"I hope this is not Chris' blood!"

Welcome! I've been wanting to open up with that quote for sooooo long. It's perfect for this post. Halloween is right around the corner, and gaming has been good to us over the years, blessing us with some great horror games that we've all come to love.

If you haven't figured it out yet, we're going to be talking about one of my favorite gaming series ever. EVER. still don't know what I'm talking about?

"Just a moment! Just take, a look, at this!"

That's Barry there... he's going to be helping me through this. We're going to talk about one of the best series in the survival horror genre. It paved the way for Silent Hill and other survival horror games, and it did it in an incredibly cheesy way.

Resident Evil is one of the most famous franchises ever made. Not only are there tons of games on multiple platforms, there's movies, action figures.... you name it. I actually used to have a S.T.A.R.S airsoft pistol, which looked exactly like the Beretta from RE3. Resident Evil is huge today, and not just here in the states. I really wanted to talk about the first three games for a while, because they are my favorite, and were made when Capcom wasn't entirely set on milking it for money. Without further adieu, let's tackle the first game in the series.

Resident Evil (Director's Cut) - A.K.A., the game with hilarious voice acting!

"What?! What is this?"

Indeed Barry, what is this? It's only the first installment of the entire series! Released in 1996 on the ancient Play-Station, it was one of the first games of its kind. While Alone In The Dark came first, Resident Evil came along and did it much better, and offered gamers one of the best horror experiences.

Save for the voice acting, which was heavily criticized at the time of its release. It's funny though, because these days the voice acting is held in high regard, specifically for how terrible it is, and the dialogue is quoted left and right in various jokes and on various forums. Hell, I've already quoted Barry twice, making him the obvious winner of the Shittiest Dialogue award. It's so unbelievably bad that it's funny. I blame it on the budget this game had at the time. I'm going by the FMV sequences to base this. The costumes the actors wear are something out of a high school play or shitty B movie. The whole GAME feels like a B movie. However, at the time of its release, I doubt anybody cared after actually playing the game.

For one, the game makes use of some classic horror settings, and does it really well. You'll be exploring an empty mansion (or is it?!!) for most of the game, and it's fucking creepy. The graphics are crude today, but at the time they were amazing. Using static camera angles, the game does its best to instill fear in you. The mansion is believable, and really gives off a certain atmosphere. It's the classic haunted house type after all! Hearing zombies creeping closer, or seeing them at the end of corridors is unnerving as all hell. The sound design is great. You'll hear zombies groaning faintly in the distance. Hunters screech loud, and every chomp a zombie takes is heard. The weapons sound like they should, and ambient sounds like a clock ticking in the background, or the music itself, create a very satisfying atmosphere.

Unfortunately, you'll be dodging a lot of zombies. Ammo is scarce, hence the term survival horror. It's just you and your pistol (or knife) for a long time. The game does have other weapons you can acquire, but the ammo is even more scarce. This requires players to run away sometimes, instead of blasting everything you see. It adds to the tension this game creates. When you have 5 bullets left and you know there's a monster around the corner, you're going to start panicking. Who wouldn't?

Let's introduce the characters:

Chris Redfield - Resident dipshit.

Chris is one of the playable characters, and he's right up there with Barry with stupid quotes. Don't let that mug fool you... he's pretty damn dense. He can't read music, and he can't do basic chemistry. His IQ is probably lower than 100.

Jill Valentine - The fucking master of unlocking.

Jill is awesome. She starts with the Beretta for one thing, and she gets the lockpick immediately after. Her side of the story is much more interesting with crazy Barry, and she can read music and mix chemicals. Ignore this derp face... she got pretty good looking later on, especially in the Apocalypse movie. God damn!

Barry Motherfucking Burton - "I have this!"

Barry is the man. Full of fucking terrible quotes, but all hilarious. Even in his simplest dialogue, he will warrant a chuckle or two. He also gets an award for stating the fucking obvious: "It's a weapon! It's really powerful! Especially against living things!"

Yeah... thanks for the clarification you old bastard you...

Rebecca Chambers - Resident pain in the ass.

Rebecca is utterly useless. She only appears in Chris' scenario to help play music for him, and start the self-destruct sequence. She gets in the way and has to be saved to get the best ending, because medics can't protect themselves apparently. Her voice is fucking annoying too.

Albert Wesker - Resident BADASS TRAITOR.

Wesker is the captain of the S.T.A.R.S. team. He's an all around character. His voice actor is horrible, he has humorous quotes, and he's secretly working for Umbrella, which is painfully obvious from the get go. He has cool sunglasses, and slicked hair. He's too cool for S.T.A.R.S.

Joseph - "JOOOOOSSEEPPPPPPPPHHHH!!!!"

You literally see him for a minute until dogs eat him alive. He obviously skipped training.

Kenneth - The dude with no head.

Quite literally. He's the first corpse you happen upon. His only purpose is to introduce the first zombie, and to give you two clips for your trusty Beretta.

Forest - A.K.A. crow food.

Forest is having a bad day. He's been pecked to death by crows, which is extremely convenient since he leaves behind a bazooka.

Richard - "TERRIBLE DEMONS."

Richard is great. He gives you a radio, he leaves ammo, and he warns you about a giant snake. His voice actor is incredibly bad, so it's a great thing he dies so quick.

Enrico - "Traitor!!!"

