Completely Original

Its around 10 weeks now till the release of the much anticipated (for me at least) Resident Evil 6. Since my previous post regarding the game, there has been much thrown out in to the rumour mill or generally in to public eye. Lets start off with the campaigns and what we know of them. First of all, I'll start with Chris 'Steroid' Redfield. Since his last outing in Resident Evil 5, he seems to have toned down those bulging biceps a little, which is good. His campaign however, hasn't changed its feel from Resident Evil 5. From what we can gather from the gameplay trailers that have been released, its all Action filled, gun spraying fun. Not really giving much back to the fans in what they'd like Resident Evils direction to go back to. From the GamePlay we have seen, it can only be classed to me as Call Of Duty in 3rd Person with a viral outbreak.

Operation Raccoon City, a non-canon spin off of the main Resident Evil series set back during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. It follows the lives of Wolfpack, a team dispatched to destroy any evidence that Umbrella corp were involved in the outbreak. A team based shooter created by Slant Six, it was already turning out to be very different from the rest of the series. From most of the reviews strewn over the internet, you'll find mostly negative reviews, however I happen to find it to be a good game.

Starting with any member of the team you can choose (personal favourite being Vector, I like stabbing people), you had your choice of which position you can take. Each member can be customized to your liking once you gain enough experience. With your experience points, you can unlock new perks for your character (Such as Invisibility, extra Anti-virus etc) and new Weapons to use. My personal favourite being an Assault Rifle (Hammer) and as my secondary a magnum (Lightning Hawk). Although the story does go against the canon, in the way of the ending and events that run through, it does make it as though these could of possibly happened. One thing that did disappoint me however was how many bullets it could take to kill just one enemy. The zombies are fair enough, at times there are plenty and a single headshot can take them down as it should be. However the Hunters and other B.O.W.S could take forever!

Other than that I found the storyline the game had to be quite interesting. The fact it followed the story of the antagonist instead of the protagonist I felt was a welcome change to events. Each character had their own personality created to each of them which made it even more interesting. Granted the bad reviews do cover a few points though. The cover system did bring some annoyances of covering when I didn't want to, but sometimes it actually stopped me from being killed cause I was being foolish and rushing in.

Yesterday, 19th January 2012, brought about a big announcement from Capcom. Today being the 15th Anniversary of Resident Evil, you'd expect it to be about Resident Evil right? Well of course it was, they finally dropped the trailer for Resident Evil 6. However not only was the trailer and announcement of RE6 dropped, but so was the first trailer for the next film instalment of the series, Resident Evil: Retribution.

So what does the trailer show for Resident Evil 6 exactly? Well take a look for yourself here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BmC1lZeQad4 -I think we can safely deduce from this that the original virus is involved, with the zombies attacking quite a few members of the public and making quite an appearance. This game will be the first in the series with two male protagonists, none other than Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield. Look! There is another mysterious man with a scar and two girls. From the information released about the game so far, the brunette girl is nothing more than a security officer for the President, who you can see at the beginning of the trailer, she didn't do a very good job in stopping him from becoming infected. The second however, the blonde girl, is not named.

Could this possibly be Sherry Birkin from Resident Evil 2 all grown up? Or is it possibly the annoying Ashley from Resident Evil 4? Who knows. Now just who is the bald mercenary? After watching the trailer a fair few times (so many I've actually lost count) I've come to two possible conclusions. One would be that he was also a product of the Wesker experiments carried out by Umbrella. In the trailer this guy is seen smashing B.O.Ws in the face and jumping on top of a Helicopter. This is no ordinary human. The second conclusion I came to, was possibly they are trying to tie in the game with some aspects of the movie. This man could be the equivalent of Alice in the movie series. As of which, lets move on to talk about the trailer for Retribution.

This is pretty much a follow on from my previous post about Sonic Generations, so if you haven't read that one go ahead - Sonic Generations - A Return To Glory? - Now to continue with the actual article. As Christmas has just passed, my parents realised how much I enjoyed the demon of Sonic Generations and bought it for me. Needless to say, I played it the entire of Christmas neglecting anything else I was bought. Boy am I glad I did! With some beautifully remade zones, including Chemical Plant Zone which I have to say looks amazing, it made the game so enjoyable! Revisiting the old places from my childhood games but remastered gave the game that nostalgic feeling whilst making me want to explore the new places.

