OVERVIEW: Resident Evil 2

The G-Virus has escaped and now Raccoon City is a playground for the undead. But for Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield the nightmare has just begun.

EVER PLAYED BACKGAMMON

In Resident Evil 2 you play as two different characters on their own story. The way the game will start is depended on which character you start out with. Do you play as the Rookie cop or a sister looking for her brother, Chris. Each has their own cutscene and pathways. In Leon's storyline you explore much of the police station as you look for a way off the city and finding survivors. In Claire's story like you explore some, plus a little more, of the police station finding clues on what happened to Chris. In both cases you will walk around the same areas. It's not often where the story line is different with one another and when it does it will include a character that Leon and Claire got.

TWO SIDES

Leon via 1997

In Leon's storyline he arrives at Raccoon city ready for his first day at the force. After meeting Claire and promptly separated he heads for the Police Station. Once inside he finds that most of the doors are locked. This is where the majority of the game is set upon. You go to room to room looking for objects that will progress him farther inside the station. It could range from card keys, keys, and other objects. Moving around is pretty easy to do. It's got that classic control system going for it and while don't really run in a straight line that much, it is just as effective. If you have enough ammo it is possible to kill every zombie or monster you see. However, it's got that risk versus reward going on for it. Would you risk saving ammo so you can use it on the bigger things like Lickers and giant spiders, or will you shoot down everything you see so you can explore the areas free of anything. I choose to shoot everything in my sight. So that way I can explore the station with relative easy. And you are going to need it.

ONE IS LIGHT

Most of the backtracking was so I can store stuff I don't need yet in Item Boxes throughout the game. Find a Rook Plug? Just put it in an item box and you can use it later. Got to a new area and it needs something you found? Just run back to the nearest Box and grab it. You use only 6 slots, 8 if you find a item pack, so use the slots wisely. I tend to keep a handgun, ammo, health, and Ink Ribbon with me at all times. So that is 4 free item boxes to put various items at. It allows you to plan strategic stuff you may or may not need. If you did manage to kill everything it should  not be that big of a deal. Saving is used for strategic planning also. You get ink ribbons that you will need to save the game.  One ink ribbon equals one save. Most of the time you will find two near a typewriter but sometimes, if you really look for it, you can find some more in rooms that won't have a typewriter. I saved 21 times in my Leon playthrough and still had ten left overall.

ONE IS DARK

Claire via 1997

While zombies is what you will mostly see, there are some out there that is bigger and meaner. There is a Licker, a monster that will lash their tongue at you. Giant spiders. The spiders are quite harmless, but it's a giant fucking spider. Even in 1997 graphics it gave me a scare. These plant things that will spit poison at you. They are also harmless most of the time, but they are the only enemy in the game that will respawn so it's just best to run past them. Then there are the dogs. The dogs are your worst enemy. Lickers are powerful, but slow. Spiders are large, but weak. Plant Things are weak and slow. But the dogs. They are fast and powerful. There are usely two of them and they will prance at you at any opportunity. If you are trying to kill one the other one will just kill you instead. Then there are the bosses. If you don't have the right weapon and ammo type they will end you just as quickly as you blink. Some can range from pretty easy to pretty intense. It's a great feeling to finish a boss off.

NOW WE WILL ALL PAY THE PRICE

This is a survival horror game and a good one at that. I still prefer Silent Hill's way of scaring you, but Resident Evil 2 has the best jump scares. You could be in a room and after you pick up an item a Licker will bust through the two way mirror. Even if you have all this ammo it's still effective. There are a ton of jump scares in this and they are all successful on making you jump. It's not as creepy as Silent Hill, but it does the job right.

In Leon's story you meet this mysterious woman named Ada Wong. She says that she is looking for her boyfriend, John and she thinks that he could be in the Umbrella Labs near the police station. You meet her throughout the game and even get to control her a couple of times. You, along with Ada, will uncover the connection between the Raccoon Police Department and Umbrella Corporations and the dealing they had. You meet characters along the way that Claire will never meet and this is where each story is different. Both Leon and Claire has their own boss to fight at in the end.

HE BROKE THE RULES

Proving that Graphics is not everything.

Take everything I've said above and imply it to Claire. I am going to admit something, and there will be a writing about this also, I used the infinite ammo cheat on Claire. And that is because Claire's story line is pretty much the same. It's rare to go to an area that Leon did not go. In Claire's story you meet this young girl named Sherry Birkin. She says that she is looking for her mother, Annette and she thinks that she could be in the Umbrella Labs near the police station. You meet her throughout the game and even get to control her once. You, along with Sherry, will uncover the connection between the Raccoon Police Department and Umbrella Corporations and the dealing they had. You meet characters along the way that Leon will never meet and this is where each story is different. Both Leon and Claire has their own boss to fight at in the end.

THE CONSTANT

Did that all sound familiar to you? It should, I copy and paste Leon's story line, but just replace anything to do with Leon and put Claire's story line instead. That is pretty much the jist of Claire's story line. The only difference is the beginning and end. You explore the same areas, fight the same monsters, and use the same items in the same areas. At first I felt bad for cheating, but as the Claire playthough went on the less and less I felt bad. The only difference between Leon and Claire is that Claire is weaker. Leon can take a few slashes from a Licker. Claire doesn't that that much. Her handgun feels weaker too. Because Leon and Claire's playthroughs are pretty much the same I finished Claire's in less time than in Leon. It took almost 6 hours for Leon. It took about 4:45 for Claire. You could argue that it was because I used a cheat, but in Leon I got lost sometimes. That really didn't happen for Claire. I'm not saying don't play Claire story line. You should because the true ending is worth it alone.

I still get nostalgic looking at this sometimes.

There is a reason why Resident Evil 2 is considered the best of the series. It's got fantastic jump scares, great enemies, a good story, and two different characters with each of there own stories. Resident Evil 2 proves that you can still play a game with outdated controls and still have a great time. I now have Resident Evil 3 to play.

Yes, I'm liked: The inFamous Paradox

SOMEBODY'S POISON THE WATER HOLE

I was playing RAGE and there was this one mission I had to do. I already done a few missions and as I did them the town that I was at does not like strangers. For some reason, despite their hatred for strangers, they  started to trust me. Once I saved the town from Bandits poisoning the well They liked me even more. What did I do to get all this praise? What about the other survivors I meet along the way? How would they know that this was all a ruse for them to trust me so I can betray them all? I know RAGE is not a moral heavy game. I just want to know why everyone is so trusting?

These are nice people, really.

While I felt like I did something good to the town. There should always be some doubters. People that will hate you not matter what. That one guy in the corner that should preach on how I'm just going to kill them all in the end. More moral heavy titles does the same thing. You do a good thing long enough and even if you turn bad, they will continue to like you.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution you are walking around the small city block and you hear some people saying that they want to kill the next augmented person they see. This is of course not true. Even having small metal plates on my face they will do nothing. I can get why they don't want to start shooting up the street, but at least have them pointing you out as an augmented person.

I AM THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS

Before

In Fallout 3 one of the first places you go is a settlement called Megaton. Right smack in the middle of the town is a nuke that never went off. The town will greet you with open arms and you will meet with the town's bartender, Moira Brown. After doing a few small quests here and there, you will meet another person who asks you to got to a hotel a few miles away from Megaton. You leave the town and head to the hotel wondering what he wanted. After meeting and talking to the man he will give you a choice. Either set off the nuke inside Megaton or walk away. It's an easy mission to skip. If you do choose to blow up Megaton you can watch the blast safely in the top of the hotel's building. If you walk away the man will get upset, but Megaton is fine and you walk away not ever talking about the exchange again.