Yeah, that's all Enrico is. He tells you there's a traitor among the S.T.A.R.S. members, which by this point in the game, you know already. Thanks anyway.

Resident Evil also has quite the variety of baddies to kill, or be killed by:

Mr. Zombie - Generic, but still dangerous.

Zombies are everywhere in Resident Evil. They're the main focal point of the entire series. You've seen these guys before. Interests include human flesh, dimly lit hallways, and scaring the shit out of people. They hate anything that can't be eaten, except for bullets of course.

Zombie Dogs - This ain't Old Yeller.

Damn straight. Fast and powerful. Out run them or stand over them and shoot them dead. I doubt milk bones work against them.

Crows - Threat undetected.

For real. Don't worry about these guys. They do minimal damage, can be out run, and don't deserve a taste of your knife, let alone your precious bullets.

Giant Spiders - Initiate arachnophobia.

Quite large, but still not quite deadly. Ignore them to live. Shoot them, and suffer the wrath of baby spiders that will drain your health down. Oh, and they can poison you.

Hunters - Fuck these guys.

Hunters are the deadliest enemy you will encounter in this game. Your Beretta is insanely weak against them, they have weird invincibility frames, and they can lob your head off any fucking time they want. There are a lot of them too. Run away from these fuckers.

Chimera - Fuck these guys too.

Not as bad as hunters, but they are still just as deadly. They crawl on the ceiling and try to cut your head off. Just dodge em and run.

Yawn Snake - Abssstthhholute trouble.

The first boss you encounter, and a hard motherfucker at that. He guards a crest you need, so fill him full of shotgun shells. Oh, and don't get bit. He's full of poison. 

 Plant 42 - Break out the weed wacker.

 Shotguns work just as well.

Even Bigger Spider - Protector of doors.

Guards a door to Umbrella's laboratory. Burn him to death with the flamethrower or blow him up with the bazooka. He's a chump.

The Tyrant - The ultimate failure.

The last boss, and the hardest hitting. Tyrant sports a rather unpleasant mutated claw that he likes to swing at you. He takes a lot of damage and he's really fast. He doesn't care for rocket launchers much.

Okay, glad we established everybody.

Resident Evil doesn't have the greatest plot... it's one big conspiracy! Basically, the S.T.A.R.S. team is dispatched to the Arklay Mountains, just outside of Raccoon City, to investigate bizarre murders and occurrences in the Spencer Mansion. There's traitors, double agents, and major fuckery going down around these parts, and it's all thanks to Umbrella, the biggest corporation in America. Biological experiments that went wrong are now being unleashed, thanks to the T-Virus being spread. It's your job as Jill or that lunkhead Chris to figure it out and put a stop to it all!

The main focus is the gameplay. Resident Evil uses static camera angles, so your only option for movement is tank controls. That means holding up moves the character up no matter what, and left and right turn them in their respective directions. It feels like you're controlling a tank. Holding square runs, and you will use it the entire game. Walking is just too slow.

 "Look out! He's insane!"

You might be. The mansion is intimidating with all its monsters, but thankfully you have an adequate arsenal to contend with. Holding R1 will ready your weapon, and pressing X after will shoot. It's slow, and you can only aim totally up, totally down, or totally straight. Resident Evil offers a nice balanced arsenal. You have the Beretta, which acts as your zombie and dog repellent. The Shotgun is your main weapon later in the game, and is quite effective against bosses, hunters, and spiders. Aiming up at zombies will let you blow their heads off, so that's a nice feature. The ammo is plentiful for it as well. Chris will get the Colt Python later on. It's a powerful magnum that Barry up there similarly uses. The ammo is extremely scarce for it, so its only recommended use is on Tyrant, a few hunters, and chimera if they give you a hard time. It kills everything in one shot, save for the bosses. Jill will get the Bazooka fairly early, and its the best weapon in the game. Not only does it pack a fucking wallop, it has three different ammo types: the flame rounds, acid rounds, and the regular old fashioned grenade rounds. Even if you have to fight Forest to get it, it's still better than backtracking and solving a puzzle to get Chris' Colt Python. Just the fact that you get it so early makes it better.

On top of the weaponry, you also have a health meter and inventory to account for. The game can be saved by finding Ink Ribbons for typewriters. An EKG tracks your health in three states: Fine, Caution, and Danger! You can restore it by using first aid sprays or by using herbs. The herbs are neat because they can be combined to restore more health, and even cure poison effects. Besides watching your health, you have to keep track of your inventory, as it is severely limited! Playing as Chris grants only 6 inventory slots, while Jill gets 8. That means you need to manage what you collect. Thankfully, the game places save rooms all over that hold storage chests. These things are some how universally linked, so you can leave anything in one chest and it will appear in another. These are crucial to surviving.

Resident Evil is also notable for its puzzle based gameplay. Throughout the game, you'll be collecting keys to open doors, and items that either unlock areas, or allow you to get past a certain part. For example, to get out of the mansion, the player will need to find four crests by searching around and solving puzzles. A lot of items will be collected and used, sometimes more than once. Figuring these puzzles out is half the battle.

The game keeps track of your efforts with a rank system. Depending on how fast you beat it, how many times you save and heal, and what conditions you meet, you can unlock secret costumes and weapons! And even if you get bored with the main scenario, there's the Arrange option in the Director's Cut edition. It puts every item in the game in totally different areas. With multiple endings, and two characters to play as, Resident Evil offers a lot of replay value.

