Resident Evil 5 Review

After Resident Evil 4 took a bold and successful venture into a different genre, any sequel that looks remotely similar was destined to be a very hyped game. Resident Evil 5’s hype went beyond that of Resident Evil 4. The trailers that were showed off the gameplay that many came to adore after playing Resident Evil 4, and got people very excited for the game. After a less than amazing demo was released, the full game is now available. Is Capcom’s latest effort as good as Resident Evil 4, or does it fall short of expectations?

Chris Redfield from the original Resident Evil returns for RE5. Chris now works for the B.S.A.A, and travels to Africa. It is there that she meets Sheva Alomar, who accompanies him on his mission. Chris and Sheva are sent by a nearby butcher to track down Irving, a man who is involved with a potentially deadly threat named Uroboros. While going to find Irving, he finds a wounded Alpha Team member who has some extracted data relating to Irving’s whereabouts. While examining the data Chris finds a picture of his old partner, Jill Valentine. So, Chris and Sheva set off to destroy the threat of Uroboros, and to try and find Jill Valentine in the process. The story is by no means amazing, but it will keep you interested, and you’ll want to observe the story’s progression.

The gameplay feels very similar to that of RE4. This has caused numerous complaints with the game, but there’s really no need to worry; the formula first demonstrated in RE4 shows no signs of becoming stale in RE5. This being said, the fact that nearly none of the, albeit minor, advancements in the third-person shooter genre were added into the game is dissappointing.

The controls of RE4 (using the gamepad) are perfected in RE5. While the lazer in RE4 felt a bit slow, it seems a little bit faster in RE5, which is helpful when there are as many enemies as there are in RE5. The Left Trigger is used to aim, and the Right Trigger is used to fire. You could argue that it’s used in every 360 game, but it’s used in every 360 game for a reason: because it’s perfect for the 360 controller. There’s no shame in copying shooting controls if they work perfectly.

RE4 was the first step into the third-person shooter genre, and RE5 pushes it further into the action genre. There are still signs of the Survival Horror genre, but they are much less apparent as they were in RE4. Whether you like it or not, the scary and chilling environments such as those seen in RE4 are gone. There is one location in particular which looks very dark and chilling, which would look more suited to the Survival Horror game. Unfortunately, it is only used to host one boss battle, and then Chris and Sheva wander off. Dissappointing.

The game now gives you a cover system. Later in the game, there are gun weilding enemies, and the mechanic actually becomes necessary. A pity, because the cover system is a really ‘Meh’ affair. You’ll simply put your back towards the cover, and either ready your weapon or get out of cover. If Capcom had worked much harder on the cover system, while not making it a core mechanic, it could have easily been awarded a higher score.

Now, there is a big emphasis on co-operative play. Obviously, no matter how advanced the technology used in video games become, A.I will never be perfect. Sheva can get the job done, but the A.I could be a lot better. In Gears of War (just an example) the A.I for your partner was bad, but you didn’t need to rely on them that much. In RE5, it’s a huge mechanic, which is let down by Sheva’s dodgy A.I! Sheva can take a shot at an enemy just as you have carefully aimed at the enemy’s head, and can just walk in the way and block your shots sometimes. She will also give you herbs when you don’t want herbs, and give you an item when you want to give her an item so you can eventually pick up another item. Unfortunately, the fact that she is not a human means that you can not strategically swap items with her. This is a minor problem, but it can be an annoyance. When grabbed by an enemy, your partner will be able to get the enemy off of you. There’s just one slight problem: Sheva rarely does this. However, when you’re health bar is displayed as Red, it will display the word ‘Dying’, and your partner can recussitate you by pressing the B button when nearby. This is one of the instances where she suddenly becomes helpful and rushes to your aid. Needless to say: playing in co-op is the preffered way to play through the game.

The inventory system in RE4 has been taken out, and replaced with a far more limited one. There are two inventories, one for you, and one for Sheva. The two inventories allow you to exchange different items. So, a wise thing to do would be to give your partner a fair share of guns and healing items. Each inventory has 9 spots for items. A certain amount of ammo for each gun can be held in 1 spot, and ammo can often be combined with guns as a method of reloading the guns. However, the yellow herbs are now gone. There can only be a mixture of Red and Green herbs or two Green herbs. The only small problem I have is that the inventory is much more lacking in space than in RE4. This will leave you running out of ammo very often, and causes an annoyance. Still, the limited inventory is the only element of the Survival Horror genre that I can recognize in RE5.

