Four Faces of Evil

The other day while I was bragging on a local forum about owning four copies of Resident Evil 4, someone was quick to ask how did i end up with four versions where there are only three version released? Of course i didn't realised then that he was wrong and there are actually four versions of Resident Evil 4 available, namely the original GC version, the PS2 port, PC port and finally Wii edition. Anyways a picture paints a thousand words and i thought this picture of my recently arrived Resident Evil 4 Wii edition (thanks play!) along with my other copies would best depict the many different version of Resident Evil 4.

Now before you think I'm crazy about Resident Evil 4, I would like to point out that this is merely the result of a little poor planning and timing. Of course if Capcom would quit milking Resident Evil 4, I would have probably save a couple of bucks in the process too. You see, I first got hold of the Japanese edition of Biohazard 4 as i thought it had the best cover of all the versions plus it came with a cool pre-order gift. Later i discovered that the japanese version of Biohazard 4 was censored due to being rated by the new CERO so i have to get another version, with the Asian version offering english language and backwards compatible with the Playstation3 here i thought it was the best alternative. Of course, i later end up buying a Nintendo Wii first before my Playstation3 so I quickly grab the Gamecube version while i could still find the non-Player's Choice version as i believed it was the first and still the best version available, a large part being the fact that it was the only version supervised by Shinji Mikami before moving on to other projects. Finally i couldn't resist not getting the Wii edition to round up the collection though bear in mind, there are still other versions missing from my collection here. So since i have always made it a point that the box art does matter to me, which would be my pick as the best looking cover? Well never content with what i have, i'm going to have to say the japanese reprint of Biohazard 4 PS2 version under the Playstation2 the Best label gets my vote.

Metal Substance

The Metal Gear hype machine is nearing in full swing, what with the release of the final installement of Metal Gear Solid only two months away. I picked up a copy of the recent Metal Gear Solid Essential collection (thanks andy!) and PTOM tribute issue to Metal Gear. Having played and owned the first edition of these Metal Gear installements, it's nice to finally own a compilation of the director's cut of the games so i can play it over again in the future. The sad reality is of course, i most probably won't get a chance to play Metal Gear Solid 4 when it's released later this year as i have yet to get my Playstation3. Not that it's much of a disappointment as i never saw myself as such a big metal gear head, surely not big enough to purchase a Playstation3 just to play it.

The truth is i'm not abig fan of convulted storytelling in video games and the Metal Gear series is notorious for that. The only Metal Gear storyline i thoroughly enjoyed was Metal Gear Solid as i love the theme of liquid versus the solid, the light versus the dark. I liked it so much that i went to great lengths to acquire the Gamecube-only remake as soon as i got my Nintendo Wii. While the subsequent sequels had all been great, the first Metal Gear Solid was the one that truly lived up to it's hype, it remains to see if the truth can be said about this new Metal Gear. However, the new Metal Gear sequel has just about the worse box art in the history of Metal Gear games, a 3D image of Old Snake mug ravaged by the horrors of war and nicotine......very nice Konami.

Bullet In The Head

Here are some of the bargains i managed to pick up from Play-Asia during the last Easter clearance sale, some unexpected buys if you consider the fact that i don't usually do budget reprints. Of particular interest is the PSOne Books release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which if you have been following this blog for some time now may know that I already own the Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP so this may seem like an unnecessary purchase. In reality it kinda is and i was contemplating for the longest time whether or not to get this especially when it already available for download on the Playstation Store (PSN) for the Playstation3 but ultimately i caved in as it was been discounted to USD$14.90 (from USD$24.90!). Guess I'm just not ready for the digital era and will still take a tangible copy which i can cherish and keep any day.The Dino Crisis japanese import was also too good to miss as it was only going for a meager USD$7.90 and was in pretty damn good shape for a pre-owned copy, i will definitely keep that in mind when i'm browsing through Play-asia's pre-owned section again next time.There are a couple of other things i would like to point out about both these games but i guess i will save it for later and get to the real meat of this post, the Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles Artbook.

