DmC Devil May Cry demo test: what’s in a look?

So Middle-Aged Men don’t understand what cool is? Who do you think makes most of the videogames you call ‘cool’?

Did you really want to see DMC go down the same route they’ve taken Resident Evil? I bet you don’t. Pissing on the legacy of the character? What legacy? What character? Are you that shallow that you think Dante actually had a character?

But Devil May Cry was never cool, was the thing. I never looked at Dante and thought, hey, that’s a guy I’d like to hang with. He was somewhat goofy and cheesy and that’s what worked. The thing is, this isn’t an attempt at making a goofy character. They’re actually trying to come up with someone who they think is “cool,” and he’s far far from it. He comes off as a complete douchebag and yet, the developers of this title have gone on and on about how they’re in touch with today’s youth and yet all they’ve done is add as much cursing as possible because that’s what the kids are into. It reeks of an uncle trying really really hard to relate to his nephew, so he buys him a Winger album or something.

Anyway, I know you’re someone who bitches about Metal Gear, so I can’t take your opinions on series continuity seriously. I think the only Metal Gear Solid game that had a shitty storyline was MGS2, which was so bad that I actually had to be talked into giving MGS3 a shot when it came out. So, I don’t what you were talking about when you were saying that Rising couldn’t ruin it anymore than it already did.

As for Resident Evil 6, I actually liked it for the most part, with the exception of the second half of Chris’ game and the first half of Jake’s. Leon’s was awesome. It was everything I’d want in an RE title.

@51 He wants to fill your dark soul with light….

@52 You do realise that it was Capcom who wanted to take it in this direction, right? Not Ninja Theory. Their original pitch was far more traditional. It’s Capcom that said no.

@53 – I know that. It’s why I want this to underperform, so that Capcom will learn a lesson. That lesson being Ninja Theory were not the right developer for this.

They’ve have made one game I thought was okay (Heavenly Sword) and another that I thought was a shitty game with a good story (Enslaved). I don’t think they should have been anywhere near this and if this underperforms, I doubt anyone at Ninja Theory will get punished for it. And if they do, eh, listen to the fans next time. Push for it. Do what the guys at Sucker Punch did when we hated the Cole redesign for Infamous 2.

It’s a good thing unemployed nerds are just that.

@53 – In fact, if I recall correctly, it was actually Inafune who wanted the whole change of character during his weird “I hate everything Japanese” phase. Once he was gone, they should have pushed to go back to a more traditional take on the character.

@52: Well then, what was it? Most ‘DMC Fans’ would certainly disagree with you there and if DMC was never cool, why bring up the word ‘cool’ at all?

If Original Dante wasn’t a douchebag i don’t know who is. So nothing lost.

“I think the only Metal Gear Solid game that had a shitty storyline was MGS2″

Have you played MGS4? Or Peace Walker? If you think the story in both games were good then you really set the bar low, didn’t you? Either that or you simply don’t care about the gaping wholes in the story.

MGS4′s whole existence is to apologize what Hideo messed up in MGS2 and while they did this they fucked up even more.

“I hypnotized myself into believing to be a Doppelganger and some stuff about NANOMACHINES!”

Fantastic Story.

Peace Walker: “Oh, hello french girl, you obviously hurt your leg, let me X-Ray through your clothes and talk with you about Self-Esteem issues in the middle of a warzone. Oh you like birds? Me too! No i’m sorry, i’m only interested in underage girls.”

If you don’t know what i’m talking about, you never played Peace Walker.

Congrats that you had so much fun with the action game called Resident Evil 6. It’s funny how you accuse other developers of fucking up franchises but when it’s a franchise you don’t care about, it’s all good.

I played RE6, it’s Michael Bay-dumb. Fun, but dumb and no horror at all. Leon’s campaign was terrible. From start to finish. Little to no originality. Why the fuck did we end up in a mine again?

Then there’s the College at the beginning:

“Don’t make me do this Mr. Zombie President. Hello? Are you listening to me? Mr. President? I know i’ve 15 years experience of Zombie killing, but i’m just not sure if you can hear me.”

“Oh, both of those people are clearly infected, i think i’ll use the elevator with them. Big shocker, they are zombies.”

The whole campaign should’ve been about Jake, starting in eastern europe. Because that’s a new setting and because he’s new, so it would actually make sense that he would be confused when someone who was okay four seconds ago attacks him.

@53: You know, i never get tired of this line.

@54: That doesn’t even make sense. Capcom contacted Ninja Theory, they wanted the game Ninja Theory made. That is exactly what they wanted. How is that Ninja Theory’s fault? You doubt NT will get punished for that? Do you even know what you’re saying? Please enjoy your Call of Duty and never ever complain about things not changing because that’s what the fans want.

