This is the game that should have been titled Resident Evil 5. The game is amazing for today’s Nintendo handheld system, which is the Nintendo 3DS, and the game is actually pretty huge. The graphics are gorgeous, and the sounds design is well done. The complain I have for this game is that the characters don’t move their lips while they’re talking during in-game.

Let’s talk about the game and its storyline. This game is a mix of Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 4. What do I mean? Well, if you love backtracking to unlock doors while creepy enemies are creeping your way in RE: Remake, RE: Revelations is for you, but in RE: Revelations, it’s much bigger. The gameplay is once again borrowed from RE4, but players can move and shoot at the same time. The dodging system can be a real pain sometimes. There are no quick-time events in any cut-scenes.

The story takes place between RE4 and RE5. It sets in the year 2005 somewhere in a luxury cruise ship called Queen Zenobia, located somewhere in Mediterranean Sea. Jill Valentine is on her mission with her new partner, Parker, to find her missing long-time friend and old partner, Chris Redfield, who’s gone missing in a abandon ghost ship. Jill is the main character, but players will also play as Chris, and a new character, Keith, with their own scenarios, but their scenarios can be more action-packed than Jill’s scenario. Some part of the story can be bad, there are moments when I just ‘facepalm’ and shouted “Okay…what?! Seriously, Capcom?!”. Some dialogues are very cheesy, but it’s Resident Evil.

Resident Evil: Revelations isn’t the scariest game in the series, but like Dead Space, it’s all about the jump scares. Instead of zombies, we have new enemies called Ooze, infected with the new virus called T-Abyss virus, a highly modified version of the T-Virus. As a Resident Evil fan, I actually like this new virus. I know other fans really want zombies to be in the game, but trust me, Oozes are enough. There are other types of enemies, like Fernin (infected wolves) and Hunters, also infected with the T-Abyss virus. There are not a lot of boss fights, but even so, they’re fun to fight. They’re to kill though, so save most of shotgun and machine-gun ammo (and grenades, too) for them. I would say that I hated the final boss and its design, but since I don’t want to spoil, I’ll let you find out.

The game once again split into chapters, but instead of just ‘chapters’, we have ‘episodes’. What’s the difference? Hmm, well if you like or hate the “Previously on <insert a name of any TV series here>” after completing each episode, that’s the only difference and that is it. Okay, maybe it’s not just it, but the real reason why they split into episodes is because each episode’s ending is left with cliff hanging. I like it and hate in the same time because there are so much twists going on, …it just reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan, who WAS a good director and writer.

The sound effects are improved, better than RE: The Mercenaries 3D’s and the demo from eShop. The soundtrack is amazing, and fun fact, they’re all recorded in live orchestra, just like they for RE5 and RE: Darkside Chronicles, but this soundtrack is for a handheld game.

The game took me 8 hours and 30 minutes to beat the main game. After beating the game, it’ll let the players use their previous, upgraded weapons in the ‘New Game +’ in any difficulty. After beating Hell difficulty, it’ll unlock infinite Rocket Launcher. The other complain I have is that after beating the game, I cannot select any episodes to replay.

Raid Mode is fun, and more challenging than RE: The Mercenaries 3D. When unlocking harder difficulty after completing 20 stages, it is not a good idea to play alone. The multiplayer in both local and internet are fun, but like RE: The Mercenaries 3D, it’ll lag sometimes when playing co-op via internet. Play Coins can be used to purchase some weapons and custom packs, but for most of the time, you’ll be spending BP points on refilling ammo, and health. Each characters in Raid Mode are good at some specific weapons, like Jessica is good at fast reloading with any machine guns and rifles. I recommend is that never equip weapons that the characters are not good at.

Overall, the game is amazing. The graphics are gorgeous, the soundtrack is just beautiful, and the story can be bad sometimes. Not the scariest one in the series, but still a survival-horror game fans and newcomers will enjoy.

—
Presentation: 9
Gameplay: 9
Sound: 7.5
Music: 9
Graphics: 10
3D: 7
Replay Value: 7
—
Total: 8.5/10

The graphics are mindblowingly awesome for a Wii game. Maybe it’s just my TV or something, but this game looks really good. I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it to look that good, judging from the gameplay videos you see online. Sometimes I wonder how they managed to do that “painting” effect on a system that doesn’t really support programmable shaders. I also wonder what Nintendo games would look like next-gen, when they can tap into fully programming vertex and pixel shaders. I think it’ll look seriously great. The soundtrack in this game is orchestrated, and I’m not really a big fan of orchestrated music. The music in this game is pretty good, but the fact that it’s orchestrated sometimes kills it for me, and in other times it’s great. The main theme song of the game sounded wierd at first but then it gets awesome later.

