Castlevania: Disenchantment of Multi-player Nonappearance

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 8:39 pm Comments (7)

Castlevania: Harmony of something-beginning-with-D is out! And I only heard about it last month! So, what’s it like?

Well thanks to the wonderful world of game demos I can’t actually tell, as I haven’t bought the game and the demo offers only the first level with Alucard as the sole playable character. I can get behind that. It may not be cool, but that’s just how the world of demos is run.

I’m not so appreciative of the fact that it doesn’t offer the multi-player mode. What the hell? That’s like shilling a Sonic game without the speed, or a Metal Slug game without the bullets. While I love me some Castlevania, the modern exploration instalments do get a bit wearisome after a while and the multi-player was the very reason I was interested in this one. I don’t care that they recycled every graphic possible, or that the sole piece of music I heard in the demo was more like indistinct noise than a rock song – it has multi-player, and that’s what I want!

And I can’t try it without buying. Maaaaaan.

Of course, multi-player demos can be kind of obnoxious. The demo of the PC Halo offered only the Blood Gulch map; not a bad choice, and ultimately multi-player is all anyone’s going to want out of the series, but it meant that back when I still played the game it was difficult to find a healthily-populated server on a map that wasn’t the damned wasteland. I’m sure people who are playing Transformers: War For Cybertron are sick of seeing the same low-level classes being used by newbies who are only trying the demo.

For that matter, what did I think of that game’s demo? Well, it wasn’t bad. I only played about fifteen minutes of it and it was a pleasant change from my usual blasts of Left 4 Dead, and the robots controlled a lot smoother than the hulking, hobbling behemoths of the PlayStation 2 Armada game, though the vehicles were disappointing. I still believe the PS2 game really captured controlling a Transformer as perfectly as possible – the robots played like accurate representations of tall, lumbering, mechanical marvels armed to the gills with weaponry and abilities, while their vehicle modes perfectly demonstrated why they made themselves into cars in the first place: Optimus Prime can’t climb hills to save his life.

But in War For Cybertron, the vehicle modes I had access to seemed rather useless. Besides a hint of floatiness, they barely controlled differently from the robot modes, with only a slight change in power to differentiate them. Also, sorry, but I don’t see the point of Transformers when want they turn into is just an indistinct tank-shaped mound. I love that you can see just how the likes of Jazz and Starscream twist and contort themselves to become Porsche automobiles and F-15 jets respectively, but that charm is lost when they just turn into boring alien machines. I might pick up the game eventually (if anything it plays more comfortably than the Revenge of the Fallen game), but I’m in no rush. I’ve barely touched any of my 360 games that don’t begin in “Left” and end in “Dead.”

I also tried the demo of Limbo. I’ve got a lot to nag about, so I’ll reserve it for tomorrow – I need every blog update I can get! MY LIFE IS SO UNEVENTFUL.

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7 Responses to “Castlevania: Disenchantment of Multi-player Nonappearance”

  • MightyKombat says:

    Hey Konami stop fucking around and give us back our Belmonts, dammit.

  • Ragey says:

    I don’t want them back until they find themselves a decent pair of pants. Some people can wear chainmail skirts quite fashionably, but not the Belmonts.

  • MightyKombat says:

    I bet a lot of peeps would take Skirtman Simon over Light Yagami Belmont from Judgment any day

  • They could also dress them in WWII pilot pants like Simon Belmont on Captain N.

  • MightyKombat says:

    Simon in a Flight Jacket as drawn by Michiru Yamane wouldbe only as half as ridiculous as Slutmilla or Voldo Danasty

  • Ragey says:

    Is it wrong that I still think the Captain N incarnation is still the most tastefully dressed version of Simon?

    And that reminds me, a few years ago I was almost tempted to make a ROM hack of Castlevania III to change the players to their Captain N counterparts. Only recently did I discover that the squat beardy wizard in the Return To Castlevania episode is actually meant to be the magician woman. I’m lost for words.

  • MightyKombat says:

    then Judgment had to give her a gigantic rack as if it wasn’t obvious enough.

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