazine) personal scores. If they tend to be a positive reaction then I'll give it a shot as I've enjoyed many games that got poor review scores.

 

[cr0w]

One thing not mentioned is the reason some of the sites (IGN, Gamespot) seemed to have lowered their scores compared to other sites is they were _____ing about it "Not being Castlevania", and that influenced their reviews. That is, of course, complete B.S. since this game feels and looks more like the original 4 Castlevanias than anything since SOTN came out. SOTN is the FF7 of the Castlevania series, and I'd be willing to wager those whining about this being a departure from the series hardly know it existed before 1996.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

Well the people _____ing are more than likely just not able to accept that it's not a side scroller anymore.

 

[cr0w]

Probably not. Personally I'm ridiculously happy we're going back to the medieval setting, getting out of the castle for a bit, and staying away from the terrible, femmy anime designs that took over when Ayami Kojima became the main designer and IGA became the driving force behind the series. As someone who grew up with the series (I was 6 when the first one came out and played it religiously), I'm happy that I actually recognize Castlevania again.

 

[Ryu]

Can't wait to play this game. I'm still a huge fan of oldschool Castlevania and Metroidvania, but as long as this doesn't completely replace them, it doesn't bug me that it doesn't completely follow the formula, etc etc.

Alucard and Soma Cruz are my two favorite characters, but from what I'm hearing they might be replaced. Always wished the Castlevania games would have a few more story sequences. It's also nice to see a main character that looks like a guy.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

Probably not. Personally I'm ridiculously happy we're going back to the medieval setting, getting out of the castle for a bit, and staying away from the terrible, femmy anime designs that took over when Ayami Kojima became the main designer and IGA became the driving force behind the series. As someone who grew up with the series (I was 6 when the first one came out and played it religiously), I'm happy that I actually recognize Castlevania again.

Yeah I don't care what style the game is (3D, 2D, whatever) as long as the story rocks, and it plays well. I'm also a fan of the Castlevania series, but yeah my favorites are: Symphony of the Night, Dawn of Sorrow, and Super Castlevania.

 

[plasmid303]

Gametrailers' Castlevania series Retrospective Part 1:

<div style="width: 480px;"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="https://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=705561"/><param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="https://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=705561" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="https://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object><div style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana; text-align: center; width: 480px; padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; background-color: black; height: 32px;"><div><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://www.gametrailers.com" title="GameTrailers.com">Video Games</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://www.gametrailers.com/game/the-castlevania-retrospective/13944" title="The Castlevania Retrospective">The Castlevania Retrospective</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://www.gametrailers.com/video/part-i-the-castlevania/705561" title="Part I: Road Into Darkness">Part I: Road Into Darkness</a></div><div style="padding-top: 3px;"><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://xbox360.gametrailers.com/" title="XBox 360">XBox 360</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://ps3.gametrailers.com/" title="PS3">Playstation 3</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="https://wii.gametrailers.com/" title="Wii">Nintendo Wii</a></div></div></div>

Glad to see Gametrailers return to their Retrospectives series. Always thought they were very well made.

 

[Starkiller]

I just read he considers the small review sites as fluff and not nearly as important as gamespot or anything. You heard it here first folks. The opinions of people who don't review for big sites don't matter. That means OUR opinions cant POSSIBLY compare to Gamepot or IGN. This also means I can't trust Starkillers opinions either since he doesn't work at IGN.

Everyone's a critic, but not all opinions are treated the same.