coming up!

I'm going to start including a ranking of "sound," "graphics" and "story" in my upcoming reviews. On prior posts that I feel I need to add things to, I'll add information regarding these issues. Upcoming reviews will include this at the bottom:
Sound:x/10
Graphics:x/10
Story:x/10
Overall:x/10
Pros:x
Cons:x
Play if you like:x

Silent Hill 4: The Room (Xbox)

This is a "Legacy Review" of a game I just recently decided to play.

Silent Hill has long stood as one of my favorite series of games, but I've always written off the fourth installment, The Room, as an afterthought of the series. That being said: I've left playing it off for far too long.

Upon playing the game I was introduced to a first person perspective that played opposite of what I'm used to (when I play FPS, I play with reverse up and down axis, I'm'a freak, ok!?) and with poorly written controls. But I quickly found myself placed into something far more "Silent Hill" than the initial few minutes of the game.

It should be noted that this game was initially created as a new IP for the company, and not a continuation of the Silent Hill story. This is apparent in the extremely different gameplay and flow of the game. Upon playing the game I found the ebb and flow of this "non Silent Hill Silent Hill" was much better than any Silent Hill I'd played before (I've played ALL of them, including the GBA Play Novel) and found that this game's flow was more organic. It uses the character's (Henry Towmshend) apartment as a staging ground. It gives you a chest in which to keep excess inventory items, as well as a place to restore health (in the earlier parts of the game, everytime you return here, your health returns to full), as well as a way to keep an eye on your neighbors, watch the your world change and even futz around. When a hole opens up in his bathroom Henry ventures into it and it's magically Silent Hill-esque!

Once you venture into the "other world" the view changes from the broken first person view into a perfect "Survival Horror" style third person view and the accompanying controls. At this point: the game becomes natural. As with any SH game, you're in a subway, working your way through and finding out why the character was trapped in his own apartment. And this is where you start to find out why a character living in an apartment outside of Silent Hill has any connection to the world of Harry Mason (I know, I initially wrote Henry, but H-names confuse me!) and James Sunderland.

The first half of the game plays fantastically beautifully (if that's not the most broken description ever, let me know what is!) and the introduction of the apartment as a healing option allows you to play the game fairly casually. Examining the life and times of a serial killer connected to both the main character of the game and the Silent Hill universe. It's a fairly easy to play game compared to prior titles, as well as later titles, in the series. Compared to the health and weapon systems in Origins, 1, 2, 3, Homecoming and Shattered Memories, this game was easy and flowed, story wise, much better than all of them. It was almost magically well made!

Then the second half rolled around. And wow, did things go downhill. Upon entering "Hospital World" you find that you're magically attached to a female neighbor that you know nothing about and your character has no connection to at all (other than spying on her through a hole in your wall throughout the game). To top that off, your apartment becomes haunted and stops healing you when you visit it. Without the use of special objects, your apartment will essentially kill you when you visit it to save. You also visit all of the same worlds you've already visited.

It's not as bad as it sounds, since you can "cleanse your apartment." The change in game style not only includes a new "dangerous" save zone and potentially deadly "home world," but an escort mission for the rest of the game. It took me a lot of "trial and error" to figure out I could leave the "escorted" in certain areas of most worlds in order to avoid damaging her. The game quickly takes a different turn, and honestly, I stopped playing for a while once it changed.

This change is where it becomes suspiciously like a Silent Hill game. I hated the switch from a perfectly flowing and made game to one that hated you like all other games of the series, but upon taking the time to really delve into the game, I found it made sense and was completely playable. The change was abrupt and upsetting, but it was worth it.

Honestly, it fits well into the Silent Hill mythos, but isn't necessary, but it's also one of the more poorly made Silent Hill games made. It doesn't stand a chance compared to any of the other games, including Origins. It also doesn't add anything to the story, but if you haven't played it and you're a suvival horror or Silent Hill fan, it's well worth the 5 to 10 hours it takes to play.

Overall: 7/10
As a Silent Hill fan: 5/10
Pros: Good gameplay, awkward hauntings that will haunt you, adds to the story of Silent Hill, better camera than most earlier Survival Horror games
Cons: Gets too hard too fast, flow of the game gets messed up, seems superficial
Play if you like: Silent Hill games, fucked up FPS controls, a game that changes flow completely at the half way point.

