Posts Tagged ‘Resident Evil’

Not to give away the plot, it seems the sole point of the movie is to introduce ties to Africa and Tricell, the new Umbrella. Another pharmaceutical company who I’m sure will stick to Umbrella’s tried and tested business plan of building underground research laboratories with doors locked using medallions. But all this is speculation as the movie focuses on events at WilPharma. A further pharmaceutical company, but good guys who make vaccines… in underground laboratories.

You have to feel sorry for the writers. Bound by the games style and story they have done their best. It feels like they have had to tiptoe around series plot points. It’s so nondescript I can’t place within the universe. It falls somewhere between Resident Evil (RE) 3 and 5 (completely forgetting Code Veronica) but nothing in the movie places it. That aside it sticks to the games with action sandwiched between hammy ‘cut scenes’.

The whole thing is inconsistent. Animation, voice acting and plot all oscillate between impressive and laughable. So in essences it matches the games. The CG is most jarring element. Environments are stunning. This highlights the waxy character models and lack of facial animation (probably to limit movement) leaving them looking impassive.

Characterization and voice acting is another problem. Returning RE characters (Leon and Claire) are introduced with little more than a perfunctory update to the courses their lives have taken. Arguable this is necessary with the movie’s time constraints. Unfortunately Paul Merrcier (Leon’s voice) either studied at Harrison Ford’s school of emotional expression or had some of the worst direction imaginable. This isn’t a problem in a game, where you connect through interaction. When passively watching however this lack of emotion makes Leon unbelievable – or maybe believable considering his past.

Leon’s new personality may make him hard to relate to but this doesn’t excuse other characters introduced. It is always tough to communicate motivation and personality over ninety minutes but everyone introduced in Degeneration are two dimensional stereotypes. The character only believable character is the horrifically modeled Senator Davis. But at least he shows some emotion and development.

Degeneration can’t shake its game routes. This helps keep an authentic feel but the plot suffers. The games kept the story moving by spreading action over several locations. This is necessary to hold interest during the second act (middle) of an eight hour game. But in a movie these location changes result in a choppy experience. It feels like a television movie, two short stories grafted together to fill the allotted time.

The movie is unapologetic fan service. Technically it looks less impressive than my impressions of RE 5. The plot at least is better than previous RE movies (possibly on par with the first) and has the advantage of being ‘lore’ not a re-imagination. Cannon it maybe but it is completely superfluous and serves only as a side story. Degeneration is made for die hard fans only, people like me who are preordering the special edition of RE5.

Recently I have been bitching about Xbox Live in Japan. Indeed the one thing I missed out of my Street Fighter review was that it isn’t out here and I had to use my UK account to get it.

Capcom may get an ‘F’ for their Arcade support but they just got an ‘A+’ for demos. I turned it on my 360 today to be greeted by Biohazard 5 on the Spotlight page. Selecting it took me to a download for the playable demo. Just to make sure I logged onto my UK account – it was no where to be seen.

Want a go? There is a chance. Try setting your 360’s region to Japan (and/or creating a Japanese MSN account), and creating a new profile. This should give you access to Japanese downloads and a month of gold membership. It may not work, but it’s worth a try.

UPDATE – so it is out in America and Japan but I guess not Europe… Any one else miss out?

Dead Space arrived late and I haven’t yet been able to finish it. So you have to endure another fifteen ten word reviews of old games.

Burnout Paradise (360, PS3) – ‘This is amazing! Faster, faster! Shit! Bollard!’ I said bollard.

Gears of War (PC, 360) – Shallow, visceral fun that integrates a good use of cover.

GTA4 (360, PS3) – It’s just GTA again but polished to a blinding shine.

Halo 3 (360) – All I wanted was a Warthog section to finish. Done.

Hotel Dusk: Room 213 (DS) – An interesting detective game but too undirected to be fun.

Lost Planet (PC, 360, PS3) – Aesthetic and game play compensate for story and last level.

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PSP) – Happily hold a Naked Snake in your hands for hours.

Ninja Gaiden 2 (360) – Masochistic gamers rejoice. Ryu is back in his tight rubber.

No More Heroes (Wii) – Nut-job director Suda 51 makes another acquired taste gaming gem.

Okami (PS2, Wii) – Despite slow some patches, the best recent non-Zelda, Zelda game.

Resident Evil 4 (GC, PS2, Wii) –You kill zombies. It’s fun. Unfortunately it’s showing its age.

Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) – I love Nintendo but fuck this crappy, unashamed, fan-exploiting game.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – Sublime. Without a doubt the best game on the system.

Zack and Wiki (Wii) – Please ignore the game, a fantastic point and click adventure

Zelda and the Twilight Princess (Wii) – Far from the best Zelda, but that’s hardly a criticism.

So I got talking to a guy called Joel. Not that exciting on the surface, but he was covering TGS for his newspaper and had seen a few things I hadn’t. Here is what I learned.

Resistance 2’s enemies impressed Joel not just by their scale but also their variety, the invisible ones being of particular note. They don’t sound like fun but Joel countered my doubts explaining how the visual and audio cues made it thrilling rather than frustrating.

He also talked about Saint’s Row 2. A GTA4 clone that he thinks is different enough in tone to be worth a look.

Joel also saw Biohazard Degeneration, the upcoming movie set to fill in gaps in the lore between Biohazard 4 and the main story. I’d seen clips; it looked like a hi-res PS2 cut-scene. My question to Joel, ‘Is it better than Lex?’ The long pause wasn’t reassuring.