Hey, how's it going? I beat a video game and in celebration of that momentous occasion I wrote about it. But, as per usual, other games.

Baldur's Gate

I wrote about Baldur's Gate a little over two years ago (which frightens me quite a bit), but for some reason felt compelled to play it again despite the half-dozen other lengthy RPGs that I should theoretically be playing through. Sure, on that playthrough I kind of bum-rushed through the last third of the game, ignored all of the Tales of the Sword Coast content and never actually beat Sarevok, but I'd still count it as beating the game... technically. Nope. It is my intent with this playthrough to make a character worthy of importing into Baldur's Gate II, which I haven't played in years and never actually beat either. With the rest of the infinity engine now conquered I should probably get back to the one I started with and possibly ruin my childhood memories in the process. Also because it's almost summer and I'm not taking any classes next semester, though hopefully I'll at least get a job.

As for the game itself, I think I like it more than when I played it last time. While everything I said in that last blog is still valid, I think the wilderness exploration aspect is kind of great at encompassing the tone and style of low-mid level D&D. The personalities of your party members aren't as fleshed out as they would become in later Bioware games (starting with BGII) but that fits with the deliberately generic tone they're going for. You aren't doing anything particularly epic, progression is significant enough that a level-up is a noteworthy occurrence and +2 items are extremely useful. I'm not done yet, but don't expect anything more in regards to this game until I finish BG2 and make some sort of comparison blog between the two games (and Throne of Bhaal). Bonus points for having my main character be far more useful than I expected, even as a Fighter/Mage/Thief, a class I've set as a target of ridicule in the past. Second edition backstabs are also absurdly powerful if you can get them off. Triple damage against a wizard who just got all of his protections dispelled is an effective and viable tactic with only a few points in hide (or an opportune use of the invisibility spell).

Resident Evil Revelations HD Remix Turbo Arcade Edition Dark Arisen

As the best Resident Evil game to be released in 2012, it begs the question "Arbitrary, we know you're a crazy person who has played all of the old Resident Evil games why has it taken this long for you to play this one? You bought the $90 RE5 collector’s edition for goodness sake!" Well, first off I didn't own a 3DS until a few months ago (and at that point I knew this version was coming out) and second of all I was stupid when I was a sophomore because I bought collector's editions of video games (still have that Fallout 3 lunchbox somewhere). That stuff aside, I think I've soured a bit on the Resident Evil franchise since those heydays, even without having played RE6. In the original draft of this blog I had a lengthy rant explaining why, but I decided to cut it because it was incoherent. The gist of it was that Resident Evil has a weird identity crisis and doesn't know what it wants to be and even though I still like all of the newer games (that I've played) I question the draw that the franchise has anymore.

With that out of the way, Resident Evil Revelations is an alright game. While aspects of it being a portable game still show through, most evidently in the graphical department, it's a solid entry in the franchise and a decent way to spend one's time. Before I get to the gameplay, It should be mentioned that the title itself is absolute nonsense. Taking place a little before Lost in Nightmares (and thus a couple of years before RE5), it should be said that the plot of this game is nonsensical even by the standards of the series, with my central caveat being the ultra high-tech eco-city that gets destroyed by a Satellite laser as the central driving force of the story. Most of the new characters are laughably annoying (most of the new character designs are... something else) Chris doesn't really do much (i.e. no boulder punching) and the end boss kind of looks like a fishy tyrant. It all washed over me and even having just finished it I struggle to remember some of the story beats, though if I wanted to I could watch all of the recaps that precede every chapter (and also every chapter ends with a pointless cliffhanger or stinger before immediately being resolved).

That being said, the core gameplay is decent. The controls aren't as tight as RE4 or 5, enemy variety is a bit lacking (though I appreciate the return of hunters as a thing I can shoot) and the camera is a bit too close to your character for comfort, but taking it slow, aiming for the head and avoiding attacks are all encouraged (also there is an unwieldy dodge mechanic that I can do consistently against some enemy attacks but not others). It's also the modern Resident Evil game that comes closest to doing more than just paying lip-service to the old games, inasmuch as you can explore around in some instances instead of following the linear path and there is a decently tense early-game sequence where you don't have your weapons on you. It also seems quite obvious that Co-Op was going to be implemented at some point because you always have a partner with you, even when the game switches around with its characters (you still play as Jill for most of it). The structure of the game is very much in line with RE4 and 5, but with fewer set-piece moments and exactly zero sequences where you have to mash buttons for an extended period of time. The set-piece moments that do exist are pretty terrible however, with the turret and underwater sections of the game being longer than they should and the bosses all being bullet sponges.

I've been told that the true draw of this game is the Raid Mode, and I can already see why. It's a series of challenge levels drawn directly from the story with a RPG progression system, loot, several different characters and co-op. While I'm partial to The Mercenaries myself, what I've played of this so far is interesting enough that I will continue to play it. There haven't been a ton of people playing thus far, but I imagine that's because they're all not crazy and didn't blow through the story in a few days like I did. It works better as its own mode than The Mercenaries, though I wouldn't necessarily call it superior. If you want to play with me, my Steam ID is the same as my username.

