Review: Resident Evil 4 for PS2

My son Eliot occasionally used to ghost-write reviews for my column if the games involved were his particular favourites. From Street Fighter through to Devil May Cry, as he was born with a silver controller in his hand I saw no reason why not to bow down to his superior knowledge or ability, except in spelling. So, may I introduce a review by, fresh from university with a First in Film and Television Production, the one and only Eliot Gurrin...

Being a huge fan of the Resident Evil series, ever since it first began on the PlayStation back in 1996, I was a little worried upon hearing of Resident Evil 4’s overhaul in the game play department. What about the awkward controls; tricky camera angles; the item box; truly weird puzzles; would they all be gone? Granted – a dodgy control scheme isn’t the first
thing you would want to carry across for a sequel, but after nearly a decade surely it wouldn’t seem right to change it (besides, when you do manage to dodge a zombie with those clunky controls, you really feel like you’ve earned it!). And, of course, I was wrong to worry – Resident Evil 4 is still very much a Resident Evil game (amazing graphics; terrifying, suspenseful game play; hammy dialogue) and undoubtedly the pinnacle of the series.

The long and interesting story is one the best aspects of the game, and it’s accessible to anybody new to the series (and this is a great place to start). Leon Kennedy, a survivor from RE2, visits a remote European town in search of the president’s kidnapped daughter, but it seems the local townsfolk don’t take kindly to strangers, and don’t seem to be "quite right" themselves.

What follows is one of the most cinematic experiences you could ever have playing a video game. The game is a little more action-based than its predecessors, providing area-sensitive damage (shoot a "zombie" in the knee and they’ll trip), an over-the-shoulder camera for aiming, and some amazing interactivity: you can choose whether to open a door silently or burst in, for example, and you can use your environment to fight off the hoards (yep, hoards) of enemies. Needless to say, it looks wonderful and sounds amazing.

Not only does this game breathe new life into the series but, most important of all, it’s a scary, enjoyable romp from start to finish with a bunch of extra content to make it worth a play through. So enjoy, and prepare to enter the survival-horror genre once again.

Blog contributed by Eliot Gurrin. Resident Evil 4 is developed and published by Capcom. Bytes: Rebooted score - 9/10

Review: Diplomacy for PC

If you are into turgid, slow-moving games, and have too much spare time and space on your hard drive, this could be the game for you. It is based on the popular board game of the same name, which I must admit never appealed to me, so I suppose this game was on a hiding to nothing as far as I was concerned. The title of this article gives you a link to Richard Sharp’s interesting and authoritative book about the original game, which I gather achieved cult status. Intriguingly, Sharp writes: "Try to surround yourself with people who trust you, then let them down; find an ally who will gladly die for you and see that he does just that." So I gave it a go...

A map of Europe is your chess board for this turn-based strategy game. There is a tutorial if you don’t want to take the time to read the manual, and take it from me, you’ll need to do one or the other because otherwise you’ll click on buttons and wonder what if anything is happening. There is nothing intuitive about the game play. And the repetitive grunts, ahems and coughs while the computer makes all the turns are so irritating I found it difficult to play for more than half an hour.

With the graphics capabilities afforded by modern-day PCs, you’d have thought they could do better than a three-dimensional view of arrows moving round a two-dimensional board. You might as well just get the board out, except that I suppose you can play on your own, or over the Internet. But I couldn’t play on my own, the coughs and grunts proved too much for me!

Perhaps I have missed the point, but I can’t help feeling that time spent learning how to play this game is time wasted. I certainly can’t see myself bothering to play a whole game - it takes five hours! I suppose the only thing we can be thankful for is that they have left Europe as being made up of only seven countries - just think how much longer it would take, and how long the grunts and ahems would go on for if they had brought it up to date.

Diplomacy is developed by Paradox Interactive and published by Mindscape. Bytes: Rebooted score - 2/10

Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for PS2

And <SPOILER!>just like Aslan</SPOILER!>, Bytes will now resurrect itself as Bytes: Rebooted, a regular if not weekly blog dedicated to games, Internet and software news and reviews. So it seems appropriate for my first review to take a look at The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, out now for PS2, PC, GBA and Nintendo DS, with GameCube and Xbox versions to follow in 2006.

First, a confession. I might be a bit biased. I have loved C. S. Lewis’s novel for as long as I can remember. But which way am I biased? If I didn’t think the movie paid enough respect to the book, that might turn me against this game. Fortunately, both film and game look excellent.

The game is to some extent the same old same old. Solve puzzles. Collect coins. Collect special tokens. Acquire skills. But because the story moves on at quite a pace, you get a sense of the narrative driving you on. And it does get harder - and more exciting - as the game progresses. So you do get a sense of adventure, a sense of a challenge. And you do keep getting that feeling that it is two o’clock in the morning, much too late to be trying to work out how to get over this particular obstacle so you can complete the level, save and get to bed. And it all gets that extra special kick out of the fabulous landscape of Narnia and of course the atmospheric music.

Tapping on the R1 button enables you to chose which of the characters you want to take the lead, which is handy as they each have different skills. At the end of each level you are rated from poor to excellent, and you can move on or go back and try to increase your score. So it’s a game you can come back to again and again.

The only bit where I feel they go too far with the adaptation is the slalom. I don’t remember a rollercoaster ride being in the novel, not one with coins all the way down, and it’s probably been written into the film so that it can be in the game. It’s a bit more Sonic the Hedgehog than Aslan the Lion. But I suppose that’s the downside of living in the 21st century. The clips in the game certainly make you want to see the movie. Great fun, and I don’t think it would be fair to expect this particular part of the Narnia franchise to deliver a moral message. Let’s just say it’s a better than average adventure and a better than average film tie-in.

I will finish with a comment which I love by Andrew Rilstone, a C. S. Lewis enthusiast, on the current Narnia hype: "Recently, the newspapers have been talking about C. S. Lewis, because there is a new movie coming out, starring New Zealand and a computer." Enough said.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Buena Vista. Bytes: Rebooted score - 9/10