The gameplay is simple within the 2D sonic levels, actually going back to the genuine feel of the original games, just with improved graphics. The 3D levels, although personally not as enjoyable as the 2D levels, still felt brilliant! It brought about a decent side to the 3D which hasn't yet been fully achieved by the Sonic Team. The Boss fights bring about the return of classic Sonic Robotnik/Eggman battles until the final bosses. However to get to the final boss you need all 7 Chaos Emeralds, which are gained by defeating other bosses such as Shadow The Hedgehog and Metal Sonic. The Metal Sonic and Shadow fights are pleasing, however Silver The Hedgehogs is downright irritating! It does little to take the shine away from the game though!

Recently I had a little think to myself. With the constant talk of 'Yobs' or 'Youths' in the news, has this taken away the concept that out there, no matter how few there are, that there are actually those teenagers who are polite and caring? With gang culture being a main target within the news, saying that all Youths are involved and cause trouble for residents and the local communities, is it really right to stereotype all teenagers that way? Where I live (Bromsgrove, close to Birmingham) there are many teenagers who do live up to the stereotype of being disrespectful to their elders and constantly causing trouble.

However I often come across Teenagers who help out the elderly, who move out of the way when people are walking towards them to let them pass and those who may hang around in a large group, but are kind to all around them. Now because they are gangs of young people, they are obviously noticed and become quite intimidating, however they go out of their way to prove this is not right. If someone drops something, they go pick it up and give it to the person. They sing silly songs, and don't play their 'Gangster' music out loud which even to me is intimidating. As for being a large group attracting attention, this obviously brings the Police in to the situation. Knowing the Community Support Officers and such may make them seem to be a troublesome group, however the group in question actually are kind to these officers and talk politely to them, asking how their day has been and generally are nice to everyone.

This is my first post my from phone so bare with me! So a few days ago saw the release of Modern Warfare 3, one of the most anticipated games to be released this year. I will openly admit I was one of the many people who went out and bought it on the day of release and I have to say, I am rather disappointed. It has been two years since the release of Modern Warfare 2, with last year bringing about Treyarcs Black Ops, and I can only say I feel incredibly let down by it.

To me, from what I've played of the game without feeling bored of it being over repetitive, it feels just like a DLC pack that the consumer has had to pay full price for. The only major differences between MW3 and it's prequels are the maps. The graphics do not seem to have changed at all in quality and the majority of the gameplay is dull. Now with Black Ops multiplayer, they gave you the ability to add AI enemies in to play locally, but did Activison realise what an incredible idea that was? No, so they left it out of MW3. Now for those of us who dislike playing online because of the online community, it's a big let down as we have no ability to play against more than four players in maps which can be huge!

So this is the second time around that a Sonic Generations demo has been released, this time giving us a fresh look at Green Hill Zone re-imagined in 2D and within the newer generations 3D Sonic. As most reviews around the internet have shown, the previous 3D iterations of Sonic prove to be nothing short of terrible, with the only time it seeing a slight return to its former glory in the recent outing in Sonic 4, which was in 2D. However that was still cutting short of being a complete return to form.

Now we are given a choice between playing the classic short, podgy Sonic or the green eyed, long legged hero from the newer generations. They both play through re-imagined areas from the series, the demo just covering Green Hill zone. The classic Sonics level pays great homage to the original and much loved games. Getting rid of the homing attack and going back to the original moves Sonic had. The 3D Sonic version of Green Hill zone however is a great re-imagination and brings an actual 3D version of Sonic that in my opinion was quite enjoyable compared to previous outings. Without the open world feel that Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 brought about, and a more linear path and easier controls, it actually made the experience enjoyable.

On Saturday 17th September, Jamey Rodemeyer took his own life due to bullying. Jamey, 14 years of age, lived in Buffalo, New York. Does no one else out there think this is an extremely young age to take your own life? This was all because of bullying, not only at school, but cyber-bullying as well. This was all because he was homosexual, so the abuse he was given was homophobic. One of the messages he got sent was 'I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!' This is taking things too far! People need to realise how much simple words hurt. Jamey had participated in the 'It Gets Better' campaign, offering his support to fellow gay teenagers.