Once the game is completed, you will unlock the Mercenaries mode. Mercenaries is a very addictive mode, which adds a suprising amount of longevity to the game, and is a lot of fun. You will be contacted before the game begins saying that a chopper is on it’s way and will arrive in 2 minutes. You will have to kill as many enemies as possible before the chopper comes. Shooting many enemies in rapid succession will earn you some bonus points. To get more time, there’s a huge hourglass item which you can break, and this will normally add 30 or 60 seconds to the clock. You can unlock characters other than Chris and Sheva to play with, and each one has their own unique selection of weapons. The more time and more enemies, the higher your score, and the more you unlock!

RE4 was a game that pushed the hardware it had to work with to it’s graphical limits, and RE5 is no slouch in the graphics department either. The lighting is perfect, the textures are great and the world in RE5 is, at times, beautiful. The graphics are among the very best of this generation of consoles, and can be compared with the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4. The character animations are similar to those of RE4. In some cases, I think the developers copied some of the reaction from RE4 enemies and put it into RE5. One thing that needs to be applauded is the perfect replication of the Falcon Punch. Truly stunning. You are often playing outdoors in the game. As you’d expect from a game set in Africa, outdoors is a very tropical setting. You’re not just playing outdoors, though. You also play in temples, labs, and even aboard a ship. All of these locations look stunning.

The cutscenes in the game are also spectacular. The game features great choreography for fight scenes, and a return of the button mashing seen in RE4. You often have to mash buttons to sprint away from monsters, and to avoid weapons hurled at you by enemies. These type of cutscenes do not occur often, though.

The music in the game is also a sign of departure from the Survival Horror genre. While RE4’s music was spine-chilling and eerie, the music featured in RE5 doesn’t have a Horror theme at all. That’s not to say that the music is bad. It’s in fact the opposite. The music is great, and has a very epic feel to it, but it’s much more suited to the action genre than the Horror genre.

Overall: 9.3

+ Astounding graphics

+ Huge replay value, despite the rather short single player.

+ The great RE4 gameplay fans came to love

- Nearly no advancements in the gameplay

- Sheva’s A.I is unimpressive

- The cover system isn’t very well implemented.

Note: Something that needs to be noted that I found rather odd is this whole racism row. Capcom did a good job of trying to avoid this in the first section, but then there’s an area where there are black people in tribes hald-naked running at you with spears. I’m not saying it’s racist, I’m just mentioning that bit because I found it hilarious when it was pointed out to me.

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition Review

The Resident Evil series started in 1996 with Resident Evil on the PlayStation. It wasn’t the first survival horror game, but its success gave the genre a huge boost in popularity. It was a truly revolutionary game for the genre. However, video game formulas, no matter how great, will become stale eventually. Some of the Resident Evil games to follow weren’t nessecarily bad, just forgettable. Capcom took care of this issue and took the series in a new direction. The result was Resident Evil 4.

You play as Leon S. Kennedy, the protagonist seen in Resident Evil 2. The game takes place in a European country, around 5 years after the T-Virus outbreak in Racoon City. Leon is a secret service agent, who is assigned to find the President’s daughter; Ashley Graham. Ashley has been kidnapped by a mysterious cult known as Los Illuminados. While on the way, he encounters some less than welcoming villagers, the Ganados. They are infected with Las Plagas, a mind-controlling parasites which causes people to pledge allegiance to the Los Illuminados cult.

With RE4, Capcom took the genre into a new direction. This new direction turns the game into more of a Survival Horror themed shooter, rather than a full on Survival Horror game. Don’t feel put off by this, the game still meets a lot of the criteria of a standard Resident Evil game. The game still has huge boss fights, only these bosses are bigger than ever before. The games atmosphere is also something that I will praise. The atmosphere is as perfect as you can get in a Horror themed game. The games eerie environments, the distant echoes of enemies. Those elements combine to keep raising the tension steadily until you are faced with enemies, and will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The music is also spine-chilling. The music matches the mood that the environments illustrate perfectly, which makes it not only one of the best horror video game soundtracks, but one of the best horror soundtracks in general.

The shooting is done well in the game. Although I have been playing through the Wii version recently, I have also owned the Gamecube and PlayStation 2 versions of the game. The gameplay takes place at an over-the-shoulder view, and zooms in whilst you are aiming, a helpful part of the shooting gameplay element. Where you are aiming is shown by a red laser when using the traditional gamepad. The control stick does it’s job at aiming well, at least when it’s not compared with the pointer controls. In a game with fast paced and frantic action such as RE4, and when hordes of enemies come running at you (this happens very often), the control stick can feel a bit too slow for my liking. With the pointer controls, it’s much easier to pull of headshots. It instantly feels very natural and intuitive, and, before you know it, you’ll think of the pointer as the definitive way to play the game.

