Bio
Name: Daniel Robert Lance Big Plume
Nickname: Saturnyne
Birthday: May 3, 1980
Age: 26
Sun Sign: Taurus
Moon Sign: Sagittarius
Chinese Zodiac: Monkey (Born)
Height: 170 cm
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Status: Single
Favorites
Color: Blue
Food: Chicken
Animal: Cat
Anime: Sailormoon
Show: CSI
PJ's: Sweatpants/ T-shirt
Pokemon: Porygon
Website: NHB Radio
My Linux Desktop
Current Moods
Song: Dog's A Best Friend's Dog
Links
Official Sins Of Science Homepage
Space-Kitten.Org
Wing Commander CIC
Tears For Fears
Contact
Email: saturnyne1d@netscape.net
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Saturday, November 01, 2003
4:28 AM Yesterday was the day that Dragonball Z: Budokai was released for the Game Cube. I had it on pre-order, so I had to go and get it. Which I did with glee. While I was at EB, I also picked up two old Playstation games I wanted: Resident Evil Survivor and Metal Gear Solid: The VR Missions. I'll be reviewing them here, because we all know how objective I am. Since Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid are quite a few years younger than Budokai, I'll be judging them based on the expectations of games around the time of their release. Graphics Budokai's graphics are quite a bit sharper than those of the PS2. Which makes sense of course, since the Game Cube sports better hardware. But that aside, the graphics are cel-shaded, which is a nice touch, making the game feel more like the cartoon. The characters don't look just slightly like themselves in the anime - they look exactly like proper 3-dimensional representations of all your favorite characters. The fighting stages should be familiar too. You'll fight on Namek, in the rocky wasteland where so much of the anime takes place, and even in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Each stage is made to look like the show, and the cel-shading used in the game helps make them feel like part of the cartoon as well. It's also interesting to see the American intro in a 3D context, as well as seeing the different locales from the game reproduced in the same manner. Resident Evil Survivor's graphics surprised me to say the least. I had heard many people tout the 3D environments and monsters as horrible and undetailed. Well, I have to at least half agree with them. The environments don't have a ton of polygons to make them up, and the Lickers look blockier than their RE2 counterparts. But the lighting, or lack thereof, the draw distance (which is amazingly far), and the general moodiness of the surroundings really got to me. I felt quite tense walking through the halls of a few of the buildings, and even jumped when I saw a zombie shambling towards me through a door. A large part of the environments is texture-only, so where you'd usually see a computer panel sticking out of the wall, you'll find out up close that it's part of the wall texture. With the number of monsters that appear, as well as their constantly-changing difficulty, the overall moodiness will take you over, taking your concentration off of little things like that. The graphics for VR Missions are pretty monotonous. As Solid Snake, you are moving through one simulated training session after the next. Because of this fact, all the levels are composed of floating platforms that are comproised of large blue or green cubes. As in the actual Metal Gear Solid, Snake is pitted against the Genome Soldiers. Other than the differences between the structures of the levels, the graphics aren't terribly exciting, but they're hardly ugly. Sound/ Music The sounds in Budokai are quite sharp. The punches, kicks, dashes, punches and wind are clear and crisp. The voice acting is almost straight from the cartoon, complete with talent from the dub of the anime, and not some second string fill-ins. Also, the sounds of the various energy blasts are not out of place. A few of the music tracks hail straight from the dubbed anime as well, including the first iteration of the opening theme. The music during the stages is catchy as well, but it ends up becoming background noise once a fight really gets rolling. As such, I found the music neither annoying or intrusive. The sounds in Resident Evil Survivor are quite well done, if not for a few hisses and pops. The voice acting isn't anything to write home about, but there are worse performances out there (Clock Tower and the original version of Resident Evil come to mind). The sounds of the main character's footsteps change depending on the surface he's walking upon. Zombies moan and groan with incredible clarity, and pipes hiss and steam. If there's a zombie on your left, that's where you'll hear it in your stereo. The music is spooky and atmospheric, and at one point, quirky to the point of creepiness. All of the sounds in VR Missions are from Metal Gear Solid (At least, from what I can tell). There are only a few tracks to enjoy throughout the many multitudes of missions, but they're usually there to just help set the stealth-like mood of the game, and they serve that purpose well. The different firing sounds of Snakes array of weaponry are distinct and clear, even when Snake uses a silenced weapon. There are only a few sounds that the game has to work with, but a game as simple as this one probably wouldn't need too many more. Control The controls in Budokai have one element that always wins me over - complete configurability. You can select from a few presets, or customize them completely. If the default settings aren't intuitive enough for you, you can switch the button settings around to your desire. The characters respond to button presses smoothly, and while some of the finer points such as sidestepping and knowing how to add a forward press in the middle of a kick combo might take a while to get a firm grasp of, it'll only take a few hours at best, which reaps its own rewards. Resident Evil Survivor sports a control scheme that's similar to those of other Resident Evil games. Up moves you forward, down moves you back, left and right turn you in the appropriate directions and so forth. You even press R1 to draw your weapon to fire at your enemies. There's also a button called Quick Search, which spins your character to the nearest enemy, door, or item in the vicinity. This button ends up being an incredible