Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
So I just finished Reisdent Evil 5
Yeah... well.. like 30 minutes ago I did. Clocked in at 13hours and 18mins.
It was fun... at times.
In the end I just stopped seeing it as Resident Evil and saw it more as an action shooter. You get used to the clunky controls, but that's not saying much. And I'm sorry, but whatever these African's in the game are infected with.. it's not turning em into Zombies. Not in the 'Night of the living dead' kind of way... more like mindless crazies. Nothing to scare you or freak you out. In fact, there wasn't a single 'jump out of your seat' moment :(
At one point my GF was like... "I thought this game had zombies in it"
And I'm like "Yeah... see... they're shooting at me"
'Those looks more like pissed off rebels"
"I think you mean Zombie pissed off rebels"
There were a couple of cool baddies here and there, but nothing too fancy.
It did get a little difficult towards the end, but not because the levels got trickier, but rather because I started coming up against baddies with greater hit points. I hate when Games make them selves difficult by just buffing up HP. The lack off ammo made things more frustrating rather then encourage tactile play.
Plus... what is the point of setting the game in such a wide open country like Africa, if all your gonna do is have confined spaces. You can't explore jack shit cause the game is very leaner, and the areas a small nit.
As a standard action game, Resident Evil 5 was pretty cool. I really liked the Shotguns, you get a few of em. And the upgrade system kinda allows you to customize your game play. The Sniper riffle was fun too, picking off gunners here and there out of the dark before moving. This made the messy gun fights fun. Although these gun fights also made the game seem even less like Resident Evil or a survival horror... but it was entertaining.
I think I'm just spoiled by the other games I've played... I judge my action games by Gears and my Survival Horror by Dead Space. This game tried to do both and played midcore at both.
Play it and give it back.
You want the next big thing in Survival Horror? You won't find it here.
It was fun... at times.
In the end I just stopped seeing it as Resident Evil and saw it more as an action shooter. You get used to the clunky controls, but that's not saying much. And I'm sorry, but whatever these African's in the game are infected with.. it's not turning em into Zombies. Not in the 'Night of the living dead' kind of way... more like mindless crazies. Nothing to scare you or freak you out. In fact, there wasn't a single 'jump out of your seat' moment :(
At one point my GF was like... "I thought this game had zombies in it"
And I'm like "Yeah... see... they're shooting at me"
'Those looks more like pissed off rebels"
"I think you mean Zombie pissed off rebels"
There were a couple of cool baddies here and there, but nothing too fancy.
It did get a little difficult towards the end, but not because the levels got trickier, but rather because I started coming up against baddies with greater hit points. I hate when Games make them selves difficult by just buffing up HP. The lack off ammo made things more frustrating rather then encourage tactile play.
Plus... what is the point of setting the game in such a wide open country like Africa, if all your gonna do is have confined spaces. You can't explore jack shit cause the game is very leaner, and the areas a small nit.
As a standard action game, Resident Evil 5 was pretty cool. I really liked the Shotguns, you get a few of em. And the upgrade system kinda allows you to customize your game play. The Sniper riffle was fun too, picking off gunners here and there out of the dark before moving. This made the messy gun fights fun. Although these gun fights also made the game seem even less like Resident Evil or a survival horror... but it was entertaining.
I think I'm just spoiled by the other games I've played... I judge my action games by Gears and my Survival Horror by Dead Space. This game tried to do both and played midcore at both.
Play it and give it back.
You want the next big thing in Survival Horror? You won't find it here.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Resident Evil 5: First Impressions
Resident Evil has always been a game that has for some reason alluded me. I love zombies... Resident Evil has zombies, and yet I have never been an avid follower of the series. I have however played a lot of RE games.
My first RE game was part 2, which I got when I got my first Sony Play Station back in like 1998. I played that game to bits... at the time I could think of nothing else like it. I got part three when it came out, I also got Code Veronica. But sadly as I kept up with the titles... I found each subsequent title less enjoyable.
By the time part 4 came out... I had already sold off my PS2 for an Xbox, so I never got to play it. When I heard about Resident Evil 5 heading for the 360, I was a little interested. Firstly cause it was a zombie game... and 2ndly cause it is after all a Capcom game.
They make good games.
