Resident Evil HD Remaster–The Costumes

Jill Valentine

Chris Redfield

Resident Evil – Just Give Me 5

For all the flack Resident Evil 5 has taken, I would prefer it a million different ways than 6 or even Revelations. And here’s why.

Weapons are your friend

Speaking just for myself, I really prefer running through the campaigns of games I buy. Mercenaries in RE games is good to play now and again, particularly for leveling up purposes, but I am mostly after campaign scenarios. I like following the story, but that’s just me.

In 5, you can collect the weapons and once you’ve gathered all of them, you can pick and choose. Except for the Gatling gun which only Chris can use, and the Bow&Arrow for Sheva, everything’s usable for both characters. Upgrade the ones you are most comfortable with and you’ll be set for all future gameplays. Of course, if for some reason, you’d like to play a handicap game, you can purchase new versions on the store, and you can use those fresh but weak ones however which way you want.

Plus, fully upgrade a weapon and you can buy an infinite ammo upgrade for it. Useful for all those hours of Zombie-blasting fun. Only the grenade launcher is exempt from this feature, but at least you have the rocket launcher – just beat the game in under 5 hours.

In 6, your character dictates what weapons you can wield. Coming from 5, that’s a big disappointment. I like playing Chris’ campaign but can’t use any magnum-caliber weapon. Other scenarios don’t have grenade launchers. Fortunately, unlimited ammo is achievable for most of the weapons. Grenade launcher has infinite option here, but no RPG!

Revelations, now here is where it gets annoying. The weapons are varied enough, but only Jill can equip “custom parts” and customize her weapons. Parker, Keith and Chris don’t have access to weapon boxes, depriving them the ability to upgrade their weapons. Plus their inventory don’t carry over. It’s annoying, for example, that when you get to Episode 11, playing Parker, you always start off with just 15 Machine Gun ammo and four handgun ammo. On Casual and Normal difficulties, this will get you through fine ‘til you get to the part where you rescue Raymond. But on Hell mode (3DS version), it really gets hellish as the hunter you encounter at the start seems like a bullet sponge.

Infinite RPG is unlockable if you manage to beat Hell mode in 3DS or Inferno on other consoles. But Jill is the only one who can use it. No other weapons get the infinite ability.

Weapons are upgradeable but only to a point. You need parts to add abilities and features, and the good parts are terribly hard to come by. I hate playing around a whole day just to get rewarded with weak parts.

At least in 5 and 6, you can grind yourself through mercenaries and even the campaigns and you’re assured that you can get the good upgrades once you scraped enough points. In RE Revelations, you can work your ass off and still not get anything worthwhile for your effort. The store in Revelations offer different merchandise each time you come in. But a lot of what is there is pure crap, and are only usable in raid mode.

Costumes make it fun

Revelations on other consoles other than the 3DS offer unlockable costumes for use in both campaign and raid modes. 5 had this from the get-go, while 6 wouldn’t allow any alternate costume in campaign mode. There are some available for the Mercenaries mode, and that’s it.

The story as an anchor

Story-wise, I like 5’s better than 6 and Revelations because it felt non-contrived compared to the other two.

In 6, it’s annoying to have Leon run around with Helena without knowing what was the deal with her. There was really no reason she couldn’t have told him what he needed to know without having to show him first. Had she done so in the first place, they would have made better decisions. Instead, they got a lot of people killed. Those poor souls at the cathedral! Helena, despite being forced to do things against her will, is still a big part of the reason the US President is dead. It’s not like she had a device stuck on her chest controlling her like Jill had. I would think that’s a big deal, but in the RE Universe, the US government is apparently tolerant of such deeds. She even got her badge back.

But the most annoying plot of all is that of Revelations. In order to expose the evil that is Lansdale, the head of the BSAA – Clive R. O’Brian – connives with Raymond and cooks up a convoluted entrapment plan. He put his department and his men and women in direct harm’s way. Way to stir up the bee’s nest, considering they didn’t know for sure what they can get out of it.

I’d like to believe that in a sane world, O’Brian would pay for his rash actions as much as Lansdale would!

Unveiled: Resident Evil Revelations, the Old Game in a New Skin

Last year, Resident Evil Revelations came exclusively for the 3DS platform. It was a great game, not without its quirks, but reviews were for the most part positive. This year, Capcom is releasing the game on other consoles, namely the PS3, XBox, WiiU, and the PC. Sadly, Vita owners are left off the action.

The game has been released here locally since yesterday, 2013.05.22, although officially, it’s slated release is for 2013.05.24. What’s cool about this is not only are we Pinoy gamers able to play early on (except PC players, Steam won’t let them play just yet), but the preorder bonanza offers a handy messenger bag, and a special poster! Though I owned the 3DS version, I preordered this as soon as the store opened the promo. Now I’ve got my copy plus the bonus items, and all for Php 1,495 (discounted from the SRP of Php 1,595). Couldn’t be any more sweeter a deal than that!

Anyway, the official site of the game, ResidentEvil.net, has been running with the Revelations along with RE6 for sometime now. Present Codes that unlock weapons that can be used in-game were all the fuzz these past weeks leading to the game’s release. You can check out what available codes are still up in this helpful forum in the Capcom website. Granted, most of those guns suck, but hey, they’re free and can be useful when starting out in the game.

