Shit Trophies

This was to be expected. Looks like PS3 is going to win the raging console war after all. How are they going to do that? By ripping off Xbox360, for better and worse. And while I'm really glad you will get to change the music during the gameplay (in Burnout series, this is essential), I'm not very glad about some other "improvements". Ladies and gentlemen, achievements trophies are coming to PS3!!

The next PS3 software update will unlock a special achievements trophies system, where every game will have it's own set of achievements trophies you need to accomplish in order not to look like a total loser among your fellow PS3 players. The achievements trophies will come in four different kinds: bronze (probably the one unlocked by beating some main parts of the game, put there just to tease you), silver, gold and platinum. Those platinum ones are awarded when you collect all the other achievements trophies and mean that "boy, you must reeeeeally love this game, or cannot afford any other game, which is equally good".

Collecting achievements trophies raises your gamerscore level. Every PS3 user account will now feature the gamerscore level. In order to raise your gamerscore level (and probably reach Nirvana at the end, or God, or Pluto...) you need to collect more and more achievements trophies. Simple, huh?

Of course, Sony Playstation 3 TM is meant to get players together, so your "friends" will have access to your achievements trophies record - which ones you've got, when (yes, they will have time and date on them) and what gamerscore level they give you. It's really simple. There is your name on the screen and a nice little bar filled to some level. Below it, there's your friend's name and another neat little bar filled a little more than yours. Now that's a sight huh? Not intimidating at all. Oh, but allow me to assure you, you'll never ever feel that stinging urge to play some more and raise your bar, so doesn't look like you're a total lame-ass, Sunday gamer.

Okay, you may remember I'm a Micro-phobic, so it goes without saying I like PS3 better than X360. But, hell... If that's how they want to win the console struggle - by taking Micro$oft's bad ideas and adding them to their own collection of bad ideas, then, boy may that change (or not)...

The guy previewing the achievements trophy system in the upcoming PS3 software update kindly asked the viewers for some feedback. Well, here's mine:

YOU FUCKING SUCK!!

killer7 original sound track

Don’t worry, I’m not going to post the text reversed, or upside down, or anything... Still, there’s going to be some weirdness today, as we get to deal with one of the strangest games ever. Chances are, you’ve never even heard of Killer7, since the game was a moderate commercial success and spawned as many positive reviews as negative ones. Overall, people who know it either hate it or love it and I just happen to worship it with all my heart and soul. If you want to know why, play the game first and see for yourself.

Mixed reception or no mixed reception, no one at Capcom seemed to have doubts about the game’s quality (even Shinji Mikami actively promoted the title) which is reflected in the game’s OST, as it was released in not one, but two (2) CDs. They just said, “To hell with the higher costs, if somebody wants to listen to Killer7 music, he’s going to get it – all of it.” A fine approach, if you ask me, especially in this day and time, when everybody sells stripped down samples and collections (I’ll talk about it someday).

The soundtrack was created by Masafumi Takada – at the time when Killer7 was released I didn’t know much about that guy’s work, today he’s a little more popular because of the Umbrella Chronicles OST and No More Heroes OST. I’d really like to listen to them, especially the latter but, who knows, maybe in Europe they censored the fucking soundtrack as well...

Killer7 OST features a wide variety of different music, but nearly all of it has the distinctive sense of flatness. I like to call it an artificial soul: it’s like watching a small maintenance robot covered in white plastic going about its business, doing something with its little robotic arms, perceiving the world with its single black camera lens. We don’t understand what it does, or why it does it, but we know there is some purpose behind it and we just watch it, fascinated by its senseless, mechanic precision. It may be Russian Roulette, Sceneman, or At Parting. In any case, this music follows its own rules, features its own anything but standard melody patterns.

Yet, there are tracks which take the “artificial soul” much further and elevate the experience from watching a small robot into observing huge stars and planets suspended in the space above us. It’s still not particularly clear and understandable, but the impact is much more profound. Multiple Personality may be a good example, maybe Stoned, Angel’s Despair, even Where Angels Play (it sounds like a disco version of Silent Hill 2’s White Noiz). You get the picture? This is just like looking at the game itself – the cell-shading gives you only bare bones of what is around you, including only those object that matter and are of some use, even if it looks and feels unnatural.

Let’s talk about some of the signature tracks. I guess the one that most of you familiar with the game will recognize at one would be Blackburn – the tune playing at the official website. It does not summarize the feel of the game in any way, offering a kind of peaceful variation instead. Like putting your smoking guns and bloody knifes away for a minute, just to have a refreshing cup of coffee. Even in spite of it though, it doesn’t let us forget that we are still in the crazy world of Killer7: every now and again the piano slips through the bars of casual melody-leading rules and goes flying in the air like a little bird; even the female voice with a noticeable Japanese accent (their “ooh” is very different than an English one – the tongue is higher) doesn’t sound very “everydayish”.

The track that does convey the Killer7 feel is probably Succession, featured on most of the trailers. Fast pace, electric drums, barely discernible melody, weird sounds not really cooperating with the rest. In the game itself, this is a tune for a boss battle and many other enemy-encounter-tracks sound somewhat similar.

Okay, maybe just a bunch of some more standing-out tracks – by “standing-out” I mean just a little different than the rest, like peaks on the same one diagram. My personal favorite is Election Plot. Great heavy beat with an echo, intimidating melody (if it can be called a melody) sung by something resembling dirty pipes. One more thing that I love about it is that the tune accompanies us in a creepy school at night (corridors bathed in moonlight and everything...) and the portions of this track change, or expand, as we move from one area to another – great thinking! Multiple Personality follows a similar path, I absolutely adore the violins occasionally popping up...

Back to the Light begins like a nice, soft-rock song and never actually gets there; Postgasse – a great, uncertain, sad love theme; Rave On which always reminds me of my old Amiga; Residence with its accordion and singing birds; Tecks Mecks with its peculiar guitars; Ministry of Education with its pipe organs :-D; Taxidermy; Elegant Petal and Reenact, the powerful ending theme.

By the way, I forgot to mention the humor. Killer7 is filled with obvious or less obvious quirky, wicked jokes, which leave me crippled every time I play the game and are indeed one of the reason I love it so much. The soundtrack, being a collection of music tracks, has considerably less opportunities of throwing in humor, but still there are things like Reunion ending the first CD, Heroic Verse, or Heroic Deeds (the Handsome Men theme, thank God with no vocals); Electronical Parade which remind you about some of the funniest parts.

For me, the level of soundtrack quality equals how deeply immersed I feel while listening to it. The best OSTs take away all of the senses: the touch, the vision, most of all - the hearing, trap the mind in the world they create and don’t let go until the music ends. And for me, Killer7 OST is not that kind of soundtrack. I found it hard to listen to the two CDs back to back, like I love to do with other OSTs. The immersion just doesn’t hold. Yet, the power lies somewhere else. Killer7 music does not introduce its own complete reality – it warps the existing one. The artificiality of purely electric sounds and the peculiar rules the track relentlessly follow may not take you into a trance but will induce a strange, unsettling mood, like you’ve never been in your body or in this world before. If you give it a chance... ;-)

Update

You've probably noticed that things are a bit slow on Low-Res Textures. We've been basically only posting our weekly columns (and even that didn't happen once), but not much more. This is due to summer exams and a lot of other stuff going on. Worry not though, as we'll soon be back on the right track. A Silent Hill Origins review is coming soon, as well as a review/editorial about the Half-Life series.

I was also considering a Metal Gear Solid 4 review, but after much deliberation I have decided not to write one. Given the game's scope (especially in terms of plot) a review would not do justice to the game. An editorial in the future is very much possible, but it won't be soon, as I would need to post some spoilers, and I would like people to have a chance to finish the game by themselves first.

