Monday MUpdate: Where are all the good video game movies?

This weekend I didn't really play all that many video games since I spent it packing and collecting moving materials, as well as doing a lengthy clean up of my ridiculously messy room. While I was doing all of this, I decided it was time to watch all the movies that have been laying around my room or clogging up my hard drive. Two of said movies were both video game related, and I figure what better place to write my snarky commentary and scathing reviews than a blog dedicated to all things video games?

I'd also like to point out as a foreword that both of these movies are not Hollywood movies, but films commissioned by the people who made the game as a way of expanding their own mythos. It is in that that I feel I can be extra harsh in commentary, because while Hollywood films have to take an idea and make it passable for a 90 minute film that non-video game audiences will enjoy, these films are made as an addition for people who are already fans of the video game and therefore do not have to take the same inconsistencies and jumps that your average Hollywood film does. So when I get overly critical in the following two reviews, just try and keep in mind that I'm still a huge fan of the video games. I just don't care for 90 minute films that miss the point.

Dead Space: Downfall

People that have been regular readers for the past year or so know that I praised Dead Space when it first came out. I found it a highly entertaining and quite terrifying survival horror game that revamped some tired ideas and put an entertaining spin on them. It was essentially Resident Evil in space, except the "zombies" wouldn't die if you shot off their heads. You had to more carefully shoot off their limbs. It also mixed in a bit of Bioshock with a story that threw you into an abandoned and dead mining ship, and you had to learn through out the game play what happened to everyone in the past - how they found the artifact on the planet, it released this terror, and everyone proceeded to go insane and get infected with space zombie flu. Awesome.

The movie, however, lacks everything that made Dead Space cool. It comes off more as an Alien prequel that just begs to ruin your imagination. See, part of the fun is that when you play Dead Space, you get to infer everything that happened. Downfall shows it to you, and therefore loses a big chunk of the survival horror aspect that made Dead Space so entertaining. While we are presented with an insanely wide and talented voice cast (such as the guy who does the voice of Mickey's arch-nemesis Pete (seriously)), all of the characters come off as bland and impersonal. We follow our heroine as she tries to survive the ship, but ultimately, who cares? Everyone in the movie treats her like crap and we as the audience never really get a reason to feel otherwise. She's good with a gun and hates aliens, but don't we all? All the other characters introduced as part of the surviving team are about as two-dimensional as they come. Besides, anyone who has played Dead Space knows how the movie will end: everyone dies. When you get to the ship, it's empty, remember? So why bother getting attached to a crew that you know is doomed?

My biggest complaint still lies with the fact that this takes away from the imaginative properties of the sci-fi space survival horror. I really loved the way the story was explained in Dead Space. Obviously, the game's run time allows for a more carefully explained plot, but from the brief moments you yourself get to see on a computer monitor the revelation of the artifact as well as the first attack are what make this game's horror aspect work. Granted, if you were a fan of Alien, then I suppose the set up of the plot can work for you, but having actually played the game from beginning to end I just found everything kind of "matter of fact." There was no plot twist that they could give to me that would make me sit up in the chair because I already knew them all.

So Dead Space: Downfall does somewhat go to flesh out the story of the Dead Space infection time line, it's all in all unnecessary and unwelcome. For those actually interested in having everything explained in front of you, then I'd recommend a watch, but otherwise skip it. Sometimes, a game without a cohesive story that forces you to earn the truth of any mysteries surrounding the plot is much more rewarding than a game that explains it as you go along. Granted, there are obvious exceptions to this rule, but as far as survival horror goes, I'll take a non-linear storyline over a straight forward one any day.

Resident Evil: Degeneration

Resident Evil: Degeneration is something I had incredibly high hopes for. I don't think I need to remind people what a huge Resident Evil fan I am. The game literally pioneered the survival horror genre, and without it we would never have anything like Dead Space. Hell, we wouldn't even have Dino Crisis. So considering this movie is supposed to enter legitimate continuity, it seemed like a winner to me. Possibly another Advent Children, even. What it ended up being was a hilariously bad attempt at gap bridging in the Resident Evil universe.

Now, the movie is supposed to take place in between Resident Evil 4 and 5. The events of Resident evil 2 and 3 have already happened and Raccoon City lies in ruins. It is important to note that there is no way the public is not aware of zombies, especially due to the opening scenes of news reports that consistently mention outbreaks and the fall of the Umbrella Corporation. In fact, one of the main characters is a Senator who okayed the bombing of Raccoon City, and when the movie opens with him at an airport and a protest mob outside, someone is dressed as a zombie as a form of protest. So can someone please explain to me why everyone is confused when the outbreak occurs? And why Claire just doesn't grab a cop's gun and end this within the first five minutes?

