Planet Rossco, 'cause i'm in a world of my own

19th September 2012

Post with 3 notes

Preview; Resident Evil 6 Demo

I have just downloaded and finished the Resident Evil 6 demo and felt the need to write a little preview about it, so here goes.

The demo itself, as is the whole game in its entirety, is split into three parts. Three different stories from three different perspectives that make up the whole game. These tell the stories of three different main characters, two of which are well known in the Resident Evil series, Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield. The other character is a newcomer called Jake but he is apparently the son of the renowned Albert Wesker.

^Leon and partner Helena facing up against the welcomed return of the zombie^

The demo lets you play a small part as each character so you can get to grips with them and get a feel for the differences of them all. Leons part plays more like classic Resi with the return of the good ol’ zombies. It’s dark, it’s tense and it throws back to the old shock tactics like having a dead body slump over when you get near it making you think it’s a zombie and pump a few precious rounds into a lifeless corpse that just succumbed to gravity. Yes the rounds are back to being precious again, at least as far as Leons campaign goes, quite a few times I found myself out of ammo dealing with hordes of the flesh eating buggers only to have to resort to the classic survival knife and just like in classic Resi…The knife is utter mince. Another nice little throwback is the life support style health meter that changes from green to red depending on how critically injured you are, again this only seems to be during Leons campaign as the HUD changes for every character. Fans of the series may (Or may not) be glad to know that the slow opening doors are back in Leons campaign too. (though the other characters can put the boot in if they fancy.) Again this harks back to the Resi’s of old though it’s not as painstaking as it was back then, I think it’s just to build up on the tension as sometimes there might be a zombie waiting to pounce on the other side of a door.

^Chris dealing with the typical newer Resi BOW’s^

Chris and Jakes campaigns seem to favour the style of the more recent Resident Evil games except Jakes has a slightly unique flavour to it but more on that later. Playing as Chris it felt really similar to that of Resi 5 as you plough through more gun weilding BOW types that mutate into different forms depending on which body part you destroy as you shoot them. The action is a bit faster paced than in Resi 5 and there are more baddies with guns rather than having the odd few and the rest having melee weapons. Also while playing Chris’ part there was a monster not unlike the Gigante from Resi 4, complete with throbbing red extremity for obvious destruction.

^Newcomer Jake and partner Sherry Birkin fleeing from some massive BOW^

Now for Jakes part of the game. Jakes part whereas it still follows the newer Resi style, it reminded me of nothing more than that of Resident Evil 3 simply because of the design of the streets you walk around in. (That and maybe because mercenary Jake and agent Sherry reminded me of Jill Valentine with the merc Carlos.) Jakes partner as i’ve already mentioned is returning character Sherry Birkin. For the few of you not in the know, Sherry Birkin was in Resi 2, she was a little girl then and is the daughter of mad-scientiest-turned-G-virus-pumped superfiend. (You know the one with the massive eyeball in his arm) Sherry seems to be an agent of some sort but I didn’t catch what agency she’s with as Jake cuts her off while she’s introducing herself. Jake as said earlier, is the son of famous bad guy, now sadly deceased, Albert Wesker and as such has seemingly inherited a few nifty abilities, namely that of taking apart BOW’s with his bare hands. See, when you switch weapons with jake you can also switch to unarmed combat which, like his old man, he seems very proficient at using lots of fast paced flurrys, powerful uppercuts and jumping kicks to wipe up his foes with, not to mention being a mercenary he’s loaded to the gunnels with weapons compared to the meager one or two with the other characters. Sherry herself seems to have a secret also, during a part in Jakes segment, I was jumping along some scaffolding when it collapsed and I plummeted a good twetny feet or so to the ground. Landing with a hefty thud Sherry asks if Jake is ok, and he responds by saying; “I’ve taken bigger spills though I haven’t got that crazy healing factor of yours.” So it would seem lady Birkin is also mutated in some way.

The control scheme has received a much needed overhaul, finally bringing the Resident Evil series in line with modern games. You can now run without holding a button (Wooo!) and you can also now move whilst aiming. (Yay!) These things are nothing new in the world of games in general but for the Resi series these are rather massive developments indeed. Also in addition are the abilities to take cover against walls or behind desks etc and a new dodging mechanic which is quite cool. While you are aiming just tap the action button and move the stick in whatever direction you want to go and you will jump, roll or slide depending on your chosen character and situation but the cool part is after doing these manuevers you will always end up on the floor lying down aiming and you can shuffle about using a combination of digging your heels in and presumably, your powerful bum muscles, to get back up just let go of the aim button and off you go. It can be a risky move when crowds of zombies are bearing down on you but it can pay off if used at just the right moment, using it to leap out of a tight spot then gun down your nearest assailant before getting up and legging it elsewhere was a favourite tactic of mine. Another cool wee feature, the game has no pause menu and time carries on when you’re in your inventory, this reminded me of the spin off series Resident Evil Outbreak, it’s just a small thing but it can make picking through your inventory tense when monsters are after you.