After

If you do happen to chose to blow up Megaton when you return to the town there is only one survivor, Moira Brown. She's now a mutant though. Despite all this she still has that upbeat attitude. She just simply laughs off of what happened and ask you to do a quest for her. Not only that but she embraces on what just happened. She welcomes you back with open arms again never suspecting that this stranger she met just game days ago would destroy her entire life. She should be cautious. A mysterious man shows up and a few days later the nuke goes off? That should have alarm bells ringing all over the place. Even though she's a mutant, her home, work, friends, and family is gone the nuke is never talked about again. Just a faded memory that no one will ever talk about. Your Karma is down, but after a few good deeds it will just rise to it's original position as if you never nuked Megaton. Everyone will act like everything you did that was bad never happened. It's far too easy to be neutral in Fallout 3.

THE POINT EMERGES 

Any game that has a moral mechanic seems to fall for this trap. Except inFamous. inFamous is a Playstation 3 game on which your moral choices actually matter. Everyone hates you at first. Mainly because you are the cause for all this destruction and chaos. Will you stay the villain or will you become the hero?

Helping People

In the game you are given countless choices. Do you save the people or let them die? Do you share the food or take it all to yourself? The best thing about inFamous is that people will remember what you did. The more you do good the more people will like you. The more you do evil, the more people will turn hostel. They will even throw rocks at you. What makes inFamous different that no matter how good you are there will be people that will not trust you. There is even a guy that shows up, on full FMV no less, telling everyone bow bad you are, even though all you have been doing is helping the people with there problems and clearing out the block full of gangs.

Not helping people.

The inFamous Paradox refers to a game where no matter what you do, good or evil, people will love you for it. The game sets you off as neutral it's your "job" to make the people love you or hate you. The inFamous is not only for random NPCs. It can also refer to your companions as well.

YOU LIKE ME, YOU REALLY REALLY LIKE ME

In Dragon Age: Origins you would need to keep your team happy. By doing this you would need to either agree with them or give them gifts. Each character has a scale on how much they trust you. If they don't improve of you or your actions they will leave you for good. I'm not sure on Hard, but on easy (I'm not used to that type of gameplay) no matter what you did the group stays. It's hard for someone in your group to leave. The bar moves slightly towards hate, but if you did something they like the bar will movie towards Like. Even if you did not realize it or not. it does not matter what you do when it comes the the interaction of characters.

If developers wants us to feel like we've accomplished something, they need to make sure that the actions of you is accountable. Each character should either love you or hate you. Morrigan should not be neutral when you first get her as a companion as she scowls at you in almost every cutscene. She should hate you and you try to build her trust. They should take the cues from inFamous, even after beating the game and have 100% good there are still some people that will throws rocks at you.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review Rewitten

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception review by Stealthmaster86

Sony's flagship title Uncharted 3 has finally arrived. Is the third time a charm once again for everyone's favorite bad luck explorer, or should this be lost in the Rub 'Al Khali forever.

Developer: Naughty Dog

Publisher: Sony Entertainment

System: Playstation 3

ESRB Rating: T

Release Date: November 1, 2011

STORY

The thing that sets the Uncharted Series most anything is the story. Each game has a great story and this is no different. The story is just as good with the rest of the series. The story of Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan is fleashed out here and what happens to them is easliy the best of the series. It never feels once that Victor Sullivan, or other characters for that matter, was just side kicks for Drake to interact with. They feel for each other and the relationship of each character feels more real than it has ever did. There are a few notable flaws within the story and it felt that there was much more going on than what it seems. 

One of the main focuses on the story is Nathan Drake's Ring. It was made to be part of a much bigger puzzle to find the lost city of Ubar in the Rub 'Al Khali Desert. The main villains this time around would have been great characters, but compared to Uncharted 2, they don't seem that much of a threat. What would have made it better would be the chance to really dig deep into Drake as a character outside his small circle of friends. Katherine Marlowe is smarter than any other villains the past games had and here it does not seem like she could do much. 

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is just the same as before, but with a few differences. The action is fierce and intense this time around. What you do in this game astounds me. One minute you are in a sinking ship to its side and in the next you are dangling from a plane about to crash. It does do a few things repeated from the last game, but giving how great those scenes are I am going to forgive them for now. Each enemy you incounter will take a lot of damage before falling. Even the "weaker" enemies takes a few extra bullets than it needs to. This makes the game harder on normal than it was in Uncharted 2. All this reminds me of is the nomal difficulty on Uncharted 1 than in Uncharted 2. In some sections it will seem like the enemies soaking in bullets is not the problem, but the number of guards there is and where they attack from. In Uncharted 2 it was possible to favor Stealth over a full blown gun battle. Here, stealth seems like it was taking a vacation for awhile. Take out a guy by snapping his neck and there's a high chance of someone heard it and a gun fight starts. However, Melee is better than ever with different moves you can do, it does comes in a downside. Once you start fighting there is very small window to escape from it. So if you have a sniper beam pointing at your head while fighting, there is a good chance that the fight won't kill you. The bullet to the head will. I would advise not to start fighting in the stairs. Doing so will cause Drake's animation become off-kilter and start freaking out. The gun's accuracy is a bit of a mess. You can be right up top of someone and you can't hit anything. It's rare that it happens and it does get annoying when it does. The accuracy of the enemies is impossibly accurate. In one section you will be in a sandstorm and you can't see a thing. The enemies, however, can see your every move, even though you cannot see them. It makes that section of the game harder than it needs to be. I would have liked that during this sequence you can walk past guards as you take them out over the cover of the storm. (It should be noted that this review was written long before the aiming patch was implemented. Aiming should be better now.)

The Puzzles are far more interesting than the past games and there is a few more than the first two had. The difficulty of the puzzles can range from easy to moderately hard. The reason why it would be hard is because you didn't look thoroughly enough. Every piece and every clue you need to solve a puzzle is in that room. Unlike Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves your journal won't help you that much. It won't solve the puzzle, only clue you in. It's pretty much useless now. 

GRAPHICS:

The graphics are as amazing as ever. Naughty Dog knows the Playstation 3 hardware like no other. Every detail is painstakingly put together it's hard to believe that this was made in the spam of two years. The characters look more believable than ever. Every pore, every string of hair, ever fingernail is in a detail that very few games have matched. If this was shown at E3 2005 people would question if this was real or not than Killzone 2.

And that is only the models of Drake, Sully, and the rest of the cast. The locations are, once again, stunning. Even if a location is far away and there is no way to get to it. They are still made in a way that textures are there making it the most believable world outside of real life. There are rarely any pop ups and framerate drops. It's all smooth running at a solid 30 Frames Per Second. This is what the Playstation 3 looks like when pushing to its absolute limit.

SOUND:

Like the graphics, the sound is also amazing as ever. Nolan North, Richard McGonagle, Emily Rose and Claudia Black are all back. Graham McTavish is also back but in entirely different role from Among Thieves. The cast proves once again why they are some of the best voice actors around. While Nolan North plays Nathan Drake in a way that we begin to believe that Nolan North is Nathan Drake. Emily Rose steals the show. Elena Fisher is my most favorite character in the series. Even in the more personal moments in the game, she feels and sounds real. More real than any other female character from every game ever. If gaming needed a female character to look up to it should be Elena Fisher. 

