Resident Evil 5

I've been having a good time lately playing Resident Evil 5, and that's not something I ever really thought might happen.

I played some of the demo on the Xbox 360 back when the game first came out, and fairly quickly wrote it off, or so I thought, due to how the controls felt in the new era of Gears of War and whatnot.

Shawn Elliott's words on the game on the old GFW Radio podcast stuck with me, though, and at some point much later I heard about the DLC expansion Lost In Nightmare that sounded interesting, in that it brought back Jill Valentine and the Mansion from the first RE. I bought the game for a low price on Steam in a sale, and it's sat on the backlog from that point on until just recently when talk of the now newly released Resident Evil 2 remake make me think back on how much I liked that game in its initial incarnation 20+ years ago now.

I felt like playing some RE. Which is maybe not completely unheard of, given the fact that I went back and played a little RE4 on PC sometime last year.

RE5 feels a whole heck of a lot like RE4, only with a co-op buddy along for the ride. I dislike multiplayer, and doubt anyone would be able to or want to play, so I am going through the game solo, but Sheva is a big help and no hindrance at all, so far.

The game's methodical pace and different take on combat from most shooters, which it's tempting to think of RE5 as--it's less that than survival horror--makes for a more laid-back and chill time, even when you are under attack from tens of infected townspeople. They move pretty slowly most of the time, and you are given enough time to run away and regroup a little bit if need be.

I'm not sure if I am making the most effective use of my bullets, though. It seems like the thing to do is to shoot to stagger, then knife where the opportunity presents itself, or punch if possible, though I haven't figured out the rhythm of making that an option yet.

I'm less focused on gaming as a whole these days, which might have the odd effect of making it easier to focus play on one title. I'd like to play through this game and the aforementioned Lost In Nightmare DLC. It's good fun so far.

Twirl, Then Pivot

I've kind of been casting about lately in a holding pattern waiting to maybe or maybe not get Mass Effect Andromeda. I'm going to move on to either that or something else tonight, though.

I played some GRID, a G game to remove from my backlog. It seems pretty good, like Codemasters' racing games often are. This is an older one, from 2007, focused on city street track racing. You begin as a nobody, racing for various teams in order to earn cash to progress your career. It was fairly difficult when I started, I think owing to its more realistic handling model. One real problem here--GRID 2 is out, and in my library. It has apparently been obsoleted, as games so often are.

I played some Zelda: A Link Between Worlds last night, finding my way to the mountain palace "dungeon" and completing it. It was fun enough in the moment, but left me feeling kind of empty afterward. A curious feeling.

The other day was the 20th anniversary of the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and as one must do, I paid tribute (!?) by accessing one of my numerous copies of the game, and playing it for a while, appreciating the crisp movement, and clear tones of the soundtrack, and awful recorded dialog. It is, as ever, a masterpiece.

I have continued to play Shadow of Mordor, as well, determining that my character needs more experience for skills and abilities to be able to hold his own against the worst of Sauron's monsters. I'm told I need to stick with the game at least long enough to make it to the second large region. It's pretty fun, so I'll keep it around for now.

I also replayed the first 30 minutes perhaps of Resident Evil 4 today, years after having played that game back on the PS2. It's still pretty cool, though it's really aged.

Killz0wned

I just finished up Killzone tonight, so now I'm ready for KZ2 when it comes out, and more importantly, my plate is pretty clean for the imminent arrival of my new PC.  

Final verdict--I liked the game, but didn't love it.  I'm glad I played it, though.  I can't really think of any other FPS I've played on PS2.  The story was pretty cool, I guess.  On par with a summer popcorn flick.  I'm excited to see where it goes in the sequel, as the Helghast are pretty cool as an adversary.  I just hope they aren't so AI-deficient in KZ2.

The other night I downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo on my 360.  I went into it with low expectations, and I wasn't disappointed.  Capcom, and the Resident Evil series in particular, aren't known for drastically changing games up from iteration to iteration.  RE4 was a remarkable exception, and it's extensive overhaul of the by-then stale RE formula was in large part responsible for that.  RE5 is Capcom lapsing back into their old ways, the same ones that have given us 50+ games in the Mega Man arch-series and 15 or more under the umbrella of Street Fighter.  Entire polygon models are recycled from a 5-year-old  game, and the GUI looks like something they slapped together in Crayon Physics.  

I'm sure people will eat it up, what with the online co-op and all, but it just seems sloppy, and stands out as another instance of Japanese developers having pretty much lost the plot over the last few years and the switch to HD.