Operation Racoon City

If you’re looking for a good review for Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City, here’s my favorite one, by Classic Game Room.

 

Playstation 4 “ORBIS”

There are rumors about the next Sony console all around the web, that probably started from the infamous website Kotaku. The 4th Playstation would be called Sony ORBIS (someone is following Nintendo steps here!) and would be available by the end of 2013.

The Orbis would have 2 AMDx64 processors and AMD Southern Islands GPU. And would be ready to display a 4096×2160 (4K) resolution. I wonder when we’ll we have 4096×2160 televisions and what would they be called.. S(uper)M(ega)HD-TV? I’m really excited about it! And of course, the console would still have a Blu-ray DVD reader and a hard-drive for downloadable games/content.

Now the bad news: The Orbis has no retro-compatibility. You’d still have to buy a PS3/2/1 from the PS-store even if you own a physical copy (whaaaat?!). And much worse, the Orbis would have a protection system against “used” games. Yep, used not pirated or copied!! Sony is supposedly unhappy with the 2nd hand market, as it’s benefice only for the retail stores and not Sony itself. If this rumor is true, I don’t see how anyone would buy a 60$/60euros games knowing they can’t sell it or exchange it. We’ll wait and see.

Kurushi / IQ

 

Kurushi is one of the first games I played and enjoyed on the PlayStation one, it was called Intelligent Qube in the US and was made by Sony Japan mainly for the japanese market.
It’s a puzzle game, simple with decent graphics that are still ok as of today. You play a little guy running around on a limited platform, in which waves of cubes advance to you and you have to blow them up before they get to the edge. The catch is you have to leave the black “forbidden” cubes and manage the green “advantage” ones that help you extend your bombing field but also increase your margin of error. If you get crushed by the cubes you don’t die but the level restarts and gets faster and thus harder.
It is hard to describe how fun and addictive Kurushi is. But if you were a fan in the past or you just wanna try it out, Kurushi Final (an identical sequel) is available on the European (& Japanese) PS Store for 4,99euros.

Catherine (by Atlus) is an alternative if you want to spend 10X more money and don’t like old games.

Bloody Mary!

Infamous Festival of Blood is a PSN exclusive game that no one should miss now that it costs less than 5$. It’s not a DLC so you don’t have to own Infamous 1 or 2 to play it. In fact, you don’t even have to be familiar with the Infamous games to enjoy this one.
When Festival of Blood came out, all reviews I read agreed on 2 things: Game is too short and the story is cheesy. While I did find the game short, the story however was fine for me. And that’s because I can barely think of a game in the same genre (modern beat’em-all) with a good story. Blood Festival is no Vampire Chronicles of course, but it’s fun for what it is: a short game where you play a newly turned vampire who has few hours to save his soul. As an Infamous fan I enjoyed playing with the vampire Cole with all his new powers, especially flying as a bat swarm (I think it’s called Shadow Swarm).

The absence of the moral choice is necessary for the story, and frankly I didn’t miss it at all. The graphics and the fluidity of the game are too good for 5$. See how 5$ makes everything cool?
The only negative point of this game is that it ends quickly. I don’t collect trophies so I haven’t touched it since I finished it but I had other people come over and play it and it seems that everyone enjoys it. Maybe also because it’s not a difficult game… ’cause no one ever wants to play Demon’s Souls ^^.
Final point: If you’re into vampires or just want a fun little game with a full game quality, Festival of Blood is for you.

What a Journey!

Journey is definitely not a game. Some people call it “art game”, others “cinematic game”. I’d like to think of it as a new experience.
I must say I hesitated a lot before buying it. The trailers and reviews at first didn’t convince me. There was no discount for PS+ members as I hoped and paying 15$ for a game that everyone is describing as “very short” wasn’t appealing to me. But then my curiosity took over and I wanted to know what’s so special about this game.
The first thing I noticed is the beautiful musical theme, before even the game starts. The design of the playable character and the magnificent desert felt very familiar to me, looked almost like the Touaregs of the Sahara. And I got very excited to play this through. Yet, after 20 minutes into the game, I felt bored, and kind of lonely. Nothing was really happening. Just before I give up, I met another character like me, and what a joy it was when I understood that it was another “real” player! Friend or rival, I didn’t care. I was just delighted I wasn’t alone anymore. I was confused at first, trying to see where in the “menu” can I find a way to “chat” with them, but I quickly realized that there is no talking/writing in this game. The other player and I started to learn how to communicate gradually and this was the most amazing thing about Journey for me. I didn’t even know it was a multiplayer adventure. The “game” got much better after that, and I was enjoying every single detail of this new companionship, pressing [O] repeatedly to make music with my new “unknown buddy” (who turned out to be various players later), and helping each other out along the way. I really didn’t want the game to end as it was very enjoyable. But it did end. And too soon.
I think I’ll play Journey again, just one more time though, just to explore some more of it. And I would love to see a DLC anytime soon, but it has to be free: Journey is indeed short, and for 14,99$, it’s very short.
Final point: Journey is a moving experience. And I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

Meet Kara

A must see video made by Quantic Dream (The creators of Heavy Rain). The (short) story reminds me of Caprica (among others), and could make a very interesting game storyline, though it’s not going to happen unfortunately. You can see an interview with the man behind it here.

