Nothing Is Sacred

Let's just say, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom decided to remake Resident Evil 2.

After running into this post on Destructoid, I decided that it makes financial sense. After the rage subsided, I came to that conclusion. RE2 is my favorite Resident Evil game; it's quite possibly my favorite video game ever. I don't venture over to Gamespot very often, but the article about Capcom appealing for fan support is pretty lacking. The comments, however, are awesome. It's a healthy mix of action-RE enthusiasts and the classic-RE lovers (that's me). I don't have much to say about this; I could go into another Resident Evil rant, but I think I've said all there is to say. When I find something else to add, you can bet that I'll post it here.

In other news, the Columbus Comic Con is this weekend in the gloomy autumn buckeye state. For right now, I'm planning on attending and taking some sweet pictures.

I've never actually been to a comic convention before. The experience is the big draw for me; I'm not going to see a particular artist or celebrity. However, I would wait in line to see a couple guests. The Boondock Saints will be there, which is cool. If I could get all three of those guys to sign my Saints DVD that would be awesome. But honestly, I'd be happy just shaking their hands and telling them that I'm a fan.

The other person I'm semi-interested in meeting is Arthur Suydam; he's a cover artist. I know of him from Marvel Zombies and Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth. His Deadpool movie parody covers are my favorite.

Unfortunately, Ohio doesn’t get the big spectacle that the San Diego Comic Con gets. Ohio disappoints me. But it is Ohio. My expectations are not lofty.

Resident Evil 6 Demo: The Rule of Thirds

After a boring, 8-hour work day, I came home yesterday knowing that the Resident Evil 6 demo was going live. I hopped onto the PlayStation and I found nothing. No Resident Evil 6 Demo to download. WTF, I thought to myself. Eh, it's probably just Sony being Sony and effing something up. I'll play Skyrim instead (yeah, I haven't killed a dragon in months).

So I killed a dragon outside of Riften. Then I looked at my to-do list of quests and thought they all seemed mundane. Pausing, I checked the Internet for any news about Sony not having the RE6 demo (couldn't find any) and I switched to a Skyrim wiki and landed on a page about the Ghostblade. That's what I need, the Ghostblade. So I played until I obtained the Ghostblade.

An hour or two later, with the Ghostblade in my hot little hands, I checked PSN again and the RE6 demo was there. Spooky. So I downloaded it and played it. Here are my thoughts:

Finally, I can set aside all my speculation and muckraking - I have played a demo for Resident Evil 6 and it wasn't that bad. I'll get into more detail below, but I generally enjoyed the appetizer experience contained within the demo. As a preview for all three main campaigns, the demo lets you play as Chris, Leon, and Jake (their partners we're also selectable, but I only played the main characters). Each campaign is different and each character plays differently (we already knew that) but there is wide gulf that separates them, wider then I suspected.

Twenty Minutes of Chris

Band of Bros

No, I'm not abbreviating "brothers" here or alluding to the epic series. This is the BRO GAMER campaign. "Is he always this awesome?" says the rookie BSA moron as Chris Redfield walks away. Yes rookie...Chris is so awesome that he's probably the only one who will survive this mission. This means you’re going to die a horrible death at the hands of zombie hulk.

The running and gunning in Chris's twenty minutes felt exactly like RE5, but slightly faster. Switching weapons has the same intuitive directional pad controls as RE5. Healing was less intuitive until I realized herbs were picked up and compressed into Tic-Tac form. You have to go into your inventory to combine herbs and load them into your Tic-Tac container. The pop-a-health-Tic-Tac button is R2 and you can pig out like fat kid with Pez dispenser (as long as your container is loaded).

I used Chris's pistol more than his automatic weapon; the machine gun hopped around as you fired (I guess that's realism for you). Anyway, I was able to pick off a rocket launcher goon all the way across the map with the pistol as I was killing time while the BSA rookie was planting charges or something. Timed survival seemed to be a common theme. Twenty minutes of Chris's foray into the world of Call of Duty wasn't bad. But I don't know if I can survive the brotastic bullshit for an entire campaign; I played Chris's first because I knew it would be the hardest for me to stomach. And I was right.

Twenty Minutes of Jake

Zombie Tyranitars

Of the three characters, I am the most curious about Jake Muller, the supposed son of Albert Wesker. The demo didn't give away much of Jake's story; he is paired with Sherry Birkin and that can't be for no reason at all.

Jake's gameplay featured the most variety and the most surprising enemies. He comes fully loaded with a pistol, hand-cannon (think elephant gun, stranger), machine gun, sniper rifle, and hand-to-hand. Yes, you have to equip hand-to-hand. Jake's twenty minutes trained me in the ways of melee and close combat of RE6 and that's only because it was the best way to deal with the zombie lizards.

More like zombie tyranitars. Almost every infected enemy crusted over after you defeated them. Some of the crusties then broke apart revealing this new enemy. Sure, I could've wasted all my ammo on the zombie tyranitars, but it was most effective to engage the beasts in hand-to-hand and beat the brains out of them. More satisfying too.

