2PieceSnackbox Alternate covers

 Some rabbit-holes should remain unexplored...

Now, what exactly is an 'alternate cover' you might ask. Well, that is very simple within the context of gaming and even here; you see how most physical games come in your standard package of a plastic case with an image shoved into a sleeve? Well what if you changed that image? Similar to how the day-one edition of Mass Effect 3 featured a unique switchable sleeve that had Male Shepard on the front and FemShep on the inverse, except that was an official grift to encourage people to pick up the expensive early copies of that game. (Which I fell for: Hook, line and sinker.) What we're talking about today is a company that generates their very own image box art and sells it off for a neat profit for the benefit of people who are too lazy to just use a printer.

Now to be fair, this is quite a nice idea for a business model that I never really envisioned before. I mean think about it: high quality pieces of custom art work to slide into the plastic wallets of your favourite games, further exemplifying your adoration for the increasingly fading world of physical game resources. And to disparage my own point about being 'too lazy to use a printer', these alternative covers do come pre-stamped with all the studio and console logos that you would expect and even the back blurbs for some reason, even though I think those are the ugliest part of box covers; but it would seem that's just me. Now the further question we must ask ourselves is thus: Why on earth am I sitting here talking about this if it's just a nice and wholesome artist's outlet on EBay? We don't do wholesome here! Well... as you can guess it's not exactly wholesome...

I mean, not always. There have been times, fleeting though they may be, when the group have put together a piece of box art that isn't just an alternate image of a title character nabbed from promotional materials, but a genuinely visually appealing composite! Such as the image of the Sonic Mania gang plastered over the European cartridge cover for the original Sonic collection games. That's a great idea that looks genuinely fun and creative. Of course, the actual assets are still borrowed from here and there, but the creator mounted the ingenuity to bring these decades separated pieces of media together and smoosh them up onto a single cover. That's cool! And if they were doing just cool ideas like that, I probably wouldn't be shining a spotlight on them. Then again, if they were doing that I probably wouldn't have caught sight of one of their 'variation covers' out of the corner of my eye and do a double take so hard I nearly snapped my head clean off.

So, Resident Evil 3 Remake. A fine enough game. I was disappointed with the paired back zombie generation technology, but I understand the sacrifices that had to be made in order for the increased number of on-screen zombies. I wonder what our visionaries over at 2PieceSnackbox had in mind for changing up that boxart? Oh... OH... Yeah, I'm not posting that on my blog, you can look it up on your own. Yes... to describe what I've seen here would be perhaps a bit crass... I guess, it is the Jill Valentine character as modelled by Sasha Zotova, just like on the original cover, but this Jill is... well, let's just say that 3d model is not from the base game. In fact, I suspect that someone might have perused some of the darker, more libidinous, corners of the internet and procured an 'erotic' image to appeal to the lowest common denominator. And there the shoe drops.

If you were brave enough to put that on your search history, you'll likely have also noticed that this RE3 Remake was by no means the company's only foray into... 'coomer bait', to be frank. The Bayonetta cover replacement is just a lewd, the Resident Evil 8 cover appears to be a severely under-dressed Lady Dimitrescu without her signature hat or grey coloured skin, which is wrong on several levels, and worst of all- they've made a pre-emptive cover for the Resident Evil 4 Remake on Switch. Where do I start? RE4R hasn't been announced for Switch, and I'd be very surprised if that changed; it's labelled 'Resident Evil 4 V2' which isn't the naming convention of this new franchise of games at all, and the cover image is another lewd picture of Sasha Zotova's Jill! Excuse the heck out of me- since when did Jill Valentine feature in Resident Evil 4? Last I checked she goes AWOL in 'Code Veronica' and pops up again in 5! Yes, this is what I'm upset about for some reason, excuse me and my twisted priorities!

Now of course, it's probably a little unethical to go around capitalising on the sex-appeal of various scantily clad characters in order to sell print-jobs, probably about as morally dubious as it is to actually buy them. But you know what else it is? Asking for a lawsuit. I can't speak for Capcom and how they want to go about handling their properties, I don't even know if Capcom realises there is a world outside their studio doors considering how little they interact with any of their loyal fans in a one-on-one capacity or respond to community fan pleas. But 2PieceSnackbox did mess up. How, you ask? Well they got a little comfortable, rode the seas long enough to assume they would be unendingly docile, and released one of their lewd alternative covers for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild featuring a lewdified Zelda. (Let us please host a minute of silence for the soon-to-be-removed company.)

What were they possibly thinking! Are these people insane, stupid, or some unholy sludge-like mix of the two extremes? Nintendo would have gone after these idiots even if the artwork was tasteful, they'll probably hire a cartel hit squad to visit them for this violation upon the sanctity of their beloved characters. Nintendo do not allow for fan modifications upon their image, even in the most docile sense. Do you remember when Nintendo clamped down on some internal marketing streamers for daring to propose a 'Nuzzlocke' challenge stream, simply because the prospect of playing a Pokemon game not to the exact parameters that the designers intended offended the gathered executives to their very core? Now imagine if those same streamers proposed to do that in Sexy Misty and Ash Ketchup outfits? We would never have heard of their story because their missing posters would still be in circulation on milk cartons.

I'm all for guerrilla marketing techniques, and going places where your competitors won't in order to get ahead. But lewding the protagonists? That's kinda weird, first off, and it's not really needed. The guys who do this are capable of making some really fancy and well designed alternate covers, albeit usually by mixing about existing assets rather than making something wholly new but you have to work with what you've got, right? I'm just primarily surprised and impressed about another seedy and vaguely degenerate part of our little industry that I totally brushed by until very recently. I wonder how well this catches on in the future. Who knows, we may be able to one-day custom order a new cover for the Switch copy of Skyrim Anniversary Edition with the Imperial Dragon emboss replaced with the Royal Thomas The Tank Engine seal in it's place. (We can but dream of such a day.)

