Inside the Darkside

I recently put away my copy of Darkside Chronicles to make way for other games but that doesn't mean I'm done with the game. Far from it as the amount of content and unlockables packed into that game is simply staggering especially when compared with its predecessor. I have heard from my friends that there is an artbook released for the game but other that a recent sighting on Play-asia I have seen little of this to convince me its worth getting. So when the book went out of stock on Play-asia yesterday I went into my usual panic mode and started googling up on the book. Sure enough from what I can see online it does look like an artbook similar to the one released for the first Umbrella Chronicles game.

A quick search online and mad rush trip downtown was all it took before i finally added the book to my collection late last night. It cost quite a bit more than the first book but hopefully judging from the sheer amount of content in both game, this will be a much more worthwhile book too. The number of pages certainly doesn't feel like so but it's hard to resist with such a nice cover and it's Resident Evil after all.

Zero Needs A Hero

When I first bought Fatal Frame IV, I knew it came with an expiry date and that was part of the reason why I pushed all other games aside to finish it that time. What I didn't expect was the expiry date to arrive so soon as I was met with an unwelcome surprise playing my Wii last weekend. In my final hours with Darkside Chronicles before putting it away, I received a message from Nintendo informing me that the new system update 4.3U is already available for download. This could potentially render my Fatal Frame IV patch useless as it was made to run on the earlier system update 4.2U.

Perhaps it was fitting that I was done with Darkside Chronicles as I must now go back to playing Fatal Frame IV, who knows how many updates Nintendo will issue and how many Team Zero can successfully find ways to bypass it. Though the team behind the fan-made translation project are fairly confident to get around any future Nintendo updates, there is always the fear in me that this could very well be the last time I'm able to play Fatal Frame IV on my Wii.

Intercooler Impressions

The last time i bought anything from Nyko I ended up not using it much as there is only so much lightgun games one can play. I have kept the perfectshot back in its box since my early plays of Umbrella Chronicles and have yet to even dust off them for my recent Darkside Chronicles run.

The Intercooler TS is an entirely different matter, fitted onto my Playstation3 it will form part of my console and function as much as the system. It has to be up to speed and frankly if it cost a bit more it would be worth the money too. Thankfully the price of Intercooler is on par with the other third-party brand I saw in Singapore, in fact its worth every dollar considering how much it will be used and how well it works. The common complaint i often hear of the product when reading up on it was the loud noise emitted by the fans when operating. That much is true but the noise doesn't bother me much as i'm used to the noise of the built-in cooling fan of the ps3 by now. The intercooler fits on to the back of the playstation3 where the vents are, a big difference considering all USB-powered fans fit onto the front vents of the playstation3. At first i didn't understand how the Intercooler could work placed onto the back vent with all the exhaust vent blowing out from there but i think that's where its temperature sensor could come into play. The sensor senses the temperature of the playstation3 from the exhaust air emitted and regulate the Intercooler fan speed accordingly. The four fans of the Intercooler works together with the in-built fan to improve the air circulation inside the system by blowing into the system and exhausting the hot air out of the system. This is achieved with one pair of fan blowing in one direction and another pair blowing in the other, at least from what i can tell studying the fans at work since the fans only run when placed in right position and temperature. I rarely hear the built-in fan running anymore since installing the intercooler, not because the Intercooler is so damn loud but because it does such a good job that the in-built fan doesn't even kick in.

Ready, Aim ..... Misfire.

Despite having both RE Chronicles, i have never experience the game on multi-player mode before. Playing RE5 co-op with a friend is an entirely different experience as you hardly ever notice how good your partner's aim is except at the end of the level when the statistics are revealed. The truck chase when you and your partner are hoisted to the vehicle's guns firing at incoming vehicles does offer a similar experience to the RE Chronicles game on the Wii. You share the same viewpoint from the back of the truck as your partner, and things can get really distracting when you start to notice where your partner is aiming at. I was never really good at this chapter, in fact i downright dread it but beating it with a live partner has got me curious to try the Chronicles games on multi-player too.

Like A Knife Through Tofu

I was pleasantly surprised to discover i have finally unlock the Tofu survivor mode upon finishing LeonB last night. For as long as i can remember, i have given up on the idea of unlocking this hidden mode because there are far too many different theories on how to do it and most of them required a full empty memory card to accomplish it. While i can't remember exactly how i did it, i do remember having both the completed ClaireB and LeonB on my memory cards along with the 4th survivor mode. Including the save file from this recent run, that's four save slot dedicated to RE2 before unlocking the tofu survivor mode.