Jake's run felt more familiar then Chris's; it actually felt the most like RE4 when you get onto the island. And I'm okay with that. I can only hope that Jake's story is well hashed out in the full game. After all, he has his father's shoes to fill.

Twenty Minutes of Leon

My Knife and the Ghostblade

I almost played as Leon S. Kennedy first, but I'm glad I didn't; I saved the best for last. Leon's twenty minutes felt like classic Resident Evil crossed with RE4.

I remember when books were used to hide things like keys, emblems, and clues.

The opening cut-scene drew from the first zombie encounter in the mansion back in 1997. Only I didn't actually get to shoot the zombie...cut-scene Leon shot the zombie and he looked cool doing it too. You then assume control of Leon on a college campus with a new flesh-bag partner (who isn't completely worthless) and joining the team again, codec-style is Hunnigan. Yesh!

Leon comes equipped with a pistol and his combat knife. I switched to the combat knife right away because the pistol only had forty bullets. Better conserve ammo, I thought. It was a good feeling, one I've not felt since Code Veronica. The zombies are zombies, occasionally they'll be carrying something that you can snatch away and use against them only once. I used the knife and the melee attacks for Leon's entire twenty minutes. Awesome. But I did notice the new stamina bar, which I drained quickly going all up-close-and-personal with the undead. My partner did help me get out of some tight spots and I had to use grapple quick-time events to get the touchy-feely zombies off me.

Resident Evil 6 now includes decorative urinal cakes.

The demo ended with an awkward quick-time event in a police car looking for the keys as zombies attacked and climbed all over the cruiser. Annoying, but it was tense. Leon's run was definitely my favorite; I might even play it again. I might even use his partner...I forget her name already and I don't feel like googling it.

Two Thirds Satisfied

One Third Worried

That seems to be a good summary of my experiences with the Resident Evil 6 demo. Overall, I was happy with it. Chris's campaign bothers me and it will probably still bother me when I play it in full. However, if I hadn't already pre-ordered Resident Evil 6, this demo would've sealed the deal. I am looking forward to playing the full game on October 2.

I Am Weak: Forgive My Flip-Flopping

It happens every fall; the do-nothing feeling sweeps over me and all I want to do is watch the gray sky rain and play video games.

My autumn line-up is pretty much in stone: Resident Evil 6, Doom 3 BFG Edition, and Halo 4.

Yes, I know I caved to Capcom on the whole RE6 thing, but I'm choosing to remain an annoyed yet optimistic fan of the series. With a replay of Resident Evil 4 nudging out Diablo 3 for my prime-time gaming slot, I'm reminded of how "fun" the over-the-shoulder-action-horror Resident Evil can be. Sure, I still miss the fixed camera and the atmosphere of the early games, but I am enjoying RE4. Again.

It also helps that one of my good friends is picking up RE6 and we're planning on co-opping through it. I know I'm definitely excited about playing RE6 with another long-time Resident Evil fan. This guy and I played through RE2, RE3, and Code Veronica together, passing the controller back and forth. That's how we had to co-op back in the '90s.

The Mercenaries Mode is another factor in RE6's favor. Ever since Resident Evil 3, I have enjoyed the Mercenaries minigame though it has changed considerably since then. I wish I could customize the load-out for each of the mercenaries, but that's never been an option, ever. So I'll just stay in my corner and whine about it.

Plus, the new RE6 demo actually drops today. Look at me, being all timely and current. If I'm not engrossed in RE4, I'll be downloading that tonight; might even write about it later.

Doom 3 and Halo 4 are going to be big-budget diversions; I've already played and beaten Doom 3 on the Xbox (it'll be fun to revisit in the dark and in HD) and Halo 4 is just for the online multiplayer (maybe I'll actually complete a Halo single player campaign, probably not).

I Hate August

This is what I think of August:

It's too hot to do anything.

August is when I start the count-down to Halloween.

School starts in August

There are no good holiday's in August.

No good games come out in August.

August is for slackers.

My Fantasy Team: Pawns, Points, and Munchkin

This fall marks an unprecedented moment in my gaming life: I'm playing fantasy football for the first time ever, ever. So far, I've been pretty hands off (I let the yahoo robots draft my team) and things seem to be going well. I don't think I could have done better had I drafted my team in person.

With very little connection to these players, I'm just viewing them as pawns. That seems too generous. These players are more like energy sources; their statistics a numerical fuel that produces points. Points? Ug. I hate points.

The top point sources are my nine starting players, plus a defense. Then I have seven players who are "sitting on the bench," but I'm thinking of them as unequipped or stored in my stash. Honestly, these nonstarters are pretty crappy; trash items in gaming terms.

Now I'm thinking of my players in terms of equipment...like in...

Yes! Fantasy football is Munchkin! It all makes sense now.

