Week in Gaming 28/03/2009

So heres a feature I’m planning to post every Saturday giving a weekly round up on my opinion of the week in gaming.

Gaming News
Now as we all know this week was GDC, most of the news to come out of it was expected. But there was some news that stood out, for me at least. The news that I feel I need to comment on regards two of my favorite games franchise, Zelda and MGS.

Possible New Metal Gear
Now I love the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid 4 was the perfect full stop at the end of a phenomenal series. It was pure fan boy service and wrapped the whole thing up in a tidy little package.

So the question I have to ask is, do we really need another one? My answer is no. I don’t think we need one of the greatest contemporary games designers tied up in aging and stale series. What I want to see is what else Kojima has stored in that odd head of his.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
While OoT is my favorite game of all time, the Zelda series has yet to hit that lofty high again. What it has also failed to do is provide a decent Zelda game on the DS. Now Phantom Hourglass controlled brilliantly, the puzzles were up to the quality of its console forebears. However, the lack or a proper over world was a great loss for me. The other huge issue I had was the Main Temple. I didn’t like that you had to keep repeating it and that it had a time limit.

Now transferring these feelings over to the announcement of a new Zelda hand held. From what I saw of the trailer it looks like the games a cash in. It looks too similar to Phantom Hourglass, in fact you could take that game and swap the boat model for a train and never know. Before I damn it completely though I’m going to await more details.

Indie Round Up
The Indie game that piqued my interest this week was Achron, a self described 4D RTS game. I went over to the games site and this blew me away. I’m not sure it’s a game I’d want to play as even watching the video made made brain leak out of every orifice in my head. But I’m sure some people, people who have a higher brainfunction for thinking in 4D might find it interesting… here

My week in gaming
So what have I been playing this week, well as you may have seen I’ve been playing Resident Evil 5… Check out my opinions here.

Also this week I’ve been playing Killzone 2, which i haven’t been that taken back by. It didn’t immediately grab me and I’m finding I have to force myself to go back and play it. I’ll give a digestion when I’m done with it.

On PSN this week I bought Burn, Zombie, Burn! This piqued my interest as i love the zombies. I like shooter games like Geometry wars so an arena shooter like that with zombies in seemed like pure win. So I got my usual gaming accomplice round for a local multiplayer session (well there is no Online Multiplayer) and we sat down to give it a go.

My first game I was a little disappointed, the game play seemed shallow and I’d seen it all before. However later on I played though the tutorials and was surprised about how deep the gameplay was. The combination of getting a better score by burning zombies and getting better items against pissing the zombies of by burning them making them harder. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes zombies or arena shooters.

Thats all for this week folks!

P.S I do really need to get my 360 sent off for repair.

Resident Evil 5 Digestion *Possible Spoilers*

So I finally got around to playing playing Resident Evil 5 after many recommendations from my colleagues. I waddled (because thats what us chunky game artists do) down to the local GAME shop and bought it outright… not that you can buy part of it and come back later.. though that would be a good way around piracy.. anyway I digress.

This is when things get interesting, when I get home I deceide that its better to wait untill i have someone to co-op it with. Unfortunalty no one is available, so it gets shelved temporarily.

2 days later I find someone to come around and play, they turn up snacks in hand  and off we go.

First of all I have to patch it and install, thats 20 min play time gone, which in hindsight I should have done while I was waiting for someone to play with.

Now at this point I feel the need to explain my history with Resident Evil and the survival horror genre. The Resi’s I’ve played include 1,2,3, Code Veronica, 4 and Umbrealla Chronicles so i have a fairly good grasp of the games. My realtionship with the survival horror genre is I’m a fan of the old school Survival games and haven’t been that keen on the newer more Shooting orientated Survival Games.. except maybe Dead Space.

While I did like Resident Evil 4 I will point out from the outset that I didn’t get on with 5. So don’t expect this to be glowing breakdown.

Buy now your all probably bored of the build up, so its time for my opinions

My Initial Problems
Now I’m sure this is apparent to everyone by now but the controls aren’t as revolutionary as they were in Resident Evil 4 and to be honest were a constant sticking point for me. Now by this point in the Resident Evil timeline Chris Redfield and newcomer Shiva are pretty well trained in combat, however apparently both slept in on the mornings that they ran reloading and moving drills and shooting and moving drills.