Being a fan of Lady Gaga, he made a video directed towards her. Lady Gaga had found out about Jameys tragic death and over the days passing after, she expressed much sorrow and aggression.  She tweeter '"The past days I've spent reflecting, crying, and yelling, I have so much anger. It is hard to feel love when cruelty takes someone's life." This quickly turned to resolve "Bullying must become be illegal". She is hoping to meet with Barack Obama and get a law passed to counter-act bullying. Let us just hope she can get something done about it, if not pass a law, make a speech that will reach out to millions to fight against homophobia and bullying in general.

So Simon Cowell has asked his forming judging colleague to judge on the popular show Britain's Got Talent, however does it really seem like Cheryl Cole will take to the panel after her recent encounters with Cowell? Of course not. In reports coming from her close friends, its been said she turned down the offer straight away. She has had a feud going on with Simon Cowell since he decided to drop her from America's version of XFactor, to the extent the only contact they have really made since then has been a strongly worded text. Since then however he has also invited her to return to the British version of XFactor, again she turned it down.

Well here we are with yet another post concerning the JRPG White Knight Chronicles, however this one comes along now I have finally managed to complete the game. This post WILL contain spoilers so if you have not completed the game or are considering purchasing the game, please do not read further unless you wish to have your experience with the game depleted. So from after this line onwards, read with caution! Just go to after the second image to continue with the none spoilers part!

(THIS IS WHERE THE SPOILERS START!)

Two days ago I finally got around to completing a game that has took the majority of my time since its release and defeated the damn final bosses. These bosses take a lot of work to defeat, the first of them being The Black Knight accompanied by The Sun King. These two bosses are relatively easy if you take them on one at a time. I played as Leonard (The White Knight) to take on this part, where I attacked the Sun King first. Relatively quick to kill using the right attacks and using your turn breaks at the right time. Just make sure you also carry some Mana Potions and Health Potions! Once they are defeated, Leonard leaves your party, to become none other than the enemy you have been trying to stop returning, Emperor Madoras! However before you fight him, you must first fight High Priest Ledom and his assassins. His battle is relatively simple if a little long winded. Then comes your fight with the final boss. I am also just going to point out that inbetween these battles, there is no place to improve your characters or buy things, so do it before! This battle is the hardest of the three, with Madoras becoming a slightly darker version of the White Knight. The only knight you have to use in this battle, is your avatars Knight, the rest of the fight must be done with the characters. This battle is a hard one and I only just scraped through it with my Avatar at level 57!

The best part of finishing the game after defeating him, is unlocking The Lost City Vellgander but also the idea that another sequel will be coming. A large city, built up with puzzles and its pretty much a dungeon with multiple levels which can be done online. However I found a second use for it, easy levelling. Now when I opened up for the quest and realised the recommended level was 80, I instantly thought 'Fuck, my characters are nowhere near strong enough!' but then I took a second look at it. With it being such a high recommended level, the enemies in there should give decent experience point! So it became a quick way for me to level my Avatar up to lvl 60. My intent was to never complete the dungeon, but just to harvest the XP from there.

(SPOILERS ENDED)

Since a certain image was leaked upon the internet, fans have been going crazy in the hopes that it would bring about an official announcement for Resident Evil 6. However as you can probably guess from the article title, it didn't bring about such announcement. So was everything 'leaked' just fake or did Capcom halt the announcement due to the leaks?

As you can see from the image, it quite clearly points out the date 12.09.2011 which can only have pointed to 15th September which has obviously passed with no announcment. Now was this entire image faked or was it an actual leak which Capcom went back on? This wasn't the only thing that has been shown about the sixth installment in the franchise however...

Along with that image comes a leak video as well which you can see - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZigCwkDPVE

Operation Raccoon City, a spin off from the main series where the player controls one of six members of the Umbrella Corporations special agents in an attempt to rid the city of any evidence linking them to the outbreak.  Being a squad based game and set way back in the original settings of the game (during the events of Resident evil 2 and 3) it becomes a complete spin off from the current games. However doing so has brought about some interesting new features and some twists towards the story.

