Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Game Diary - July 2, 2008


I spent today revisting a number of games that I cast aside for some reason or another, the biggest one being "Resident Evil 4". Indeed this was Capsom's masterpiece and acclaimed GOTY for 2005, yet it still managed to sift into my mile-high pile o'shame. I decided today was the day to cast aside " and indulge in the smash hit of Capcom's internal development team. Even though I am playing the Wii version (and I have owned each version of this game, regardless of the platform it appeared on). It's a truly remarkable game packed with intense survival horror. I'd have to agreed with a friend of mine that the pacing is a bit rough, but the game build and builds to multiple climaxes, as expected. My heart was racing today, and it was during a battle that I've played at least three times before (it's the one after you save Ashley for the first time. It takes place in an old house, and you tag-team the Latino zombie invasion with Luis Serra as your teamate).


I also returned to the lush land of Mistral for more of the Frontier Developments' "Lost Winds". Little Toku and the Wind Spirit are an amazing little dynamic duo, and this particular project reminds me of "Zelda II", for in the NES, in many ways. Granted it's a much more streamlined version, with a quest subtly smaller than Link's epic endeavors, but the side scrolling levels really do evoke a Zelda-ish aesthetic. I'm impressed with the end product that Frontier has delivered, regardless of how short it is (I can tell I'm almost done after two hours or so).

My one complaint with "Lost Winds" is the design decision to exclude a map in the game. There are enough diverse locations that a map would really shave off some time from the backtracking segments. Yes, I'm aware that backtracking is unanimously declared as poor game design in today's development scene, but previous games that implemented it established the importance of having a map in the first place. Embarking on quests in "Lost Winds" will get you lost more often than not, and I find that frustrating, but not unbearable.

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