Merry Christmas; also, screw this whole year

Warning: No holiday cheer to be found here, just disappointment

Not really a fan of the season, but others are so I might as well come out and say 'Merry Christmas,' now can I just say that this has been the worst year ever. Yeah I know, not exactly a new take out of me, but I just really need an outlet and this is pretty much all I have available to me, so there it is. Now from the very first moment of this crappy year there has been every single possible kind of scare that it's feasible to have, oh and a pandemic thrown in there just to tap things off. General life has been difficult too, coming from a Caribbean family I understood exactly what it was like to be in the middle of a group of people who believe themselves patently too good not to still throw stupid parties in the middle of all this. The general public, who are already kinda standoffish over here anyway (being British) have become their true ornery selves in public. And the job market's a wasteland, but maybe I'm getting a bit too personal with that last one, there's just as much crap happening in the gaming world too. (And isn't that just the best? When my escapism needs an escapism!)

But where do you even start with the absolute mess that this year has been. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I mean the best gaming event that happened this year was probably the release of Demon Souls Remake. But that was PS5 so I can't really celebrate that one too hard. (There was also Ghost of Tsushima and FF7R but I don't have a PlayStation. Others can claim that victory.) I guess Doom Eternal was pretty tight, but from there things just seemed to go down hill. First there was the game that I highly anticipated for about an entire year, Resident Evil 3 Remake. Now I haven't really talked about this much because I wanted to enjoy as much of that game as there was to play, but there really wasn't all that much. The biggest problem with the original RE3 was the fact that it was essentially made from 80% recycled assets which really limited the scope of the game and resulted in a much smaller experience. The Remake didn't need to share that problem, and yet it did! The assets were new, some of the zombies were new, but the game was still unnecessarily truncated and sold for the same price as last year's Resident Evil 2! (The missed potential- It burns!)

Then there was the situation with Avengers the video game, and yeah- I pretty much saw straight through this game from the very get go- but gosh darn it I wanted to believe so bad! I've always been a huge fan of Marvel even before their recent spat of Movie success; I read the original Days of Future Past, I played the X-men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games; I was a Marvel fan. (I am a Marvel fan, I should say. The game wasn't that bad.) But somewhere along the way this game which should have been a bonafide Marvel swansong fell to the wayside and floundered. (Meanwhile Sony's Spiderman shot webs around Avengers and gloated their superiority.) Even having played the game myself I don't think is was quite worth the murdering it received from the community, I mean it didn't deserve it's price either, but for the £20 it's typically seen for around now I'd say it would be worth it. It's a little bit of fun. (If anyone actually played it anymore, which they kinda don't. Also I guess it's not optimized well either...)

Warcraft 3 Reforged- wait a minute, that whole thing happened this year? Wow, that was back in January... feels like a whole different world, doesn't it? Now to be fair, I didn't have the personal link towards this game that would make it really hit home, but I do consider myself somewhat in tune with the community so I understand the hurt it caused. The Original Warcraft 3 pretty much laid the groundworks for the archetypal community supported game. (Or at least got the ball rolling for Half Life to set the world of modding into motion.) It was a classic game, nurtured such creativity that a whole genre spawned out of it and prepared the scene for the Blizzard juggernaut that was WOW to rule the MMO landscape for the next decade. Thus it was heinous what was done to this game under the guise of 'making an upgrade', especially when considered alongside the rampant marketing lies and anti-community policies which were put into place. Why, if this was the way the gaming year started, imagine how sucky it would be if the year ended with a dark mirror of this exact situation?

And there we come to the cap off for this year, the Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar moment of 2020. Cyberpunk 2077 was bought to us after 7 years of development to break the spell that this abysmal year held over us, and yet it was seduced by the allure of quick profits and lie-driven marketing. They were supposed to redeem the industry; not damn them! Bring balance to gaming, not leave it in ruins! Have you heard the tale of CDPR's fall? It's not a story the Jedi would tell you... But in all seriousness, I can't think of a worse possible blow to the gaming world than to have the literal paladins of the Industry, CD Projeckt, (As in the whole company, not just the 'Red' developers) turn out to be liars and oathbreakers. It's like having everyone you love slowly stick a knife in your gut and twist it, only for the final person to be the one you trusted the most, like a kindly parent or a kid who shot your girlfriend that one time. (Huh, that metaphor got stuck somewhere between Final Fantasy XV and Game of Thrones...) Point is, we were lied to and the betrayal is still very fresh for some of us. (Well it's been less than a month so I guess that makes sense.)

'Coming out: When it's ready'. Can you believe that was the first thing we saw regarding this game all the way at the end of that reveal trailer all those years back? What a total crock. 'When it's ready' was like the rallying cry of CD Projeckt fans over the years. Whenever a AAA game drove itself off a cliff because it rolled off the production line with faulty breaks, you'd hear the discordant chorus of "Should have come out when it was ready, that's what CDPR are doing!". I was never part of that crowd, to be honest, but I did share that feeling of safety that everyone of that ilk did when they considered Cyberpunk. CDPR would get it right, they understand how to treat gamers right. And somewhere I'd like to think that's still true, though that part is struggling with the realist who tells me I'm coping from the shock right now. Like finding out your older sibling sells ketamine for a living in order to pay for those lavish presents he always gets you for Christmas. (Okay, that one wasn't even a reference; my imagination is just running wild; no more Metaphors. That was a simile. No more of them either.)

