A Gamers Voice

well, it has some fantastic pros, some almost ignorable cons, and graphics that are nearly erotic.
Just because it’s a fun template, let’s start with the pros. The very first thing that I jumped quite literally for joy over was Online Co-Op. It was quick and easy to find a partner, set it up, and get in the middle of the game. The controls are a little different from previous RE games, but it let’s you know. Then, once I got in the game (I played as the new girl, Sheva) the first thing I made note of was the disturbingly realistic environment and the horror it instilled in me. The game ran very smoothly and the atmosphere was gory and real. Right away the action started, and before I’d really figured out the controls, I was blasting enemies heads off. The good thing is that they managed to keep the horror feel while adding even more awesome action elements. I’m pleased.
The cons I’ll run through quickly, because nobody cares about them. First off, the game tells you “This is new and in progress, don’t bitch about bugs.” But oddly there weren’t any… The problem that I got really butt-hurt over was the utter LACK of communication through online play. I had one button to say “Come on” and that was it. Resident Evil Outbreak had better communication. But, since it is a demo (and I’m sure Capcom will get death threat letters if they don’t put it in) I’ll wait and pray to whatever God there is that they put in voice chat compatibility. Now that I think about it, that was the only con haha.
Back to the graphics though. It was almost unbelievable how good the graphics were. Like, I always thought that it’d be more polygonal, but it runs very smoothly even with six or seven enemies plus the chainsaw guy running around manically.
Since it’s demo, I’m sure it’s on easy mode, so I didn’t die even though I stared at the chainsaw guy for five solid seconds.
But the game runs beautifully. The controls, while they may throw off vets such as myself, I must admit are much more fluid than previous installments. The camera is a bitch, but it always is in Resident Evil, am I right? Once you get used to it, you stop moving like a tank and it becomes much more fluid. The aiming is precise and the buttons are intuitive. One nice addition is the in screen map and inventory, so you can swap weapons on the fly and keep track of your partner.
All in all, this one will definitely be worth the wait. I’ve set my 65 dollars aside for it’s official release and, until then, I’m gonna hit up the demo some more. Catch ya later.

So, as we speak, the demo for Resident Evil 5 is currently downloading onto my XBox 360 and as you can guess I am extremely pleased =D and I’m very, very anxious to get my fingers on it. I’ll post a full verdict blog on what I think about it in a few hours after I’ve “had my way” with it. By the way, my XBox Live Gamertag is PingasWolf so add me if you wanna play. See ya in a few.

Success! I got myself an XBox 360 on Sunday along with Halo 3, The Orange Box, Destroy All Humans: Path Of The Furon, and Sonic The Hedgehog. As luck would have it, on Tuesday I caught the Flu, which had me packed, quarantined, and pampered in my room all week long. So, one can imagine the gaming hours I got in. Or at least, should have. Now, with 5 straight days of alone time with my newly acquired gaming system, I am certainly shocked that I didn’t get more gaming in than this… But, This is an inventory of my success. Beat one Sonic level. Got roughly half way through Halo 3, Played an hour of Half-Life 2, Got to the second level of Destroy All Humans, and completely beat every aspect of Portal. Haha, so it sort of speaks for itself to say the game that got me was Portal. Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve played Portal. I played it at a friends house when it was first released and instantly knew it was true love. Immediately after I bought the game. Shortly after that I realized I don’t have an XBox 360. Yes, a stupid choice, but in the long run it held smart, I feel. After these almost two years of NO PORTAL and having to go back to astranged, mundane games such as Red Faction 2, Tetris Worlds, and Shadow The Hedgehog (games I once thought would never be usurped as my favorite) I seem to have become newly infatuated with GLADoS and her zany antics. I know this is gonna sound like a plug, which it might be, but now that I am “thinking with Portals” shall we say, it’s like my whole world is in Portals. It’s this strange new way of seeing challenges. Any other game has an almost guided line for how to get there and, while Portal has a somewhat basic “get from here to here using this” method, it doesn’t hold you to any specifics. One particular room (Test Chamber 18) is shown here:

The method that I used was very different (and, not to brag, more efficient…) from this players method, until the room with the turrets. And, one thing I didn’t notice when I was first in this room, was that this room also has tons of different solutions that all get you to the same place. In fact, this player manages to practically skip that entire room.