Capcom are known for having some of the best artistic guys in the business, with their character design and art direction but the guy who did the character design for Umbrella Chronicles (Shinkiro) is just plain sadistic. Don't get me wrong, his characters are very much in line with the Resident Evil universe but if i could show you the contents of the artbook you will know what i mean. In fact, if you have played the game you will know what i mean, the proportions of some of these monsters are just plain ridicuious. Of course, artists usually have their own style of proportions which actually makes their work more fascinating, namely some of my idols like Todd Mcfarlane and Ayame Kojima (Castlevania). Ever notice most of the major bosses in Umbrella Chronicles all have insanely small heads?!?! Sure it's intentional to create a more challenging game but to the point where the characters start to look ridicuious is unacceptable. Ivan, the Tyrant bodyguard to Sergei is guilty of this but since he is of a similar series of Tyrant to Mr.X from RE2 who also happens to spot a tiny head i will let this one slide. Has anyone noticed how small Talos' head is? If he even have a head in the first place....

Due Credit

More on my "should i or should i not get Okami for the Wii?", and no i don't care what Matt at IGN says this time (nor did i ever did actually, creep). So far the port has scored an impressive score at metacritic, earning a place among the top ten highest-rated Wii games, though it's no much of a feat actually considering the kinda of games that are being released on the platform anyway.

Several days after the port was released, news began circulating around the internet that the box art for Okami Wii spots a IGN watermark indicating the source of the material, the very idea being kinda dubious considering that Capcom themselves owned the game and all related assets and artwork for it.The idea that Capcom couldn't be bothered to tap into their own resources to pull out an artwork for the boxart but instead pinch it from IGN doesn't sound too comforting.

The final straw came when gamers who already managed to finish the game noted that the Wii port does not contain the original credits due to legal restrictions that prevent Capcom from using the Clover logo on any product not affliated with them. Somehow Capcom is unable removed the Clover logo from the pre-rendered sequences featuring the credits and thus, decided to leave it out altogether. Looks like my worst fears came true after all, hideki name won't be appearing at the end credits of the game. Clover studios, when will you guys get the due credit you deserve?!? Shame on you Capcom, shame on you....

House of Memories

House of the Dead (the first one) is a game that i remember with fond memories, having played it with my schoolmates after school in the arcades though i never once got further than level 3 i believe. It's also a game with significant meaning for me as it was a precursor to my fascination with the survival horror genre. Sure there were plenty of other lightgun arcade games then which were more popular and far better than House of the Dead but i never once played any of them. The appeal of House of the Dead for me was always the idea of a haunted mansion and of course, the freakish monsters that inhibits inside it.

Interestingly enough, the first House of the Dead came out in the same year as the first Resident Evil game. By then, i had already given up on console gaming briefly after the Super NES era and have yet to be seduced by Sony charms. So Resident Evil fell completely out of my radar up until one day when i was looking for a new game to play on my PC and my best friend told me "Remember that game we used to play at the arcade, House of the Dead? You should totally tryout this game called Resident Evil, it's a bit like that except it's in third-person view. I bet you will love it."

I was sceptic and hesitant, even after seeing the boxart at my local game store which hardly gave me any clue what's the game about as it was the picture of the bleeding eyeball. Without the wonders of the internet to turn to during then, i had to take a gamble and sure enough, once the opening evil dead-style teaser played, i was hooked. If it weren't for Resident Evil, i would have probably gave up gaming during then but if it wasn't for House of the Dead i wouldn't even have taken the chance on it.

Over the course of the years, I did picked up the PC port of House of the Dead and eventually finished it but it sure doesn't feel as significant as it did back then. I have seen the other installments of House of the Dead playing in the arcades but never once played them. Now that House of the Dead 2 & 3 is returning to the Wii with a budget price, i'm pretty tempted to take a trip down memory lane and see what i missed out over the years.

Gun-shy

Gun Survivor 2: Code Veronica is to Resident Evil what Rondo of Blood is to Castlevania, it's the holy grail of the series. Feverishly cherished by the fans, these games actually attracted more attention from their exclusivity status rather than how good these games are, having being denied of a release in the Western market. Though unlike Rondo of Blood, Gun Survivor 2 just happens to be pretty rare but not really any good.

