Monday Impressions: DmC Devil May Cry

Now we've all heard about how this isn't a true Devil May Cry game or how Capcom made a mistake of outsourcing the development to Ninja Theory and how the new Dante looks like an emo mess. But answer me this, can you truly say that you agree with those statements? Is a game more about cosmetics than substance?

Developer: Ninja Theory Publisher: Capcom Release Date: January 15, 2013

This new iteration of Devil May Cry is a full on reboot of the series. Be that as it may, not a whole lot has changed. Dante may not be 80's pizza eating Ninja Turtles cool but is still the type of demon slaying badass as he was only a bit younger. He may have an emo look but Ninja Theory's portrayal of the new Dante is far from it. He's more of a bad mouthed angsty teen with a heart of gold.

The game runs on the Unreal Engine which still runs the curse of texture popping and frame drops. Still, the game looks great. The real world looks dull and grey as it should be since man-kind has been dumbed down by the bad guys while Limbo looks like a twisted version of it. Parts of buildings and roads burst out, floating in mid-air. Unknown black smudges that sometimes try to claw at you creep on the sides and corners of everything. I'd say Ninja Theory pulled off the exact kind of hell-on-Earth look that they were going for. Color tones are clear and prominent in every level. The real world is usually a dark grey and sometimes blue while Limbo is the exact opposite with bright vibrant colors.

What really hooked me on to this game was the combat. I love me some action games and I'm usually a fan of making your own combos. The older DMC games tickled my fancy and Bayonetta's combat system is one of the reasons why I love that game. The combat system in this new game is actually easier than previous DMCs. You can literally combo anything into anything. A one button launch is always ok in my book and switching between weapons are done by simple holding either the L2/LT or R2/RT buttons. Once you get newer weapons, you can switch to them on the fly via the D-pad. What I don't like about the combat is a lack of a controllable lock-on mechanic. You could me hitting one enemy but end up yanking or latching onto the wrong one mid battle which could mess up your style rank if you're going for that kind of stuff.

While all this talk about stylish combat is done against the regular goons, boss fights are another story. Boss fights are more about the visual aspect rather than combat finesse. Find the pattern, do damage, rinse and repeat. They do look hella fancy though and I'm sure some of them offer a better challenge on the higher difficulties.

Is it worth a try?

I have to admit, I wasn't negative about the visual changes that they made but I was still a bit skeptical about the gameplay itself as I was worried that it might fall to the modern game curse that it's all flash and no fun. After getting a taste of the combat when I tried the public demo, it convinced me that DmC Devil May Cry was going to be my first game purchase of 2013. I even ended up pre-ordering the game even though I wasn't really sold on the DLC bonuses that came with it. Though I have to say that I am diggin' the look of the Osiris bone skin and I do appreciate the orb magnet and the three free upgrade points.

I'll do a full playthrough of DmC Devil May Cry on a harder difficulty once I beat the game for the first time so that I have all the weapons and powers-ups. Had issues when I tried to upload videos of it the first time around, hopefully my second attempt will push through.

Recent Buys: Episode 18 - Pre-Ordered DmC

From the title, you obviously know what the meat and bones of this post is. I pre-ordered DmC: Devil May Cry from Datablitz. As simple as that may sound, there is a little story and reasoning behind it.

Here are the bonuses that come with DmC: Devil May Cry if you chose to pre-order it at Datablitz:

Pre-order bonuses include the following: Limited edition DMC shirt *Cellphone case (Iphone 5, Galaxy S3, or Galaxy Note II) 3 DLCs (Gold, Bone, and Samurai packs) Poster (while supplies last)

*Limited stocks for each case*

So I pre-ordered DmC at Datablitz. But, I pre-ordered the game on the last day of the pre-order which was 1/15/2013, a day before the shipment of DmC arrives. I wasn't really impressed with what the pre-order had to offer. Three forgettable DLCs, a thin white shirt with a nastily done print, a phone case for a phone that I don't even have, and a poster with the words "while supplies last" on the Datablitz Facebook post.

I do enjoy videogame posters so that motivated me to get the game on release. As for the phone case, I picked the Samsung Galaxy S3 case because I thought it had the best design out of all of them, plus it's also a phone that I secretly desire. But I don't own the said phone, I might sell it. Any buyers? The DLC, I redeemed it but I don't think I'll use them.

Here's the final product for this Recent Buys post, I got a crystal case for my PSP-3000. Just a little thing that I found in Japan Home Centre. It doesn't fit perfectly with the PSP but it does it's job. It also has a little stand behind the disc tray cover so that's cool.

Recent Buys: Episode 16 - Adam Park is Everywhere

Johnny Yong Bosch (who plays Adam Park, the black power ranger), aside from fighting evil with his Mighty Morphin powers is also an established voice actor and does voices in a lot of shows, movies and video games.

