Shinji Mikami's Vanquish

I downloaded the demo and had a blast rocket-sliding towards a guy, firing a shotgun at his buddies and ending with a rocket-kick that explodes robots. It's like Gears of War and God Hand had crazy monkey sex and this is the spawn.

Want to do something cool in Vanquish? Have a smoke break behind some cover, flick the cig to distract the enemy, vault over cover and start shooting.

I didn't really like the demo all that much, but I think that's because I didn't get the hang of what was going on in the short time I played it. It certainly looks good, but I would need a lot more time getting used to the controls to properly enjoy myself.

Nobody else got this? Shame, it's great fun. Not much replay value unless you plan on going for a "I AM ALL THAT IS MAN" run on the hardest difficulty, which almost makes God Hand's hardest difficulties seem easy, but I'm having a great time with it so far (past the halfway mark, I'm assuming).

The story's standard Michael Bay sci-fi nonsense, filled with explosions and robots and dudes saying manly things while punching robots until they explode. I will say that the opening cutscene contained a splattery "city gets blowed up so you know that shit is on" scene that let me know that me and this game were of the same mind.

Gameplay-wise, this is about the best third-person shooter I've played in years. There's cover, there's slo-mo, there's rocket-sliding, there's upgradable weapons, there's punching things, there's QTEs that skew more towards "Press X for crazy awesome" and less "Press X to not die".

Also, I want to meet the guy/girl/rampant AI who made the controls for Vanquish and shake his/her/its goddamn hand. This game does everything you ask it to when you ask it to do it, which is important for when dozens of rapebots and their 20-foot tall rocket-spamming buddies come gunning for you.

There's just something quality about firing a burst cannon at a group of soon-to-be-dismantled bots, rocket-sliding over to a 20-foot tall monstrosity while blasting your shotgun all the way and finally drop-kicking the 20-foot tall bastard so hard his face explodes followed by your shotgun exploding the rest.

So yeah, anyone else playing this?

Going to soon. It is on the pile with New Vegas.

I have so many games to play that this one will have to wait until probably well after Xmas. It does look like a blast it's just that I have no time!

I want this dearly but worry that length wise its on the short side for $60.

This game is so much fucking fun. It's like Gears of War got kidnapped by the Japanese and replaced with robots and lasers and a nonsensical story, and somehow it all works.

There really is no issue with the length- I'm not sure who said it was a four hour game (GI?), but they were lying. It'd be a shame if this got overlooked for all the other titles hitting the last couple of weeks.

I got a sort-of PS2 Shinobi vibe from the demo: linking kills at high velocity, brutal difficulty, visually impressive hero.

The slo-mo is extremely sweet. Will look forward to eventually playing this.

Finished it over the weekend. Playing on Hard mode offers up a significant challenge without being frustrating...until you reach the two fuckers at the end. Seriously, fuck those two guys.

It took a bit to appreciate the things they did in this game, sliding the hell away from danger, activating slow-mo to kill the robots on your ass, and upgrading your weapons as you find them. The boss fights were incredibly epic and satisfying to win. Wish there was a bit more fuel for the suit.

Funky futuristic level designs have a habit of feeling samey in that halo-esque colony, but there were a couple of sections where I just stared at it all (monorail, the dam, and that one bit where you could look down through the floor and see a space battle taking place.

Story wasn't all that memorable, with some questionable voice work, neither did it have any meaningful resolution. Still a solid shooter with some cool ideas executed with style.