The biggest thing this game introduces is full 1:1 motion controls. At first I wasn’t used to it and kept making mistakes, but then I got used to it and realized that they worked really freaking well in this game for the sword combat, as long as you center the wiimote every once in a while. Of course, they’re not as “responsive” as a button press, but they give you so much control, and the combat becomes a bit more challenging as a result because now you have to think where you hit rather than just mashing the B button. People complain that it never responds as it does, but I find that it works like 95% of the time. There’s also a tiny bit of latency, but it’s not noticeable when you play the game. I think Nintendo should stick to motion controls for future Zelda games, except for a few things. The motion controls are also bad in some cases though, like for flying, swimming and things like that. Instead of using the analog to move in the direction you want, you move the wiimote around. It’s just not as good and I wonder why Nintendo decided to do this.

The dungeons in this game are organized differently than past Zelda games. Basically, there’s one town, and the entire game is a huge dungeon. I don’t really mind this system, some people don’t like it though. Some of the dungeon designs and settings are pretty interesting, like the timeshift stones, where the area you’re in changes depending on whether you “shift” time in it or not.. it’s pretty cool. I did feel that the dungeons were very linear and straightforward this time compared to previous Zeldas (although it could be that I have a bad memory or something, but old Zelda dungeons weren’t this straightforward), and that’s something I didn’t really like about the game.

The thing I hated most about the game though was the fact that it makes things that actually require a brain really freaking easy, like knowing where to go next. Fi is the most annoying companion ever. She’s more annoying than Navi. It’s the most annoying shit ever, and it kinda ruined the game for me. She keeps stating the obvious on where to go next, and that sort of made the game feel dumbed down.. although later in the game she shuts up a bit more, but she’s still annoying.

Another thing I didn’t like about this game was the length. 50 hours might sound like a lot, but the problem was that the game is “stretched” rather than packed with content. A lot of those hours were just me spending time running around looking for little pieces of stuff that people want.. i.e. fetch quests. Strangely though they’re not that tedious as it sounds, but it’s still a weak part of the game.

The sidequests were okay. I felt that they don’t really change much in the story, maybe I’ve been spoiled too much by sidequests in other games, after realizing that pretty much every Zelda has sidequests like this that don’t really affect the game, except maybe give you something cool. In this case, they give you bigger and bigger wallets.

The items in this game are pretty cool and interesting in my opinion. The most interesting one is the beetle, where you fly thing “robot” and you can control it and it can grab stuff for you, kill stuff, switches, etc. I also really liked how you always tend to use the items, unlike in past Zelda games where you get an item, use it for 1 temple, and then forget it ever existed. For example, despite the fact that I got the bow and arrow, I still used the slingshot a lot because of the fact that it had a “spreadshot” feature, which made it much easier to aim. The bow and arrow is more like a “sniper rifle” which is pretty cool.

The overworld is underwhelming, there really isn’t much to look at except for the main town and the pumpkin restraunt cafe thing. But at least travelling around is pretty fast. I found the Wind Waker’s overworld to be much more interesting because of the random islands scattered around the ocean that have secrets in them.

As for the story, it’s pretty good, and the ending has a really nice twist that blew my mind, and as a result I really liked the ending. The story in between becomes kinda boring though because all you’re doing is following and following only to end up reaching too late, but the sidequest make up for that, which get unlocked the more your progress in the game. In the beginning and the end the story is quite nice though.

In short I’d give this game a 9/10 

Get it. Well worth it and it’s probably the last good game on the Wii (or maybe second last assuming Xenoblade turns out to be good, which it probably will)

Music Credit:

Opening: “Melodee” – Nata (SID)

Break Music: “Stage 1″ – Cho Aniki (Composer Unkown)

Direct Download
Subscription through RSS:

iTunes

As if two Elder scrolls novels by Greg Keyes weren’t enough Elder Scrolls literature on your kindle, you can download all the books from Skyrim in both MOBI (kindle) and epub (everything else) formats here:

http://capane.us/2011/11/24/dovahkiin-gutenberg/

knock yourself out.