 "That was too close! You were almost a Jill Sandwich!"

All in all, Resident Evil is a great game. It's cheesy as all hell, but it has a certain charm to it. The characters are great in unintentional ways, and the monsters are scary. Playing this back in 1997 when my uncle sold it to me still sticks with me to this day. It truly terrified me, and was the first game to do so. It's a blast to play through. It's great for speed running as well, and to this day I still play through it every so often, just to laugh at the horrible dialogue. It really is funny.

Here's a small taste of it, if you don't believe me:

"Whoops! Now I've done it!" Stay tuned for part 2 where I'll tackle the superior Resident Evil 2!

Super Metroid Redesign - Taking It One Step Further

Anyone who knows me or has read my posts knows that I love the Metroid series. To me, the Metroid series is something that deserves more attention from Nintendo, because if you remember correctly, I did play through the awful Metroid: Other M release on the Wii. While it had its moments that I liked, it just didn't do the series justice at all. Sure the beams looked cool as all hell, and fighting some of the bosses such as Ridley and Phantoon as a bonus fight were awesome, but a lot of the core mechanics utterly ruined the game for me.

For one, the Metroid series is all about exploration. Other M does its best to go against that. For example, why in the holy mother of fuck are the upgrades shown on the map? When you reach an area that contains an upgrade, your map will show it. While it does take a little searching to find your way to them, it totally ruins the wonder of finding them on your own. The older Metroid games make you find these upgrades, and while to the hardcore player they aren't necessarily essential for survival, they do make it easier, especially to first time players. Getting your ass handed to you by Ridley because you keep running out of missiles? Go find more missile expansions, or go search for the other energy tanks you haven't found yet.

Other M throws that out the window. There aren't many segments that require backtracking to go get certain items. Some of my favorite parts in Super Metroid involved finding the speed booster upgrade, and then using the shinespark technique to get some expansions you could have missed. It's a cool upgrade that takes some relative skill to use, and feels so worth it when you finally get that last expansion or energy tank.

So worth it

Even Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion on the GameBoy Advance were far superior to Other M; with the latter being entirely linear in design. In my playthrough of Zero Mission, I do a lot of tricks to get items you normally can't obtain until much later on such as the Screw Attack, which I get roughly ten minutes into that video using bomb jumps. It's actually a really cool thing, because a lot of items are possible to get based on skill instead of glitches, or you know, playing the game normally.

One of the best things Zero Mission and Fusion did was add the ability to chain together shinesparks. In Super Metroid, if you shinesparked into a surface with a slope, you would just blast past it until you hit a wall. Zero and Fusion however, you would continue running with your charge, and if you hit down, you would keep that charge. That meant long segments of charging, sparking, hitting a slope and continuing the charge, ultimately leading to some awesomely clever secrets and items. It was also fun to pull off, and required quite a bit of skill.

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Enter Super Metroid Redesign, a ROM hack of Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Made by a user named Drewseph, this hack takes some of the mechanics of Zero Mission and Fusion, as well as Metroid Prime, and incorporates it into arguably the best Metroid game ever made. It's almost an entirely new experience.

For starters, the map is entirely re-done. If you knew Brinstar and Norfair like the back of your hand, this time you won't. The areas are also much larger, and require use of the game map as well as your own due to the many secret passageways you will encounter. It's absolutely amazing, and brings back the sense of exploration that Super Metroid did so well, as well as the atmosphere that honestly has yet to be matched by any game, save for the Metroid Prime series.

Unlike most Super Metroid ROM hacks, this one changes the game play mechanics drastically, and in my opinion, for the better. Gone are the floaty physics of Super Metroid. Instead, we get a more realistic physics system. Jumps are a lot shorter, and fall time is decreased dramatically, as well as incorporating the need to crouch before jumping to jump higher. This takes some time to get used to, but is required if you want to make it further. Gone are infinite bombs as well! This hack incorporates the Metroid Prime style bombs, meaning you get three you can use in succession, and take time to regenerate. Surprisingly, this doesn't hinder bomb jumpers; it just requires a lot more timing and skill to pull off. To the guys that mastered the incredibly easy bomb jumps in Zero Mission, you have a lot to learn here.

Fuckin A!

As well as the physics being changed, gone are the days of walljumping off whatever the fuck you feel like. In fact, the walljump technique isn't even available until you find it, which is the second upgrade you come across. Redesign makes it so surfaces with a rough appearance are the only walls you can jump off, adding to a more realistic idea. A smooth wall won't cut it. Another change lies in the Spring Ball upgrade. Instead of being seperate, it is now combined with the Hi-Jump Boots. Sweet!

Another serious change from Super Metroid is the Beam Combo upgrade. In Super Metroid, any beam you found would just add to the ones you already found. For example, having the regular Charge Beam and then getting the Wave Beam would make you have a charged Wave Beam. Redesign changes this entirely. You'll be switching beams back and forth until near the later part of the game, and even then two beams are not accounted for. This is cool because you feel like you have three classes of beams. You have the Spazer that can be combo-ed with the Charge and Wave Beams, but not the Ice Beam. The Plasma Beam can't be combo-ed with the Spazer, and then you have the regular versions of EACH. A lot of these combos have more use in certain situations, and are a lot of fun to use.

