Red Steel needs MAJOR work according to IGN

[Anthony1]

Man, IGN ripped Ubisoft a new one over Red Steel. They tried to do it very politely and claimed over and over that the game still has time to be improved, but man, it sounds like this game needs a major overhaul in a scant 6 months. Don't look for this game to be the killer app for the Wii.



http://revolution.ign.com/articles/707/707908p1.html

[Ed Oscuro]

It's got the time it needs.

[Nesmaster]

I watched the E3 swordplay video over at ign, and that right there really showed how clunky the swordfighting is right now. I hope the controls get A LOT of reworking over the next 6 months, and I hope they get the game to the detail of the trailer, at least.

[Anthony1]

Obviously, the key advantage of the Wii is the controller, and the inovation that the controller can provide in a number of genres, but it better be up to par. You should be able to move that wand around and see your onscreen hand follow the exact same motions, almost like you are wearing a motion capture glove with ping pong balls all over your hand.


Speaking of gloves, hmmm, I wonder if somebody could actually make a glove like controller that would be relatively thin and comfortable. That would be a trip. It would work great with boxing games.

[chrisbid]

what was the name of that konami boxing game in the arcade where you had to put on semi heavy boxing gloves to play it?

[jcalder8]

Speaking of gloves, hmmm, I wonder if somebody could actually make a glove like controller that would be relatively thin and comfortable. That would be a trip. It would work great with boxing games.

Man if someone were able to do that it would be so bad. I think it would be so awesome that it might even make it into a movie but thats probably just wishful thinking.

I agree that how you move the wand needs to be exactly the same as what happens on screen, if its not the whole system will be a bust.

[Joker T]

what was the name of that konami boxing game in the arcade where you had to put on semi heavy boxing gloves to play it?

Mocap Boxing I think, and they also had Police 911.

[Snapple]

IGN can suck a lemon. They're not the end-all, be-all of gaming opinions.

Maybe Red Steel will be terrible at launch. Maybe it won't be. Maybe they're further along in improving the game than IGN thinks, but they just couldn't fit everything into their E3 demo. Maybe they're blowing everything out of proportion.

This doesn't mean anything to me.

[comrade]

what was the name of that konami boxing game in the arcade where you had to put on semi heavy boxing gloves to play it?

Mocap Boxing I think, and they also had Police 911.

Police 911 was the shit.

[Poofta!]

well this should mean something for everyone, its not like these guys are making it up. theyre saying where the game stands at this point.

it kinda dissapoints me, since the last six months of a development cycle is rarely used to create gameplay mechanics, its more polishing than anything. i hope dearly it works by its release, i am really looking forward to it, more so than any other game in a while, and this is kinda dissappointing.

well heres to hoping they fix it =]

[hezeuschrist]

They can't "fix" the amount of game they got to play.

Every Wii game we all play is going to be incredibly akward and difficult for the first couple hours, and at E3 you really don't get that much time to sit down with anything, even the major media players.

The guy playing it onstage at the Nintendo media briefing looked like he had a really good handle on what was going on and it looked incredibly fun, especially the swordplay.

But all things considered, it could very well turn out to be the Brute Force of this coming generation.

[studvicious]

Every Wii game we all play is going to be incredibly akward and difficult for the first couple hours, and at E3 you really don't get that much time to sit down with anything, even the major media players.

Actually IGN has been playing the crap out of this game for the past month or so. Ubisoft invited them to their studio in Paris even. So I'm pretty sure that they've formed an honest opinion about this. I do hope that the control issues are indeed worked out by launch.

[Anthony1]

But all things considered, it could very well turn out to be the Brute Force of this coming generation.


Now that is some funny shit right there. I remember how hyped up Brute Force was, and then it turned into a monster letdown. As far as Red Steel is concerned, I'm guessing that news of this less than flattering first take on the game will get back to the people on the development team, and they will make it their mission to get the control as good as possible.


