Reinvent the wheel. It's a concept, that in the video game development industry, sounds good on paper. But when it comes down to actually applying it to the game being developed, it can either be the best idea ever, a complete disaster, or completely avoided altogether in favor of the tried and true blueprint for success. In the case of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, they decided to pull the trigger on their attempt to reinvent the wheel, which ultimately would change the direction of the franchise forever. The first two Resident Evil games followed certain styles, which was almost unique to the genre aptly named Survival Horror. They were slightly slower in pace, they focused on puzzle-solving and, obviously, surviving in methodical ways. Also, they were filled with quick, pop-up, "cheap" scares that were designed to work perfectly with the tension filled scare tactics that was fueled by suspense and fear of the unknown. With this game, however, they introduce a new enemy called "Nemesis," who pretty much stalks you throughout the game. Sometimes he is just a lurking presence, other times he pushes you into rushing decisions and making you play careless, but either way, he is pushing the action of the game the entire way. It's subtle, but looking back on it tonight made me realize how the developers really are trying to eliminate the "survival horror" label - or at least change the definition of it. The game also introduced a few new aspects of the series, which I had completely forgotten about. This was first game where you can craft ammunition, which was cool back then, and still feels necessary yet enjoyable. Also, you can run up stairs without having watch a boring, lengthy cut scene, which is fantastic in its own right. The 180 degree turn that we all know and love? Yup, that started here, as well. It was a cool idea to have the first half of the game be a prequel to Resident Evil 2, while the second half happened after the events of that movie. I had honestly completely forgotten about it until I started playing. So yeah, all these new ideas to improve on the game would eventually be the building blocks for the series going forward, even if it wasn't blatantly obvious when it was released. Did these changes and the inevitable evolution of the genre make the series better? I'll leave that one up for debate.
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Resident Evil 2 was a crucial game in the franchise's series. It was almost a make it or break it type of game, since the first one wasn't exactly a crazy mainstream success. Sure, it was popular and got a lot of people's attention, but the questions were persistent: could they make another relevant zombie game in this relatively untouched genre of survival-horror? Well, Resident Evil 2 happened, and quickly all the doubts were erased. The game took everything that the first one did so well, polished it, expanded it and cemented the namesake as a force of nature in the video game industry for years to come. The first game did a remarkable job of creating the foundation for one of the most popular and best-selling franchises, but this second one is not only the first story of the beautiful house, but the amazing landscaping as well. When people point to what game brought them into the series, this is the most common answer. And for good reason. Playing this game tonight, I was quickly reminded of the graphical upgrade of the game. It looks FANTASTIC, far better than the original game, as it is clear that the developers put a lot of love and dedication in to making this the ultimate experience visually. The storyline itself is good, and it's fun to have new characters introduced to the universe I was already slightly familiar with. The voice acting is still horrible, but without it, I'm not sure I would be able to think of this franchise in any other way. The game play and puzzles are far more advanced and flushed out than the first game, but the controls are still something to be desired. It's always fun to go back and find/play the games of popular franchises that set them into the orbit of mainstream popularity. Having context for a series that you are extremely fond of is great to help you understand how that series is where it is today. This kind of stuff is called hindsight, friends. The original Resident Evil holds a special place in my heart in my gaming history, and always will. Instead of just writing a normal blog post for it, however, I wanted to change it up a bit and type of thoughts and memories I have about the game as I play it. This may turn out to be a horrible idea, but hey, might as well give it a shot.