Redesign brings back the shinespark upgrade, and boy is it a lot of fun. Zero Mission had a lot of segments where you could find a lot of upgrades using this technique, but it required a lot of skill. Redesign uses this A LOT. When you start the game, you'll find upgrades right away that aren't accessible without shinesparking. A lot of them will make you question just how in the hell you get them in the first place. For example, before reaching the elevator to Brinstar, you'll come across a power bomb upgrade, but it's behind a 3 block barrier of shinespark blocks. There isn't even an area around to charge up to get to it. Once you figure out the mechanics of shinesparking however, it becomes obvious. This is actually one of the hardest upgrades to get, because you have to start off in Brinstar, charging shinesparks and making it to the elevator, and finally getting to the upgrade. It's fucking tough.

You'll need to master this technique, as well as others such as the mock ball technique and in-air shinesparking to find secrets and advance through the game. It's tough to master, but so fucking worth it when you do. Those secrets are some of the funnest moments of the ROM hack. It's also crazy to know that Drewseph added it, seeing as how Super Metroid didn't have that capability.

As if there wasn't enough, this hack adds another fascinating feature: an actual mission objective. Throughout the game, you'll come across well hidden Chozo statues. Usually these hold the useful upgrades and expansions, but these are much different. When rolled onto, they disable a security lock on the entrance of Tourian, the last area of the game.

The entrance to Tourian in Super Metroid

In Super Metroid, you had to kill the main bosses to open this entrance up. In Redesign, you'll need to kill the bosses, as well as finding ALL the Chozo locks. There are a lot of them too. It's a rather neat feature because it adds an objective AND encourages exploration.

One of my favorite segments of the game is the famous "Hell Run" in Norfair. In Super Metroid, you have the Varia Suit by the time you go into Norfair so you can deal with the extreme heat. Redesign said "fuck you" and makes you run through an intense series of brilliant level design. To begin with, you can't even enter Norfair until you have 3 energy tanks, and that's still cutting it! Without the Varia Suit, your energy is constantly being depleted at a rapid fire rate, so you need to fucking hustle. Not only are you dodging enemies, but there are morph ball tunnels that need to be navigated with perfection, and a section where you must kill respawning enemies with missiles to gain more energy to make it the rest of the way. It's one of the most intense sequences in the whole game and it's also one of the hardest. The best part though? You have to get the Ice Beam at the end of it, and make it back to go get the Varia Suit.

There's a save point halfway through the Hell Run, with a missile station and energy station, and thank fucking God for that because you will need it. This segment renders save states useless, because you don't even have a second to waste saving it. It can get frustrating after a few attempts, so patience is needed. However, this doesn't even compare to Maridia, which is a water themed section much later in the game.

In Super Metroid, you have to go through the Abandoned Ship and fight Phantoon to get the Gravity Suit before going to Maridia so you can move freely in the water. Redesign makes you go through Maridia without it, and not for a small period of time either. On my first playthrough, I spent almost two hours navigating this section. Not only are you seriously limited in movement, but you'll be facing a lot of tough enemies, including two golden space pirate minibosses. It's fucking hard as shit. There are a lot of ways you can go, but eventually you end up finding the Gravity Suit, and it just feels so rewarding as you go back through annihilating everything and finding more expansions. This hack always makes it worth the frustration.

After trekking through Maridia, which is more or less one of the hardest parts of the game, you'll come to the Lost Caverns, which is a total change in atmosphere from Maridia. It's a little creepy at first, seeing as how your map will show a blank spot for this area, because it's the only area that requires a specific way to get through. If you keep running right, you won't get anywhere. Instead, there's a pattern, and it isn't easily noticed at first. To get past, you need to follow stalagmites. Yes, you need to follow fucking stalagmites. I won't spoil it, but it is a pretty neat section and doesn't feel out of place. Think of Death Mountain in the original Legend of Zelda, but much more complicated. Ultimately though, it leads to Phantoon, and is so much more fitting than the Abandoned Ship in Super Metroid. It's fucking creepy.

To anyone that has beaten Super Metroid, and I hope you have because you're seriously missing out if you haven't, you'll know that the fight with Mother Brain is epic and the escape sequence is intense and equally as awesome. Redesign said screw the 3 minute escape sequence, and opted for a fucking 25 minute escape sequence.

Think I'm joking? Here's the whole sequence done by a first time player. Yeah. 25 FUCKING MINUTES to escape. That means you're going through a shit load of the game just to make it to the end, and every minute counts. You won't make it back to the ship with 15 or 10 minutes to spare no... more like 2 or 3 if you're really fast. That's absolutely insane. For the first time player that's quite a daunting task, and failure means fighting Mother Brain again, which is kind of shitty. I honestly prefer the original versus Redesign's fucking 25 minute escape sequence. It's short and sweet, and feels a lot more intense as the clock gets lower and lower. After 15 minutes, you just want to get the fuck out. However, for the first time player, it can be exciting because you're not sure at first what to expect. A great bonus would have been an extra boss, like in Metroid Fusioin where you fight the Omega Metroid before boarding your ship.

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In the end, is Super Metroid Redesign worth it? Abso-fucking-lutely. It adds and changes so much of the game, but in positive ways, and ultimately ends up being something entirely different while still offering the fun and wonder of what made Super Metroid great in the first place.While it's much harder than Super Metroid ever was, it's still a blast to play. Out of all the numerous ROM hacks for Super Metroid, this one is my favorite. The features it adds and changes it makes just blows me away. It brought back the enjoyment of when I first played Super Metroid, and that's something I haven't felt in a very long time.