I’ve seen the game played online on one of those game sites, as a preview for those who are interested, curious or otherwise. I can say the game is exactly how I remember it on the 3DS, except of course, no 3D effect. And that’s not such a bad thing.

I snatched up some character images from the site, and these show off the various skins for the characters. Here, have a look!

Head over to this previous post to learn more about these characters, or read my sort-of-review of the 3DS version here, but be warned, spoilers abound!

Now if only I can extend the weekend for the entire week!

Retro-inspired Costumes for Resident Evil 6

A blast from the past is about to happen to our beloved characters in the Resident Evil 6 game. Capcom has announced a set of new costumes for the protagonists of the latest installment to the Resident Evil franchise. This time, the inspiration comes from the not-too-distant past, where game characters were made up of blocky angular models. If you’re gunning for nostalgia, then this set might just set the tone for you.

Chris, Leon, Sherry and Ada are still the familiar faces we came to know back in the original games, with a nod to Raccoon City’s RPD.

To unlock one of these costumes, you can join the ResidentEvil.net online event dubbed “Zombie Mayhem,” coming up on December 28th. The aim is to kill as many zombies as possible, and if the target of 15 million hits worldwide is reached, every participant will be able to unlock one costume from this set. Not clear, though, if the participants can choose which character to unlock or if RE.net will choose for them.

As with the other costumes, these are only usable in the Mercenaries mode in the game, not on the main campaigns. I’m still hoping future updates will allow this.

You’ll need to keep checking for other monthly online events in RE.net (and join in) if you want to collect all costumes.

Following are slightly bigger versions of the retro costumes.

RE 6: Summaries

Spending an extended weekend playing the game, I’ve managed to finish all four scenarios, clocking in at about 32 hours gameplay. The gameplay is unique and a lot of improvements were clearly added to the controls, but I was playing for the story. And for the likeminded, here’s a summary of all that happened across all campaigns.

If you haven’t played the game yet, and plan to, stop right now. Next be spoilers!

Disclaimer: The following literary came directly from ResidentEvil.net. I am not affiliated with Capcom or ResidentEvil.net.

Leon S. Kennedy/Helena Harper:

1. Ivy University: a historic school nestled in the center of the city of Tall Oaks. This innocuous setting soon changes beyond recognition when it becomes the epicenter of a bioterrorist attack.
Unleashed indiscriminately onto the populace, the virus mutates all who are infected into literal walking-corpses. In a matter of minutes, the school and surrounding city are transformed into a nightmarish hell.

President Adam Benford, who was at the school intending to publicly reveal the truth behind the Raccoon City Incident, is among the infected. Now an inhuman monster, the president joins the carnage and begins feasting on human flesh.
Agents Helena Harper and Leon Kennedy rush to the president’s side. Leon in particular was close to the president, having fought together to eradicate B.O.W.s (bio-weapons) and put an end to bioterrorism.
Now, faced with the creature before him, Leon is forced to make the most cruel of choices, and he shoots his comrade and commander, the president.

With the gravity of their situation just starting to settle in, Helena makes a shocking revelation: she claims that she was responsible for this tragedy.
Furthermore, she promises to disclose the whole of the truth behind the attack, but only once she and Leon make it to the Tall Oaks Cathedral.
Leaving this gruesome scene, they make their desperate escape from the university. Next, overcoming the bedlam that has engulfed the city of Tall Oaks, the pair are narrowly able to get a hold of a bus, and head toward the cathedral.

2. After fighting through hordes of the infected, Leon and Helena somehow manage to reach the cathedral.

Below the hallowed grounds is a strange lab, dotted with cocoon-like entities that seem to have mutated from humans. Here, Leon views a mysterious tape of the spy Ada Wong being birthed from a cocoon.

However, the "truth" of which Helena had spoke is buried even further in the depths: in the deepest recesses of the catacombs is Deborah, Helena’s sister. What should have been a joyful reunion, however, is cut short in mere moments as Deborah suddenly begins to burn and writhe in agony.
She transforms into a cocoon like the ones seen in the lab. However, this is followed by a second transformation, as Deborah emerges from the chrysalid, no longer herself, but as a monstrous B.O.W. that proceeds to attack Leon and Helena.

As the ensuing battle grows more dire, Ada suddenly comes to the two agents’ rescue.
Her appearance gives Leon pause as he recalls what he had seen in the lab, sparking feelings of distrust.

The fight, however, is ended by Helena. Choking back bitter tears, she is forced to kill her sister, the very person she had come to rescue.
With her sister lost forever, Helena finally reveals the truth of what happened in Tall Oaks.
The person behind it all was a single man: Derek Simmons, a presidential aide.
Helena goes on to explain that her sister Deborah had been taken hostage by Simmons, forcing Helena to assist in his plan to assassinate the president.
With this, Ada takes her leave, and the two agents attempt to contact federal agent Hunnigan; however, it is Simmons who answers their call.