And you want to know what the most messed up part is? The thing which makes this burn so much worse than the other gaming screw ups this year? I still want to play the game, it still looks good; only I don't have the hardware to run it. I would have been fine if CDPR had just cancelled the current gen versions, I mean it would have hurt being denied access after waiting so long, but it would have been better than handing off this deformed abomination and calling it an appropriate port! I was dragged along on the lie that Cyberpunk was within my grasp, and it's one that seems all the more incredulous when you account for both the absolute state of the game and the original release date. Remember how that was slated for April? Before the Series X or PS5 were even formally announced? (You know, the two consoles on which this game actually consistently runs like it should?) What in gods name did the game look like then and how did anyone think it was nearing completion as long as they did? At the time I remember remarking about how the delay was clearly long overdue as evidenced by the sheer length of it, but this is insane! The game should have been delayed by a year at least! (Maybe then it might actually be 'ready')

Sure, though we've seen their apologies and heard the crocodile tears of the bigwigs telling us how "We just weren't paying enough attention"; what a load. "We totally forgot about the console versions until they launched, our bad!" Really? Well that's funny considering that two trailers actually released dedicated to showing off those versions of the game, (albeit, rather pointedly not on the base last gen consoles but their suped-up cousins) and the footage was rather curiously free of all the bugs which the game launched with. Do they mean to tell us that this clearly curated footage just happened to be completely bug free and run fine, so they thought the game ran fine too? Is that the reason why they denied console review codes to reviewers before the release of the game too? It wasn't just done in the knowledge that the PC version was both more stable and came with the inbuilt excuse of "Well, the bugginess is because you're trying max settings without the hardware to back it up." (And yes, they did try that.)

So they purposefully obfuscated the shoddy performance and shipped the game on every platform, why exactly? This is the point that doesn't compute to me; why not just delay the consoles release? Is it because deepdown CDPR know that no amount of patching is going to solve the fact that previous gens just don't have the processing power to run Cyberpunk? (I certainly hope that's not the case, but I'm losing all trust in CDPR's abilities recently. I'd like to think rightly so.) But again, why did CDPR need to sell broken software to half it's customers? I mean what is the point? Bluepoint didn't need to sell a crappier version of Demon Souls in order to make that a success, so why did Cyberpunk need to release on everything? It smells like a classic case of corporate greed and the desire to make 'all the money' even when it's a desire that leads you off a cliff.

And this time it absolutely has, because as much as it pains me to say; it seems the industry is turning Cyberpunk into an example. Likely due to it's hype and the high-profile nature of this blunder, everyone is trying to make it known that regardless of the overall quality of the product (Which, again, seems decent) this was unacceptable and it won't be stood for. Memes have mocked CDPR relentlessly, stock drops have cost them a cool billion, (They made back Cyberpunk 2077 costs in pre-orders, don't cry for them just yet) and now, shock of all shocks, Playstation just removed Cyberpunk from it's digital store. A week before Christmas. Because apparently they built up enough heat for a level 3 action. (Yakuza reference, anybody?) Now these blogs are written a week before debut, so it's highly likely that something more has transpired which I don't know yet, but dems the breaks for now. And you know what? I'm still angry. (Admittedly, the Playsation store thing does take a lot of that anger off. There's a kick to the nuts I wish upon no game company) This should never have happened in the first place, and CDPR, more than anyone else, should have set the example that a rushed game is immediately bad whilst a delayed game is eventually good. (That's Shigeru Miyamoto, man; learn from the king himself!) 

I played the Resident Evil 3 Remake

Welcome to Raccoon City, Population: shrinking every day!

That's right, I've finally had the chance to play the story of the mythical 5th survivor of the Raccoon city incident. (Or would that be 6th. Are we counting Ms. Wong?) Pretty much from the moment the game went live to right now as I sit down to write this I've been surviving the end of the civilised world as we know it, and playing Resident Evil 3. (Hah, Jokes!) Although I've not really made nearly enough progress to start with a play-by-play analysis or anything, I do want to put up something to the effect about how much I'm enjoying things so far. If you've happened on this with any intention to play the game, however, I will warn you that there's going to mild spoilers for the intro and the first area of the game. (I just needed to provide examples for how well Capcom have got me in the right mood so far.)

Firstly, however, I need to complain for something I take personal offence to. I started my playthrough on Hardcore, as I do in just about every game I play, only to spot that in the listed details of this mode there was no bulletpoint for typewriters to require Ink ribbons. For those that are unaware, back in old-school Resident Evil (and the Hardcore mode for the Resident Evil 2 Remake) there was a mechanic wherein the amount of saves one could make was limited to the number of ink ribbons they could procure. This was arguably one of the purest expressions of the survival horror genre and one of my favourite aspect of Resident Evil as it made death matter. Unfortunately this doesn't appear to be the case with RE3, and I think I know why. After playing through the game a bit I've noticed how the pace of the game is several times that of the last title, and as a such inventory management takes a bit of a backseat to all the action. Adding Ink ribbons to the environment would really grind the title down to a halt and require extra amounts of supply runs, and even though that would technically be an optional obligation that the player took on, some folks would look upon that as bad design. (Fie on them, I say; I love that backtracking lifestyle!) So I may not like it but I understand it.

But if something I enjoyed had to be sacrificed for pacing reasons, then I'm at least glad it went to such a high-octane opening. The first few minutes of Resident Evil 3 honestly bought back memories of the first time I played 'Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain' for the amount of chaos happening around you as you're still learning your footing. Hell, Nemesis is literally one of the first things that you see and he's happy to toss you out of a window if you don't wise up and match the speed that events are being hurled at you. It's quite the polar opposite to the slow build of Resident Evil 2, that went so far as to give you the perspective of a nobody eating a hamburger in it's first scene just to hammer home the crawling pace. This is a title that clearly wants to waste no time and pretty much expects you to be familiar with last year's Resident Evil 2. So if you haven't pulled the trigger on that title yet you should. (Seriously, what are you waiting for?)