convenience, because you can find the nearest enemy instead of spinning your character around slowing. The only thing missing from the control scheme is a strafe mode. There were certainly enough buttons left over in the control scheme to accomodate this feature. But other than that, the controls are very responsive and easy to learn. VR Missions sports an easy-to-learn control scheme, and a few presets in case the default doesn't suit your tastes. Snake is a little slow to respond to presses of the control pad or movements of the analog stick, which is an annoyance. The way the item menus are organized though, is very intuitive and quite unique. Fun How fun is Budokai? Well, it's a ton of fun at first. There's a story mode to wade through, including episodes that are unlocked when you finish the initial episodes. The story mode follows the anime very closely, and even includes some "what ifs" that are quite entertaining. After you've completed the story mode, there is the World Tournament, where you earn Zenie for getting at least second place in the tournament. The thing that makes the game lag for me though, is that once you've completed the story mode, there's not much more to the game. The dueling mode (where one player is pitted against another player or the computer) is a lot of fun, but without ways to change the fighter's strengths and handicaps, there's not enough variety. Another part of the game that I've failed to mention thus far is the rather interesting fighter editing system. By earning capsules while playing the game, you can change the movesets of every character to your personal preference. Don't like Goku's Kamehameha? Change it out for the Spirit Bomb. Or whatever other move Goku can use. This system of unlocking the capsules makes the game interesting and entertaining. I'm hoping I can customize Vegeta to my liking. Resident Evil Survivor is good, scary fun. The elements of the game come together nicely in a b-movie-esque fashion to make for a very scary experience. During parts of the game, you are given what I call "One Chance Doors". Those are doors that you can only go through once during the game, and cannot backtrack through. As such, you can relive the game in a huge variety of different ways, and get scared by new locales your first few times through the game. The only detractor is that the game is quite easy. I beat it my first time through dying only once. It's also quite short for a Resident Evil game. This is puncuated by the fact that throughout the entirety of the experience, there are no typewriters (save points) to speak of. When you complete the game however, you are finally allowed to save the game, and take all the items you finished your previous game with into your next one. The replay value of this game is tremendous to me. Is VR Missions fun? Well, of these three games, I've done the most panning of this one. However, I was waiting for this to be this game's chance to shine. There are dozens of missions to put Snake through. Some are easy to complete, while others may make you want to break a few controllers. The missions vary too. Not only do they depend on the weapon that Snake is "training" to use, but there are even some 'extra' missions which involve solving mysteries, and even saving Meryl from an overly huge Genome soldier bearing down on the pair. The missions are tailored specifically for each weapon - Snake will have to find a good position to use his PSG-1 Sniper Rifle so he can accurately hit his targets. The more missions you complete and the better grades you get, you can unlock a small library of interesting movies that preview the original Metal Gear Solid. Once you're finished all the missions, what's left to do? Why, try to best yourself, of course! The replay value therefore is slightly limited, but competing for the best times with your friends might be a fun activity. Conclusion I feel like pretending I'm GMR for a little bit. There are things that I like and dislike about each game. So what do I think of them overall? Well, Budokai isn't perfect, and its fighting system isn't as deep as Soul Calibur 2's, it lacks a flight button, and the controls are somewhat limited. But overall, any Dragonball Z fan would absolutely love this game, and I certainly do. A few of the characters have similar fighting styles, but are still varied enough that each character must be handled as differently and uniquely as in any other fighting game. Better than: Legacy of Goku series Worse than: Soul Calibur 2 Wait for it: Budokai 2 for the PS2, and hopefully a Cube port As for RE:S, I look forward to the next time I have the nerve to play the game again. It's been a while since a game made me afraid to open a door, and of all the new Game Cube RE games out there (two, one on the way), this old one for the Playstation has given me the best scare. The idea of bringing items from one completed game into a new one is interesting, and allows for some interesting possibilities. The one thing that would have made the game scarier though, is limiting the hand gun bullets. Although, the sheer volume of monsters that appear to block your way might make the game a touch too scary, not to mention a little too tough to survive. In all, I personally like this game and recommend it to any RE or horror game fan. Better than: Resident Evil Gaiden Worse than: Silent Hill 3 Wait for it: Resident Evil 4 VR Missions is simple, it's straightforward, difficult and fun. For all the training you wade through, you are rewarded with fun bonus missions, and that makes the game worth it from beginning to end. It's easy to get discouraged, since you'll be trying a lot of the missions twenty times over before you get it, but you might find early on that each level requires some scrutiny and memorization before you can adequately complete it. There's no real "end" to the game, so completing all the missions won't roll the wonderful song from the end of MGS, but that's hardly a reason to pan the game. Simple, strategic, stealth-based fun. Does it ever get old? Better than: Daikatana Worse than: Metal Gear Solid 2 Wait For it: MGS: The Twin Snakes and MGS 3: Snake Eater That's it for today. Hell, if you've read this far, it's probably tomorrow.
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