The rest of the sound is phenomenal . Each gun that fires has their own sound and feel. Unfortunately, the weight of the guns don't feel heavy at all. They all seem to be as light as a feather.  One thing that the series don't get a lot of attention to is the music. The music is just as great as in the past games. It builds up the action and it slows down when it needs to be. This is soundtrack ready and would gladly have some of the themes on my music collection.

DIFFICULTY:

Uncharted 3 isn't that hard of a game. You can beat the game in about 8 to 10 hours depending of the difficulty you choose. Do have to warn you though there is this one over long sequence of the game that is pretty much brutal. This makes the past games rough spots seem like a breeze. There is this one enemy combo I will not be surprised if other games take it. It's the Sniper and Launcher combo. The Launcher will draw you out and the sniper will pick you off. While dodging all this you would have to deal with the people with Shotguns at your floor moving in on you. This is the one sequence of the game where I had the most difficult with. The big problem with is that it's not even that fun. It feels like a chore more than anything. Even playing it on Very Easy wasn't fun at all. While it doesn't have the supernatural elements that much compared to the first two games there is another sequence where it get's hard. It happens towards the end of the game, which I will not spoil here. 

REPLAYABILITY:

This is where Uncharted 3 crashes. One of the best part about the first two games was it's high replayability factor. It had tons of unlocks like 'making of' videos and tweaks. The tweaks could range from Costume change, character change, to changing the very game itself. There would be No Gravity, Infinite Ammo, weapon select, and even screen change like Black and White and Mirror World. This and much more made playing the games feel like a whole new game. I clocked in at over 120 hours on the single player alone on Among Thieves. So it sad to hear that none of that stuff is in Uncharted 3. After finishing the game, before I knew this, I had a plan to play the entire game as London Drake and it was going to be awesome. No, that is not meant to be. Uncharted 3 is still a fantastic game, but because they didn't have all the tweaks you can use, it's very hard to say that it's worth buying. 

MULTIPLAYER:

I'm just going to say this right now. I'm not a huge Multiplayer gamer. When I buy games I buy them for single player. The Multiplayer is just something they slap into to sale more games. Having said this I am going to talk about it briefly. I played the June Beta for Uncharted 3 and I LOVED it. It had everything a multiplayer needs to have. Challenging but fair gameplay, fun gameplay modes, great weapons, sprinting is great, and an awesome buddy system. This would be the game that would finally change my stance on Multiplayer. Take everything I've said and throw it out the window because none of that is in the final version. The multiplayer is challenging but not fair. There is no fun game modes, even though it's the same modes as before. The weapons are not fun to play around with. And there is not really a buddy system. The aiming is much too slow, the hit boxes are much too small, you can infinite sprint. Because you can infinite sprint and move freely there are, at least the last time I played it, people that will just rush you and give you a chest full of buckshot. Not a lot of people aim anymore because of the sprint. In the beta sprinting was only there to get you out of a tight jam. It didn't last long and turning was more of a risk than reward. Now sprinting feels like it does in Call Of Duty or Halo. It's not really fun at all anymore. 

CONCLUSION:

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception takes everything you love about the first two games and safely takes it up to 11. It has it's rough spots, but the action and set pieces are a thing of beauty. It does not do anything really new and the things that made Uncharted great to begin with continues to shine here. But lack of tweaks and a weak multiplayer mode keeps this from becoming like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. It's still worth playing to see what the system can do and see what Naughty Dog has created. It all feels like a two steps forward and one step back. 

8/10

Rent It

OVERVIEW: Silent Hill

In 1996 Capcom released it's seminal title Resident Evil to the masses. It's blend of exploration, horror, action, and puzzles put the Survival Horror on the map. Following the release of Resident Evil, Survival Horror had quickly become a popular genre. Games like Parasite Eve, Fatal Frame, and even Capcom's own Dino Crisis helped made Survival Horror on of the most popular genre's in the nineties. Then came Konami. Not to feel left out, it decided to create it's own survival horror game and what would release would be one of the most unique game for the genre.

LOVECRAFT

Don't expect to see anything right in front of you

Released in 1999, Silent Hill was Konami's answer to Resident Evil. It had everything Resident Evil had and more. Where in you are trapped in a mansion in Resident Evil, in Silent Hill you are trapped in a small town. This is where Silent Hill defers from the rest of the games. Silent Hill doesn't not rely to much on jump scares, horror, or even real action. It relies on fear of the unknown. If Lovecraft decided to make a game based on his famous quote, "The Oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." then Silent Hill will be that game. Like much of Lovecraft's writing it does not rely on shocks or gore. The atmosphere is what makes the game scary. Never mind the way the game looks now, not even newer games with much better graphics can creep me out better than what this can. Each time you enter the "Otherworld" the setting changes from light to dark and the rusting on the whole town is unsettling. The only way to help you out is your radio. That radio will become your most powerful ally. When ever it the static starts, run. Don't stop til it stops. Unless you have enough ammo or have a better blunt weapon it's best to just run. The controls does take a little getting used to though. Once you get the handle on it, however, the controls will start to feel second nature. Even when the camera moves out behind your back, it controls the same way as if it was by your back. It's pretty good considering the age. Combat is not really the main focus. When you do have to fight you can move and attack at pretty much every weapon in the game. The only time where you would stand still is for the hammer. In this playthrough I didn't find the rifle. And if it was not for the fact that I got lost and entered the Police Station, I would not not gotten a shotgun either.

I THINK I'VE LOST MY KEYS

It's better to run when out doors

I'm going to admit something here, and it will be fixed, I spent 13 years trying to beat the game. I got the game when it first came out for the Playstation in 1999, I picked it up again in 2003, and finally picked it up on PSN to finally beaten it. So I when I played it, I played it on Easy. I know it's not the best way to start a game, but I really wanted to end this. Because of this the next time I play Silent Hill it will be on Normal. The great irony, if you want to call it that, is that it was one of the puzzles that ended my quest in 99 and 03 was one of the last ones too. The puzzles here are fantastic. It requires you to think and figure how to unlock a door. My personal favorite, which I'm sure is everybody's, is the piano. Besides Portal, that I'm aware of so far, there have been a complete lack of challenging puzzles in games nowadays. The last game I played that had me completely stumped on a puzzle was God Of War II. While the puzzle's end result is the same, the way you solve them is different. While most of them are easy, there are a couple that will take a few minutes of solve. It's satisfying to finally solve a puzzle.

IT ONLY JUST BEGUN

Lisa Garland

The story is strong enough. You play as Harry Mason. Harry and his Daughter, Cheryl, goes to the small town of Silent Hill. Following a car crash Harry wakes up to find Cheryl missing. This begins his search for her daughter. This will lead him to several key locations of the town. It includes a school, hospital, lighthouse, and an amusement park. There is both Real and Alternate versions of every location of the game. The "light" world is calm if creepy. The "dark" world is creepy if slightly disturbing. You don't know what will lie ahead behind a door until you go in. He will also meet several characters that lives in the Town. Don't expect answers, though. They don't know what is going on either. The story deals with occult and prophecies. Even by the end of the game, even with the information it gives you, you still don't really know what is really going on. Harry can't tale if it's a dream or reality. This is one of those rare games where the ending is left to the player.

One of the most stunning things about Silent Hill is it's sound. The sound here is very minimal and it helps add to the atmosphere of the game. The footsteps will be the only sound you will hear for a good while. The Music is panic inducing as you try to escape from nothing Akira Yamaoka is a master in this. His themes is both terrifying and relentless. Each new theme will make you uneasy. This is Grade A stuff here.

The Lovecraftian Horror Continues.

