video games and hair
Sep. 29th, 2002 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
egypturnashI went out to the videogame store and sold off that copy of 'Resident Evil Code Veronica X'. Got nine bucks of store credit, which I used towards a copy of 'Sly Cooper'.
As most other quick reviews note, it looks to be a pretty short game. I'm already 2/5 of the way through it according to the percentage display it gives you every time you finish a level and autosave. I've been enjoying it a lot, making sure to get the optional stuff on each level... I just have this feeling, though, that if I'd gotten it earlier today and blown most of the whole day playing it, I might well be done!
There's one noticeable change from the demo I'd played - the continue points. In the final release, there are these little pods that, when you pass them, pop up a little holographic Sly-head logo above them. Okay, that works. But in the demo... there were, in the same spots, treasure chests. When you'd pass by them, a raccoon girl would pop out and take your photo. And if you bashed at the chest you heard a giggle.
It could be that she was a plot element that was taken out; I don't know. There is a female character who's part of the plot - a Spanish fox, who works for the police in France (or, as the sign in the first level has it, 'Le Police International'). I would guess there will be, at most, a week before we see drawings of Sly and Carmelita doing the nasty.
Oh, did you know that a 'cooper' is a barrel-maker? One of Sly's ancestors, before the family turned into a thieving dynasty, was a barrel-maker, I guess.
Anyway. It's a very high-quality dose of platform fun. Stealth, bashing, collecting new moves. Interesting but kinda weird cutscenes - the art in them has a kind of grafitti style-substituting-for-fundamentals thing going on that bugs me on a certain level. Other artists will probably see what I mean: fun to look at, but a little... off.
The white hair did, indeed, not happen. My hair is currently slathered with blue and red all over. If I try white again, it will be with shorter hair, and a lot more time bleaching.
As most other quick reviews note, it looks to be a pretty short game. I'm already 2/5 of the way through it according to the percentage display it gives you every time you finish a level and autosave. I've been enjoying it a lot, making sure to get the optional stuff on each level... I just have this feeling, though, that if I'd gotten it earlier today and blown most of the whole day playing it, I might well be done!
There's one noticeable change from the demo I'd played - the continue points. In the final release, there are these little pods that, when you pass them, pop up a little holographic Sly-head logo above them. Okay, that works. But in the demo... there were, in the same spots, treasure chests. When you'd pass by them, a raccoon girl would pop out and take your photo. And if you bashed at the chest you heard a giggle.
It could be that she was a plot element that was taken out; I don't know. There is a female character who's part of the plot - a Spanish fox, who works for the police in France (or, as the sign in the first level has it, 'Le Police International'). I would guess there will be, at most, a week before we see drawings of Sly and Carmelita doing the nasty.
Oh, did you know that a 'cooper' is a barrel-maker? One of Sly's ancestors, before the family turned into a thieving dynasty, was a barrel-maker, I guess.
Anyway. It's a very high-quality dose of platform fun. Stealth, bashing, collecting new moves. Interesting but kinda weird cutscenes - the art in them has a kind of grafitti style-substituting-for-fundamentals thing going on that bugs me on a certain level. Other artists will probably see what I mean: fun to look at, but a little... off.
The white hair did, indeed, not happen. My hair is currently slathered with blue and red all over. If I try white again, it will be with shorter hair, and a lot more time bleaching.
gneh..
Date: 2002-09-30 07:23 am (UTC)already seen it :^P
it's flashy fun, ne?
i like that there's really no way to die in this game if you're quick on the Pause-and-return-to-the-start-of-the-level buttons.
and his roll is adorable!
etc etc. very slick. lovely tail action.
Re: gneh..
Date: 2002-09-30 08:20 pm (UTC)It's nothing new by a long shot, but it's quite well-executed. Oh, and the pause-abort trick works on almost any game that lets you stop mid-level; I haven't been using it, preferring to take my lumps.
no subject
Date: 2002-10-03 07:41 pm (UTC)I did what I could to save your hair, but I had misgivings about the whitening stuff you put on after. It's never worked for me. I think it only works once you've bleached your hair four or five times and washed it to death.
no subject
Date: 2002-10-03 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-10-05 10:58 pm (UTC)As for Sly Cooper... the difficulty picks a good deal in the Panda King's level, and there's some funny schtick in Ms. Ruby's level.
I miss the treasure chest save points too, I wonder why they took that out. I've been trying to go through in the time trials to find some things about their designs out. When you beat the time trials, you unlock designer commentaries about the levels. You just play the level, and the designers yak about it in the background. Kind of cool, some of the tricks they point out, when you can decipher their accents.
I see what you mean about the animation... (The following shouldn't be a spoiler, since it's about a bonus movie that you'll be seeing for yourself and contains no plot points, but be warned... ) Once you beat the game, you'll receive an interesting bonus movie, the intro as it was done for the Japanese release. It's the same intro, but the style is distinctly different. Smoother, in many cases. I wonder if the same guys did it to suit overseas tastes, or what.
And yes, we've speculated on how long it'll take for badly rendered Sly/Carmelita action to splat against VCL and slide down the recent-list like a flung turd. I bet sooner.
no subject
Date: 2002-10-05 11:06 pm (UTC)I think the Japanese version of the intro movie was more of a for-fun than for foreign tastes thing - the content of their commentaries, and the list of things a possible Sucker Punch employee would have as listed on their website, indicate a lot of fans of Japanese cartoons there.
The main thing that bugs me about the commentaries is that the lawyers bleeped out every mention of a property owned by someone else. "This level was heavily inspired by IBLEEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP; we wanted to get the feel of the part when BLEEP confronts BLEEEEEEEEP..." Arrrgh!