It seems we all have our guilty pleasures don’t we? After the stellar start we’ve had from the Duck and Chip, I hope to continue to the trend! Read on for more Tales of the Slightly Embarrassing (but not really :) )!
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There’s something so fascinating about the idea of memories. They live in the past but actively shape our present lives. Everything that we are in the present: our personalities, our skills, our motivations, even small matters like the food we enjoy is all defined by our previous life experiences. We are, to some degree, the sum total of our memories up a given moment. So what if someone had the power to alter those memories? What if they could reach into your mind and twist them, bend them to their will, or even remove them completely? Would you still be yourself? How much would you change? What kind of person would your altered memories create? Remember Me not only asks all these questions, but puts you into the shoes of that memory-altering someone! Even though the gameplay itself leaves much to be desired, It’s an existential role that I absolutely love and makes Remember Me a guilty pleasure of mine. Continue reading Community Post: Why Not Remember Me?→
We all know and love Mario, he is arguably the most popular video game character of all time and appeals to adults and children alike. But while Mario enjoys our adulation, his lanky green brother takes a side role. Why is it that Luigi has always been ‘Mario’s brother’ or ‘player 2’? Why is he confined to his brother’s shadow?
Well first of all we can point to the fact that Luigi is (put simply) just another Mario model. When the lead designer Miyamoto was designing ‘Jumpman’ who later became Mario, the colour palette swap from red to green birthed the early version of Luigi. Thus Luigi is a similair but not quite the full article copy of Mario, a second rate edition of Mario. Continue reading Community Post: A Big Red Shadow→
My childhood was dominated by Nintendo, it’s fearless red plumber and his crew. My first exposure to the world of video games came when I was very young with the Nintendo Entertainment System and of course, Super Mario Bros. It’s safe to say, I was hooked for life after pushing the jump button on the controller for the very first time. I’ve gone on countless adventures with Mario from his 8 bit days, all the way to modern times so there’s a lot of material to draw from when thinking about what aspects of a franchise you love. Have you ever stopped to think about why the Mario franchise continues to be a force after all these years?
As any person who is invested in games can tell you, the levels themselves are what make these platformer games great. I mean, think about it for a moment. Pretty much 100% of your time is spent running and jumping through them so if the levels are boring or poorly made, the game as a whole will suffer. That’s the key to understanding why Mario is consistently great. It’s the level design that shines through. Continue reading Community Post: Mario, The Innovator→
Even though 2014 is upon us, why not take a step back from and have one final look back at 2013. This year is going to get pretty busy with new releases soon enough, so the time is right.
2013 was an interesting year from a reporting standpoint as it marked a transition between the current generation of consoles into the “next gen” world of Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Even though we’re now heading into new and exciting “next-gen” territory, there were a number of very strong and fantastic AAA experiences given last year and I’d like to highlight some of my favorites from the year that was. Continue reading My Favorite (Major) Releases Of 2013→
It is safe to say that in the year 2000, Resident Evil was riding pretty high. A successful trilogy had been released on the Playstation, the high quality sequel Code Veronica just debuted on the Dreamcast, and a big-budget movie was in the works. To sweeten the deal, a spin-off from the main series had just released in Japan, where the usual third-person perspective was traded for a first-person view. The idea was to create a Resident Evil game that would utilize light gun controllers and (hopefully) steal some thunder from the arcade shooter market. But this idea relies on the actual use of light gun controllers, a feature which was removed from the American release. It also relies on the game not being a terrible pile of crap, which Resident Evil: Survivor most certainly is.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “How does a game that was developed for a light gun handle with a traditional controller?” Very poorly would be the response. Imagine playing the original Resident Evil, with its delightful tank controls, from the first person. There is no strafe or sidestep, and anytime you draw your gun, the main character stops completely to fire. Simply navigating the game is a frustrating ordeal, since the protagonist constantly gets stuck against any object in his way, and the combat is no better.
The logical upgrade that would come from a first-person view would be the ability to better target zombies’ vital bits (read: head and knees). A player can certainly aim at these weak spots, but it makes no difference within the game. Shooting a zombie’s head deals out no greater damage than a straight shot to the finger (which makes no sense in any sort of world, video game or otherwise). To further complicate things, the speed at which shots may be fired is limited. For some strange reason, there is a rate-of-fire limit in Survivor; sort of cooldown between every single shot from a gun. So be prepared to take plenty of time dispatching each frustrating enemy in this turd.
Even the creatures in this game look terrible. The original Resident Evil knew that the processing power of the Playstation had its limits, so the developers relied on clever lighting and camera angles to compensate. Survivor does not have such luxuries, so every bland and jagged zombie looks terrible against the plain and pixelated backgrounds. The audio is just as bad, with buggy sound effects and schlocky voice acting in every cutscene.
The story is blessedly non-canon, with a tale of some random amnesiac surviving a plane crash on the Umbrella Corporation’s private island, which is (of course) filled with biological horrors. But even within the realm of spin-offs, which normally change up the traditional story and experiment with details, Survivor sticks to a rather bland RE formula. Hero enters town, zombies are present, hero finds out Umbrella makes biological weapons (no duh), bigger zombies show up, some civilians need saving, Tyrant boss, rocket launcher, self destruct sequence, cut to credits.
When my brother and I rented Survivor from our local Blockbuster Video back in the Autumn of 2000, we were so excited to have another Resident Evil game to play. Within just two hours, we felt bamboozled by our beloved Capcom. With its terrible controls, bland story, and bizarre combat restrictions, there were no redeeming factors for this awful game. At least the lack of interesting plot developments means the average player can just skip this RE entry. So for those of you who enjoy the Resident Evil series (or survival horror in general) do yourself a favor and avoid Survivor. And avoid Operation Raccoon City while your at it. Honestly, it’s a toss-up as to which game is worse.
It’s never been my favorite genre, but I’ll say right here that I absolutely love horror games! The best horror games elicit a real sense of dread and fear. You don’t understand what’s going on, you can’t understand what’s going on. All you can do is try to make it to the next room and hope that there isn’t something waiting for you around the corner. Continue reading Review a Bad Game: Alone in the Dark: Inferno→
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about two of my favorite series, both of which are often compared to each other, the PlayStation exclusive series “Jak and Daxter” and “Ratchet and Clank”. From what I can tell, these series always seem to be related to each other, likely because their developers, Naughty Dog and Insomniac respectively, have worked with each other throughout the years. (Ever heard of the games combining “Crash Bandicoot” and “Spyro the Dragon”?) I absolutely adore both of these series, as they are a lot of fun, while also combining great characters and interesting stories, along with absolutely fantastic voice acting, and I thought I’d discuss how these two series compare to each other in several different categories. But first, a quick summary of each series.
The “Jak and Daxter” series started off as a fantasy platformer in “The Precursor Legacy”. Here we meet our heroes, Jak and Daxter. The game shows how Daxter, originally a bucktoothed human, fell into Dark Eco and got turned into an ottsel (half otter, half weasel). Then, it follows their adventures to try to get Dax turned back to normal. It was a great game, consisting of exploring interesting locations, meeting funny characters, and collecting a bunch of Precursor Orbs and Power Cells to progress through the huge, open world of the game. The game emphasized the use of Eco, a substance Jak can channel, that could do different things depending on the color. Then, the series drastically changed in “Jak II”, with our heroes going a couple hundred years into the future. Ever since, the series has become more serious and dark, while still retaining a great sense of humor. There is more emphasis on guns and less on Eco, though Light and Dark Eco now play greater roles in the story. Continue reading Comparing “Jak and Daxter” and “Ratchet and Clank”: Two Series Everyone Must Play→
