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.

Mario, get Yer Guns

What are the odds I will go off subject in this post? Still, I will try.  After reading yet another article calling yet another videogame a "burglary sim", I had to put pen to blog.  Why? Because its lazy journalism, sloppy and winds me up. Hell, the same could be thrown at television but for some peculiar reason we don't do that.
I don't watch television but from the clips I've seen on the interwebz and things I hear on forums, nothings changed from when I did used to watch it. Scheming, plots, adultery, revenge, murder, and bloodshed. Its all there, played out by glamorous women and guys with chiselled physiques. Gotta look your best when you're knee deep in sin right?
And so it goes that videogames have followed that same path. Those age restrictions on the box aren't there to make the case look pretty, videogames have matured and its illegal for soft parents to give in ("for ten minutes peace") and buy wee Jimmy a shooter with a bloody big red 18 stamped on the box. Is that ten minutes peace really worth a hefty fine? Dont think it doesn't happen because it does (more often than you'd care to think).
So we have a burglary sim now do we? What about Grand Theft Auto? Armed robbery sim? Dishonored? A murder sim?
These are games fer Crissakes, but the way some journalists describe them make them sound like guides on how to raise hell for real. One of my current favourite videogames is Thief, a game where, yep you guessed it, you skulk around an 18th century London inspired city, pilfering gold watches and clubbing hapless city guards over the noggin. But I don't play the game to train as a cat burglar, anymore than a fan of 24 watches the show in hope of becoming a CIA agent (or whatever the heck Kiefer Sutherland is meant to be).
And what frustrates me more is that I read this on a gaming website not the Daily Mail  (where one expects such petty sniping). Honestly, videogames have become a massive business in these last few years and deal with mature subjects. Can't we be at least as responsible when writing about them?

The Next Gen Consoles

Xbox One (or XBone as its 'affectionately' become known to gamers) was released just 15 minutes ago. Playstation 4 out next week. But most gamers I know on forums are waiting until next year until they get one because there are still great games out for PS3. Oh and there are not many new titles worth the splurge, especially at £50 a pop :o Killzone is the only one I would be interested in. Watch Dogs too but thats been delayed.
Ive still got loads to finish myself: Sly Raccoon 4, Heavy Rain, Killzone 3, Hitman Absolution, Arkham Origins, Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3 etc, not to mention the awesome The Wolf Among Us series, so even though I will be getting a PS4 (I was offered a special exclusive deal) I can't see me playing much on it for its first few months of life.
The graphics jump this time around are not going to be as spectacular either. Gone are the days of SNES to Playstation 1 improvement, or even the PS2 to PS3 which still feels like yesterday (was only 2007 remember). Going from PS2 (still a [b]great[/b] console) to PS3 was very impressive; jaws were indeed dropped when Motorstorm first hit our screens after MGS3 or Hitman: Blood Money on PS2 (again still fantastic titles) but the PS4 and XBone don't look to be much different to what we have now. Oh the number crunchers will notice for sure but yer average player will not.

Rambo Trilogy Game Trailer

Bring on the explosive bows!

Yo 1980s action movie fans, here's something to tickle yer guns! Bad ass Green Beret, John J. Rambo is coming to a current gen console near you next year (Jan 17th) thanks to British publisher Reef Entertainment. And despite all the naysayers predicting the game to be a sloppy and average affair, I personally think its going to be a blast. Admittedly im a Rambo fanboy who regularly cracks open one of the movies (even Rambo III) to accompany my Saturday night drinks, so I will be easier to please, but come on! Watch the video trailer avbove, even grumpy old Col. Trautman would think this game looks decent.

Craig Lewis, commercial director at Reef said: "We have big ambitions for Reef and the Rambo IP is the first step in establishing us as a worldwide player. Rambo will be a triple-A title on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC and will capture the gritty atmosphere and full-on action which made the Rambo movies so successful."

Let us hope so mate, I am positively drooling at the thought of being to able to play through the meatier bits of the Rambo trilogy, while guzzling a few (too many) brewskies. Hunting cops through dense forest? Raining down those explosive arrows on hapless soldiers in Vietnam? Pass the bandana and elephant sized survival knife, let's do this!

