Resident Evil Redux

This isn't a review of the game. Its just me enjoying one of my favourite games of all time. Taa.

When thrash metal emerged melodiously rabid from the metal scene in the early 1980s, this young (as I was then) metalhead was there to greet it, moshing right down to my denim studs. Ditto the action movies, that saw the likes of Rambo and The Terminator come stomping out of Hollywood. And just in case I was still bored, the videogame thing happened. Oh yeah that. An industry that from the silicon bowels of Atari, Nintendo, et al, rose to become the multi million behemoth that it is today. And that behemoth owes a lot to PlayStation and what many would call the birth of a new genre: survival horror.
When the original Resident Evil dropped onto Sony's grey box of tricks in 1996, gamers' collective jaw dropped. After rolling a dice for either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine and heading to the mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, it felt like we were in our own personal horror movie (complete with hammy acting that served as the games intro). Cut a long story short, Resident Evil was utterly brilliant. Guns, gore and zombies. Videogame fans had been given our first taste of a future dipped in bloody entrails. Delicious.
Fast forward two years to 1998 and the inevitable sequel shuffled into being. Resident Evil 2 ticked all boxes (and ticked a few more we didn't know existed). It was a game dripping in suspense. Players knew the moment they entered the Raccoon Police Dept. and the camera panned across the marble floor, that bigger and better nightmares awaited in the shadows.
I bought Resi 2 on launch day, and remember going to the local Blockbuster, grabbing a copy and loaded it up with a bottle of Southern Comfort (no coke). I'll be honest, I wasn't mad keen on the box cover art at first, the black "squashed" zombie face looked cheap and homemade but it did have a touch of menace about it (which is probably why I have grown to like it more as time goes by). The game was an instant love for me; it had an atmosphere that I had never experienced in games before (even topping the first game) and together with that beautiful, eerie music which played as you picked through the mutated horrors of Raccoon City pulled me in and never let go. And as someone who has played and completed Resident Evil 2 well over fifty times (true story), I can say it with authority.


Hellooooo Mr Babycakes


A Return to Nightmares

When Capcom announced a remake of my beloved game, my heart said, "yay! Lets do this!" but my mind said, "wait a sec buddy, this could be bad." Call it lazy or greedy, we live in a world where every man and his (zombie) dog is getting a reboot, and we know from bitter disappointment that they have a high risk of going wrong. A sloppy reboot of a much loved classic is sacrilege. When I heard Resi 2 was getting a fresh lick(er) of paint, I tried hard to dial down the excitement, avoiding the previews and first look videos on Youtube lest they ruined my fanboy buzz. I needn't have worried, and the brilliant Resident Evil 7 ought to have been a sign Capcom was hitting the high times again.
By the time I had sunk my teeth into the one shot demo, all fears for a clumsy reboot disappeared. Capcom it would seem, are on a roll and this is good times indeed for zombie fans. Resident Evil 2 looks and plays ace. And the atmosphere of the original? That constant feeling of dread and overwhelming odds? Back in spades, thanks mainly to the hulking Mr X, a stony faced brute who stalks both Leon and Claire throughout most of the game and cannot be stopped (for long) with puny bullets and grenades. He is a genuinely terrifying presence and the "stomp, stomp," you hear as he searches for you in the police station multiply the panic ten fold, especially if you play on higher difficulty. True, you can use methods to try and keep him at a distance but for me personally, its the not seeing him that is more frightening, when I can see Mr X at least I can use evasion tactics.

Game of the year?

I am going all in here. Yeppers, Resident Evil 2 is already my game of the year. There is nothing I can see currently that is going to have even a sniff of knocking it off top spot and that's including titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 (good game but outstayed its welcome for me). The Resi games never do this, you can finish RE2 in around 4 hours easily if you know where you going and plan the inventory accordingly.
There are two scenarios per character so its still a sizable slab of survival horror gaming.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

I don't usually get excited over current gen videogame remakes but here I am happy to make an exception. You see, Resident Evil 2 is one of favourite games of all time. I bought it on launch day back in the heady days of the original Playstation after the first game set a benchmark for survival horror and put it on a course that would make Resident Evil one of the greatest videogame franchises.