If EXramps decides to write a MGS4 review that is his prerogative.

Code name Hell Squad

Code name Hell Squad (previously called "Hellpigs" :-) was supposedly the last game on Amiga 500, which is not surprising given its release date - 2000! (one other famous 2D title of Y2K was Red Alert 2). It's a completely old-fashioned adventure game with some shooting thrown in and a ton of hilarious dialogues - for an action-adventure game freak like myself, this statement alone is a recommendation.

The story involves some wicked alien teenager getting his hands (tentacles?) on a space travel technology and spreading chaos throughout the Milky Way, just for the hell of it. But fear ye not, for here comes the U.S. government to the rescue, sending the group of four incredibly skilled, incredibly well equipped, WE-EAT-RAMBOS-FOR-FUCKING-BREAKFAST-DUDE soldiers. The game begins.

Even for an old-school adventure game, Hell Squad has some "innovative" features. First of all, we use joystick and keyboard only, which immediately sets the pace of the game into action-style instead of slow point-and-click. Next, we get to control four soldiers - one at a time - each having his own health bar. While we run around picking items and shooting creatures with one of them, the rest is put into some kind of desaturated suspension state and their health bar slowly replenishes. The inventory however is shared, so we can pick something up with one grunt than switch into another and immediately use the item somewhere on the other side of the map, which is extremely handy. Apart from that, there's just the casual stuff you'd expect to find in any other adventure game - picking objects, using objects, talking to people, etc. Every now and again, we shoot some enemies and bosses which is not very hard, since the ammo is unlimited.

The true magnet of this game is the humor. Almost every line of dialogue has that distinctive lighthearted adventure game humor in it, sometimes sprinkled with a heavy dose of good old American cursing. While playing, be sure to click around the screen and read the comments, some of them are downright hilarious. Even the intro and outro sequences - shot by an actual camera with real "actors" involved - are funny, in a B-movie way.

The graphics are nice enough, not mind-blowingly good or bad, but nice enough. Everything except for the characters has been hand-drawn, while the soldiers and NPCs were digitized, like in Mortal Kombat. The animation is moderately smooth, with many different movements captured, which looks much more realistic than, let's say, Phantasmagoria (shame on you, Roberta Williams). Also, the character gets smaller or larger on the screen, depending on how far/near he goes and in some locations he gets colorized, according to the available source of light. These quite professional touches blend with the absolutely crazy design of monsters and locations. Some of the creatures look really scary like the red sand monster encountered more or less halfway through the game, but on the other hand - just look at the dragon on the screenshot below. Does this thing look laughable or what? Same thing with the locations - some look impressive, some were just meant to be lame, like the mountain cave entrance which look like a cartoon ghost face.

While most of the old point-and-clicks feature some comedy here and there, Hell Squad is all about comedy. Yet, for a title released that late, on a long-since-dust-biting platform, the game is surprisingly well-written, presentable and immersing, even if it lacks that Broken Sword polish and impeccable quality. So, my suggestion to all of you old-school adventure game fans: well, it won't hurt to give it a try...

Metal Gear Solid 4 Original Soundtrack

This is my first time I’ll be writing an episode of Open Your Ears and I’m fairly confident that it will not, in any way, present the same level of quality as EXramp’s episodes. I am by no means an audiophile, but I do enjoy a good soundtrack and will try to explain my choices as comprehensibly as possible.

I have decided to take something new for my first episode and I decided it will be a score for a game that made a much greater impression on me that I have anticipated – Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Since I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone who didn’t have a chance to play it yet I will restrain myself from making references to it unless a particular thing was shown in trailers before the release.

Oh, and one more thing. This episode will be devoted to the soundtrack available on a CD, not the entire score in the game, as it would be very hard to describe all the nuances.

The soundtrack, like all before it was mainly composed by Harry Gregosn-Williams – a man that I truly admire for his work (I adore the Chronicles of Narnia soundtracks). He can always find a perfect mood for the productions he’s working on. That was the case with Call of Duty 4 as it was with Shrek, and the soundtrack to MGS4 is no different.

The OST starts with Old Snake that begins with metallic sounds that a few seconds into the piece merge with a delicate sound of an acoustic guitar. The guitar then makes place for a more “masculine” orchestra with dynamic, hard drums. A sad story of an old man who never seizes to be a soldier. As the author said himself – it’s a sad song, but it’s still “macho”. In the final seconds the song fades into the guitar again and then falls silent.

The second song is one of my absolute favorites among all soundtracks – movie or game. It’s the terribly haunting Love Theme performed by Jackie Presti in Hebrew (if I’m not mistaking) and composed by Nobuko Toda. It’s a melancholic piece with a middle-eastern tune played on a single violin only later accompanied by a string orchestra and a single guitar. It’s calm, but dramatic in a way thanks to the singer’s performance. And then, somewhere in the second half there is a moment when the orchestra moves into the foreground and the sound becomes so deep that I always feel a shiver running down my spine. The song ends just as it begun -with that haunting violin.

Some of the tracks fall under the more typical MGS class – with profuse percussion and a “military”, dynamic beat, but they all come with their own twists. It’s not hard to see that this time Williams wanted to create something different, just like MGS4 is different from the pervious parts. You have the Gekko, Endless Pain and Breakthrough that start slowly, but quickly become those uneasy, fast motives with a strong beat. You have the provoking White Blood and mysterious Midnight Shadow. There are the unsettling Mobs Alive and Next-Gen Control. There are also the dark and a bit grungy Guns of the Patriots and fast, rushing Desperate Chase. They all share the same vibe, but are distinctive enough to keep you away from the “next” button.

One thing that may force you to push the button is the Bb Corp – this gloomy track’s fast beat accompanied by screams, laughs and cries is something that can mess with your mind nearly as much as a song form a Silent Hill soundtrack.

Be sure to play the Sorrow and Father and Son tracks after Bb Corps to ease your mind. Those are two melancholic, soft tracks that remind me of those beautiful Narnia tunes. The sound is rich and detailed and embraces you with memories. The memories may be good or bad, but they are always meaningful.

Before the ending song there is the Metal Gear Saga – a tribute to all previous games with this clear Metal Gear Solid 4 feel. You can call it a remix of the main MGS theme if you will, but it’s much more.

The Last song on the album is Ennio Morricone’s Here’s To You, a heart gripping melody with Joan Baez’s warm voice that originally could have been heard in a movie Sacco and Vanzetti. The track is perfect from the game’s ending as well as for the ending of the album.

I always liked the MGS series soundtracks, but I can honestly say that just as Metal Gear Solid 4 became my favorite game from the series the soundtracks became my favorite as well. It is, without doubt, a Metal Gear Solid OST, but there is this melancholic flavor in it that makes it special.

Rayman

First of all I would like to apologize to everyone for not submitting the Press Play on Tape and Open Your Ears episodes in time. This happened due to technical problems and a general lack of time in recent days. Still, we're back now, and our columns are back with us.

Rayman was created by Michel Ancel in 1992. Rayman is a limbless character that is a star of one of the best 2D platformers of all times. Rayman also was the main star of two 3D platformers. The first of the two was one of the best in its genre just like its 2D predecessor. The third one wasn’t that good, but was still a solid and very fun platformer. Rayman is the reason why UbiSoft is such a powerful company today.

This time however I will focus on the first game.

The game was released in 1995 for the ill-fated Atari Jaguar and MS-DOS and later converted to Playstation and Saturn.