See, this is why we can’t have nice things. Remember all the hate for DMC4 before it came out? I think it doesn’t go any lower than DMC Fans.

I love the story in Peace Walker actually. Which, by extension, would mean that I don’t play Call of Duty games, because I don’t think it’s possible to enjoy both of those two things. But the only part I didn’t think made sense was the whole weird “Spirit of the Boss Stopping WWIII” part, but I just wrote that off to typical Kojima being weird and that’s part of the charm of it. My only complaint about Peace Walker was that you were just fighting AI bosses instead of the usually interesting (with the exception of 2) bosses in the series.

As for MGS4, the database retcons the retcon about the arm, saying that Ocelot WAS possessed by Liquid at first and then cut the arm off, and then did the hypnotism thing to make people think he was still Liquid. I had a few problems with MGS4, but I saw most of them as being Ryan Peyton’s attempts to Westernize the series. MGS4 is nowhere near my favorite of the series, but it’s still way better than 2.

@58 The criticism levelled at Nero with DmC 4 is almost exactly the same criticism that is now being directed at new Dante. And while the gameplay is solid, half the game is a retread of the levels.

@58 – and I brought up that the guy who initially brought Ninja Theory in left Capcom. With him gone, they should have tried harder to stem the hate the series was getting. The fact that it is a reboot now and not a prequel like it originally was was part of the damage control they did after he left. They should have taken it further and did one of three things. 1) cancel the title outright, 2) make it a new IP so that people can look at it without it having to compare to the older titles, or 3) change it to a continuation of the old series. Of course, the changes in gameplay would still be a problem, but I am guessing if they had stuck with the original Dante, they would have kept the gameplay more traditional, as well.

And yes, if every other word out of Dante’s mouth was “fuck” then the old school fans would’ve complained about that too, but that’s why you don’t make every word out of his mouth “fuck.”

@60 – I won’t argue with you on the retreading levels being a low-point. Not at all. I think that was a huge mistake they made in DMC4.

As for the Nero criticism, I do remember it, but I also remember it dying down once Capcom announced that old school Dante was playable. And yes, Dante should have had his own levels to play in, or at the very least, his own bosses. I won’t argue that.

@59:

“Which, by extension, would mean that I don’t play Call of Duty games, because I don’t think it’s possible to enjoy both of those two things.”

Nonsense.

““Spirit of the Boss Stopping WWIII” part, but I just wrote that off to typical Kojima being weird and that’s part of the charm of it.”

See, that’s what i don’t do. To me the series stopped being great after the first one. Now it’s just Fanservice for horny Pedobears and telenovela watching … people and most of the story is all about Kojima making weird nonsense. Most of the dialogs are bad and childish.

“What does it mean to be soldier?” asks Naked Snake with a shitload of experience as a soldier.

I just know too much about how special forces really operate to think it’s okay to ask such question in a warzone. The last trailer of Ground Zeroes leaves me to believe that we won’t see that much naivety in the new game. You know with the child sitting on the ground in a cage, with a hole in his chest.

That’s what Hideo does, he’s tricking you into thinking that this time the story might make sense, it might be honest, it might be brutal and consequential, but that never happens. He will find a way to fuck up the story, make it about machines, talk some nonsense philosophy and in the end all is good. Some people marry in hangar and all is good. Because he doesn’t want people to feel bad. He has no balls for that.

I’m not going back after playing Spec Ops – The Line. I laugh at everybody who says MGS is a anti-war game. It has so many messages and no fucking focus whatsoever.

Then why, I ask did you even play the games in the first place if you don’t appreciate the weirdness of them? They’re obviously not for you. They were never meant to be realistic simulations of the horrors of war. You cited MGS1 as the last good one, but you seem to be forgetting the Cyborg Ninjas and the “Does love bloom on the battlefield?” conversations or the fact that there were people named Decoy Octopus in it. I had no interest in Spec Ops, because I know war is a horrible thing and atrocities are committed on a regular basis. I don’t need a videogame to tell me that.

If you were actually tricked into thinking there’d be a story that was 100% realistic then you came to the wrong series. I like the mediums and the immortal vampires fueled by nanomachines (Vamp is the only thing from MGS2 that I actually thought was kinda neat) and the singing tanks and the Russian generals who shoot lightning out of their arms and the guy who shoots hornets. THAT is what I like about the series. The oddness of it mixed with the real world situations. THAT was the problem with MGS4. It tried to rationalize things and make some of the weirdness have a plausible reason for it.

I will say, though, that I usually recommend people play them in chronological order, because MGS2 is not as much of a clusterfuck as it is otherwise, if you already know about The Sorrow and the Philosophers/Patriots.