Source: capane.us | wired

Music Credit:

Opening: “Melodee” – Nata (SID)

Direct Download
Subscription through RSS:

iTunes

Music Credit:

Opening: “Melodee” – Nata (SID)

Break: “Prisoner of the Badlands” – Francisco Ceda (Jamestown)

Direct Download
Subscription through RSS:

iTunes

1 – Be sure to update your Catalyst drivers and profiles:
While this is a usual word of advice for every PC user regardless of hardware, it is important that you do update your graphic drivers as it will make your machine run more efficiently and some games to work better than before. It isn’t that difficult, you can pick it up from AMD’s driver site.

2 – Keep FRAPS on:
This isn’t really important but at least it will give you an idea where the netbook’s choke points are in a game. FRAPS also really helps you fine tune the game to make it run smoother when reducing and changing graphical settings. Obviously, the lower the graphics, the smoother the frame rate, but you might find ways to keep some settings higher in some places to make the games look a litte better.

That’s for advice, I’ve also tried out some hardware that might make things a little more convenient:

Mouse – Razer Mamba:
You don’t exactly need a big fancy mouse to do your bidding, I had my Razer Mamba lying around as I had it for free. Many people will swear by having a mouse around if you’re playing games on your laptop. Just as it’s wired and comfortable to use, then you are on the right track.

Controller – 360 wired controller:
While many swear by the mouse, it doesn’t hurt to have a controller in hand, especially when some games kind of play better with it on the netbook (or at least my Viao). some games tend to lag a little bit when using a mouse, that doesn’t seem to be the case with a controller in some cases, some games are even designed for controllers. They aren’t that expensive if you buy them wired too, your safest and probably best option would be the 360 controller.

Lapdesk – Logitech Coolpad N200:
At one point I was vastly skeptical about external fans, I never thought they were useful. Though some have told me that they have their uses. In any case, Lapdesks are pretty essential if you plan to have your netbook/laptop on your lap or soft surfaces such as your bed. These devices have ventilation holes in the bottom of the device that require some breathing to exhaust the heat (usually, like my Vaio, from the side). The Logitech Coolpad N200 almost seems designed for my vaio, a fan for the vents in the bottom, breathing space and leverage to have it on a comfortable level if I’m laying down in bed or on the couch.

That’s enough hardware extras now for the meat of this article, the games running on my Vaio:

A.R.E.S. – Extinction Agenda:
The game runs on a constant 30 frames per second however there is a slight input lag on both mouse and controller setups. Nothing that breaks the game though.

FarCry 2:
The test involved here is from the benchmark that comes with the game, the game fared pretty well on low settings. Native resolution (low graphical settings) averaged at 20 frames per second, highs at 30 and lows at 13. 800 x 480 resolution is at a more impressive rate averaging at 24 fps with highs at 36 and lows at 17.

Garshasp:
The Persian hack ‘n’ slash did alright in some tests, native resolution on high ranged between 10-18 but was at a more impressive 16-24 fps when graphical settings were set to low on the same native resolution.

Jamestown:
When the screen is clean of bullets, framerates can go as high as 60 but drop down to 30 fps while firing. To some certain extent, that can be at your advantage when the enemies attack hard. a controller is recommended as you can’t hold 3 keyboard buttons in one time to netbook keyboard input limitations.

Duke Nukem 3D/Redneck Rampage:
For some odd reason, both games do not go past the DOS set up screen. There must be a work around for this problem that I will try to figure out later, I’m quite sure these games would work but require a few fixes. Let us know if you have figured out a way to make them work if you have tried. (screen shots not from the actual test)

Stonekeep:
Despite Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage not working, Stonekeep works flawlessly without any noticeable slow downs (if any). (screen not from the actual test)

Empire Earth
I remember a time I was struggling to run this game on my first hulking laptop on 1024 x 768 back in 2003. Now, it’s refreshing to see Empire Earth running at the native 1366 x 768 on high on a smooth and constant 60 frames per second.

Our next post might focus more on PS2/Xbox 1 era games and GOGs since they seem to have a higher tendency to work AMD’s e350 APU.

