Topic: I knew it! Castlevania: Lords of Shadow!(SPOILERS HERE, PLZ USE THE SPOILER TAG)

[Vampire Killer]

Really dumb how people are bitching about the length of the game.  Even chapter 2, which granted does drag a bit, is still enjoyable due to it's artistic beauty. In fact, chapter 2 has some of the pretties areas in the game.

Oh, and I agree w/ the Mel Gibson comment above. The man may be an ass and very obviously an alcoholic (I've known a few in my life), but he's a damn good movie maker. Not saying everything he makes is gold, but I was really looking forward to the Viking movie he was making (until his bitch ex released that audio file and pretty much screwed his chances of ever getting that off the ground). And for the record, I certainly don't agree with what he said, but neither do I agree with the all-out blacklisting that happened afterwards, due to the simple fact that not a single person who was hating on him so vehemently afterwards hasn't said something racist as well at some point in their lives. Guess what........EVERYONE has!!

[Flame]

I recall the PS3 game being on just 1 disc. or am I wrong?

Also, I liked Agharta. Not like forgotten cities/lost towns are uncommon to castlevania. This game tackles not just one vampire and all his monsters, but 3 different  specific monster type masters, and their underlings.

Cornell and his lycans in a forgotten ancient city, Carmilla and her vampires in a eastern-European type land with a huge castle, and Zobek and his army of necromancers and zombies, in uh... well you got me there.

[Ahasverus]

I liked Agharta as an idea, it made the narrative deepr and had beautiful visuals but we can all agree that they are the worst levels of the game, too much battle arenas, or too much platfforming, or infuriating backtracking, boring enemies, inexistant plot in course (it had ZERO storytelling, we were there just 'cause) bad camera angles all over the place... It feels like they were the first levels MS desidgned so they are kinda lazy and amateur-ish. Luckily it lasted one chapter and the one after was one of the best (if not the best) of the whole game, the mountain fortress was brilliant from all points of view.

[Flame]

We were there because it was the way to Cornell. And because Gabriel got caught up with Claudia.

[darkwzrd4]

We were there because it was the way to Cornell. And because Gabriel got caught up with Claudia.

Still it seemed to drag on a bit.  We could have done without the titan fight.  I'm actually surprised that there wasn't more platforming.  I mean Agharta was in ruins.  Such an idea reeks of platforming potential.  There could also been a few more puzzles.

The game really started to get pick up with chapter 3.  I mean I loved "the three towers" level.  It had loads of platforming and several puzzles.  Plus, the greater lycanthropes made it really challenging.

[Flame]

I liked the Rock titan. I mean, it was one of the ones heavily teased in the trailers, and looks pretty stunning. The fight has this amazing sense of magnitude due to the camera perspective.

[darkwzrd4]

I liked the Rock titan. I mean, it was one of the ones heavily teased in the trailers, and looks pretty stunning. The fight has this amazing sense of magnitude due to the camera perspective.

True, but like the other titan fights you had to climb all over it while it tried to shake you off, which is very annoying.  Besides, the trials for the titan fights are nearly impossible.  Why couldn't the battle with the  stone idol titan have consisted of just throwing the rocks back at it to stun it and then running up to it and attacking like any other enemy like with Malphas?  That is the only complaint I have regarding boss battles.  I believe that most us hated them in terms of how we had to defeat them.

[Flame]

I didnt mind. Made a bit more sense than a guy who can somehow take down a  giant golem by hitting it. Do mind that the titan WAS already in shambles when you find it. it reassembled itself.

[Reinhart77]

Just finished Reverie today.  So now I can lurk on the boards again without worrying about spoilers.  Here's some thoughts.

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Ha, I was thrilled that I had called "The Forgotten One" as the main enemy at the ending.  Guess sometimes I get speculations right.  Which was nice, since a few of my other speculations were off (like I was sure that the evil voice talking to Gabriel at the end of the trailer was Dracula, when it turned out to be Satan).  The Forgotten One was the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard about a horrible threat, since this was the Bernhard family's castle after all.  It also measures up as a significant enough threat after facing Satan himself.  I was expecting to fight TFO at the end of Reverie though.  I thought that Resurrection would have a separate plot thread.  I know some people are hoping the battle doesn't end up being a Titan-like battle, but I can't imagine what else it would be.  I'm expecting large scale titan-fighting, but with the addition of needing to fend off other nasty things while platforming around the demon (like Maggots or Gremlins under its command).  It might actually have some satisfying whip-snapping combat mixed in with it.

I thought the puzzles in the game were enjoyable, but do hate it when combat interrupts my puzzle game...  I hope puzzles are the exception rather than the rule in Resurrection.

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I was also thrilled to be taken to the "original" ruins that the castle was built around.  That one stage seemed clearly to me to be the entrance halls of the original Castlevania game.  It was cool to see this new take on the place, with it being all flooded and all that.  It was cool to be able to grapple on those pillars that we've so long seen in the background.  It was a bit disappointing that those weren't actual Mermen lurking the waterways.  But those Leviathon children were very cool in their own right, so I forgive them.  I don't recall any other posts mentioned the Castle Entrance stage making its Lords of Shadow universe debut.  Was I the only one who thought that's what those were, or was it not worth mentioning?

[jestercolony]

I have been finished with LoS and Reverie for quite some time - here are my thoughts based on it...

