I'm interested in knowing their opinions on the gameplay. Not all the criticism is about hair color after all.

They'll eat the food, they'll play the game, they'll say it's ok. Then they will shit on it on the Interwebs. Because, why not?

Jim you're still missing it! It's not about the design - people who are "butt-hurt" about something as menial as a design are the same people who complain about Sonic's eye color.

The key issue here is the core of the franchise - gameplay. Ninja Theory has never made a solid combat system - on top of that, can the new Unreal Engine, locked at 30fps really provide us with the combat we know and expect from the series? If not, should they even have called it "Devil May Cry"? I'm interested to find out day one myself.

im interested to know what makes someone a "top end DMC players" and why those people got chosen?

DMC'S tounament worthy?

A hack n slash can be tournament worthy?

What's next: people play Brawl professionally? El oh el.

Still, great moveon NT. Fuck haters, get hype.

Here's some unedited gameplay footage to those that haven't seen it yet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUC_xXXPVWs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PATFQuiVi9s&feature=related

It's funny that they call for top end players, since they would all be masters of Enemy Step and jump canceling to string together aerial combos... Yet that concept seems to be a completely deluded concept considering they changed the combat system to allow you to remain in the air for seemingly as long as you like. What used to require practice and dedication seems to be phoned in.

Hey, how about they make a sequel to Dark Souls where everything dies in one hit and you take hits like a tank... And then when people complain, their concerns are dismissed because something a trivial as the sky color.

@Epic
Royal Guard no hit runs
Dante Must Die completion screens showing little to no deaths
All "S" rank all missions screenshot
Heaven or Hell no death runs
Vergil on Dante Must Die difficulty no hit run
Trickster no hit runs
Combo videos

There are a lot of easy ways to show you're a fan. Maybe if I take a picture of myself with the DMC Anime DVD, and all of the games on both consoles, I'd get in (lol).

Well, one of the major concerns that 'fan-boys' had for the game is taken care of by their fellow fans,so the people at Capcom and Ninja Theory can just put that right out of their minds.

Anyone who wants to play someone who looks like classic Dante can play the dozens of Dante clones available for download on the Saint's Row official website.

This move could back-fire, though. Maybe it will be too similar to the previous games and they'll absolutely hate it for that despite previous worries that it would be DMC in name only.

I was on the hate train when this first showed up and I'm still really skeptical of the artistic direction and I don't have much faith in the gameplay, but when Capcom announced the DMCHD collection they gave me an alternative. I'll pick that up and be content.

@Epic-Kx
People have even played JRPGs competitively.

Looking forward to playing this. Nice to see Ninja Theory reaching out to fans to try to show them their game in a way that can change their view on it.

Thing is, they're going to be under NDA.

If they don't like it, they won't be able to say otherwise because NT won't let them and NT will let this die.
If they do like it, NT are going to revel in that, but as you said, could be it be a result of the gratitude for simply offering the opportunity? It's gotta colour their opinion in some way, majorly or not.

Simply put, this is a PR move to get positive press for DmC and the results of it are likely worthless entirely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKIq2U5p1LQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Staying in the air like that isn't the result of tapping the attack button.. Every other hit is being jump canceled at the exact frame it connects, And he's throwing out a crazy amount of stylish variety.

30 FPS means this isn't a DMC game. Not much else to it.

The newest trailers showed it will be like the other NT games- focused on visuals and and hand-holding "platform" gameplay.

No thanks.

What Magnalon said, Jim. Don't cramp in the design argument in every dmc post, pretty please.

I do love this idea... Letting the fanbase test purge game and give feedback... But it's far to late in the stages of development to have any real impact. There's no way any combat-centric complaints could be addressed before release.

Magnalon speaks tha troof! The new trailer looks great, but its not the looks that worry me. Can't wait for the hd collection. Speaking of hd collections, peace walker from mgs, oh the mighty boner it induces on the big screen. Dual analog hnnng.

In all reality I'm more concerned about the combat mechanics and game play now than the look of Dante. I don't like the look of the main character of the game but the important thing is how Ninja Theory does with the gameplay. It is what it is....lets hope the game lives up to past DMC games.

Also another point:

Ninja Theory should NOT expect the majority of people to dump 60 bucks into this game on day 1.

he looks way more like og dante in those clips. his hair will turn white at some point of the story no doubt. the actual gameplay looks pretty weak though :/

Changing dante like this (and making it look like the director at that) is like giving mario a purple outfit, shaving his beard, and making him darker and edgier.

