Retro Review: Devil May Cry

Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Capcom Studio 4
Publisher: Capcom Entertainment
Released: October 2001

Now that I’m no longer on a day-to-day review beat, it’s given me the opportunity to go back and play games I never had time to experience before (or titles I liked so much that I felt compelled to play them again). I’ve also decided to create a new blog series called “Revisited”, so that I can actually give myself an excuse to go ahead and tell you about them — especially since my writing opportunities are so limited now.

Anyhow, this past weekend I went back to play one of my favorite PS2 games of all time, the original Devil May Cry — and let me tell you something, it really holds up.

The spider boss -- who could forget?

Despite being close to six years old, DMC1 looks and feels great. Though it doesn’t have the same responsiveness that Dante’s Awakening did (nor does it have the gameplay variety), it’s still among the best action/ adventure games the PS2 has ever seen. Even by today’s standards, the mass enemy confrontations are intense and the boss battles are challenging (the first big fight against “Phantom” is still hard if you’re not powered up enough).

Perhaps the most amazing thing, though, is how fantastic DMC looks (especially with PS3 smoothing turned on). Even when compared to more modern PS2 titles like God of War of Shadow of the Colossus, Dante and friends hold their own; especially when it comes to the environmental detail, which is super high-end.

Granted, there are a couple of things that bother me now more than they did in 2001 (namely the occasionally-bitchy camera, the first-person-powered underwater level, and Secret Mission #1… Damn you critical Hit!), but I’ve also come to appreciate the stage design and progression system a lot more as well. All in all, it’s an outstanding way to spend your week if you feel like going Demon-Retro.

Final Score: 9/10 (Outstanding)

Farewell IGN PlayStation Team

Rather than pen a typical blog, I’ve decided to use this particular page as my departure gate. Though I have already mentioned it in a few Podcasts and on the message boards, today will be the last day you’ll see me as a regular on the PlayStation channels. Yes friends, after five-plus years as IGN’s most experienced Sony guy, I’ve left my position as Editor-in-Chief of the PlayStation Team and have accepted a promotion to Games Editorial Manager for all of IGN.com.

Since this isn’t a true goodbye in the sense that I’m still working for IGN and will now have a direct influence over its day-to-day editorial operations, I’m going to keep my farewells short and sapless — especially since I’ll be dropping in from time to time to help with the occasional review (if you think anybody else will be able to lay their hands on Ratchet and Clank Future or The Incredible Hulk without me, you’re nuts).

That said, I wanted to lay down a couple of thanks before I head off into the great beyond (BEYOND!) as a platform-agnostic guy.

Shadow Man: 2econd Coming - The first PS2 game I ever reviewed for IGN.

First, I’d like to thank Brandon Justice and Douglass C. Perry; the first of which gave me a chance as an IGN Dreamcast contributor way back in 1999, and the second who gave me another one as Dave Z’s replacement in early 2002. Without the help of either of them, I probably wouldn’t be here today. Peer and Tal deciding to keep me around was also a big help.

Secondly, I wanted to say how much I appreciated working with some truly great guys on the PlayStation Team over the years. In chronological order, here’s who made each day that much easier: David Smith, Kaiser Hwang, Ed Lewis, Ivan Sulic, Chris Roper, Juan Castro, Jeff Haynes, and Greg Miller. Mark Fujita (the intern), Jason Allen and Marc Nix were great outside helps to the team as well, so they deserve a pat on the back too (Oh, and by the way, if you ever wanted to know became of every single PlayStation team member ever, you can find out here).

With fewer reviews comes more time for my family.

Finally, I wanted to say thanks to you, the readers. Whether we agreed or disagreed, you kept every day interesting, were never afraid to speak your mind, and gave us some great ideas towards making the site a better place day in and day out. We do what we do for you, after all, and without your support we’d be nothing. So thank you once again.

