GUNVALKYRIE review at IGN

Originally posted by pstwo
I just pre-order this game!!


GUNVALKYRIE
The amount of fun in this game is directly proportional to its difficulty. Our full review.


March 15, 2002 - The first thing you need to know about the Smilebit developed, Sega published action title known as GUNVALKYRIE is that it\'s difficult. It\'s throw-your-controller-across-the-room-in-frustration difficult. It\'ll make you curse out loud to the gaming gods, vainly imploring them to give you a freakin\' break. It\'ll be the game, if any, that will wear out the buttons and sticks of your Xbox controller way before its time.
And you\'ll love it.

Take a look at the list of features and you\'ll get the bare bones skeleton of what this single player game is about. The real meat of GUNVALKYRIE is in the game\'s mixture of classic sci-fi presentation and super engaging gameplay.

The Features:


Battle through 10 massive levels filled with creatures attacking from every angle.
Customizable weaponry, upgradeable armor, and intense special attacks.
State-of-the-art graphics, realistic texture-models, and stunning environmental effects
Xbox double analog controllers let you run and fly freely while gunning down enemies all around you.
Action-packed sci-fi storyline inspired by modern day anime.
Two unique playable characters to choose from.
The Story So Far
The story takes place in an alternate but very Earthlike dimension where the British Empire is the supreme authority in the world thanks to the Halley\'s Comet related research of Dr. Hebble Gate. When Halley\'s Comet shot by in 1835, all kinds of new technology became available leading to the colonization of other planets during the 19th century.

It\'s 1906 when you begin the game as a member of GUNVALKYRIE, a force of specially gifted human warriors that can harness the power of Halley\'s Comet. You\'ve been dispatched to the planet Tir na Nog to investigate the disappearance of several colonists on that planet but your concurrent side mission is to find out what happened to Dr. Hebble Gate.

Kelly O\'Lenmey is a bold young Irish lass who as one of Halley\'s chosen, human\'s that can handle the power of the comet, is one of the few people on earth that can wear a comet-powered Gearskin battlesuit. She\'s the basic character in the game equivalent to the easy or intermediate difficulty setting. Saburouta Mishima is a former samurai turned GV operative known for his hot temper and awesome skill in battle. He\'s the expert level character because of his extreme firepower, short range and limited available upgrades. We\'ll refer to Kelly throughout the review, but Saburouta controls exactly the same way. Just know this his basic weapon, the Matchlock Cannon, is extremely powerful and has it\'s own rate of fire and lock-on attributes.
Oh yeah, and there\'s this Lt. Meridian Poe who helps you from the GV dropship throughout your missions. Hebble Gate is her father but he cut her head off, hooked it up on a life support system and stole her body.

Gameplay
Tir na Nog is full of disgusting giant insects and since a human wearing a GV suit is capable of wiping out entire legions of conventional human armies, those bugs shouldn\'t stand a chance. Taking the bug-hero dynamic directly from the movie Starship Troopers, you have unlimited ammunition and a full range of motion in dealing with the waves and waves of creeping crawlies. And this planet is at least as bug infested as that one Denise Richards visited in ST.

The control system in GUNVALKYRIE is going to be the main barrier between those who like the game and those who don\'t. The use of the dual analog sticks isn\'t as simple as "move with the left" and "aim with the right." If you think of how a human actually moves, the left stick controls Kelly\'s body while the right stick controls the aim of her weapon. She has to be facing whatever it is you want her to shoot at, but the right analog is better at fine tuning her aim and working with the game\'s automatic lock-on system once she\'s facing the right way. But the big news is that there\'s an innovative boost system in GUNVALKYRIE that will separate it from every similar themed third person action game out there.

Kelly can jump and boost vertically using the left trigger but leaning the left analog stick forward and clicking the left analog stick button will execute a boost dash that will shoot her forward like a turbo boost. Leaning and clicking the stick to the left or right will perform a boost roll in that direction while backwards will quickly make her retreat. All of this boosting depletes Kelly\'s boost meter and when it\'s empty, you\'re not going to be dashing or boosting anywhere. The boost meter refills quickly when you\'re not actively boosting in a one of the above directions. There are also a couple of ways you can hover briefly after dashing or when using Kelly\'s rapid fire Drive Gun. Hovering doesn\'t use boost energy but you it won\'t replenish your supply either.
One last bit about control is that you can do snap turns to quickly change direction using the same lean and click technique on the right analog stick. Because the right analog stick also controls the aiming and because you will have to do snap turns while simultaneously boosting and dashing, it will take some awfully quick thumbs to master the snap turns and use them with confidence. Running around in giant circles to shoot enemies is only for the uninitiated. GUNVALKYRIE has numerous combat techniques that can only be discovered through extended gaming sessions.