The plot is extremely ridiculous, but we need to bear in mind that it’s a platform game from the mid 90’s of the previous century.
The people of Rayman’s world live in harmony with nature and themselves. They are protected by the great Protoon that watches over the world. One day some hooded bastard (called…now brace yourselves – Mr. Dark) steels the great Protoon and beats up Betilla the fairy when she tries to stop him. The Electroons that were gravitating around the great Protoon scatter around the land and are captured by strange, hostile creatures.
It so happens that only our main protagonist can collect them all, get the Protoon back and bring the balance to the world once again.

Sweet Lord! Thankfully you don’t need an elaborate plot to have fun with a platform game.

Rayman is a typical scrolling platformer, but the level design (both technical and artistic) is so well done, that it’s incredibly fun to run around and free the Electroons from their cages. However, you won’t be able to get to all the cages until you acquire the appropriate powers, which include, for example “shooting” Rayman’s fist and the series and character’s trademark move – the helicopter – where our limbless hero uses his hair to glide over short distances.

The game requires you to complete five worlds (a few dozen levels) and rescue all the Electroons before you’ll be able to face the final boss. You will have to do some backtracking to achieve that, but it’s not too daunting. This all makes the game to be rather lengthy and demanding, and sometimes a bit frustrating. Still, games during that period were mostly more difficult that what we have now (excluding High Mile Club on Veteran in Call of Duty 4 - damn you Infinity Ward).

The game is really beautiful, even for today’s standards. The backgrounds are multilayered and detailed and characters fantastically designed and animated. Especially our hero who features a set of fluid animations that will crack you up on occasions (the grimace animation is just hilarious).

Unfortunately the sound didn’t age as gracefully as the graphics and can be a bit annoying.

A few years back the game was converted to the Gameboy Advance and recently it was released on the European Playstation Network. I encourage anyone with a PS3 to give the game a try, because it’s ridiculously cheap and looks really good upscaled to HD.

Since I couldn't find proper images from the game I strongly encourage you to check them out on MobyGames.

Biohazard 2 Original Soundtrack

And so, as the Germans say, wir sind so weit. It is my greatest pleasure to present/remind you about what may very well be the most memorable game soundtrack of all times. Biohazard 2 OST. What might be the reasons of my complete and unwavering adoration of Resident Evil 2, from the credits-roll font to the sound of climbing the ladder in the main hall? Well, up until 1998 I didn’t even seem to notice there was any music in video games. Yes, there was something playing in the background, but usually it was too mundane and insignificant for me to care. Let’s face it – apart from some exception, there was hardly any good game soundtrack before RE. Maybe some good intro tune here, some fitting boss battle theme there, but nothing really exceptional. But then came RE2 – the legend among legends, the game where I could do nothing for long minutes, just listening to the music, dazzled by its beauty. The tracks didn’t just provide atmosphere to the locations – they gave them life and personality. They made the 2D pre-rendered backgrounds four-dimensional (if not five). I can still remember the lights illuminating the gloomy main hall of Raccoon City Police Department seeming to vibrate along the powerful bells and piano strikes soaking from the speakers. I could spend ages talking about how I fell in love with the sound of RE2, but there is a neat way of putting it: this game has simply opened my ears.

It seems that Capcom thought about the order of the tracks in a practical way and so placed them in two groups, the first one being the FMV soundtracks. I guess there isn’t much to say about these, as they directly reflect the movies: the introductory sequence, the fall of William Birkin, the both ending sequences – thus it’s hard to talk about them as separate entities. Yet, it’s hard not to notice their quality – miles ahead of the first Resident Evil. The group ends with Credit Line of Whole Staff – the hard-rockin’ head-thumpin’ tune we all know and love, one gets to hear after finishing the B-scenario. This is an odd place for this particular track, but, oh well...

The second group is the actual ingame soundtrack and it is commenced with Prologue. As in the game itself – it is a taste of things to come: violins, pianos, snare drums, even trumpets; all locked in the great sequence of chords, forming a nice, emotional melody.

Raccoon City accompanies us through the initial stage of the game. It introduces us to the town itself: the fire, the debris, the zombies staggering around. However, it’s not about panic and terror. It’s more about sadness and tragedy.

Just before we move on to the next track, which is The Front Hall, I would like to point something out. As you may have noticed, they missed a few tracks – the inside of the bus, Kendo’s gun shop, the zombies attacking Kendo’s gun shop, the entrance to the R.P.D. – prolonging the more significant ones instead. It is evident that they learned something from the flawed Biohazard OST and actually took some time to think before they mindlessly placed every single piece of music on the CD, in single loops one wouldn’t have time to sink in. Thank God for that. And for those of you who miss the deleted tracks – keep reading, we’ll get to them eventually.

So there is The Front Hall, crushing us with its weight of the whole three-storey building, opening the cascade of R.P.D. soundtracks, familiarizing us with what the exploration of the museum-turned-police station is going to be like. Now dormant and deserted, but having been witness to some cruel, violent events.

Opening a door is all it takes to find yourself in The First Floor. The thing I absolutely adore in this track are the random sounds thrown in: the cracking floor and the crushing doors. When I’ve first played the game, I didn’t even know if they were a part of the music or actual sounds of zombies breaking in somewhere at the other end of the station and I didn’t even care. The track is so unnerving (the violins and the basses) and at the same time relaxing (the piano notes flying somewhere high beyond me) I was in a complete trance.

Ah, but the station is a wicked place and the next track The Second Floor is here to remind us about it. The unsteady, almost nauseating low sounds, a little like the underground laboratory in RE1... That sickly-yellowish corridor with the barely visible silhouettes of the three statues standing silently in the distance... We go downstairs, we open the door next to the two green herbs and we are in the...

Secure Place, or the save-theme, is one of the things that amazed me while I’ve first played the game. Just imagine – having to write one track repeating itself over and over throughout the game, fitting for no matter where you are, what you have so far seen and lived through, what they would see and live through in a moment, always portraying the place to catch your breath and regroup, always suggesting that there is a typewriter and a reddish item chest resting silently in the room. For me, the save-themes are always the best tracks on the Resident Evil OSTs, because they represent the overall spirit of the games. There is no better way to remember what each Resident Evil felt like than listening to its save-theme, even if may be due to fact that we all spent countless hours saving the game of managing the inventory with the tune carving itself into our minds.

The next track is very emotional - Leon With Claire meeting in the S.T.A.R.S. room which takes place in the LeonA-ClaireB timeline. The feeling of relief as the two finally meet after having been separated is accompanied by the knowledge of what had happened with Chris and that Claire’s trip to Raccoon City was for nought. Yet, in spite of the hopelessness of the entire situation they decide to move on and fight. You may notice that the track for their meeting in ClaireA-LeonB (in the corridor next to the library) is different – it represents the slight relief and uncertainty of what will happen next and how this is going to end.

The Library and the famous library puzzle. The standard heavy violins and the curious piano suggesting something hidden, a little like More Rooms in RE1. It always reminds me of zombies breaking into the two corridors on the first floor.

Another emotional theme - Sherry’s Theme. I don’t particularly like Sherry, but I do like this piece of music. Notice how the everlasting low gloomy violins has been altered for this track – playing a different melody, not altogether scary, but still somewhat maintaining the mood, not letting us forget where we are and what we are doing. The high sounds complete the theme reflecting the fact that we are dealing with a little child.

The Basement of Police Station is another example of how impeccably the tracks blend with the locations. Dark, empty, concrete corridors with dust obscuring the vision. Dim lights barely illuminating the labels above doors.

The Tyrant tune returns! This time with more instruments, an expanded melody and gorgeous chorus. Like most of the enemy-encounter tracks, the loop is rather short and repeats itself multiple times, yet it’s never boring! Just who doesn’t love the sturdy bald guy and his heavy boots crushing the carpet underneath? The "T”-A gets especially powerful during the camera cutscene next to the large elevator shaft later in the game.