Konami takes a chance at survival horror and created a classic in it's own right. More psychological that full blown horror. More ambiguous than Resident Evil. Silent Hill creates a fear that very few games have matched. It was later re-imagined for the Wii entitled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in 2009. Ten years after the released of the original. Later this year there will be a HD Collection re-release of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. I have only played a little of both and if Silent Hill for the Playstation is any indication. I'm expecting great things from both titles.

The Darkness II Demo Impressions (Demo Spoilers)

The Sequel to 2007's hidden gem returns Jackie Estacado back in control of the Darkness. Based on a Top Cow comic series, The Darkness is about a mob hit man who takes control of The Darkness. The Darkness are these black tentacle beings that will do what Jackie wills. The Darkness II is set a few years after the events of the original Darkness and Jackie is now a mob boss.

The Darkness 2 is a bloody game.

THE VOICE INSIDE

The first thing I noticed was the visuals. Instead of a gritty real look that the first one had, this has a comic book like cell shading. It's striking and it keeps it being distinctive. The story, as from the demo presented it, is about this man who wants the Darkness all to himself. He nails Jackie into a cross and asked Jackie to give him the Darkness. There is a new voice actor providing the voice of Jackie. He's not bad, but having the original voice actor would make me feel more sympathy for Jackie. I guess it will have to do. The voices for everyone else does a sold job. The one actor that has come back is Mike Patton. It's a very welcome to see Mike Patton as The Darkness once again.

Once some dialogue is exchanged by Jackie and the new Bad guy the loading screen comes up. It's white instead of Jackie talking about his life. I hope this is just for the demo because The Darkness had great loading times that will give you a little bit of information about Jackie. Once the loading ends we are at a restaurant and you are following someone that Jackie knows. Predictably, the man is named Vinnie. After walking and sitting down you are meant with two woman talking about the last time they've seen you. Before they talked to Jackie one of the girl's head exploded into a red pulp as a van crashes through the window where are are sitting. The hit kills the other girl and sends you flying with a severely messed up leg. Vinnie sees you and starts to drag you to safety. This is where the first part of the gameplay starts.

AND THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT

Shooting or Rip hearts out?

Shooting feels as shooting should feel like. There is zoom, loading, and duel welding. It's pretty standard. Even though it's all standard it feels just right. You shoot, they fall, the end. While the shooting is a big point in this game, it's not the reason we play it. That will come up in a few minutes.

After this section of the game we are back to the room were we began. The guy continues to talk about the responsibility the Darkness is giving Jackie and all that it did in return. I'm very glad that Jenny is not ignored. It seems that her death, like in the first one, plays a bit role in this new one. Once that cutscene is finished it returns to the restaurant. This is where the demo starts to get good. After a bit more shooting you are in a dark alleyway. This is what the darkness wanted. The it forces itself out in Jackie, which has not used it in years, and it excitedly executes a man. Wishbone is my personal favorite. This is also where the point system comes into play. The point system gives points to nearly everything you do. Then it's used for upgrades. The upgrades can range from The Darkness, Health, and Ammo. There are a surprising number of upgrades at your disposal.

Head swipe or Wishbone?

THE HEART IS WHERE IT LIES

The Darkness is just as fun as ever. You can grab, throw, impale, rip, and everything that comes along with it. Although it's not in the demo the two darkness fighting over the heart is not in this one. Eating a heart will give you a bit of life back and yes I do see what they did there. The Darkness is the main star once again and the new developers knows it. You go through the city's streets taking out bad guys you unleash hell to the poor saps. You pick them up and rip them apart. It's all very satisfying. I'm sure that there will be more in the final game. Shooting out lights is still a big strategy in the game. During the massive chaotic shoot outs you start seeing visions of Jenny. Then there was one more cutscene and then just as I was starting to get really into it The Darkness II demo ended.

The Darkness II seems to be worthy sequel to the original game. It's new anesthetics and new upgrade mode keeps it from being exactly like the first Darkness. I'm definitely going to be checking this out when it comes out. I hope the rest of the game can keep this level of fun. The Darkness is coming out on February 7, 2012 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. The demo was played on the Playstation 3.

What makes Survival Horror Work?

CORRELATE ALL OF ITS CONTENTS

Not going to lie, this was pretty scary the first time

Survival Horror is becoming hard to find. While the recent Resident Evil 6 trailer does show promise of Survival Horror to be back, at least for Leon's Storyline, The Survival Horror is becoming a niche genre while Action Horror is on the rise. This Action Horror first came about with Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 4 had all the makings of a survival horror, but with it's light RPG element and the amount of Ammo that is given it turned into an action game. Don't get me wrong, there are moments of Resident Evil 4 that is scary and it makes me nervous, but when looking over the entire game there's probably a good 10 to 15 percent of it that is actually horror. In Resident Evil 5, that survival horror is stripped away for a more action focus. While Resident Evil 5 isn't as good as Resident Evil 4, it's still worth playing. What makes survival horror work though? Is it the atmosphere, the unknown, the music, or the design of the games. There are a ton of things that can make survival horror scary. This goes beyond the camera and controls of the past Resident Evil games. It's not the controls and camera that makes a game scary. It's something else. Something unknown and dark. A little warning though, I'm going to talk a lot about the Original Silent Hill as an example to most of these.



LOST BEYOND THE NOISE

Air Screamer? I like Flying Polyp better

I'm currently playing the Original Silent Hill and it's got me thinking. Sure, being alone in the middle of the Unknown is scary. Not seeing what's ahead of you and you can either run or fight. But what makes it truly terrifying is the lack of anything at all. You go to a room with your weapon drawn at all times. Whither it's a gun or a pipe. Once you stand there and there is no static you let your guard down. Normally this is when a monster comes up and attacks you. Instead for Silent Hill you are given a radio early in the game. When ever enemies are near the radio would static. This makes encounters more suspenseful. In Resident Evil, been awhile since I've played it so I could be wrong, you hear something and you know exactly where that zombie or monster is at. What makes the dogs jumping through the window such a great scare is the suddenness of the attack. You walk in a hall and then crash. Dogs are all up on you trying to bite your face off. In Silent Hill you know there is something out there. You are not sure where or when they will attack. The way I do it is I just stand there ready to attack as whatever is about to attack me come at me. My arsenal so far includes a pipe, knife, and a gun. My main weapon is a pipe. It never damages and break. I tend to keep that with me at all times. If you think about it, it can be a great strategy or it kills the horror aspect. While I do tend to attack my attackers I don't do that to everything I see. It just depends of the enemies. If I'm dealing with the small kids I just stand back and beat them with a pipe. When dealing with the dogs and the pink flying things, I'm just going to call them Flying Polyp for now on, I run away. We meet these things outside, for the time being, anyway so it's easy to out run them. Though it could be a bit difficult with the Flying Polyp seeing that you don't know which way they are coming or going and how many they are.

CRESCENDOS OF FEAR

The wind really makes this creepy

Atmosphere is everything for a horror. If there is no sense of loss and despair when it comes to the atmosphere, then it fails as a horror game. Sure, the game could be good but for an entire different reasons than the developers wanted to convey. In Alan Wake it makes great use of atmosphere. It's trees, wind, and that ambiance makes it feel like Alan Wake is a survival horror. I love Alan Wake, I've probably mention it a few times before, however, I just don't consider it as a survival horror. Action Horror is more like it. It's got a lot of action, and it's got a bit of horror when walking alone in the dark in the woods. The unknown part is the lake itself. What gives this lake that kind of power? Why is it Thomas Zane can write something about Alan's past? And what is the dark presence? While Alan Wake have it's great atmosphere, Silent Hill does something even better. No matter where you are at, you can only see a little in front of you. You can see behind or not that much of the side. It's well known that this was because of the limitations of the Original Playstation's hardware, so what Team Silent did at Konami was to make the limitation greatest strength. It turned Silent Hill in to a lost snowy town. When you are in the dark the flashlight shows less than what is shown during the day at Silent Hill. It makes light feel more safe and the dark more ominous and terrifying. You can't see much during these sections of the game where you are walking around outside. You see even less than that when you are in a building, in my case a school.