I'm pretty excited to play this tofu survivor especially since it's also recreated on Darkside Chronicles as another hidden game. I can't help but to wonder how it's all going to work in an on-rails shooter armed with only a combat knife when most of the strategy involved is knowing where and when to run and when to shoot. Looks like i'll be in for a swinging good time when i unlock this on Darkside later but for now, it's time to experience the original tofu survivor.

The Square Peg

Darkside Chronicles brought back a lot of fond memories, i knew even before i begin that i would be revisting these old games really soon but what i didn't count on was having the urge to play UC and RE4 again. During its height a few weeks back, i was playing as many as six RE games on different system and the process has made my progress on RE2 really slow. After all RE2 could be finished on one sitting and here i am, having started before i finish Darkside Chronicles but have yet to finish both ClaireA/LeonB scenario. Part of that was also because the newer RE games tend to swap the square and circle buttons around for the run and gun commands. So in an effort not to confuse myself, i refrain from playing RE2 whenever i'm close to playing RE5 and that has been quite often as of late. Over time i seems to have developed a dexterity over these controls so swapping around has been less and less of a problem.

Maybe i should attempt to finish RE2 in one sitting like back in those days when i was trying to unlock the gatling gun and unlimited ammo.

Shoot Them in The Head

Let me just go back to when i was close to finishing Darkside Chronicles that day and tell you how it ended. Sure enough the very next day when i played Darkside Chronicles, the chapter happens to be the last chapter of the Operation Javier as well as the end of the game. In short, i love the new storyline of the game and how the writers were able to practise some restrain with these characters especially the ones infected with the virus. I believe having Suga-san come onboard fresh off his scenario work on Degeneration has helped the new storyline tremendously, some of the goals he set out to achieve with Degeneration were realised more effectively with these new characters in Darkside. There are several endings to the game depending on how you play and i look forward to seeing the other endings in my subsequent play.

As for krauser, his story doesn't end here in Darkside Chronicles and it looks like his descend into the darkside is only just beginning so hopefully it will eventually be revealed in future Chronicles

The 50 hours club

For a NBA player, scoring 50 points in a game puts them in the same elite group of player along the likes of jordan and kobe. On a similar note, given my preference of games very rarely do i invested over 50 hours into one game so these games that do take up 50 hours of my time belongs to an elite group of their own. While i don't believe i have spent over 50 hours on any one game on the ps3, there have been several Wii games lately that deserved that honour. There was Okami Wii and most recently Umbrella Chronicles also joined the elite club as i have gone back to playing it after finishing Darkside Chronicles. The big difference here is i only finished Okami once and that alone took more than 50 hours to do while i must have finished UC a number of times to have reached 50 hours. Some games erased your playtime instead of accumulating it on your subsequent play so there is really no way to know how many games there are which i actually spent more than 50 hours on.

So what are some of the games in your 50 hours club?

The Golden Question

RE5 is about to receive some upgrades in the form of new levels and additional costume pack for future replays. Naturally i hit a bump when Capcom decided to do the fans (and not to mention their bank account) a favour by releasing these additions as both DLC and a new ' Gold Edition' disc. I initially wanted to get the Gold Edition but quickly realised i was runnng out of space, even the recent Darkside Chronicles required a bit of moving around before it eventually found a home. Factor in the how much i have already spent on RE5 and pretty soon, the DLC looked like a far safer option. My fanboy nature of being picky has paid off this time as my copy of RE5 is indeed region 1 so there should be no issue whether or not i will be able to download these beauties when they arrived on PSN. Best of all, the DLC content will be released first before the Gold Edition arrives in stores about a month later so the golden question remains is how much Capcom will be charging for these DLC?

Son of A Gun

Call me gun crazy but i appreciate the attention to detail when it come to guns in video games and the Resident Evil series so far has done a nice job with the firearms featured in their games. So you can imagine my disappointment when i learnt that Darkside Chronicles wasn't faithful to the original Code: Veronica with Claire using the same Browning HP as she did in RE2. If you don't remember Claire was supposed to be using the Beretta M93R as her signature weapon in Code: Veronica. It's only a minor detail but the fact that the Gun Survivor game based on Code: Veronica was able to get that right and not this kind of bothers me a little.