You can see in the above picture one of the new features brought about, able to use the infected as a shield. Not only can you do this, but the infected can now smell blood, so once you shoot one of the many enemies you have thrown at you (most notably the American Special Forces) the infected will smell their blood and make their way towards them. Another interesting change to the game is the fact certain enemies from the series will be aiding you along, such as Mr X from Resident Evil 2 but for how long?

With the new features and an online co-op of up to four players, what really else could they have added? Zombies, Mutants, Mr X, Guns, Explosions, dark environments and back to the roots of the series, all in check. Hmm yes thats right, the fat that you even get a visit from series protagonist Leon S. Kennedy. However with him being a piece of evidence towards Umbrella being involved in the Outbreak, you are given the choice to take him out and see his dead corpse once and for all. Now as you can probably guess this puts a massive spanner in the series for storyline (with Resident Evil 4 happening after the events of the second and third game, obviously) but with this being a spin off title and not linked directly with the main series its all good.

This could be the start of a great spin off series for the franchise, allowing the player to see the story from another point of view. I know for certain I will be one to go out and buy this on release day. It looks incredibly promising to me also allowing the player for the first time to run whilst shooting. It may have got some people against it due to it moving away from the generic Resident Evil structure, but give it a chance, this looks promising. If I haven't pushed you enough towards taking a further look in to it. Here is a video of gameplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wHMWfqBYaA&feature=player_embedded

With the new series just starting in England, I bring myself the question of 'Has Torchwood been Americanised?' If I think about it, I think all it seems to be is the series has matured over time, to allow the audience to grow with the characters (played by John Barrowman and Eve Myles) or has the show now sold out after being funded by American TV stations to allow for better special FX? Personally I just believe the show has matured along with its audience but whats your viewpoint on this?

This brings me to another point I recently read about. A fair portion of the show is based in Wales, however during filming over in America, John Barrowman reportedly heard that many of the American cast had never heard of Wales. In one of the comments on the article I read, someone had even stated they had to translate what Gwen Cooper (played by Eve Myles) said so her husband could understand her Welsh accent. Personally I think thats a bit over the top as I find her perfectly fine to understand and happen to find her accent beautiful. To read the whole article, look http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3698270/Torchwood-cast-What-is-Wales.html

If you happen to be from anywhere other than the United Kingdom, I would love to hear your opinions on this. Do you know where Wales is? Could you understand Gwens accent?

F.3.A.R is the first game in the series I have picked up and had a play around with. A first person shooter, with two characters to play (The second becomes available upon completing the mission) and a host of weapons to use. I'd personally call the game a survival horror, with otherwordly beings appearing before your eyes and the need to conserve ammo to take out enemies as well. Being a survival horror, it needs to live up to the scares and challenges that are set by previous games of the genre. However most seem to have lost the Horror portion.

F.E.A.R however brings that portion back with enemies that jump out of nowhere, or rise from the corpses of the dead. It also utilises psychological tricks, such as flickering lights suddenly and images appearing then quickly dissapearing before you get much chance to notice they were there. The sight of shadows running around but when you get there, nothing is to be found is quite a scary one to. Personally I think this game is one to bring the survival horror genre back to its peak and can only hope companies take notice of this game and realise how much of a masterpiece it truly is so they can learn from it. Now its time for me to go back to playing this beauty and scary myself senseless again so I get no sleep tonight.

Dead Island, an upcoming open world horror action game, set on an island paradise. Oh but wait, look whats coming at me, a zombie. Wait, what? Oh looks its running. Oh look, this feels like Left4Dead2 but with better graphics. Now I am not one to quickly judge a zombie game, I love the undead with my favourite game series being Resident Evil. Admittedly when I first saw the reveal trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg) I honestly thought 'bloody hell, this looks purely brilliant. OMG haha the child got bitten' (Despite how harsh that may sound, genuine reaction) which led to 'maybe this won't be just another zombie game, not many deal with the zombie children'.

