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.