3. Derek Simmons was the man who orchestrated the attack in Tall Oaks, which lead to the assassination of the president. As part of his plan, Simmons frames Leon and Helena for the crime, taunting them with the promise to clear their names if they come to him.
Having been used by Simmons, and ultimately losing her sister to his treachery, Helena is pushed to the brink.

With the two agents now sharing a common enemy, they vow to bring Simmons to justice, and begin to make their way out of the catacombs.

However, upon arriving at the surface, Leon and Helena bear witness to yet another tragedy: in what must be an attempt to contain the outbreak, Tall Oaks is eradicated by missile strike. Suffering the same fate as Raccoon City, the once picturesque city is wiped off the map.

Elsewhere, we find Simmons on his way to China, where by no small coincidence, a similar bioterror attack has begun.

Prime suspects in the assassination of the president, Leon and Helena, enlist Hunnigan’s help in faking their own deaths, and then follow Simmons to China.

4. When Leon and Helena at last arrive in China, they find panic in the streets as a bioterror attack is in full-swing.
Amidst the chaos, however, Leon is reunited with fellow Raccoon City Incident-survivor Sherry Birkin. Now a federal agent, her current assignment is to protect Jake, the young man with her. It turns out, however, that Sherry’s superior is none other than Simmons.
Taken aback by Simmons’ actions, Sherry reveals his location to Leon.
Despite being separated in the ensuing fight, Leon promises to meet up with her again at Simmons’ location.

On their way there, Leon and Helena catch sight of Ada, and attempt to get information out of her. However, at that very moment Chris of the BSAA shows up and, in a rage, accuses Ada of being the mastermind behind the attacks. Leon interjects, insisting that the real culprit is Simmons; as their argument reaches a boiling point guns are drawn, giving Ada an opportunity to escape. Leaving her capture to Chris and company, Leon and Helena head after Simmons.

The two agents arrive to face off with Simmons just ahead of Sherry and Jake. Determined to settle this very personal vendetta themselves, Leon and Helena make cover for the younger pair to escape, then proceed to attack.
However, Simmons is injected with the C-Virus, endowing him with unspeakably powerful mutative abilities; a fierce battle ensues, with Leon and Helena narrowly putting an end to him.
Simmons is defeated, and retribution for the deaths of President Benford, Deborah and countless others is had.

Just as the two agents begin to breathe a sigh of relief, they receive a transmission from Chris telling them to immediately escape the city. Looking to the sky reveals that it is already too late, as a missile explodes overhead,releasing gas that engulfs the city.
It seems to the agents as if all hope is lost, as a tragedy greater than even Raccoon City or Tall Oaks unfolds before their eyes.

5. Desperate but determined to escape, U.S. agents Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper soldier onward through the streets of China; the city around them now pandemonium, overflowing with the walking dead.
Facing the most grave of circumstances, Leon vows to survive this tragedy for the sake of comrades and friends that did not.
However, as the night drags on, hope dwindles; it seems that dawn will not come.

Rescue comes in the form of a lone helicopter, whose pilot is none other than Ada Wong.
Ada, who Chris had reported dead.

Riding in Ada’s helicopter, the two agents head to the roof of the Quad Tower.
There, they find Simmons. Enraged at the sight of the three of them and powered by the enhanced C-Virus, Simmons proceeds to attack–his body undergoing mutation after mutation.

Following a grueling battle, and with Ada’s help, Leon and Helena at last are able to defeat Simmons for good. They then go to make their escape via the helicopter, though Ada is nowhere in sight.

Having received evidence of Simmons’ wrong doing from Ada, Leon takes flight while still pondering where the spy had gone.

Chris Redfield/Piers Nivans

1. Alone in a bar in eastern Europe, drowning himself in booze, sits the decorated soldier Chris Redfield.
Chris’ memories lost, each day bleeds into the next as he loses another piece of himself to abandon.
It is on one of these dark days that Piers Nivans, member of BSAA North American Branch’s Alpha Team, comes to shake Chris out of his drunken stupor and back into action.
Waking to the fact that he himself cannot even remember what he is running from, Chris decides to once again lead Alpha Team into China. By combating the bioterrorism exploding there, Chris hopes his lost memories will return.
However, waiting in China is a fearsome new type of B.O.W., the J’avo; it is an unforgiving foe that, despite being riddled with bullets, undergoes mutation after mutation, refreshing it with new abilities to use in hunting and destroying targets.
Despite being thrown from one desperate crisis to the next, Alpha Team, along with Bravo Team, are able to complete their rescue mission.
Inside of the enemy stronghold is a nest of human cocoons, and upon seeing these, a sliver of Chris’ memory emerges in the back of his mind–a single word: "Finn."
Chris knows this distant memory is the key to the incident that drove him away from the battlefield.

2. Six months before he was found holed-up in a bar, Chris had been leading Alpha Team in containing B.O.W.s in Edonia, an eastern European state torn by civil war. Here too, the J’avo were being used as weapons. It turned out the rebel forces were using all manner of B.O.W.s on the front line, taking any means necessary to put up resistance.
At the end of the long fight, Chris and company managed to secure the enemy’s base. Inside they found a prisoner of the resistance: Ada Wong.

