Multi-Tasking

I know I mentioned in the last post that I was going to take a step back from gaming for a bit, but what the heck. With a dearth of new releases at the moment, I've taken an opportunity to look back and sample some missed treasures on the creaky old PS2. Foremost among these is something which, to my great shame, I've never picked up, that being ICO. I've played and been entranced by its 'spiritual sequel' Shadow of the Colossus. But I've never played the original game which so many became attached to, so I went to the trouble of sourcing a brand new copy. First impressions are interesting. I'll hold off on any sort of review until I've completed it, but let me just say that it's not short on atmosphere.
I don't need any time at all to make up my mind about Burnout 3:Takedown which is some of the most wacked out fun I've had in a long time. This is pretty amazing considering driving games are among my most hated of genres, but Burnout isn't really a driving game. I think of it more as Smash Bros. at 150mph. Racing is a lot more fun when you have to smash your opponent off the road while avoiding him trying to do the same.
Tomb Raider:Anniversary is the third of the titles I picked up. Again, I'm not going to talk too much about it until I'm finished, but the most astonishing thing is how amazing the level design is considering it's largely based on a ten year old game built on previous generation technology. It's rather refreshing to revisit a more non-linear acrobatic adventure after the (still excellent) Legend.
Finally, there's God Hand, something of an ace in the pack. The last game from Capcom's tragically short lived Clover Studios, who produced one of my favourite games ever, Okami. it was largely on the strength of their reputation that I picked up the game, and it fits the stereotype entirely, being funny, interesting and totally off the wall. Graphics are rudimentary, stage design basic and difficulty infuriating. Balanced against this is a terrific fighting system that often leaps into cartoon style zaniness while retaining a fine balance. I'm going to keep plugging away at it, but I can foresee controller-smashing levels ahead.
I tend to focus on one game quite a lot, so trying to keep four on the boil at the same time is a new experience for me. Nevertheless, although Burnout has taken the lions share of my time, all four are proving very entertaining. Still, I'm pretty stoked for a few new upcoming releases, such as No More Heroes and Apollo Justice:Ace Attorney. Better speed up then.

Music Riding

So first thing first, I finished Resident Evil 4 and it's generous extra content. I'm truly impressed by it, and I'd even go as far to call it a masterpiece to be honest. The gunplay is great, the bosses astoundingly over the top and I even quite enjoy the storyline ( while acknowledging it's served on huge slices of cheese). The most interesting thing about the game in my mind is that it successfully marries the gloom and darkness of a traditional horror game with quintessentially videogame touches. Why does Ada Wong wear an evening gown to infiltrate a militaristic religious cult? How does the Merchant carry around twice his own body weight in weapons and still get everywhere first? The knowing winks in the direction of the audience and the stylisation of the whole thing successfully walk the knife-edge between believability (relatively speaking of course, this being a game where people sprout tentacles from their necks) and lunacy. Perhaps my only criticism of the game comes towards the end as it abandons the more earlier more atmospheric confines and resorts to more typical Resident Evil locations (underground labs, military complexes etc), which is coupled with the climatic rise in action to occasionally make you feel like you're playing a militaristic third-person shooter more than a tense horror game. That said, high quality is maintained and there's a great ending to wrap it up. So it's a fantastic game, and probably makes it onto my personal top ten.

In the wake of such a gripping adventure, I've taken a step back from 'core' games for a while to focus on some more relaxing pursuits. Chief among these has been Audiosurf, a fantastic little bit of fun that was a finalist in the Independent Games Foundation awards earlier this year. essentially the game is a score attack that involves flying a ship along a track hoovering up coloured blocks, very similar to Harmonix's twin titles FreQuency and Amplitude. The clever bit is in the coding, which will take any of your own music and transform it into a playable track ingame. Combined with trippy wireframe visuals ala Rez, this makes it, depending on the music, and deeply relaxing pursuit or a frenzied score attack, and global leaderboards allow you to compare your performance against others. The game is on Steam now, and priced at just $10 US, it's a bit of a steal. Play it, and I recommend 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve. I'm not normally into indie games as I prefer my games to have a great deal of depth and polish, but this one is a gem, and I can see myself playing it a lot in the upcoming weeks

Third time's the charm

So, this being a first post and all, and considering the name of the blog, you can probably guess what I'm going to talk about. That's right, Resident Evil 4.
I've tried to play Resi 4 on two previous occasion, both on PS2, and both time I've given up a short way into the game. It's not that I didn't acknowledge it's masterful quality, it was just that something about the game rendered it awkward to me. But since it was rated so highly, I picked it up again on Wii hoping to make some headway with it, and surprisingly I've found myself totally drawn into the game. I think a big part of this is the improved aiming on the Wii, with the Wii remote much faster and easier to point than the analogue control on GC and PS2. Some argue that this removes much of the difficulty and tension, but the rest of the controls are still as archaic as ever, and the game is still a masterpiece of atmosphere and scares. I'm very much against the overwhelmingly brown and grey 'realistic' look of games these days (Gears Of War, I'm glaring at you) but the drab colour palette gives fantastic mood to Resi 4, particularly in the earlier village scenes.

I'm pretty much near the end of the game now, so I should polish it off in the next day or two. I'll give further impressions once it's over and done with.