So today I finally got my hands on Resident Evil 5, which is actually the seventh installment in the series. Aside from being the first Resident Evil on the current generation of game systems, the game takes the action over the the dark continent of Africa. Now that the Umbrella Corporation is down, somehow it's shizz is being sold off in Africa for local terrorists to mess around with.
I loaded up the disk, poured me self some Dew... and got ready for the zombie onslaught to follow. straight off the bat RE5 is a sweet looking game. Easily one the best looking games I've seen on my 360 so far. The characters in the opening Cut scene looked great and the environments were just like BBC footage I saw of parts of war torn Africa the other week.
To be honest... it doesn't feel like a RE game at this point, only because it just looks so different from the other RE tittles. It reminded me more Far Cry than any thing else. But that's all because of the sitting.
After some bull shizz here and there... I began making way through some town. Everything was nicely done up, making the environment really look desperate and disintegrating. You get to enjoy all this with a partner, a hot chick named Sheva Alomar.
Then the action started...
I ran into some 'zombies' and that's when I remembered why I never got into Resident Evil. I found my self so stiff and locked in. In the sense that the hero Chris just wasn't responding as well as I'm used to in other games.
Crap thing is that you can't shoot and move at the same time. So I couldn't like, back up while shooting, or shoot while trying to make it to a better vantage point. The lack of moving while shooting could mean that I have to up my play skills to follow the mechanics that Capcom has set in place... or it just could mean that it's plain shizz.
I frustratingly played through the first two levels, after a while getting used to the 'no moving while shooting' thing... but I wasn't happy about it. Another move that annoys me is the dam punching. Chris has this punch that he can throw off at the zombies and this floors em. But sadly it's not a button you can just spam, you have to wait for the zombies to be at a certain distance and then a button prompt sticks out to tell you to punch.
And don't get me started on the knife.
As I played more through the game I realized what was wrong with it, at least for me.
Plus the camera angle just plain pisses me off. I hugs your back to tight that a lot of the time you can't see the action happening around you. Yu end up having to shake your control stick like a crazy person to shake off some rabid zombie/ bum because you couldn't see him waltz past you.
To me it seems that Resident Evil 5 doesn't know if it wants to be a shooter or survival horror game. It throws shizz at you at a rate that you need to blast said shizz up, but it fails to deliver the mechanics needed to make it practical and enjoyable.
Plus I wasn't really digging the setting. One thing that I like about the other RE titles is that it takes familiar places and turns them into places you don't want to go. Office buildings, police stations... regular streets. It's scary seeing a place so mundane, over run by zombies.
War torn Africa is not familiar to us like a police station. War torn Africa is war torn Africa. We expect bad things to happen. It's not as eerie. Plus the zombies didn't really feel like zombies... But that has something to do with the new kind of infection. Sadly it just feels like most of the time you're shooting at disgruntled Africans.
God knows RE5 tries to make it scary. But it has the same kind of scary as walking through an abandoned ghetto at 3am. It's like you're watching Hotel Rwanda instead of (enter random zombie movie name)
Basically it feels like RE5 has a heart that handles too much like old school Resident Evil, in a body that's trying to be something else.
I found a lot reviews for RE5 that offered a great deal of praise for the game, but I also found a host of reviews that shared my sentiments.
Comper and Video Games said:
It's like Capcom was undecided in what it wanted RE5 to be. It breaks many of the series' traditions, yet tries to hold onto elements of its heritage that are either dated or don't fit with the style.
Read the full review here.
PSX Extrem:
Ultimately, if you're looking for a shooter similar to Gears of War, you'll find yourself sorely disappointed with Resident Evil 5. Despite people claiming that the control scheme makes for a more tense and frightening experience, I find that it only made for a more frustrating, limited, and redundant experience. I dislike gameplay mechanics being forced onto the gamer, and so I found myself disagreeing with Resident Evil 5's gameplay.
Read the rest here.
Maybe as I play on I'll find something that will make it more enjoyable... or maybe I'll get over the stiff chracter controls.
But It's safe for me to say... that Dead Space is still my fave horror game.
My first RE game was part 2, which I got when I got my first Sony Play Station back in like 1998. I played that game to bits... at the time I could think of nothing else like it. I got part three when it came out, I also got Code Veronica. But sadly as I kept up with the titles... I found each subsequent title less enjoyable.