Want to try it for yourself? Get the ROM hack here.

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BULLSHIT BONUS!

Oh come on, you think I'd stop talking about Metroid now that I'm on a roll? I've got one more ROM hack for you! Let's take a quick look at Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Enter Metroid LUA on the NES. Using FCEUX to emulate, this ROM hack makes use of the implemented LUA scripting to vastly improve the original Metroid.

For starters, you now have the mini-map that came standard in later Metroid games. To anyone who played the original Metroid, navigating the world was a bitch. A lot of areas look the same, and the map is pretty big for a NES game. This LUA script assists you with that. Another nifty feature is having a map screen as well, with labels for Brinstar, Norfair, and others. It's a really nice feature.

It also adds an equip screen in place of the pause screen. Yes, for the first time in the original Metroid, you are free to equip or unequip your upgrades. This makes exploring a lot of areas much easier. On top of that, you also get text boxes to let you know what upgrades you've found. Instead of the famous tune that plays when you find an upgrade, you get a small text box that shows what it is, just like Super Metroid!

And if that wasn't enough, there's a secret boss. You can now fight Crocomire from Super Metroid in 8-bit glory. You can thank me later.

So, that's a look at two awesome ROM hacks for two of my favorite games. I suggest checking them both out. It's absolutely worth the time.

Samus is always worth your time

All Things Big and Small

Jesus it's been awhile since I've written anything here.  Oh well, let's get this underway.  I want to talk about the importance and need of both Indie and AAA studios.

I know a lot of people want to shit on both of these types of games, but just hear me out.  I get that to some, indie games can come off as pretentious or as non-games, and that some AAA games are simply akin to popcorn films, but why do we say these like they're bad things?  After all, would cinema be better off without your Die Hard's, Rambo's or even your Godfather's?  It takes all kinds to build a medium.

First up, let's talk about the positives of indie games.  Indie games are where you will see some of the most unique game ideas ever.  The premise for Portal came from a small team's project called Narbacular Drop.  Indie games don't have the same boundaries that AAA games have, due to fewer expectations and fewer restrictions from Publishers, Shareholders, and the like.

Indie games are useful not only for the unique genres and gameplay mechanics, but often, indie games handle more intricate and nuanced subjects.  Where they fail though, is that some of these games that tackle heavy issues, don't have a good game surrounding it.  It acts more like an interactive experience that focuses strictly on the narrative, at the expense of everything else.  This would be your games like Dear Esther, and the Stanley Parable.  I love the Stanley Parable, but there are times where you wish that this content was in something with more meat on it.

On the flip side, you have your AAA games.  The games that can cram content onto a disk.  In this context, content isn't just "stuff to do", it can be music, graphics, physics, etc.  There's just a certain level of polish and shine you get with most AAA games.  Assassin's Creed II had a great city to explore.  It was alive, large, and overall fun to explore.  These games are what push the mainstream.  If you want to get a point across, this would be the size you wish you could reach.

I'd love for these two things to co-mingle. I'd love to see a game with the moral and discussion about freedom of choice, like a Stanley Parable, but frame it inside something substantial.  The question of free will could easily be a subplot in any major game.  You could say that the David Cage games might fall into this category, with Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.  Those games though, suffered from similar effects.  They were close to being great, but Heavy Rain was mostly an interactive cut-scene with many Quick Time Events.

For an example that does this right: Spec Ops: The Line.

Advanced warning, I haven't played this game personally, and I'm going off second hand information from various places.

We good?

Ok.

It handles the reality of war, and actually made people feel bad for what they were doing.  The game carried weight with it, while being a major release, within the Spec Ops franchise.  Granted, Spec Ops isn't the most popular of IP's in the world, but it's been around awhile.  It's a First Person Shooter, a genre that's been saturated with Power Fantasy, a definitive foreign bad guy, and bombastic set pieces over the last few years.  You could even say that the modern War FPS genre is oversaturated of late, with Annual Call of Duty releases, Battlefield coming out every other years, and then games like Medal of Honor clinging to the sides.  So, it's a popular genre that ended up telling an impactful story, which surprised the hell out of a lot of people.

Also...

Are you...

Detecting

A Pattern

Here?

Now, I know I'm picking on Call of Duty and Battlefield with these images, but it proves the point that this is a populated market, and most games within it are seen as interchangeable for the most part, which again, made Spec Ops the Line so surprising to people, because they just expected another Call of Duty/Battlefield-esque First person Shooter, from a smaller studio, that was going to be mediocre.  

So, it can be done.  AAA games can bring mainstream attention to serious issues, but it takes the buzz on the indies to make them viable.  I may not like games like Dear Esther, or ... what was that interactive story-game about lesbians that made so many people's... GONE HOME.  That's what it was.  I may not like that sort of game, but I can see that it has value, just as much as a Call of Duty game, or Assassin's Creed game.  The indies will drive the direction for the content of our games in the future, but the AAA's are the ones who need to see that the risk isn't as great as they thought, and can wrap an interesting concept in fundamentally sound mechanics.

Now how to wrap this mess up...