As a fan of the franchise, it's practically my duty to talk about some minimal little moments that tickled my lore bone. One of the first of these moments was actually right at the beginning when we finally got a glimpse of Jill's PTSD as a result of the original title. (During which she fought zombies, giant snakes, and a whole bunch of other things that I'm not going to talk about because I haven't mentioned them in my blog series yet.) For the first time in the entire franchise (as far as I'm aware) we are getting to see real world consequences for the horrific crap that this series puts it's characters through, and I love this more serious direction the series is taking. (For the most part; but I won't keep griping on small thing until I've seen the whole picture.)

In terms of rapid narrative, I'll admit I am surprised how quickly the game has evolved as I've played it. Within an hour I went from being a no ammo scrub to having a maxed out pistol, buttstocked Shotgun and two hip pouch upgrades; and this is on my very first playthrough of this game! It all really hammers home the 'action first' design philosophy that I think took precedent for RE3. You'll also find yourself practically inundated with pistol ammo in a semi-regular fashion which makes it all the more likely that you'll find yourself spending round in the hordes you'll have thrown at you. (And there are hordes! Loads of them.) You can even find this concept realised in a much more practical way through how many environmental take-down methods you'll see littered around the map; from explosive barrels to portable generators.

Another thing I've noticed is how a relatively miniature system change for the character controls has had attributed to such a drastic change in the way I play the game, and that's the removal of defence items in favour for a dodge button. In Resident Evil 2 when you were in a situation FUBAR you basically had to do an equation in your head about which resources you were willing to expend in order to get out the otherside. When there was a huge Adult G in front of you, you had to know whether or not you could bring it down or if you had to go spending a knife in order to boss your way past them in the following struggle. In this title is all comes down to either shooting them down or getting abnormally good at timing, because you need your dodge reflexes to be impeccable. If there's a crowd of Z in front of you, you better hope you can pull of 2 to 3 last second dodges or you're getting munched on. It's one way that the consequences mount a lot more upon your head the moment that you let things slip, building tension is quite a visceral manner.

But I can't go any longer without talking about Nemesis because good lord is that guy just a nutcase. I remember how his entire reputation from the original title was built around being this unstoppable machine but this title brings that to a whole new level. Not only does Nemesis never stay down, he doesn't even go down for long. The amount of times that the characters throw hell at this beast only for him to be kicking in the next few minutes is absurd, even William for RE2 had to limit his surprise resurgences to once an Act. Honestly, I do not know why Umbrella kept up their BOW research after coming out with this guy, he is literally the perfect Bio-Weapon: you did it team! At this point I'm starting to suspect that the only way to bring the guy down will literally be to strand him in Raccoon city once the nuke drops, and even then I'm only 70% sure that'll be enough.

There's a lot of cool unexpected encounters in the game so far, including one section which Jill so aptly labels: "F-ing gross", but I don't want to spoil any of them on day one. So far I'm loving this chaotic look into the crumbling world of Raccoon City almost as much as I'm enjoying those brief moments where we get to return to locations from the original Resident Evil 2. This will probably be my last dedicated blog on Resident Evil 3 for a while (my schedule for this month of blogs is literally full) but take my whole hearted recommendation for the first third of RE3 if nothing else. (I might jump the order and do a mini-review by the end, not sure yet.)

I played the Resident Evil 3 Remake Demo

I wish Capcom paid me to be this much of a shill.

April 3rd, so tantalisingly close and yet so frustratingly far. Then is the drop of the Resident Evil 3 Remake and thus the end of a white hot obsession that was struck inside me over a year ago. (Okay, maybe not 'the end' but surely a dulling to the flames.) In that time there has quite the exciting development for hopeless folk like me in that the Resident Evil 3 Demo has come out, as the hungry and eager masses are likely already aware of and have played through. And yet, so have I, and I want to talk about it. So I will. And, of course, I should obviously preface this by saying both that there are some mild spoilers to the early moments of the game in this Demo as well as the fact that it's out now on all platforms if you're curious. (Why not, right?)

To start of, Resident Evil 3 (Demo) is not a demo in the vein of Resident Evil 2's 'one shot'. That is to say, players aren't limited to one time-limited playthrough of the game wherein a single death spells the end of the run. (Thank god, because I got pretty unlucky at one point.) Nope instead this is a standard issue, run-of-the-mill, play as much as you want, white bread Demo, just like Mother used to bake. And with that reassurance comes a lot more callousness on my part to test all the core and fundamental differences that mark this title as a decidedly distinct title from it's predecessor. Yep, this isn't just a 'sideway' story with a new character anymore, this is something 'new' now!

One of the first things that players will likely become aware of once they start playing is how the gameplay is similar to, but feels fundamentally different to the Resident Evil 2 'Remake'. By that I mean that all the basics are there, the camera clung to your back, the aim'n'shoot formula and everything that entails, but Jill herself is clearly more capable to control in a manner that feels right. Remember, Leon was a rookie cop on his first day of the job and Claire was just a college student, their struggles through the apocalypse made sense given their background; Jill, on the otherhand, is an elite operative working for S.T.A.R.S. who has encountered zombies before and even destroyed a Tyrant, so it makes sense for her to know what's up.

