Anyone get Gunvalkyrie (xbox)?
 

This one was supposed to ship yesterday. Looks like gamerankings has a few positive impressions from people who've tested it a little. Has anyone here picked it up?

Tuan Jim

Yup. I really like it, but a lot of people have complained that it's too hard (rather unforgiving). The graphics are pretty spectacular, and I found the controls to be easy to pick up (while others have complained about them).

I plan to pick up a copy this weekend..........

I really like the game. I totally understand about the controls though. It's not like other 3rd person games. Yes the left thumbstick controls your movement, but oddly enough the right one doesn't control your aim. Instead the right stick controls the camera. You can look around and such but if you want to turn your whole body around you have to tilt both sticks in that direction. For example, I'm looking foward but behind me to my right are some enemies to get them I have to tilt both sticks to the right to aim at them. Thankfully, you can do a quick 180 turn by pushing in the right stick and pushing it in the direction you want to turn.

As you can see the controls aren't very intuitive. They're quick and responsive, but expect to put some time into getting used to it. As for the game itself, so far it's pretty good, but not very deep. It's a shooter pure and simple. Yes, you have missions and it gets more complicated but it's still all about blasting some bugs.

You may want to rent it to see if it merits a purchase. I'm a big shooter fan and with the best out there right now being first person I'm relieved to play an original 3rd person shooter.

Now this review disparity is really funny.

My Gamer: http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrank...reviewid=66928

Gamestop: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...857224,00.html

Methinks someone at gamespot has an axe to grind (even more than usual ;p

Tuan Jim

Two EGM reviewers gave it only 5.5 out of 10. You can read their reviews here:

http://www.gamers.com/game/1018296

For anybody that is interested in this game Fry's has it on sale this weekend for $39.99. I also have this listed at my site for quick refernece:
www.xboxpricewatch.com

Tycho at www.penny-arcade.com confirmed the My-gamer.com review that I posted above. Gun Valkyrie is true old-school luv. There are some good comments re: this sort of thing at teamxbox.com as well.

Tuan Jim

too bad there isn't a fry's around here :(

Tuan Jim

Thought I'd dredge this one up to rant. The controls in Gunvalkyrie aren't challenging, they're simply bad. Not being able to strafe is a huge pain in the ass, as is the incredibly limited range of the right control stick. And in order to really turn, you have to stand still and move the left stick *exactly* to the left or right. The quick turn move somewhat alleviates this problem, but not enough.

I also disagree that this is "old school" in the least. Old school games did not have auto targeting, which seems to be the kick Sega is on recently with this and Rez. So the game is basically about maneuvering, which isn't terribly difficult when you're able to boost back and forth in the air almost indefinitely. The power-ups are also bland, and you get no new weapons after the first level.

I'll probably get around to beating this eventually, but this is a renter at best.

I agree about GV's controls. They're so badly unintuitive that it makes me wonder why they even bothered using a different control scheme than other 3rd-person shooters. It totally killed the game for me. I'm also not too keen on games that completely rely on auto-targetting. Boring....

When I first saw the ads and articles for this game it was as if it was the HOTTEST thing to come around. But now I see it's usually discounted at stores like they're trying to dump it and you can find lotsa USED copies in many stores.

Oh well. Another failed attempt at gamemaking.

It always amazes me when a potentially great game gets RUINED by the maker's bad choices in the CONTROLS area.

Technically you can strafe by flipping sideways -- still firing -- and whatnot -- you can also square-strafe (as opposed to circle strafing in a normal fps). It's doable, but it takes a lot of practice.

that said, I got so frustrated in Naglfar's Pit 2 (trying to get up to the top of the area by jumping on those tiny platforms) that I sold it to a friend who had already beaten and sold his copy.

Tuan Jim

True, but if you're standing on a platform than blindly flipping to the side isn't usually the best move.

True, but I was thinking more of the strafing/hovering which you can keep up indefinitely with a little practice. Sadly I'm not that skilled, but my friend claims it was a breeze and that once you got started it was easy to get a combo of well over 20 and whatnot.

Tuan Jim

I thought this game was okay... nothing great. The controls were only an issue for me for like 5 or 10 minutes... My very first impression with the game was disappointment... I set it down for a few months and when I went back to it, I actually kinda liked it.

The auto-targeting isn't the focus here - they auto-target for you because you get more points for killing in a flamboyant way. You have to jump around like an acrobat to get more style points.

I ended up selling the game without finishing it because in the end it was pretty boring and I had to make room for better games. I will say this - it's heaps better than Robotech which received mounds of praise from reveiwers. I mean, the controls for Robotech were way more wonky than GV, and the auto-targeting for robotech was even easier... and still it got way better reviews.

I thought the game was cool. Graphics were good. Once you got good with the controls it was cool. I liked the way the jetpack worked. The one thing I hated was the platform jumping level.

Yeah, hover "comboing" is easy. But it gets tiresome real quick.