This might have less to do with the skill of the programmers at Ubi Soft and more to do with the limits of the technology for this controller, more precisely, the two things that you are supposed to place on each side of your TV. Maybe those two little sensors things just aren't all that accurate, or you have to be very carefull with the placement of those things and maybe you have to calibrate it carefully before you can really use it. Hmmm.


Either way, it's going to be interesting to try this out when Kiosks start arriving in late September/ early October.

[Drexel923]

This might have less to do with the skill of the programmers at Ubi Soft and more to do with the limits of the technology for this controller, more precisely, the two things that you are supposed to place on each side of your TV. Maybe those two little sensors things just aren't all that accurate, or you have to be very carefull with the placement of those things and maybe you have to calibrate it carefully before you can really use it. Hmmm.

Or maybe its just a little off cause its the first time someone made a game like this?

I'm sure by the time the game launches most of the gameplay will be ironed out. But to really expect the game to be perfect, when its really the first third party game made for the system is wishful thinking. These guys have not had as much time with the new technology as Nintendo so its going to take a little while for any third party developers to perfect it.

From the gameplay it did see (with someone actually playing) it did seem a little loose, but not so much where it looks awful. Now obviously I want the game to be as good as it can be, and I think with the 6 months they do have left they will tighten up the gameplay (Ubisoft IMO has been on a great streak lately)...if somethings are still off at launch I can sort of understand it...once again, the Wii is completely new grounds for any console game developer and will take to time to perfect. If this was talked about a year or two from now, then it would be unnacceptable IMO.

Also, FYI Anthony, its not 2 sensors just 1 that you place on top/bottom of your TV.

[badinsults]

I seem to recall that Halo was critically panned at E3 6 months before it was released. Look what happened afterwards. Six months is a long time to fix things.

[njiska]

I seem to recall that Halo was critically panned at E3 6 months before it was released. Look what happened afterwards. Six months is a long time to fix things.

Yeah but it was panned for framerate issues. Control issues are different because it seems that the problems with this design are part of the intentional design. That the sword slashes for instance. They want you to do the whole slash in a specific fashion in order to produce a result, rather then just having the sword move with the controller.

[Lord_Magus]

I must admit that the controls of Red Steel did appear to be a little less fluid than I had imagined. Like most of us here, I was hoping sword-fighting would be more intuitive as promised by the early trailers, but the current implementation seems more like simulating button presses in a fashion similar to early driving sims, where using a stearing wheel peripheral basically replaced pressing left\right on the dpad.

However, as Drexel mentioned, these are the first games to utilise this unfamiliar technology, so perfect examples should not be expected (especially from 3rd parties) in such early stages of the Wii's lifecycle.

As other games (such as ExciteTruck, Mario Sports and Baseball) demonstrate, the technology allows greatly detailed motion sensing capabilities - more than enough to overcome the current issues with Red Steel's gameplay. I'd say it's purely down to whether the developers will take advantage of it or not.

By the way, everything I wrote above concerns the sword-fighting sections of Red Steel. To make the shooting sections feel less like a cheap Flash game, Ubisoft must take into account a simple FPS design element: that the crosshair is supposed to stay in the middle of the screen :roll:

[Daniel Thomas]

Maybe the IGN people just aren't that skilled at videogames.

Just sayin', but I've seen gameplay videos from the gaming bloggers that was much more competant than the prozines. I'm sure an ambitious game like Red Steel needs more time to be perfected (and framerate issues are typically ironed out at the end), and they'll have everything working right.

I think it all depends upon expectations. The sword fight segments, for instance. You expect total freedom of movement and all kinds of attacks, and a game like this will likely focus on a set series of attacks. Remember, this game is the modern version of a Golgo 13. A hodge-podge of different genres, a violent show-off of the new controller. They should be applauded for their gutso, if nothing else, and laying the groundwork for others to build upon.

Like Lucasarts and that inevitable Lightsabre game. Patience, kids. The first wave of games are all practice rounds and experiments for the later hits.