This translates to a certain mobility in the gameplay wherein Ms. Valentine has a powerful 'quick step' which she can use to roll out of the way of zombie lunges. Time this perfectly and Jill will perform a badass tactical combat roll that puts her clear out of danger and can be used to completely push past entire groups of Zombies. In fact, I did a 5.59 speedrun wherein I literally just combat rolled past everything and can confirm it feels really good to nail down. However, those extra seconds were due to the fact that this requires pinpoint timing, so you can end up getting an unfortunate bite if you're not careful. (Which I personally look on as a positive because I wouldn't want such an ability becoming insanely overpowered.) She also has a knife that doesn't appear to use up durability like all the one's in RE2 did, and she wields it more like a trained specialist, with stabs and cuts rather than the wild slashes that Leon and Claire pulled off. All this makes Jill an actually exciting character to play as, which I really wasn't expecting to be fair.

This is all in the aid of the more 'action oriented' gameplay, which is strikingly evident even in this brief snippet of the game. Whereas Leon and Claire's journey focused more on creeping terror with long dark hallways, scarce ammunition and strategically placed zombies, this demo is more about an abundance of ordinance, getting up close to the enemy and being slightly outnumbered at all times. There's even handy red barrels scattered across the map which can be used to vaporise groups that get too close, feeding on the action aesthetic of it all. Of course this adds to the feeling of chaos the accompanies Jill's early story which takes place during the breakdown of society rather than in it's aftermath, which is the vibe that the last game coveted.

With this shift in tone comes a more open map with a heavy theme on initial exploration, over coming back to the same locale over and over. (Although the Demo did feature several doors locked behind a suspiciously notable yellow lock) There are many places that seem more designed in aid of a 'moment to moment' gameplay experience rather than building terror for the next go around. So less of the hallways with zombies knocking on windows trying to get in, and more dark rooms with zombies hiding behind shelving units trying to jump on the first person to get in their way. Admittedly this isn't exactly my first choice for horror game design, as nothing can ever top the sheer terror of trying to navigate the labs as Claire with two active Lickers in the area, but I have faith we'll see a return to the traditional formula once the Hunters start coming into the gameplay.

Of course, there are the staples of every decent Resident Evil game that one should expect, including but not limited to Item management. As this demo hits players with an influx of items for them to shift through, that also means that unless you stay on top of things there will be more tough decisions to make. (What do I leave behind in order to stay as lean as possible.) Also, as far as I can tell there are no 'poach expansions' in this demo, meaning that you have to make use of another returning feature in order to stay on top of things; the item box. And of course there are the series staple environmental puzzles to go through, although I will admit the example from this demo was hardly a head scratcher let alone a brain teaser.

Finally, there is the namesake of this whole Resident Evil game (or at least, for the original RE3) Nemesis. Yep, you come across the big fellow here, and I suspect that he's a little purposefully underpowered for the player's benefit. That isn't to say that he can't kill you if you aren't careful. (I should know from first hand experience.) Nemesis seems to have the ability to power up the undead with the same 'tentacle head' powers that informs the entirety of Resident Evil 4's plotline, which means that head shots become redundant which should up this title's difficulty as you go along. You can put enough damage in the big man to force him to take a knee if you're quick, although he does seem to be quite quick too, so I'd imagine he'll become quite the foe as the game goes on. (One might even go so far as to call him your 'nemesis'... Okay, I'll stop.)

After getting my hands on Resident Evil 3, even for a little bit, this has done nothing to alleviate my obsession and rather just inflamed it. With two short weeks to go I just know that I'm going to be absolutely torn apart by the prospect of persisting this real-life quarantine  in anticipation for entering a virtual quarantine. (When I said I was practised at social distancing, I wasn't lying.) Admittedly, I am less sold on the whole 'Project Resistance' side-game, but it comes along with Resident Evil 3 so I might end up giving it a try at some point. (You never know. Could be fun.) Until then allow me to hibernate for one agonising fortnight. Adieu.

RE3 Trailer 2!

Break bread with the enemy.

Oh Hype, thy touch offends so and yet I long for you, desperate and dearly. It truly is terrifying to think how dependant I am on such a destructive yearning, and yet anyone who used to know me could attest to how worked up I get over these things. Be glad, dear reader, that you and I are separated by the veil of the Internet, because excitement like this has the tendency to make me even more unbearable than usual. But then, as a fan of gaming and the Industry, why shouldn't I be unreasonably excited for the coming year? (Aside from the obvious.) Disregarding the dawn of the new console age, which I am comparatively ambivalent about, this year will see the release of Cyperpunk 2077, Watch Dogs Legion, Breath of the Wild 2 (allegedly), Final Fantasy 7, Doom Eternal (which just got another trailer), an unnamed Arkham game, (at least that's rumored) Star Citizen's Squadron 42 (At least until it gets delayed into next year again) and, the topic of today, the Resident Evil 3 Remake.

What is it exactly about this game that I find so much more tantalizing than all those other titles? I couldn't really say for sure, apart from the plain fact that last year's Resident Evil 2 was easily one of my all time favourite games and I'm still amazed with how much that title gelled with me. As far as Horror games go, it is an absolute masterclass and I feel the way it got snubbed at the VGA's was downright criminal. All my hopes and dreams are, therefore, shifted onto their next big remake and the grand promises it has of rewriting the lukewarm Resident Evil 3 into something more grandiose. I suppose I find that goal more appealing than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake because I'm still unsure about what Square Enix have to really fix about that title. FF7 is a classic, why mess with that? But Resident Evil 3 is the second-to-last true Resident Evil title before they all went weird for a decade, and that makes it worthy of some touch up to properly reflect it's emanate place in RE history.

