I’ve been putting off writing about Resident Evil 5 for the past week, because, well… I’ve been too busy playing Resident Evil 5. With the latest iteration, Capcom has took the stellar gameplay that was introduced in the last game, gave it a new coat of paint, and added some new features, picking up on popular trends from recent years.

It’s built as a cooperative game (and many significant changes were made to support it) but due to some network issues, my initial playthrough was a solitary experience. I rarely encountered issues with the companion AI on normal difficulty, even if all I used Sheva for was as a healing, ammo mule. When you make the switch to veteran however, your partner becomes a frustratingly bigger liability. Even with the infinite ammo option turned on, it is incapable of taking care of itself and squanders any health items you may have.

The gameplay is still solid. Were the boss battles as memorable as the ones in RE4? That’s debatable. I did enjoy the fights with Uroboros, they had a nice The Thing-feel to them. For some reason, I never found the QTEs exasperating, even though I think they are the worst trend to plague games. Maybe it’s because they’re, for the most part, only integrated into cutscenes or a handful of the boss encounters. It’s not like I’m being forced into a QTE sequence while fighting any of the infected or lower-level adversaries. I’ve read some of the fuss made over the controls, which I find puzzling. Having to stop and shoot is a fundamental mechanic of the series. The introduction of the new control-scheme allays any of the archaicness of the old system.

Possibly a consequence of its emphasis on multiplayer, the game is a shorter experience than previous mainline Resident Evil entries. Everything is broken up into subchapters, and with the large amounts of weapons to upgrade and bonus unlockables, it’s easy to get caught up in replaying areas for loot. It gives you a good perspective of how the game holds up. For me, the middle chapters are a drag, and I really dread replaying those levels. Mercenaries mode returns although, I’m disappointed that most of the selectable characters are just costume/inventory swaps. You’d expect Resident Evil mainstay Hunk to make an appearance, but I guess that’s fodder Capcom could use for DLC.

Resident Evil 5 doesn’t eclipse it’s predecessor, but as an HD-era calamine lotion for RE4 players, it does its job pretty well.

I’ve been trying to come up with an adequate description of Noby Noby Boy. It’s almost like a blank canvas, in that you make of it whatever you want. There is a goal to increase the length of your female counterpart to reach distant celestial bodies in our universe but it’s slightly detached from the main game.

To me it’s like I’m some dimension-hopping world-eater, snaking/hovering across the landscape like a rainbow-colored Jörmungandr or Quetzalcoatl, if they happened to look like the mascots of Taiko: Drum Master.

In trying to create a first-person parkour simulator, DICE did exceedingly well. You might not glide gracefully through the landscape as those found in youtube videos, but there is an exhilaration in the freedom of movement you have while navigating the landscape. Adding to that experience, they’ve also nailed down the sensation of speed and inertia of movement. It all combines into an incredibly fun game mechanic.

So, it’s a disappointment when the game forces your hand in dealing with confrontations with the police. As elegant as freerunning in the game is, the combat is unrefined. You can use firearms but it’s not in keeping with the game’s spirit. A variety of punches and kicks are available to use, but hardly any of these attacks really flow together. The smart option is to disarm opponents but you’re only given a slim window of opportunity to do so. That small opening is only available during a particular melee animation, so you’ll end up just running up to the police and waiting for their animations to trigger, and even then, it doesn’t always seem to work.

The story is boilerplate and poorly put-together with characters just going through the motions. The bulk of the narrative is told through 2D animations, which is befuddling (time constraints?) because the in-game models and environments look great. The art direction here is top notch. I love the stark, sanitary world-look. There’s a certain isolationist feel that comes with it, which they lean too far towards. I think that would be my only criticism about it. Aside from the police you encounter, areas are otherwise unpopulated and desolate to the point of eerie.

Even after the short singleplayer, I’ve booted up Mirror’s Edge a few times just to run around a bit. From what I hear, sales have been less than stellar, which is disheartening because DICE really hit something special here. The game is saddled with some frustrating instances, but it definitely deserves better.

