Breakout Year for Voice of Nariko

I checked out J.J. Abrams latest T.V. series “Fringe” the other night.  I found the show to be pretty compelling, but decided it was not one that I would be tuning in regularly.  Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m already hooked another one of Mr. Abrams’ shows, “Lost,” and after one episode of “Fringe,” I realized that I was only in for more impossible science, conspiracies, and just general weird shit if I were to decide to watch it weekly.  “Lost” has mind-fucked me enough already, I’m not letting “Fringe” double team me.  There was, however, one actress on the show that had me wondering where I had seen her before during the entire episode.  In the opening credits of the show I saw the name Anna Torv and could not think of where I heard that name before.  There was something so familiar about her, but I could not place it.  So, after the show I decided to check out her IMDb page and soon realized why I had checked her page before.

Anna Torv’s is one of the only names of a video game voice actor I have ever bothered to look up, and it was for her work as Nariko in the PS3 title “Heavenly Sword.”  The game was a 2007 title that received average marks from most critics and gamers.  The game had quite a few glitches and the combat system, while fun, was very repetitive.  The game was also painfully short, about nine hours.  This made for a game that was good for a weekend rent, but with very little replay value.  There was, however, one place where the game was almost unanimously praised and that was the cut scenes.  I, along with most others, found the cut scenes to be entertaining and engaging, and not “Metal Gear” long.  Much of the praise of these cut scenes went to motion capture king Andy Serkis of “Lord of the Rings” and “King Kong” fame for his work as King Bohan.  The praise was very well deserved, but I can’t help but think that having this big name (especially in the world of motion capture acting) took a little bit of the spotlight away from Torv’s performance.  She totally made the character of Nariko work for me, which, in turn, made the game.  Perhaps my favorite line in all of video games comes in the middle of Nariko’s battle with the fish-lizard-lady, Whiptail.  For those of you who haven’t played the game, this will mean nothing because what I love about the line has nothing to do with content and everything to do with delivery.  It is during a mid-battle cut scene that Nariko realizes she has gotten under the scaly skin of Whiptail when she repeats a line that the villain spoke to her earlier: “Oh, it’s so much better when you’re angry!”  Again, out of context it means nothing, but after I heard that line delivered, I knew Nariko and I were gonna gut that fish bitch.

I’m glad that Anna Torv has had somewhat of a breakout role this year.  I regard her’s as one of the all time great performances in video game voice acting.  And, if you have the stomach for mind bending sci-fi thrillers, check out the voice of Nariko in “Fringe.”

Uncharted: Drakes Fortune Sales Fall Short (???)

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For whatever ungodly reason, Naughty Dog’s first PS3 entry Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune has failed to live up to expectations on the sales floor. The NPD group has reported that only 117,000 copies were sold during the first two weeks. Leaving Uncharted out of the top ten software sales for the month of November. Personally, I think it’s a travesty. Drunk Pandas gave this a 4.75 of 5. Hell, just about everyone raved about this one. Hit the jump for more »

PS3 Games Giveaway

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Another contest is coming at you from your friends at Loot Ninja. We’re giving away three PS3 games in this contest. Yes, that’s right, three games together! The games are: Heavenly Sword, Lair, and NBA 08. We want to thank Sony for sponsoring this contest by providing the prizes!

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment in this post stating your current favorite feature of the PS3 and what they’d like to see most out of the PS3 in the future. This is limited to things achievable with a firmware update only, not “more games” or anything hardware related.

The contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday November 7th. That gives you a full 4 weeks to enter. Only one entry per person per day is allowed, and a winner will be chosen at random after the contest is finished.
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Heavenly Sword (PS3) Review

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Heavenly Sword is probably the biggest hyped game on the PS3 thus far. The game has an epic story and beautiful graphics, but does it live up the hype? After a few play throughs, I’m happy to say it does. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Heavenly Sword for the PS3:

Presentation and Graphics: Heavenly Sword is flat out beautiful. Period. The game runs at 720p natively and has hands down the best character modeling, especially facial details, or any game I’ve ever played. The motion capture for the game was headed up by Andy Serkis, who is most famous for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Andy also served as the dramatic director on the game, and it definitely shows. The facial expressions and emotions shown by the characters really come through. When Nariko furrows her brow, you can tell she’s angry. The little details that Ninja Theory put in the characters really does an amazing job of drawing you into the game. The environments are equally as beautiful, with terrific draw distance in all areas. If you’re standing atop a cliff, you can see everything happening for miles. There are a few framerate issues which cause some screen tearing, but they are minimal. Otherwise, this is the most beautiful game on the PS3 to date. 4.5 of 5

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Heavenly Sword (PS3) Impressions

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Heavenly Sword is definitely an AAA title for PS3, but as a killer app, it’s still undecided. The game focuses on Nariko’s quest to defend her father’s honor and protect the Heavenly Sword, even as it’s killing her.

The game starts at the end of the story, ironically. You’re thrown into the Final Battle, where Nariko is up against literally thousands of enemies on screen at once. This happens in more than one occasion throughout the game, and the fact that the game can handle this is amazing. During the opening, Nariko is overcome by the power of the Heavenly Sword, which takes her life. You then are taken back to begin the story of how it all went down.

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Heavenly Sword: Legend of the Sword Anime Parts 3-5

Here’s the last three installments of the Legend of the Sword series leading up the much anticipated release on Heavenly Sword next week for the PS3.

Here’s your HD goodness

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New Heavenly Sword Gameplay Video

If you think 50 enemies on screen at once is huge, you’re wrong. 1000 enemies on screen is huge. Check out how Nariko handles death blows when wave after wave of people are coming at her.

Heavenly Sword: Legend of the Sword Anime Part 2

Here’s part 2 of the 3 part anime series showing off the back-story of Heavenly Sword.

No HD version yet, but it will be available on the PlayStation Store on Thursday in HD.

Heavenly Sword: Legend of the Sword Anime

Sony is producing a multi-part anime series to fill in some of the back-story of Heavenly Sword. Here we present you with part 1 of that series, Legend of the Sword. No word if these will be included on the game disk when it ships

This feels a lot like 300 to me….

Heavenly Sword Video Blowout

We’ve got a whole heap (yes, a heap) of new Heavenly Sword trailers to show you. These span mostly areas of the game that we haven’t seen before either in trailers or the demo. The game is looking better and better with every new clip.

Here’s your HD goodness.

Hit the jump for more »