That Unfresh Feeling.

I am not "In the Industry", nor do I claim to be. For the purposes of this blog, "In the Industry" means that you or your company receive letters or invites or games from the publishers without asking for them (which barely qualifies Gamestop employees). So, for people who don't get these notices to go events or be part of panels, or receive preview or review codes of games to play on coveted debug kits, demos are the primary source of play time with games before they are released to the public. It does not quell our envy, it in fact makes us wish we could receive the honor more often; it does, however, give us a brief sense of empowerment that at least lets us feel that we are privy to something that others (either those who do not have the online access or those who don't have the hard disk space for such things) aren't. So when I see demos that I am interested in trying out, it makes me feel as if, however briefly, I'm somebody (and an undeserved sense of pride follows). This is far too long an introduction to a Red Faction: Guerilla demo.

Long story short, what I played of the game ran me through a small gambit of emotions: laughter, slight frustration, and embarrasment. Joy was also among these emotions, before I forget. Between smashing up various camps (both opposing and friendly sides) using both trucks and "walkers", killing things with weapons, and a turret sequence in which trucks turned into kites when hit (normally this would repremandable, but the lower gravity of Mars gives them an acceptable amount of wiggle room in this area), I did enjoy myself, though the trailers the demo was snuggled between and the slight awkwardness of the controls did dampen the mood some. Rolling with laughter as a truck flew over me after I hit it (which should theoretically push it backwards, but again Mars has a tendency to make weird things happen), I started thinking this amount of destructibilty, and the joy you get out of doing it, should be a standard set forth in all titles like this.

In other news, I have a large backlog to get through, and it's mostly old stuff, so I'll write about that bridge when I get there.

Resident Evil 5 Demo: Sort of like...um...ah, I can't put my finger on it!

For the tl;dr crowd: It's like Resident Evil 4. It's a demo, so it isn't like I'm trying to give you advice as to whether or not to get it. That aside, this is now a rant about why I like it.

The gameplay, for better or worse, sticks reeeeaaaaalll close to the RE4 formula. You can call this is playing it safe, or phoning it in, but really, it's part of a design philosophy called "If you do something that people like, keep doing it" RE4 was a breakthrough at the time it was released, and people loved it, so really, it makes sense that Capcom would want to keep that going into another game. That said, the gameplay that people loved is a little old, so tweaks could have made this better.

The biggest feature that has returned is not being able to move while aiming. Games that have since followed RE4's build (Games like Gears of War and Dead Space) added this ability, not being able to do it in the game that inspired design choices in those games is somewhat jarring. And while it does take a bit of getting used to (as do the controls in general, especially jumping from the Gamecube scheme to the 360), but it isn't really a deal-breaker. It's something that I'd rather see changed, but it doesn't bother me. Is it an intentional descision meant to heighten the tension that is a hallmark of the horror genre, or is it Capcom doing it out of spite towards the western developers? I don't know, but it doesn't matter, if you think about it.

The other big change is the inventory. You're only given nine slots (this could be larger in the retail version, but at this point I'm not sure), and it gets rid of the system from 4, in which every item has a specific size that you have to fit in a case. Additionally, you access this in-game, while the zombies (are they still zombies at this point? I don't think they are) are attacking you, so you can't take your sweet time in picking the right herb to combine and use if you're surrounded.

The last big change is the addition of Sheva, who is totally not a dumb partner that doesn't do anything and is the modern version of peach, and actually helps out. Her AI isn't' perfect (it takes here a while to shoot anything she's aiming at), but there wasn't a time when I thought she had done something stupid that screwed me over. Whilst fighting the chainsaw-wielding dude, I would shoot him, run away, and she would be right behind me in time to shoot and exploding barrel. Rinse and repeat four times and baghead was down.

Other than those changes, the game is relatively a hi-res version of RE4. Chris' character model is absolutely gorgeous, as do most character models, even if you fight the same 7 enemies over and over again. Some textures on buildings are a little rigid, but you won't notice that for the most part. As I said earlier, the controls are a tough to get used to, but the best controller change is running by clicking the left analog-stick. With all the Call of Duty playing I do, I appreciated the touch. The game is definitely looking at least as good as 4 was, if nowhere near as revolutionary, but I'll take another does of something I love.

If only I lived in Japan...

I could've gotten my hands on the RE5 demo early!... Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to wait it out, like people in Europe seem to do so often...