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I for one thought it was really quite interesting with the fact how the young vampire led to Gabe's downfall in his turning and also, there was at least two times where we had been able to play as her. Honestly, on Paladin, especially with how you are able to control her was quite a challenge with the ghouls. The platforming was interesting, it almost felt like an old school Castlevania in 3D... Heck, even in the second level of that chapter I had thought the bats flying around, could had made at least an attempting in knocking you off: Sadly - Cox doesn't really tend to think outside of the box. For someone who played the classics, he sure didn't really put a lot of thought when it came to the harassing creatures (Bats, Birds, Ghost, Medusa Heads..etc.)

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When I had encountered the puzzles, they had been very interesting, some even slightly hard. But was quickly figured out. Alas, it could have been more challenging. The only real issue I had was the lack of combat and bosses.

Over all, I enjoyed it par-say... I just felt that the $10.00 was spent on a demo, which slightly pissed me off. Especially at the ending... I also took notice that there is a chapter that is locked and could be due to the fact of the 360's version had problems and that MS/Konami wanted everyone to have their equal share before releasing the final chapter to this DLC (as Cox had promised us: There  will be TWO CHAPTERS in this DLC.) I do not desire this "second" chapter to be Resurrection, otherwise we just paid $10.00 for what feels like a demo, not an actual package.

Back in my time "DLC" had been called "Expansion Packs", when this took place in the making: It took them nearly a year or two to complete - which came with 30 levels, more monsters, abilities...etc...etc. Oh, it even costed us $25-$30.00 :\

[crisis]

Back in my time "DLC" had been called "Expansion Packs", when this took place in the making: It took them nearly a year or two to complete - which came with 30 levels, more monsters, abilities...etc...etc. Oh, it even costed us $25-$30.00 :\

Yup! Apparently people these days don't see much of a difference between the 2 terms, tho.

[Ridureyu]

Most expansion packs were just new stages or missions, with MAYBE a new monster type or two.  I mean, even look at some of the grander ones, like Diablo II's expansion or Heroes of Might and Magic 3's.  And p[eopel complained about expansions, too, "Why not get a full sequel?"  Well, those are ones I bought, at least.  I think the big problem is:

DLC = NEW (and therefore bad)

EXPANSION PACKS = OLD (And therefore good)

[Munchy]

Really dumb how people are bitching about the length of the game.

What? People like shorter games? Go figure. Some people don't want to spend 100 hours on a game. Some of my favorites can beaten in less than an hour. (Not that I would be entirely pleased with such a length in a $60 game, probably the exact opposite, but my point is that games shouldn't feel like they've been padded to hell. Curse of Darkness is a prime offender, much more so than LoS.)

Also, entirely off subject (maybe not too much), I hated Claudia so, so much. I was surprised, but not at all upset when she kicked the bucket. It's one murder I don't blame Gabriel for at all. "Find the crystal shards right the fuck now, or I'll remind you about it every three minutes! And you can't avoid it 'cause you can't plug your ears against telepathy! MWAAHAHAHAHA"

[Vampire Killer]

What? People like shorter games? Go figure. Some people don't want to spend 100 hours on a game. Some of my favorites can beaten in less than an hour. (Not that I would be entirely pleased with such a length in a $60 game, probably the exact opposite, but my point is that games shouldn't feel like they've been padded to hell. Curse of Darkness is a prime offender, much more so than LoS.)

Also, entirely off subject (maybe not too much), I hated Claudia so, so much. I was surprised, but not at all upset when she kicked the bucket. It's one murder I don't blame Gabriel for at all. "Find the crystal shards right the fuck now, or I'll remind you about it every three minutes! And you can't avoid it 'cause you can't plug your ears against telepathy! MWAAHAHAHAHA"

In these days of devs selling single player games for $60 that take little more than 8 hours to complete, it was refreshing to see LoS be such a long game.  Kind of like Resident Evil 4.

I agree about Claudia though. She really made me want to choke a bitch.

[Harrycombs]

Most expansion packs were just new stages or missions, with MAYBE a new monster type or two.  I mean, even look at some of the grander ones, like Diablo II's expansion or Heroes of Might and Magic 3's.  And p[eopel complained about expansions, too, "Why not get a full sequel?"  Well, those are ones I bought, at least.  I think the big problem is:

DLC = NEW (and therefore bad)

EXPANSION PACKS = OLD (And therefore good)

Oh come on, were not all drunk on nostalgia. Things just actually were better. There are plenty of awesome expansion packs back in the day. Half-Life: Opposing Force, Starcraft: Broodwar, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, AoE II: The Conquerers, Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion, and more recently, the Oblivion expansion pack The Shivering Isles was incredible (its quest was better than the main game). Overlord, also for the 360, had an awesome expansion pack.

So yes, Expansion packs > DLC. Its ridiculous, most expansion packs don't cost more that $20-30 dollars, but DLC usually costs $10. Why the hell does some horse armor cost $10? Why does three levels cost $10? How can anyone justify paying $10 for a map pack for FPS games. Its a complete rip off. The Shivering Isles only costs $20, and it probably has more content than LoS as a whole.

In these days of devs selling single player games for $60 that take little more than 8 hours to complete, it was refreshing to see LoS be such a long game.  Kind of like Resident Evil 4.

I agree about Claudia though. She really made me want to choke a bitch.

It would have been better if it were only 8 hours long, LoS had so much boring filler and was so poorly constructed I just wanted it to end. Look at Portal 2. That game took only 6 hours to finish for many people, and it has incredible attention to detail and offers a much more memorable experience. Quality of quantity.