Ada had been supplying the rebel forces with B.O.W.s via an organization known as Neo-Umbrella, and had also discovered the existence of the C-Virus.
Chris and company proceeded to escort the prisoner out. However, it was all merely a trap. Just as the unit headed out from the base, Ada cruelly infected the team with the C-Virus, mutating them into cocoons.
The creatures that emerged from these cocoons proved to be overwhelming; they dealt a critical blow to Chris’ head, causing him to lose his memory. The escape with Piers was nothing but a faint blur in his mind, as he gradually lost consciousness.

3. Chris began to remember. Six months earlier, Ada Wong had been responsible for the murders of his team in Edonia. She was leading the terrorist group Neo-Umbrella and was the one responsible for the tragedy unfolding in China. Deaf to Piers’ advice, Chris loses all sense of composure, and grows reckless in his thirst for revenge against Ada.

While hunting down Ada, Chris and company come to the aid of a young man and woman being pursued by Neo-Umbrella. The young pair turn out to be Sherry Birkin and Jake, who had fought together with Chris in Edonia six months earlier. Chris leaves the pair to continue his relentless pursuit of Ada; despite losing more comrades, he finally reaches the research facility.

What Chris finds when confronting Ada, however, is his ally against bioterrorism, Leon. The two proceed to have a heated argument, with Chris insisting that Ada is the culprit and Leon denying it. Pushed to the breaking point, the two turn their guns on each other.
While the two men stare each other down, Ada seizes the opportunity to make a quick escape. Though he has let his target slip through his fingers, Chris’ rage is quelled by the equally strong conviction of Leon, and he slowly regains his senses.
Leon leaves the pursuit of Ada to Chris, who along with Piers picks up the trail again, following her to a Neo-Umbrella aircraft carrier.

4. Fighting through hordes of bio-weapons and overcoming numerous traps, Chris and Piers make it aboard the aircraft carrier occupied by Neo-Umbrella.

On the vessel’s bridge, the two finally corner Ada just as she is readying a zombie missile: a weapon that–starting with China–will soon change the entire world into a living nightmare, just like the Raccoon City tragedy.
Ada moves confidently, sure of her victory; however, sudden incoming fire from a helicopter mortally wounds her.
Ada utters her last words, and falls from the bridge to her death.
Chris and Piers recover an enhanced strain of the C-Virus and attempt to disarm the missile, yet here, too, is another one of Ada’s traps. Without warning, the missile reactivates and launches. The subsequent in-air explosion envelopes the city in a zombifying gas, turning the entire metropolis into hell on earth.

5. The missile Ada had set to explode over China turned the entire city into a literal hell-scape, with hordes of flesh-eating zombies now shuffling through the streets. Right then, Chris is contacted by his comrade Leon, who asks that he rescue Sherry and the young man with her, Jake Muller. Jake, who carries antibodies for the C-Virus, is quite possibly the last hope for humanity; and moreover, he is the actual son of Albert Wesker, who Chris had finally managed to defeat four years prior.

Taking up the call, Chris and Piers infiltrate Neo Umbrella’s undersea facility to rescue Jake and Sherry. However, upon finding them it is revealed to Jake that Chris is the one who killed his father. Reflexively, Jake pulls his gun on Chris. The situation is tense. Just then, Neo-Umbrella’s massive B.O.W., Haos, awakens. At last, Ada’s true objective becomes clear. Should Haos make it to the surface and is unleashed upon the world, all will be lost.
Entrusting the fate of the world to Jake’s unique blood, Chris tells Jake and Sherry to escape. He and Piers remain, determined to stop Haos at any cost.
Haos, however, proves to be overwhelmingly powerful, dealing a mortal wound to Piers and badly injuring Chris.
Using his last ounce of strength, Piers injects himself with the enhanced C-Virus, and transforms into a B.O.W..
Though Piers is able to contain Haos, his body is visibly being eaten away at by the virus. Understanding that his fate lay on the ocean floor with the crumbling facility, Piers loads only Chris onto a nearby escape pod.

Yet another team member lost, Chris’ battle comes to a close; however, his comrade’s sacrifice does not go in vain.
Chris carries with him a renewed sense of optimism, the final gift from his partner Piers, and soon heads back to the battlefield to continue the fight.

Jake Muller/Sherry Birkin

1. Though young, Jake Muller is a seasoned mercenary, grinding out a living fighting for the rebels in Edonia. Life in the eastern European state suddenly changes with the arrival of a strange medicine, billed as nutritional supplements. Surprisingly, all who take the supplements begin to change; losing all human rational, they transform into monsters. Jake alone is left unaffected.

Already confused by the chaos erupting at the base, the sudden appearance of U.S. agent Sherry Birkin only further confounds the young mercenary. Sherry explains that the so-called "supplement" is, in fact, the C-Virus: a horrible new mutation-inducing virus developed by the terrorist group Neo-Umbrella.
Jake however, as Sherry explains, apparently carries antibodies; this fact quite possibly makes him the last and only hope for humanity in fighting the virus, and is the reason Sherry needs his assistance. True to his mercenary nature, however, Jake insists that if he really is the key to saving the world, his help will come at a cost; an agreement of fifty million dollars for his services is met, and the two go to make their escape from the embattled camp.

