Another Translation

Having skipped the PAL release of suda's flower sun and rain, i'm glad that US publisher XSEED has finally finished the localization of the game and scheduled to release it sometime in June. I did in fact try the PAL version very briefly upon its release and while the game is undoubtedly good, i found it a bit cumbersome to have to refer the hotel catalogue in-game all the time. I really hope that publisher XSEED will include the hotel catalogue as part of the game manual when the game ships as i'm sure that's how it's like for the japanese version.

It was rumoured that the US version will carry a complete new localized script compared with PAL version as XSEED was reportedly unhappy with the translation by UK publisher Rising Star Games. Suda completists who have finished the PAL version will do best to check this out as well to see if it's indeed the better version. For starters XSEED seems to have got things right by sticking with the japanese box art for the US version, while i do like the PAL cover art i tend to think all things japanese are superior and hence will gladly pick this up come June.

Emblem Count (again)

I managed to top my first emblem hunt in RE5 in my second playthrough, finishing with 21 emblems this time. The strange thing was i could barely remember where those first eight emblems i found were hidden though it isn't necessary to find them again as the game keeps track of the emblems you found earlier. Since i was playing easy mode to achieve 100% completion, i didn't managed to unlock anything new this time around aside from some figures which i purchase with my bonus points.

I think it's about time for i shelf this game for a bit and play something else.

where are those damned emblems?!?

That Was Then This Is Now

Capcom finally unveiled what looks to be the final box art for the release of Resident Evil Remake on the Wii. While it's mostly what i have expected with the white borders and all, i realised it could have been a lot worse. Now my decision to purchase another copy of Resident Evil hinges almost entirely on how this final box art will look as i have a history of being very picky with box arts, meaning strictly no budget reprints to ruin my collection.

Things became a little complicated when speculations came about that Capcom plans to release both REmake and RE0 together as a double pack for USD30 as i had no intentions to buying another copy of RE0, having already own two copies of that game. It did sound a little too good to be true to have both game retailing for only USD30 although Capcom did eventually published a double pack for that same price during the tail-end of the Gamcube era, that was then and this is now. These were and still are high quality Resident Evil games, able to stand with some of the best the Nintendo Wii has to offer, it would be foolish to think that Capcom would consider selling them together for that price.

Face Off

Playing RE5 and the first Silent Hill back to back, i realised there are some things better left without motion-capture such as the facial expression. As you may have known Capcom applied facial motion-capture for all the cinematics in RE5, a trend they also did with the CGI production, RE: Degeneration. This gives the characters a certain degree of realism with their expression but sadly i find it distracting and not as impressive as what konami was able to achieve earlier with Silent Hill 2. Not to discredit the motion actors but expressions are something very difficult to capture as actor will have the tendency to exaggerate their expression knowing they are being captured with cameras and rubber dots on their face. The results are character expressions looking a little unnatural and over-exaggerated, even more so for the simplest gesture though i find it a little more distracting in Degeneration than i did in RE5.

Comparing with what CGI director Takayoshi Sato did in Silent Hill and 2, characters had much more subtle expression but with enough realism to make it look eerie and convincing. This was all achieved by Sato studying his own and other actors expression over the mirror and applying it to the characters as seen in the making of silent hill 2. Sadly Sato left after silent hill 2 and the series was never quite the same without key members like Sato and Toyama. RE5 had what i thought was a bit too much emphasis on cinematics, they are certainly fun to watch but i kind of expected more, considering how much time and effort were invested if you watch the making of re5.

Unwelcomed Appearance

Silent Hill made its way onto PSN for Europe a while back before mysteriously disappearing without any reason given. It's the sort of thing you have come to expect from the series, something that probably made more sense if it happened in game than in real life. Since most users who downloaded it during the short two week window reported no bugs, it probably had nothing to do with the compatibility of the game with ps3 and psp system.

It probably had more to do with the Konami announcement of the re-make of the original currently on its way to the Wii in the form of shattered memories by Climax studios. By removing the game, konami avoids saturating the market with the original since they also revealed that the original hard copy is no longer in production (duh!). It made some sense but not entirely since the game is also scheduled to be appearing on ps2 and psp system, and current ps3 do not support ps2 games anymore. I suppose the series needs all the help it can get and spreading it across three systems seems to be the way to go right now. Any factor that might deter the potential sale like the appearance of its original is certainly unwelcomed at this stage.

Windstruck

Having a biased love for all things cel-shaded, I was happy to finally get a chance to play one of the greatest cel-shaded game of all time, the Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker. Playing it not-so-religiously for a few months now in between other stuff, I have finally finished the game last weekend.

Despite being a rather short Zelda game, I wasn't in any hurry to finish it as I had nothing else I was rushing to play on the Wii. So towards the end, I took my time to explore the open seas and generally soaked in the game gorgeous graphics. Speaking of graphics, I thought the game looked like a Pixar animation when I first played it and the graphics really displayed full-effect during the day-breaking moments out in the sea and black-and-white sequences when the land of Hyrule was swallowed in darkness.

I was a little disappointed with the lacklustre ending and seeing that I left a lot of side-mission unfinished, I didn't really get a sense of fulfillment when I finish the game. Guess it's time to for a break from adventure games and get back to what I loved playing the most.

Music Mason

Countless times finishing Silent Hill and i still can't remember how to solve the darn piano puzzle.
Something about white key, black key, dead note, everytime i think i got it all figured out i mess up and have to resort to referring to guide for help in the end.

Despite what it seems, the piano puzzle actually have nothing to do with music but somehow the way the riddle is translated (from the original japanese i assume) you can't help but to tap into your inner musical instinct to figure it out. Guess this harry mason is just not cut out to be a music man.

