Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Heavenly Sword : A Bungers Investigates™ Feature

mmChronic and I were talking about next gen stuff the other day, so here's an ickle taster of what you can expect. If you read EDGE you'll know all about Just Add Monsters, they write a 'developer's diary' type article in the magazine. As you may know, all of the Argonaut Games PLC subsidiaries were forced into administration in October, which meant JAM was closed down too. Luckily...
Jez San and the former directors of JAM have bought back the business including all next-generation technologies; the Heavenly Sword intellectual property; and the entire JAM team.

They're now back as Ninja Theory Why?
Beacause Ninjas Make Better Games

Heavenly Sword..? I think you'll find it's a next gen title with lots of bloom...



...lots of ninjas...



...and lots of lovely environments...



Want to see it in action?

Day 21 Advent Calendar Ninja Action

(Heavenly Sword Trailer - 62.8 MB) Enjoy!

22 comments:

mmChronic said...

It looks cool - but will it be as good as Starglider?

When was the last time Jez San put out a good game?

mmChronic said...

I forgot about the FX chip. It's probably teh cash from that that has subsidised them to keep going this long.

My recent memories of them is they announce games then shelve them / go bust / whatever. They were doing a good looking platformer as an Xbox launch title. It looked mint. It got delayed / cancelled / forgotten about.

Did Argonaut have a hand in Carrier Command too?

mmChronic said...

That's maybe why I mentally linked them. That and the fact they were both excellent 3D games.

bungers said...

Wasn't it Jez San that did that game where the guy had a sniper rifle built in to his helmet (ooo-er) and there was a paracute level too, but he had these funny loops attached to his back instead of a parachute.

I think he also did Messiah...

I have Stunt Race FX for the SNES, another FX game, and one that was rather good too.. I think there was an odd transformers style game too, but I'm not sure if it ever made it off the drawing board. Let's go investigate...

SNES chip stuffI think it might've been Vortex.

Check out more alledged next gen screens here. Wow!

mmChronic said...

The video looks very pretty. Hopefully it'll get a release. ;)

mmChronic said...

Get back to work you skiving fop! ;)

Still I suppose it makes a change from quietly reading at work (even though it is verboten under the Geneva Convention or something) but not commenting. Ho Hum.

Have you got any more Live game for Xbox? Bunger has just subscribed to Live and we are discussing games to try.

mmChronic said...

Funnily enough Burnout 3 got mentioned! Lisa is it too late to add that to my present list please? ;)

You can either play using Live or if the game has System Link (ie home LAN capabilities) we can tunnel over the interweb and skip using Live altogether.

I'm jealous of your big fat pipe. Ooer!

mmChronic said...

I have indeed got the headset on my list. And PES4. And it works in Live. W00t! Looks like a footy challenge is on at the very least!

mmChronic said...

That would be the definition of 'dodgy' that goes something like 'the incredibly stable and amazingly lag free considering the amount of users there are on at any one time - and that's before you consider the builtin scoreboards, infrastucture etc'. Live is v good. And as I said earlier any game that supports System Link (ie most of them) can be played across a network - be it a LAN or our good ol' interweb.

I'd rather have the console version as it's a console game. I'm not supporting Dogs' niche gaming platform except when it is the only platform for something I want - like R:TW.

Dogs: I have a 2 month trial of Live you ca have. You'll prob have to subscribe in your lass's name as I think the offers are 1 per person and you've already done one.

mmChronic said...

Console + TV win for me every day.

And I was just pointing out that Live is far from dodgy. It is technically very impressive.

If you want to jsut have a scoff at Microsoft for scoffings sake there's a much scoffier matter to erm... scoff at.

mmChronic said...

And that'll be:

Xbox and mC Sittin' in a tree
EFF, ARR, AY, GEE, GEE, AYE, EN, GEE.

mmChronic said...

Fsck me - why do all the tards hang about here? ;)

Simplified version for the short of wit:

Xbox and mC sitting in a tree,
F,R,A,G,G,I,N,G

mmChronic said...

It is a console game. How many units did it shift on consoles compared to computers? I don't know either but I'm willing to bet which got the most - ergo it's a console game. Note this is pointless bicker/argument in retaliation for the pedantic decontruction of my FRAGGING joke. Cnut!

I do/have play/ed FRAGGY games too you know. It just fit with the KISSING thing - though for PES I could have had KICKING. Ho Hum. But twas a joke you mirthless gimp. :)

Dogs: If only for girls and tards - you should have understood it twice as fast as everyone else. ;)

mmChronic said...

I said it was a pointless bicker didn't I? You surely didn't expect factual content? ;)

It does fit more easily as a console game though as the best footy games have always appeared on console - after SWOS and KO anyway. For years the PC only had shite footy games - unless you count Spreadsheet Manager et al.

I wanted the new FIFA as I haven't bought one for a couple of years - but PES4 sounds much better. It really is a shame about the licencing though. Hopefully you can at least edit names etc.

mmChronic said...

They should send lumps of poo instead. ILN (I think) linked a poo sending service a while back. It would be much funnier!

mmChronic said...

Doh - previous comment was meant for coal post.

That patch looks good - it's even got Beautiful Day as a theme tune.

The early FIFAs were far and away better on the SNES than anything else. When the 3D ones started coming out I remember there was a lack of good footy games on the PC and a few on consoles - but I'm struggling to remember them now. Maybe I just imagined it? :)

By it fitting better on a console the controller comes into it as you sort of mentioned - a pad controlled game just sort of feels like a console game to me.

I've never used a TV off a computer since I bought my first monitor for my Amiga. :)

bungers said...

Oh.. this mass debate...

I'll be all lived up soon, and I think PES4 and Burnout are the ones to go for...

just need to s-t-r-e-t-c-h cable across room....

I have the headset thing and Splinter Cell Pandora tomorrow, all free from BT. Happy Christmas BT!

(Now, about my fucked up router you sent me... )

mmChronic said...

Game on.

Of course if you were any sort of man you'd also buy Halo 2.

mmChronic said...

erm... an Xbox to VGA adapter perhaps. Try Game.

Or you could be all swanky and set up a wireless network like me - though I still need to buy an adapter for the Xbox that costs about 14 quid to access it. That way tyou can leave the Xbox under the TV but still have access to the network from it.

mmChronic said...

The high def stuff was for HDTVs which we won't see in this country for another 73 years or something. I don't know whether the HD output is the signal used for the 'to VGA' conversion so I don't know whether it's a problem.

TIP: As for the claims the rest don't work: Try comparative reviews rather than a manufacture saying 'ours is good, theirs is shite'. It may be true but I wouldn't take their word for it.

And the range is 30-50m apparently. I've used the laptop upstairs (the wireless access point is downstairs) and got top signal strength so...

bungers said...

I went into Game yesterday, and they don't have any xBox--->VGA adapters.

Might be worth ordering one off tinterweb. Otherwise it'll be a case of move router closer to TV everytime I wanna hook up the xbox. Bah humbug.

mmChronic said...

It does seem strange - but I've never seen that mentioned elsewhere. As I mentioned before it's going to be years (if ever) before we get HDTV in this country but it would have been nice to have had the option of using the higer res on a monitor.

Crashed the car? Are you OK? And wouldn't you be better off sticking to TOCA? ;)

I'm not 100% sure when we'll be in as teh abairn and I are off shopping for Lisa's pressies soon and then going to see Lemony Snicket. After 3pm would be my best guess atm. Lisa will be in most of the day if you can't make it later but obviously you may not see the bairn then.