I'm strapping players to my body as armor and wielding players as weapons. Each player provides an undetermined amount of points that count to my total. At the end of the week, my opponent and I tally our points and go head to head using that point total. The person with the equipment that generates the most points wins. It's that easy.

The truth is that I'm having a lot of fun imagining Drew Brees as chainsaw or fruitcake. Too bad he's not on my team. Instead I have Michael Vick. I guess, as a piece of equipment, he could be a spikey dog collar (+3 against Animal Rights Activists).

Keeping with the fantasy theme, I have a douchey-looking white wide receiver named Eric Decker and I've already started calling him Eric Deckard Cain.

Did I mention that I don't give two craps about NFL football? Or its players? I barely give one crap about college football. It was the NAU Grease Rats that got me caring about football at all. In memory of that NCAA Football 2007 college team, I named my fantasy football team The Grease Rats. Perhaps it will bring me luck. Greasy rats are lucky, right?

A Summer Sans PS3

August always signals the end of summer for me. Yeah, schools don't start for a couple more days, but by the middle of August, summer is basically gone.

After flipping through a couple older posts and looking over my gaming notes (yes, I have gaming notes), I arrived at a shocking revelation. I have not played my PlayStation 3 at all this summer. My gaming time consisted of the following:

Diablo 3 (PC)
Tribes: Ascend (PC)
League of Legends (PC)
Saint's Row 3 (Xbox 360)
Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360)
Pokémon Emerald (GBA/DS Lite)

Yep, that looks about right. I'm almost finished with Emerald and I'm a complete noob on League of Legends, but Diablo 3 and the sandbox games have kept me pretty occupied. Receiving the most ink, though, are Diablo 3 and Pokémon because I just enjoy writing about demons and pocket monsters.

As an avid PlayStation fan, I feel I must explain my summer of transgression. Excuse number one is that I moved and it's taken time to get things set back up. Lame reason. Excuse number two is that my PS3 currently has no sound. During the move, I decided to commit my surround sound speakers to my gaming PC for demon slaughtering eargasms. This left the PS3 with no audio device and me with an excuse to explore the world of surround sound headsets. And I haven't found a pair that I like.

I've never been an audiophiliac, but recently, I've had an unusual appetite for video game audio and becoming totally present in a gaming reality. That means tuning out the real world and tuning into the game world; the complete immersion of self. And listening to a game through sound cancelling headphones seemed like the best way to accomplish such immersion.

The plan was to pick up a pair of headphones for my PS3. The problem is that one does not simply "pick up" a pair of gaming headphones. Maybe I just don't know enough about quality audio, but between Turtle Beach nonsense and Logitech fluff, I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

The minute I decided on a pair, the Tritton Ax Pro, I read about a new pair coming out this fall; an updated or upgraded version of the Tritton Ax Pro. I really wish the name was Tritton Axe Pro, which sounds like a wicked combination of two-handed melee weapons.

The Nostalgia Sell: Resident Evil 6

It's time for more of this Resident Evil crapfest. Is crapfest a word? It should be, because it paints a perfect picture of how Capcom has transformed Resident Evil. Quite a feat, if you ask me; if Capcom set out to maim the Resident Evil franchise, then they deserve to celebrate, because they have ruined a magnificent series of games.

The truly sad part of all this: I still like Resident Evil games. I can't say love. I used to love Resident Evil back in the PlayStation days. So when I saw this on Amazon, I was excited. Harkening back to my craving for sweet pre-order bonuses, when I saw the Resident Evil Anthology pack, I thought: that's a super-awesome deal. Forget Leon's jacket, an Africa necklace, or a mini Chris Redfield (and think other shiny pre-order goodies), let's give out the other RE games.

The Resident Evil Anthology: at first glance, this looked like an amazing deal. Then my common sense started tingling.

Wait a minute...
This contains six Resident Evil games. Three of my favorite games (the first three) and three that I'm not all that crazy about.

Wait a minute...
I already own all of these games (in disk form) except the 6th one.

Wait a minute...
Resident Evil 6 costs $59.99 alone, which means they're charging thirty bucks for the five other games.

Wait a minute...
That means Resident Evil 6 is insanely over-priced.

Nostalgia clouded my judgment, nearly causing me to make a bad decision. Touché, Capcom. You almost had me there. Marketing strategy suggests that when we look at this bundle, we think we're getting all this awesome stuff with the new game. The reversal (and maybe closer to the truth, I fear) is that Capcom is re-selling what made Resident Evil so great and tacking on RE5 and RE6 like the backwards little runts that they are.

Kind of like the Indiana Jones 4 Pack. Nobody's going to buy Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by itself. So they have to bundle it with the other three good movies.

I'm being pretty harsh here. I haven't played Resident Evil 6 nor have I played its demo. I've seen some cool gameplay footage over at Kotaku and that's about it. The bottom line is that I'm not fond of the Resident Evil action game. And I hope Capcom doesn't turn Resident Evil 6 into a knock off of Call of Duty Zombies.