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.

Take A Bow

I can be a pretty big geek when it comes to games, for example i love to keep track of whose responsible for my favourite games. As such, i love to view game credits after beating a game especially if it's a hard fought game like Viewtiful Joe. So you can imagine my disappointment when i finished Siren last weekend and didn't get any ending credits apart from the facial/voice actors of the characters. I realised that's probably why their names along with everyone else in the development were featured in the game manual although it isn't of much use for anyone who doesn't read chinese.

I made it a point to finish Siren: New Translation last weekend before my copy of Resident Evil 5 would arrive so i can devote my time to it. I probably would have finish it a lot sooner if i wasn't distracted by the RE5 demo a month ago. I remember there was period of two weeks where i played nothing else but the demo on my ps3, before going back to playing Siren. In the end i was pretty happy with my pace of playing Siren, it was a nice little horror fest before the real nightmare begins.

In The Dark

My copy of Siren: New Translation arrived promptly on time and i got a chance to try it out a bit last night. The good news is Project Siren managed to address a lot of the shortcomings of the first Siren, making this remake more accessible to survival horror fans. Hints are provided throughout the first two levels but it never gets too easy as it merely points the player to the objective and how you go about achieving it is still up to the player. Some players may not welcome this addition but i for one thinks it's an improvement after having to find my way in the dark in original Playstation2 version.

Speaking of dark, this game is really dark i don't know if it's the settings on my TV or because i haven't play any horror games on my Playstation3 but i couldn't get used to moving in the dark initially and felt nausea towards the end of my play last night. Can't wait to really sink my teeth into this one once i get used to it...

Bloody Mess

While waiting for my copy of Siren: New Translation to arrive, i decided to sharp my demon-slaying skills by playing Devil May Cry 4 again. Upon unlocking the Bloody Palace on my last play, i never got around to even trying it one bit because I have heard you can literally play that mode for hours, working your way down each floor of the tower. Considering i only manage to make it to level 17 on my first try as Nero, I suspect i have a lot of grounds to cover if i even hope to finish it one day. Truth to be told, i never actually try the bloody palace in Devil May Cry 3 where it first made its debut. It can get tiring pretty fast with the hoards of enemies the game throws at you as you progress through the floors. The sheer number of demons on one floor can get pretty impressive and it got me thinking that the legendary dark knight mode included on the latter PC version could work on the console versions too.

I remember when the PC version first came out, i just finish the game for the first time on my Playstation 3. I enthusiastically posted on the official capcom forum whether that was any chance DMC4 could see a re-release on the PS3 with all the new PC additions similar to what they did with DMC3: Special Edition. Alas, my request was quickly shot down with the belief that the current consoles are not able to handle the legendary dark knight mode as it was made to harness the PC superior processing power. Somehow as a true-blue console gamer, i find it hard to accept that the definitive version of a game from my favourite video game developer residing on the PC platform.

Good Feeling

You know what feels better than buying a great game? Buying a great game and paying only half the original retail price. It seems my recent new approach of waiting out for new games to drop in price before picking them up is starting to pay off. Back when Silent Hill: Homecoming coming out, there was one other game that i was contemplating of in its place. That game was of course Siren : New Translation, a remake of sorts of the first underappreciated PS2 stealth horror game. I ended up not buying neither game as i realize i wasn't in a terrible rush to play either one of those games.

Now i find Play-asia having a weekly special for Siren: New Translation where you can pick up the game for less than half it's full retail price. Not a bad deal huh? Sure it's an asian version but seeing it was only available on Playstation Network except in Japan and Asia region, i guess i can make an exception for Siren: New Translation. It's been a while since i feel so great about a Play-asia purchase especially since havingto pre-order the rather pricey collector's edition of the upcoming Resident Evil 5.

Call of the Siren

I recall seeing a forumer confessing that he only buy exclusive games, even to the extent of buying exclusives for console he doesn't own which he will then play on his friends' console whenever he gets the chance.

While it does sound pretty extreme (especially the part about buying exclusives for console he doesn't own), being a fanboy myself i do understand what he means and admit that i enjoy exclusive games too. Yes i enjoy exclusive games simply for the mere fact that i don't have to share my games with gamers who don't invest on the same platform, nothing to do with the myth that multiplatform games will be dumb down or compromised, those are just convenient excuse fanboys will use to defend their precious hardware in my opinion.

For a while back, i have been contemplating if i should get either Siren: New Translation or Silent Hill: Homecoming since their release are only months apart. Having played all the previous Silent Hill installments, i do have some attachments to the series and frankly, i'm interested to to see how the new development team will take on the series. The only thing i'm displeased about the new Silent Hill game is it's no longer exclusive to the PS3 platform and worse, during the recent E3 conference Konami announced that it's also going to appear on the PC platform. Now seeing how much i loathe my favourite games appearing on the PC platform, Siren is starting to look like the next best alternative.

After all, Silent Hill creator Toyama is still very much involved with this Siren and the game is also due for a blu-ray release in addition to the PSN release. The only problem is Siren is sort of a semi remake of original which I already played and though I enjoyed the chilling atmosphere and graphics, I couldn’t keep up with the timeline of the game.