Obviously, the only reason I'm bringing any of this up is due to a new trailer that dropped recently, so I'm about to dive into that world and bring all of you along. Dubbed 'The Nemesis trailer', this RE3 trailer revolves around the titular monster and his special relationship with our title character Jill Valentine, whilst also giving us our first official look at his new mug. (Which we've already seen in great detail thanks to the leaks, so I won't go over my thoughts on his redesign again.)

As a BOW specifically designed to kill of the members of S.T.A.R.S, Nemesis will follow the player throughout the game and face off with them through multiple encounters, and we see a few of these encounters throughout this trailer. First we go back to the burning corridor from the first trailer (Which I now presume to be Jill's apartment complex) whereupon we see that this beast appears to be so resilient that it is unaffected by fire. (A trait that most Tyrant-class BOW's share, now I think about it.) Nemesis picks up and knocks Jill around with such abandon throughout this trailer it's a wonder how any bones in her body are left unbroken.

One of the most interesting returning features from the original would be the slimy tentacles that the Nemesis could resort to should the player not be close enough for his meaty fists. With the redesign of Nemesis I was wondering how and if this would come into play, and it would seem that the team have decided to make these tentacles a traversal technique. In the trailer we see a brief shot of the monster flying up a floor to reach the player with only his tentacles. This makes him more agile than he was in the original was well as more threatening than the RE2 Remake's 'Mr. X', although I do wonder how effective that scare will be up against the relentless dread of stomping boots.

Another key scene from this trailer would have to have been the shot of Nemesis wielding a flamethrower and going ham. This is nothing new with the Nemesis by any means, in the original he wielded a rocket launcher, but it's still cool to see the ways that they've bought that aspect of him back to life. Umbrella specifically designed this BOW to be able to hunt and kill a group of survival experts, so his ability to wield heavy weaponry sort of makes sense. (In a weird don't-think-about-this-too-hard kind of way.) This characteristic even showed up in the second Resident Evil film wherein that Nemesis wielded a minigun against his foes. (Personally, I'm hoping that minigun makes it into the game. We already know the model exists as it pops up at the end of Claire's playthrough in RE2. Fingers crossed!)

Aside for the title boy, we also got a brief glance at the way that Carlos will be interacting with Jill and attempting to ingratiate himself with the viewers before his inevitable death at the end of the game. Interestingly, I noticed that he introduced himself plainly to Jill as an agent from Umbrella, and I wonder how that will play out seeing as how Jill is very well aware of their involvement in the BOW program by that point. We also had a chance to see some of the action of this title, highlighting how this'll be faster paced than the previous game; and we saw a Hunter up close, which was pretty cool. Interestingly, the Hunter seemed to be docile in the presence of an immobile Carlos, which implies that the creators have borrowed the sound=death mechanic from RE2's Lickers. (But that's just speculation.)

This title will launch on April 3, and I just feel the need to stress once again how astounding it is that Capcom have put this title together in the space of a single year. 20 years ago when they pulled it off with the original RE2 and 3, it was a commendable feat, whilst today it is nothing short of wizardry. In a world where it is taking longer and longer to make high quality games, for obvious reasons, it's insane to think that Capcom could manage this remake so deftly, but multiple teams and appropriate time management does seem to have it's benefits. The only doubt in my mind from this point is whether or not this title will be able to survive in the same launch month as Cyberpunk 2077, but I'm hopeful. (Even if the statistical evidence isn't.)

Resident Evil 3 Remake: Big changes on their way

STARS!

Ever closer we tread to the release of Resident Evil 3, (I mean, it's 3 months aways but that's still technically closer than last time.) and the excitement is positively tangible. However, due to Capcom's decision to keep this title under wraps until the last possible moment, there are no more big trade shows between now and it's release, meaning that we have to rely on infrequent interviews and news drops to ascertain any idea of what this game will finally look like. Capcom seem to enjoy holding this power over us too, or at least that's the impression that I've got from the way that they've incessantly teased us these past few days. But I understand that it's all part of the theatrics and a small part of me does actually enjoy it, albeit in a begrudging manner.

It is through this irregular channel of reveals that the Resident Evil fandom received some information from a Capcom TV Interview. (Which had to be translated, of course.) Here we learnt that the key driving goals behind the premises of this remake and the Resident Evil 2 remake are actually different in that this time around they aren't trying to be as faithful. When the original Resident Evil 2 first launched, it followed a very successful initial zombie outing, only to promptly eclipse that and, incidentally, everything else that Capcom had ever made before. The original Resident Evil 2 is revered as a classic for good reason, everyone played it and agreed that it did everything right to up-the-ante from the first title. It was the 'Aliens' to Capcom's 'Alien'. With that in mind, it didn't make sense for the remake to stray too far away from the formula that made the original game so special because that's the kind of thing a clueless Disney rep would approve, not a Capcom Developer who cares about their product.

In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' case, however, the praise wasn't nearly as profound. Don't get me wrong Resident Evil 3 wasn't trashed on by any means, in fact, it's considered the last 'pure' outing in the mainline series before the games started becoming... weird. (I love you, Resident Evil 4, but we both know you ain't all there.) That being said, Resident Evil 3 was not the 'revolutionary step-up' that RE2 was to the original, and that led to the title becoming largely forgotten. It was mostly just a remix of Resident Evil 2 (Which, funnily enough, is how it was made so expediently) and that meant that folk merely looked at this title like an addendum to that game. (A matter not helped by the fact that the entire story occurs concurrently to Resident Evil 2 and seems to follow what can be charitably described as "The B-Plot".) This perception has been perpetuated all the way to modern day with many folk, including myself, believing that Resident Evil 3 should have been slapped onto the Resident Evil 2: Remake package as DLC. Capcom have come out and confirmed that this isn't their plan, and now they're seeking to justify that decision by making a few key alterations to Resident Evil 3's fundamental story, ideally earning it's independence.