FRAGMENTED VISIONS OF A NIGHTMARE CITY

RIP Stan Winston :(

Horror does not only do for survival or action horror. Horror comes from other types of games. In Fallout 3 you can enter these vaults. Inside the vaults is experiments that went awry. These sections can be scary. It's dark, you don't know what's going on, and your next step could be your last. It leaves you wide eyed and clinching the controller wanting to get out. It may no be as scary to other people, but for me it works. That dead unknown silence.  Max Payne is a straight up action game. You play as a detective in New York City on the city's worst snow storm in years. What makes this game scary? it's dream sequences. In the game they drugged you and you begin to have nightmares. Nightmares of your past. In one moment you are following a blood maze and that is all that is there. Just you, the blackness, and that red line. Then as you continue on you start hearing a baby crying. Then the baby gets louder and louder until it screeches. It does this repeatedly and it never stops till you end the nightmare. That baby screech is frighting and one of the most memorable parts of the game. It does not help that walking that line is not easy to do. Sound is everything for a horror game. The Suffering, another action game, had phenomenal sound. You hear movement nearly everywhere you go and it never stops. It feels like the monsters are waiting for you to let your guard down. When they do attack they each has the unique look to them that was designed by the late great Stan Winston. The sound matches what the enemies looked like so if you hear something you knew what it was.


THE SOUNDTRACK TO NIGHTMARES

Maybe it will let you ride it.

Music plays a bit part of what makes a game scary. In Silent Hill there are no music most of the time. It's just you and your static radio whenever it kicks on. In a few instances where you are in a small area the music will kick in. It's not normal music though. There's no percussion, no medley, pretty much nothing. What it does do however is to make you feel uneasy. Uneasy that something will happen soon and there is nothing you can do about it. The music can get so intense that I felt that there is a monster bigger than anything I've faced before waiting to attack me. This is what the most loud music in Silent Hill can do. It makes me freak out and run past anything that is in front of me. Just to escape at nothing. When it's at it's lowest it makes me want to stand there and not move. Music can be a powerful thing and Silent Hill can prove that.

Overall, what makes Survival Horror work? Despite what others have said, it's not the controls or the camera. You can still make a frighting game using Gears Of War like controls. Dead Space is a testament to that. While I consider it as an Action Horror, it does do what games like Resident Evil does. It's got great sound, music, and atmosphere. To me it's all those things that makes Survival Horror work. If developers want to make more Survival horror game they need to know that less is more. Maybe it's better to be kept in the dark than knowing what's out there.

Video Game Logic.

Real Life Logic. It's something that we all deal with even if we don't realize it ourselves. In a day to day routine we get up, live, and we sleep to do it all over again. Depending on the person Logic can come to any sorts of reasoning behind their actions. Sometimes Logic can be broken. We do all do stupid things that defies Logic. There is no rhyme or reason to do the things we do.

WHERE LIFE DEFIES EXPLANATION

There is more hidden in his jacket. A LOT more.

Video Game Logic. That takes everything that we know out the window. It questions everything we know and makes them into a easy tool for us to complete a game. Early examples of this Super Mario Brothers. Why does Mario need mushrooms to get power ups like getting an extra life or growing into a sizable guy? Why does harmless turtles want to kill you? It's something that gaming has done for a long time. How can early FPS characters carry so much ammo and weapons? Because it's Video Game Logic. I'm not saying that it should be try to be more like real life. No, there is enough of that as it is. I'm saying that sometimes Video Game Logic gets a little out of hand.



But why do we have Video Game Logic? Is it something the developers thought it would be cool to do? Giving us the option to use the tools they provide for us? While I have no problem with carrying over a dozen weapons in one hand, there are a few logic that should be questioned.

SOME ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

Why is it that when we go into cover we heal ourselves up? The screen slightly turns red and we go hide. Then a minute later, sometimes seconds, we are ready to fight again. It's something that has been coming up for close to a decade. Starting with Halo 2. Halo had the classic Medic Packs. While it's understandable that Master Chief can have regeneration health because of his suit. It's not so understandable when a normal solider in Call Of Duty can do the same thing. Unless the setting supports it, we should all go back the the medic pack as a way to heal ourselves. It's another Video Game Logic type, but at least it makes sense. Food from the older games like Castlevania was used as Health Packs which feels like a contradiction seeing that food was most likely to be rotten anyway.

Dwarfs can't destroy this.

I love puzzles in games. It breaks the flow of the action and add verity into the game. How can an old civilization come up with all these complicated contraption to hide something? You play a game like Tomb Raider and see all the knobs, wheels, and whatnot to make a puzzle maze. Obviously, the same can be said about the real world on why and who made Stonehenge. While Stonehenge is a smaller site, some of the sites used in the Uncharted series makes me wonder how something so big can never be found. You could say that the mountains covered Shambhala or that the sand covered Ubar. But why go through all that trouble when a simple internet such can help you find it. Before Nathan Drake and his friends found the cities they had a map of where the cities could be at. It could take awhile, but it's a lot safer than to deal with Spiders and a small army of guys that wants to kill you.

The level design itself is full of Video Game Logic. See that row of chest high walls? Yeah, there will be a fight there soon. While it would be fine of these sections of a room, they just make it obvious that, yeah, you are about to see some heavy resistance. They should not make it as obvious. You can go into a room and only see one corner of a wall that leads to no where and then when you come back, that one wall is all you have. It makes the combat more intense and more erratic.

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

There are SO many video game troupes we come to expect on a game these days that we don't even notice it. Should some of these more noticeable Video Game Logic still exist? No, games that uses Med packs are becoming rarer and rarer. Should some of these Video Game Logic still be around? Absolutely, Only have a couple of weapons instead of having a full arsenal is taking away from experimentation. Something that older games thrived on. I want games to be fun. Nothing more Nothing less. I have no problem with Video Game Logic. But only if it makes sense to have that Logic.

So I leave you with one of my favorite pictures around the net.

How can you drown, when you already did?

Stand Together: Until ESA ends their support of SOPA, boycott E3

The SOPA and PIPA bills are in Congress right now and they are there to take your internet away. Everything good about the internet is on the line as Congress men and women are in talks about censoring the net. If these bills are passed it would have a crippling effect to not only the internet, but life itself. Innovators and trendsetters would not have the ability to take risk, The already damaged economy would continue to drop with no end in sight, and Jobs will be lost.

ESA, Entertainment Software Association, stands with SOPA. They have asked us gamers to stand with them during times of need, like Last Years Congress Hearings about the First Amendment and Video Games. But now, even as gamers are in protest of this bill, the ESA is in support of a bill that will damage everything they wanted us to stand for. The way the ESA gets it's funding is through E3. E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a gaming convention where developers, hardware, software makers comes together to show off the latest innovations. But it's not too late. There is still a chance for your voices to be heard. Boycott E3, Download this video, Post it into your Youtube Channel, take videos and videos like this into your social sites and spread the word. 

