Games of the Week: Week RE5 er 10

I believe just about everyone will be getting Resident Evil 5 this week. It took me about a year to pick up RE4. Actually I never got around to any of the RE releases until well after the hype had died down (for example I never played the original RE until the GameCube remake believe it or not...I actually played it after I had played the second and third gmes.) I don't know. I like zombies as much as the next guy but outside of what Romero did and only a small few of select others, I don't see what the fuss in zombies is usually. And RE has sort of evolved out 'zombies.' Dead Rising is damn fun, I'll give you that. And if you can find some people who aren't pricks or take their games too seriously, Left 4 Dead can be a great experience.

I do think RE4 and RE2 are probably locks for anyone's greatest games list, top 100 easily. But I never got into the original or any of the other games. And even RE4, as amazing as it is, took me forever to slug through. At least I can see its merits and enjoyed it. I probably would have blown through it if not for it being my last semester of college.

But the main line of thought coming out of RE5 early seems to be this being an evolution for the series into a new direction, so that piques my interest slightly. It felt like RE4 was the beginning of the break away from survival horror. Prehaps a full break is what I need to really get into the series.

I'll eventually get it but probably not until I'm done with a couple other things. Mainly Star Ocean.



RELEASES FOR THE WEEK

PS3: Resident Evil 5, Trivial Pursuit

360: Resident Evil 5, Trivial Pursuit, NCAA 09 March Madness Edition

Wii: Madworld, Marble Saga: Kororinpa, NPC Pikman, NPC Mario Power Tennis, Trivial Pursuit, MySims Party, Totally Spies! Totaly Party!

PSP: Mana Khemia: Student Alliance

PS2: Trival Pursuit, Moomin

NDS: MySims Party, Avalon Code, a bunch of crap

Also out on multiple platforms is Trivial Pursuit. I know a lot of people that just love the board/DVD games but then there's people like me that have one friend that just cleans up on Trivial Pursuit and hasn't lost a game of it dating back over 100 matches. Games are only fun when you stand a chance.


I believe we've already talked about my love fest for XSeed. It's something I can't explain but I've picked up everything they've put out so we already know I'm picking up Avalon Code. Sounds like an interesting concept where you're not charged with saving the world because the world is already doomed. Instead your job is to catalog everything in the world that you deem worthy for when the world is destroyed and reincarnated.

I also believe we've talked about my love for the PSP and the PSP gets another one, this week a very overlooked late PS2 RPG by the name of Mana Khemia. There's apparently no major changes between this one and the original so don't feel the need to buy it again if you already did on the PS2 but its a fantastic little game with one of the best battle systems we've seen in a while (turn base is not dead) and a lot of likable characters. The ending is kind of ...meh...and abrupt but a school for alchemists? I want to see more of this place. I want it to rival Harry Potter across several mediums. Too bad we'll never see it.

I admit it, I like the MySims franchise. The second one was a lot more focused than the first and I was hoping for the series moving forward. The third game really doesn't do that. It's yet another Wii mini-game collection just featuring characters using the MySims art style. I'd advise to stay away, or find MySims Kingdom if you haven't already.

Marble Saga is a ton of fun and its a definite purchase but it'll go down in price and can wait. The big must-have for the Wii this week is MadWorld, which would be the automatic game of the week if it wasn't going up against the wrecking ball that is Resident Evil 5. Like a lot of brawlers it looks like the gameplay could potentially become repetitive but most of the reviews so far seem to dispel that worry. This one looks like a keeper.

And finally going back to the Wanted demo that came out last week. Finally spent some time playing around with it and learning what I can do. It's pretty good, much better than my intial impressions. But not anything I'm looking to buy out right. It's moved itself up to rental status though.

Quick Updates 2/12

Most of these can be found originally on my twitter, and slightly expanded here.