The essence of GUNVALKYRIE\'s gameplay is running or dashing around trying to position yourself so that you can kill as many bugs as possible from a relatively safe location. No location is safe for long since all of the seven or so different types of bugs we\'ve seen like to surround you and attack from blind spots. The giant spiders like to just bum rush you six at a time from every angle and they\'re much faster than they look. Using your dash abilities to quickly position yourself somewhere else and quickly turning around to unload some heat on them is the name of the game. Like we said, Kelly\'s Drive Gun allows her to hover while she\'s using it. So taking to the air against the spiders and using the D-gun should clean out a good four or five of them by the time she floats back down to the ground. Like we said every gun has a lock on capability within a certain range and you assist this function by aiming the reticle yourself. But the vast majority of levels in GV require you to eliminate every enemy, sometimes within a given time limit. The steep learning curve in GUNVALKYRIE is compelling you to learn how to whoop ass quickly and thoroughly.

The application of your skills, once you have fine tuned them in early levels, changes as you progress through the game. The Valley levels are the outdoor canyon areas where it\'s plenty easy to get around and where you\'ll learn the nuts and bolts of the game. But GUNVALKYRIE is an old school throwback game where you\'re going to have to prove yourself over and over again in a variety of ways. Sure, you can walk up and shoot a bunch of helpless spiders in a hallway, you\'ve done that in plenty other games on other systems. But what about taking on a bunch of mosquito bombers or armored artillery bugs while hopping on platforms suspended hundreds of feet above burning acid? What are you going to do with them? Oh and if you\'re lucky enough to get to the highest platform we\'ve got a little surprise boss battle for you if you have enough health left. If not, too bad, start the level over again! Sorry for losing touch there, but GUNVALKYRIE has that affect on even the most expert gamers. Anyway, you will have to apply your skills in a variety of ways like floating down a wide open shaft making sure to kill every enemy you see along the way. Missing one, means you have to boost and dash your way to a catapult to get back to the top so you can start your descent all over again. The stakes just get higher as you move through the game because there\'s no such thing as saving in the middle of a mission. If you reach the last obstacle and fail, it\'s back to the beginning with you.

The thing in the red. Whats that all about? the severing of the head etc.

The feel of the game, the difficulty, the jumping and shooting, but mostly the feel.  It\'s tough for me to explain.  It may not be exactly a Metroid feel, but it\'s old school and was pretty good.

But like I said, I played only sparingly and it could still turn out a dissappointment (I can\'t help but think the worse).

Watchdog,

Ah I understand man, I tend to expect the worst as well. Though the few positive remarks made about GV here and there have made me a little anxious to play it. It would be great if it provides an old school feeling. Maximo happen to have done that to me, as I enjoyed it very much.

Well whoever gets it tomorrow come back and inform us.

Heres new screens just before we get this game.  Enjoy and let\'s shoot\'em up!!  Whooo!!  





http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN33.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN32.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN31.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN29.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN28.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN27.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN24.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN18.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN17.jpg
http://www.xengamers.com/docs/news/elements/files/GUN14.jpg

Maximo is a stellar game--I really love it.

IGN said the only draw back of GV is that it\'s really tough--I like tough games, I hope it\'s true.  It might also explain bad reviews, if some come up.  Either way, I\'m going to wait and see and hope that Sega did us good.

GunVal may have received some bad scores because it was tough but from reading the GI review the bad score seems to have more to do with being repetitive, thrill-less blasting hordes of alien invaders and not much else (Maximo, another tough game, got a 9 from the same reviewer). My showing GI\'s score of 5.25 was more of a comment on IGN\'s glowing review than the game itself. If anyone is into the old school style of getting through every level relying almost entirely on a perfected set of twitching skills this game will probably be very satisfying.

Also in contrast to the perfect 10 IGN gave for graphics, GI had this to say:

The Xbox can be tapped into to create some amazing visuals but as is the case with Gun Valkyrie, it can also be used to generate generic environments and hideous texturing.

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by pstwo
Sega GT 2002 is lookng great!  

Do you have the latest pics and movies?

Originally posted by BizioEE


Do you have the latest pics and movies?

BizioEE here are the latest pix.   You see my signature, I\'ll post the latest Xbox news in it so check it out.  I post in different boards so I\'ll link them in my sgnature.  


Sega GT 2002 is an exclusive title for Xbox, and here at Dennis Towers we\'ve got our fingers crossed that it\'s going to be a better performer than its predecessor.
First outing Sega GT appeared on the company\'s ill-fated Dreamcast console, and was more of a 50cc phut-phut moped than a streamlined, race-tuned mean machine.

Sega GT 2002 is certainly looking nice in the graphics department, something that we\'d expect what with it being on Xbox and all. Here\'s hoping that the pretty visuals are matched with some fast-paced racing action, good car physics, and overall decent gameplay.

The level that I saw had amazing graphics so I don\'t know...

That\'s more than I\'ve seen so I sure as hell don\'t know...


Could be GI is holding xbox graphics to a higher standard, hard to say. "Hideous textures" does seem an awful exaggeration.