Fuck yeah its going to piss off the fans and make them "butthurt."

I don't care about the gameplay, this could be the best game ever, but, I don't want to support that change. I love Devil May Cry, and i don't wanna play with an emo gay protagonist in a game that uses the Dante's fame to gain fame.

I don't care about the gameplay, this could be the best game ever, but, I don't want to support that change. I love Devil May Cry, and i don't wanna play with an emo gay protagonist in a game that uses the Dante's fame to gain protagonism in the market.

@ xDWxShinAkuma

I think you just won the "stupidest comment award" since Jim's MW3 review.

Also its safe to say that us real DMC fans are more worried about how the gameplay might turn out, than anything else. although some people here gotta calm down a bit and remember that Capcom said that they're handling the gameplay.

Just as a sidenote jim:
You normally are angry when developers say to you "you just didn't play the game right" but you sadly support them when they say the exact same thing to fans of a series.
And it isn't about the hair. It is about a reduction to a max 30 Hz Game, with a maximum of 5 enemy on screen. The developers also dislike the series and state that over the top action is too japanese. I mean they are the biggest Idiots I ever heard talking. Stating that Dante didn't look cool, but that was exactly the point. He did dress like no one else would and trough that was easy to recognize.
Whatever.

"You normally are angry when developers say to you "you just didn't play the game right" but you sadly support them when they say the exact same thing to fans of a series."

No, I support when they say, "You haven't played the game AT ALL."

If people PLAY DmC and don't like it, that's totally fine. We are obviously not talking about those people though.

And 30fps does not a bad game make.

@Magnalon
I don't know. I thought Ninja Theory showed a lot of promise with the combat system in Heavenly Sword, even if that system was more God of War then DmC.

Also, to anyone who thinks this is somehow going to be a horrible black mark that ruins the series credibility or whatever, do I even need to bring up Devil May Cry 2? This series has already blown off both of it's feet once before and survived.

I am curious about this DMC. I hated the Trigun/Sepheroth ripoff look of old dante, so I could give a shit about his new twilight look. But I will definitely not miss the shitty fixed camera and the pre-rendered backgrounds of the outdated DMC games. butthurt fans are mostly just weeaboos who hate to lose another white-haired girly-man to jerk off to.

@Jim Sterling: "And 30fps does not a bad game make."
You can bet it does, when the game is a Devil May Cry title. Don't you realize that slowing the framerate by half (and more- previews have stated there were FPS dips and hitches in addition to the normal 30) will completely change the fast-paced, ultra-responsive nature we have come to expect from the series?

Did you even play the previous games? And no, playing them on "Automatic Easy" mode does not count.

Everything shown so far just looks like a Ninja Theory game, not a DMC game. I'd say it'd be better if it were just called something else, but NTs original games don't sell enough for their tastes, so...

@Mad Doctor
None of the DMC games had pre-rendered backgrounds. Do you even know what that word means?

Fanboys may cry.

Hahahaha @ Mad Doctor. Game looks fucking awesome though, just hope its better than DMC 4.

@ Jim
No fanboy said that it is a bad game per se. A lot are saying that it is a good game - just not a good DmC. And that is the problem here. I did like past Ninja Theory titles but I didn't like their behaviours how they mocked the predecessor and thought that the series was irrelevant etc. Sorry, if you have that kind of mindset, don't develop a sequel for it.
And 60 Hz does make a good DmC. Other games don't need that, sure. But not all games are the same and a high speed action game shouldn't be slowed down just to have more amazing backgrounds...

@Jim

"And 30fps does not a bad game make."

Not neccesarily, no.

But you have to realize, Jim, that Devil May Cry is basically a "last bastion" for technical action games.

As someone who has played nearly every action game out since the PS2, I've seen fighting systems get shallower and shallower. While I will tout God of War 1's amazing visuals, and exciting gameplay all day, the fighting system, plain and simple, was shallow. You could beat the entire game on God Mode with Square Square Triangle, and never use anything but the Chains of Olympus - there was simply no depth there.

Fast Forward to the Assassin's Creed series, and the two "Arkham" Batman games, and it's even worse when it comes to combat. While I ADORE those games (City and Brotherhood are among my top games of all time), they're basically "mash attack and counter to win".