On a final note, my friends in school and I talk at great lengths about how a movie adaptation of this franchise was entirely possible. And this was before the real chatter of a movie actually happening. I wish I could go back to younger self and show him the future movies, and see what he thought about them. Well, it's June, and that means another "Week of..." series. This month, I chose to start a franchise near and dear to my heart, that I actually planned on writing about later in the year, but figured, hey, why not do it this month? It's not like there is a new game coming out that I'm trying to coordinate with like other months. Yes, I am talking about Resident Evil. I'm starting with Resident Evil 0, which I realize was not the first game in the series as far as release dates go, but is technically the prequel to the original Resident Evil game. Zero came out for the GameCube, which at the time was an amazing feat because the general public was still under the presumption that Nintendo consoles only featured kid-focused games. For a game coming from a mature franchise such as Resident Evil, it was definitely a rude awakening for innocent Nintendo fans. I loved it though. I had been craving something, anything, somewhat mature for the GameCube. Also, I had been craving a new Resident Evil game, and since all previous Resident Evil games had come out exclusively on the PlayStation, I was worried I would miss out since I didn't have a PlayStation (1 or 2) at the time. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was coming to the little ole GameCube! This game is a fun entry into the series. I understand a lot of people don't like it, but I think that had more to do with it being on the GameCube than anything. Zero was the first time the franchise seemed to take a turn towards the inevitable action-oriented game play that the die-hard series fans would grow to despise. Sure, it still has the puzzle aspects of the original Resident Evil games, but the pace of the game is definitely kicked up a notch from the slow, methodical yet always tense and terrifying pacing of the games before it. It's not my favorite game of the bunch, let's be clear. It's easily one that's easy to miss or forget about, and one could argue that Code Veronica is more crucial to the franchise than this game. But it was a giant leap for Nintendo to take, and for the sake of continuity of this week, I had to start with zero - since I am working my way up to 6. Also, it was a great way to showcase a Resident Evil game in an environment other than a mansion or a city, and the local of being on a train would eventually inspire (I assume) Resident Evil Revelations, which takes place on a cruise ship. Trains still freak me out to this day, though. I was going to wait on writing about this game. I do this often with a lot of the newer, bigger games, until I reach a point where I feel comfortable enough writing about it, something interesting happens in the game, or I beat it. Then I realized that I was full fledged addicted to this game, just as I thought I would be, so what exactly would I be waiting for? There is no end game, and besides, this addiction can only go two ways: Get better or get worse. I'll let you decide which direction is which. Anyway, with that being said, allow me to present my write-up for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, a game which I have been playing every single day since I downloaded it from the eShop just one week ago. Compared to the last Animal Crossing on the Wii, this version is leaps and bounds above its predecessor. They didn't really take anything away from the game, just added, as well as make minor tweaks to the game play and the already familiar mechanics and style that gamers have become familiar with in the series. It's just amazing to me how addictive this game is. I am perfectly content sinking 20-30 minutes in at a time, several times a day, if only to do the normal, daily "chores," like pick weeds, check my mailbox, collect fallen bells from shaken trees (bells = the currency in this gaming world), find the daily money rock, chat it up with the villagers, check the store for new items, and pay off some debt. Oh, and let's not forget some fishing, bug catching, fossil excavating and selling/donating my catches and finds. All this stuff is easily doable in short little bursts, especially the fishing, where I can run around and fish until my pockets are full and call it good for the time being. I still have many, many things to do in this game, such as the seemingly endless job of upgrading and paying off my house, decorating my humble abode, and since I am mayor of my town (which I aptly named "Limbo"), there are a lot of public works projects waiting in the wings as well. Oh, and apparently there is this far off tropical island somewhere, that while I haven't figured how to get there yet, will allow me the opportunity to catch new fish and bugs, as well as play some mini games and other fun activities - from what I hear, at least. So yeah, this is Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It's crazy, as no game like this should be this fun or addictive, but it is. Also, I have jumped back on the belief that this game is built for handheld systems as opposed to consoles, especially for its ease-of-play and desire to pick up and play on a whim. And for further proof of the madness of this franchise, Nintendo just announced last week that an "Animal Crossing Villager" will be a brand-new character for the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game. Talk about an addicting game... So yesterday I played a game for a genre that I absolutely hated, for the mere reason of doing a buddy a solid and giving it a fair shake. After that experience, I am still on this side of the line of not like JRPGs. Tonight, however, I tried out a different style of RPGs, this one falling into the category of "Action RPGs." This time, however, I didn't do it because I was asked to or felt pressure to, but because I've heard it talked about so much,I felt like I had to be apart of the conversation. I've contemplated buying it since it came out, but talked myself out of it on more than one occasion. I was told to play the demo before I even think about buying it, but