I suppose with a game recap.  I recently finished up the main Story in Pokemon Y, so I'll be moving onto Shin Megemi Tensei 4 soon.  Pokemon Y: Pokemon but More and Improved.  ALso been bouncing between Okami HD, and DmC: Devil May Cry on PS3.  Okami should be played by as many people as possible.  Clover Studios did something wonderful with that game, and I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy classic Japanese art styles.  DmC is the reboot of the Devil May Cry franchise, and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  There was a boss fight that had a gratuitous amount of swearing in it.  Hell, I curse some, but when every sentence in their dialogue exchange had some form of expletive, it got real old real fast.  Gameplay is really solid for it, and chaining combos together is hella satisfying though.

Also, PayDay 2 on PS3.  Basically the perfect formula for a sequel.  Take the core gameplay from game 1, tweak it, and make more of what made the first game great.  A review of Payday 2 may come in the future.

Morndas, 13th day of Morning Star, 3E 2014 - A Rant On The Elder Scrolls Series

It's been a hell of a long time since I wrote on here. What can I say? Life is always keeping me busy, especially with the holidays that just flew by. Christmas promptly kicked my ass and took all my money.

Merry Christmas motherfucker.

But that's what the holidays are for right? I'll tell you what it's not about: playing the ever loving shit out of not one, but three Elder Scrolls games. Yes, you read that right. THREE. FUCKING. ELDER SCROLLS GAMES.

THE INSANITY

In case you haven't gotten the hint, that could be a combined total of 800 FUCKING HOURS OF GAMING. And that's not even the best part! I'm going to go into detail of the three games I've been playing, starting with the one I played first:

THE ELDER SCROLLS IV - OBLIVION

Expecting maybe Morrowind, or Skyrim here? Not quite. The funniest part about this game, is that I've owned it four times over a period of four years, and maybe played a good half hour of it. Why is it here you may ask? I've gotten the RPG itch it seems, despite hating RPGs with a passion. Maybe it's the invisible dice rolls, the calculations of all the stats playing out in the code, blind to the human eye. This game is different.

For one, it's all real-time combat, which makes it playable for me. If I had to wander around in first person, and have to stop for some elaborate turn based combat system to start, I would have forgot this game the first time I sold it. Thankfully, the combat is straight forward, swing-a-sword-until-something-dies affair. It's also one of the only RPGs that gives a shit about starting you off to a good pace with a clear fucking objective.

Oh, the irony...

It helps that the graphics are on par with what I expect things to look like. We will get to that more later... but Oblivion is definitely a pretty game. It also helps that this game makes your objectives easy to engage. You get a quest, your next stop is marked on your map. You can either walk (or take a horse) to said location, or use the Fast Travel system, which basically just teleports you to a location marked on the map. Do not confuse those two. Yes, you can add a marker to your map. No, you cannot fast travel to it. It works by showing locations you have found in the world, such as dungeons, towns, landmarks, etc. It's very easy for me to do quests without feeling lost or bored from having to trek long distances.

 

Long time fans of the series hated this apparently. Well guess what? I'm not a long time fan. This is my foray into Elder Scrolls, just like most people. I enjoy my generic fantasy setting. I enjoy easy and engaging combat. I enjoy easy to follow quests. I ENJOY BEING ABLE TO PLAY THE FUCKING GAME.

I'm yelling at this point, and for good reason. The next game I'm going to list will start our shallow journey into the great fucking Elder Scrolls debate that the internet loves soooooo much.

THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND OMG TEH BEST EVER MAED

Yeah, that's the internet equivalent to describing this slow, unforgiving and absolutely boring game. It's on everybody's top games lists for some divine reason. I've had this game more than Oblivion, and have tried on multiple occasions to get into it and see where the shit ends and the game starts working in all the right ways, BUT IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Why? Because this game shows no mercy or lends a helping hand EVER. You create your character, and you're thrown into the game world with a vague objective. That's it. You're on your own after that. Okay, so you're thinking, well surely you can ask NPCs for help, at least some directions right? Sure, if you enjoy reading a wall of text after choosing over EIGHT things to ask.

For example, the first person I see I talk to him. He introduces who he is, and the game shows me some topics to click on that I can ask him. Every time you click one, you get a paragraph or longer of text which more than likely will add more things to ask. I just want to know where the silt strider is, which is the equivalent of a bus in Morrowind. He tells me it's in a certain direction in the town I'm in. Asking about which town I'm in presents me with yet more topics. This is the first guy I've talked to and its starting to be fifteen minutes into gameplay.

Also, I got 80 gold to help me do the first quest, which involves delivering a package. The first thing I figure I have to do is get a weapon. So I ask the fucking guy where the shops are, and which ones are which. I find the shop, deal with the clunky and ugly interface which takes me five minutes to buy a fucking dagger, and finally I figure out where this silt strider is. But guess what? Remember that 80 gold I got earlier? It's not for weapons or armor. It's the fee for the silt strider to take me to my first objective.

Okay, so now that I can't use that method to go to my objective, I have to walk. Walking in Morrowind is the equivalent of crawling in real life. Yeah, it's that fucking slow. So off I go using the map to find Balmora, the city where my objective is. Along the way I encounter a flying monster. I pull my dagger out and start clicking away to slash at it, but nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is where the end of the line drew for me. There's a fucking random number generator happening behind the scenes every time you attack. The game does not make this appear to be so. You look to be slashing the monster, I mean how could you NOT when he's in your FUCKING FACE, but you aren't hitting it because your stats aren't high enough in the right places.After clicking endlessly, I realize this thing has drained almost all of my health, so I start running from it but it's no use. This thing is just on my ass the whole time, and kills me before I can get ten feet away.