The Wolf Among Us

Bufkin on the lash

Wishing to live "happily ever after", the Fables, well known characters from folklore, are all living in the Bronx in a hidden community called Fabletown. Humans cannot see them because using magic spells called Glamour, they are able to live below the radar, and stay out of the clutches of the prison-like Farm. A good thing for both them and us. Im not sure how happy the average New Yorker would be living knowingly alongside the Big Bad Wolf, Snow White and Beowulf's Grendel. Now before you start thinking I had LSD for breakfast, this is the world of The Wolf Among Us, a game recently released by Telltale Games for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. And jolly great fun it is too!
If you ever played their previous offering, The Walking Dead, you will know the tune. Its a point-and-click affair, released in bite sized episodes and bathed in very stylish cel-shaded visuals. You'd better believe it, The Wolf Among Us, looks bloody gorgeous. And it plays pretty well too. So both thumbs UP then.
Unlike zombie mayhem however, this is a fairy tale murder mystery based on the Fables comic books written by Bill Willingham but because the characters are from stories like Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Pigs, it all feels instantly familiar even if you've never picked up Fables. You take on the role of ciggie loving, perma-stubbled Bigby Wolf, aka 'The Big Bad Wolf'. He's now sheriff of Fabletown, ordered by Snow White to keep the peace among the mythical creatures of this curious little world. That will be the 'Wolf Among Us' then. It reminds me of L.A. Noire, only the concept of this game is infinitely cooler. QTE's (Quick Time Events) pop up throughout fights in The Wolf Among Us but the jewel of the gameplay is being a detective and using the multiple choices on offer when questioning the colourful cast. Stay sharp wolfie, because the outcome of your Q+A can leave suspects having it away on their toes, or worse dead.
The Fables remember too. For instance if you act an azzhole to landlord Mr Toad (formerly of Wind In The Willows) his help will become limited. You may well have been the infamous Big Bad Wolf in a previous life but do you really want to behave like a dick now that you are supposedly reformed? Exactly. Mind you, there can be no denying there is something very satisfying about coming over all Dirty Harry at times. Its part of the fun.
The only grumble I have, and to be fair, its a minor one and not really worth fretting over, are the QTEs in fisticuffs. It feels too scripted and I would have preferred a more 'free' fighting method. Perhaps wading in like Grand Theft Auto? Quick Time Events can feel overly fussy, especially during insanely fast parts. And I like QTE as a rule. Its not awful, in fact you feel heroically smug after pulling off a flawless button mashing, its just that...well I fancied giving my old nemesis the Woodsman an old fashioned pasting like we were in a scene from Tekken. But as I say, this is just small fries compared to the big, meaty juice-fest burger that is the rest of The Wolf Among Us.
Of course the doubters will say that this title doesn't have the emotional impact of The Waking Dead with Clemy and Lee but I beg to differ (as always). There is a fairy tale serial killer on the loose for fudges sake! Someone lurking in the shadows and bumping off much loved childhood characters. Now come on, tell me if that doesn't tug on yer heartstrings just a wee bit? What kind of abominable evil would seek to kill Colin (Three Little Pigs) or Bufkin (winged monkey from Oz tales, now working as Fabletown's librarian)?
Of course reviewing a game after only one episode feels awkward because there is still much to do and see, and there is always the nagging doubt that things could go boobs up a few episodes in (which would be a major disappointment after such a stellar start). But I will live dangerously and predict that The Wolf Among Us will continue to drop jaws. The characters are brilliant, the game world fascinating, and its all woven into a wonderfully crafted story filled with potential. It would take a maggot of epic proportions to spoil this apple. Plus as a final deal breaker, each episode costs a mere £3.99. Four quid for roughly two glorious hours in an exciting new world! I am hooked as is my line and sinker. Pass the drinks Bufkin.

Brat score 5/5

E3 2013: Playstation 4

Playstation4

After the dust settles on the heels of the much anticipated Playstation4 reveal last night at E3, its time to do as a million other websites/blogs are doing and chuck out some initial thoughts on Sony's new beast. I'll be honest, im not entirely thrilled by the design of PS4 but then XboxOne is none too pretty either, both reminding me of 1980s VCR players. Still, I buy games consoles for how they look on my television and not under it so I ain't going to be spitting my cider drenched dummy out.
Where it counts, Sony (in my opinion) nuked Microsoft clean out of the waters; no restrictions on game ownership (lend or sale), no 'must be hooked to the internet 24/7' guff in order to play or authenticate games and best of all Playstation4 will be £350 compared to the XboxOne's £429. Oh and PS4 will not have a creepy camera watching you all hours and there will be no online fees (unless you sign up for Playstation+.) More exclusive games for Sony's box of tricks too. Bonus!
In short Sony just finished Microsoft with a lethal fatality move.

Playstation press conference



But its really all about the GAMES and believe you me, there are quite a few impressive lookers vying for your cash. Ready at Dawn (they made God of War: Ghost of Sparta among others) has announced a new game, The Order 1886, which is a Victorian era steampunk horror (see trailer below.) Looks interesting, as does inFAMOUS Second Son from SuckerPunch. But the three that gave me the biggest horn were The Division, Assassin's Creed:Black Flag and racing game The Crew where the ENTIRE USA is your playground. You can supposedly drive from New York to Los Angeles, which is batsh!t awesome!
You can check all the trailers below.


The Division


The Order 1886


infamous Second Son


Batman: Arkham Origins