From a design point of view I don’t think the inclusion of Shiva was a wise deceision, for a survival horror game having a constant companion instantly destroys the feeling of isolation. These feelings roll up next into the new setting, Africa. While Africa is a cool place it doesnt do much for the survival mood. The bright light of the sun in the outdoor levels doesn’t leave you with the eerie feelings that the Spencer mansion or even the spanish villages of Resident Evil 4.

My Viewpoint
Resident Evil 5 was a mixed barrel for me, when i saw the trailers i was overwhelmed with a feeling of dismay. Thinking why have they turned Resident Evil into a Michael Bay film, BOOM!

However straight off the batIi was more impressed with Resident Evil 5 than I ever expected to be. The controls took some getting used, but before i knew it i was in the thick of it and loving it.

Unfortunatly it was all down hill from here, gone are the fiendish puzzles, gone is the atmosphere. The story was more ludcrious than I ever anticipated it to be, Wesker ended up being some freaky blend of Children of the Corn and Neo from the Matrix. While I do respect that they tried to tie up some loose ends in the series, the whole thing just gets a little messy and hard to swallow (thats what she said).

I found the story suffered from ‘Return of the King sydrome’. It looked like it was the end, then nope theres another section, this happens I think 3 times by which point the stories over and I’m not really invested in the story at this point to be caring anymore. Basically all that kept me going was my time investment and seeing the finish line insight.

Some of the frustration stems from the quicktime events (Q.T.E), now I’m not one of these people who has unfounded hate for QTE’s. For example I love Shenmue. What I didn’t appreciate in Resident Evil 5 was the QTE insta-death. I liked the more forgiving cutscenes, like the aformentioned Shenmue and can even understand insta-death in Resident Evil 5, what i didn’t like was that the game didn’t just reset at the start of the QTE. They put you in the room before making the player have to re-trigger it, in some of the more difficult scenes this gets very tedious.

The Big Race Issue
I don’t see the big problem with the zombies, I’m sorry the B.O.W (as their now being called) being primarily black. The outbreak just happens to be in Africa. Capcom tries to rectify this by adding zombies of other  ethnicity. But all in all i never got the feeling that it was done that way with malice.

The Pros
Time for a little bit of positive, right in the middle of Resident Evil 5 is a small oasis that harks back to the Resident Evil games of old. The section I’m referring to is the Umbrella Labs section. This had a section with gameplay different to the rest of the game. The moment im referring to is the hallway full of lickers, where if the player times it right they can sneak through undetected. This hallway had more tension than the rest of the game combined. Following this section is the best bost in the game, the moment Ouroborus is revealed. Despite having fought a boss similar to this already, this time its shaken up with the introduction of the flamethrower. Balancing the recharging of the flamethrower, moving away from the boss and shooting the gas canister when the boss picks them up.

Now as the more cunning readers may have figured out my job is Computer Game Artist, the one thing Resident Evil 5 didn’t disappoint on was the visuals. This was for me one of the best looking games of this generation from a technical stand point, but obviously can’t compete with games like Bioshock and Mirror Edge for art style/Direction. While the version i played was PS3 one which is supposed to be the less inferior of the two i didn’t notice it, but obviously not having played the 360 one i can’t really comment.

While the environment and texturing were good, the character modelling stole the spotlight. They’re incredibly highdetailed even with the obvious WTF moment when you first see Chris Redfields melon biceps, but are some of the best characters I’ve seen this side of MGS 4.

The Big Conclusion
While there were times I was enjoying Resident Evil 5, my overall experience with it as a whole was one of a lack of unoriginality, tedium and frustration. While I have heard some people say as soon as they had finished they rushed to start playing again, this was not a sentiment I share, I was releaved that it was finally over. While I may re-visit Resident Evil 5 again to check out the replayability I think I’ll wait till the rest of my pile of shame has disappeared…  so it could be a while.

Peace Out,
AnonymousGameArtist

P.S. just in case you hadn’t figured it out B.O.W stands for  Bio Organic Weapon, I had to look that up :p