Ladies, and gentlemen, it’s our first boss battle! The first version of William Birkin, The First Malformation of “G” is big, bloated and very dangerous. My favorite breathing-like sounds and the low groans in the distance, all make their appearance and the vibrating violins at the top represent the fast and violent chemical reactions happening within. Watch the pipe.

Next comes the strong but lonely woman’s theme, or Ada’s Theme. A mixture of piano and flute talking about bad experiences, forgotten hopes, hopeless future, much like the ill-fated love of Ada and Leon. Let’s forget about her being a spy and about her strange appearances in some European village six years later. Right now, she’s just an ordinary woman, a businesswoman perhaps, looking for her boyfriend, named John. Will her coldness mix with Leon’s fire and will they survive to live happily ever after? Only time can tell...

Of the three factory themes, only two made it to the soundtrack (the missing one being the small tune which plays immediately after leaving the sewers, the place where the dirt drops down from the ceiling), but they are both outstanding. The Marshalling Yard (The First Half) introduces us to the bowels of a dead factory, with all the machines cold and standing still, covered in dust and all the workers dead. The main sound resembles wind howling through the empty corridors and the chorus is mixed with a complete breathing sound – inhaling then exhaling of some dormant, evil spirit lying somewhere at the core of the place.

Out of the bowels, we climb to the surface level to face the moon shining through the dirty windows. We are not out yet. Far from it. We step out of the save-room to see the dark shape of the elevator standing before us like a statue of some primeval monster. Behind it, is a endless horizon of pipes and chimneys with small red lights blinking here and there, warning the dead workers of some hazards. The Marshalling Yard (The Second Half) has a very different feel than the first one. We no longer feel the terror of the unknown as we have already threaded the path through the dead factory. Now we see the vast area around and that there’s a long way still ahead of us. The RE2’s factory may not be the largest location in the game, but in terms of sound, it is by far the richest. Reluctant, we take the elevator down, not knowing that we are not alone.

The Second Malformation of “G” is probably the most recognizable version of G-virus carrier encounters and the one of the most recognizable Resident Evil 2 tracks. It doesn’t include the vibrating violins anymore; there’s no need to. We know our enemy. We don’t need to have it described to us anymore. This time, it is a war-song. We clutch the gun and take aim, feeling the sweat running down our face.

The Underground Laboratory is one of my favorite tracks on the album and that’s because of it;s multi-dimensionality. We stand at the mouth of the long steel corridor (for example, right at the door at the lower level of the plant-infested pit, the one with the door that required a System Disk). Immediately before us, there’s a feeling of dread and metal (one of the first sounds we hear, something like a gentle thunder), then, in the distance, we hear some distorted sounds – the echoes of experiments running, scientist walking, glass test-tubes being picked up and put away, the beeping of the computers. Every now and then, a loud wind comes at us from the depths of the corridor and facilities behind it, carrying a stench of rotten blood, terror and pain. And in the end, there’s a sound, something like a howling flow of water, the stream that will make us take another step and delve deeper into the core of the horrors and white gowns.

We have already met Annette, the broken woman, we have learned some unpleasant things about Ada and what really has been going on in Raccoon City. The doubt of who to trust is perfectly exposed by the leading sound of Is Ada Spy!? (what’s with these articles?), which I am unable to recognize.

Escape from Laboratory is the greatest evacuation theme ever, period. With or without the alarm sounds and the computer voice hurrying us to the exit, the track is pure energy. The seemingly irregular drum-beats makes our feet want to run (while next playing the game, try to walk while this theme plays – you’ll see how unnatural it feels), but there’s also a melody, which helps a lot while preparing the G-vaccine in Claire-A scenario. The melodic line upheld by the sound resembling a bass guitar constantly thumping in the foreground and the length of the loops are the two things behind the sheer perfection of this track and the reason of why none other Resident Evil evacuation tune can’t even come close to this one.

We go back to Ada and this time, she is aiming a gun at us. This is the time of reckoning, of cards being shown. The first tune representing the feeling of fear and betrayal is quickly replaced by panicked rush to try and save the woman from falling. Then, it’s sorrow, similar to the music accompanying Barry’s death in RE1, but so much deeper and greater. But wait, there’s more.

Good Bye, Leon... might have been good but Mother seems to be even better. The actual instruments sound poorer and, excuse me for using this word – cheaper, yet they play a melody which is richer and more original. Not to mention the fact that this time it’s Sherry who’s crying, so the music is lighter, gentler somehow.

It’s Ada again, this time not trying to shoot Leon but saving his life in Leon-B scenario. Nice theme for ####One More Kiss, but also a great track on its own, featuring the violins from Good Bye, Leon... and the atmosphere of Mother. I absolutely adore the final chord, which suggests the fear is not over. I guess One More Kiss would make a nice ranking-screen tune for every Resident Evil.

“T”-B is so much different than the predecessor. After a brief violin introduction, the combat begins, implemented with the bass guitar thumping, just like in the evacuation theme, because we’re not only fighting against Tyrant, but also against time. A great, tragic war-song.

It’s time to meet with Birkin for the final time. The Third Malformation of “G” is definitely more chaotic than the previous two, because the thing we are fighting is far more violent. Whether the four-legged form in scenario A or jelly tank in scenario B, it is a spectacular enemy, demanding a strong, fitting music. As such, the track does not contain any logical, recognizable melody, it simply provides the right mood for the fight, as if the creators knew the player would be too absorbed to listen to it.

We’ve already listened to the outro sequence, so it’s time for ranking screen theme. And after that... is the only track on this album with no tension at all, just gentle little piano and quiet violins. A small melody for the single screen.

Ah, the beautiful Credit Line... God, I feel like crying every time I listen to it... It appears after we finish any of the A-scenarios, the endings of whose are very emotional. Claire hugs little Sherry and Leon says one final “goodbye” to Ada. Overall, I find the “double-ending” idea extremely enjoyable as well as innovative. In scenario A, we take a look at the sad story, of everything we’ve been through, all the people who died and perceive Resident Evil 2 as a great, emotional game. In scenario B (sounded by Credit Line of Whole Staff) we take a look at the future, think about all the action and gore and perceive Resident Evil 2 as a great, kick-ass game. Either way, a great game. A milestone. And that’s exactly what the soundtrack leaves you with.

But, as before, it’s not over yet. Remember all those tracks which didn’t make it to the album? Well, apparently I wasn’t the one who claimed tracks like the locked up east-area laboratory room tune should have been there as well, so Capcom released another album called Biohazard 2 Complete Track, whose cover you can see on the banner. It contains as much as 42 tracks, some of them great, some of them just for the “complete track” sake (mostly very short tracks like Sherry Dropping into the water).

It begins with the classic initial intro movie tune (the one before the game’s main menu), truthfully named The Evil Eye. Then comes the introduction of scenario B as well as all the missing tunes from the Raccoon City passage. (My favorite is Drove the passengers to be the living dead, which is the bus tune.) There are the sudden attack tunes, much better than the RE1 ones (Screaming Target and Above the blood pool) – mostly involving lickers and the great track playing when we enter the east office and find Marvin has turned zombie (The buildup of suspense). There is the alternative S.T.A.R.S. office tune, when we explore it all by ourselves (Nothing more to do here) and the alternative Leon and Claire meeting in the hallway (Who’s that lady?).

Later on, in the sewers, there’s the great Wandering Alone track, when we explore the underground room as Sherry – great clarinet (or is it bassoon?) and piano melody to stress the child-factor; The gigantic alligator theme; the nice soundtrack to the Ada/Annette encounter with curious metallic sounds echoing in the background - Women squaring off.

