Eldorado Gate's second volume is so keen on getting started Bantross, our suspiciously inscrutable combination of host, party leader, and know-it-all rolled into one, can't even make it through his introductory speech without getting interrupted; the game content to cut him short and throw a single line's worth of description for each of the first disc's three … Continue reading Free from filler, fetch quests, and flabby storytelling
Eldorado Gate, Capcom's Dreamcast exclusive RPG series, is in many ways a creation that should have never got off the drawing board. This was a brand new RPG saga with no famous name to fall back on, released on what was definitely the "wrong" format for the genre at the time (Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, … Continue reading The beginning of an epic adventure
There are no doubt bacterial growths living ten miles under the surface of Mars that are well aware Sweet Home is the game responsible for setting out much of Resident Evil's successful survival horror framework by now: The tension-building creaky door animations forcing players to briefly live through the eyes of these unlucky souls, the … Continue reading Resident Evil’s other prequel
If there's one thing that's always the same in every Resident Evil game, it's change. Capcom's survival horror series has proven time and time again it is prepared to try absolutely anything, from intensely terrifying single player horror to co-op combo-scoring action, and whether these attempts have ended up being resounding successes or well-intentioned cock-ups … Continue reading That is not groovy
Buying the home conversion of an arcade game back in the early nineties was a risky and unpredictable game affair: Entire stages may be skipped, less popular characters mysteriously absent, voice samples were more often than not thrown out at the earliest opportunity, and if a unique enemy or particularly large boss just wasn't going … Continue reading Better than the real thing
Knowing a game's a farmed-out low-budget spinoff of a wildly popular series should be all the information anyone needs to avoid the release in question forever, a game to be left unbought on a shop shelf next to all the movie themed cash-grabs and box-ticking trend followers hastily shoved out a greedy publisher's door... unless … Continue reading Meownster Hunter
Some games end up gathering dust on shop shelves because they've been saddled with overly artistic covers that make no effort to honestly reflect the entertainment within. Sometimes fresh digital offerings end up buried under long lists of a more popular game's hat-based DLC. A rare few are even plain old terrible and deserve to … Continue reading Cruise for a corpse
It took me far too long to truly appreciate what the original Resident Evil 3 was trying to do with its Live Selection system and alternative locations for everything from grenade launchers to key items - and then just as I finally saw the beauty behind its unpredictable nature and quickfire decision making this shiny … Continue reading Another last escape
I thought that title was the best way to sum up Resident Evil 0, the 2002 GameCube release that finally fused all the tank-controlled trappings of Capcom's survival horror trendsetter with the most notable gameplay systems from their earlier and oft-praised Famicom 1989 title Sweet Home, a balance the series had been trying to find … Continue reading Before where it all began
My twelve year old son is spending a good chunk of his summer holiday playing Monster Hunter World and frankly, I'm jealous. It's pretty, it's exciting, and he's making everything I've struggled with since 2004 look so darned easy. I want another go... I think. But not on that one - I can do without … Continue reading Portable 3rd time lucky
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 