However then came along a gameplay trailer. The game focussing heavily on Melee combat was one of the only main changes I saw from any other general zombie game. Granted yes they have giant mutated infected, but so does Left4Dead and Resident Evil. This also has side missions, being an open world game it kind of requires them, which is something neither of the previous two titles have. My major point though is how the zombies run and the general look of the game. The graphics are great yes, but to me once watching the gameplay trailer, it felt nothing more than a graphically enhanced Left4Dead. I will still be one of the many thousands who will go out and buy this, but until then, I still keep my speculation about it being a graphic buffed Left4Dead rip off. Although I do also quite like the logo, which I apologise for any Australian or North America readers who won't have this version, because I think it shows how people will do anything to escape a living nightmare when the world comes to a bitter end.

Here comes possibly the longest rant I will post, as this happens to be my favourite game. Now back when I was younger and Resident Evil had first come out, I wasn't the one playing it the most, I was watching my father play it. It quickly became one of my favourite games, despite how terrible Resident Evil 1 was. Resident Evil 2 brought about the mass of the Survival Horror genre, with the lack of ammunition and the hordes of the undead infected coming after you so your only choice was to run. With it bringing about the protagonists Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy, which became characters for Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4. It sparked the series franchise and brought about the best series of games I have ever played. With Resident Evil 2 holding as my firm favourite of the series with Resident Evil Code Veronica being a close competitor.

However the only game in the series that I found difficult is Resident Evil 3, with its puzzles and constant pursuing boss (Nemesis) it easily became a challenge. It brought about the first rage quit I ever had, before getting a walkthrough and finding out the puzzle answers change everytime you try a puzzle. Which although being a very unique idea, it brought about endless anger and hours wasted on one puzzle, only to find out it does very little but brings about the big bad guy to kill me.

Now it brings us to the newer games. Resident Evil 4 was over the shoulder view which was new to the series, but also brought about the new breed of enemies such as the Ganados. This ended the Zombies of the series which caused general uproar, which I admit, I was a part of. I miss the slow shuffling of the zombies and the hordes of them coming towards you, however now they run, have guns and other tools at their disposal. Its just no longer scary with the environments being well lit and sunny, you can see the enemies before they see you and they no longer jump out from nowhere. Resident Evil 5 didn't really bring about much new about from more increased lighting, better graphics and a different story. The most of the game was the same as everything else. The story also became very predictable and most of the enemies were just recycled from Resident Evil 4.

In conclusion, Resident Evil is a good game, but does need a good reboot. Not a major one, but one that brings back the zombies and the dark atmosphere. With Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City on the horizon being a team based shooter, this could bring about a series of spins offs with the infected. The game being set back where it all started in Raccoon City, it will bring back a lot of Nostalgia for me. Lets just hope they pull it off well from Umbrella Corps. point of view...

As a continuation of my post from a while back (The Fall Of Faria) this is now my rant about the game so far. Having now got a fair way through the game, I must say it is one of the hardest games I have played. With some bosses taking over 10 Guiattempts to kill! First of all I'm going to talk about the down points of the game, with my main being the continue spots. This brought about much rage in me having to walk through over an entire map just to get back to the boss and attempt to kill it after dying from it before. They should allow you to start from the boss straight away once you die instead of running all the way through the map to only attempt to kill that boss again. Another annoying point is the need to grind, it is pretty much necessary so you can defeat future enemies and gain new weapons when you grind for Guild Points.

Now for the good points. Although the story may be hard to follow, I find it so compelling and wanting to find out more. With unexpected characters returning to the game and allowing for a huge amount of customisation over its previous game. Allowing the player to create their own Arc Knight once they reach so far through the game and have a certain level. This Knight can be customised by the player to work with what weapons it wants and what colour you want. With the level cap also being raised from 50+ so the player can create even stronger characters. Which again brings about the necessary need to grind to bring about more customisation, but this in the end brings about new weapons and armour.

In conclusion I believe this game to be one of the best I have played this year, and probably my most played now, knocking Call Of Duty off the top. Could this quickly become one of my favourite storylines following Resident Evil. So I highly recommend going out and getting White Knight Chronicles 2, and if you do, don't get WKC1, as WKC2 comes pre-packaged with it!