By the time part 4 came out... I had already sold off my PS2 for an Xbox, so I never got to play it. When I heard about Resident Evil 5 heading for the 360, I was a little interested. Firstly cause it was a zombie game... and 2ndly cause it is after all a Capcom game.
They make good games.
So today I finally got my hands on Resident Evil 5, which is actually the seventh installment in the series. Aside from being the first Resident Evil on the current generation of game systems, the game takes the action over the the dark continent of Africa. Now that the Umbrella Corporation is down, somehow it's shizz is being sold off in Africa for local terrorists to mess around with.
I loaded up the disk, poured me self some Dew... and got ready for the zombie onslaught to follow. straight off the bat RE5 is a sweet looking game. Easily one the best looking games I've seen on my 360 so far. The characters in the opening Cut scene looked great and the environments were just like BBC footage I saw of parts of war torn Africa the other week.
To be honest... it doesn't feel like a RE game at this point, only because it just looks so different from the other RE tittles. It reminded me more Far Cry than any thing else. But that's all because of the sitting.
After some bull shizz here and there... I began making way through some town. Everything was nicely done up, making the environment really look desperate and disintegrating. You get to enjoy all this with a partner, a hot chick named Sheva Alomar.
Then the action started...
I ran into some 'zombies' and that's when I remembered why I never got into Resident Evil. I found my self so stiff and locked in. In the sense that the hero Chris just wasn't responding as well as I'm used to in other games.
Crap thing is that you can't shoot and move at the same time. So I couldn't like, back up while shooting, or shoot while trying to make it to a better vantage point. The lack of moving while shooting could mean that I have to up my play skills to follow the mechanics that Capcom has set in place... or it just could mean that it's plain shizz.
I frustratingly played through the first two levels, after a while getting used to the 'no moving while shooting' thing... but I wasn't happy about it. Another move that annoys me is the dam punching. Chris has this punch that he can throw off at the zombies and this floors em. But sadly it's not a button you can just spam, you have to wait for the zombies to be at a certain distance and then a button prompt sticks out to tell you to punch.
And don't get me started on the knife.
As I played more through the game I realized what was wrong with it, at least for me.
Plus the camera angle just plain pisses me off. I hugs your back to tight that a lot of the time you can't see the action happening around you. Yu end up having to shake your control stick like a crazy person to shake off some rabid zombie/ bum because you couldn't see him waltz past you.
To me it seems that Resident Evil 5 doesn't know if it wants to be a shooter or survival horror game. It throws shizz at you at a rate that you need to blast said shizz up, but it fails to deliver the mechanics needed to make it practical and enjoyable.
Plus I wasn't really digging the setting. One thing that I like about the other RE titles is that it takes familiar places and turns them into places you don't want to go. Office buildings, police stations... regular streets. It's scary seeing a place so mundane, over run by zombies.
War torn Africa is not familiar to us like a police station. War torn Africa is war torn Africa. We expect bad things to happen. It's not as eerie. Plus the zombies didn't really feel like zombies... But that has something to do with the new kind of infection. Sadly it just feels like most of the time you're shooting at disgruntled Africans.
God knows RE5 tries to make it scary. But it has the same kind of scary as walking through an abandoned ghetto at 3am. It's like you're watching Hotel Rwanda instead of (enter random zombie movie name)
Basically it feels like RE5 has a heart that handles too much like old school Resident Evil, in a body that's trying to be something else.
I found a lot reviews for RE5 that offered a great deal of praise for the game, but I also found a host of reviews that shared my sentiments.
Comper and Video Games said:
It's like Capcom was undecided in what it wanted RE5 to be. It breaks many of the series' traditions, yet tries to hold onto elements of its heritage that are either dated or don't fit with the style.
Read the full review here.
PSX Extrem:
Ultimately, if you're looking for a shooter similar to Gears of War, you'll find yourself sorely disappointed with Resident Evil 5. Despite people claiming that the control scheme makes for a more tense and frightening experience, I find that it only made for a more frustrating, limited, and redundant experience. I dislike gameplay mechanics being forced onto the gamer, and so I found myself disagreeing with Resident Evil 5's gameplay.
Read the rest here.
Maybe as I play on I'll find something that will make it more enjoyable... or maybe I'll get over the stiff chracter controls.