The overall combat of the game hasn’t moved on too much in terms of change but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, why fix what isn’t broken right? The combat aspects for all three parts are mainly the same but they have their own slight differences, for example Leon gets less ammo and (In the demo at least.) there aren’t any boxes to break open for more sought after shells like there is for Chris and Jake. Another example is the crazy fighting prowess of Jake being able to go toe to toe with monsters thanks to his Wesker like abilities. A new feature I like in regards to the shooting, you get the laser sight like the more recent games but it’s situated in the centre of a crosshair and as you shoot the laser point will move within the crosshair to resemble the recoil so if you’re shooting rapidly you won’t hit the same spot twice but if you watch for a second you will notice the sight sliding back into position to line up the perfect shot again, this will add to the tension of correcting your aim while in tight spots and is a clever move I feel, I would like for more games to adopt this tactic.

Ok so there it is, hope you enjoyed reading, I sure as hell enjoyed playing the demo. The demo is available now on xbox live and PSN store. Go play it now and see for yourself!

                                                                 —-RosscoGameFace—-

Tagged: GamesGamingResident EvilResident Evil 6Resi

17th September 2012

Post with 8 notes

I have come to the conclusion that

Frieza is only angry because he doesn’t have a penis…

Tagged: DBZFreizaDragonball Z

23rd July 2012

Post with 6 notes

Wishlist : Fable 4

Hey guys, today I want to talk about what I personally would like to see from a new upcoming Fable game, should they make one, which they probably no doubt will given the series’ success over the years. I think it’s fair to say that with each sequel the series has gotten a tad more disappointing as it’s gone on. Wether it’s less customisation, bosses that are far to easy, starting off as royalty or the narrative being too short and just plain shoddy. There have been different areas of the series that has irked players as time has gone on.

What I want to discuss today is new features and elements that I want to see put into a new Fable game that I think would inject some more depth and fresh interest into the series to make it pick up a bit again. So, with that said lets get on with it…

General Setting

The fable series has been moving time on in a somewhat realistic fashion, what with the Heroes Guild getting burned down, almost like witch hunting, to moving into an industrial revolution. Lionhead tried it this way and while I do think it was a good idea, I just don’t think it worked all to well in practice, or maybe it did but just could have been executed a bit better. In any case if they make a Fable 4 I want to see the setting move back to where it started. I want old Albion, a more magical, more fantastical Albion. I also want to see a return of the old Heroes Guild, legendary baddies and epic monsters. Overall I want less realism and more magical fantasy.

Character Customisation

Everyone loves character customisation in games these days, and somtimes that feature alone will get people to play games they would otherwise have no interest in. (Myself included.) Character customisation has also been a large part of the Fable series but it is rather limited in scope now. Sure when it started off back in the original Fable you could change your hair style, get tattooed up and wear different armours, though sometimes you had to sacrifice lots of defence points in favour of something a bit more fancy looking, something Lionhead took into account and remedied, possibly, in Fable 2 by taking “Armour” out of it altogether.

In Fable 2 you could have an extensive wardrobe of clothes and some armour-ish looking outfits but the whole idea of armour points were scrapped so the player no longer had to sacrifice defence if they wanted to frolic in a long coat instead of a breastplate. The trend carried on in Fable 3 but again the limit to which you could customise your royal avatar was very short sighted. What I did like was the inclusion of dyes in the series, I can’t tell you how many times I got frustrated in the original game because my hero had gone grey prematurely.

What I want to see in the next Fable title customisation wise: More options for hair and tattoo styles as well as more varied clothing in general. What I really want to see implemented which I also think would be really cool is the ability to add your trophies, to your weapons and armour. The additions would be purely cosmetic (Though stat boosts would be cool too.) for example, say you kill a boss monster and at the end of the quest you get its skull as a trophy, perhaps you could mount that trophy on a shoulder pad or on the cross guard of your sword or the top of your axe. Maybe you got a Trolls tooth and want to hang it from a chain from the handle of your weapon? Or maybe just unique items to wear, I got really excited in Fable 2 when I got Dash’s goggles as I thought i’d be able to wear them about and have everyone in awe of me for it. Alas, it was not to be but it should be…In future titles.

I would also like a proper character generator or have some Fable styled way for characters to start the game proper looking differently. (Maybe through choices made and actions taken during the childhood scene.) I don’t like the fact the characters always have the same face, this doesn’t provide enough individuality. Also I want to see the return of the original Fables scar mechanic, Fables 2 and 3 were too easy to be killed/knocked out in so the most players ended up with characters that had next to no scars, if any at all. You should develop real time scars as you recieve hits. I realise this won’t be to everyones taste so what about a bit of a compromise? You remember the injury viewer in Metal Gear Solid 3? Perhaps the new Fable could have something like that, instead of getting scars straight away, maybe you get injuries and you can choose to have them treated properley by a doctor or yourself or leave them to heal on their own, resulting in scars. There now everyones happy!

