Games

by

Resident Evil 3 is somewhat different ground for me, as far as the remakes go.

The HD/Remaster of the first game kind of retained the feel of the original, but because it was based on the GameCube version instead of the original PlayStation: it’s not my childhood. Or should we say the main thing that irked me about the game was virtually all my vague-memories of where the key items are, and the various puzzles, were rendered useless. As a kid, my brother bought Resident Evil when it first came out.
Needless to say I remember when the the Dual Shock and Director’s Cut editions were released as well, lol. More than a bit of my childhood went to watching my older brother play video games, and getting to try them as well.
Resident Evil 2 is a more stable territory for a remake of sorts. I watched my brother play part of the game’s RPD portion, and got filled in by a friend about the rest of the story with the Birkins and such. But I never played it much myself. So I kind of approached the remake with more open eyes, and a curiosity for how it turned out. Was glad for the modernized action, but it still retaining the strong emphasis on survival/horror that Resident Evil spawned as a genre. Not to mention the obtuse puzzles and hidden items, lol.
I enjoyed the RE2 remake enough to create pretty extensive notes. Largely built from wandering around trying to remember where an item was and which you need to acquire in order to reach that key item.
So we can say that I didn’t care for the first but loved the second remake. Enter Resident Evil 3!
When Resident Evil 3 came out I was already done. My brother was hyped at the demo but I didn’t get involved, and he having moved out by then, I didn’t watch either. Most of what I remember about the game comes from thumbing through his strategy guide like twenty years ago. Seems like the greater focus on action was retained. Having not played the original beyond the demo disc, I don’t know if the “I’m too busy running from freaking zombies to be worried about puzzles” style aligns that well but it creates a very different experience from RE2 despite much the same technology and mechanics. I was really shocked when I found the use for the jewels hidden around the city was more like cash for a vending machine than a key plot device.
Must say that I loved the weird assed door comments when Carlos first sees one of the RPD special key doors. Whoever designed the Racoon City Police Department with the puzzle defense in depth would probably have gotten along with the security group at the Spencer mansion from the original game. Encountering the violating effects of the spiders at the power substation, also made me reflect upon both the super sized sewer mutants in RE2, and on how Jill’s original campaign was crafted. I remember well that Chris was stronger, sturdier in a fight but Jill began with useful tools and received more help (and occasional sabotage) along the way.
I kind of wonder if some of RE3’s campaign reflects upon how she was designed to be the “Easier” route in the mansion, and jack things up because only a Bad Ass Jill Valentine could survive Racoon City. And with my luck by the time I reach the hospital phase it’ll either be knee deep in the dead, or designed by the bastard that did the Chess plug puzzle in RE2.
Actually reading the note about the portable generators in the city was kind of nice. Seems the electrician’s guild is less full of pricks than the engineering company that did the sewers in RE2. Yes, I really hated the fuse puzzle. RE3’s giant battery packs the size of a cordless phone are practical for the sewer’s electronic security system. The magic fuses shaped like chess plugs however is just far too damned much work to be practical, on top of it being a bad idea for maintenance. But video game puzzles don’t have to reflect real life, lol.
by

Microsoft Just Showed An Uncomfortable Truth About The Xbox Series X And PS5

Not a commentary I ever really expected to see published, given the norm is closer to frothy mouthed eye candy and marketing spiel. But surprisingly well noted.

Something I would also add to this is the implications for developers has evolved as well. For a damned affordable price, the Xbox One delivered some impressive gaming hardware that would be difficult to match for the price; those of us who build gaming desktops, or buy laptops for the purpose, know how painfully expensive they are. Meanwhile for the price of a laptop that doesn’t suck, you can get a game console that can pump out stellar graphics.

I feel that with the evolution of hardware, we have reached a point where decent graphics is now more in the hands of the art and engines under the hood. Not the hardware. That is to say, the modern console has the resources that you don’t need to worry—the same way as melting laptops that shouldn’t even be running your game to begin with, lol.

The last several decades were full of “Holy crap, how can they do that and not melt the machine?” leaps in fidelity, and performance. Even in my childhood, we had massive graphic leaps like DooM and Resident Evil. Games whose graphics today, we would hardly get impressed over without a realization of what limited  they had to run on. Pumping out awe inspiring graphics is still a lot of work, and doing it in a performant way is still challenging, but it’s still impressive what you can do with a humble Xbox or PlayStation at this point. The next generation will just bring more headroom 🙂.

by

Possible signs that I have strange, or at least varied tastes: when my debate of what to cycle back to reading includes:

  • Cow boys, writers, cyborgs, and interdimensional adventure.
  • Gothic love-horror, and a side of witches and gaslighting.
  • Horn dog comedy with a side of heart rending drama.
Also on that note: 
  • The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree is an excellent series of novels, enough so that started reading it a second time. Enough years have passed for details to start to fizzle.
  • The House in Fata Morgana is one of the better executed long form visual novels, but it’s story has plenty of twisted shit.
  • Edelweiss is both a hilarious visual novel, and one that may leave a lasting impression on your tear ducts.
I’m also pretty sure that combing reading, and snacking, would cause massive death glares from the hounds…lol.
by

Thumbing through my Steam library, my brain eventually floats off in various directions.

One is the reminder that Love In Space recently released their follow up to Shinning Song Starnova, and remember that last time I had checked their Patreon, and active projects post, the next installment of Sunrider was next on their road map. Much to my joy, it seems like Sunrider 4: Captain’s Return is elevated to current project. Just as previously scheduled.