Even further, are the four lovely laboratory tunes. They start with the moth room theme - This is my nest – a silent, yet unnerving track, perfectly exposing the tension which we might feel facing some abominable insect, trying to shoo it off but being afraid to touch it. This time, however, the insect is bigger than we are... Next, Like a shadow, a very deep and heavy tune reminds us about the scene where Annette tries to shoot Leon but is interrupted by the Tyrant. Notice how this track has been constructed with trumpets – sometimes they are silent and unsteady, sometimes they sting, like drum cymbals. Speaking about the Tyrant, the scene immediately preceding him falling to the lava pit is sounded by the The shadow is gone? – at the very end, it features moments of silence interrupted by loud drum beats.

Wreckage of the mad experiment speaks for itself. Computer beeps suggest technology and computers. Then the violins and chorus arise – to suggest something frightening and evil, like raising the curtain or opening a box to see what’s inside... Then the shock of seeing something truly disgusting. One brief moment of not believing our own eyes, then another shock at understanding and conceiving what incredible nightmare we are witnessing. And the computers still beep in the background, continuously monitoring the whole thing, making calculations, relentlessly keeping the failed experiment running.

Towards the end of the album, we get to listen to the themes of The 4th Survivor and Extreme Battle Mode – everything, including the briefing and result screens. But there’s also something special at the very end - ”The ultimate bio-weapon” Medley. Oh boy, what a gem this is. The 8 minutes worth of Resident Evil 2 music, slightly remastered for our listening pleasure.

It begins with Prologue, moves on to Raccoon City, then a little fill-in which hasn’t been featured anywhere before and The second malformation of “G”, quickly followed by Escape from Laboratory – sounding faster and smoother, better than ever before. A very brief interlude and the relentless grip tightens – the mad “T”-B comes, only to crush us again with The third malformation of “G”. Then, there’s finally some piece... And finally, the Credit Line to sooth us...

Together, the two albums form a complete audio Biohazard 2 experience, which I recommend for anyone with a taste for music. There are some compilations, including the Biohazard Sound Chronicle Best Track Box, which some features tracks from both CDs, as well as the awful Ten Years of Resident Evil – The Official Soundtrack which tries to place the soundtracks of 6 games onto one disk, a futile attempt if you ask me.

Last, but certainly not least, I think you ought to try and listen to the live-versions of some of these tracks on Biohazard Orchestra Album, played by real musicians on real instruments. The true highlight is the remastered Credit Line of Whole Staff, with astounding violin intro, even if the actual rock sounds a little poor compared to the original (there should be at least one additional guitar and the drummer should have used the snare drum a little more, in my opinion).

You remember Leon saying “Hey, it’s up to us to take out Umbrella!”, you remember the anticipation you felt of how the franchise would evolve from there, what wonders were awaiting us is the unknown future... Then you remember all those Biohazards and Resident Evils which appeared, including the worthy sequel RE3, the three-dimensional Code: Veronica, the REmake, the splendid RE0, the atmospheric Outbreaks and of course the revolutionary RE4. And you may smile for a second and think that the world is not such a bad place after all. I sure do.

Vigilante 8: Arcade

Hell Yeah! One of my favorite multiplayer games of all times is coming to XBL Arcade. To make things even better it won't be just a port of one of the original games, but an entirely new chapter in the 70' vehicle combat franchise. Build from the ground up for the XBLA it promisses 8 characters, user-customizable car paint, 5 new arenas, ovet-the top phisics, weapon pick-ups, power-ups online multiplayer for up to 8 people and (YES!) four-player split screen.

The authors also plan free and paid DLC.

Finally, I will have my revenge on my buddies for all the Bomberman Live games I've lost. Muahahahah... sorry.

If you never heard of or played Vigilante 8... well, shame on you. You can check the games out on Wikipedia for example.

onEscapee

A couple of months ago, I reviewed Another World and Flashback and promised to have a look at one game which draws heavily from both titles. A long time Amiga gem, it has been made downloadable for PCs, completely for free, here.

There are some great things about onEscapee and some not-so-great things, which prevent it from becoming a true classic, worthy to sit right next to the two Delphine Software miracles. At the first glance, almost everything seems perfect - the stunning intro, the great music (although I still think the guy who sings the tunes could use some singing lessons... and maybe less beers, for that matter), the wonderful background graphics, especially the water levels. But then you notice the release date, which is late 1997, you remember that this was the same year G-Police got released, what's more, Quake and Tomb Raider were already out since 1995. At that point, you frown and start to wonder, why the hell doesn't this look even better? Just as you wanted to say "for its time, the game looked brilliant."

The truth is, onEscapee truly looks like it should have been released 3, maybe 4 years earlier, and not exclusively on Amiga, of all things! Amiga, which at that period of time, was a sinking ship. After all, how many of you (collectors not included) owned A1200 with the external CD-ROM drive, while you could have just as easily bought a PlayStation? So what was the point, anyway? What were they thinking? Well, if you take the graphics, the copy-and-paste Another World controls, the picture becomes clear enough. I guess it was meant to be a revival of the classic. One last look at the AW/F, which is a genre by itself. And if you treat it that way, you might like it.

The plot is not entirely coherent, but it's something about aliens abducting earthlings ("all healthy, strong men") towards purposes unknown. Our hero, David White (I learned the name from wikipedia) is one of those unfortunates, fortunate enough to escape and try and make his way through the hostile world. Just like in Another World, most of the screens feature at least one way to die, each death scene depicted by its own high-quality animation. Just like in Another World, you start in some underground caverns crawling with unfriendly life-forms, ready to eat you alive when you're not looking. Gradually you make your way towards some hi-tech android factory, where you get to shoot your laser-gun multiple times, then there are other places, including the gloomy outskirts of some futuristic city, the beautiful waterfall area and another space location, which is the final one. The game is quite simple - you run, shoot the enemies, run back to the regenerator to replenish your health, solve some really nasty button-pressing puzzles, run some more. The controls were not as fluent as in AW/F, although miles ahead of Heart of the Alien, thank God. The interesting thing is, that though there are some cutscenes here and there, not a lot of words are actually spoken, except for the initial introduction and the singing guy. Maybe it give the game a little poetic atmosphere, but at the same time, is confusing as hell. At the atmospheric outro sequence you find yourself wondering "How the hell did I end up here?". Again, in AW it was the similar thing, but the game was so perfect and innovative you simply didn't care and F has dialogues which eliminated the problem.

What more is there to say? Nice background (if you forget about Resident Evil), nice intro (if you forget about G-Police), decent enough gameplay (if you forget about Tomb Raider) and some tedious puzzles. All-in-all, the game is a complete, not exactly successful, AW/F derivate, for better and for worse, so I recommend it only for those who lust for the two original games and want to play some more. My guess is, you won't be all that disappointed.

Indiana Drake, Nathan Jones.

Every once in a while you stumble upon a game that perfectly fits into the definition of fun – a game that keeps your hands glued to the controller and makes your eyes dry since you don’t blink fearing that you might miss something significant if you did.
The last game for me that induced this kind of reaction was the most amazing Resident Evil 4, and I’m talking about the Gamecube version. That was a long time ago.

I remember Uncharted from the early Playstation 3 conferences when the console didn’t have a final design yet and DualShock 3 was a plastic boomerang.
I remember it well, because that, unnamed at that time, game from the creators of one of my favorite platformers made a huge impression on me with its striking animation. On the day I saw the first footage of a dark-haired protagonist in a dirty t-shirt laying down heavy punches on some sort of pirates in a lush, tropical jungle I knew that this is really the next generation coming.

