Be adviced; These impressions is by playing the demo, not the full game.

I am admittedly a Metal Gear Solid freak, so imagine my surprise when I woke up yesterday to see that the Peace Walker demo was going live on the playstation store. How could I not know this was coming? Oh – maybe because I have had the japanese version (and the language barrier left me unsure of what was going on) of the demo for about a month now and thought it would be ages before the US saw their copy. Thankfully, as if an early Christmas present, I was wrong.

With the demo you get to play three missions. The first being a tutorial mainly focusing on CQC. I was glad to have it to get me back into the swing of things since last playing Portable Ops. I did find my blood boiling when the commander tells you “You’re doing it wrong Boss” over and over when you do not do the prompt as he says. (Hey! No one tells Snake what to do – if it would have been me I would have flicked my cigar and maybe the bird at him and walked off that beautiful beach.) It controls easy enough aside from a finicky analog stick and as with all Kojima games, you can customize your options almost limitlessly. The second level is also a tutorial in which you learn how to use your firearm and grenades. Nothing really special here, just helping you re-grasp what you probably already know.

Finally you get to see action in the third mission. I love to run and gun in most shooters but not MGS. Part of the attraction for me is the slow stealthy way Snake takes out his opponents. Now, it is a “sneaking” mission but I had to see what the alert looked like. I popped a guard in the head and nothing happened. Saddened, I started to creep forward only to hear a guard do his familiar “huh?”! Here we go! The alert was on and they started coming for me. I crouched down in the grass (by the way – this third mission looked similar to the wooded areas of “Snake Eater”) and then laid down. I tried to crawl while laying, but that is not an option. It is more like MGS 4 where you look like you are dead once you are prone. So, in a panic of button pressing I ended up face to face with a guard and decided to try out my CQC tactics. They worked perfectly and after taking out the rest of them using a combo of firepower an hand to hand combat the mission ended.

Playing a Hideo Kojima game is always like controlling the main characters in a movie. Some people loathe the long cut-scenes but I think it’s part of what makes this series so special. From the art to the dialogue, the gameplay and the humor – my love of this series just grows stronger. I feel the way about MGS as most people feel about Halo. This game is my “Reach” and on May 25th, 2010 – I will be first in line.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Be adviced; These impressions is by playing the demo, not the full game.

I’m in gaming Nirvana once again. Bayonetta’s graphics look like Fable II and it plays better than Devil May Cry. Yes, I said it. Better.

The demo starts off with a tutorial that is easy to understand and then throws you right into the action. I pulled off combos effortlessly, and when I say combos- I mean extra special super duper awesome sauce combos. In fact, my jaw dropped when I pulled off a “torture attack” and then it hit the floor when I went into “Climax mode”. You will have to see it to believe it.

Dodging enemies took a little timing but when I mastered it, “Witch Time” began and enemies moved in slow motion for a short period of time. This gave me time to try out the guns and they were just as amazing. In fact, during “Witch Time” she sprouted Butterfly wings and soared above the enemies to shoot down upon them. I’m not sure if this was because of the slow motion or my button mashing prowess. Either way, it was beautiful.

I had a few problems with the camera angle and went into the options to change it to a first person view. All four of the options they listed were inverted, including first person. I’m hoping this is just for the demo because it was very hard for me to play with the default camera.
After defeating enemies, goodies are sometimes left behind. The bad part of this is if you die- the goodies die with you. You can start back where you left off- just with your default weaponry.
Few faults so far, gameplay that left me begging for more, stunning visuals. I just have three questions for SEGA/Platinum games:

Popularity: 60% [?]

Be adviced; These impressions is by playing the demo, not the full game.

The fact that Jack Black is the voice of the playable character, is actually the thing that made me follow this game a bit intensively quite early.

One of the first things you experience that this game stands out from others is that you can choose wether or not you wanna hear the swearing and a little bit later, if you wan’t to watch the gore, blood and violence. Wich is, in my eyes, pretty funny.

The animations and feeling of the game is fantastic, and I like the atmosphere, and that’s in spite that I’m usually not into these kinda games.

As expected, Jack Blacks voice and way of saying things makes me laugh. That’s why I love this guy so much. Double Fine Productions made a very great choice when they hired Jack Black to do this voiceover – but what else can you expect from Tim Schafer.

This game is in it’s own genre or in multiple genres. Mainly it’s a hack’n’slash game as you defeat enemies with your big axe but you can vary this by using your guitar, named Clementine.
This game isn’t repetetive at all, as you meet new enemies all the time, and the gameplay is varied by driving different vehicles(according to videos, including riding animals), and by using solos to get further in the game, music games (much like guitar hero and rock band) are included as well. The puzzle genre is also included, as you have to figure out to defeat certain enemies, for example, you’re driving a vehicle in some sort of an arena, with a big monster looking snake in the middle, trying to defeat you. It’s tounge is getting stuck on the ground, and to defeat it, you have to jump out of the vehicle and use your axe to chump of the tounges.

One thing that catched my eye, is that it appears your character isn’t loosing any health (no health bar) but I guess that’s just for the demo.

Popularity: 22% [?]