Resident Evil 5

 

Have been playing Resident Evil 5 for some time now (on amateur of course, I'm so bad at action games overall), Another game I bought some years ago and didn't come round to until now. So I finished it and it was all right. Now, to be clear I've only played Resident Evil 4 and Revelations before this so I'm not that old-school with the series so the more action oriented gameplay don't bother me. Actually I find it rather enjoyable how you can move around all directions and when it comes to Revelations also like to be able to move and shoot compared to standing still. I might agree that it's not much horror left, but it might also be to me being more desensitized compared to days of yore when I couldn't even finish the first dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time due to being to scary for me. Being 27 might make it easier. I finished it anyway and story wise it was fulfilling. I also got the gold edition so I had two extra missions, one being what happened to Jill and Chris before the events of the game and then what happened to Jill and Captain Stone before they rescued Chris. Spoilers might be in place, but the game is almost 6 years old so I don't bother that much. Fun thing I noticed was that the beginning for the Chris and Jill episode was hinted at in Revelations and tied it together (Revelations came out later as a side story, but since I played that game before this it was kinda fun).

Story wise Chris Redfield has been sent by the BSAA to partake in an operation against a Bio-terrorist named Irving so he meets up with their African branch and start killing zombies. I might not have to be all to careful with ammo compared to before. Who's the bad guy really? Well not Irving, but rather Albert Wesker, the main villain of most of the series who also has Jill Valentine under his control. Plan is to wipe out most of the worlds population with this super virus and establish himself as good for those still alive afterwards. The back-story chapter doesn't explain anything about this, but the flashback in the main game tells you that he is some kind of geneticly engineered child, a super human so he sees fit to rule as his creator (Spencer, the CEO of Umbrella) who he deems to weak of old age so he gets killed of off-screen. How do you finish Wesker? Well, you overdose him with a serum he uses to keep himself stable and then fights him in the middle of an active Volcano until you drop him in the lava and fires a rocket at him. Talk about action climax. And that's the best comparison, a silly action movie.

Now, this game had some controversies when it was released, mostly that it supposedly was racist. And in one way yes, there is a lot of Africans portrayed in rather animalistic ways, but then again it is a virus that makes them so, created by a European/American company that uses the natives for their own goals of world domination, exploiting the nature and destroying old tribes and temples. The only options I would see was to probably whitewash it away with all Africans that aren't white, but it doesn't sound right at all. Cause we are in Africa (no country named so we are only on the specified continent of Africa), you expect the victims to be of some color and in a way that is even more racist if we go all apartheid on them in video games set in Africa. Besides it was made by Japanese, isn't that even more of "white man's burden" when we in the west tells them what they can and not can portray in fiction?

The other thing with this game is the co-op mode where you can have a friend join or your forced to play with the AI. Not that bad, but they waste the ammo I'm carefully saving up. Luckily you can always replay the 1 1/2 chapters to gather ammo and money to upgrade your weapon to make it somewhat easier. Back to the co-op, it works, but this is probably the main reason the games doesn't scare me as much, you are almost never alone. A bit more stressful maybe since you must keep an eye on the AI's health and ammo, but if you finish it once you can get unlimited ammo which at least takes care of that. If I only had someone to play with. Tried with my sister, but the first zombie made her want to quite and the horde of zombies at the end of chapter one was enough for her. Maybe if my youngest sister was here, she played at least the rail-gun Resident Evil games for Wii.

Child of Light

Another one of those games I wasn't gonna get. And then I realized that I had participated in Nintendos Premium deal by getting my Wii U black 32 GB racking up 3000 points giving me access to 300 SEK and due to already maxing out on the Wii U balance I went on a small shopping spree and since it was some Christmas deals for this game I got Child of Light. And I'm glad I did since it was a really charming game. I might go into spoiler territory (which by now would be expected by how I do these usually). First of, the stile is based on European folk- and fairy tales, think the Grimm Brothers, and the art feels like that for me... might be due to the similarities to certain children cartoons I watched as a kid telling different stories from Eastern Europe. The developers might have seen the same show since the music is conducted by the Bratislava Symphonic orchestra, I guess to invoke a similar feel.

The story then begins with telling us about princess Aurora and her father the duke. They mention some Step-mother and here would anyone who have read a fairy tale suspect something fishy. Well, Aurora dies of some sickness and wakes up in this mysterious land and must find her way back before her father succumbs to sorrow. And I'm just gonna spoil it, of course it was the Step-Mother who did it, it's the brother Grimm storytelling 101. And even more obvious she has two daughter's as well. What's more is that the Step.mother is the Evil Queen of the land which you are brought to and it's your job to stop Umbra, the Queen of the Night and bring light to those who live in this land.

A bit short, although after finish it you get a New Game + to do it again, only harder so you can really max out your characters skills and abilities. All in all it's beautiful and a really sweet game. One quirk is that everyone rhyme which might put some people off, but I think it enhance the games atmosphere cause as we know, rhyming is a classic staple in fairy- and folk tales. Well worth the 50 SEK (a bit less than 5 $, € and just over 5 £) and if this is the only modern RPG I get on the Wii U I can't really skip it. A bit short though.

Happy New Year 2015

Happy New Year everybody. Time to summarize 2014 and relive the good and the bad. We begin at the beginning were I suffered some kind of depression. Hadn't felt like that since the winter of 2011/2012. Could have been the darkness, maybe that I had to move back home to my parents in 2013. Could have been my sisters that drives me insane or that my financial situation didn't look that good... or it might have been a side effect of the black mold growing under the kitchen floor that forced us to renovate most of the house. Did I mention the house was just two years old? Really could have started better, but hey 2014 seems to be a rather depressing year overall. Celebrities dying left and right, massacres, wars and civil unrest everywhere you look. The Center-Right coalition lose power in Sweden (of course that is more subjective, those on the other side was probably happy... but maybe not as happy as Sweden Democrats). Doesn't help that the financial crisis have lasted 6 years and few seems to believe it will end soon enough. I have my hopes for next year cause the numerology would be nice with a lucky 7, especially since the upturn last time lasted 7 years starting in 2001 with the Dot.Com-bubble and ending with the bank crash of 2008. It almost biblical... if that would be the case of course.

If that's the bad what have been good then? Well, I actually got a tan this year, I had a couple of interviews and I got myself a Wii U. Thinking about it makes me feel a bit shallow with all this, but then again most of the world is so depressing right now I need the distractions to keep me happy. It could explain why I feel better at the moment than I did last year (if we assume the mold wasn't the only cause for feeling blue). The Nintendo charm and child-like fun can really stop depressions it seems. Really, I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and could taste the air of freedom, but sad to say it wasn't to be so I hope for this year, as every year since 2011.