Chris, Sheva and Fifty?!

Something under water is lurking this month, I think it’s Bioshock 2! Man, my preorder has been postponed to next week FFS! :(

At least I have some other titles to play meanwhile! Since my last post, I've finished Resident Evil 5 and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.


Review

Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2009

Let’s get everybody scared with RE5 first then, or will we?!

Like I mentioned last time, my first impression of the RE5 demo on Xbox Live was that of disappointment and frustration. I hated the fact that you couldn't move while firing a gun. It simply felt so restricted and annoying that I actually swore never to play it.

While this control issue may have been excused for RE4, I even found it annoying back then, for a modern title like RE5 to have this limitation seems out of place and very dated. However, after playing it for a while I got used to it.



RE5 should be viewed as a gameplay follow-up to RE4. The small town, America setting and creepiness of the earlier RE are still abandoned. The action level is dialled up high. I played it on my own as Chris, relying on the A.I. to play Sheva, the main girl.

Surprisingly, it worked out fine, although some frustration occurred in the crowded areas towards the end. Luckily, most of the time, the A.I. partner played fine. I realised that letting the A.I. take care of all the healing items helped a lot, since it was great at rescuing me. I'd also recommend limiting their weaponry to one or two guns as the A.I. uses a lot of ammo, preferably weapons you don't use yourself.

The environments for RE5 may be quite obscure for RE veterans but I appreciated them. Africa as a continent, gives a lot of variation and a more nature-focused environment. The level design is more consistent and cohesive than RE4. It doesn't exactly hurt that the environments look awesome too, the graphics engine is great, with a lot of detail on the characters and enemies.



So, for people wondering about buying this, I end up recommending it. Even though it's far from what RE used to be about, namely scary horror. While the A.I. partner works fine, at least on normal difficulty, the most rewarding way of playing is in coop!

Difficulty is quite steep, with a lot of spikes both in crowded areas and tricky boss fights. There were many occasions where I had little ammo, having to find a way to navigate past the hordes of enemies to pick up ammo to survive. The boss fights are varied and spectacular, relying on a specific solution to defeating them. That said, the game does a really bad job at explaining, or even visually showing, that you're doing damage to them. Resulting in a trail and error of unnecessary player deaths.

Thumbs up for Capcom when the cumbersome controls settle, RE5 delivers a solid experience, beating RE4 in more believable scenarios and varied environments. But they really need to start looking on western gameplay mechanics soon, things are changing fast. 

Edit: DLC is just round the corner for RE5, with two, new, mini campaigns!



Review

Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2009

Over to something completely different, 50 Cent and his Blood in the Sand game. I had zero expectations for this title whatsoever and therefore it delivered an unexpected, amusing and action packed experience!

I played it coop over Xbox Live with a friend for the sheer fun of it, and man, we had a ton of laughs. 50 Cent shouts out endless abuse as he guns down literally hundreds of terrorists in an unnamed middle east country. All because he didn't receive payment for his concert and got a bling decorated skull stolen. Awesome and really compelling story don't you think?!



Being an Unreal Engine 3 title, what isn't this generation, it controls and plays great. Clearly learning a trick or two from Gears of War, with cover mechanics and a over-the-shoulder 3rd person view. It runs smoothly and looks good to. You can upgrade guns and buy more abusing taunts by collecting crates of bling, yes bling.

It may sound like a stupid idea but with entertaining gameplay like this, lots of guns, over the top one liners and coop, it’s definitely worth a pick-up from a bargain bin at your local store! Especially so if you enjoy titles like Gears of War and Army of Two.



It's time to end this post, still playing MW2 online and I’m enjoying a playthrough of Army of Two: 40th day splitscreen on PS3 with a friend. Got a feeling I have to get back to Forza Motorsport 3 soon though, that game is huge, so I need to play it in batches!

Next time, I'll hopefully have completed Bioshock 2, and I'll probably have quite a bit to say about it. See you around!