The enemies are not zombies in this game, as stated when you examine the corpse of the first Ganado you encounter. It states, and I quote “He’s not a zombie”. The enemies are, in fact, very different. The new enemies are much smarter and quicker, they can dodge certain attacks, hold weapons, and even communicate. If one enemy catches sight  If that wasn’t enough, there’s more. The enemy AI is head and shoulders above the AI in RE4’s predecessers. Once you’ve pulled off an all-important headshot, don’t be satisfied until the enemy falls to the ground. A Blade Plaga will sometimes burst out, which is one of the forms of Las Plagas. It has a blade which swings around to inflict damage on others.

You will, quite early in the game, locate the president’s daughter. While you’re with her, you’ll have to make sure she’s safe, even while you are shooting enemies. Enemies will attempt to grab Ashley and try to take her out of the area and in a disclosed area. You’ll have to be more aware of where Ashley is, as a result. You can tell her to stand still in her current position, but this is not reccomended unless a puzzle calls for it, or if she can hide. The level when you need to get past hordes of enemies, while protecting Ashely, while both co-operating to solve puzzles is a very entertaining level, and one of my favourites in the whole game. However, protecting Ashley can prove to be a bit of a chore in some levels of the game. There is one level which calls for you to play as Ashley, while you are seperated from Leon. The level drags out for a tad longer than I would want.

RE4 has a full inventory system, which is extremely well implemented. Getting to the inventory screen will pause gameplay and allow you to grab some of your items, switch weapons, and heal yourself. This ensures that you will very rarely run out of ammo, which I am happy about. Running out of ammo is a huge annoyance when you’re playing a game as action-packed as RE4 is. Another thing worth mentioning is the new travelling merchant. The merchant will sell you items and weapon upgrades, but will also buy treasures which you have found during the course of the game, and items. The merchant is a very handy guy to have in the game, and will always be famous for the immortal lines: “Got some rare things on sale, stranger!”

The graphics in the game are arguably the best graphics that the last generation (GC, PS2 and Xbox) could offer. The graphics were stunning, and still are, albeit, the textures are starting to show their age a little bit. Still, RE4 acts as a showcase of how impressive last-gen graphics can actually be, with some amazing lighting and particle effects. What’s more impressive is that it’s better looking than most games on the Wii at the moment. Obviously, true 16:9 widescreen help in the graphics department. The enemy animations are also very impressive. The enemies will react to the area of the body which you attack. For example, if you hit an enemy in the leg, the enemy will crouch and cradle his leg for a few seconds. It’s at this time when running up to them and serving up some Mr Kennedy whooping (also known as the ‘Roundhouse Kick’) is highly recommended.

The cutscenes featured in the game also keep you on the edge of your seat. They require the controller to be placed firmly in your hand, as some cutscenes will require you to press a random combination of buttons, or shake the Wii remote. As you would expect, the cutscenes highlight the games graphics.

Overall: 9.7

+ Visually stunning, and outstanding level design

+ Fast-paced and thrilling gameplay

+ The enemy AI is smart

- Protecting Ashley can sometimes be a chore

- The Ashley level

- Hmm…

NPC: Pikmin Review

Shigeru Miyamoto. One of the most prolific and unique video game designers of all time. It’s easy to think not so positively of him though, but don’t be fooled. Before moving onto a questionably simple series of games known as the Wii series, he worked on some very great and influential games. The New Play Control range can now give new gamers, and gamers who just missed out on the first release, a chance to play a critically acclaimed game series called Pikmin.

In Pikmin, you control Captain Olimar, an astronaut from the planet Hocotate. While taking a vacation in outer space, his spaceship; the S.S Dolphin, is struck by an asteroid. The S.S Dolphin plummets down to a strange planet, distant planet. All 30 of the S.S Dolphin’s parts have been scattered across 4 different areas in the game. The only problem is that the oxygen contained in the planet is highly poisonous, and Olimar’s life-support system can only last for 30 days. Olimar cannot do this alone. Fortunately for him, small creatures called Pikmin inhabit the area, and are willing to help Olimar find the missing parts of the S.S Dolphin.

There are three different types of Pikmin, all of which have certain strengths, and are very handy to have. There are red, yellow and blue Pikmin. The red Pikmin are stronger than the yellow and the blue Pikmin are, and can go through fire without being damaged. The yellow Pikmin can carry bomb rocks, which are very useful when battling monsters and breaking down walls. The blue Pikmin can survive while in water. Unfortunately, you will have to stand on the sidelines while the Pikmin are fighting, as Olimar can be damaged by enemies.