I remember playing Mask of Arcadius, and enjoying how they combined turn based fleet + mech tactics with a visual novel setting. Because who doesn’t want to laugh your ass off between being out numbered like 80:1 in a space battle? I think MoA is still free, and it’s worth playing both for the intro to Sunrider’s story, and for the campaign.

When Liberation Day came out it was a rather shuddup, and take my money response. Excellent improvement on the mechanics, and enjoyable for the same reasons. But of course the damned thing ends with a cliff hanger end on par with Old Ben Kenobi, so it’s been a long wait to see what happens next.

The purely VN based expansion with a side story / alternate endings for the crew was also pretty amazing. Give or take how many jokes you can make about the story twists that Claude aka miss boob rockets presented in the campaign. Won’t spoil the details, but let’s just say between her attempts on Captain Shields, and what she turns out to be, you can probably enjoy that lark a lot more than the other plot twists. Because it totally fits her personality, and should make you revisit some of your beliefs in religion and science :P.

Ahh, in a few years perhaps we will have Sunrider 4….hehehe.

by

In an effort to catch up on some of my reading backlog, I recently found myself revisiting The Fruit of Grisaia, both the visual novel and the anime. Because sometimes time for reading is limited, and the story is pretty damned long.

In doing so, I’m kind of reminded of several things. The anime adaption while extremely well executed is also extremely condensed. Many key scenes are filtered through but as a whole: you only get something on par with 20% of the visual novel’s content. That is to say: the anime is great, but it’s like looking through a pinhole compared to the original media. Episode one’s one line summary of each character’s story is also spot on.

About 90% of the crude humor that makes Yuuji’s school life so enjoyable is cut, and each characters story is condensed heavily for time. For me that’s kind of sad because the joking and clowning around is part of why the novel left me laughing my ass of more often than not.

Considering that each characters story is practically a novel in of itself, the anime fairs pretty well for cutting out so much. You still get key moments like burying his classmate alive, but much of the detail around it is lost, such as the airhead’s true nature. I think Amane’s story is the only one that really escaped massive trim: probably because there’s no way to actually trim her story and keep the jist. By contrast, Sachi’s which is the longest character story in the novel: only got one episode that struggles to tell the jist of her condition. And the series totally misses out on her sadomasochist sense of humor to a fine degree, and Michiru’s constant bombardment of idiocy and subtle kindness. All sorts of things in the name of fitting into a standard season length.

Likewise things are quite twisted to create a point of co-existence out of the novel’s ladder like structure. So we don’t get to see how much Yuuji / Makina truly mirrors his relationship with Asako, as that would be destructive to a shared finish. And a host of other things. I don’t think we even get the hilarious Lamborghini and frozen turkey scene from Yumiko’s route which was just freaking awesome sauce. Instead a new ending is sort of created, and much of the characters’ suffering and healing is drifted off to the cutting room floor. But if you had to cram it down to about a dozen episodes, I’d say the anime is about as good as could be done with the story.

But then I remember what really made me interested in the story wasn’t Gurizaia no Kajitsu itself: but the anime adaptions of the follow on media. Which pretty much starts out by telling Yuuji’s story, and the road from his truly fucked up youth to his master, Asako, saving him for the pits of hell. It wasn’t until after the anime adaptions of the The Labyrinth, and The Eden of Grisaia that the original visual novel really went on my radar.

Which kind of leaves me wondering: and just how heavily condensed was the rest of the trilogy when they adapted them to anime!?

by

Somehow in revisiting Resident Evil 2 (2019), I can’t help but think Claire’s route is better. Also that I missed the A-rank score by about 20 minutes.

Of the choice between Leon and Claire: you get largely the same story but many differences. Early portions mirror each other such as the gas station and the fire escape. Some are branching points like penetrating the watch room or the chief’s office. Things also take different paths towards the end with Leon getting embedded in the Umbrella mystery, and Claire in the quest to shave Sherry.

But somehow, I think the scene at the end of the sewer segment captures it best:

Leon’s time is mostly spent being a rookie man of mystery focused on Racoon City. And perhaps nearly getting eaten because he’s more interested in flirting with the pretty girls than fleeing zombies. At best it can lead to Umbrella being exposed but it’s all rather fleeting. But it’s more exploratory than passionate.

Claire’s a mission about Sherry. While there’s much less intrigue without Ada, I feel the focus on the Birkin family makes a far more personal connection. We all know that Racoon City is doomed, ‘cuz that’s just how these things go. Plus let’s be honest: the original game ended with a get to da choppa / nuclear kabluuy kind of end to the Spencer mansion. There’s no way you’re saving Racoon City, and no point in trying. But Sherry—that’s a difference you can make in how the disaster plays out.

There’s also how the two characters are introduced. Leon is driving into the city because things have gone dark, and he’s supposed to be starting work at the police station. Claire shows up headed there in search of her brother, one of the original game’s S.T.A.R.s team protagonists. You could say these kind of metrics largely keep rolling through how their stories diverge.

 So in the end, I reckon the question of which character’s story should you take, is the question: are you curious or do you care? Personally I feel that Claire’s route makes for a better game, and Leon’s for a better novelization.

by

Taking a quick stab at the Resident Evil 3 Demo, I’m kind of thrilled to see that it remains the kind of awesome that the remake of Resident Evil 2 was in terms of game play, mechanics, and general design flow.

Combined with the release of Doom Eternal, of course, I am rather tempted. And know the virtues of hiding my wallet….lol

by

The Xbox’s plugs and ports, a visual history.

Nice little view, IMHO.

I pretty much ignored the original Xbox. At the time, I had a Play Station 2 and a PC. By the time the Xbox 360 came out: I had already converted to PC games. So the first iteration of Xbox One was the first time that I actually used one.