ABSOLUTELY FRUSTRATING.

Fuck that. I'm hoping that when I get to Balmora and deliver this package, maybe things will pick up. I start all over again, this time taking the silt strider. I arrive in the small town, separated by a river. After searching around for the guy I need to deliver this thing to and finally finding him, he gives me massive amounts of text and another objective more vague than the last. I honestly have no idea what to do. So I try joining one of the guilds. The Molag Tong guild seems cool, a bunch of assassins and what not, so I go there. Turns out the guy that takes new members in isn't even in this town, so there goes that idea. I can't go to Vivec where he's at to talk to him because I have no gold to use the silt strider, and I have no weapon to defend myself with if I walk. Fuck the weapon, I don't have the fucking stats to battle a damn worm!!!

Quit. Done. This game is too unforgiving in the beginning. Yet, it remains a favorite among fans. For what fucking reason? Is that kind of complexity a niche market for some gamers? I don't understand how anyone got past the beginning of this game without being bored to tears or being so fucking frustrated. I cannot understand why Bethesda thought the combat was acceptable enough. Even when you do hit something, you don't get the feeling you did, or that it took skill to do it. In Oblivion, I have to dodge attacks and make sure my sword hits. That is non-existent in this game. The number gods decide if you can hit something. Agility isn't high enough? Oh well, guess you're only going to hit that bat every 100 clicks and do FOUR points of damage.

Yet this is where Morrowind fans will bash Oblivion, stating it had the same system, you just didn't do a lot of damage when you start. Yeah, that's true, but at least I'm doing SOME kind of damage, and it FEELS like I'm hitting something. UGHHHHHHHH. This game just pisses me off to no end, in every single category. The music and story are pretty cool from what I've heard and read of it. It's just sad to say that I've played this game so many times and never got farther than that. It's too fucking hard and too boring for me.

Which leads me to another surprise in this post.

 

THE ELDER SCROLLS II: DAGGERFALL

This is the granddaddy of the series. It should be known that Bethesda themselves said the game map is as big as Great Britain. No, that's not an exaggeration or a joke. Just fucking look at this:

Don't let the size of that boat fool you. It's horribly exaggerated in size. All that land and water you see is totally explorable. Every province and kingdom has over a hundred locations EACH. Think I'm lying?

That's just the province of Daggerfall. You may recognize its shape on the first map above. All those dots on that one province are places you can go to. Just think about that for a second. Now think about the fact that this game was released in 1996. What a fucking feat Bethesda accomplished back in the day! The scope of this game world is absolutely gigantic. And to think reviewers marveled at Grand Theft Auto V.

Where Daggerfall is less impressive however, is that it is all randomly generated. Everything keeps the same layout and name and what not, but loot and enemies are random. Dungeons are randomly generated in layout and loot, so they are never the same. That is awesome, but can be frustrating when you consider that the size of these things are gigantic.

Being archaic as it is, Daggerfall is not very user friendly. For one, the controls suck. It's DOS days though, so what can you expect? It's interesting though. You have so many features. For one, you can swing a weapon using the mouse. Swinging in certain directions makes your character do certain attacks, each having their own damage and chance to hit. I almost cringed at this, but when you fight you actually feel like you can hit things! Yeah, it's all random numbers being generated in the code, but at least the game makes it seem like you are making progress. Morrowind would play the same whiff sound over and over. Daggerfall adds clangs and clashes, and has a distinct hit sound when you do hit things. It's not as ridiculous as Morrowind either. You CAN hit things right off the bat, save for a monster in the starting dungeon if you don't start with the right weapon, but you can skip that monster. You don't have to fight it. And if by some chance it attacks you, you can run away and live.

THANK FUCKING GOD

And that's just the combat. You can run, crouch, jump, and fucking climb. If you get locked out of a town, fuck it, just climb the gate or the wall. Or get your jumping skill up and just jump over it. You can dual wield weapons. You can cast all kinds of magics and almost all of them are useful. Morrowind has a lot of spells, but there's only a handful that are actually useful. Daggerfall has every spell you need, and at some point you will need to use. Or want to use it. It's just that cool.

The best part is after escaping the first dungeon and making it to your first town. Navigating is much harder than Morrowind, but it's definitely worth it. Within ten minutes of being in my first town, I bought a new set of armor, and a fucking horse! As soon as you leave the store, you can ride it! Hell fucking yes!!! There's a certain degree of freedom in every choice you make in this game, and it's amazing. Want to steal from the armor shop? Pick the lock and sneak in. Or try to steal it off the shelf in broad daylight. Or just bash the door in and take it. Any of those options are possible. That is amazing.

