Vanity Affair

I was surprised to see Shinji Mikami name on the back cover of Vanquish, and it wasn't a vanity affair like how Hideo Kojima name usually appears on Metal Gear games. Mikami may have directed many great games after Resident Evil but this I believe was the first time his name appeared alongside on the box art. One of his earlier works was the brilliantly-crafted Dino Crisis on the PSOne which I'm currently playing after finishing Dino Crisis 2 recently.

It's definitely one of my favourite PSOne games which is why I felt so cold about the second game initially. The fully-rendered backgrounds are nothing short of amazing on the 32-bit hardware and suits the modern architecture of the game though it could use with a bit more colour depth. I like the decision-making aspect of the game it's not as subtly executed as Resident Evil but it helps established a bond between Regina and her teammates as you have to choose who to side with. The mixing system for the health packs and anesthetic is still confusing today and something I would rather avoid than to get into. One other thing I enjoyed is the colour-coding for the different item box in the game and how you only have a limited number of plugs to open each box. The game is packed with little clever touches to distinguish it from its more famous cousin like how Regina never leaves your sight even in a loading screen.

It's been a long time since Mikami's last game but somehow it's always worth the wait.

Feeling Retro: Dino Crisis 2

I had the Dino Crisis 2 disc sitting in my PSOne disc tray for a very long time before finally feeling nostalgic about playing it. To my surprise once I started I couldn't stop as I was simply having too much fun with it. I remember when the game was first released I was reluctant to embraced it because it deviated so far from the formula and element of fear Mikami had established in the first game. The game was Capcom's swansong to the PSOne and sure enough had pretty graphics to boot but it really didn't matter as the Playstation2 had just launched.

The Dino Crisis series really went off the rails with the Xbox exclusive Dino Crisis 3 but part of the problem with the series had already begun in Dino Crisis 2. Don't get me wrong Dino Crisis 2 is certainly a worthy sequel but I always had a sneaky suspicion that Capcom felt a compelling need to introduce new and bizarre dinosaurs with each new sequel of the game. Dino Crisis 2 felt great up until the part when the Giganotosaurus was introduced into the game. I'm not sure what kind of dinosaurs were introduced in Dino Crisis 3 but from what I could remember they sure don't look like dinosaurs to me. It's almost like it's encoded into the design philosophy of Capcom for making Dino Crisis sequels at that time, to come up with new, more off-beat dinosaurs with every sequel. That's why I think the series has remained dormant for so long and will likely stay so for the time to come. We don't need new dinosaurs in every sequel Capcom we just need new ways of killing them.

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....