Perhaps it's easier to go back to the beginning to explain how Gun Survivor2 ended up not being released in the US. Back when Capcom decided it would be a good idea to create a lightgun spin-off to their Resident Evil franchise, they decided to develop the game exclusively for the home console platform rather than putting it out on the arcades. The first gun survivor was released on the Playstation platform but due to the severe gun violence in America, the US version had it's lightgun support questionably dropped and even the title was shortened to the rather harmless, Resident Evil Survivor. With its clunky controls and rather unpleasant graphics, Resident Evil Survivor suffered poor reviews and sales though it still managed to attract some interest among fans of the series.

When it came to Gun Survivor2, Capcom have enough sense to partner with lightgun veterans Namco and jointly developed the game on the arcade platform. Borrowing elements and plotline from the recent Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Gun Survivor2 had next-generation graphics and a story that would interest any Resident Evil fans. However due to the poor sales in Japan and the restriction of lightgun use, the idea to release this game on home consoles in the US was completely dropped though it did wound up with a low-key PAL release. Unfortunately, Gun Survivor 2 also suffered from poor reviews but i happened to have a soft spot for this game as Code Veronica was one of the favourite games in the series. Looking back, Gun Survivor serves as a nice compliment to Resident Evil: Code Veronica similarly to how Umbrella Chronicles summarises the early Resident Evil games. It's a nice game to relive the moments of your favourite game, just too expect to learn everything from playing these games...

Second Chances

I'm still having mixed feelings when it comes to the upcoming Okami for the Nintendo Wii. Sure the chance to experience hideki kamiya's labour of love on a higher definition graphics with widescreen is appealing but i'm also well aware that hideki is no longer with Capcom. To add to my fears, Capcom decided to draft a couple of outsiders, namely the guys at Ready at Dawn and assign them to do the port. First things first, what happened to the remaining members of Clover studios who were absorbed into Capcom and were earlier working on Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles? and secondly, Okami is a distinctly Japanese-favoured game as were Clover Studios, having a bunch of Yanks messing around with the original game just doesn't sit well with me.

Thankfully, Ready at Dawn seems very respectful of the original game and promise not to change anything at all though i still feel once the original visionary leaves the project, any attempt to improve upon the game and deliver the definitive version just feels empty and souless. Separate Ways was a great addition to the Playstation2 version of Resident Evil 4 but the bonus costumes and all additions just didn't felt like they were meant to be there, as evident by the last iteration of Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo Wii. As far as i'm concerned, Shinji mikami delivered the first and best iteration of Resident Evil 4 when it debuted on the Gamecube, all other version were just poor imitators.

Hideki may have left Capcom but his legacy there lives on through this latest iteration of Okami, i just hope Ready at Dawn gets it right and not splatter their names over his in the ending credits...

I Spy with My Eye

Forbidden Siren was Sony's answer to Nintendo and Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness on the Gamecube. Helmed by Kenchiro Toyama who earlier directed Konami's survival horror classic Silent Hill, Siren manages to push the envelope on what can be achieved in the genre even further. Siren shares a lot of similarities to Eternal Darkness but in many ways, it is far better though it failed to achieve the critical success of the former upon release. Like Eternal Darkness, the story of Siren is told through the eyes of ten different survivors over the course of three days though it never feels like a Lucasarts adventure game as the story doesn't transverse across the globe to different characters set centuries apart. The characters looked eerily realistic and the game does a good job of keeping track of the story and events through a simple timeline table.

Siren also relies upon a 'gimmick' of their own in order to set it apart from the rest of the pack but unlike Eternal Darkness, it's so much more than just a gimmick. Sight-jacking allows the players to see the world through the eyes of the predators in the game, where you must learn to plan your move around them to avoid being seen as your characters are usually unarmed. This heightens the sense of danger as you find yourself playing both the stalked and the stalker as well as adding an element of strategy to the game. Later, playing as a 70-year old hunter, Akira you have to use sight-jacking to pick out your targets and play a game of cat-and-mouse using your sniper rifle, i kid you not.

While over the years of playing Resident Evil and Silent Hill has jaded my senses, it's games like Siren that really jolt my senses and get me excited and optimistic about the survival horror genre, Toyama-san you just moved up a couple of notches on my list.

Get Smart

Ever play an action game and got stuck at a devious puzzle before? If no, you should give Viewtiful Joe 2 a try. If you ask me, puzzle and action game are a deadly combination, when it comes to an average action gamer with an itchy trigger finger the approach is always the same, shoot first talk later.

