Rule #32: Enjoy the Little Things

One of my early gripes with Umbrella Chronicles was that you never get to see your character or partner enough. Even though it's a lightgun shooter, i must admit i sometimes i enjoy watching my characters breaking out of the zombie hold just so i can catch a glimpse of them before them pull back behind the camera again. This time around, while the camera stays behind the character at all times, it turns and faces your partner every now and again so it never feels like you are sitting on an amusement thrill ride but rather witnessing the events through the eyes of the character which is how it should be. The camera also shake and bobs around in a frantic motion to convey a sense of panic in the character movement and really make the game all that more difficult. Your partner also actively engage in the gun fights with the undead unlike in the past when they are too bust engaging in the conversation to even lend you a hand. Sometimes you have to get your partner out of a fit but it never happens too often for it to be a pain and often times, your partner is usually more capable than you are.

The other little things including seeing your character guns while re-loading and even the amount of shells your character sticks into the chamber depends on the number of rounds actually used, making re-loading time much more crucial in the heat of the battle. While this makes the game more of a first-person shooter than a lightgun shooter, it's a decision that i applaud because of my strong attachment to the characters. There is even an option to turn on the laser sights for all the weapons making it feel like a first-person shooter of Resident Evil 4. While all these little things may have blurred the lines between first-person and lightgun shooter in Darkside Chronicles, it's making me enjoy the game just a bit more than the first one.

Darkness Falls

After what seem like forever, my copy of Darkside Chronicles has finally arrived. Using free delivery during this time of the year can be very risky, i remember my RE4 Wii Edition going missing a couple of years back during this holiday season. Luckily Play asia was able to compensate my loss with another copy of the game and i regret i was not able to repay their good deed by devoting more time to that version. Rest assured this will not happen with Darkside Chronicles as i almost 50 hours into the first Umbrella Chornicles.

(The fit) birds and bees

Recently black cat made her return to the pages of ASM and despite eagerly awaiting that story arc, i was ultimately disappointed with how the writer portrays the cat as an overly-sexualized character. It certainly wasn't the black cat i remember from the ASM era where i first got introduced to the character (back when peter was a married man) and in a way that's the same way i feel about Bayonetta right now.

As with both characters, the costume has already done the job on selling the sexiness of the characters so there's always the danger of over-doing it when it comes to what they say. Unfortunately Bayonetta's english despite sounding posh and very british is highly-charged with sexual provocative meanings. I can understand if it's done in a tasteful manner but with Bayonetta, it's a bit of an overkill as she seems to tease and talk that way with everyone in the game, save perhaps for the little girl looking for her mummy. It ruins an otherwise potentially great character so it remains to see if Bayonetta has anything else on her mind at end of her mission aside from making babies.

Friday the 13th Weekend

Had some friends over for the weekend to help me dust off some RE games in preparation for Darkside Chronicles out this week. First up was Degeneration which I manage to watch for a bit on Friday evening while waiting for my dualshock 3 to charge. I enable the enhanced viewing mode to view the storyboards alongside with the movie and much to my surprise, almost every scene from the opening zombie attack on the airport was storyboarded. I really have to see if these storyboards made it onto the Degeneration book I bought a while back.

On Saturday, we played a bit of RE4 Wii edition just to check out the Wii controls and since I had a save file with everything unlocked, we could practically try everything the game had to offer. I was pretty clumsy getting a feel of the Wii controls again on mercenaries mode so needless to say, I didn't survive very far on that one. I did try the story campaign with the Chicago typewriter and the game was a lot of fun, having an automatic weapon with unlimited ammunition. I often forget how you never really get a powerful automatic weapon on RE4 to play with so much so that I'm considering to speedrun through the whole game using the typewriter.

The highlight of the evening of trying to view the Jill sandwich scene in REmake with her unlocked RE3 costume which I assume should be pretty obvious why if you are a RE fan. Since I haven't really speed-run through REmake before, it was pretty hard figuring what I essentially had to do in order to get to the closet room and later to trigger the scene. Disappointment was in the air when I realised that by meeting Barry in the hallway, he subsequently wouldn't come to your rescue later at the shotgun room. Definitely something to come back to later which shouldn't be too difficult now that I remember how.

Got some nice presents too at the end of the day so I have to think of something for Christmas now.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Boy am i having a hard time on Bayonetta, earning an Enzo stone rank at almost every level. I'm sure i'll get better eventually with enough practise but right now i'm really getting my rear whipped. Luckily the cinematics are cool and the game is littered with Easter eggs to make things bearable and keep me interested until the end.

Of course, most Devil May Cry fans would know that Enzo's name first appeared in the openning pages of the first Devil May Cry manual where he writes a brief account of his first meeting with Dante. Then Bayonetta utters Dante's famous words when she too tells one of the bosses in the game to flock off, feather-face. The highlight for me is when pretty boy Luka talks about his past girlfriends after sharing an intimate moment with Bayonetta and everyone of them happens to be a leading lady from past kamiya games! There's Claire from Resident Evil 2, Trish from Devil May Cry, Silvia from Viewtiful Joe and finally Ammy from Okami. At that point i totally geeked out and wonder if there are any more surprises in store?

Day One Purchase

Over the months i have managed to amass a bit of commission from my Play-asia affiliate earnings to finally use for my Darkside Chronicles pre-order. While it isn't much, it's enough to purchase Darkside Chronicles at a budget game price, lessening the burden of having to purchase two brand new games in the short span of one month. It's unlikely to happen again anytime soon, making a day-one purchase let alone two so i figure i best use this chance to spend some of my affiliate earnings.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who helped contributed to my affiliate earnings, though it's hard to tell if any of them even came from this blog at all. You have my heartfelt thanks, making this forthcoming Darkside Chronicles game even more special than it already is. In a shameless plug to earn some more, here's where you can continue to show your support.

Winter Comes Early

Talk about surprises, here i am not keeping myself up to date only to realise Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles is scheduled to ship later this month! Last time i check, Wii was still the top dog of the console sales every month and Darkside Chronicles won't be out until sometime during the winter holiday seasons. My, how things have changed over the course of a few months, now the game's only a week away from release so either development of the game was cut-short or the guys at Cavia/Capcom really bust their rear to get the game done earlier than scheduled. Or winter is coming earlier for this year. Best not to speculate but either way this is certainly good news for me as my Wii has been sitting idle for a good few weeks now.

I was playing a bit of Madworld but i really couldn't get into the groove of playing so it's probably a good idea to put it aside in anticipation for this. I have seen a recent trailer of Darkside Chronicles and the game is shaping up to be a lot better than i expected, in fact it looks a lot better than what i remember its predecessor to be! Of course it's been quite a while since i last boot up Umbrella Chronicles so i will probably have to dust it off this week to see before i can make a fair comparisons when my copy of Darkside Chronicles arrives.