My first complaint with the movie was the clear issues of dialogue. Some of what was so insanely stupid, I felt I was reading a 13 year old's fan fiction. Here are two of my favorite moments:

Scene 1:
Squad member into walkie talkie: "Where are you?"
Woman stuck in airport: "We're in the VIP room!"
Squad member into walkie talkie: "Ok, I think they're in the VIP room!"

Oh yeah? Really? What was your first amazing clue to that one? The best part of this is, though, is not the fact of obvious repetition. It's the fact that even though the cops were told where the woman was, they were still somehow unsure.

Scene 2:
Senator: "I hope you have a plan!"
Leon: "We're going to run across the lobby."
Claire: "You should trust him - he knows this stuff."

This is the level of intelligent writing we're dealing with here. I'm not saying that Resident Evil has ever been a great example of award winning writing, but come on.

There is also a moment where one of the character's breasts grow about twenty times in size for no reason, and it's positively hilarious. I honestly spent more time laughing at this movie then I did enjoying it, and this is my second complaint. More than anything, this movie is really dumb. Resident Evil has never really been "about the zombies" so to speak, and more about the virus, evil corporations, and monsters, but there was barely any zombie involvement at all in this movie. Most of it was dialogue about how they wanted to prevent an outbreak during an outbreak. A lot of it just seems so basic and easy to avoid. On top of that, all the plot twists are incredibly text book. Granted, Resident Evil has been pulling out some of the recurring twists for the past couple years, what with the supposed return of Umbrella as well as Albert Wesker repeatedly popping up, but this tries to play out like a thriller more than just your typical Resident Evil story.

All of this is not to say that I didn't enjoy it at all. It was dumb and poorly written but I definitely liked it more than Dead Space: Downfall due to the connections with the games. The animation is really great at points, and there's one scene of running water that I could have sworn was actual running water versus CGI. This is the first time Claire and Leon have been together since Raccoon City, and Resident Evil 2 was always my favorite game so it was nice to have them together again. On top of that, there is a tease of TriCell in the game, the new villainous corporation introduced in Resident Evil 5, which I liked. But while this expands the story in similar ways to Advent Children, it fails in the same way that Advent Children succeeded. The reason Advent Children worked is because it was a straight up sequel that offered closure to many open ends. Degeneration offers no closure to anything because there is no need to try and offer closure. What it does instead is just continue along the evil coporation motif of Resident Evil rather than make it a true horror story, and what works about playing Resident Evil versus watching it is with gameplay you can have as much zombie horror as you want, whereas in a film it needs to be regulated. That's what makes this fizzle around.

So while Resident Evil: Degeneration is less of a disappointment than Dead Space: Downfall, it still is ultimately a disappointment. Poor writing and direction for a story don't save it from being part of continuity. In fact, that's more reason to dislike it, because it should by all rights and accounts take the effort to be well written considering it is essentially fan service. There was no need for this chapter of Resident Evil because ultimately, we gain nothing new, just some amusing one minute teases. In fact, without knowledge of Resident Evil 5, the inclusion of TriCell is somewhat pointless, because all things considered, Resident Evil 6 is supposed to take the whole Resident Evil saga in a brand new direction as it finally wrapped up every loose end about any main character involved in Resident Evil.

So there you have it. Two video game movie reviews in lieu of actual video gaming. To be honest, in the upcoming weeks I probably will not get much gaming done, but I will do my best to make it up to any faithful readers somehow. I mean, Marvel vs Capcom 2 will be out soon, right? And I'm bound to do a report on that.

February NPD Data Opinions

There has not been a lot of news as of late that has caught my interest but I am sure that will all change when it comes down to GDC (Game Developer's Conference) in just a few short days. I know that I will have something to say about Mass Effect 2 because I know that it is going to be there but other than that we will just have to wait and see. Maybe we will see something from Bioshock 2 that will do something the quell all of our inhibitions about the prequel/sequel.

But none of this is what this post is actually about. It is about the February NPD Data that was posted by everyone under the sun yesterday. The Xbox sold 391K units while Nintendo sold bajillions (technical term) of Wii's and DS's. Street Fighter IV and Wii Fit rounded out the top three games sold and that is about all of the interesting information that is there. The rest is just standard stuff other than the fact that DS games that are at least a year old are somehow in the top ten for the second straight month.