I beat both Arkham City and Asylum on Hard with no trouble when it came to the combat sections. Even when you play New Game+ in "City" (or Hard in Asylum), the counter cues are gut wrenchingly obvious. You simply cannot beat Devil May Cry games with that mentality - especially since the series basically created the "Super Hard post Hard" difficulty setting. I'm not going to make any assumptions on whether or not you've ever played Dante Must Die mode, but most fans strive for that level of play, and it's one of the only franchises that can deliver.

Personally, there are enough simplistic "free flow" combat systems out there to keep me satisfied into next generation - I'm not hurting for them. I am however, hurting for an action based technical marvel that rivals even the most technical of fighting games, relying on split second frame combo switches, and dodge use. Simply put, based on a few things Arttemis has brought up, among other nuances, I'm seeing some red flags here.

The Dark Souls comparison above is superb. What is a big reason why people love Dark/Demon's Souls? Because it's difficult. Because it doesn't hold your hand, and it basically thrusts you into this giant large world, with hundreds of gameplay riddles to solve, with little to no direction. Compare that to Fable II/III's "breadcrumb" trail. What if the next "Souls" game had something similar to that? Why even try to pass it off as a "Souls" title? The franchise is built on hardore precepts.

To put it into perspective, as a Sonic fan, you notice certain nuances that many of us may not pick up on. For instance, remember when you went on that giant tirade against Sonic Generations, even though you hadn't played it yet, because it showed a "friend"?

You still had every intention of playing the game (as do I with DMC), but venting a known gameplay/design frustration based on footage is certaintly not a bad thing - you're one of the biggest cautiously optimistic bloggers outside of Hamza. 30 FPS in a Devil May Cry game is the equivalent of "multiple Sonic Friends in a Sonic trailer" :p

I agree with Mad Doctor andd Cryotek. The original Dante just didn't look cool to me, this one looks alright.

Manchildtroll Sterling fails to realize that a gamer can be skilled at a game or genre without being a 'squeaky wheel fanboy'. These gamers were invited for their skill and ability to provide testing feedback to make a better game (similar to Capcom inviting pro Street Fighter players to test their new games), which is why worthless incompetents such as most mainstream games reviewers were excluded. This invitation is also unlike the Left 4 Dead fans who were simply upset that a standalone sequel was being released too soon.

Not that His Incompetency can tell the difference between these finer points, nor can he respect any game that isn't a manchild power fantasy, but we all knew that already.

@Magnalon "But you have to realize, Jim, that Devil May Cry is basically a "last bastion" for technical action games."

What about Bayonetta?

Jim, I can't wait for this game to come out so you can finally see it'll still be the same ol' mediocre Ninja Theory "gameplay", and YOU'LL have to be one eating words while remembering all that shit you've talked during this game's development cycle was for nothing.

Face it Jim, AT BEST the gameplay in DmC will MATCH the original DMCs. And that's obviously not happening with the game locked at 30fps. So realistically we're looking at a game that will be WORSE in gameplay as well as taking unnecessary and insulting steps backwards in char design.

Yeah, "Dante's" new look is stupid, but the gameplay in this game will be even stupider. And THAT'S what really matters.

"Did you even play the previous games? And no, playing them on "Automatic Easy" mode does not count."

I fucking loved the original games, and no, I didn't play them on Auto-Easy. I know what made them good and I respect that. But if you want to play Devil May Cry again, just play Devil May Cry again. Or wait for the HD Collection. You HAVE those games. This is a reboot and they're trying something different. If it's a good game, I don't give a shit what name they put on it. A good game is a good game, no matter what it's called.

"Jim, I can't wait for this game to come out so you can finally see it'll still be the same ol' mediocre Ninja Theory "gameplay", and YOU'LL have to be one eating words while remembering all that shit you've talked during this game's development cycle was for nothing. "

Here's the thing though, son. I have NEVER said the game is guaranteed to be good. You're the guy who just made an absolute prediction. I won't need to eat my words because all I've ever done is tell people to give it a chance and let the game stand up on its own merits. If it fails on those merits, then so be it. If it succeeds, we all win.

You can confidently claim the game will be mediocre but I, unlike you, have no claims to clairvoyance. And as someone who loved Enslaved, I see no reason to associate the Ninja Theory name with bad gameplay.