And thusly, it’s time to bid you adieu. Chris Roper, PlayStation Executive Editor and highly-capable guy, will be taking over the EIC role while pissing off God Hand fans everywhere, so be sure to give him, Jeff, Greg, and (the new guy) Ryan as hard a time as possible. It was a pleasure,

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunham
Games Editorial Manager, IGN.com

E3 2007: Day 1 and Beyond

We had a successful countdown, but now it’s time for the show itself. Tomorrow marks the beginning of the show officially and that means that I may be MIA for awhile. But before I disappear, here are some things you can expect anywhere from the next few hours to the end of the week.

Killzone 2

1.) Killzone 2 Impressions
We’re finally going to find out if it lives up to the hype. Chris Roper is out seeing this baby as I write this and he’ll tell you all about it as soon as the embargo lifts (in just a few hours — aka 1AM)

UPDATE: Read our impressions here.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

2.) Sony Press Conference Streamed
What do I expect to see? One or two new first-party games announced that nobody has ever heard of before, cool new revelations about PSP to PS3 connectivity, an emphasis on the price drop announced a few days ago, Killzone blown out all to be damned, and of course, Metal Gear Solid 4. Oh yeah, one thing I know you’ll also hear about is a…

UPDATE: Watch the press conference here.

Haze

3.) New Third Party Exclusive
There have been four or five cross-platform titles out there that have been rumored as exclusive to PS3 or Xbox 360 for quite some time now. We’ll give you the exclusive skinny on one game that will finally be confirmed once and for all as a PS3-only title. So look for that.

Oh, and just as an aside — and this is true insider rumor talk only (ie: it may not pan out), I’m starting to hear that there might be more than one third party exclusive announced tomorrow as well…

UPDATE: The exclusive is Ubisoft’s Haze. Read about it here.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

4.) Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Hands-on
We played this earlier today and it’s looking good. Jeff will post his impressions early in the morning, so expect new assets and new information about Ubisoft’s tactical shooter. Good times.

UPDATE: Read our Bros. impressions here.

Rock Band

5.) Rock Band… Stuff
A few more secrets that we’re going to bust out about this one — if you like the game, then keep your eyes peeled.

UPDATE: Full album downloads you say? Yep!

Sound like fun? Good — hope you like it.

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 12: Assassin’s Creed

We have a big one tomorrow folks — the world’s first hands-on of Ubisoft’s oft-worshiped actioner, Assassin’s Creed. Impressions, screenshots and (perhaps) even some video will highlight your reading experience. As an added bonus, we’ll have a new video interview with the always-popular Jade Raymond as well.

And what else do I need to say? It’s one of the biggest third party games of the year and we’ve got it.

Assassin's Creed

Click here to check out the hands-on
And click here to watch our Interview with Jade Raymond

By the way, we also just posted Podcast Beyond, Episode 3. We had some major tech problems with this one folks — no editing, no intro music… nothing — so forgive its rough nature, but our recording program was on the fritz.

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 11: More Games

E3 is next week, which means that our “Pre-E3″ countdown is almost at an end. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have some cool E3 goodies coming your way before the Sony Press Conference hits on Wednesday. What’s left? Here’s a quick overview of what we’re bringing you in the next two days…

Burnout Paradise

1.) Burnout Paradise Hands-on
I like this game a whole lot and its deformation effects are great. We’ll have full impressions sooner rather than later along with a decent serving of new media to go along with it.

Update: Impressions are now Live

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

2.) Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Hands-on
Hilary spent all day playing this sucker and has a number of new details and cool media updates to tell the story.

Update: Hilary has posted his details here.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008

3.) WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008
I spent the day at THQ’s headquarters seeing the latest version and approve of its current direction. Expect some much-needed improvements in areas long overdue.

Update: Read my SVR08 Impressions here.

Not a bad start for the PlayStation audience during my last official week with the team. We have other big updates coming on Tuesday and beyond (BEYOND!), of course, but I’ll tell you about those later.

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 10: Game Reveal Mania

We have too much stuff going up tomorrow to keep give this topic props in any one area, but here’s a quick rundown…

SOCOM: Confrontation

1. I can’t say too much about tomorrow’s big story on the last Friday before E3, but I can tell you that we’ve got a Q&A with Sony’s Seth Luisi about the company’s online-only shooter, SOCOM Confrontation. We’ll address some of the most pressing questions we could think of and have new media to go along with it.