At that same moment, Neo-Umbrella unleashes a monstrous hunter, known as Ustanak, to pursue the two.
Amidst the ensuing deadly game of cat-and-mouse, the pair run into Chris Redfield of the BSAA–Chris being the older brother of Claire, to whom Sherry owes her life. With Chris’ help, the two manage to escape the scene via a BSAA helicopter.
However, Ustanak’s relentless pursuit continues. In the creature’s attempt to capture Jake, the helicopter sustains massive damage and begins to crash. Sherry and Jake manage to bail out, however, as they near the ground, a piece of the helicopter tears through their parachute, causing them to fall.

2. Jake and a mortally wounded Sherry lie on the snow-covered mountainside. Sherry had shielded Jake from a large fragment of the destroyed helicopter, which is now lodged in her torso.
Jake removes the massive steel hunk from her expecting the worst, yet to his astonishment, her wounds heal right before his eyes.
Stranded, the pair seeks refuge from the elements in an empty cottage. Safe inside, Sherry proceeds to tell Jake about the 1998 Raccoon City incident where her father had injected her with a new kind of virus–the source of her remarkable healing ability.
The two realize they share a bond, as each of them carries a unique burden, setting them apart from normal people, and it brings the two of them closer together.

The tranquil of this interlude is soon broken by an attack from Neo-Umbrella.
Shaking off an assault by J’avo and running from the ever-persistent Ustanak, Jake and Sherry somehow manage to make their way through the frozen landscape and reach the Edonian border. Here, too, they are surrounded by Neo-Umbrella and captured. The mysterious woman that had distributed the C-Virus to Jake’s mercenary group, suddenly appears before their eyes. She tells Jake about Albert Wesker, a man who had nearly destroyed the world and, according to her, is also Jake’s father.

3. Following the chase through the snow covered mountains of Edonia, Jake and Sherry are abducted by Neo-Umbrella and taken to a facility in China. Here, they are subjected to test after test, day in and day out, for a grueling six months.
One day Jake finds an opportunity to break free, and after eluding his captors manages to shut down the facility’s power before making a run for it. Noticing the power-outage, Sherry also seizes upon this opportunity to escape from her room.

After some commotion, the two are finally reunited; however, in contrast to Sherry’s joy, Jake is brooding, harboring anger over thoughts of his father, Albert Wesker. Jake feels cheated by life, having been cursed with his father’s blood.
Sherry admonishes Jake’s sulking, arguing that how he lives is not up to his father’s legacy, but up to him. To this, Jake has no reply.
Making contact with the U.S. government, the pair discover that Sherry’s superiors are also in China and quickly make plans to rendezvous.
Breaking through wave after wave of J’avo, Jake and Sherry find a motorcycle and make a daring escape from the facility.

4. Desperately making their escape through the heart of the bioterror attack in China, Jake and Sherry are eventually surrounded by Neo-Umbrella’s forces. Just when things are looking bleak, Chris and the BSAA show up and rescue the pair. However, under strict orders to avoid contact with others, Sherry and Jake part ways with Chris without so much as a word.
On the run once more, Sherry and Jake witness a U.S. government plane crash right before their eyes. When they arrive at the site of the crash, they find Leon Kennedy, who–years ago–had saved Sherry’s life.
Leon informs Sherry that Derek Simmons, her superior, is in fact the man behind the bioterror outbreak. Having made plans to rendezvous with Simmons but now unsure of if she can trust him, Sherry tells Leon where Simmons is and agrees to meet with Leon again at her rendezvous point.

After arriving there, Sherry finds Leon and Helena facing off against Simmons. Simmons readily admits that he indeed is behind the outbreak, but claims that it was in order to maintain both U.S. and global stability. Simmons then orders his guards to shoot Leon and Helena. Having a personal score to settle with Simmons, Leon and Helena urge Sherry and Jake to escape, offering them cover.

However, Sherry and Jake run right into a nest of J’avo and are quickly overpowered.
Despite their best efforts, the pair are caught once more.

5. Jake and Sherry find themselves trapped in Neo-Umbrella’s undersea facility at the bottom of the ocean.
The situation seems hopeless until Chris and Piers, following a tip from Leon, show up to rescue them.
However, when Chris admits that he killed Jake’s father, Wesker, Jake loses himself to emotion and reflexively pulls his gun on Chris. The situation is tense. Just then, Neo-Umbrella’s massive B.O.W., Haos–a creature capable of bringing ruin upon the entire planet–awakens from its cocoon.
Understanding how valuable Jake’s blood is to the world, Chris tells Sherry and Jake to make their escape while he and Piers fight Haos.
Jake and Sherry do not get far before they again run into Ustanak, and are forced into a brutal fight.
The seemingly unstoppable hunter refuses to be defeated even after having its body burned away by fiery magma–its pursuit unforgiving to the end.
Finally, Jake and Sherry manage to defeat the creature and make their escape from the facility.