Why am I telling you this? Because he did the motion capture and voice acting of one of the main characters in the new (old) video game that I just bought. That game is Devil May Cry 4. An unplanned purchase to be sure since I initially went to Datablitz to get a $20 PSN card. "For what?" you say? I don't know either. So that didn't happen as I came across a copy of Sonic Generations that went for 750php. While looking through the game racks some more, I found a copy of Devil May Cry 4 which is apparently part of the "PlayStation 3 the Best" series. I thought that was already the purpose of their "Platinum: The Best of Playstation 3" series, oh well.

I chose to get this over Sonic Generations because I did just try out the demo of the upcoming DmC game with "new" Dante and liked it. I've also heard a lot of good things about DMC4 which I did try to play on PC before but for it to run smoothy, I had to bring the settings all the way down to ridiculously low levels. I popped in the game just to try things out and didn't notice that an hour had already passed. You might think that an hour of straight gaming is nothing to write home about but because of a little experiment that I'm doing, I time my gameplay sessions and I usually only get around to 30 mins before stopping and doing whatever it is that I have to do that makes me stop playing. I don't think I've had a really long game session since college so obviously, me hitting an hour of straight gameplay easy is something.

I'm thinking of recording my playthrough of DMC4 but I think I should go and finish the other games that I started like Hitman: Absolution. Oh, and if you didn't notice, Datablitz is using Christmas themed giftbags when you buy stuff from them now which are pretty cool. They even have a tag on em. So if you're planning to give a game to someone this holiday season, you don't need to wrap it.

DmC Devil May Cry Demo Impressions

The demo of the new Devil May Cry game (spelled as "DmC") with the new emo Dante just came out this week and I tried it out.

The demo includes a short campaign segment called "Under Watch" where in the game teaches you how to pull off attacks and demonstrate Dante's new platforming tools to go about the environment. I like the combat in this game. It still stays true to the whole "make your own combo" asthetic that made the older Devil May Cry games so fun. Comboes are easier to pull off than in the older games but is complex enough for you to put in a bit of effort if you want to keep the combo going. Aside from the standard sword and dual pistols, Dante has access to two weapons. The Osiris (scythe) and the Arbiter (axe/hammer) which are mapped to the L2 and R2 buttons respectively. Dante doesn't switch with the two weapons but instead, the buttons act as a sort of move modifier. The Osiris acts as the "crowd control" weapon, dealing multiple hits while covering a wide horizontal space. The Arbiter acts as the hammer type weapon, with earth shaking strike powerfull enough to break shields or launch enemies in the air. You can switch between all 4 weapons (sword, guns, scythe and axe) at any point during move strings which lets you mix and match and create your own combos. And yes, the guns do keep opponents airbourne ala the first Devil May Cry.

Aside from that, the demo also includes one boss fight in a mode called "Secret Ingredient" which pits you against a large larvae like creature that knows how to drop the F-bomb. There's actually a challenge room to the left of the area before the boss that asks you to defeat a wave of enemies before the timer runs out. The twist being that the enemies only take damage when they are above the ground. It's a good little way of telling the player that thinking of creative ways to combo enemies can benefit you instead of just hammering away at the attack button.

I have to say that I liked the demo. Combat is fun, the environments look nice, and even though the punk "I can swear in a video game" theme doesn't rub me the right way at the moment, I have to say that DmC will surely be one of my game purchases in 2013.

I played on the "Devil Hunter" difficulty which I'm guessing is the normal difficult level. The game offers your 4 difficulty levels, with the 4th (Son of Sparda) being initially locked. At the end of each game mode (after the game trailer plays out) you are given a rating on how you performed in combat. I don't know what the required rating is to unlock the Son of Sparda difficulty but I believe I got rank B in both Under Watch and Secret Ingredient and got access to Son of Sparda in both modes.

If any of you are on the fence about the new DmC, then by all means try the demo out and remember, Dante's new look does not define the game, gameplay does.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8V_6dFprU4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjYiXFWaEWc[/youtube]

DMC: Devil May Cry NYCC trailer, console demo coming before release

Ninja Theory's take on Capcom's Devil May Cry series has a new trailer that came from this year's New York Comic Con. If you're having second doubts on the upcoming Devil May Cry, good news, you get to test drive Dante's new look first. During the event, they also mentioned a demo version of DMC is planned before the game ships. 

As reported byJoystiq, Capcom is planning to release the demo online prior to the game's launch. No firm date to when the demo will be available but its good to know that a demo is on the way. It's a bit petty but I actually have doubts of the game because of  the change in Dante's looks and the story set in a different reality. Yes, I know its a reboot and all, but I'm still leaning to the old Devil May Cry. Core gameplay seem intact, but hopefully it plays just as well as it looks.

DMC: Devil May Cry is scheduled for a January 15, 2013 release for Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. With the PC version to follow soon after.