Simple and Clean

When you walk away you don't hear me say please oh baby don't go simple and clean is the way that you making me feel.

Too bad things arn't that easy huh? Kingdom Hearts is on the mind. Probably the ultimate paradox in gaming..well..ever..possibly. Maybe. Yoshi's Island is up there as well (best Mario game ever IMO)

Why? Well, I saw the ad for Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories (of course mainly hearing it is the key word, it did a head swivil. Probably the same as hearing that Woo-hoo song on those insurance ads..wtf?) . So I booted up KH. And boy is the game a paradox.

Let's get this straight. It's a Disney licensed game. A GAME. And it's probably better than anything Disney has put out in-house in at LEAST a decade. Why? The dark tone actually fits the characters better. A dark tone! Man, that's a paradox in and of itself. It's probably one of the darkest toned games I've ever played. And it's Disney! Geeeeeez...

And the game is short. But it's long. It FEELS short. But in my game clear file, very few sidequests done, I have a playtime of about 45 hours. That's not short. That's loooong. RE4, which is overal much shorter, feels much longer. And the camera sucks. But the combat is oh so fun and addictive. And the game is deep, figuring out which AP powers to equip is a brain scratcher.

Transcend yourself. That's the lesson for the day. Of course, when I say Disney hasn't put out a good animated movie since..well..Lion King (and that's oh so borderline. Stupid f'n musical scenes ruin the mood), that's not including Pixar and the wonder that is The Incredibles. Of course that movie was wonderful for the same reasons that KH was. Its tone transcended eveything. It defied expectations. It was everything that it really SHOULDN'T have been..but oh there it was, all in its magnificent dark glory.

Review:Resident Evil 4

Ok, I'm going to start to keep this updated a little bit more..the last month was pretty hectic. First thing right off the bat. My reviews come down to two things. Gameplay and cool stuff. Graphics and sound fit into the cool stuff catagory. And the Gameplay part is going to be VERY detailed. Not like what you're used to.

Ok, here we go.

Resident Evil 4. Capcom. One of the Capcom 5 announced forever ago. Just missed the voting for game of the year for 2004...

And that's a shame.

I'm not a big fan of Resident Evil. The controls are awful, and it tends to be more about shock factor than being what I consider "survival horror"..think Dawn of the Dead. Mowing down tons of zombies..but they still keep on coming. But this game...man..this game is wow.

The gameplay is tight, but challenging. View is over the right shoulder of the character, Leon. Hold down the Right button, and the view zooms in, and a laser sight shows up showing where you can shoot by pushing A. B reloads in this view. You can't really run in this view, which does kind of suck, but oh well. It's fine. You can outrace pretty much any enemy. Besides, it's about taking them down before they get to you.

Full location damage system. Shoot a guy in the knee and he goes down. Then depending on the weapon, a couple of shots to the head will take them out. The guy disappears, and usually leaves some ammo or money (for upgrading and buying weapons). So it's much about NOT having to run, as being able to stop them before they get to you. Some enemies throw axes and the like which you can deflect with a well timed (it seems to auto-aim for this) shot. Dymanite throwers..well..take out their legs and they can't throw. Boom.

You don't want to get overwhelmed, so choosing your ground is everything. By hopping over fences, or through windows (including 2nd story windows!!!) you can get a location edge, as the zombie/alien people whatever will try to climb through the window after you. Kick down ladders, whatever. It's very interactive.

Lots of ammo around. NOT so much health, so you have to be a little careful. 3 hits and you're dead generally speaking, although it depends on how badly you're hurt.

And did I meantion traps? Oh no. Nasty traps. Triplines that trigger explosives. Even worse, beartraps. Yes, beartraps. And that's not nice. A shot triggers the traps, rendering them harmless, but it keeps you on edge. Not to mention the occassional Kill Bill style snake trap.

Gameplay is stiff, think Metroid Prime, but it still works. It feels different but that's a good thing in this case. Shooting uses a lasersight that's neat but kinda challenging to use.

Cool stuff:Blowing off heads is always cool. Vine-like things coming out of the spine AFTER you do this is even cooler. Not so cool when they get too close and the scyth-like arm of the plant tries to come after you. I've actually had an old-school RE style instant death, 2 chainsaw guy were after me, one got me from behind....OFF WITH THE HEAD. With blood pooling. There's blood everywhere. Wonderful ragdoll physics. Shoot a guy in the chest and he'll go back a few steps. Taking out an ankle is great. And if you shotgun a guy right close, he'll fly back into other baddies, knocking them all down/back.

Music is great, sets the tone right. Nice spanish guitars in the intro. The characters are good, and the story is very interesting. Even the girl you're supposed to rescue..well...very good AI, she follows right along.

Great set scenes. The bosses are hard but interesting, and a siege of a farmhouse is just beyond fun.

RE4 is great. It's the best RE yet by far..actually it's the realization of what the series should have been the whole time anyway. It's probably a contender for game of the year.

Already.

(Personal Progress through game 2-2 just after the farm house siege)