Following their adventure together, Jake hands over a sample of his blood to Sherry and disappears–though not before lowering his original asking price of fifty million dollars to just fifty. From Jake’s blood, a vaccine for the C-Virus is distilled, and the outbreak is gradually contained.

Ada Wong

1. Matchless in her ability and renowned in the underworld as a spy, Ada Wong one day receives an unexpected message. Presidential aide, Derek Simmons, apparently has some information he claims is of great interest to her future.

Curiosity piqued, Ada follows his instructions and infiltrates a submarine–which oddly has its security systems set to match her fingerprints. There, she finds orders from Simmons regarding the capture of Jake Muller, a young man who possessed antibodies to the C-Virus; however, the orders are from more than 6-months prior, and Ada has no recollection of having received them.
Ada wonders if someone else has carried out the orders in her place, or if Simmons was merely lying about the information.

Ada escapes the submarine, and receives another message from Simmons, this one informing her that the orders from six months ago are a large piece to the puzzle. Further, he reveals that Neo Umbrella will launch bioterror attacks first in America, then in China. Not wanting to be left out in the cold, Ada heads to America.

2. Good to his word, Simmons’ bioterror attacks begin in Tall Oaks, where the president is infected and killed.
On her way to Simmons’ laboratory, Ada runs into Leon and his partner Helena. Helena tells of how Simmons had kidnapped her sister Deborah and blackmailed Helena into cooperating in the Tall Oaks attack. Ada considers this story, and decides it wholly possible.

Simmons is afforded certain powers in his position as head of The Family, a generations-old shadow organization that manipulates global-scale politics in order to maintain international "stability"–meaning the continued wealth of The Family’s members. After informing Leon and Helena of The Family’s existence, Ada ventures further into the laboratory.
In the lab Ada finds a tape showing what appears to be herself being born from a cocoon.

For Ada, this solves one mystery: the person to whom Simmons had given the orders six months ago was not her, but her Neo-Umbrella doppelganger–a fake Ada. Furthermore, this fake Ada is now threatening the stability sought by The Family.

Ada is unable to sit idle while this copy of her paraded about, and leaves to find and eliminate her.

3. Ada follows the Neo-Umbrella trail to China, where a bioterror incident dwarfing the recent Tall Oaks attack is occurring. Picking up BSAA transmissions, Ada locks down her imposter’s location.
On her way, she encounters Sherry from the Raccoon City incident, with Jake Muller in tow.
In addition to the young agent Birkin, both Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield are in China as well.
Ada muses that the entire affair seems more like a Raccoon City reunion.

Following Chris, Ada infiltrates the Neo-Umbrella-controlled aircraft carrier, intent on finding her imposter.

4. On the aircraft carrier, Ada finds documentation regarding the creation of her imposter.
It all stemmed from Simmons’ deep-rooted frustrations in her not being the docile, obedient soldier he expected. This frustration bore a twisted need for revenge, which came in the form of creating a facsimile of Ada–a clone that would obey Simmons and only Simmons. The road to perfecting the clone was long, and littered with failures–countless test subjects used and discarded–until finally, success was had in injecting the C-Virus and a sample of Ada’s DNA into Carla Radames, a scientist working under Simmons. However, this success was short-lived. The buried consciousness of Carla slowly awoke to her situation, and began to extract retribution against Simmons.

Ada finds her clone’s body crumpled on the floor. The imposter had been cornered by the BSAA but ultimately gunned-down by The Family. However, Carla’s body, which by all rights should have been dead, springs to life and attacks Ada. Powered by an enhanced strain of the C-Virus, Carla undergoes violent mutations, shrieking that she is the true Ada Wong.
Following a desperate struggle, Ada is eventually able to defeat her clone. However, still having some loose ends to tie up, Ada takes a helicopter and flees the aircraft carrier.

5. Flying into the city, now engulfed in a zombifying gas, Ada spots Leon and Helena locked in a heated battle with Simmons. Simmons, it seems, has injected himself with the same enhanced C-Virus as Carla. Ada rescues Leon and Helena, and cutting through the last of the Neo-Umbrella resistance, the trio fly to the Quad Tower. Here, the complete data set on Ada and her clone is housed. Ada decides that this information must be purged.
Simmons, though, is not finished and launches another attack. With the help of Leon and Helena, Ada manages to defeat Simmons for good, and then slips away.

Though the building is unstable, Ada makes her way into the Quad Tower laboratory and uncovers Carla’s myriad notes and research, but most importantly, she finds Carla’s ultimate work: a single cocoon housed in a glass chamber.
Without pity or remorse, Ada unleashes a barrage of fire into the equipment, destroying all of Carla’s things along with the un-hatched cocoon.

As the Quad Tower begins to crumble around her, Ada coolly answers her phone and smiles.
It is orders for her next assignment.

This is truly a game worth the buck!

Resident Evil 6: My Experience So Far

It’s October. And as promised, RE6 was released on October 2. Though reviews by “experts” in the gaming world were scathing, that didn’t seem to affect the sale of the game as both fans and critics seem to have flocked to their favorite video game outlets to get their hands on a copy of this latest installment in the RE universe. Heck, there was even a report of a guy being robbed of his copy at gunpoint. At least no harm came to him, so there’s that.