I guess the Playstation 4 will have to wait a little more..

update 23/3: check out the making of video on youtube.

PS+ March 2012

If you are a Call of Duty fan and a Playstation Plus member, March is your lucky month. Unless you own all the COD franchise titles, you’d be interested in comparing prices on the PSN store with retail prices. To make the maths for you, the PS+ offer saves you 5 to 10$ per game.

I played most of these games, despite my FPS-related motion sickness, just because they are really good, the old and the new ones. But it’s not a collection I would want to own. And even if I did, I wouldn’t want it to be virtual: Some games are made to be shown off on the top of your shelf 🙂

Another game coming to the PS+ this month: Rayman 3 HD. I didn’t play it but I know it’s not by far as good as the beautiful Rayman Origins, which is a must have on your PS3.

Games I downloaded this month: Infamous Festival of Blood and Journey. Finished the first, still playing the latter. Reviews coming soon.

Bring the Survival-Horror Back!

Silent Hill has been one of my favorite video-game franchises since I’ve played the first one on Playstation in 1999. It ranks right after Resident Evil for me on the Horror genre. I don’t know if I am unbiased as I’d like to think, but I must confess that I don’t think twice before I buy anything made by Konami or Capcom. I was conditioned as a child to mix gaming pleasure with these 2 brands. And I must say, I rarely been disappointed by their games. But in the last years, Capcom and Konami, as most of the Japanese developers, started giving up creativity and originality in favour of Western demand. American demand more precisely. Making video-games is a business, and if you don’t sell you won’t make it. I get the notion and respect it. But how large should the sacrifice be, in order to succeed economically and still make “good” games?
Resident Evil 5 and Operation Racoon City are good examples of how Capcom is targeting a new type of consumers, and ditching its old faithful fanbase. More action, more muscles, weak or non-existing plot, no horror at all (yeah, even the Nemesis isn’t scary anymore!). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti “evolution” nor anti-action. I really loved Resident Evil 4 (especially the Wii Edition), and probably will buy Operation Racoon city. But I miss the essence of Resident Evil, which was to give you (&your friends and anyone who adventures to watch you play) the creeps, while exploring a good story.
The reason I’m writing this post is that I saw recently the Silent Hill: Downpour review by IGN. The game got slammed hard, and was given a shameful 4.5/10. This review gave me hope. If people start to see that a dog can’t disguise into a fox, maybe more of japanese Hollywood-wannabe games will fall off. And maybe that would make giant firms like Konami and Capcom, who make a lot of money with other succesful games, think about going back to the origins and hiring new “Shinji Mikami”s instead of american studios and open doors to creativity instead of mimicking the West.

RDLC*: This post was about japanese games trying to look like american ones. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like american games. On the contrary. I genuinely think Dead Space 2 (EA) is one of the best & creepiest games of all the time!

RDLC2: If you happen to understand french: Regardez ce reportage tres interessant.

(*) ReaDabLe Content.

Welcome to Eccentric Gamer

Someone asked: What do you do when life becomes a b***?
You go back to what you love most.
For me, it’s always been gaming. 25 years of playing on consoles (almost all of them), arcade, and even PC… I’m passionate about everything related to video-games. From reading french magazines in the early 90s (Consoles+, Joypad, …), reading online magazines in the early 2000s, to watching Youtube channels these last years (you’ll see which ones in this blog). I don’t play as much as before (is it just me or do days shrink year after year?) as I’m an adult now and try to keep up a “normal” life, but I always make time for my favorite games and always keep updated on what’s happening on the virtual world.
In this blog, I plan to share my thoughts on games (new and retro) and random facts/news related to the gaming/gamers world on a regular basis. As for game reviews, instead of repeating what’s already out there on the web, I’ll try to add my personal touch to it.

Nota: English is my 3rd language so don’t expect Shakespeare vocabulary. But your feedback is very welcomed.

Nota-2: Life is not really a b***, I just like to complain on my bad days. And I’m justifying creating a gaming blog at this point of my life. ^^