But It's safe for me to say... that Dead Space is still my fave horror game.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Undead Gaming
Cool article over at Kotaku about the undead in video games. Let me just say that anything+Zombies=pure win... Especially video games.Read the article here.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Nightmares over coffee
Click for better viewThe old guy is someone I saw in a dream I had last night.
Yeah... I had this tripped out dream where I was on like a rowing boat. But it was really long... and it was floating through the air in some suburban area. I was sitting there surrounded by all these creepy ghouls and goblins and ghosts and shizz. But they weren't mean or trying to hurt or scare me. They were all just chatting amongst them selves.
There was this old guy there, with like a pocket-watch... and he was pacing up and down the center of the boat looking at it.. Suddenly we came to this old house and the old guy stopped the boat. Then he dragged this creepy wretched looking thing, that kinda looked like an old lady in a hood, out to the front of the boat and then forced her to go into the house.
A while after the 'old lady' entered the house, I heard screams. Then the boat went on.
Some how I had gathered that the boat and the old guy... were delivering hauntings.
I smell a new comic idea brewing in me head :D
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Don't drop the soap
When Ben Templesmith draws a werewolf... he draws em like you've never seen.
Last night I treated my self to the first two issues of T-Smiths fairly new series 'Welcome to Hoxford' and man was it sweet.
Imagine a bunch of hardcore criminals... I'm talking psychopaths that range from serial rapists, murderers to necrophiliacs. All these guys are on death row in a huge prison... that is being run...
by...
Werewolves.
Yes... I smiled too.
From the first page till the end this baby looked sweet as. The whole look of the comic is very dark and brooding, which is classic Templesmith. As far as the story goes... the first issue does a cool job of setting things up, and the 2nd book gets underway to tearing shizz up.It reads close to 30 Days of Night, in the sense that it feels like a balls out horror movie. Basic on what needs to be basic... heavy on what we want from a horror story.
Which all was fine for me.
Plus it has werewolves man... I was kinda stirred back into werewolves a bit after watching Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This baby was just what I needed. You don't get to see the beasties do much in the first two issues... but what little you do see gets you hungry for more.Like I said earlier... When Ben Templesmith wants to draw werewolves... he really draws em mean :D
Creepy art....spooky atmosphere, and characters that are interesting enough to make you want to see em get mauled. Stop reading... go get it.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Yes I've been slack
I know I know... it's been awhile since I wrote something up here. I've just been caught up with so many things. Plus Street Fighter 4 makes my thumbs hurt :(
I did show you my Spore Creature earlier :P
So what's new?
Well.. I finished Season 3 for Supernatural this afternoon. I know it aired a long time ago...but I live in Fiji, I'm lucky to have even heard of the damn thing. A friend of mine got his hands on season 1 through to 3... so I borrowed it off him and started watching it like last week.
Lets just say with about 22 episodes each in seasons 1 and 2...and 16 episodes in season 3... I've watched a lot of Supernatural these past few days.
For Valentines I took my GF to go see 'My Blood Valentine' in full glorious 3D!
I normally hate remakes... but this baby was pretty decent. Plus it had that guy who plays Dean in Supernatural, that rocked. It may not have been an amazing movie... but the 3D shizz and the cheap scares were enough to keep me entertained.
I also went to watch the Friday the 13th remake with my GF. Feb 13th was her birthday. Sadly I didn't find the F13 outing too worthwhile. Sure it was a brand new movie with my hero Jason slashing shizz up... but for some reason I felt as though the producers new mix of the Jason formula didn't go down well. At the end of the movie I found it a little lacking.
Hack harder Jason!...Harder!
And I really liked Jason X... so for me to feel this way mad me sad. Cause I really was looking forward to the new one. In the end I felt the movie didn't do for the F13 franchise what Rob Zombie did for the Halloween franchise.
On the zombie front my viewing has been slightly limited. Like I said, I've been mucking around with Supernatural for the past few weeks. I did pick up a copy of Death-Dream aka Dead of Night. A movie about this guy who dies in NAM...but then...somehow...comes home. It was interesting... slow, but kinda creepy at times. Otherwise, I like my zombies more traditionally brain dead.
In this movie the zombie can drive.