Thus, we get to the crux of my blog. Is this game worth $50 when you can get the 3DS version for less than half of that? I'd imagine that this version is significantly superior, both visually (though you can still tell most of the assets weren't originally made for HD resolutions) and in terms of controls, but I wouldn't say that Revelations is great enough to warrant a purchase at full price. For my part, I got it on Greenman Gaming for like $35, and that seemed like a fair price to me, so if you want to take advantage of that deal I think it's still going on. And with that, I end this train. Expect something on something within the next few weeks. I never did finish The Last Express....

Playing through RE:R myself, and I find the dialogue the most amusing aspect of it. "I think it's a gun!" When the genesis reader clearly outlines a gun. "It's a trap" about 15 seconds after the audience already figured out that it was a trap.

I've played maybe four or so hours on the PS3 and have found very, very few people to play Raid with online. It's still the best thing about the game, even after nearly thirty hours of it on the 3DS I'm still really into it. I think parts of it look absolutely horrible and am not really sure this is the best version of the game for the single player despite there being a better frame rate and a lack of the awful loading stutters when you transition to new areas. It's still a cool game though. A year ago I could have sworn it was better than 5, but after playing through it again I'm not entirely sure of that now.

@gunstarred: Really? I'd like to hear why the 3DS version could be better. Also this game isn't better than 5. No way.

@shivermetimbers:

I feel like the only thing it's lacking from that angle is a Leon who will issue witty pithy comebacks whenever something bad happens.

@arbitrarywater: For starters It looks really nice on the smaller 3DS screen and as someone that is quite fond of the 3D effect I found it to work pretty well in the confined ship hallways. The door puzzles and especially the fingerprint scan really benefit from being on a touchscreen also, the Wii U version will probably be the best of this new version due to that.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the way they have changed some of the leveling in Raid. All the extra achievements that would pop at random and the ability to buy a couple of free guns with the system coins make it seem like getting to level 50 would be far more of a grind. I'm not entirely sure why they have taken that out as it was one of the things I liked best about it on the 3DS. They have added a bunch of markers in the missions to get extra BP, but BP is so easy to gain that they don't add anything at all. It was nice that you were always gaining experience for killing 100 ooze or 20 dogs or whatever.

@arbitrarywater: Would be interested in further impressions regarding Raid vs. Mercenaries; sort of just looks dumb by comparison; a sort of "level up horde mode" instead of a challenge and figuring out just what works to get the much desired 150 combo. I should note that RE6 is pretty good/great and going back to RE5 after playing with RE6's controls for a while is very difficult as most of the stupid stuff in RE5's combat that you have to get around via exploiting invincibility animations from item pickups was gone; also counters were fantastic. Now I'm sure I could still play RE4 but that game just has style and head explosions and hundreds of death animations and throwing grenades at crows, RE5 not so much.

@fredchuckdave: The challenge of Raid, for as much as I've seen on the lowest difficulty, is getting all 3 bonuses in one go. You have to beat the level at or under the recommended character level, kill all of the enemies and not get hit. That last one is quite tricky, as you might imagine, though the levels are the same each time and thus memorization is a factor. I won't say it's better than mercenaries (though my experiences playing RE5 mercenaries recently ended with me realizing that RE5 controls quite differently than Revelations and also I'm not great at the mercenaries) but I've had fun with it thus far.

It all washed over me

Stealth pun?

I think I liked RE6 more than this game. The voice acting in RE6 was way better. And in RE:Rev the only person who was good was Chris.

I have played an awful lot of Revelations and I am here to... link to another one of my typo-infested, overly long user-reviews /self deprecation. I basically agree with a lot of what you said in any case.

As for any Raid vs Mercenaries debates, if Raid mode actually had more in there--more meta game for example; there's not nearly enough incentive to replay previous levels besides grinding--then I'd say Raid mode would most certainly top Mercenaries for me. If they were to release some sort of expansion pack, with new characters, stages, weapon types ect., I would be all over that shit. Unfortunately from what I can tell, all they have in mind is Ooze Rachael and fucking Lady Hunk...?! Like, the two most laziest DLC characters they could have come up with. A character that already exists in the game and Hunk wearing a skirt.

@yummylee: It seems you and I share a pretty similar verdict on this game: it's good, not great. How easy was finding people to play Raid with? It was pretty barren on PC when I was playing through it, and while I got through trench difficulty with the help of a few skilled randoms I got the impression that not a ton of people were playing.

@arbitrarywater: It's been fine; quick match usually always gives me a few different matches to select from. Shouldn't be much of a surprise, but there's a sizeable amount of Japanese players on this it seems. Given their general preference for consoles, it makes sense why this game would have more of a userbase behind it on the PS3. Equally unsurprising is a lot of people have already hit the max rank... though they're usually courteous enough to pull their level down to yours so you're not just trailing a tank who one-shots everything.

Then again, with the Abyss stages I'd certainly welcome some higher level assistance, because they can get ridiculous.