Magnalon:

Look, I get it. But you have to realize I am a big DMC fan too. I am certainly not on the super-hardcore, "I care about framerate and hit canceling" level, so maybe my priorities are different, but to me I look for a ridiculous attitude and insane combat in my Devil May Cry games, and DmC looks like it's going to deliver.

I just think that judging a game on its NAME alone is one of the most myopic things a gamer can do. You say that 30FPS is the equivalent of furry friends in Sonic, but the thing is that I don't give a shit about the friends if the game itself is good. Case in point -- ALL of Sonic's idiot pals are stinking up Sonic Generations, but I still think it's a great game. I still gave it an 8/10, because that shit just isn't a big deal if the game is still entertaining and fun to me.

I get that DmC may not be the Devil May Cry that YOU like, but that doesn't make it automatically bad. It also doesn't stop you from playing the old games. The ones you DO like.

@Leigh
"What about Bayonetta?"

Apologies - I was speaking in terms of a franchise. The future of Bayonetta is hazy at best - while it probably came the closest to emulating DMC's hectic gameplay, games like that don't release often. As I said above, I'm "hurting" for those types of games.

There are more action games released this month with shallow combat systems than there are deep combat games released in total since DMC3:SE.

@Jim

"And as someone who loved Enslaved, I see no reason to associate the Ninja Theory name with bad gameplay."

Enh...sorry Jim I can't back you up there. For the most part, people who frequently play action games found Enslaved's gameplay severely lacking. Combat was shallow and tedious - there wasn't any depth whatsoever there.

Now presentation wise, it was GREAT. In fact, this DMC game looks GREAT as well - perhaps better than every DMC game in the series outside of 3. But there's a reason Enslaved failed to sell - it's not because it was "niche" (niche games sell well all the time) - it's because it was niche AND shallow. Casual onlookers didn't want it - hardcore gamers didn't want to deal with the basically non-existent combat system.

Great quote from an Enslaved review:

"Combat is insultingly shallow, as you only have less than a half dozen moves, and they don’t chain together. Just the same simple combos repeating ad nauseam on the same robots from the beginning to the end of the game. "

In DMC3, I believe you have access to around 150+ moves/combos. More if you count style chains.

As an industry insider, if you are expecting an Enslaved style combat system to be employed in DMC, I am even more cautious.

"so maybe my priorities are different"

I think that's the key here. I want more technical games that are rarely ever released these days. I have plenty of "fun simple" games to play. I'm buying like 10 games this month, and most of them are simple. I have more "simple" games this month than the entirety of the DMC series. Yes, I can still play my old DMC games on occasion - but I can play simpler games every week if I want.

Maybe you don't want more hardcore action games (and that's perfectly fine), but in my opinion, we need more, and essentially wasting this combat heavy franchise on Ninja Theory, which is known for throwaway combat systems, is a shame.

Because you thought Arkham City's fighting system was "complicated", I can easily see where you're coming from here - not everything has to be complicated. However, you have to admit - complicated games can be fresh, and fun - see Demon's/Dark Souls.

"but the thing is that I don't give a shit about the friends if the game itself is good."

I agree, but maybe I was misjudging your story on Silver. You wrote "BARF" in the headline - called Silver a c*nt, and even said "I knew there was a catch, man. I knew it.", with no mention of "maybe the game will be good" - to me that seems like some pretty harsh judging.

That's much more dramatic than me calmly voicing my concerns above! I'm just going off what you write and present yourself as, dawg.

Magnalon: It's not that I don't "want" technical action games. It's more that I don't "need" them. I adore Demon's/Dark Souls, and I loved the old DMC games, and I'd not refuse a new DMC in that same vein. But I don't *need* it to be like that to see the merit in it.

And the Silver stuff was pure sarcasm.

@Jim
<3 <3 <3

I'll see day one. If the combat isn't shallow, I will buy and eat a gelatin hat - if I remember, I'll take a picture of said hat and blog it.

I appreciate the technical action game, and I fear it is under attack by hoards of shitty kids that love holding hands.

i've always like the new look, i don't know why people complain so much. the original dante looked like a tool.

I've made my decision already. I'm not interested in this "rebirth" game of theirs and I don't enjoy Ninja Theory's work to begin with.

Besides, there are too many games coming out for me to give enough of a care to lay down money for this one.