Niche Gaming

BEFORE I START, I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT SOME OF THE GAMES MENTION IN THIS WRITING I'VE NEVER PLAYED BEFORE. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S GOOD OR NOT. JUST A WARNING....

Sorry for the Caps. I just wanted to be clear about this next topic I'm jumping into. This time it's about Niche gaming. Niche gaming is a series of games that appeal to a specific audience. Some may be known throughout the gaming community like Persona and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Others are not all that known like World Of Tanks and The Chzo Mythos.

Could be good. I hope.

IF YOU CAN'T GO TO HOGWARTS

There are a ton of games out there in the gaming world. Whether its online or in stores, a game that you may never heard of could be the best game ever. While I didn't enjoy it as much as other people did, Demon's Souls is one such game. It's brutal difficulty is something that I know a few gamers would love to have more often. Another well known game is Persona. I, personally, never played Persona. All I know that it's got a story line where you and a bunch of high school friends goes into the school's dungeon and fight monsters off. Day would be school time and the night would turn the school into different dungeons throughout the game. I don't know if it's good or not, but it has come highly recommended from my online friends.

THE MADNESS WITHIN

Another game that came highly was Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I actually tried to play the demo through Steam, but the laptop I had wouldn't run it. I may still get to play it, but I'm not sure how or when. Amnesia is a Lovecraftian Horror game where you are completely helpless. I'm not to clear on the plot, but it revolves around Lovecraftian influences, being helpless, going mad, and monsters. The dark and light can be your best friend or your worst enemy. World Of Tanks is a free Online game, which you can find here, you drive tanks around World War II. I don't know much about the game, but seeing that it's free to play and it's specifically for fans of the tank. I don't see why this should be left out.

JUMP INTO MIND TO MIND

To the people that played this, Thank You.

A game I have played, that I consider Niche, is Psychonauts. Psychonauts is a platformer from the mind of Tim Shaffer. I don't see how anyone missed this game when it was released. It does lead to something that I find highly discouraging. Platformers outside of Nintendo. Platformers are a dying genre. I haven't gotten it yet, but last year's hidden gem, Rayman: Origins, should have been a huge seller. Unfortunately, It was released near Modern Warfare 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. It seems that the only studio outside of Nintendo that still does Platformers is Sony. Microsoft nearly had there chance with Psychonauts, but they lost their chance. Sony and Nintendo has platform mascots. Mario, Sly Cooper, Kirby, Jak & Dexter, Donkey Kong, and Ratchet & Clank. While Sony is towards the action side, it still does not change the fact that it's still a platformer.

THE BADASS HAT

Trust Me. It's a lot more interesting than it looks

Another series that seems to be dying is the Pure Adventure games. The Chzo Myhos is a point and click adventure on which you play, mostly, as Trilby. A thief that tries to rob a mansion he quickly becomes caught up on the Chzo Myhos. In doing so, he becomes the series main character. Even in 7 Days A Skeptic, the second game, which is set 400 years after the events of the first game, his presence is still felt. I watched a friend play this online and it was awesome. It's got a great story and so many twists. The first game, which is free to play, is here.

TO CHEAT OR NOT TO CHEAT

Besides Portal, can you name another well known Puzzle game? Sure you can say Bejeweled, Peggle, or even Angry Birds. But what about Puzzle video games. The one that pops in my head is Catherine. Catherine is a game from the same company that made the Persona games. In Catherine, you play as Vincent. He's an Office Worker who has a relationship with Katherine. Besides the puzzle nightmare sequences, you would have to work on Vincent's loyalty to Katherine. It becomes much harder when another woman comes up to him. Her name is Catherine. I played the demo and thought it was interesting. I don't know if I'll buy it, but when I get the chance I'll definitely give it a go.

LIGHT ABOVE THE HORIZON

Everyone has got tastes to what they like. It could be a first person shooter, a Real Time Strategy game, a Puzzle, or even a platformer. We look back at the games we saw passed us by, and say "Man, I wish I got the chance to play that." There will always be games that will crater to a crowd. If we played it, we may not like it. But at least, for a about an hour, you saw what others liked. With any luck it may open doors to other games to that genre. I'm not into the whole JRPG games because of Final Fantasy. I played Final Fantasy VII and thought it was boring. While Persona is a JRPG, I might try it out because of what others have said about it. I hope I like it when that day comes, because I don't want to close myself to just a few genres. I want to play all and enjoy them all. For more information on some of the games mention above come here and here.

Ramblings: Disappointment

E3, the one game convention where all the major publishers come and announce there plans for the rest of the year. That one week where trailers, gameplay videos, interviews, and games are on the line for your attention. This is where most of the shocking announcements are released. It's a lot to focus on, but once you find those few games in the crowd, you begin to wait patiently for more info of when the game is released. It could be a brand new IP or a sequel to that game you love.

SNOWBALL IN HELL

If you're not excited, you're dead to me.

After months of waiting and hours of watching info about the game it finally comes out into a resounding "this sucks" It's the disappointment you felt when watching a movie you wanted to see, that band you like releasing an album you don't like, or the TV show that hype itself up only for it to sell itself short. It's just something you would have to deal with. But what make games unique about all of this is that we are known about the project years before it's released. It's very rare for a movie to say "hey this movie is coming, not sure when though". It's almost impossible for a band to say that they are making an album only to release it years later. Like everything else though there are a few exemptions to the rule. 24, Jurassic Park IV, Arrested Development movies are announced to come out but not much else. Guns and Roses, a band I don't care for, took years for Chinese Democracy to come out. I don't know much about that album so I can't say for sure if it was a disappointment or not. Anyway, You hear about a game through a teaser trailer that tells you that a game is coming out. Then what? We are just sitting by and wait. It's like we are playing two games. The waiting game and the game itself. Sometimes the waiting game is better than the game itself.

People didn't like this one. I did

Everyone has a different game that they are disappointed from. It could be a game you like but someone else didn't. RAGE was a disappointment for me because of how much ID Software hyped up the game. It's a good looking game for sure and it's does have it's bright spots, but the overall game was a bit underwhelming. You may say that the game was one of the best games of the year. I won't sit here and judge you. It's your impressions of a game. But what about sequel to a fantastic game. Uncharted 3, which I still like a lot, is no where as good as Uncharted 2. Naughty Dog had an impossible task to follow that up. Great game, but didn't do what Uncharted 2 did.

IF IT WASN'T FOR DISAPPOINTMENT

Those was games that I felt was a slight disappointment. But what about games that was just flat out disappointing. Games that you waited for a long time for only to say "well, that wasn't worth it"? I've heard a lot of good things about Condemned: Criminal Origins and when I rented it, it felt boring to me. The combat was weak and there was hardly any what I though the game would be like; Investigations. It was mostly a first person brawler with the occasional puzzle to solve. There was makings of a great game, but it's heavy emphasis on melee made me not like this game. Same goes for Escape From Butcher Bay. Before Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I felt that first person stealth is not the way to go into making a stealth game. I never played Thief or the original Deus Ex.

Who are we to blame for this? The developers for not overlooking everything to make sure everything is perfect?  The publishers that just head rushes the developers to turn out everything quickly? What about the gamers themselves that builds up this hype in such away for the game that it's impossible for it to reach. Before Duke Nukem: Forever came out there was quite a few people saying the the hype would never match the game itself and they were right. I only played the demo and it felt very dull to me. And judging from what I've heard from people that did play it, it gets worse. The worst part is that one of the trailers that was released in 2001 looks so much better than what we got now. What happened to that game?