And if you think Ground Zeroes is going to stray from what made Metal Gear Metal Gear, I suggest you cancel your pre-order right now, because you are going to be disappointed.

The entire MGS canon is a giant clusterfuck of nonsensical gibberish, pretentious moralising, and an exercise in tedium. Kojima made the whole fucking thing up as it went along. It has not, and never has, had anything meaningful to say.

It’s garbage writing, and some of the worst in the industry.

@64: Because i was young and i did like the weirdness until i realized that the game takes itself way too serious and i can’t stomach that anymore. It’s bullshit.

Granted i haven’t played MGS 1 for a long time. Maybe i should go back and play it again, maybe then i’ll recognize that the series was bad from the get-go. I still enjoy some of the gameplay elements and playing with the AI. But the story and its characters are getting in the way of the fun.

“THAT is what I like about the series. The oddness of it mixed with the real world situations. THAT was the problem with MGS4. It tried to rationalize things and make some of the weirdness have a plausible reason for it.”

See, i might actually agree with you on that. Whenever Hideo tries to explain stuff it just ends up being a complete clusterfuck. He should embrace the bullshit elements and stop pretending its a serious game, because it’s not. Either be serious or be dumb, but don’t try to do both. Some people can do that, Hideo can’t.

Everything supernatural in MGS2 and 4 was explained by Nanomachines and everything supernatural in MGS3 was not explained at all and that was much better. I still dislike MGS 3 because of all the ‘serious’ talk between Snake and The Boss.

@65: Maybe i wasn’t clear enough, but i don’t expect anything from the series anymore. I wonder how Rising is going to be compared to the series. Hideo is not the main writer and What i’ve seen so far make me actually optimistic.

@67 The original hasn’t aged well at all. Controls are all over the place.

http://www.shopto.net/xbox360/XB2AN01-anarchy-reigns-limited-edition

@66 – You and I can agree to disagree on that, but I am curious as to what you feel are some examples of good writing in videogames.

In before Spec Ops.

@67 – On the supernatural elements of the Metal Gear series, I really feel that it was mostly Payton’s influence, according to both what he and Kojima have said in interviews, as to why they tried to make things plausible.

Peace Walker shows that, without him, they seem to have said, “screw that approach.” That’s why I was able to write off the sudden supernatural elements of Peace Walker even if I was bothered by their use. I don’t mind that the Boss’s ghost appears, I just didn’t like that it was used as a literal deus ex machina and saved the day. That felt like lazy writing to me. It wasn’t enough to ruin the whole game for me, though, and I was happy to see Metal Gear returning a bit to the fantastical, without a scientific rational thrown in.

I think we’ll definitely see more of those elements in Ground Zeroes.

@71 Spec Ops is just as overblown and pretentious as everything else on the market.

@70 There really aren’t any. Some of the old Lucasarts stuff had some pretty solid comedy, but most of what’s been released since pretty much the hobby’s inception is completely garbage in this respect. There’s almost nothing in gaming that stands up to any sort of critical assessment of its story.

@73: Disagree.

If it counts I also disagree completely both about the entire state of the industry and about Spec Ops specifically.

I am however not stupid enough to name anything here because it will just be pulled down anyway so whats the point?

So then if you want something akin to old DMC buy Anarchy Reigns in January and not Donte May Cry, this might send a small message to Capcom. So you get a technical, overblown, clearly stupid action game and its cheap. Then if you also want to be 2cool4school and be all edgy Bill O’Reily is evil and drone and anonymous is legion twat buy DmC!

Easy peasy!

@73 – I can actually respect that answer, even if I may disagree with it.

@75 – Of course I’m getting Anarchy Reigns. It’s from Platinum. Anything on a system I own from Platinum will be purchased.

The word I’ve heard is that Anarchy Reigns isn’t actually all that great. And this is coming from someone who thinks Platinum’s games are the single best games of this generation.

http://youtu.be/G6U12dQPykI

Eh if its half as stupid as this video then I think I’ll be fine with it.

Nobody is playing it online anyway. I can’t see it doing well enough over here to sustain a community either.

@80 – The only people I need to play it online with are my friends and my three cousins. I don’t like playing online with strangers.

woah.. look at all that “talk” … well i was actually pissed at the new twilight-inspired dante too.. but i just played the demo and the battle mechanics are really great.. had a lot of fun. sooooo looking forward to playing this when it comes out.
and yes I love the old dante too.. but the new DMC as a game is certainly looking to be better than at least dmc 4 and maybe even 3.. can’t saqy anything about the plot.. I loved the shallowness of the old dmc.. or whatever you call it.. it was like “the supernatural” of video games,
anyway off to playing dark souls .. continue with your debate