Downloaded the demo last night. Haven’t played it yet but I’ll do a review worthy of the op.

digi wrote:

Yous don't like boobs or physics anymore? This place is so negative all the time, game is fun!

aye, the game is ok, As I said I'm getting poor man's version of Nier and Bayonetta. and I've no issue with characters like that but I just find the adolescent jiggle stuff dull after all this time.

I don't fancy it.  Partly because it looks a bit Barb Wire: The Game but mostly because it seems like such a Bayonetta copycat and I have a weird history with that series anyway (FTR: loved the first one.  Struggled to finish the second one despite the fact that it was probably a bit better.  Didn't bother with the third).  This isn't something I'll definitely never play but I'm nowhere near day one, and even if it Metacritcs in the low 80s I'd probably hesitate at a chalice.    

Not because it's a Playstation game - I've got one of them under the telly, you can't miss it - but because it doesn't appeal to me enough to pay it much attention.  I tried to play Nier Automata and got fed up with that too.

It's just dropped further down the list then.  I assumed it was all skidding around and speedily Vanquishing things.

Well, some parts of you do.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2024-stellar-blade-tech-preview-what-can-we-learn-from-the-ps5-demo

Interestingly they absolutely failed to address the boobs! Shocking journalism. Otherwise fairly positive about teh tech and the game.

JonB wrote:

Well, some parts of you do.

I'll probably blast it a rental at this point, though currently I seem to be renting stuff that ends up on PS Plus anyways. If it's a souls like, I'm willing to give it a bash. Will see.

Kow wrote:

Where can you rent games these days?

Boomerang Rentals. Considering the cost of new games atm, I'm paying about a tenner and I get to sample a lot of game without committing.

He gets them on the rebound…

Finally played some of the demo. Seems fine?

Movement is a little sluggish as already mentioned here, but hopefully will be better with added skills etc? Dunno. But I’m digging the setting (my favourite, post apocalypse kinda world setting) and it seems very polished. Quite the looker. Music seems nice but why the vocals?!

Looking forward to playing more and maybe this will turn into a decent game but… fuck off with the female models, seriously. Unnecessary titillation and T&A. So grating.

I just thought maybe the industry has moved on by now. But it’s nowt that will stop me enjoying a game, initially just a bit like why??? Bayo is one of my all time favourites and that did annoy me at first too, but it very soon passed.

I think Bayonetta is a bit better in that regard because it feels like her choice and she owns it. Whereas, from the demo anyway, this just seems like T&A for T&As sake. I do think the industry has moved past this in some way, especially for a big release. There's always space for small games all about the ass. But games like Nier show you can have a bit if the rest of the game is solid.

Stellar Blade definitely wishes it was Nier. You can tell straight away because of the music, which elf mentions, as it has pretty much the same sounds and vocals but also in the general design of it. I liked the music though. The game itself I think it's a solid 6 at this stage but could go up if the combat has a bit more depth to it or if the story is better than the demo shows. I think that's the only way they could get away with the T&A too if the story is partly about why these attack bots are sexy ladies. I don't think it will though.

Definitely an accomplished product though considering the team hasn't done anything like this before. I just think that inexperience shows in how the combat isn't quite as polished as it could be. I think some enemy attack patterns are a bit hard to read and I think that comes from the visual design which, whilst cool and fleshy and jiggly itself, just kind of blends into the environments a bit too much. It's weird that you have to hold a button to pick up items. The lock on doesn't do the best job at aligning the camera for the action and doesn't track to the next enemy especially well. The feedback and timing of the combat isn't as tight as more accomplished devs are able to achieve but I've definitely played worse.

Might pick it up on a sale maybe.

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

There's always space for small games all about the ass.

High five.

I don’t think it is? Not according to Wikipedia anyway. I looked it up because yes it does remind me of Automata, but not quite as good (so far). The game just seems like it wants to be Nier Automata as Shabby said.