I have to admit that I took me a while to get my hands on Uncharted. It really wasn’t on the priority list. People learn on their mistakes.
When my PS3 swallowed the bluish disc for the first time I couldn’t help myself and close my eyes listening to the excellent main theme and then the uncharted theme. I’m partial to this sort of movie-esque music. And it doesn’t end on those two melodies. The whole score for the game is equally brilliant. It was composed by Greg Edmonson who has a lot of experience in making movie soundtracks. Basically the sound in the game is just top-notch – one of the reasons why must the fact that it comes in an uncompressed DTS so it’s crisp and there is a lot of definition to it. People with home theater systems know what I mean.

The game looks even better than it sounds. You can tell right away that it’s an exclusive title. The characters models are excellent – they are detailed and extremely well animated. Their movements are fluid and graceful – it might not be Assassin’s Creed, but it’s close. Their clothes fold and crease the way they should, and they are soaked and glisten when they get wet. Their faces are full of character and lively expressions. Hell, even their tongues are animated.
The environments are detailed and lively. The foliage sways on the digital wind casting realistic shadows on the sharp, high quality textures. The water looks excellent with reflections and refractions, but flows a bit too much like jelly. You’ll get a plethora of post-effects like depth of field, motion blur and HRD lighting which all make Uncharted look stunning. A setting sun shining though the trees is really awe inspiring in this game.
There are four problems though. First and most annoying is screen tearing – a V-sync would be in order. Second thing – animation tends to drop on occasion, but it’s not serious and certainly not distracting. And a third problem would be clipping issues, but those are really rare. On my first playthrough I encountered one… Last, but not least is some texture pop-in, usually visible after cut-scenes, but it’s not particularly bad and it’s nothing compared to games like Mass Effect or Gears of War.

Ok, we got through the technical part; now let’s focus on the substances.

The game is an action adventure at its finest.
Uncharted places you in the body of Nathan Drake, a self-proclaimed descendant of Sir Francis Drake. After finding Sir Drake’s empty coffin in which Nate finds his ancestor’s journal the main protagonist embarks on a journey to find the mythical El Dorado. He will be accompanied by Elena – a reporter with “exclusive rights” to the whole journey and Nathan’s friend, the roguish Victor Sullivan. All the characters are lovable (in one way or the other) and the actors who did the motion capture and voice overs should really get a big bonus as they did their job fabulously. Right now Nathan Drake is one of my favorite game characters – a witty, cool guy with an attitude.
Of course an adventure story like the one in Uncharted would be nothing without villains. So you’ll have to deal with all kinds of scumbags including pirates, a man with a conspicuous British accent and… well, let’s not spoil anything. Let’s just say that the story is on par with any Indiana Jones movie, with interesting plot twists and mysteries to uncover. It’s not a deep, psychological thing, but rather a light entertaining piece of script. You’ll love it.

The gameplay. It’s the brightly shining gem of Uncharted – it offers a perfect mix of exploration, platforming and shooting with a pinch of puzzles and quick time events. This game will never let you get bored. The plot is constantly pushed forward by the action sequences and all the elements are so perfectly intertwined that you’ll just constantly want more.
Even though that game takes place almost entirely on one island it doesn’t become repetitive. The environments will constantly change – from jungle setting, through ruins to old castles and monasteries. And with a change of place comes a change of pace, objectives and “obstacles” on Nate’s path. It’s just so well balanced. You’ll be jumping from ledges over a huge waterfall and before you know it you’ll be in an intense gunfight with a bunch of pirates. It just never gets old.
In that aspect the game has one major flaw – it’s too short. On the normal difficulty setting it’s not hard to finish in less than eight hours. There is a lot of replay value to it (more about that in a moment), but I would really like Uncharted to be at least two hours longer. It’s not that the ending is rushed or made a cliff-hanger, it’s just the game is so good that you’ll want to see more stuff the developers came up with. Well, maybe in Uncharted 2 as there’s probably going to be trilogy like with all of Naughty Dog’s franchises.

I would like to say one thing. I don’t know why, but the game feels very Playstationish. I couldn’t really pinpoint why, it just does. I can’t imagine this game on any other system.

Oh, about the replay value. Uncharted features a system similar to 360’s Achievements, but in my opinion it’s much, much better. As you know EXramp and I are not very fond of Gamerscore and the achievement system and we would like it be more meaningful. Uncharted gives me just that. After you complete set of conditions you are awarded with points (just like a Gamerscore) and after getting a certain amount stuff will unlock. This “stuff” includes concept art galleries, “making of…” videos, in-game cheats (unlimited ammo, weapon selection) and effects (playing in mirror mode, in sepia, in slow-mo and so on).
It’s an excellent award for people who like to get 100% from their games.

To me Uncharted is what Resident Evil 4 was three years ago - a perfect example of why I love video games so much. It’s the very essence of the entertainment game can provide an anchor that will pull your mind down to the depths of enjoyment. Once again I was able to forget about the surrounding world and problems it brings. And for that I thank you Naught Dog.

Rotten to the Qore

I’ve bought the first Qore on Friday and I have to say... it’s rotten. Yes, I know I was excited about the whole thing just a few days ago when I wrote the news about it, but after trying it out I can say it’s pretty much a six-dollar worth of failure.
First off, it weights over 1,5 GB, which in my case is a lot since I have a 1mbit internet connection, which means if I haven’t eaten during the download I would die from malnutrition. But I thought it will all be in glorious HD so I can wait. Well, it may be HD, but it’s so compressed it looks like a movie about diarrhea in high resolution.

When you “turn it on” you are greeted with a long Hulk 2 trailer. The movie is a waste of money; the trailer is a waste of space. Thank God it’s skippable.
After that you’ll get an introduction by Veronica Belmont. I’m probably supposed to know who she is, but I don’t. Sure, the girl is cute, but she acts as if she’s being subjected to electric current – she is way too euphoric. It’s fake, unnecessary and I don’t like it. Let’s move on.
In the main menu you can choose from a few different sections – a SOCOM one, Soul Calibur 4/Afro Samurai one, Force Unleashed one and the last one is where the downloadable goodies are, or rather suppose to be.

Let me start from the last one. There are supposed to be a SOCOM beta invitation, a SOCOM theme for the XMB and a link to download Calling All Cars. The PSN game is available for people who got the annual subscription of Qore, so I won’t comment as I didn’t get one (thank God). And the SOCOM stuff? Well, I’m sorry, but it will be available, when it’s available… which could mean tomorrow or in 500 years. What could be the reason to put something in this “digital magazine” that doesn’t exist and make it the biggest selling point? No idea, but I bet there are a lot of pissed off people out there now.

The Force Unleashed and the SC4/AS section include interviews and some in-game footage. It’s so meaningless I wanted to poke my eyes out with a fork. You basically have guys who claim that “their games will be so cool, because they are cool, and cool people make them and stuff”. For an exclusive content, you really can’t do shit Sony.
I liked the guy from Namco talking about Darth Vader in SC4. What he said is that he’s really excited about that character, because he’s so cool and he has cool moves, and the game he’s in is cool, and it’s cool that it’s cool, because it’s so cool. Seriously?

The guy from Lucas Arts was not much better. He did mention though, that the planets his game will take place on make a lot of sense and they are cool. Well, if he said so it must be true.

The SOCOM section features some pictures and not only the mindless babbling, but there’s even more of Belmond, so I’m not so sure about it.

And then there are the ads. I thought I wouldn’t mind them so much, but they are annoying as hell.

So to sum things up - you get a lot of pointless crap for $3 with commercials in between. I know 3 bucks is not a lot, but in case of Qore it’s still too much.
It’s like paying for sex with an ugly hooker just to find out she’s actually a man.

Biohazard Original Soundtrack

Before I get to the beautiful, breath-taking, astounding, ravishing and overall – fucking awesome Biohazard / Resident Evil soundtrack, which is Resident Evil 2 OST (next week, I guess), let me take you for a ride through the land of the past and show you where it all began. Ladies and gentlemen, the first Biohazard soundtrack!