Equipment Customisation

In addition to more detailed character customisation, I would like to see more weapon and armour customisation and enchanting. I want raw materials, broken down parts and elements to assemble as I want to create whatever I want. For example, if I wanted to create a sword I want to choose the material I want it made from and different styles of hilt, pommel and blades etc to put together to have my own designs. If i’m creating armour I want to be able to choose the materials and layers as well as add patches, plates, spikes, chains, hoods and anything else I want.

World Customisation

This one would have to be tackled properly but here’s a few ideas. I loved in Fable 2 you had that oppertunity to remodel a run down pirate village by investing some money in it’s reconstruction. I want to see more things like that, perhaps you could have the opposite effect, if you were a criminnal and ruined the town or destroyed it’s economy, after a little while you’d come back to find the town in ruins or as a slum or maybe even destroyed/deserted completely. Alternatively, it would be cool if you could start new towns altogether, find a patch of empty land? No problem! Put up some of your own money to found a new village and watch it grow…or destroy it. In addition to founding new towns here’s an idea I wanted to see in the series since the original Fable…

Taking Over/Occupying Territories

I would LOVE to be able to go rogue in Fable and start my own factions and then take over territories to house them in. For example i’ll tell you how I got the idea. I was playing the original Fable and done the part where you sneak into Twinblades camp and take him down. After I done so, I wandered about the camp for a while and all I could think of was how much I wanted to take over this place and become the new bandit leader. I’m not talking about taking over towns (though that WOULD be cool) But just those deserted places that never get used again after you’ve passed that particular mission or part of the story. Having this feature I think would add layers of new depth to the series and bring about a nice fresh approach. Speaking of starting factions…

Factions

One thing I would love to see in a new Fable game would be different factions to side with. Maybe you don’t want to be a hero, maybe you want to be…an assassin or a bandit? Having different joinable factions would add new directions for narratives and definitely a lot more replay value. Instead of having the bog standard hero start to finish story, you could have alternatives like a full story involving either of the other factions winning too.

In addition to this, I would also like to see player created factions. These would be more sidequest than actual main story though as I can’t see it being substantial enough to warrant it being in the main story. But you could choose a base faction type, (Again assassin, thieve, merc etc) Name it then maybe even customise the overall look of the faction. (General uniform looks etc) And again going back to my earlier point you could use these factions to occupy certain territories and take them on raids of towns or to help people depending on the kind of faction you’ve started. And even possibly have them fight other players factions online…Maybe.

All the other stuff…

Other things I want to see…Better allignment visualisation, This is a feature that got progressively worse as the series went on. If I choose to have an evil character I want that to be visually represented properly. I liked Fable 1’s horns and red eyes with the evil aura. I want more stuff like that, proper character deformation.

Also, (and I realise this is probably the most morbid of my ideas but whatever) Going back to earlier when I was talking about other things you can do with the trophies. How about if a quest involved killing an infamous bandit who’s been plaguing a town maybe you could mount his head on a pike outside the town to make an example of him. Or if you defeated a Jack of Blades style character maybe you could hang him from the castle or in the town square to the cheers of the crowd. (I did say it was morbid.) A less…violent idea would be to mount trophies in a town square as a monument.

Finally, (And again I had this idea since the first Fable) I would love to see a “Generations” gameplay mechanic. Imagine finishing the main quest, your character is now old and as such his/her skills are starting to deteriorate, (in real time) you cant adventure like you used to anymore…it’s time to pass on the torch. If your character has had children, or take on an apprentice if you haven’t, you can pass on your skills, equipment and money (minus a percentage for funeral costs) to your chosen heir and then your old hero gets buried and you begin a new adventure as your new character. After your old hero has died you can devide and sell off his/her properties or donate them to others. It would work like the radiant quest idea in Skyrim. All this I feel would also tie in with my world customisation idea too, with the world constantly changing over time as new generations carry on.

So thats it, my (many) Ideas, wishes and wants from future Fable titles. So what do you think? Good ideas, bad ideas? Or have any ideas of your own you would like to share? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

As always, thanks for reading.

                                                                 —-RosscoGameFace—-

Tagged: FableFable 4wish listsgamesgaming

20th July 2012

Post

Watched The Dark Knight Rises Today…

It was fucking great! All the characters were spot on. Anne Hathaway worked a lot better as Catwoman than I ever thought possible. Some key moments happened a bit too fast and maybe could’ve used a bit more focusing on but other than that the film was nothing short of a bloody masterpiece. Everyone out there whinging about it being dissappointing…FUCK OFF!!!

Tagged: the dark knight risesBatmanNolanMovies

30th April 2012

Question

thelastinterceptor asked: Holy crap, I also watched that show when I was a kid! Man, it looks so weird now xD All those 90's cartoons based on videogames were kinda strange. Good times hahahaha

Haha, yeah tell me about it mate. Did you ever see the legend of zelda cartoon back in the day? That was well weird.