Hmm I agree. I mentioned that somewhat in a post yesterday regarding how the focus and scope is different between the two.
It’s ultimately a direction thing, where the 2019 one focused on a narrow scope but as you mentioned with the wider range of facial animation dramatised to a crazy degree for showcasing purpose whereas the demo here doesn’t have that, it’s more reserved because the direction is different. But regardless I still believe the 2019 Senua has something going for it, I believe that’s a whole different model, or at least a much older version of Senua, as such details that come inherent with age are not as visible in a younger Senua that we see in the demo. 2019 Senua is perhaps what she’ll look like much later in the game. I’m excited to see age and wear like that represented in the game somehow, would be super cool.
There is 1000% a Xbox filter on all these games that make them not get as high praise imo and I think this could be a reason why the Ori dev spoke out, probably thinks his game would’ve won the GOTY if it wasn’t a Xbox exclusive. It does feel like Xbox has to do something 2 fold amazing to get the same amount of crazy praise.
Now that this demo is out, I really really want Ninja Theory to make more devlogs more regularly like they used to with the first game. Concept art, lighting tests, animation tests, combat tests, what the direction will be this time, what new ground they’ll be breaking technically, sonically and narratively, what is working out and what isn’t, etc. I don’t want a game demo/trailer and then going completely radio silent for six months to a year. The devlogs were some of the highlights of the first game, and following them made you appreciate the final product even more when you eventually got to play it.
At least Geoff really gave it the praise it deserves. When he said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw it I was thinking it would be something by Sony or multiplatform. And afterwards he praised it again. So at least there’s that.
Absolutely. I have always said that if Xbox made God of War - a game that is universally praised - you would have the same people all of a sudden being a lot more lukewarm to the game just because it has an Xbox logo on the cover.
I’m seeing some stuff that is considered spoilers for me, my own fault because I’m entering a thread about a sequel. Today or tomorrow I shall start with the first game. Been putting it off for too long.
ooooh. I thought it was the same character but they had updated the model and the setpiece to be this. But if there are multiple of these guys, will be interesting to see how they differ both visually and encounter-wise.
it’s been a while since I seen you posting. I remember you from TeamXbox though, UnionVGF.