The most obvious departure from the original is the way in which the lead stars have been envisioned. They have been spruced up to meet with modern design standards, (And, I'd imagine, to resemble a couple of unnaturally beautiful models that Capcom hired) as well as to fit a more action-oriented theme. That means Jill has been deprived of her iconic tube-corset-top-thing from the original and given a breathable tank top. (She might actually be able to turn her torso in that!) Carlos has also been given a redesign with his hair now resembling something that you might find squashed in the middle of a highway (So that's an improvement, I guess.) Carlos is also said to hold a much more important role in this title, becoming a worthy partner to help Jill through this nightmare. (Hey, maybe that means he'll actually be memorable as a character this time around.)

Capcom also want to expand the spotlight of characters who aren't narratively essential, those who's story could prove insightful for the larger world, such as Dario. If you remember Robert Kendo from the first game, the gun store owner who has the heartbreaking task of looking after his infected daughter, then you likely don't remember Dario as Kendo completely outshines him. Dario is the only civilian in Resident Evil 3 and is supposed to serve as the audiences indication of how Raccoon City is falling apart (on a budget, seeing as how he is only one guy.) Honestly, I don't remember this guy much even though you actually interact with him more than Kendo in the original, this could really use with a remodelling in this remake. Perhaps this time around he'll become as well-remembered to audiences as Remake Marvin was, but we'll have to wait and see.

Another more practical revision for this time around is the return of one of the most deadly non-boss enemies in this franchise; The Hunter. back in the original Resident Evil, the amphibious Hunter was one of the most terrifying monsters in the mansion, not for appearance but for pure deadly potential. Resident Evil 3 originally bought these monsters back as Hunter Beta, which was essentially the exact same creature with a different name. However, in the years since their powerful mythos has been sullied by numerous low-power appearances in the plethora of rail-shooter Resident Evil titles. (There were like, three.) This Remake intends to rethrone these killing machines as the worst things to come across in a narrow alley way, whilst giving them an update which will be 'Appropiate considering the new style of movement'. Whatever that means.

Finally, of course, there are the changes that are coming to the big bad himself, Nemesis. Although we've yet to actually see the fellow in action, the leaked boxart is enough for us to see that his design has varied significantly from his original outing. Instead of the patch-work Frankenstein look from the original, Nemesis has a 'stretched-face' dynamic that works better in accentuating the 'body-horror' vibes of Resident Evil. Once again the team has teased some fundamental changes to the way that Nemesis operates that they are unwilling to go into, only highlighting that he will be more aggressive than Mr.X from the RE2 Remake. I'm not entirely sure what we can derive from this, but I have a feeling that it might have something to do with the multiple boss encounters that we are destined to face throughout the main story. Perhaps this time around there is no way to 'defeat him' like in the original, only to slow him down for a few moments whilst you make an escape. (Similar to how Mr. X worked.) I think that would certainly help retain the 'fear-factor' that the original lost from having you slay the Nemesis over and over.

The art of the remake is an unspecific science, but I've always approached it from the camp that "Change is good, as long as it keeps the spirit of the original." Many recent Disney remakes have been blasted for forgetting key themes of it's source material and even the Final Fantasy 7 remake is facing backlash for the way they've cut up the story for no good reason. Capcom have proved themselves before, however, so I'm more inclined to believe them when they say that they know how to change this title for the better. My worries, therefore, are not on their continuing efforts but now on the rumored 'secret new game' that Capcom are currently recruiting their 'Ambassadors' to playtest. The obvious guess would be Resident Evil 8, but a recent trade filing could indicate the return of a franchise that is a lot more... prehistoric. (Actually 'Dino Crisis' is set in the future, but you get what I'm hinting at.) More on that as the situation develops.

Resident Evil 3: Remake announcement!

I'm so excited!

It has been one heck of a roller-coaster couple of weeks for one so invested in the Resident Evil Remakes. Things kicked off not that long ago with rampant unexpected leaks detailing the existence of this project, how it would be 'not exactly what we were expecting', and, of course, the box art leak from the other day. At this point it was no longer a question of if we would see the game but rather when we would see it and through which big upcoming gaming event. The obvious choice was the 'Game Awards' given that it is the biggest gaming event outside of E3, but those rumors were shot down by the organizers themselves who admitted that they had no plans for revealing RE3. The spotlight then naturally moved to the 'Jump Festa' event to which Capcom were the guests of honour, surely that would be the date of announcement.

But we were bamboozled. Even whilst I mourned the extra two weeks we'd have to wait to get a glimpse of RE3, I completely forgot about another gaming event happening sooner than even the games awards. And to be fair, why wouldn't I completely forget about an event as small as the Playstation state-of-play. They are hosted regularly enough, robbing the event of it's 'exculcive' allure, and they are mostly just pimp their own exclusives, which is why it would be strange to debut a multi-platform title on their stage. But Xbox was kind enough to reveal Cyberpunk 2077 in E3 2018, so perhaps Playstation just say this as paying off the debt. Whatever the reason, the consequence is that we finally got a full reveal of the gorgeous-looking Resident Evil 3 Remake through way of developer brief, tiny gameplay snippet and full-on trailer. (Be still, my beating heart!)