What I am looking forward to seeing is the March NPD because I'll get to see how RE5, Halo Wars, and Chinatown Wars faired among Nintendo's glut of hardware and software (well the later is Nintendo software).

For Those Who Liked The Resident Evil 5 Review

Oh my Gods, two updates in a span of time less than 24 hours? This is new. And this new update regards news and not a review? Curiouser and curiouser. Could I perhaps be possessed by Nate? While this is not a definite answer to the query, it is a definite possible answer.

Regardless, I am going to relate some information that does not even have to do with a video game console I own. Christian Svensson over at Capcom recently wrote that several old games for the Playstation have been submitted by Capcom to the Playstation Network for possible downloading. This is incredibly cool because now people who never got to play Resident Evil in all it's original glory may now get the chance to do so, not to mention you'll get other games like Dino Crisis (another survival horror game) and Street Fighter. You can already get Resident Evil 3 if you are so inclined (and 2 if you live in Japan).

On top of this, I also felt that I could throw into the pot that if you are a Wii owner, you could also play the previous 4 installments. All you need to do is go down to your local GameStop and pick up Resident Evil 1-4 on the Game Cube and then throw it into your console! It'll play just as well, and all 4 games have been put on the Game Cube (the original re-made, 2 and 3 just ports). In my humble opinion, the re-make of Resident Evil is just as good as the original if not better due to the intense graphic overhaul, script edits, and added gameplay mechanics.

Just something to dwell on in case my Resident Evil 5 review moved you so much you decided you needed to finally check out the series after not doing so for over a decade.

Resident Evil 5

It has been quite some time since I have taken a moment out of my ever so busy schedule in order to write a proper review of a video game. Part of this is due to the fact that I've been gaming a LOT less as of late. I've sold a bunch of games and I still haven't beaten the first DLC for Fallout 3. This is bad for me, I know, but with March and the release of two highly anticipated titles on my books, my XBOX 360 has once again received love for something other than a glorified DVD player/TV streamer. The first game that came out, Halo Wars, Nate and I are playing through together over XBOX Live. Resident Evil 5, however, I got and played all on my lonesome.

I'd like to add a forward notice that I've played all of the main games in this series, and by that I mean I've played Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, and 4. I've never played Code Veronica, 0, or any of the other side games. I am still well versed in all the important plot elements in those games, so it's not like I have ever had trouble following the story. Besides, with 4 we saw the beginning of a brand new story and gameplay style.

Ok, so let's do a quick retrospective here. In the original game, a group of STARS members arrive at a mansion investigating the disappearance of the previous team. What they find is a house full of zombies and an extensive laboratory underneath. You can play as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, and each of their stories reveal little things about the mansion and it's owner, the Umbrella Company. In the next game, you take control of Claire Redfield, who had come to visit her older brother, or Leon Kennedy, a brand new STARS agent who had just arrived in Raccoon City, only to find it had been taken over by zombies due to an outbreak of the T-Virus. In the next game, you once again take control of Jill Valentine, who has made her way into Raccoon City and is now trying to deal with the same problems Leon and Claire dealt with. At the end, Raccoon City is bombed by the US Government to stop the outbreak, Umbrella is brought to trial for crimes against humanity, and disbanded. In 4, we once again find ourselves playing as Leon, who is now a special agent for the government trying to rescue the president's daughter, and we find ourselves face to face with a new bio-terrorism threat: the Las Plagas virus. In the end, you destroy the virus (or so you think!) and save the president's daughter. All is well... for now.

Resident Evil 5 once again puts us in the very capable shoes of Chris Redfield. Now a member of the BSAA, he is sent to Africa to meet up with other BSAA agents and investigate a threat of bio-terrorism. Before the events of the game, Chris just had to deal with the death of his partner, Jill Valentine, at the hands of the infamous Albert Wesker. Chris is a bit apprehensive to get a new partner in Sheva, Alomar, but she will prove invaluable during the events of the game.