News on the blog!

You may have noticed that I'm posting from a different name. Well, I attached my G-mail account to this blog. So, don't worry, I'm still the same horror lover. I might try some "old" reviews on here, digging up some back catalog games and throwing up a review. I'm still trying to get my hands on Deadly Premonition (360), but I'm unwilling to pay full price (even though it's only $20) for a "broken" game and it seems it's not a very "available" game when it comes to the used market.

For the time being, enjoy the FFIV review, it's keeping me up tonight.

Fatal Frame IV: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse [Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen] (Wii)

I'm a horror game fan, through and through. And I gotta say: it takes a lot to frighten me. Sure, Exorcist gave me a run for my money, true I got freaked out by the dogs jumping through the windows in Resident Evil, it's true that Silent Hill 2 made me uncomfortable when I beat it. But nothing, and I mean absolutely no movie or game, has ever given me the shakes quite like Fatal Frame does.

I can't really say that I've noticed a ton of differences between Fatal Frame games, I've played 1 & 2 on Xbox and 3 on PS2, and now 4 on Wii. It looks no different than the Xbox versions of yore, but it definitely looks better (although not a whole lot better) than the PS2 version of 3 that we got. The version that I have is a "patched" version that was modded to have English subtitles in it, the audio and some messages in the game are still in the original Japanese, but overall, the patch was wonderful. I was led to understand that this "mod" was done in conjunction with the Project Zero team, so I felt apt in my use of this mod. The story of this game was fairly formulaic for a Fatal Frame game, but a better one for the genre of Survival Horror on the whole. I honestly don't recall the names of ANYBODY in this game, due mostly to the Japanese names, but the story is about a group of girls abducted by a serial killer. Nothing surprising ever happened in the game, but the atmosphere and ghosts freaked me the hell out while I was playing.

Another odd occurrence that they brought back (that I didn't really enjoy the first time Tecmo implemented it) is the idea of multiple playable characters. But they did implement a control scheme/camera set-up more closely related to Resident Evil 4 & 5 than previous entries on the genre. I thought that was a nice way to tighten up the overall feel of the game, while the multiple characters was a move in the wrong direction. My problem with the multiple character approach (same goes for most other games) is that I feel a terrible disconnect from the game when I'm suddenly Madoka, when just a few minutes ago I as Ruka, or whatever the fuck their names are. I'm also always put off by characters in many Japanese games. I was uncomfortable with how attractive they made near prepubescent girls look in the previous titles, but this one was a bit more acceptable. The characters showed age a bit better. Except for the man! This guy looks like he's 20, but he's supposed to be a seasoned detective. I was unaware that you could be a seasoned detective before your liver goes out! But, yeah, wow. That Japanese are weird.

The new "Wii" controls are fairly intuitive. It's a hard system to describe, but it seems that they solved the drifting camera issues that I suffer from in other games. The motion/IR controller sticked to the up/down axis when not using the Camera Obscura and it turns into a straight up FPS style control when you are in control of the Camera Obscura. But the controls were extremely well worked out and very well set-up.

This game scared the hell out of me. The Fatal Frame games have always scared the hell out of me. And this one kind of ruined my night. I sat down with a bottle of wine (Bolla 2009 Pinot Grigio) and played the last few hours of the game tonight. I had to take a couple of breaks through the night to calm down, and unfortunately I was out of cigarettes and couldn't smoke, and was too scared to go to the corner store to get some. I mean these are scary, scary games. Anyone looking for a good, scary gaming experience should look into this series.

There's really not a whole lot more to say about this game. It's on par with previous titles in the series, it's probably the best true "Survival Horror" game released for the current generation of consoles. I wouldn't say it's a better game than Resident Evil 4 or 5, but it's definitely better than Obscure 2: The Aftermath, Silent Hill: The Homecoming, Alone in the Dark and most likely Deadly Premonition. Definitely worth a play for any horror enthusiast.