I’ve had my copy preordered (what fan wouldn’t) so I was one of the first proud owners. Along with it came a not-so-good T-shirt and a very nice poster. Both are free though, so I can’t complain.

Unfortunately, work gets in the way when you want to play a new game. I couldn’t get to my console (PS3) until the weekend, and even then I can only play in the wee hours of the night lest my kid nephew bugs me during gameplay.

Release day was Tuesday so I had to wait until at least Friday night to get to play it. Bummer! I consoled myself by signing up to the game’s web portal tie-up, ResidentEvil.net. The portal only went live on the same day the game was released, and for the early birds, 40000 RE Points was awarded. These points can be exchanged for unlockable contents – alternate mercenary costumes, diorama figures, icons, wallpapers. You need to link your PSN (sorry, Sony Entertainment Network) account so that your statistics will appear on the site. You earn points for garnering trophies and badges. Logging in daily on the web portal also awards you with RE points.

Prior to the release day, I’ve already updated my PS3 console to the latest firmware to avoid the hassle when the game finally comes out. RE6 uses stealth install apparently. It did not ask me to install the game, which would be annoying since, well, who would want to wait?!

The game opened with an explosion, and a guy (you, playing Leon Kennedy) getting thrown and knocked down. When you come to, you see chaos, hear gunfire, and when you get your bearings you see Helena Harper on the ground, severely wounded. Hurt though you are, you get to her and carry her to safety. This actually introduces you to the game’s basic controls. And having been an RE5 gamer, the new control scheme takes some learning curve.

After that salvo, you get to choose which campaign to pursue. Initially, there are three – Leon’s, Chris Redfield’s, and Jake Muller’s. When you finish all three campaigns on any difficulty level, you get a fourth one, Ada Wong’s.

Naturally, I chose Chris’. The scene opens in a bar where an already drunk Chris Redfield is sitting by the bar asking the bartender to refill his glass. Sitting near to where he is a BSAA agent, eating steak.

When the bartender refuses to fill his glass, Chris gets to be a jerk which earns him getting his drink dumped to his face and getting asked to leave the bar. He grabs the bottle and quips, “Nowhere to go.” One of the bar patrons confronts him, and they get to an altercation. Just as he is about to smash the other guy’s face with the bottle he’s holding, Piers Nivans, the BSAA agent stops him.

It is then that it is revealed that Chris has somehow lost his memory, that he’s been gone for six months and the BSAA through Piers has been searching for his whereabouts (why weren’t Claire Redfield and/or Jill Valentine the ones looking for him, I don’t know). Chris doesn’t remember Nivans, the BSAA or any of the horrific experiences he’s been through, yet the BSAA wants him to head a team for a mission. (Was that smart of the BSAA? You tell me.) Piers shows Chris pictures of men who were killed in action, Chris’ former team. The faces stir up some cloudy memories but not enough to bring him his entire memory back. Then the other patrons start to rise and circle the two, who are now sitting by a table. They’re also BSAA agents, part of the team Chris is going to lead. In China.

Chapter 1 begins soon after.

Now I won’t go into details much anymore, but the experience is filled with enough action to keep your adrenaline pumping.

Each chapter is long, way longer than those in previous games. It takes an hour at least per chapter to complete. Along the way, there are crossover scenarios, where you get to cross paths with the other character’s campaigns which is really cool!

My only gripe is that the camera on this game could have been better. I don’t play FPS games because my eyes can’t keep up with the rapid movements onscreen, giving me massive headaches enough to make me throw up. Few third-person perspective games give me a similar problem. Unfortunately, RE6 is one of those. This problem diminishes my appreciation of the game, but it’s not enough to keep me from coming back for more.

As a matter of fact, as I’m about to continue my RE6 journey, I’ve equipped my self with pills. Motion-sickness pills, that is. I just hope they work. Wish me luck!

Excited for Resident Evil 6

I’ve marked October 2nd on my calendar and keeping an eye out for when I can finally put in a pre-order for the Resident Evil 6 game. My PS3 and 24-inch LED monitor are all set and ready for weekend of pure gaming heaven. Gameplay previews for the scenarios featuring Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and a new character – Albert Wesker’s son – Jake Muller from the recent E3 only made the waiting all the more unbearable. I want this game, now!

I hope there will be a much more reasonable Collector’s Edition, though. As big a fan as I am, I am not willing to pay up $1,300 just for the privilege of wearing a replica of Leon’s leather jacket. He’s not even my favorite character from the series. But if Hot Toys were to put out 1:6 figures for the main characters, I’ll be one of the first people in line to preorder for sure.

The official site, residentevil.com/6/, is still quite useless right now, with no more than a couple of screenshots and the official trailer with a couple of paragraphs.

On a different note, E3 previews show a drunk Chris Redfield, and he doesn’t quite look the same way he did in RE5. I’m surprised to see they chose this direction for his character, but eh, he still kicks zombie ass, though. Good enough for me.