[Ed Oscuro]

Maybe the IGN people just aren't that skilled at videogames.
Hah! That, or they were distracted by other considerations the fan bloggers weren't? It's a possibility. You'd think that folks at IGN would have more exposure to the device, and know how to play it, better than the others, though...

[Oobgarm]

I tried Red Steel last Friday. Most non-media showoers only played about 70% of the demo, but I got lucky and was able to play through the whole thing.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't awesome, either.

The graphics left much to be desired, but the console isn't graphics-intensive, so I forgive that. Too much glow and blur to cover up imperfections, I think.

The controls were pretty good. The sensitivity for the aiming function was a bit high, but once you got used to it, it felt right. Everything else felt good to me. The use of the nunchuk was well implemented.

I dunno, I think they're being a bit overcritical, myself.

[hezeuschrist]

This might have less to do with the skill of the programmers at Ubi Soft and more to do with the limits of the technology for this controller, more precisely, the two things that you are supposed to place on each side of your TV. Maybe those two little sensors things just aren't all that accurate, or you have to be very carefull with the placement of those things and maybe you have to calibrate it carefully before you can really use it. Hmmm.

Well it's one sensor, and I think this is the biggest issue. They said you have to aim at the sensor, not at the TV. The sensor is obviously sesitive enough to track your range of motion from the top to the bottom of the TV, no doubt, so when the game is missing a critical comfort function like calibrating the Wiimote to react to where you point at the screen it's pretty difficult to write off that portion of the controls.

[THATinkjar]

Nintendo: The Official Magazine (ONM), which is a UK publication, had a short interview with Nicolas Eypert (Creative Director on Red Steel) in the latest issue.

I've only written out the questions I thought might be of interest. Nicolas' answers are very encouraging!


What aspects of the game did you feel needed most attention after E3?


We got many comments about how sensitive aiming was. The controls we showed were the ones we were most satisfied with at that time; they seemed okay to us, maybe because we had already been using the Wii controller for several months. We were planning to include some type of calibration so the player can tell the game what they're living room configuration is like, and now we will probably add a sensitivity setting so the players can tune the game to their liking. Visual-wise, as we now have more time to spend with the final Wii development kits, we are already making better use of the extra power, particularly on improving lighting.


Rumour has it you're trying to create a swordplay system so that your movements are realistically portrayed on screen rather than the game having a set number of sword responses. Can you tell us more about this?


Sword fighting was such a success that we're including more of it in the final game. At E3 it wasn't fully reflecting the way it will work in the completed game. This was partly because of time purposes, but also we wanted to avoid confusing people who were touching the controller for the first time. For this reason, we showed a subset of what it's possible to do with swords in the game. Concerning movements, what I can tell you is that it will be at least as good as the baseball game [Wii Sports] which was often compared to Red Steel.

[NintenDk]

I'm getting the game, is there anybody who's not decided to get it? Or rather already decided against getting it?

[ubersaurus]

A friend of mine who went to E3 said that it was the stinker of the Wii displays. He felt that the FPS control in Metroid Prime 3 was far and away better than Red Steel's.

[Richter]

apparently they've improved the visuals

link (http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/Red_Steel_Visually_Improved_10365_5693_0.htm)

[gjb-sensei]

It's nice to see the guys and gals at Ubisoft actually pay attention to feedback. That seems to be a rarity these days in the video game industry.

[Crazycarl]

I played it and had a lot of fun. The controls need a little tweeking, but besides that i liked it a lot.

[opitekk]

im not excited at all for this game~

[WhoMetFan]

Well, the game has a lot of potential to be a major hit or miss. If the game turns out to be a complete bomb, at least developers will learn from the mistake to make more a similar game with more fluid control in the future, and if the games a hit, well, end of story. I’m still waiting for a lightsaber game…that would be a system seller.

[opitekk]

i never really had an interest in these types of games~ even though it will be enhanced via the controls but whatever....plenty of other awesome launch titles~

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, colour me surprised.

Or not. :D


I’m still waiting for a lightsaber game…that would be a system seller.
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