Note: This game was released solely in Japan. Unfortunately Nintendo felt that we should not be allowed to play this game on their system over here. I'm'a supporter of Homebrew software, as well as unlocked systems (regarding regions, as well as disc type), but I understand why the companies do what they do. In order to get this game to work on my system, it took me about four hours of tinkering and softmodding. I'm a little afraid that Goldeneye won't work on my system when it's released due to this modding, so, I should warn you to be aware of this. Also, you have to use all sorts of weird software mods and patches to get the game into English, and then you'll still have to burn it onto a disc, even if you own the original Japanese version. So, it's a headache to get to play, but it's well worth it!

Overall: 7/10
Pros: A new Fatal Frame game, great controls, scary as fucking hell, awesome audio
Cons: A pain in the ass to get it to play on US systems, graphics that don't impress compared to current standards, only released in Japan, scary as fucking hell
Play if you like: sleeping with the lights on, survival horror games, Japanese horror movies, tinkering with your system's "nand" or whatever the hell it's called

Edit: it turns out that I got my patch for the game from the wrong source: http://www.fatalframe4.net/ gives you an instant patch with no modding or burning. That wouldn've have saved me a lot of trouble, and made me alot happier to spend the $70 on the game. As if stands, the way I did it frustrated the hell out of me and I redact some of my complaints regarding the game.

Deadly Premonition (360), Fatal Frame IV (Wii)

I've been trying to get my hands on this game on the cheap. As soon as I do, I'll play it and get ya'll a review of it. The game actually really intrigues me. I know it's terrible, but so are 90% of Survival Horror games that aren't Silent Hill or Resident Evil.

Also, I've spent an absurd amount of time trying to soft mod my wii to play Fatal Frame 4. Anyone with advice on this, I'd love to hear! I've been a fan of Fatal Frame since day one, and now I can't play the new one!

Red Dead Redemption (360)

Hello my lovelies! Just thought I'd let you know. I've gotten and played Red Dead Redemption. The reason I've not done a review on it is simply because... I don't think my words can do the game justice. It's just amazing. Thought I'd let you know. Here's the breakdown:

Overall: 9/10
Pros: Beautiful graphics, story throws twists, plays very well, great voice acting, great writing, lots of little things to help occupy you between story missions.
Cons: Some of the guns are silly (LeMats don't load like a Schofield!), multiplayer is full of the SHITTIEST people on Xbox Live!, some of the characters are disappointingly flat, James Martson's kid is a piece of shit.
Play if you Like: GTA games, Westerns.

What We Should all Know About Goldeneye (2010, Wii)

Putting a month between posts is a fun and accurate way to make sure that my posts are full of nutty goodness, nugget and mouth watering caramel. Wait, that's not what you want out of a blog... wait... no, that's like a candy bar. This post is starting to sound like a trademark infringing good time full of trans fats, complex carbohydrates and calories. Wait a tick: once again I went to food. Isn't this a videogame blog? Yeah. Ok.... back to the topic at hand.

There's a new game coming out. Slated for a Q4 release on Nintendo's powerhouse home console, as well as their powerhouse handheld. It's a complicated 13 year stretch of gaming drama that drove some people insane. Some homebrew developers attempted to make ports using the Half-life engines. Some other folks hacked the hell out of the original game and even inserted online play via a Gameshark hooked up to a PC. And the original developers essentially made a sequel to the game, despite the fact that they lost the IP. Another developer released a "sequel" that featured not only bad gameplay, but bad puns, bad story-telling and bad everything else. But us gamers. We've just been frothing at the mouth like rabid assholes demanding (with a passion that exceeds that of any rational man, woman, child, ape or pit-bull is capable of) that we get a new version or a sequel or something. We would not be placated by anything anyone gave us.

Well, guess what? We're getting it. Activision is re-imagining Goldeneye (which actually means this is the third developer to take the reigns of this magical IP). What a lot of posters on the internet seem blatantly unaware of is the 13 year history of the James Bond franchise and it's dirty relationship with the gaming public.

I'll start at the source, for those of you too young to understand (I just realized this game is older than most of the shit talkers on Xbox Live!). Every once in a while there comes a game that will help redefine a genre. In the case of First Person Shooters (FPSs) these are easily remembered and seminal games, be it John Romero's Doom and Doom II (if I have to tell you what consoles, you don't deserve to be on this blog), Rare's Goldeneye (1997, N64), Valve's Half-life (1998, PC) and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4 (2007, PC) are all titles that come to mind almost instantly. But Goldeneye really cinched the idea of a "casual" FPS and offered gameplay that not only required you to have to think about how you played the game, but also varied each playthrough of the level. It offered cheats that would make the game interesting for replays and also challenged you to beat yourself. And the multiplayer.