Ways I never thought possible to complete the level. So imagine; if you can, independently, create these methods on your own, you’ve surpassed the ability to think with Portals, and began the ability to use an area of your brain that games like these were meant for. To these people, Portal isn’t a game anymore. It’s a tool. And I’ll be surprised at how fantastically they use Portal 2.
But moving on past Portal, I’ve gotten around to getting in to the whole “Halo” thing, admittedly late, and I must say that on a big ass HD TV, Halo really is the game above all others. This is quite a thing, coming from me. I used to despise Halo, loathe it. I’d played the first two on little TVs and always thought to myself “Jesus… Half-Life is waaay better than this…” But there’s something so epic about this third installment that it changes my perception of it. Of course, I’m spending the whole game thinking “this’d be some much more awesome with portals…” but that’s not the point. On the other hand, sometimes I find myself preferring Half-Life 2. It just depends on what game I’m in the mood for. A partial puzzle/action/shooting game is definitely Half-Life 2. But for the epic/destroy all/shoot everything epic killfest, it’s definitely Halo 3. It’s the moods that determine which game is “better” I suppose.
In closing, I present you this.

Good-Bye!

YES!
YES!
Haha, I dunno if anyone has seen the Kijuju viral campaign, but it’s pretty much badass. I wanna print off a ton of the posters and put them up everywhere. Here’s the references to what I’m talking about.

At the end, Chris sees “Kijuju” everywhere, which is part of the viral campaign.
input age and such and there’s just “Kijuju” “They’re in Kijuju” scrawled around. Basically the posters get printed off and displayed around the city and Resident Evil fansites get copies of the game. It’s an amazing viral promotion. It’s really quite cool and I think it’s gonna work. The gameplay shots at the end of the two trailers are really awesome and constantly get me pumped to play the game. I get even more antsy as the day draws nearer. I just gotta get an XBOX now…

Sorry I haven’t been on lately to update!  I’ve been moving into my new home and it’s been awfully troublesome.  The worst part is that right after I got done moving in, the people I moved in with went on vacation for a week, displacing me YET AGAIN!  ARGH!  Oh well, I’m back now =D and I am going to be updating much more regularly.

Well, the character you see above is the RE5 version of the Chainsaw character from 4, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about.  This is a chance for me to go all nerdy about the graphics of this game.  Since I am soon going to college to get a degree in graphic design of Characters and Levels, I’m obviously already inclined to geek out over graphics.  But this particular screenshot always gets my eye and screams “I’m amazing!”  Haha, so what always gets me about it is the flesh on the chainsaw character.  Focusing on the torso alone, the cracks and chunks of missing flesh are cool enough, but the videos this is featured in show the incredible detail and power of the PS3 and XBOX360 processors.  These realistic skins and sounds of this character really immerse you in the game and can seriously freak you out.  This character without the chainsaw could really freak me out, but throwing in the chainsaw can just make you pee yourself haha.  His crackly arms do the same and it’s really just genious.  But the part that always makes me giddy with anticipation is the head.  This wrapped up bag thing and the way he’s clutching it like he’s just seriously pissed off is intense.  It seems this particular Resident Evil character might be sort of Silent Hill esque in that if you can sneak up, just watching this character move alone could freak you out before he even sees you.  This game really is just beautiful.  It’s all there is to say about it.  And I’m going to be staring at screenshots and videos until I FINALLY get a chance to put the game in my hands.

As the day draws nearer I find myself looking more and more into Resident Evil 5. Recently I found myself watching the new trailer from CES 2009. I love the monsters. Like, a ton. I thought the RE4 monsters were pretty damn awesome, but what I’ve seen of 5 is just pure and simple epic. Massive unfathomable monsters fighting against poor Mr. Redfield and he still prevails. It’s awesome. Sure it brings the RE franchise closer to being an action game, but 4 did that pretty well too. So I’m very confident that 5 will keep up with the horror aspect. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna watch more trailers. Toodles.

Primal Rage was a game for arcade systems and various game consoles. I had this game as a child for the Sega Genesis. I loved it! I loved the extreme violence, the quirky idea, the simple gameplay, and it’s party value. After over ten years, I’ve recently acquired another Sega Genesis and given the opportunity to play this game again. It takes me back and keeps me entertained even all these years later. I find the grotesque humor as funny as I did then. I find the extensive gore just as enthralling as once upon a time. The simple gameplay intrigues me just as it did once. And the idea of dinosaurs killing each other for control of Urth is still a fantastic idea to me. Needless to say, this raises yet another question in my mind. Why the hell didn’t they remake this game?! If they could update the graphics and maintain the humor and gore without fucking it up with a stupid story or voice acting or shitty controls, it would be a hit! Tons of characters, extensive violence, funny attacks, awesome levels, this game is practically already made to be the next great fighting game of the new generation of consoles. But, unfortunately, the world wants more of it’s Halo and Final Fantasy. Fighting games have to be long running series to even be worth looking at anymore…