Resident Evil 5 is perhaps the first real direct sequel to any of the games. The games were always linked due to Umbrella and Raccoon City, but you could pick up any of the main games in the series and just play as if it were any kind of zombie outbreak game. Resident Evil 5 is the first game that is not new gamer accessible due to the incredibly intertwined story. The overall linking plot elements of the 5 games are actually fleshed out much more in this game, which is nice, but right off the bat, I found it a little upsetting that the plot was so directly tied into the previous games because I feel it could hurt positive reception to the game for those who were unable to play the previous games. The load screens do come with an explanation of the timeline of Umbrella and the evolution of the T-Virus, but I still feel this created a bit of a problem. Resident Evil 4 certainly did have it's throwbacks to the previous games which wouldn't make full sense without playing all of them, such as the importance of the character Ada Wong, but to anyone who didn't recognize her, they probably assumed she was just some kind of super spy. Her stealing the Las Plagas at the end of 4 plays deeply into the events of this game, though. Furthermore, Chris has flashbacks to Albert Wesker and the death of Jill who, if you didn't know her from 1 or 3, must seem confusing (not to mention they dye her hair for some odd reason). I think it important to mention, however, that Resident Evil 5 acts as the official end to all the stories created since Resident Evil, so whenever the next game comes out (and you can bet it will), there will be a brand new, new user-friendly storyline and character set.

Let's move on to things I liked about the game. First off, the visuals are amazing. I remember reading a long time ago that Resident Evil 5 would work heavy with lighting, and by that I mean that when you're outside and it's bright, the screen will be very bright, and when you're somewhere dark, it'll be very dark. This idea was apparently scrapped, but elements of it are still there. The difference between light and dark areas are pretty incredible, and there is never an instance of too much bloom. I also really like the story to it. I like how any questions that existed before this game are now tied off and finally laid to rest. More importantly, I'm glad to see the story end. When the gameplay changed, it was only natural for the story to end. We still have elements to continue off of (remnants of Umbrella, the new company Tricell, and the BSAA) but it's not just the re-hashing and continuation of the same old plot with the same villains over and over. Also, as much as I was apprehensive as to having a companion through out the entire game, Sheva really is a God send. I can't imagine playing some of the game without her. I'm reminded of a level in Resident Evil 4 which I fondly call "The Room" which was probably the hardest part of the game since you were swarmed with cultists, and I wished someone would help me out. In 5, Sheva is that helper! It's also really great to play the game with someone else because, while the AI is incredibly intelligent, a real person works much more efficiently as a team. The people behind the game Army Of Two should really sit back and take a look at how well Resident Evil 5 works before releasing the sequel because the co-op elements of Resident Evil 5 pretty much takes Army Of Two out behind the school and beats it mercilessly.

However, as much as I enjoyed this game, it is easily the worst game of the main Resident Evil series. The first 3 were truly survival horror games. In the original, you wandered one singular mansion for the entirety of the game, unlocking new things that you'd had to walk past at the beginning as you go. The puzzles were challenging, and the bosses even more so. With 4, we stopped having a survival horror game and were given a linear action game, with a beginning, middle, and end that we achieved at the game's pace instead of our own. There are barely any puzzles in 5, and the puzzles that are there are really not that challenging. Move a couple mirrors, man a turret, do some cutscene based fights. When I played 4, all of the new things seemed truly revolutionary and exciting for the series. The one fight scene made entirely of cutscene based actions and it was such a breathtaking scene to watch. In 5, there are similar ones that are stunning visually, but they seemed less exciting. There also aren't really new evolutions in the villain base in this game. There are new monsters, sure, but they're all variations off the Las Plagas from 4, and the boss fights aren't as challenging. Finally, I think it is important to mention how much shorter this game is compared to the other ones. I might be exaggerating a bit, but I do believe I spent much more time trying to beat 4 than I did this one, let alone all the previous games and their puzzles. Resident Evil 5 is truly an ACTION horror game instead of a SURVIVAL horror game, and while it can certainly stand on it's own, it doesn't fully live up to it's predecessors.

I don't mean any of that to deter anyone from playing. I plan to play through the game again myself on a harder difficulty setting to do some of the things I didn't do the first time. It's really very fun. Some of the boss monsters are pretty horrifying to look at, and there were definitely moments where I said, "Oh my God, really? Really??" And did I mention that this game is truly an achievement for co-operative gameplay? Because if I didn't properly express that, allow me to do so again in this sentence. I am very glad to have shoveled out the money for the limited edition. So if you're looking for a solid action game in today's market, look no further than Resident Evil 5. I give it a solid 8 out 10 on the Matt-meter.

There are more games I would like to play in the upcoming future... Afro Samurai, Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (noticing a theme?), and more. I am trying to find more time to play games so I will probably be up to putting some more reviews in the future as that is mostly what I add to this blog. Keep an eye out for that as I am most certainly an expert, and the only real opinion you need is mine.