The game offered beautifully modelled guns that looked and functioned better than anything you'd seen in any PC games before it. It gave you varied gameplay in multiplayer and singleplayer. It gave millions of gamers and casual players alike hours of fun in multiplayer and a bonding experience for friends. Everybody had their favorite gameplay options. Some preferred the dastardly "Proximity mines in Complex with one hit kills" while others still preferred the fast-paced and quick "You Only Live Twice with the Goldengun in Temple" and then there's the goofy "Slappers Only in Stacks" fun.

Wow, this is bringing back memories. Plus the game had almost 100 characters to choose from in multiplayer. Wow. It seems that Activision is only giving us a handful of characters. Weeping.

In those days (the days that some gamers recall as "the glory days") Rare was a well regarded developer. They brought us many N64 games that epitomized the system, such as Donkey Kong, Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark. These guys were defining what gaming would be. Fantastic. But turmoil and gaming politics changed then. EA was posturing to become a huge monster of a company and bought up the James Bond franchise, shortly after the end of the N64, Microsoft bought Rare and any hope of a Goldeneye sequel went down the drain. EA attempted to milk the James Bond franchise to death, with less than stellar releases like The World is Not Enough (N64, 2000) and Tomorrow Never Dies (PSx, 1999). These games both suffered from poor graphics and clunky gameplay. EA tried harder with later releases, making new "movies" out of their games and even bringing Sean Connery in for his final performance as Senor Bond. They even tried to bring back the "Goldeneye" franchise with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (I'm not gonna bother to cite this piece of trash) and simply produced one of the worst FPSs I've ever played.

And so, the torch got passed. From EA to Activision. Activision's a distributer that tends to put out some great games and they respect their customers, rather than shitting on them like EA (hey, EA, fuck you! I can't redownload a $50 game I bought from you last summer!). But Activision gave us what we wanted: Quantum of Solace (2008, multiplatform) which did, essentially, to Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace that Rare did with Goldeneye in 1997. It rewrote the movie into a cinematic game, but this time it was more fast paced. They took the fast action of Daniel Craig and turned it into a fantastic action game with some of the best voice acting I've experienced. The whole crew was there! It also rolled Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace together into one big experience and offered us a fun break from the action in the form of a vomit inducing poisoned sequence. I claim it's the best Bond game since Goldeneye.

So, now that I've got Doom and Perfect Dark on my Xbox 360 and older Zelda games downloaded to my Wii, why can't I get Goldeneye? I'm not 100% sure and haven't read this, but this is my understanding. Ready?

Nintendo owns the license and distro for the original Goldeneye.
Rare owns the Goldeneye property.
Microsoft owns Rare.
Microsoft does not produce, distribute or develop for the Wii.
Nintendo does not produce, distribute or develop for the 360.
Activision owns the James Bond franchise.

Ergo: nobody owns enough of the properties to produce a DLC version of Goldeneye 007 for either the Wii or the 360. But, I think that my head just exploded.

The new Goldeneye, being developed by Activision and released on the Wii and built (presumably) on the COD 4 engine, will be an entirely different beast than Goldeneye of yor. It features Daniel Craig (yes, the actual James Bond) lending his voice acting, likeness and attitude to the endeavor. This is another point that seems to be upsetting a lot of gamers. This awkward need to have everything identical. Activision can't produce an identical game for several reasons. Most of which are outlined in my above breakdown of who owns what. But with a change in Bond, we also have to expect a change in the style of the game (afterall, we can't have wet-behind-the-ears Daniel Craig 007 acting like veteran Peirce Brosnan 007) and so the gameplay changes slightly.

And people are bemoaning the graphics. Woah is you if you think this game looks like crap. You have been spoiled. This game is fantastic looking for the limitations of the hardware.

That's pretty much all I have to say on this subject right now. Hope you enjoyed my college level lecture on James Bond gaming.

EDIT: Goldeneye (Wii, 2010) is actually being developed by Eurocom, same as Quantum of Solace (360, PS3, PC). They are distributed by Activision.