UPDATE: The SOCOM interview is now live

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2. As an added bonus, we’ll also have some new screen grabs on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. So it’s double day for Sony on the PS3 channel.

UPDATE: Images can be found here

Legendary: The Box

3. Yes, there’s more. We’ll also be unveiling a brand new Gamecock title that nobody has ever heard of before. It has a really interesting premise and looks like a lot of fun. That publishing arm has quite a future, it seems.

UPDATE: The three-page revelation of Legendary: The Box can now be read on the front page

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

4. In a dual exclusive, GameSpy and IGN will reveal our first impressions of LEGO Star Wars Saga. GameSpy will show off the Wii and DS versions, we’ll show off the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Sound cool? Cool.

UPDATE: The LEGO Star Wars Saga Preview is Live

Frontlines: Fuel of War

5. We’ll have an update on THQ’s badass Battlefield competitor, Frontlines: Fuel of War. It’s looking pretty good, and we’ll have some assets to prove it to you.

UPDATE: Four minutes of gameplay footage plus the official E3 trailer are available for download.

Virtua Fighter 5

6. Oh, and something to watch for on our Xbox 360 channel — a certain company is going to announce a special feature for a cross-platform game that will piss off PS3 fans worldwide. I predict a forum buzz centered on this one.

UPDATE: The cross-platform game has been revealed as Virtua Fighter 5. This would probably have more impact if random Euro sites didn’t break the embargo in the wee hours of the morning. Anyhow, there’s also a Q&A in there, so check out what SEGA has to say.

We have some other goodies too, but it should be a great day for content. Oh, and we have even more big stuff slated for next week. Good times!

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 9: BlackSite

Originally, I hinted at a cool Call of Duty 4 piece that we’d be putting up as part of ongoing E3 coverage, but Activision had some problems delivering the proper assets and the feature was scrapped.

That said, our buddies at Midway came through with a cool five-minute direct feed video of the game’s squad tactics along with its complete E3 screenshot stash. There’s some nice info in there, so Area 51 fans should definitely check it out.

Well, that exit isn't happening.

Check out the video here.

See you again tomorrow.

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 8: Rock Band

Even though tomorrow’s a holiday, we’ll be updating anyway with hands-on impressions, screenshots and new details for MTV’s Rock Band — a badass new music game from the team at Harmonix.

Yes friends, we tried out the drums and the guitar and the mic and we’re going to tell you all about it.

Rock Band's style is quite different from Guitar Hero's.

Sound good? Good. See you tomorrow with the fun.

Update: The Three-Page Preview is Live

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 7: Turok

For tomorrow’s big story we’re going hands-on with Propaganda Studios’ new Turok re-launch. Believe it or not it looks really cool and it could be one of the year’s true “sleepers.”

Here’s a never-before-seen shot from tomorrow’s story.

How tough would you look fighting off dinosaurs?

Besides our impressions, we’re supplementing the piece with plenty of direct-feed footage, new screenshots and an in-depth video interview we held with the production crew. Not a bad combination, those.

Look for the full story sometime before the end of day Tuesday.

Update: The preview is right here.

E3 2007 PS3 Countdown, Day 6: The Last Remnant

I’m going to be out of town all day Monday covering another one of our Pre-E3 titles (which will post early next week), but while I’m gone the boys are going to post my new preview on our latest Pre-E3 exclusive, The Last Remnant.

Developed by Square Enix using the Unreal Engine 3, the Last Remnant is the company’s first multiplatform RPG (in the traditional sense, I’m not counting MMOs) and raised a lot of eyebrows when it was featured in the June issue of Game Informer.

Nary a Chocobo or Moogle in sight.

Our piece tomorrow (or today by the time most people will read this), will cover a few new details that have been revealed since the Game Informer article, clear up the biggest error attributed to the series so far, and debut some new media as well.

Look for it before the end of the day.

Update: Read all about The Last Remnant here.