As expected, Resident Evil 3's Remake leans off of the beautiful RE:Engine in order to produce a truly stunning rendering with strong, malleable lighting. We see this straight away in the reveal trailer as we flash through the events of the RE2 remake, creating that link and letting everyone know that if they liked that masterpiece than they were in for another treat. Time then flashes back to September 28th as we are put behind the eyes of S.T.A.R.S. operative Jill Valentine as she dashes away from a shrouded figure clad in darkness. Clearly invoking the image of Mister X, but those of us who have experience with RE3 know that we're really seeing something much worse. This is 'The Persuer' or as he would come to be known; Nemesis. Funnily enough the footage that has been revealed thus far has specifically gone out of it's way to not give us a glimpse at Nemesis' new mug, despite the fact that we've already seen it courtesy of those leaked box art. Still, it would be nice to see his face in action, as then we'll see just how effectively frightening it all is.

An interesting point to note at the beginning of this trailer is the way in which it all takes place in first person. The First-person approach might be popular in modern horror games, but Resident Evil famously never tried it until Resident Evil 7. Their first 5 games (1,2,3,0, Code Veronica) utilized a fixed-camera perspective, whilst subsequent entries opted for over-the-shoulder action. Even once the Resident Evil 2 Remake finally hit shelves, we saw that game had gone for the over-the-shoulder approach over the outdated fixed camera model. Indeed, we can see from the extra footage released that Resident Evil 3: Remake will follow those footsteps with the over-the-camera approach, and yet the first minute of the trailer is entirely in first person. This might have been an artistic choice, but looking at some of the movement (specifically the stabilization of the camera bob) makes it look like genuine gameplay, and that has me wondering. We know that the RE engine is capable of rendering a great First-person experience (a-la Resident Evil 7) and there were some modders who managed to get a flawed version of that working for RE2. Then there is the, still unexplained, comment about how this remake was 'not what you would expect', and I'm left with the idea that RE3 may have a choice between playable perspectives, similar to GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. (Or maybe I'm just reading into nothing...)

This trailer also afforded us our first look at the new Jill Valentine model rendered actively in the RE Engine. This new face of S.T.A.R.S seems to look a little different from the boxart, wherein she faintly resembled Ruby Rose, and actually a little softer in the jaw in a manner that's more similar to Chyler Leigh. (You can guess what kind of TV I'm watching these days, huh...) Additionally, out of the plethora of locations that we rushed through in the cut scenes, only the outdoor sections seemed similar to what we've seen from the RE2 remake. Which is absolutely astounding considering the fact that RE2 only came out in April of this year. For those who don't know, the original RE3 was put together a year after the original due to a tight development schedule and a recycling of a lot of the assets used for RE2 as well as the scrapped assets for what is now known as RE 1.5. Somehow this resulted in a fine game being released in an incredible time frame. Nowadays game design has become a lot more complicated so even if Capcom used the same 'reuse, recycle' stratagem for this title it would be unreasonable for them to pull of a one-year development cycle. And yet Resident Evil 3 announced it's release date as April 2020. If the team manage to pull that off and still put out a quality product, then I'll consider that one of most amazing feats of game design ever accomplished. (as well as a great way to show up the rest of the industry.)

The only problem that I see arising from this reveal has absolutely nothing to do with the trailer itself, but to do with the source material. You see, 'Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' was a fine game at it's release, but it was never as iconic as the RE2. This is due to the fact that the game itself is missing many of the iconic characters that made RE2 so memorable, there's no Sherry, Chief Irons, William, Ada, etc. I joked about this briefly when going over the box art, in the way that I completely brushed over the redesign of Carlos, but it is a problem; Jill Valentine is the only memorable character from that game. I'm unsure if the team will make any effort to amend this, like maybe giving us some more time to know and get invested with side characters similar to how they did with Marvin, but with the breakneck speed at which the original narrative moved along, I wouldn't be surprised if they simply don't have the time to dedicate to such pursuits. I suppose we'll just have to trust the team, which isn't hard seeing how talented and dedicated that they've proven themselves so far.

Resident Evil 3 isn't the only present that we shall be receiving next April, and I'm not just talking about the fact that Cyperpunk 2077 launches later that month. (Imma have a busy Birthday month, it seems.) You see, that other Resident Evil title that Capcom revealed a while back; 'Resident Evil: Resistance', is being bundled in with RE3 to serve as it's Multiplayer addendum. 'Resistance' is the game wherein players have to endure a asymmetric matchup with one team trying to complete objectives whilst the other controls various different Zombies around the map alongside a trademark 'boss' monster. This sort of thing didn't really feel like it had the legs to last on it's own, but by attaching it with RE3, Capcom might have done exactly what they need to give this title a chance at life. Alongside this reveal Capcom also unveiled two new survivors, who I don't care enough about to look up, and a new 'Mastermind': (Zombie controller) Annette Birkin. She has the ability to summon G to the field, which paints an interesting trajectory for where this game mode could expand to if it becomes a hit, which I am now hoping that it does.

As you've likely deduced, I am a rampant Resident Evil fan and lore nut who loves to devour every snippet of the zombie franchise thrown my way. With the great sobering that I have gone through these past few years, it is rare for me to fall into the familiar trap of rabid fandom, and so I embrace the feeling wholly. After watching this reveal trailer, several times I might add, I'm ecstatic beyond measure and my December has been made whole. I'm so excited, in fact, that I don't think I can wait the scant four months until the title launches and instead will be filling my time on getting up to date with the franchise itself. Sometime soon I want to launch a series of investigative blogs wherein I want to go into detail through all of the Resident Evil games (Sans 3) where I explore everything from lore, gameplay, structure, and pacing in a very methodical way. I've settled on framing these as 'play session' blogs, wherein I'll go through enough of the game until I have something worth writing about reflecting an aspect of the game and then share that with the blog. I look forward to seeing how this plays out in the future, as well as giving myself an excuse to binge my favourite horror franchise. Until then, however, I shall get to setting my calendar. Screw Christmas, only 114 days to go until Resident Evil returns.