space_sandwich

After playing the demo, hell yeah. The kill cams are just... so epic.

@Genkkaku: I didn't have a choice of Pawns, nor did I get the chance to walk around that Pawn space area in demos. I walked up to some stone and an archer, dwarf mage, and some other melee specialist were assigned to me. They held up their end in fights and were fairly capable at the handling long range healing job. They also were pretty responsive at helping me up if I had fallen. I wish there was more direct control over your party's abilities such as in Mass Effect, but I can't fault them for providing perfectly capable AI partners.

@Tim_the_Corsair: Yeah, I have to agree. It's a shame they chose so poorly, it'll likely turn a lot of folks off from an otherwise cool game. It just goes to show that you should never trust Capcom to come up with interesting, evocative titles.

@The_Laughing_Man: Not nearly as slow and deliberate as Dark Souls. It mostly plays like your average sword combat game with the light/heavy attack scheme, however it packs in much more variety with the unique bumper moves. I couldn't pick out a huge emphasis on combos or hit streaks, but I didn't check to see if significant combo moves a la Ninja Gaiden/God of War were in there. It's not very punishing for your mistakes as the health bar was quite meaty and your party members will revive you if need be.

@CannonGoose: Not that I remember. If there was any screen tearing, I probably overlooked it on account of the chimera trying to rip me apart. I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone manning the booth, so I'm not sure how old the demo was. Outside of those few frame rate hitches I noted in the preview, the overall performance was pretty good.

@Genkkaku: I was a warrior class, I think. Or perhaps it was fighter? To put it simply, I was a tank class.

@CannonGoose: I played on the Xbox 360.

I've repeatedly mentioned Dragon's Dogma as one of my most anticipated games thanks to the game's good previews and trailers. Yet, my skepticism about how Capcom will execute this ambitious western/eastern RPG is just as well documented. That said, I'm happy to report that my short demo with Dragon's Dogma was indeed a good one. The game isn't completely without fault -- this isn't a perfect world, after all -- but what's there is serviceable enough to keep my excitement as high as it needs to be until its May release.

On the plus side, the game has some great visual tech backing it. The scale of some of the enemies, such as this dragon who really only appeared to show off his fire breathing ability, is massive. Speaking of that very fire breath, the particle effects were impressive. Embers fluttered through the wobbling air, smoke bellowed and tiny fires sprouted around the blast area. Unfortunately, some of the textures still look very primitive. Awkwardly polygonal objects and noticeable tile prints were certainly present, but not too much to get too distracting. The game also had a tendency to take a performance hit if action got too hectic. Thankfully, these hitches were few and far between and it never reached "slideshow" slow.

The controls were actually the most impressive part of the demo if not only for your character's attack versatility. The functionality of the gamepad is wonderfully increased through the use of the bumpers, which modify the attack options from simply "heavy" or "light" to more weapon-specific moves. Although some of the sword moves were literally taken from Devil May Cry, others, such as the "evade strike," I believe it was called, had my character leaping back to dodge, then lunging forward to deliver an excellently animated blow to the giant Chimera monster I was fighting at the time. Oh, did I not mention the giant chimera monster? Yeah, I totally killed that thing.

While I'm on the subject of that giant chimera, and the subsequent killing of said chimera, this seems like an appropriate time to talk about the highlight of the demo: grabbing. Anyone who's seen anything about this game has probably seen this mechanic in action, whether it's the character climbing up the side of a giant snake or something much less dramatic, such as picking up a party member and throwing them across the room for no reason other than to assert my dominance over them. I should point out that the latter scenario definitely ushered in a few belly laughs, while the former was... decent. Jumping onto the chimera led to a ridiculously chaotic camera control situation, and I never felt like there was any way to properly maneuver my warrior around the monster's body. Perhaps this was simply my lack of experience with the game's controls -- I'm certainly hoping that's the case. Regardless, the fight was still fun in a "Holy crap, that thing's snake tail just bit my mage's face off," kind of way.

I'd be remiss to end this preview without mentioning another great function of the grab button: tackling harpies, those bird monsters you've probably seen from God of War. It was hilarious.

All in all, my short time with Dragon's Dogma delivered a good experience, one that I'm looking forward to expanding come this summer.

Boy, you better wish you saw my face after I came upon the Orcs Must Die 2 booth at PAX. There's something about establishing devious, orc-murdering doom chasms that just appeals to the demon child living within me, and I'm happy to report that Robot Entertainment is handily improving on that concept.

The first thing I noticed going into my quick demo was just how pretty the game looked. Colors pop nicely, textures are sharp, and the slightly cartoonish art style of the original has seen an adequate update. Not only that, the game moves exceptionally well. Although this was the PC build, there's been a noticeable improvement in how everything flows -- particularly with the traps. The green trap outline that guides your placement now smoothly bounces from placement box to placement box, rather than quickly snapping to each grid location. The effect is actually represents many of the changes -- one of those things you never knew you wanted until you've seen it. Some examples of these additions are the inclusion of rag doll physics (SCORE!) and more dynamic environmental traps, such as constantly cycling mine carts that zip around the stage, knocking orcs around as they go.

Other changes such as the co-op, the new character, new weapons, and the disappearance of the weavers, are obviously far more fundamental. That's right, Robot went ahead and did away with weavers, those gameplay modifiers that added bonuses to magic or trap performance. I'm not sure what they've been removed in place for, maybe it's just to make room for the 250-odd traps and weapons, or maybe it has more to do with the co-op; I'm not sure, I'm not a doctor. Regardless, I'm kind of bummed to see the weavers go.

As for the co-op, I'm happy to report that it's looking good. The difficulty and enemy count thankfully scales to the presence of a partner to keep things from getting too boring. The new character, the Sorceress, is aptly more range/magic focused than the returning War Mage, who's now more like a tank. The two mirror each other's strengths and weaknesses -- the War Mage is stronger and has more health while the Sorceress has significantly more mana -- making for a potentially orc-wrecking dynamic duo.

Another notable feature were the environments. Rather than sitting in an inclosed castle, I was fighting inside mine tunnels overlooking a massive cliff. Blocky, grey castle bricks have been replaced with dirt paths and iron rails, perhaps as a reflection of the tonal shift from magic to industry as with the inclusion of the War Mage's blunderbuss gun instead of his magic crossbow.

From what I've seen and heard from the developers, this game is shaping up to be another great entry into the series. I can't wait to get my hands on a final copy this summer.

@mordukai: Uno and Puzzle Quest on XBLA are some good, minimal involvement games to play when you're feeling under the weather. I usually play those and listen to audiobooks or podcasts when I'm sick -- the music in either game gets pretty repetitive after about 20 minutes. Hope that helps. Feel better, duder!

@Mahonay: Yeah I'm planning on bringing a big backpack for all the swag and my equipment -- camera, mic, flip cam, etc -- but I'll have to go get some nature valley boxes, too. As for that anime convention, my god. Do you know where it is? If it's anywhere near the Back Bay, things are gonna get all sorts of weird. I can't wait to see the result of this nerdy congregation.