O and I'm saving up to get my hands on Resident Evil 5. It's gonna cost me fucken 200 bucks to order the damn game into Fiji. I hope I can trust the reviews. But it is Resident Evil...and you pretty much can't go wrong with it. Unless you count Code Veronika and the horrible RE: Saviour series.
If anyone out there wants to buy me a copy of Resident Evil 5 (PAL) for me 350... I'll let you come over and play when the zombie holocaust breaks out.
Plus my mum cooks a mean curry... think about it.
As far as reading goes... I've been mucking around looking for any thing new on Batman's death. Walking Dead is still keeping me thrilled. Plus I've got a few 'new' Asimov's that I found at a local book sale.
But tonight I'm going to spend sometime going through the new one from my hero Ben Templesmith called Welcome to Hoxford. I love everything this artist has done... from his mad vampires in 30 days of night... to the latest Dead Space stuff he did for one of my fav 360 titles from EA.
I heard Hoxford is about werewolves running an asylum; sounds like a bloody good time to me.
Think ill also check on what's new with Wormwood.
I did show you my Spore Creature earlier :P
So what's new?
Well.. I finished Season 3 for Supernatural this afternoon. I know it aired a long time ago...but I live in Fiji, I'm lucky to have even heard of the damn thing. A friend of mine got his hands on season 1 through to 3... so I borrowed it off him and started watching it like last week.
Lets just say with about 22 episodes each in seasons 1 and 2...and 16 episodes in season 3... I've watched a lot of Supernatural these past few days.
For Valentines I took my GF to go see 'My Blood Valentine' in full glorious 3D!
I normally hate remakes... but this baby was pretty decent. Plus it had that guy who plays Dean in Supernatural, that rocked. It may not have been an amazing movie... but the 3D shizz and the cheap scares were enough to keep me entertained.
I also went to watch the Friday the 13th remake with my GF. Feb 13th was her birthday. Sadly I didn't find the F13 outing too worthwhile. Sure it was a brand new movie with my hero Jason slashing shizz up... but for some reason I felt as though the producers new mix of the Jason formula didn't go down well. At the end of the movie I found it a little lacking.
Hack harder Jason!...Harder!
On the zombie front my viewing has been slightly limited. Like I said, I've been mucking around with Supernatural for the past few weeks. I did pick up a copy of Death-Dream aka Dead of Night. A movie about this guy who dies in NAM...but then...somehow...comes home. It was interesting... slow, but kinda creepy at times. Otherwise, I like my zombies more traditionally brain dead.In this movie the zombie can drive.
O and I'm saving up to get my hands on Resident Evil 5. It's gonna cost me fucken 200 bucks to order the damn game into Fiji. I hope I can trust the reviews. But it is Resident Evil...and you pretty much can't go wrong with it. Unless you count Code Veronika and the horrible RE: Saviour series.
If anyone out there wants to buy me a copy of Resident Evil 5 (PAL) for me 350... I'll let you come over and play when the zombie holocaust breaks out.
Plus my mum cooks a mean curry... think about it.
As far as reading goes... I've been mucking around looking for any thing new on Batman's death. Walking Dead is still keeping me thrilled. Plus I've got a few 'new' Asimov's that I found at a local book sale.
But tonight I'm going to spend sometime going through the new one from my hero Ben Templesmith called Welcome to Hoxford. I love everything this artist has done... from his mad vampires in 30 days of night... to the latest Dead Space stuff he did for one of my fav 360 titles from EA.I heard Hoxford is about werewolves running an asylum; sounds like a bloody good time to me.
Think ill also check on what's new with Wormwood.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Dr. Ivan Brodsky
Click to enlargeThe challenge was to re-envision this chracter called Dr. Ivan Brodsky, who has like this abnormally large head and can see into your soul! The guy also works as a doctor at an asylum, were he treats cases that often have a supernatural flare to them.
What inspired me was this one line on the forums challenge that said something about updating the chracter into something a 21st century audience would take seriously.
Well at the moment I've been in a really Dead Space-ish sorta Event horizon mood i.e. sci fi- horror. Hence the look of my doctor. I'd love to see a new sci-fi horror/ paranormal comic book.
Something that involves old world horrors being tackled by high tech gear. Like in the Ghostbusters!!
That's a soul scanner his holding by the way, it...scans peoples souls...reading for shizz like possession or other demonic stuff.
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