I WOULDN'T HAVE ANY APPOINTMENTS

Not convinced they can turn this into 2 hours

Is it possible to tell if we are going to be disappointed anyway? A movie or a game looks good, but deep down we know it's not going to work. A part of me wants to play Jurassic Park: The Game because of my blind fanboy of the series (Hey, I LIKE Jurassic Park III) but another part of me wants to stay away because I've heard that it wasn't that good. I'm actually having the same feeling towards 24: The Movie. 24 hours in the span of 2 hours? To me there are two factors into 24; Jack Bauer and Real Time. But in some strange reason I think it's going to slightly work because of the game. There is no way in hell that was in "Real Time" and it still released a pretty good story. 24: Redemption, the TV movie that bridge the gap between season 6 and season 7, was in real time. Then there are games that looks like it was going to be a disappointment, but still turned out good. I really didn't know much about Alan Wake and I was expected to be disappointing by it. It turns out though that it's, to me, one of the best games of this generation.

Disappointment comes with the territory. It's with us everyday. Whither big or small, there is that one small time a day where it comes up. Either by a TV show, a movie, a book, or even life. We just look down in disgust and go about our day never to think about it again. Til the next game announcement hypes us up again.

Writing Process

I have none. OK, that's a somewhat of a lie. Sometimes I get a notebook, a pencil, and I start writing down what I think about to a particular subject. For example, In the RAGE review I started to write the review and doing some manual count of the words, which ended up somewhere between 600 and 650 words. It was detailed, but from reading it I could still remember in the back of my mind that there is still some things that need to be addressed. So I took another notebook and began to write it again. Some sentences that was in the original draft ended up being in the new one. One of the best thing about doing that is while I'm writing the obvious stuff, my mind is going back to the more subtle stuff. The stuff that slips past your mind. The final draft has about 1306 words not including the subtitles for the paragraph breaks. On my twitter account a while back ago, I said that it would be an accomplishment to me if I write anything with 1000 words on it. I'm not sure what happened, but I always get past that. So far there is one that is not near 1000 words and that's the "Let me talk, Damn it!" writing.

WRITE WRITE WRITE

I try to do this, but fail

Obviously, that plan to write it all down on paper first doesn't really pan out most of the time. The overviews of Metal Gear Solid series and Dino Crisis had all been written on paper weeks before they were released on websites. On twitter, once again, I wrote that paper before internet. That is me somewhat lying to myself. There are a few things I wrote where I just wing it. "Do we really need a new generation of consoles?" and "Power of character" was all just something that popped in my head. I wrote and released it. The one thing that need to do is proof read everything. I notice mistakes hours after I post them and they are a few. I'm sure my grammar is not that great, and I tend write words twice. "Inconsistent graphics and, and story downplays this game" noticed the two ands in that sentence? I didn't notice it until hours after it was released. I could go back and fix it, but I'm afraid I might mess something up. My mind thinks of something before my fingers can react so that will lead me into sentences that will skip a word. I'm sure there are a dozen more I'm not noticing. To me all of this is learning. I need to learn myself to read each one carefully before I release it.

DID YOU SEE THAT

Expect a few They Might Be Giants  Subtitles

Surprisingly, the one that takes quite a bit of time is writing the subtitles for the paragraph breaks. It's something I use to make it look like chapters. I don't like a wall of texts and I'm sure that there are others like me that feel the same way. It's something I do when finished writing whatever I'm talking about. When making titles I scan through what I wrote and think of a line that will accommodate it. Whether from the top of my head, song titles, or song lyric. What ever fits. I had quite a bit of trouble from "Power of the Character" for the first subtitle. "I'm good with what you said" I have no idea why that is up there. It doesn't make much sense about the Bioware dialogue wheel.  But after finding the other two, I wanted to keep that theme going. So I just went ahead and used it. I tired so hard not to put Jurassic Park references in the Dino Crisis Overview, but I just went ahead in did it. So instead of saying "Hold On To Your Butts" or "Clever Girl" I just used lines that fit and wasn't so known. Sure the "They're Moving In Herds" is known, but what about the other three? Those are just random ass lines from Jurassic Park. In my earlier stuff I really didn't do it, but I felt that I should. I think the last time that I didn't do this was the Resident Evil 4 Review. I'm not sure why I didn't do it. I think because at the time I was thinking that this would be the only place that would have it. Like always that didn't pan out.

BEFORE LATER ON

Don't ever expect this

Lastly, I find pictures that fits what the picture will be at. This is the easiest thing to do, but looking for that right one does take a few minutes. I have to make sure they fit of what's beside, below, or above of what I wrote. I have to make sure that it's small enough, but big enough to make it viewable and not just something that you can barely see. What makes it hard is that other websites has different ways to post a picture. You can simply put ["img][/img"] and be done with it. It does get annoying, but I got over it quite quickly. I also write subtitles that relate to the photo.

It's not much, but it's a learning process. I hope little by little I get better and start handing some of these out. I don't have much to do and I hope to change that in my own terms. My original plan was to write something down each week, but now I'm writing something close to everyday. My biggest fears is that I will no longer have anything to write about. Sure, I can write a review, but for me that comes far and few between. I don't want this to only be reviews. When worst comes to worst, I can always do another Overview. Those turned out to be fun to do.

Power of the Character

You load up a game for the first time. You've been pretty excited about this game for awhile and even though you know the main character by the trailers released, you really don't KNOW the character. You know the name, the way they have looked, and the way they have interact with people. That is when the known ends. What you don't know is your own choices. RPGs and MMOs are known for allowing the player to become their own character. You pick a sex, pick a race, and pick a class. You think that would be it, but no. Your decisions are just starting. What you say or do in a game will last til the game is over. Every choice you made till that final confrontation is in line with what you think that character is. Even when they show a sequel to a game, you know that character and what he or she did. Not anyone else. You. So when you see a trailer to a RPG you see your character. He or She may look different, but it's still your character.

I'M GOOD WITH WHAT YOU SAID

Black or White? You Pick.

What makes a character our owns anyway? Is it the stats? The way to communicate with NPCs and team members? Who said that we can either be bad or good? Does it have to be black and white? One of the things that Bioware is known for is their dialogue wheel. In the dialogue wheel you talk to someone and they respond back. In Mass Effect for example. Here you have up to three choices (up to 5 or 6 if your stats are good enough) and they each have a different way to say things. The setup is like a dial. The up dial is the positive response. It is here where you get Paragon points where you become a little more like a hero. The central dial is the neutral response. Here, you are not so good and not so bad. It's here were where your choice really don't make much of an impact. The down dial is the Renegade response. Here you say something hurtful or if someone didn't improve. Doing so will lean you towards the "bad" guy. The other two is just for show, it allows you to have another thing to say even though it won't matter in the end. The results, no matter what you choose, will be the same. Even with all that choices, you still really didn't make a choice at all. Sure, in Mass Effect you make a choice between saving Ashley or saving Kaiden,  comment genocide, or kill Wrex. All those choices do play into Mass Effect 2, except not commenting genocide. But, is that it? Ashley or Kaiden wasn't in Mass Effect 2 long enough to make me feel like I really did something important. If I talked Wrex out of the situation and not killing him, why is he in such a small role in Mass Effect 2? In order to make sure we FEEL like we did something that matters those surviving characters will need to have a bigger role to do in Mass Effect 3.

LIFE'S JUST A MOOD RING WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE.