for one, I'm not a demo kind of guy. Secondly, I heard the demo was horrible and didn't explain how to play the game at all. So that idea seemed like a lost cause, right off the bat. So I did the next best thing, and rented it from Gamefly. I figured that if I really liked it, I could keep it as long as I liked and finish it. But if I didn't like it, I could send it back, no harm, no foul. I just want to see what the big deal is, especially because it seems to be a good game, but one that splits the room on whether or not its enjoyable to play. Games like that intrigue me. When a game is universally labeled as "good," but people have valid arguments for if it is a fun game to play or an absolute nightmare, it's a fun case study on what makes games fun, and why a good game can still be not fun. I guess I just find certain things intriguing for odd and unusual reasons. So I played Soul Sacrifice. I got through several levels, got the combat system down for the most part and figured out the convoluted sacrifice/saving system that builds up your character. Everything is relatively straight forward for the most part, despite the learning curve that naturally comes with any type of game that tries something new in game play mechanics. What didn't grab me, however, was the story. It bored me to tears. I understand you are essentially replaying past battles while imprisoned in your cage awaiting to be sacrificed, but there was a lot of mumbo jumbo going on within the pages of the book you read. I ended up skipping right through them after a while. Did I like the game? I liked the idea of the game more than the game itself. It is fun, I can't argue that at all. The grinding, leveling up, loot collecting aspects are all fun. But the constant breaks between levels and the story just make it seem more like a chore than anything. I'll probably keep on playing though, just to give it more of a chance to grow on me. But right now, I am squarely on the fence between "liking it" and "hating it." I'm the worse kind of test subject for case studies. I admit, I have a biased opinion when it comes to certain games. It's built in and ingrained into my gaming DNA, and not matter what I do to change it or be more open minded, I just can't fight nature. With racing games, I feel like they are all the same time and time again, and I equate my boredom with NASCAR to a contributing factor in my bias. Fighting games feel like they are made for people with stupid-ridiculous hand-eye coordination, and while the average gamer can have some fun playing them, only the elite will ever get good at them. And then there are JRPGs. Oh, the one genre of games that I can't find interesting to save my life. With the exception of Ni No Kuni, I can't remember any JRPG ever exciting me and keeping my interest. I don't know if it is the art style, the language barrier, the themes or what, but JRPGs are usually the very last type of game I would ever want to play. With that being said, this year long project is all about expanding my horizons, playing games I've never experienced before and over all celebrating all that is video games, whether I have preconceived biased opinions or not. If I just played games I liked this whole year, I wouldn't have very much context for comparison, thus eliminating a crucial aspect of accountability and credibility I hold so dear. A friend of mine bought Persona 4 Golden a few months back, mainly because of his desire to have a lengthy game to sink dozens of hours into on his Vita. He muscled his way through it, and while he didn't Platinum it, he put enough quality hours into his first play through that he felt comfortable calling it done. With The Last of Us coming out today, he had planned on trading in Persona 4 Golden to help with the cost of the new game, but before he did that, he wanted me to at least try the game. He knew that unless he gave me the game himself to play, I would never take it upon myself to hunt it down and give it a shot. Honestly, I don't know what his true motivation was for wanting me to play this game, because he knew better than anyone that I would hate it. Maybe he wanted to see if this game, the creme de la creme of handheld JRPGs apparently, could sway my biased opinion about the entire genre. This game did get incredible reviews, and I could understand his excitement in wanting to share that experience with me. But with me, of all people? Good try, James. I played it. I gave it a decent shot, despite knowing ahead of time I would hate it. And honestly? It bored me to death. The characters did nothing for me, the storyline was non-existent in my mind, and the visual style did nothing for me at all. I didn't like how the game played, the combat system was adequate at best, and honestly, I just didn't see what all the hype was about. I tried. Maybe I didn't go in unbiased, but I really wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And I didn't. All it did for me was make me want to play more Animal Crossing: New Leaf. At least I got something good out of it, right? Still on my sabbatical, and while today has been super busy, I did have time to do a little gaming. Mainly, to and from our fly fishing excursion early this morning, which was an hour each way. In the car. there was nothing else to do other than make brief small talk with our fishing guide and play games on my phone, since there is hardly any cell service ANYWHERE in this area, I'm beginning to realize. So, because I didn't bring my Vita or my 3DS with me (because I didn't want to be that guy on a fishing trip), I decided to play a game on my phone. And now, I'm writing about it. I played 10,000,000, otherwise known as Ten Million. This game has been recommended to me a few different times, especially when it was pointed out how much I play Candy Crush Saga despite the fact I utterly despise the game and all that it stands for. Because of that, I gave the game a chance, despite it being a couple of dollars. It's still a match-three type of game, but it has an interesting twist on it that makes it an RPG/Action/Adventure style of game while keeping the match-three core mechanics. The game actually makes you think and plan your moves and come up with some sort of game plan. In comparison, this game is chess, and