Again, if there’s a game you would like us to test any games, leave a comment on this post below or join the Gaming Netbook group to share your experiences.

Music break credit: “Ancient Presence” from Divinity II: Ego Draconis by Kirill Pokrovsky

This episode also includes excrept readings from “The Lusty Argonian Maid” found in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.

Direct Download
Subscription through RSS:

iTunes

Direct Download
Subscription through RSS:

iTunes

So Western RPGs haven’t had a huge success here, since Japanese RPGs a very popular in this part of the world, especially in the console market. While there have been a few western RPGs floating around in the console market, many of them have found their niche here and there from time to time.

Before moving on with the game’s review, let’s take a quick overview of what Japanese and Western RPGs are. RPGs tend to fall under two categories, the structured and non-structured. The majority of Japanese RPGs have more of a structured formula, where there is a fixed cast of characters, a fixed, linear story. To put it basically, RPGs with a more (for the lack of a better word) cinematic approach and narrative where the story is told from the a script. Japanese RPGs majorly categorized as structured RPGs, though there are some western ones, like the majority of recent Bioware RPGs (even when they hold a few non-structured RPG elements).

Non-structured RPGs are generally open-ended role playing games that involve playing a role in a virtual world. While majority of the time it starts one way and ends the same, the central part of the game is open and can be approached from many ways and procedures, limited only to the player’s decisions. You are in an open world where you experience and live the story, setting and environment and get what you experience from the game. This is where Elder Scrolls (alongside the recent Fallout games) in general are categorized as.

Neither RPG types are incorrect, technically any game including non-RPG games are “role playing” and both RPG types fall under that criteria perfectly well. It’s just a matter of preference when it comes to which is more preferred, so it’s subjective.

Back to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, like most (if not all) Elder Scrolls game, you start as a custom made prisoner who finds their way out of it and becoming the prophesied hero that will rid the world from evil. Portal gates leading to the Daedric realms of Oblivion have been opening up in the Imperial province of Cyrrodiil, wrecking havoc and destroying towns and villages. You are going to stop them, but as you are the valiant hero who has the attention span of a gold fish, will be doing it along side a number of highly distracting sidequests.

While some may find the main questline fairly tedious and repetitive, the real meat of the game is in the side quests, and there are plenty of them. The side quests very from fetch quests, head hunting, exploration down to some miscellaneous crazy shit. you get these quests from items you pick up, people you talk to and even guilds that you enlist to. There are four guilds to go for and you can enlist in all of them all together, the warrior’s guild, the mage’s guild, the thief’s guild and the dark brotherhood who are the recurring assassin’s guild in the Elder Scrolls series.

As if that’s not enough, the Game of the Year edition comes with the two expansions packed in, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles. Knights of the Nine embarks you on a pilgrimage (fancy way of saying a series of boring, uneventful fetch quests) to obtain pieces of the Divine Crusader’s Armor.

The Shivering Isles though is a more proper expansion, you get a whole extra world to explore. This whole extra world really brings this game’s world to life with how vivid and bizarre it is. You are invited to a world belonging to a demigod and prince of madness. Think of it as an interpretation of Alice in Wonderland in a game like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Obvious to note that it’s better to leave these two expansion for a very late time in the game (you can go for them very early in the game if you want, the game won’t stop you), since both expansions are fairly short. I got way too use to how vibrant and whimsical Shivering Isles’ world that the main world of Oblivion felt dull and “normal” even when it’s green and lush.

Many people have complained about the melee combat being floaty and weightless, personally I didn’t see any problem with it. The battle system gave you many options to play with, critical hits when sneaking and maneuvers that unarmed your enemy. Newcomers will find a bit of a difficulty when it comes to the combination of stats that you are given with the race and job class you select (or make, job class that is) as they might need to restart their character a few times to get the grasp of what their doing. With that, the first bit of the game does give you a good grasp as you create your character throughout a planned scenario. By the end of that scenario the game will prompt you whether or not the character you made is suitable for your style of play, if not, you can fix them up before continuing on in the game.

What We Think: The game at hand here is of absolute brilliance. While yes, Skyrim has trumped Oblivion in so many ways, it is still a game worth looking back at and experience everything that it offers. You will find the game floating around steam for 5-6 dollars every now and then, if you do find yourself not playing Skyrim any time soon and thinknig of playing something that is similar, this is an excellent pick.