When Olimar stumbles upon new types of Pikmin, they appear in things called ‘Onions’. To make new Pikmin, a pre-existing Pikmin will have to get pellets or defeated enemies, and put it into the onion. The onion will then shoot out a Pikmin seed, which will plant itself conveniently into the ground.

The different strengths of the Pikmin require you to think things through before you go to do certain tasks. The tasks will include defeating an enemy and breaking down walls or building bridges to clear a path for Olimar and the Pikmin. The Pikmin can be split up by colour, and they will remain separated unless you call them with your whistle. This is a very useful feature in the game, which will allow the Pikmin to carry out several different tasks at once very easily. Each in-game day lasts for around 15 minutes, which is plenty of time to plant more Pikmin, while going with another group of Pikmin to retain a ship part. New to the Wii version of the game is the ability to replay in-game days. So, if you have a huge Pikmin ‘wipeout’, in which all of your Pikmin are killed, you can go back to the start of the day before the Pikmin wipeout. While it’s rare that you will have to do this, it’s a useful addition to the game.

Pikmin, over time, will evolve. The different stages are shown on the Pikmin’s heads. The Pikmin will, at first, have leaves on their heads. Then buds, and then flowers. After each stage, the Pikmin will gain strength and speed. Pikmin can gain a flower on their heads by allowing them to drink nectar.

The level design in Pikmin is great. The areas that Olimar can explore with his Pikmin (except where he crashed his ship) are huge, and a joy to explore! There are parts of the map and obstacles perfectly suited for specific types of Pikmin. This highlights the well thought-out strengths and weaknesses of certain types of Pikmin.

There’s also a Challenge Mode featured in the game, which will be unlocked early in gameplay, assuming you manage to get a decent amount of ship parts. The challenge mode feels like it was just tacked on to the game to make up for how short the game is. In the challenge mode, you can go through the different stages to see how many you can collect before the day is over. It just feels like a lazy attempt to increase the games replayability, and a failed attempt. What makes this more of an annoyance is that it could have improved the replayability, had the mode provided you with different challenges.

As a result of being a port of a Gamecube game, the graphics don’t look that great when compared with some of the other games on the console. A 16:9 widescreen format is added to the game, which is always fun. But, for a Gamecube game, the graphics are good. Not great, but good.

While there are not many songs in the games soundtrack, the music is great. It’s mostly soothing and relaxing, but the music doesn’t quite fit the environments. This is a very minor problem, but I feel it’s something worth mentioning.

My final problem with the game is the Pikmin AI. The AI is not bad by any means, but it’s not great either. They can definitely get the jobs that are required done, but they often struggle. The Pikmin, when carrying items and ship parts, go straight to the area where the different onions and the ship is. They are completely oblivious to any nearby enemies, and refuse to go on alternative routes, which are provided. This can make getting to the ship incredibly frustrating at times.

Another example of not so perfect AI is when a lot of yellow Pikmin were on a high up level where a ship part was located. When there were enough Pikmin to carry the item, they completely ignored a perfectly laid out path which eventually led to the ship, and went into the path that the blue Pikmin would normally take, straight through the water. Because the yellow Pikmin don’t have gills, they drowned.

Overall: 9.0

+ Beautifully crafted level design

+ Contolling the Pikmin is easier than ever with Wii controls

+ The music is beautiful

- The Pikmin’s AI isn’t too impressive, to say the least.

- The Challenge Mode feels tacked on.

- The game is a bit short

Pikmin Trivia! (You can ignore this, it’s not part of the review)

• The S.S Dolphin is a reference to the Gamecubes original codename; Project Dolphin
• The creatures names are a reference to his old dog “Pikku”
• Most of the Super Mario 128 elements were incorporated here (Damn, I wish they would have released the game)
• Miyamoto was inspired to make Pikmin by observing different creatures in his garden (o.O)

No Dazzle yet?

The reason I haven’t got the Dazzle recently is because I’m a bit short of money at the moment. So, I have instead decided to get Easycap, which is like half the price of the Dazzle, and the latest version is still able to capture at 60 Hz, so capturing 360 will be much simpler, asthe Vista version of the Dazzle cannot, for whatever reason, capture 60 Hz without a stupid amount of messing about with different pieces of software. What would’ve been around £50 is now cut down to just over £24! So you should be able to expect footage from the EasyCap very soon. If not, I’ll most likely state my reasons here.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Review

In late 2007, over 4 years after the Wind Waker was released on the Gamecube, its sequel, Phantom Hourglass, was released. This seemed a good time to release another cel-shaded Zelda, as the fans’ thirst for a more realistic Zelda game had already been quenched with Twilight Princess. This, and people had then got over the slight disappointment of the Wind Waker’s new art style, if they were initailly disappointed. Is the brilliance of the Wind Waker recaptured for it’s DS sequel, or did Nintendo fail to deliver?