crappy games like Candy Crush Saga are checkers. In checkers, you don't have to think too much at all, just make the appropriate moves to eventually, hopefully win. But in chess, you can't just worry about the moves you're making at the time, but you have to think 2-3 moves ahead of your opponent, planning it out as far as you can.. So that's 10,000,000. Sorry, I wish I could write more about it, but I don't know if I can conjure up more if I tried, thanks to this amazing day and even better night. It's a fun game, it's a challenging game, and it's something to keep you interested on a completely different level than Candy Crush Saga does. But as long as there are unbeaten levels in my game of Candy Crush, there will always be reason to play it... Unfortunately. Today I left civilization and my daily routine, and set out on an epic adventure for a guy's retreat for the guys in our corporate office, hosted by my bosses. They graciously invited us out to his home out on a gorgeous golf course in the high desert of Oregon, where one of them have one of the most breathtaking houses you will ever see. Currently, I am staying in a villa down near the golf course, and the while we having a shaky WiFi connection here, we have almost ZERO cell phone service anywhere around for miles, so the fact I'm even able to do this blog is an amazing feat, and one I am not taking for granted. Trust me, after this trip, I am never taking anything for granted ever again. On the three hour trip up here, I was able to get some good gaming in, thankfully. While I'm not ready to write about a few of the games, there is one I will gladly write about, only because it will be the easiest one to write about, especially since I have been drinking for almost five hours now. So without further adieu... I played Tetris Blitz on my iPad, and it was fun. Look, I am a huge fan of Tetris, in all forms. I remember playing it over at my friend's house as a kid on the original NES, despite the fact he had a SNES and cool PC games. He had one of those joystick controllers, which wouldn't seem like a big deal for Tetris, but actually made making moves quickly and efficiently far more easier. This was especially helpful as you got in to the far later levels, when the blocks would fall at a screaming pace. With Tetris Blitz, each game is played in 2-minute increments, with the idea being to score as many points as possible in that short time frame. Being able to just tap and drop blocks is actually very intuitive and works well, and almost makes me wish that feature was available in any touch-based versions of the regular Tetris. If you're not a leader board kind of gamer, though, or you don't have friends who are playing the game - or you don't have an internet connection - then the replay value of this game is diminished quite a bit. It's fun for a while, but since every game is cut short, there is no chance of going on amazing runs like you could in a regular Tetris game. There you have it. I will try to make it back tomorrow night with another blog posting, but honestly, it will be far less coherent I'm sure. Wish me luck! When I stumbled upon Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, it was featured on in the Steam store, on their feature sales page. For some reason, the name stood out to me, but I couldn't place it at all as to where I had heard it before. It definitely wasn't this game, because based on the title and the art accompanying it, it surely didn't seem like a game that would ever be on my radar. The fact that it stood out to me, however, intrigued me enough to not simply pass over it like the countless of other games I have done since joining Steam. No, there was something different about this game, and even the description didn't help me place it in my convoluted memory. And this is the exact reason why Wikipedia was created. I looked it up, and immediately knew where I had heard the name "Giana Sisters." You see, back in the Commodore 64 days, there was a game that was released called The Great Giana Sisters. It was a platforming game, where the character was stuck in a dream world, inhabited by monsters, on a journey to collect a diamond that would wake her up from the dream world. The plot isn't what's important here, to be honest. The reason I know about this original game is because of it's first level. You see, the first level drew inspiration from a popular game. Apparently, the developers of The Great Giana Sisters really liked Super Mario Bros. - A LOT - because the entire first level was an identical clone of Mario's first level, with diamonds instead of coins, and a few other minor changes. Even the block placement in the level was nearly identical. It was such a good clone that Nintendo caught wind of it, and let's just say, they weren't exactly thrilled. Apparently the saying "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" doesn't translate will to Japanese, as they threatened legal action unless the game was pulled from store shelves. Thus, the run of the Giana Sisters was short lived. Gaming history fascinates me. Because of this, I had to buy this new game featuring the fabled Giana Sisters. It's a platforming puzzle game, featuring a cool mechanic where you can switch between the sisters (who have their own individual abilities) on a the fly. And depending on which sister you are, the environment changes to you accommodate your character. With one sister, there might be a gap, but if you switch to the other sister, suddenly a bridge appears to help you get across. This concept of switching back and forth constantly to solve puzzles in order to reach the end of the level is really well flushed out, as the switching is fluid and never feels like a hindrance on the platforming. The game itself is beautiful. The level design, environments and backgrounds remind me a lot of Trine, which itself is gorgeous. It's crisp, colorful and vibrant. Overall, it's visually stunning, all while managing to keep the game play top notch. Not many games know how to balance these aspects. Oh, and I'm happy to report that the first level isn't a Mario rip-off. At all. They've come a long way. |
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February 2014
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