All these cool things come with a price though. The game is super buggy, even after patches. It's prone to crashing and doing all sorts of fuckery. It's also just like Morrowind in that it throws massive amounts of text at you. However, the freedom and choices offered in this game is just too awesome. For example, I can't find one of the inns while I'm waiting for my armor and weapons to be repaired (which takes two in game days to repair) so I decide to just sleep behind the shop. I get arrested for vagrancy instead. I'm asked to resist, or accept. I accept my arrest, and I'm presented with a court appearance. I can plead guilty and pay gold and hurt my rep with the law, or I can say not guilty. I say not guilty, and I'm presented with yet two more decisions. I can plead my case by debating it, or I can lie my way out of it. Both choices can be used successfully, since they are both governed by certain skills. Debate will test my Etiquette skill, while Lying will test my Streetwise skill. Either way, you can use both to get away.

FUCKING AMAZING. It really is. It's even better that, say I join a guild, for example the Dark Brotherhood assassin's guild. If I am arrested and tried in court, they might threaten the judge to let me out. I AM NOT FUCKING LYING ABOUT THIS. This can seriously happen. It pays to have connections, and that means almost everything you do in this game is worth the trouble.

BADASS

So yeah, it's safe to say that I like Daggerfall more than Morrowind. I shouldn't, because it has a lot of the same annoying features, but it doesn't make me feel helpless, and that's what matters. Who wants to feel helpless in a video game? It's okay to feel that way for a little bit, but giving up because it doesn't feel like it's going to end? That's just bullshit. Daggerfall just seems to use its features much better than Morrowind. The only problem I really have is that the graphics can be borderline ugly. Scrolling through my inventory and seeing shapes instead of actual things is annoying. Thankfully, there's an Info button that tells you what it is. Indeed, that thing that looks like two potatoes is actually leather greaves. Good to know.

Doing quests is the same as Morrowind unfortunately. Someone will tell you to bring this gem to so and so, and you have no idea who that person is or if he's even in the same fucking town. Mind you this game has over 700,000 NPCs wandering around. Yes, 7-FUCKING-THOUSAND NPCS. But that's alright. You can venture out and do so many other things that it doesn't even matter. No matter what, you feel like you have control over something in this game, where as Morrowind will leave you fucked unless you know what you're doing.

Maybe someone will prove me wrong. Someone will show me how to play Morrowind someday. Maybe I should just follow a guide, but apparently part of the magic of that game is not having any help. True, Daggerfall is the same way, but at least I can do other shit while I figure it out. I'm afraid to leave town in Morrowind. Maybe I need some mods or something. Who knows.

Anyway, I wanted to rant about this series because I have been sinking hours upon hours into Oblivion and Daggerfall, and I've realized that these games are pretty great after all. One day maybe I will feel the same way about Morrowind, but I'm not holding my breath. I want to like it, but it forces me not to. Oh well.

Vinyl Report: Arch Enemy - Black Earth

Before I go any further, let me just do the standard introductory drivel. Vinyl Report is a new article series devoted to reviewing albums as well as the quality of their pressings as vinyl records. So pretty much, it's just me ripping off Metal-Fi wholesale. LET'S GET TO IT.

Original year of release: 1996

First vinyl pressing release: 2002, Regain Records (1xLP, Black Vinyl, 33⅓ RPM)

Version used for review: 2010, Back On Black/Regain Records (1xLP, Clear Vinyl, 33⅓ RPM)

I could just open this review with all the standard ranting about how Arch Enemy was so much better before they switched vocalists and replaced songwriting with tits, but for the sake of this review, I'll just stick to this album on its own merits. Back when they first formed, Arch Enemy was something of a melodic death metal supergroup, with Michael Amott (guitarist of Carcass), his brother Christopher (making his debut appearance on this album playing guitar alongside Michael), Daniel Erlandsson on drums (having previously played on In Flames' seminal EP, Subterranean) and Johan Liiva (of Carnage, another band he performed in with Michael Amott) on vocals. With all of this previous experience, you couldn't really go wrong, and for the most part, this album succeeds on that front. It's a solid melodeath release that still holds up today.

The biggest issue that some listeners will hold with the album are Liiva's vocals, which, admittedly, take a bit of time to get used to. There's points on the album that his vocals are just "uh what", like his laugh-inducing outburst of "OH" on Idolatress, or his out-speeding the verse riff of Transmigration Macabre, leaving an awkward period in the middle of the verse with no vocals. Ultimately, though, the music itself surpasses these occasional screwups. Memorable riffs and hooks, accompanied with great solo-work courtesy of the Amotts is a constant throughout. Black Earth is a good album on its own, and is a great debut album for Arch Enemy, such as they were until the 2000s.

Black Earth wasn't pressed onto vinyl upon its inception, with its first release being in a limited run on standard black vinyl by Regain Records back in 2002. Since then, Back On Black has repressed the album (including a Japanese bonus track and two Iron Maiden covers) onto clear vinyl, with a gatefold sleeve including lyrics. I've always had a sweet spot for clear vinyl (and how can you not?), and this release, although a bit barebones, is relatively slick looking. The production of the album shines on the LP as well, with the guitar tone sounding extra crisp and the bass being more audible, as one would expect from a good vinyl pressing. Despite supposedly being a limited pressing, you can find this release going for around $15 on Amazon, which is shockingly cheap for the product. If you like good ol'-fashioned melodeath, you won't regret picking this one up.

NOTE: Century Media is pressing a 2xLP edition on black and yellow vinyl that includes the same tracks as this release, as well as a second LP of a live performance in Japan from 1997. This release is supposedly "remastered" and features new artwork, but given Century Media's idea of "production", I'd take a more cynical standpoint towards it until the final product is released.