Seed of Destruction

One of the most compelling aspect of a great villain is how they went astray, if the villain doesn't have an interesting origin then he's probably not that great of a villain to begin with. As i inches closer to the end of Darkside Chronicles, i'm intrigued with character development of Krauser from a true blue american soldier to the power-crazy mercenary in Resident Evil 4. From the moment Javier's B.O.W tear into krauser's left arm in the middle of the boss fight, i begin to see the seeds of destruction being sowed to giving him his own hand of doom in RE4. I got really excited at this point [cue geek moment music] so much so that i stop playing because i already had enough of my fix for the day. When I first started, I wasn't paying much attention to krauser probably because i was too caught up with how good Claire looked and also because i knew you won't get to see how krauser ends up being presumed dead in RE4. After all, Leon didn't know that when they meet up again and the fact Krauser knew nothing about B.O.W at the start of the Javier mission didn't help either.

But unlike the Russian Umbrella stronghold chapters in Umbrella Chronicles, the Javier chapters seems to play a greater importance in the RE saga as the box art clearly describes how the timeline of the game begins with Leon and Krauser in 2002 with flashbacks to the events of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica. While the flashbacks ends up taking the bunk of the game's playing time that doesn't necessarily mean the Javier mission won't be of anything significant. Hopefully there are further development to the krauser character and the ultimate payoff would prove to be more satisfying than how Capcom decided to leave the Vergil character in DMC3.

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 on Darkside Chronicles 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.

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.

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.

Girl Trouble

Leon S Kennedy has always been established as a ladies man right from his first appearance in RE2, that's the one thing that seems to separate him from the series first male protagonist, Chris. I was happy that learned that the director of the upcoming Darkside Chronicles pointed this out because for the longest time, it seems like i was the only one among my friends who noticed this. Either we are been playing different games or someone is just not paying attention but let's not get side-tracked now shall we?

Anyways the director revealed in his blog that he and game scenario writer Suga-san are dreaming up new plot points and events for the series' favourite ladies man with the ladies of RE2, namely Claire, Ada and Sherry. Yup that right, Sherry who only had a brief brush with Leon at the end of the game will share several levels with Leon which i suppose you would have to assume the role to protect her from the horrors of raccoon city. This is certainly an interesting twist as with the prospect of Claire and Ada meeting for the first time in the series.

Leon will have all the ladies he can handle in DC

Going Downhill

I have been playing a lot of Silent Hill recently, re-discovering my love for the series which sort of went downhill since the fourth installment. I never really talk about i came to the series mainly because it wasn't nearly half as dramatic as my introduction to Resident Evil , i was introduced to the series by a fellow close friend not having own a PSone yet so somehow it was difficult to form your own opinion with someone constantly telling you how good this is.

Anyway over the years i remained supportive of the series even more so than my friend, to the point where i was being criticised of being biased. I suppose i am to some degree but isn't that what being fanboys are all about? I went back to playing Silent Hill Origins over the long weekend after finishing the first Silent Hill, i'm amazed by how good the game looks when you switched the noise filter off though it isn't to the level i would expect from a Wii game. Speaking of which, where is the trailer for Shattered Memories? So far we have only been treated to a bunch of screen captures and developer interviews, surely they must have put together enough for a trailer by now right? Well the May issue of Nintendo Power should probably have arrived at my local newstands by now so i should start looking for it really soon, seeing that there is a coverage on Darkside Chronicles in there too.

Take A Walk On the Darkside

I was quite surprised when Capcom announce Darkside Chronicles on the eve of RE5 release, because it promises a return to a generation of art style that i thought we would have all said goodbye to with the arrival of RE5. Capcom may not have given fans what they wanted but it's hard to fault them given the encouraging sales and reception of Umbrella Chronicles on the Wii. From the looks of the initial trailer, most of the key staff from Umbrella Chronicles are back for the ride along with some of the staff from the recent CGI production Degeneration and RE5. This follow-up game is of course, touted to be a semi-remake to the fan-favourite RE2 so naturally expectations are high.

Just like Final Fantasy VII, Capcom seems to be milking Resident Evil 2 in the same way by making various different offshoots with varying result, ignoring the very pleas of the fans for a remake. I enjoyed Resident Evil Degeneration a lot, so much in fact i decided to order the limited edition blu-ray box during this spring sale at Play-asia. A bit unexpected considering how much i already spent on the collector edition earlier this month but when i realised i initially wanted to get it had it not come out within a few months of RE5, i thought this is as good as a time as any seeing it's discounted by more than half its original price.