Don’t even try to compare it with other RE soundtracks, because today the whole CD, much like the game itself, seems... laughable. Take the two first tracks, for instance: Introduction Movies and Zombie Eating Kenneth. Who on Earth would place such things on a game soundtrack in this day and age? Some of the tunes have the game’s sound effects (even voices) embedded into them, like Death Trap, in most cases this was done deliberately, believe it or not, which is evident in Piano Frenzy, where you can hear a person opening and closing the door and walking up to the piano. The music doesn’t even have any decent fade-out, the tracks just cut off after only one loop, so no matter how hard you try, you can’t even enjoy the decent ones, like First Floor Mansion. Actually, all of them can be found on Resident Evil PC disk, in the wav format, exactly the same. Great, huh? Capcom just burned these files into a CD, and boom! We have a game soundtrack, let’s go sell it. But enough of this ranting, we must remember that it was the year of 1996 and video games got away with lots of things, let alone the fact that no one really cared about the music. So let’s open your ears and listen.

The tracks can be roughly divided into three groups: the danger tunes which play when something bad is happening, the atmosphere tunes which accompany you while traversing the locations and finally – special tunes during the cutscenes. Of those three, the second one clearly stands out as the sole reason why anyone sane would ever care to listen to Biohazard OST. First Floor Mansion, Second Floor Mansion, First Floor Mansion Again, Second Mansion Again (convenient names, huh?), The Guardhouse, etc. all of them consisting only of computer-generated violins, very fitting for the Spencer Estate’s empty, yellowish corridors. To me, these are the essence of Resident Evil’s atmosphere – slow, still melodies with the notable touch of menace. A similar theme occurs in Third Floor of the Laboratory.

Some of these tracks are still pretty scary, like Forest is Dead, The Underground, Entrance to the Laboratory, which have the characteristic breathing-like sounds, The Guardhouse Basement with its curious combination of guitar-like notes with violin-like noises. Ah, I’ve almost forgotten my personal favorite Mansion Basement – the infamous kitchen theme. I swear this thing gives me the creeps even now. There are also some oddballs like The Power Room (Can this even be called music? This isn’t Silent Hill, people!), or Outside featuring the same dog’s howling over and over and over again, or, better yet, Outside with Water Running – the title says it all.

The danger tunes are, simply speaking, all the same - very fast and without much melody. Take Sudden Attack and Death Trap. The only thing differentiating them is the sound of the Jill-sandwich mechanism activating in the latter. The truth is, these tracks just serve their purpose – providing the most appropriate beat-rate for our hearts during the violent cutscenes and boss-fights. All by themselves, they seem tedious and unremarkable, with the sole exception of The Zombie is Coming which is much slower and truly spooky. The boss-fight counterpart would maybe be Tyrant Breaking Loose – the track which would come back in the future.

The third group is really mixed – some of the tracks are not half that bad, like Wesker’s Theme, or the cool Slide Projector even Barry’s Revenge has its... uh... virtues, but some of them are mediocre to say the least. A Gunshot in the Underground, Meeting Rebecca, Barry’s Death... They might have been (and, indeed, were) appropriate twelve years ago, but today one would be right to ask for something better.

And, uh... Still Dawn, the credit-roll theme. Really, is this the thing you would expect at the end of the symbol of survival horror? The track does get rough enough at the end, but the very beginning is absolutely traumatizing. The song reminds me of The Stars and the Moon – an ending song of the movie “Dead Alive” / “Brain-Dead”, but there it was supposed to sound like a romantic comedy featuring Jennifer Lopez, because the whole movie was a parody. Here, it just doesn’t work, even for a mid-nineties Japanese game.

I might have been a little too harsh, but that’s the way it had to be. If you want to introduce someone to survival horrors, you mustn’t, simply MUSTN’T begin with Resident Evil. This title was brilliant and will always be treated with respect, as an important milestone in video-game evolution, but let’s face it: it’s retired now, played only by true connaisseurs, replaced with its younger Gamecube reincarnation. Right, there’s also Dead Silence, but if you don’t feel even a bit embarrassed by having to blow to your DS’s microphone in public, you probably won’t even notice the game’s Dante-crawling-out-of-the-fondue-pit cheeziness.

But wait! There’s more!

At first I meant to divide this episode into a couple of parts and post them one at a time, but decided against it. After all, it’s not a gametrailers retrospective I’m doing and since you’re already here and have read this far, I might as well go on and tell you the next parts right now. So let’s turn the hands of the clock a little and move forward to the magic year of 1998, when such miracles as Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve and Metal Gear Solid were released.

Apparently, in 1998, someone at Capcom finally sobered and realized the Biohazard Original Soundtrack was not a product of the finest possible quality. Hence, they decided to release a remix, just as they had released the Director’s Cut version of the game itself the year before.

You pop the CD in, push play and what are you greeted with? The game’s character introduction rock-tune, in all its original “glory” (together with the voice reading out the names), completely untouched, just with some game’s sounds added at the beginning. (Still, it could be worse, some movies showing the early pre-release versions of the game have different music there – much worse music, with singing even...) Thankfully, it’s the only unremixed track on the disk, so don’t let it belie the rest of the soundtrack; the changes become pleasantly evident with At Deep Mountains and Dark Valleys, the Night Begins. At first you don’t even realize it’s the remix of First Floor Mansion.

Most of the tracks got pleasantly polished, more instruments were added, in some cases the melody was slightly altered. Oh, and there are fade-outs, thank God. There is a price to pay, however. The new tunes have the game’s corresponding sounds and voices; sometimes entire cutscenes were inserted. For example, the evacuation theme has been broken into two separate tracks: 10 Minutes Until Explosion and 5 Minutes until Explosion, the second of which has the voice of Brad, the sounds of the elevator and the wind howling on the landing area. The oddballs remained oddball alright. Dismal Field, a remake of Outside, features not only the old sounds but now also the footsteps of a character running around, taking the elevator and being attacked by zombie dogs. Hilarious.

In most cases, the music really benefited from the changes. The creators have given the old, familiar tunes the new quality which elevates it significantly from the mediocrity into decency, without any violent changes. There are some exceptions, like the kitchen theme, whose remake (Narrow and Close) lost some the original’s malevolent energy, but all-in-all, even if some tracks did undergo a little more than cosmetic changes (Sigh of Relief) and (Peace of Mind), it’s generally for the good (notice how one flute can change the entire atmosphere of a song Concealed Passage).

There is one track which deserves a very special mention. The remastered version of the The Moonlight Sonata, now over 4 minutes long, featuring the full original melody, accompanied with background violins. It is... beautiful. Might even fit for an ending theme, in my opinion, especially since Still Dawn remained pretty much unchanged.

Okay, let’s fast forward to 2002 and “take a listen” to the Remake OST. Sadly, the official soundtrack never got released on its own, instead being a part of the expensive Biohazard Best Track Box initially sold only in Japan.

As we all know, the Resident Evil Remake differs significantly from the original in some places and it shows. The creators abandoned most of the old tunes and written them anew, completely from scratch. The result was a finer quality, or “up-to-date quality” would be a more fitting way to put it. While the tunes are considerably gentler on your ears, they remain a little much soulless and identity-lacking. They concentrate on heavy, blurred violins playing some barely discernible melodies. It’s hard to remember them, in some cases, it’s even impossible to notice them while playing the game altogether, yet they maintain the atmosphere and thus serve their purpose – being good background horror music.