--- First my PS3 arrived yesterday, right as I was going out the door for work. I wouldn't say it was the most agonizing 10 hours of my life but it was up there. Thankfully it works great but kind of wished I spent a little bit more for the exclusive PS2 backwards compatibility. With the honking size of the PS3, the PS2 doesn't really fit in the area we have. I'm almost tempted in dropping $60 for a PS2 slim just so it'll fit. But I still need to pick up HDMI cables, a remote, a DualShock 3, and well a game that isn't SingStar.

--- Why do I own SingStar for the PS3? Circuit City's slow, painful death allowed us to pick it up for around $47 and it was the last copy. Regular video games are about 30% off, which means that you're still paying $42 for a game. I had about five games in my hand before I started to do the math. I'm waiting until March until they're a little more desperate. Still merchandise like that they can find someone to buy in bulk for the price they want. I can't imagine the games getting too much cheaper.

--- Well SquareEnix has announced Dragon Quest IX will be delayed until July in Japan. Seems like the earliest it'll hit the US is 2010 now. Apparently there were a lot of bugs in the final version that they didn't believe they could fix by the March release date.

Pushing the game back over three months should do the trick, hopefully, but its localizing all that text. The turnaround on translation is getting smaller and smaller, provided you have a budget and has no ethical or moral hold-ups in slave-driving the localization team. There's a small gleam of hope that DQIX will see the light of day in this market by Christmas but I'm still saying we'll have it 11 to 12 months from now. Until then enjoy Dragon Quest V -- it's going to take IX a lot to top it.

--- The rumours now seem to believe that DQIX's push back means we will see Final Fantasy XIII be pushed to a 2010 Japanese release as SquareEnix wouldn't dare put out two huge titles in the same calander year. In the West, I doubt there would be any competition between the two. And you know what? I doubt there would be much competition in Japan either. The fans are too ...hardcore... about the franchises I don't think they would see it as a pain to shell out money for two games they REALLY want to play in the same calender year.

We all want to play these two games. We'll fork over the money whenever you tell us. So just get them out already (while making sure they work at a high quality.) What you should be more concerned about is if people are going to be willing to fork over money for three FFXIII titles on the same day? At least the time between DQ and FF is staggered. So far I haven't heard any plans of staggering the three games that will make up the Fabula Nova Crystallis banner.

-- Speaking of SquareEnix they've made a $119.8 million pitch for Eidos Interactive. Some of us who didn't have a Playstation One originally may remember Eidos did the somewhat shitastic PC ports of both Final Fantasy VII and VIII. So there's some connection here.

It's a 258% hike on Eidos's stock value, so I can't imagine them turning this down with the economy the way it is and Eidos's portfolio the way it is since SCi took over. SquareEnix wishes to increase its presence over in the Western market. So Final Fantasy isn't big enough in the West? And you think the Eidos name brand is going to help?

So you get Tomb Raider....which I do like and actually have been a strong support of each title released in the series despite the major bugs in some of the middle entries. The 'reboot' of late I thought was genius and the only reason it hasn't worked so far is because they had managed to kill off their audience. Winning back that trust and audience wasn't going to take just two decent games.

I don't believe they own too many of the games they've published over the years. I think the only studios they fully own are Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, the pretty much worthless Beautiful Game Studios, and the three branches -- Montreal, Shanghai and Hungary.

--- Gametrailers has announced that fighting game BlazBlue will be coming exclusively (right now) to the PS3. Maybe it's a sign.






-- Gametrailers also released their 2nd part of their Resident Evil retrospective. Covers RE2 and RE3 in just under 20 minutes. It's actually pretty damn good (as most of their retrospecs are.)




--- While I'm still excited for all the titles Platinum Games plans to push in 2009 and 2010, the NY Comic Con coverage kind of worries me when it comes to MadWorld. Its an important title for the Wii without a doubt and as much as I enjoy the hack'n'slash genre, I'm not sure the combat is really going to hold anyone's interest for more than a couple minutes. Once you're past the whole shock that there's actually blood on your Wii, then I think it's going to wind up being fairly shallow. Copious amounts of blood seem to be just covering up shit.

That said *gimme gimme gimme* Bayonetta and Infinte Space are still on my hot list. MadWorld may soon drop into the 'wait and see' category.