I just finished playing through an indie game called Gravity Bone and urge everyone to give it a try. I don’t want say too much here because it’s definitely one of those experiences you want to go in fresh. It’s a short experience, yet it has such a strong sense of style to it and is quite polished. And for fans of No One Lives Forever, it definitely helps with that ’60s-era espionage itch.

Oh wait, you finished it? I didn’t know what to think of it immediately after completion but I’m enamored with the way it undermined expectations and FPS-genre staples. The level format, mission debriefing, missing third item… all have you believing in a longer playtime. There’s even a fake-out if you thought otherwise. It’s an interesting study on using player preconceptions against itself.

I stand defiant of the mass cleansing of the LBP servers of infringing content. It’s probably a good thing I never restarted my efforts to recreate Rapture.

Andy Baio put it best on his linkblog stating, “the gaming world is about to revisit all the lessons Web 2.0 already learned, from Friendster to Facebook.”

Preloading of the demo for pre-orders for Valve’s zombie-pocalypse magnum opus has started tonight. Early access to the demo unlocks tomorrow at 7am PST. For those living under a rock (Valve has been put significant funds into marketing it) here’s what to expect:

I love this game so much I want to take behind a middle school and get it pregnant.

And in unrelated (but equally awesome) news, Tim Schafer uploaded the puzzle/design document for Grim Fandango.

Just some more TF2 hijinks. I think I’ll make this my new spray.

Thanks to a generous gaffer (props to diss) I’ve been toiling away at the Little Big Planet beta this week. A lot of the levels now are purely experimental but there’s a couple of really quality levels being shared. It’s fantastic to see what people have come up with. I’ve even managed to snag a Jeff Green sticker online.

Currently, I’m building my little homage to Bioshock. There’s been a major hitch in that my miniature Rapture buckles and shifts around, I guess, due to the physics engine. In lieu of fixing entire structures I’ve been patching up the level to keep it from imploding. Now I know how my dad feels about fixing the house.

I don’t think LBP will motivate people to impulsively purchase a PS3, but it should.

I’m a big fan of Steam and Impulse, but I think my favorite digital distributor at the moment is Good Old Games. Their niche is classic PC games, all updated to be XP/Vista compatible, DRM free, (a boon considering recent events) and they’re pretty easy on the wallet, with $5.99 being the typical price per title.

Most of their catalog currently consists of stuff from Interplay, including Giants: Citizen Kabuto and the Fallout series. I (finally) picked up a copy of Shogo.

Right now it’s in beta, but you can still sign-up for access.

I lost my Soldier spray after the reformat so went and made another TF2 spray using an idea I got back when they added all the new Heavy interjections during the payload update. Here it is in all its uncropped glory. The remaining white space was made transparent to match whatever background I spray it on.

I guess it’s fitting that the last Kojima-directed installment of the franchise plays like a hodgepodge of the previous games, or to put it more bluntly, like MGS3:Subsistence and MGS2 duct taped together. Half the game is traditional MGS stealth-gameplay (but thanks to the combat system and Drebin points, lets you run and gun a fair amount) and the other half mixes different gametypes (e.g. rail sequences) with heavy doses of exposition. I really enjoyed the game but if pressed, I’d still say MGS3 was my favorite entry in the series, thanks to more memorable boss encounters and having a good balance between gameplay and cutscenes (as far as MGS goes).

I was really surprised that the entire storyline wraps up pretty neatly by the end. It’s all concluded satisfactorily with a dialog between Snake and Big Boss, who has one one of the longest death scenes ever. They didn’t really touch on a lot of the finer plot points from MGS2 directly but the Metal Gear Database on PSN helps clarifies loose ends, like how the Wisemen’s Committee is nothing more than a red herring.

After the E3 announcement over the next PS3 SKU, I took the plunge and ordered an 80gb PS3 from Circuit City.

Being without HDTV, I’ve hooked it up to my Samsung Syncmaster using a HDMI-DVI adapter and switched my desktop to VGA. For audio, I used an RCA adapter and stereo coupler so I can use either my headset or computer speakers. Basically, there’s wires spilling out every which way but loose.

I’m finally going to play my copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 I’ve had since release. Yay!