The true fun begins when we do actually notice the familiar tunes and there are plenty of them. The way they have been constructed is simply flawless – they retain their original melodies, which brings up the game’s identity, but their quality has been significantly improved by adding more different sounds and ironing out the old ones. This transformation has made them much gentler, less aggressive and invading, yet they are still scary, probably thanks to the breathing-like sounds. Scarier than ever. I would go on talking in detail about each one of them, but this would take too long, so let me just mention the most distinctive ones.

Disappearance, which makes the searching for Wesker actually a pleasant task. Lost in Darkness, probably the most beautiful variation of First Floor Mansion ever. Save Theme, which remains strange and unclear, but in a much more acceptable way. Vacant Room with the little tickling bells now constantly traveling from one ear to another. Talking to Yourself? – an astounding track, all but bursting with terror and despair, conjuring everything around it. Cold Water, now much slower, expressing not only the flooded underground facility but the entire dark ocean with God-knows-what swimming just under the surface. Concrete Bound, immersing us in the depths of the abandoned laboratory, with the electrical lights illuminating nothing but thick clouds of dust, floating in the air.

Like I’ve said, there are more of the remade tracks, but I think I’ll let you discover them on your own. For me, the greatest joy was to compare them side by side, the old one versus the new one. Then the elusive details or ironing out become clear and you can just point your finger at some sound at say “oh, that’s what did the trick.”

One more thing, the Ending Credits. I’ve had some really mixed feelings about this one. For one, it isn’t even a bit horror-like (try and compare it to the RE: Outbreak counterpart), the violins sound optimistic, but at the same time, serious, even aristocratic. That has always reminded me of the one thing that many people seem to forget about. The Resident Evil legacy. The year 1996, when it all started with a small game with artificial acting, crappy dialogues and B-movie plot which aspired to be the milestone in gaming industry. Which created the expression “survival horror” and paved the way for some of the world’s greatest, most memorable titles. While the original game pales in comparison to its sons and grandsons, it will always be there, in the all-time hall of fame, which the soundtracks, both old and new are there to remind us about. Laughable or not, rest in peace, Resident Evil. We’ll always love you. :-)

Quo..., Qoue, Coocoo...

Sony announced an interesting project, interesting for me at least. It’s called Quo, Quor… I’m sorry, the name is too strange for me.
Anyway, this… thing is a kind of a monthly digital, online magazine. You’ll get interviews, movies, images and information about upcoming titles. Hell, you might even get a beta key for some games. Sony promises that about 90% of the content will be exclusive. Seems like an excellent idea to me.

The catch? Of course there is a catch, even two. First one, the service will be paid. If you pay monthly you’ll have to say bye-bye to about $3. If you care for an annual subscription you’ll have to pay about $25. Not a bad price if you ask me. Oh, and if you’ll get the annual subscription you’ll get a free PSN game (Calling All Cars).
The second catch? Even though it’s not a free service you will be exposed to commercials. This one is a bit strange. I wouldn’t mind if the commercials would be skippable, but it seems they are not. Oh well, can’t have it all.

But hey, I’ll try anything once.

A side not to Sony.
However you would stretch the rules of English pronunciation it’s simply impossible to say Qore the same way as Core. Am I niggling? Sure am.

The Killing Game Show

A fabulous looking, fast-paced platformer on Amiga from the creators of Project Gotham Racing and the XBL classic – Geometry Wars.

The protagonist is a little robot, capable of running (duh...), jumping and climbing, as well as shooting things with its twin cannons. There are 8 levels – 2 stages each – and your goal is to make your way from the bottom to the top of every one. There is a time limit in a shape of water (according to the story that thing is actually some ultra-destructive liquid, but... who gives a spit, anyway?). At the beginning of each stage, you have about 10 seconds and then the water level begins to rise. Needless to say, the robot is not waterproof, so all it takes is one badly-timed jump or just running around a little too long and it’s over. Obviously, the creators thought that jumping on the platforms alone would be too easy, so they imbued the game with all kinds of puzzles – you need keys to unlock passages, press switches, avoid malicious traps. On the seventh level jumping is not allowed, so you need to utilize elevators and teleports to move around. Moreover, most of the second stages feature collectible items, for example gems, which give you additional scores. The really cool feature is the replay you get each time you die – while watching it, you may press a key to resume the game from any point you are currently on.

I did mention shooting things, didn’t I? The enemies come in formations (lines, actually) and shooting down the entire line awards you with a score bonus and some additional health represented by a tiny winged heart. Be careful though, as the heart is sometimes replaced with skull which is a health penalty. There are multiple types of ammunition scattered around the stages – each one is limited, except for the most basic one you begin the stage with, and you can carry only one ammo type at a time. The same thing goes with “tools” – these are various bonuses like the water freezer (it temporarily stops the water level from rising), the oracle (gives you good advice), health packs and keys. Again, you may carry only one of them at a time (each time you pick something up, it trades places with the thing you already have) so hunting for a certain shape of a key while having to open five different locks on the way can be a demanding memory and orientation exercise. The only, and I mean, ONLY thing to help you is the overall map of the stage which you can bring up any time and plan your route.

The game may look like a mindless shooter, but in fact, it concentrates more on thinking and taking quick decisions. It’s not particularly easy (the first time I played it, I was nine years old and it destroyed me), but is actually very fun to play. The graphics are outstanding on Amiga, especially the water reflections, just a little worse on Atari and Genesis; the music is decent and the sound effects are both strange and funny. Too bad you have to pick either sounds (the levels seem unusually silent) or music (just one tune on all the levels, which may get boring), not both of them, but well, the technology wasn’t there yet. One other thing to catch your attention is the opening cinematic introducing our cute little robot – very grim and of high quality, it reminds me of Walker.

There is some crazy story behind the game, but who cares? The point is, if you feel like playing something old-school, which requires more than just constantly tapping the “fire” button, look no further.

Under the crimson sky...

There’s a nice, interesting little demo of Siren: New Translation available on PS Network Japan. I believe the European and American title will be Siren: Blood Curse. I must say, it impressed the hell out of me.

I wasn’t a big fan of the previous parts of the Siren (Forbidden Siren in Europe) franchise. Frankly speaking, I never finished the first game and didn’t even try the second one. Why? Well, the game had simply too many “revolutionary ideas” – some were great, the others... Not. The sight-jack (the trademark ability to see through other characters’/enemies’ eyes) was fun enough, but wasn’t really helpful in making your way through the areas crawling with the undead, since it was difficult to tell who was exactly where. The game was all about stealth and most of the time you didn’t even have any decent weapon, so confusion quickly led to frustration. The game’s segmental storytelling surely didn’t make things any clearer. You were given a character at a certain location, at a certain time, with a certain task to accomplish. You do that, there’s a cutscene and then another person, another place, etc. The paths do converge eventually, but sometimes it gets really chaotic, especially with that annoying timetable chart. Moreover, you had to replay certain stages and do additional side-quests so that some other characters may proceed through the area somewhere in the future.

But you know what? I’m willing to forgive Sony, even if they include all of the above features in Blood Curse. The game’s graphics are just phenomenal – not in a technical way, since the textures’ quality could have been a little better – but in terms of atmosphere. The colors are largely reduced to something resembling sepia which, combined with the lighting effects, gives a very realistic (as well as scary) impression; and there’s that ominous red sky looming over the horizon, which is an absolute highlight. The controls are a little jerky (I suppose due to that crappy Sixaxis), but nowhere near as stiff as they used to be. Moreover, the horrible action menu has been replaced with a more intuitive trigger-based system. All-in-all, it’s a decent, fabulous-looking survival horror and I’m genuinely looking forward to it, even if it will be released in a bunch of short episodes, as Sony stated.

Wait a second, Silent Hill goes to hell while Forbidden Siren gets actually decent? Jesus Christ almighty, the end is near...