In addition to the sarcastic double-quoting of words like "press" and "reviews," clearly indicating that both are naught but pale imitations of the real thing, Halverson says that the "review events" at which he thinks Golden Axe: Beast Rider was measured are an indication that of the "game industry going down the wrong path."

He also complains that Beast Rider's well below average scores "for the most part echo the opposite opinions of real gamers."

We can't speak to the final quality of Golden Axe: Beast Rider yet, as our hands-on time with the title has been limited to time at the Leipzig Games Convention and a few hours with the retail build. (Fahey picked it up before the weekend.)

Who out there has the game, has played it and either agrees or disagrees with Halverson's glowing review and subsequent rant?

Dave Talks Golden Axe [Play]

You can pick up Golden Axe: Beast Rider on October 14th for Xbox 360 and PS3.

I mean, even the purple chicken things are brown.

That's not to say Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a bad game, from our hands on time with it. Just a bit uninspired, lacking in some tangible oomph, in the graphics department and the swordplay.

Beast Rider star Tyris Flare looks fantastic though. Whomever is responsible for her model and those perfectly modeled lower back dimples deserves a raise. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game does have its moments, visually. Hopping on a ridable beast that can camouflage itself with a Predator like effect looks pretty snazzy too.

The hand-to-hand action though, feels like a sludgier take on Heavenly Sword's combat system. Prior to attacks, Death Adder's minions will glow blue or orange, indicating whether you should parry or evade. If they glow green, it's ladies' choice. Respond accordingly and your next attack will be of the flaming sword variety.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider definitely gets some things right. The inclusion of throwback elements like the green and blue gnomes that drop refreshing meat ad magic potions return, as do the multi-tiered magic spells.

But many of the series' main draws — bright environments, co-op multiplayer and dazzling, increasingly ridiculous spells, metal bikinis — have been overlooked. And Flare's magic abilities just ooze boring. Where are the giant, fire puking dragon heads, guys? It's a game that appears to be full of good intentions — middling, road to Hell paving stuff.

We're not quite writing it off yet. Golden Axe: Beast Rider may have been only a semi-enjoyable slog, but we can see ourselves playing through a good portion of it, if only wanting for a thrill. Who knows if we'll leave the experience disappointed, because the game showed at least promise, even if it was a bit bland around the edges.

Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be a look into the world minus the trio of characters that made the game so great. Instead, gamers will be forced to play as amazon warrior Tyris Flare. Neither the barbarian nor the dwarf will be playable in the single-player only game, though both will appear as non-playable characters as the story unfolds.

It looks like the development team went to great pains to try and turn the once side-scrolling, button-masher into a 3D action title without losing the feel of the original title. A lot of the same creatures, bad guys and feel of the game seems to be present. The art style is a bit generic, but no more so than the original Golden Axe was.

The game's combat system is, like the original, all about magic and melee, with the ability to ride creatures to deliver attacks. This time around, though, the beasts are much more plentiful in the game and of course, it's much more satisfying to use them in a non-side-scrolling environment.

What we were shown of the game, included quite a bit of cinematic kills triggered by attacks. Almost every time Flare attacked someone she removed a body part. In one case, a flourish of sword-play left the enemy missing both arms and his head, while his body stumbled about the screen for a few seconds, spouting blood.

When Flare mounted her first creature in the demo, a large, fleshy-looking gorilla, the ground-pounding smacks it delivered also tended to tear people into bits. The creatures in the game are also used to solve some simple puzzles and get past certain bottlenecks of combat.

The game also uses a parry system and an evade system, allowing you to dodge or block attacks based on timed button pushes and enemies, we were told, will feature full armor sets that have to be broken off before they start to take damage.

The team declined to say how much of the game was going to be about riding these beasts, but did say they can be advantageous.

Beast Rider will have a half-dozen or so mini-bosses and will even include those gnomes from the original title, though in 3D they look disturbingly creepy.

After showing off some of the mountable creatures, the developers showed us a second level set in the snow, pointing out that Flare's skimpy costume changes automatically to match the environment she is in.

The game will have unlockable costumes, including Flare's original swimsuit-like costume, which you can earn by gaining tribute through high kill counts and speedy level completion.

A few other little tidbits of game play were shown off in the short demo including a beast spawner which you can use to grab mounts in the game, and gates that need to be opened by impaling bad guys on them.

While this game doesn't feature co-op, the team said that the next one in the franchise will be all co-op.

Blogger SegaDawg didn't get any looks at the gameplay, but does write:

I did see a demo of Tyris riding one particular beast that will deal some severe swipe damage with its claws. There are several types of beast mounts in the game, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and my bet is that there will be points in the game where you have to ride a specific beast in order to accomplish certain goals — but that's just a hunch.

Because of the latest issue of PSM3, now we know. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's sounding a lot like Lair:

1. You can now only play the female character, Tyris Flar, a single protagonist as opposed to choosing the dwarf etc.
2. Free-roaming environments promote flying around on various beasts.
3. You can go on land to do some standard hack 'n slashing.

Honestly, the pitch lost me at "you can only be one character." Hopefully I'm being prematurely negative for unfounded reasons. We'll see.

Golden Axe PS3: First details [cvg]

Sega confirms Golden Axe is still on track for PS3 [PSU]

We've contacted Secret Level to learn more about the game's PS3 status, but for those without access to a copy of Play, a single photographed screen shot is available at the link below.

Golden Axe : Beast Rider dévoilé [Xboxygen]

On the other hand, it's Sega. They could've have decided to divert resources to what would essentially be Golden Axe: The Ride at one of its SegaWorks arcade locations. We'll bug them and try to find out more.