Well, Resident Evil 5 has pretty much been the hottest thing for all of us RE fans for a few years now. And now that it’s getting closer I’m looking back at some old news about the game. For instance, in December, Mikami stated that “I probably won’t play it. I won’t like it, because it’s not going to be the game I would have made.” link. To me, this raises my own sort of doubt. I mean, part of me was extremely excited to see that they were expanding the RE4 formula. (Or as some of us call it, the 4mula). But oddly enough I’m almost scared. Like, to think the series is in the hands of someone that’s not the original creator and to think it’s taken over by someone completely different kinda makes me worried. Mikami also said that unless 6 reinvents the series much like 4 did, the series will NOT survive like it has in the past. This seems to me like it might sorta go the way that the telephone game has. Mikami got it to 4, yes, and 5 seems to stay true to 4 whilst staying true to the previous chapters. Here’s what scares me. 6 needs to revamp the series, which means it might not stay as true to the rest of the series. The more you get into it, the further it may get, until it ceases to be Resident Evil anymore. I fear the same is happening to Silent Hill. They’ve become more fan/action games and it’s only a matter of time before they’re just monster kill fests. I guess that just opens the door for original games to come in and try to be the next big thing. I know that soon I am going to start pumping random amounts of money into indie games, just to see what hasn’t quite been made yet.

Guitar Hero: Modern Hits information leaked thanks to the ESRB’s magical ability to spew information about games the developers don’t quite wanna let out yet. The reason I infer they didn’t quite feel up to letting it out yet was because they hadn’t TOLD US YET! Oh well, in this technological day and age just about anyone can find out just about anything, yes? Here’s the thoughts I had upon simply seeing the title (we’ll get to various other ramblings later). Modern Hits are, shall we say, not exactly Guitar Hero songs. Sure every 17 years or so we get Chinese Democracy, but not too many “hits” today are exactly big guitar songs. The thing I fear is that it’ll lose a bit too much of it’s fan base. Guitar Hero is based in fantastic metal, explosive solos, majestic music, and memorable guitar parts. Artists like Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses, and Motley Crue (forgive my lack of Umlauts) graced the games. And, unfortunately, todays modern hits have cast the guitar asunder for synthesizers in the like of Metro Station and poppy songs like Hannah Montana. And while I’m all for a little diversity in Guitar Hero, I’m not sure I can survive going from, say, November Rain to Shake It. Now, a few modern hits are worthy, such as Fall Out Boys rendition of Beat It, another DragonForce song (although not quite a hit), some My Chemical Romance (although Guitar Hero 2 for XBOX360 just about ravaged every song they had worth putting in a GH game), or something from Chinese Democracy. What I’m saying is that Guitar Hero is starting to scrape the barrel. We saw it with 3, and we can see it start to happen again. Until musicians start making more bold and intricately memorable music, games like Guitar Hero are only going to go so far! Hell, Rock Band had to throw in the whole band to try and save the franchise. It’s nothing to immediately worry about, but it is an impending doom. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all playing with plastic guitars to *shudder* 50 Cent because their target demographic shifts. Now my next problem. The DSi is coming out very soon. And it doesn’t have a GBA slot. So, if the Guitar Hero plug-in goes into the GBA slot, we have a problem. As soon as the DSi comes out, this new Guitar Hero becomes obsolete to the new DSi. Sure, people with their old DS won’t care, but a lot of people are going to get a DSi and not be able to get Guitar Hero Modern Hits. And not a lot of people are willing to put a lot of money into extra plug-ins with even more bulk and more money, especially if the game doesn’t deliver extensively. I worry for Nintendo anyway. The DSi seems like, while it has fun cool functions, it’s a farcry from what’s necessary for Nintendo to completely save itself. Of course, who knows if they can, or even if they’re trying! I love Nintendo dearly, I swear I do. But I just think Nintendo ought to voluntarily pull itself out of consoles, and release really awesome peripherals and really awesome games for the Playstation or XBox systems. They’re just not capable of holding their own as a console company anymore. It pains me to say it, but that’s how I feel. Me? Oh, I’ll support Nintendo, buy games, play my Wii as religiously as I do, and dink around with my DS a lot. I just know that all I’m really doing anymore is using a glorified toy. One that, for fifty bucks, I could use to plug into my XBox for the same effect, but with a much wider range of games and better graphics. And who knows, in the long haul, maybe that’s what they’re doing. It’s just taking them a while. But, alas, these are merely my ramblings. I just used Guitar Hero as the catalyst haha!