Itchy. Tasty...Evil 2

Pass the ketchup

Resident Evil 2 is one of my favourite videogames of all time. Even the rats gnawing on Mr Zombies leftover bones know this. I must have played it easily over 50 times (I went through a phase of playing it on a 'loop' once) but even though I have squeezed every possible ounce of thrill and enjoyment out of Resi 2, and know every alleyway and hidden secret better than the back of my hand, I can still pop it into my Playstation 2 or Dreamcast on any given moment and BLAM! I am hot for the undead hoards once more.
Playing Resident Evil 2 for me is like revisiting an old childhood park; a place which holds many cherished memories, suspended among the rusted iron, rising up from the warm gravel, waiting for me to get drowned in that comforting glow of the distant past. And no, im not exaggerating, this is really how it is for me. Its more than a game, its an experience and replaying it always sends me spinning back to a time when I had fewer responsibilities and those dear to me, who have long since passed away, were still here. Closer to boy than the man life forces one to become (some can be lucky mind.)

Resident Evil 2 memories:

1. Meeting creepy Chief Irons in his office, with the mayors dead daughter slumped on his desk.

2. Lighting the flare after coming off the sky tram and trying to get a last glimpse of the police station you'd fought so hard to escape from. I don't know why but this always shakes something in me.

3. Birkin "G" monster walking past/above you and Sherry in the sewers **shiver**

4. That pesky T-103 Tyrant stalking you throughout the game.

My PS2, Dreamcast copies & guide



Chief Irons has it under control...kinda

inFamous

Baaa!

inFAMOUS (Playstation 3) is a great videogame, no doubt about that. Granted I was late to Cole MacGrath's party but when I saw it for a mere £5 in Game I snapped it up. Glad I did too because playing as a normal guy who suddenly finds himself with badass superpowers, able to leap around skyscrapers like Spider-Man and shoot powerful electricity from his hands, is tons of fun (and for a fiver I have no f**king business complaining anyway). The Reapers (the games bad guys) are cool too; faceless, hooded maniacs who plunder Empire city like psychopathic demons on a mission of utter carnage.
At first you start with minimal powers but as you progress they get stronger and you can also buy better superpowers to unleash total devastation on anyone fool enough to attempt to get in your way. Fancy a cyclone of electricity to the face? Can do! Or how about we suck the guts out of you with a bio-leech? Believe you me, playing Cole can be a very satisfying experience. But alas it can also be pretty frustrating due to the controls and considering how great the controls were in Sly Raccoon, another of developers Sucker Punch games its disappointing. Sure he climbs like a gibbon on amphetamine but whereas in Sly Raccoon you felt sure footed and confident in making high leaps, with inFAMOUS you don't. I often find myself unable to drop down for a few seconds and when chasing thugs across rooftops Cole occasionally decides to face a different direction. Like I said, frustrating! Especially as some of the missions are annoyingly timed affairs (hate timed missions) where every step is critical.
Thankfully these niggles are not game breakers and I can definitely see myself replaying this game as evil Cole. Yup that's right, you can either do good deeds like help injured citizens or be a total prick and mess up their day BIG STYLE (as if it wasn't already messed up enough thanks to those lunatic Reapers everywhere.) And these Good/Evil deeds have their own Karma points and ranks; on the Good side you rise from Guardian to Champion to Hero, while on the Bad, Darth Vadery side of the fence Cole goes from Thug to Outlaw to Infamous. There are different powers in both camps too so I will be needing to see what 'delights' being evil will bring. (Im actually shocked that ive not chosen the evil path on my first playthrough because in other videogames like Skyrim or Oblivion I find it difficult to be anything other than bad *cackles evilly* )

Evil Dead 2013

Goretastic fun

When I hear of a classic horror movie remake (and you dont get much more classic than Evil Dead right?) I usually shake my head in disgust. I mean, we've been there, experienced the shocks from the original and moved on. Even if the reboot is any good our rose tinted memories will always favour the original, but this time I must shrug off my contempt for filmakers who try to cash in on past glories and admit: Evil Dead 2013 does look pretty darned good judging by that trailer up there. Theres no boomstick toting Ash this time but still, I personally don't feel disappointment in that fact.
Okay we've all been taken in and then burned by movie trailers before but this one is different, theres a definate buzz when you watch it, it 'feels' different if that makes any sense? I dunno, I might be just another Evil Dead fanboy who grew up loving the original and is now hoping to hell this works out to be at least better than recent shovelware horror remakes. Its co producers are Sam Raimi (writer, producer, director of the originals) and Bruce Campbell (who played Ash) so it already has better odds in being a success.
Lets hope so! Evil Dead is out on April 12th and you know what? Don't be suprised if you see me in the local Apollo.