Quick Look: Dark Void Demo

Looks like fun

"Check this out... *THUNK* "
 
It is a real dud of a demo, I gave more feedback at MajorNelson, and I will wait for the reviews.
I truly believe that you can't sell someone a tutorial level.  Abilitease is a thing, now.  And for godsakes, the kind of audience hyped for this game already knows how to fly a damn jetpack. Just offer up the button prompts without the chitchat.  (Ya I know, extra development time. ;-p )
 
Spoilers be damned, if you want to demo a game to determine if you should BUY it, then you want to see the cool parts.  That's usually in the middle.  Also, I don't want to play a demo for upwards of an hour, then go to buy the game and have to play the same hour over again. (Will see if Brutal Legend lets me skip.)  I'm not saying it's a dealbreaker, but I think planning out demos should be rethought in Twenty-oh-ten, because it feels like we're still eating 20th century crusts instead of 21st century vertical slices.  I understand why so many titles don't bother with one, or wait for after retail release.
 
I think the Fable 2 approach, now that Fable 2 is downloadable as chapters, is perfect.  If it works as advertised, now that I've bought a disc, I can load the save where the "demo episode" ended, and continue on, with all my unpopped achievements ready to go.  That is absolutely perfect.  As we see more games designed with chapters, this could be a serious benefit for try-and-buyers.  Ultimately they want us to avoid rental stores, right?  At least for the moment, we can have the best of both worlds.

" The visuals remind me of Crackdown and borderlands....what is that called again>"

I get a "Yager" vibe from the flight sequences, if anyone remembers that.

Sorry, but the shooting does not feel "good."

That is Nolan North... seriously.. that man is GOD! 
 
He is a talented voice actor, trouble is developers keep wanting him to be Nathan Drake. He spoke about it in a interview, that's why he always uses the same force in games.

All Geth aside, visually the game was looking very good. Apart from that I'm not too confident about what it's doing.

Wtf, thats the unreal engine? It looks like 3 or 4 years ago this might have looked it good, but...these graphics blow. This gameplay is epic boring, you don't move nearly as fast as you should with the jetpack. Extreme dissapointment

Bleh, the only thing that caught my attention in this QL was that sick bassline that started during the combat.

Did the guys upstairs make any changes to the video player? There used to be a gray line that shows how much of the video has been loaded, but I don't see it anymore. Also, if I pause the video for a few minutes, it stops working and I have to reload the page to make it play again. This only started happening since yesterday. Is anyone else having the same problem?

" Nice quicklook.  Jeff seemed to think it was alright at least.  Glad they did this since I think the demo is getting WAY too much hate from everyone.  Seems like the first person that put up his "demo impressions" bashed the game and everyone fell in like sheep to agree with him (many of which admit to not even playing the demo).  . "

" @handlas said:

" Nice quicklook.  Jeff seemed to think it was alright at least.  Glad they did this since I think the demo is getting WAY too much hate from everyone.  Seems like the first person that put up his "demo impressions" bashed the game and everyone fell in like sheep to agree with him (many of which admit to not even playing the demo).  . "

Yeah keep telling yourself that. It really was a poor demo that left me feeling disappointed, Crimson skies was awesome and this game (based upon the demo) is not very awesome. "

Demo was pretty awful. Will still watch this Quicklook, of course.

I really fucking hate when people quote me "

" I'm excited for this. "

When is Nolan North the game coming out? Where Nolan North voices every single character in the game.

"That is Nolan North... seriously.. that man is GOD!  He is a talented voice actor, trouble is developers keep wanting him to be Nathan Drake. He spoke about it in a interview, that's why he always uses the same force in games. "

This QL made the demo look a lot better than what I experienced when I played it. Still comes across as a pretty below average game.

I think it looks a lot better than people were making it out to be.  It's pretty much what I expected, and that's freakin' cool.

It looks... okay, I guess.

I think it actually looks real cool. Downloading the demo right now

dude,  
 
ughhh....  
 
 i think north is being over exposed.  
 
 
also, robots in this game are fuckin weak dude. are they made of plastic? terminators would rip you apart

I thought the game looked better before....guess not. I'll wait for a review this game looks ok for now.

I downloaded the demo off the EU PSN, and it's seriously underwhelming. The graphics aren't too great with really bad texture pop in and quality in parts (especially on the massive robot thing at the end of the demo). The flying is just not very fun and like people have said, the manoeuvres are just awkward to pull off - for example, clicking in and holding the right stick and then moving both sticks in one direction to perform a barrell roll. After jacking a flying saucer I couldn't get it to actually point at an enemy at all, resorting to just bailing out and tapping the O button repeatedly, waiting for another saucer to come in range to activate the hijack sequence.

I'm beginning to wonder if all concept artists are immediately going to start making all of their characters resemble Mr. North. You know, just in case.

Everyone was bad mouthing this demo before but after watching this, I don't know. Looks pretty good to me.

" Did the guys upstairs make any changes to the video player? There used to be a gray line that shows how much of the video has been loaded, but I don't see it anymore. Also, if I pause the video for a few minutes, it stops working and I have to reload the page to make it play again. This only started happening since yesterday. Is anyone else having the same problem? "

idk, still looks kinda mediocre to me

" @handlas said:

I really fucking hate when people quote me "

Yeah it's quite annoying isn't it?  I just thought that part of the comment was particularly silly, and a focus for my reply. "

Nolan North  is to talented an actor and nice of a guy for us to all turn on him just because hes doing well.

Does anyone else feel like this game should have been released 9 or 10 months ago? Its lost all the excitement I think people had for it by being delayed so much.

I will never turn on Nolan North

Didn't like it when I first heard about it, don't care for it now either I must say.

There seems to be zero sense of 'speed' when you are flying.

controls exactly like crimson skies.  Tutorial was the same too.

Animation looks good but I haven't played it so i can't really see how the controls feel though I think they and the game will feel about average, not to good but not bad.  But Nolan North is in the game and I will never turn on Nolan North!

I just didn't like the way the game controlled. I think I'll pass on this one.

This has the potential to be 'Uncharted 3 - Thieves in space'
 
I know this sounds silly, but I hope North isnt it too many games as the lead.  His character is really the same, he doesnt change his voice, so this is really NAthan Drake with a jet pack.  Regardless of set pieces and story, if the main character acts and sounds the same, it can take you out of the whole experience.
 
DGMW,  I think North rocks, I just want to have a different experience.
 
Mark Hammil is in danger of same thing - his voice in Darksiders sounds a lot like the Joke in Batman AA

This looks better to me than the other recent Dark title (Darksiders). 
 
Combat looks more interesting and involved, and who doesn't like jet packs really?

Sure don't look that perty does it.

For the record, Nolan North himself says he's tired of being the same voice and character style.  He said in an interview that he would love to do something different but all the companies that hire him say "Can you sound just like the Uncharted guy?  Thanks."

How could anyone turn on Nolan North. After all the grenade packs we've found together...

When Jeff said it came out 8 years ago, I then saw the graphics, and thought he was telling the truth.

im gonna have to see what the reviews look like...