In Viewtiful Joe 2, most of the time you have to have enough smarts to go with your reflex if you are to survive to the end of the day. I admire team viewtiful approach in this sequel but have rarely feel so dumb on so many occasions when playing a game. Most of the puzzle are pretty straight-forward and actually quite clever once you figured it out but the problem is you just don't get into a game like viewtiful joe expecting to put your thinking cap on, reminds me of my early days playing those classic Lucasarts adventure games... except now i end up with hurting my fingers as well as my brain.

At Your Service

With most game franchises having established a history of more than two decades these days, it's not uncommon to find fan service games popping out here and there. Often deemed by Gametrailers as a "loveletter to the fans", fan service games are usually filled with nods and references to past games in the series, which of course only makes sense to long-time followers. I love the concept of fan service games as i believe when done right, can elevate a downright mediorce game to a great one such as the case of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Other times, it can even turn a solid game into an even more memorable one, like Metal Gear Acid 2 though i could be blinded by the cel-shaded graphics and 3D images of Sabra girls to even notice the flaws in that game.

So by default, since i never played Final Fantasy VII before and made little sense outta Advent Children, it would make even a great game like Crisis Core seems mediorce to me as i am unable to spot the references and tribute to FFVII. Oh how i envy you guys....

Set Free the Devil

While i was out this weekend catching the new Death Note movie, I happened to find Death Trance on DVD which was quite a pleasant surprise seeing that i was looking for this title for quite a while now. L Change the World may not have anything to do with video games and is actually not even worth mentioning but Death Trance is an entirely different story. The film is directorial debut of one Yuji Shimomura of U'den flameworks and action coordinator of Versus and Devil May Cry 3 & 4. The director of the action movie often gets credit for how good action sequence looked so it's very often that the action coordinator /director gets overlooked, except maybe in the case of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip collaborations. While Ryuhei Kitamura is a talented director himself, his work for Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes were often criticised as the action were too far-fetched and didn't fit in the context of Metal Gear or the Solid Snake character. Yuji and u'den flameworks on the other hand, seems like the perfect fit with Devil May Cry as they often combine gunplay, swordplay and martial arts in their sequence, the very stuff that the Devil May Cry series are made of.

U'den flameworks brought cutscenes in action games to a whole new level when they worked on Devil May Cry 3 though the earlier Devil May Cry games had its own strengths in storytelling as well. In Devil May Cry 3, watching the action unfolds in the cutscenes was just about as exciting as playing the game itself, a large part due to yuji and U'den flameworks dazzling camerework and motion-captured stunts. Yuji came back to work Devil May Cry 4 and i can't wait to see what action set-pieces he has in store for part 4.

Death Trance is set in a fantasy world, much like Versus and tells the tale of mythical samurai and outlaws searching for a fabled coffin that holds dark secrets. I joked with my friend that since i couldn't play Devil May Cry 4 yet, this movie will have to do for now...don't think he was amused by that remark.

Devil Beside You

As you can see, my Devil May Cry 4 has arrived, woohoo! Too bad i won't be able to play it till i get my Playstation3 though there is always the option of playing the soon-to-be released PC version but i already gave up on pc gaming a long time ago. Since i am unable to comment on how the game plays i thought i give my thoughts on the blu-ray packaging since this is my first blu-ray disc and there have been mixed opinions about the packaging ever since they unveiled it. The slighty shorter cases compared with DVD certainly looks sleek but they are no way as sexy as Sony's UMD for PSP which i admit i collect to a certain extent because of how sexy the UMD cases and disc looked, even with the rampant piracy issue circulating over the internet.

I am a little disappointed that Devil May Cry 4 japanese version has the exact same cover as the other versions but it's been that way for the series since the first installment so i guess i shouldn't complain. I wrestled over the issue of whether to order the US version or the Japan version but ultimately i settled on the Japan version because there was a limited edition tin case for the American release so buying the standard version seems like a poor resort. Also over in Japan, a budget label has already been introduced for Playstation3 so i reckon Devil May Cry 4 will very soon be re-released on budget label given it's brisk early sales. All you collectors of first edition games should take note, as Ninja Gaiden Sigma has already been reissued on Best Buy label.