Bag It Up

Having already replayed a number of my old PSOne games, i was pretty shocked when i open my copy of Silent Hill to discover fungus inside! Though the disc itself is still relatively fungus-free, the fungus on the back of the cover has already spread to parts of the cover of the manual. It's not a pretty sight, especially seeing the manual was in full-colour and contained some nice CGI of the characters but i guess that's what happen when your disc does not come in shrink-wrap.

No thanks to HMV, i ended up paying more than i did with any of my other PSOne games in my library for a platinum version with no shrink-wrap. I vividly remember HMV was having a buy two for 30 pounds promotion and i decide to pick up Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill, brand new platinum version that time probably the only time i ever paid so much for a PSOne game. It pains me to see it in such state now but i guess it can't be help because i did play Silent Hill extensively over the years and in the process, kept it exposed to all sorts of outside conditions. Funny i didn't notice the outbreak of fungus all this while until now when i dust it off for a replay in anticipation of the upcoming Shattered Memories.

Chase The Bullet

Chase The Express was probably one of the only Sony second-party title that i got during the 32-bit playstation era. Heavily influenced by the Resident Evil series, i got this game precisely because of that having seen the screenshots but only played it once before i shelved my PSOne all those years back. I have vague memories about how i finished the game back then, not too well i believed judging from my previous saved file for the game. This time i managed to achieve the best possible ending, enabling me to unlock an extra scenario and ending for my second playthrough but it probably won't be anytime soon. It was much to my surprise as i thought i was doing really bad, having run short of ammo for my handgun and unable to find the assault rifle until much later on.

One thing i would like to highlight about this game is I have never seen full-motion video (FMV) cutscenes quite as bad as the ones in Chase The Express, in fact i rather wish they used the in-game models for all the cutscenes. The facial expression of the character are badly modeled, making the hero Jack Morton looked older than he should with unnecessary wrinkles when he cringes and frowns.

say hello to Boris, who brings ugly villains to a whole new level

Medal of Pride

I have this habit of being competitive for all the wrong reason and time so imagine my surprise when i heard my friends who co-op manage to find 14 BSAA emblems in their first playthrough RE5 while i only managed 8! I started to wonder where did all those missing emblems go because i was pretty darn thorough too as i could afford the luxury of talking my own time on offline mode.

Needless to say now that i'm playing as sheva in amateur mode, i decide to forgo my initial goal of scoring S in every mission and concentrate on finding some of those emblems. To my defense, i realised that some of these emblems can only be found when playing as sheva and obviously the AI is not designed to locate hidden emblems for you. I finally collected 10 emblems which is enough to lock most of the figures but still a ways off from the total 30 emblems hidden throughout the game. I guess 14 is a much more realistic target right now and i have so far refrained from checking the guide to locate the missing emblems. Pride can be an ugly thing sometimes...

Shattered Dreams

Call me unhappy upon reading Konami's official announcement of the Silent Hill: Shattered Memories title. Yep in less than 24 hours since my last entry, all that excitement and anticipation for this title has turned into ranting as i'm dismay with konami's lack of faith in the franchise and Wii console to whore this potentially great remake out to a last-gen console and more insultingly, a handheld system. I'm not much of an eagle-eyed gamer when it comes to graphics but i suspected that game was running on Origins engine when i first saw the captures for the Nintendo Power spread yesterday.

It turns out my suspicions were true as konami announced that this game was also heading to the PSP and PS2 this fall though i remained puzzled how they plan to achieve this with the psp having only one analog stick to control both the character and flashlight? It made sense to launch this title on a platform completely new to the Silent Hill series such as the Wii but Sony fans and system has played host to particularly all of the past Silent Hill, is it really wise make this multi-platform? Regretfully the Wii will have to settle for sub par graphics as the PSP and PS2 are less powerful beast compared to the Wii and considerations will likely to be made to accommodate all three systems. The only consolation i got out of this announcement was konami confirming the first silent hill to be out-of-print (duh!) thereby somehow justifying their decision to bring this to the Sony system i believe. Looks like i'll holding on firmly to the original and probably play this remake on one of the two Sony system which means neither Nintendo nor Konami will likely be getting my money this time... nor will Sony i might add.

Wet Dream Come True

I wasn't too thrilled when i first heard rumours of a Silent Hill remake heading to the Wii, if only because it was also rumoured to be appearing on the PSP and the fact that Climax Studios will be developing this only further strengthen my belief. Now the i have previewed the Nintendo Power cover story on Shattered Memories (the new subtitle for the remake) i'm much more optimistic about this remake and actually looking forward to it. Not many Wii games can prompt me to make a day one purchase but NP and Climax studio managed to do just that with still images and interviews alone! Ok maybe that's my fanboyism love for the series talking but to Climax studio credit, Origins was a worthy entry into the series so i have high expectations that this will more REmake than konami's own Twin Snakes for last generation.

What Climax is trying to do with the wiimote and storytelling is generally pretty ambitious, and has got me more excited about this than i ever was with Homecoming, the series debut on the current gen consoles. It seems everything you do and where you go will ultimately have an effect on who you meet and how the story will end. Now the first two Silent Hill games had a similar non-linear storyline where you could completely skip certain subplot should you miss going to certain area or put your character on-track to a different ending depending how long you spend with NPC and what file you pick up. The subsequent Silent Hill seem to have abandon this idea in favour of a more linear story and ending so Climax re-imagining of the original and ideas on how to implement the story seems like a welcome return to the roots for the series. I was also very impressed with how they plan to utilise the wiimote to function as the series trademark radio and flashlight, it seems like this could very well be a survival horror game that is only possible on the Wii. If only the texture and character model didn't look like PSP standards but i trust NP judgment enough when they say the game looks better in-motion than in picture. Time for me to dust off the original which i still owned on Platinum release and fire up that bad boy.

wait are those psp textures and character models i see?