The game starts very shortly after the events of Wind Waker, where Link, Tetra and Tetra’s crew of pirates are sailing along the seas where they come across the mysterious and infamous Ghost Ship, surrounded by fog. Tetra has heard of the incredible amount of riches that await on the Ghost Ship, so goes to board the ship. Silly girl. Doesn’t she know overwhelming amounts of fog is bad? Anyway, Link tries to save her, but gets washed away to Outset Island. It is here where he meets Ciela, the games equivalent to Navi from Ocarina of Time. Ciela just happens to be amnesiac, just to cause some more inconvenience. Ciela then takes you to see Oshus, an elderly man who Ciela believes to be it’s grandfather. So, Oshus and Ciela decide to help you, and on the island you are introduced to Lineback, and the Phantom Hourglass, which is the gimmick that holds a place in the title this time around. I find it strange that the Phantom Hourglass is featured in the title of the game, where it is used in just a few instances in the game (every time you enter the Ocean Temple, to be exact). Link is now off on a quest to save Tetra, in short. And hey, you may just be able to help Ciela get her memory back.

The game has now reverted back to the same type of camera angle that was featured in the original Legend of Zelda game on the NES. It is now controlled with the stylus. It is very easy to be skeptical of the idea, but you can rest assured that it works, though. Most problems that you could consider about controlling the game completely with the stylus have been dealt with, and suprisingly well. To walk, you tap and hold down with the stylus on to where you want to go. If possible, Link will automatically jump off of an edge if he approaches one. To slash, you simply do a slicing movement with the stylus and Link will follow suit. To do a spin attack, draw a circle with the stylus. This new control scheme is something Nintendo simply have to be congratulated for, as squeezing all the possible actions for Link onto just the touch screen must not have been an easy task at all. That being said, I prefer the more traditional controls of Wind Waker in this case, but that’s just down to personal preference.

Sailing the seas is now much more a part of the game than it was in Wind Waker. You can now plot your path on the map using the touch screen, which will allow you to be more aware of local enemies and cyclones. Enemies in the sea are simply defeated by tapping them a couple of times to shoot at them with your cannon. Encounters at sea are certainly very easy, but I find sailing the seas much better than in Wind Waker. There is more of a focus on exploring the seas to find certain things, such as hidden treasure, hidden islands and even fishing in this game. While there are a lot of additions on the side in this Zelda, for whatever reason, I just don’t feel as compelled to do these things as I am in other Zelda games.

The Phantom Hourglass is only ever used in the Ocean Temple, a temple in which the 4 sea charts lie. In order to be able to even go anywhere in the seas, you will need to collect the charts. The Ocean Temple sucks the life out of you, quite literally. There are highlighted areas where you can stay for a few minutes. In them, you’re health will not be taken away, and the guards of the temple won’t be able to see you and will soon go back to where they were before you were spotted. Even one hit from these guards will have you killed, which encourages you to be much more cautious of your enemies. With the Phantom Hourglass, however, the life will not be sucked out of you, but you have a time limit. The time limit is displayed in the top left of the screen, and, until the time ticks to 00:00, you won’t have any health sucked out of you. In the highlighted areas, just like with your health, your time limit will stay the same.

The dungeons are not quite as good in this Zelda game as in the other games, and the puzzles are easy. The only difficulty to be found in the puzzles is if the touch screen, for whatever reason, doesn’t recognize what you’re drawing on the touch screen. Believe me, it happens more often than you would expect. The dungeons do make some clever uses of the items, however. One example is you using the hookshot as a tight-rope.

As I have said before, the games art style remains as it was in Wind Waker. What was astonishing on the Gamecube is still good when squeezed on to the DS. Obviously, because of the games camera angle and the DS’s much lower graphical capabilities, what is done with the graphics is much more limited and pixelated. That being said, it’s probably one of the prettier looking games on the system.

+ Sailing is now much more fun

+ The touch screen controls work near flawlessly

+ One of the prettiest games on the DS

- The game is short by Zelda standards

- The side quests aren’t as compelling as in other Zelda games

- The game sometimes has problems recognizing what you’re trying to draw

Overall: 9.0

A very good attempt by Nintendo to squeeze the Zelda world on to the tiny DS, but it has it’s fair share of faults which, although somewhat minor, do affect the experience provided. The music is also great, but there’s nothing too memorable in there like there is in most Zelda games. It is a great game, but, by Zelda standards, it’s only decent.