What Dragon Age: Origins did so well was taking that wheel away. There are no good or bad answers. What you had was your own thoughts and your own feelings to deal with. Instead of having a choose between good answers and bad answers, you listen to what they have to say. It's not clear if you actually made the right choice til it's too late. While it's super easy to make the right choices in Mass Effect, it's that much harder to in Dragon Age: Origins. I don't say Dragon Age II because they added the Mass Effect dialogue wheel into the game.

What about the characters that is already made for you? Are they our own and do we put ourselves into them? Yes. It may seem strange that Solid Snake or Zelda are our own feelings, but think about this. In most games today you are giving the choice to do whatever you want. While there is no dialogue wheel or customization of the characters. You are giving the choice to act upon actions. Want to beat Metal Gear Solid without a single life lost? Is that you making your own Solid Snake, or is that something that the game makes you do. You can say that it's something that the developers have originally intended, but what about the amount of weapons the game has? We can play a game anyway we like. In doing so, not only are we focused on the tasks at hand, but we see ourselves in the character we are portraying. We are the actors of this medium. We act on our actions.

AS IF BY HIDDEN SIGNAL 

We only guide him. Nothing more

There are a games out there were we have no choice, but to act. God Of War, where you play as Kratos. A fallen Warrior who seeks revenge whenever he can. You do this, you do that, but the one thing that remains the same is the killing. You have no choice BUT to kill. It's the way the character is and the way the story is laid out. In the Call Of Duty games you play as several characters through war, but instead of questioning the acts of war, you just go out do some stuff and kill. You can't abandon the mission or wonder if this was right. They had a chance to do that in Modern Warfare 2, but it all came back to revenge. Like God Of War Call Of Duty has a one mind focus on the tasks. You are not there to think about characters, you are there only to go out and fight. The difference between God Of War and Call Of Duty is the characters and settings. In my opinion Kratos is a much better character than any of the characters in the Call Of Duty games. That's mainly because we know a great deal about Kratos throughout the series. Instead of focusing on what's unknown by us. The team at Santa Monica Studios took Kratos and make him a flawed character. Sure we have no choice of the actions, but the actions of what we have seen before we take over gives him that edge that games like Call Of Duty lack. What if we never saw why Kratos is in a revengeful path. What if we never knew that he was tricked by Ares on to killing his family? Would we view Kratos differently as just another thug, or do we add our own back story.

I feel the best characters in games today has that sense of our own actions. Any character that allows us to add our own personality and our own actions is far more interesting than any thing else. While there are a few great characters in gaming that we really can't control like Kratos. We can just guide him into whatever path that is there. Enjoying it as the same way we enjoy any Show or Movie can do.

OVERVIEW: Dino Crisis

A young scientists has been researching on a promising new form of Clean Energy, before he could make an extraordinary discovery the government decides to discontinue his funds. In a last ditch effort to prove everyone wrong, he did one last experiment. The research was called The Third Energy. After a critical error the lab exploded killing Dr. Kirk. Or so they thought. Years later there had been reports that Dr. Kirk is very much alive and is now at an secret lab in the middle of an island, continuing his research. Now a group of Elite Special Agents has to go in and extract him.

Dino Crisis was released for the Playstation in 1999. Created by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, Dino Crisis took everything about Resident Evil had and just replaced Zombies with Dinosaurs. Everything in this game is pure Resident Evil. The controls. The camera. The horror. In Resident Evil the zombies are slow and they would just shamble along, easy to run past. Their are a few monsters that are fast but, at least of my remembrance of the classic games, it was not much. In Dino Crisis the Dinosaurs are faster and smarter. They can whip their tail to knock you down. Then they would jump up top and try to kill you. It's much harder to run away from a Raptor than a zombie. Ammo is limited and it takes more ammo to kill one dinosaur than to one zombie.

Regina and Jill Valentine
should be in a game together

 I OWN AN ISLAND

The team that is brought to the island to retrieve Dr. Kirk is a small cast of characters. Cooper, Rick, Game, and the character you will play as, Regina. Cooper is a field expert, Rick is tech support, Gale is team leader, and Regina is the weapon specialist. When they arrive Cooper is missing and instead of waiting for him they head to the lab. Once they arrive they see that the place is empty. As Rick heads to the control room, Gale and Regina scouts the area. Upon searching they see a body on which it is ripped to shreds. Gale and Regina decides to split up and she finds the first puzzle.

Puzzles in this game is varied, but all have the same pattern. Some is simple and some not so simple. The easiest one is the first few. Line colors here, black out the letters there. As time goes on it becomes harder and much more bigger. The Key card Puzzles are the hardest of the game. It requires you to write down the letters and crack a code. It's simple enough and it does get longer. Taking notes is a big part of this game. If someone that never played Dino Crisis before will think you were just doodling. If someone that has played Dino Crisis knew what it was. Taking notes in games is downright gone now. The other lost ability was getting lost. Sure, you can get lost in a new game, but before you release what to do next a arrow will point to your next location. It something that I actually missed. It was rewarding to find that hidden room or key card that continues the game.

THAT DON'T LOOK VERY SCARY

After solving the first puzzle, you come face to face with the first dinosaur, the Velociraptor. The Velociraptor just looks at you and when it's about to attack running down the hall can be both frustrating and thrilling. Because it's got the same controls from Resident Evil it's kind of hard to run in a straight line. You keep, or at least I kept, bumping into walls. If you do manage to run straight with the raptor right behind you, it's thrilling and nerve racking.

You are pretty much fucked

When you leave the area you will come upon a loading screen just like in Resident Evil. However, unlike Resident Evil the raptor can jump clean over the fence causing you to run again. Simply leaving the room won't help you. If you happen to be inside they will just burst through. Sometimes a dinosaur will just jump out of nowhere and they will attack you. In order to escape the Danger Zone (song in your head now) you would need to push all the buttons as fast as you can, kind of like quick time events before that became a mainstay. If the dinosaur shoves you you, you can lose your weapon and you would need to pick up it up again. There's no quick select, you you would need to go to the menu, get your weapon, load up any ammo you have, and hope for the best. Where in Resident Evil Stop, Aim, and Shoot is fine, in Dino Crisis it's not. The dinosaurs are much to fast for that. I can get the technology at the time was limited, but if they ever bring back Dino Crisis, the Stop, Aim, Shoot aspect of the game has to go. It just does not fit in the world of Dino Crisis.

WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?

Another thing that is like Resident Evil is the inventory. You can only hold so much. Each item has a limit and that limit is small, depending on the difficulty. In order to store each stuff there is emergency boxes. There are three types of boxes. Red, Yellow, and Green. Red for Ammo, Green for health, and yellow for a both. There is a catch though, you would need emergency plugs. Emergency plugs allows you to open a box and take what you need to that particular color. The upside to it is that when it becomes open, it stays open. Another downside is that they are more rare than ammo and health. Like everything else, the emergency plugs also has a limit to what to carry.

I did jump at the scene the first time through

THEY'RE MOVING IN HERDS.

Besides Raptors, there is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Compsognathus (or Compys), Therizinosaurus, and Pterodactyls. All the dinosaurs will kill you and they each have a way to avoid and kill them. It's beset to keep a look out and be careful because you you may never know what might attack.

Dino Crisis is just Resident Evil and Jurassic Park in a blender. There is a lot to like and a lot to hate. Capcom also released two sequels. Dino Crisis 3 was so bad that we have never heard from another game again. In the copy that I have it comes with a bonus disk, The Resident Evil 3 demo. Not only is it better than Dino Crisis it controls better despite the fact that it's the same classic Resident Evil controls.