Resident Evil Revelations, Loved it but…

Here’s the thing, I’m a big fan of the RE franchise. And I mean a BIG fan! I watched all the craptastic movies and actually enjoyed them. I still play Resident Evil 3 when I’m feeling nostalgic. I have the PC and PS3 Gold Edition of Resident Evil 5. I bought a Nintendo 3DS handheld just so I can play Resident Evil Revelations.

But for all the novelty of playing a 3D game on handheld, when the initial excitement wears off, you’re faced with just the game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty good game which actually managed to recapture the essence of the Resident Evil world, that is survival horror.

But there are things I wish the game developers did differently. Things like:

1. A Partner Who’s Actually Useful

In Resident Evil 5, you have Sheva. Although she’s a bit of annoying – getting in the way of perfect shots, getting killed sometimes (Rocket Launcher) in the process, and being too trigger-happy with not a care on your precious limited ammo supply – at least she’s good for something. Put her on attack mode, and she’s perfect bait. She’s there to bail you out when you’re knee-deep in sh*t, and she does manage to kill her share of the baddies.

In Revelations, your partner is everything that Sheva isn’t. They don’t get in the way. They don’t waste your ammo because they have their own seemingly infinite supply, and they appear to be immortal.

Good traits for a partner. Except… they’re too disconnected, ineffectual, useless. They can’t kill any but the most pathetically weak enemies. They won’t help out when a monster is sucking your life dry. They can’t even serve purposely as bait.

2. No Chapter Selection for Campaign Mode

The beauty of RE5 is you can drop in to any chapter if you so choose. You can visit the swamp to pick up a rocket launcher for use in other chapters. You can go back and kill those nasties that gave you a hard time the first time around. You can farm and stock up on ammo to prepare for future fights.

Not so with Revelations. While Raid Mode holds a lot of replay value, where you are able to select the stage to fight in, solo or with a partner via the Internet, the Campaign mode can only be played forward until you reach the end. It does save your current progress (automatically, by default), but if you wanted to replay the last chapter (or episode, as they’re called in the game), you’re out of luck. You have to go back to the beginning to do that.

3. No infinite ammo for any weapon except Rocket Launcher

In RE5, you can save up points and money points to buy yourself a nice ticket to trigger-happy land where ammo  is no issue. Every weapon save for the grenade launcher has the potential to be upgraded to an infinite killing machine.

But for revelations, all you have are loadable customization items that you pick up while running around in the game or otherwise defeating enemies. While they add value to your weapons, there’s a caveat. Some weapons can only have so many custom parts  attached. And the really good ones don’t appear ‘til you get to the harder parts.

You do have the Rocket Launcher, which have the unlockable infinite ammo capacity. That is, until you manage to get through HELL mode. And believe me, you’ll have one hell of a time trying to do that! So good luck, you’ll need it!

4. Random Weapon Drops and Random Items in Store

In Raid Mode, you can pick up new weapons if you snag the weapons cases lying around in stages, or if you kill some enemies (bosses mostly). Problem is, you can’t choose what weapons you get. Not even in the store. Oh by the way, the store is only for Raid Mode. You don’t have that option during Campaign.

The randomness in the weapons dropped I get. But for you to have to get in and out of the store repeatedly just ‘til you find something useful is absolutely a bad idea. Not to mention, you have to examine items carefully, as weapons of the same level (yeah, there are levels) are not created equal. Some have plenty of custom part slots, some have few, and others don’t even have them at all.

The levels of weapons you can buy from the store depends on your current player level, which max out at 50. But weapons from the store are limited to level 48. There are rare weapons, but you’d be extremely lucky to find high-level Pale Riders, Drakes or Muramasas in there.

So you’re left to farm on the advanced stages on Abyss (Hardest) Raid Mode. What’s annoying is you can play through those stages a whole day and still come out empty-handed or at best with low-level (read: weak) weapons and custom parts.

Something about leaving it all out to luck to get the right weapon and custom parts you want or need just rubs me the wrong way!

5. Turning off the Background Music Kills the Dialogue

Background music, creepy and antagonizing as they may be for games of this genre, serve a purpose. I respect that. It adds to the atmosphere of the game. But I find it hard to concentrate so I usually just turn them off.

Imagine my surprise when I realized the dialogue spoken by the characters is part of that background music! Seriously?! I had to put the volume for BGM down to the lowest level just so I can play at ease. But now I have to compromise with straining my ears during cutscenes just to hear what the characters are saying.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and Revelations

I’ve been playing Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for almost two weeks now, and although I keep dying trying to kill the major bosses, I rally on. You wouldn’t believe the quality of the graphics, and for a handheld console game, that’s really an achievement by itself.

Incidentally, the game features a 5-minute preview of the soon to be released Resident Evil: Revelations. The latest installment of this franchise will reach European gamers on January 27th, while state-side, the game is set for a February 7th release. I can only hope that local release will coincide with those dates.

Revelations is actually the reason I bought a Nintendo 3DS console. I’ve bought along the Mercenaries 3D to test it out. At 8 characters, 5 alternate costumes, 34 medals, and more than half of the skills unlocked, I’m still looking forward to every game I play. Online co-op mode also makes it interesting when it gets too intense or just to change the pace. In fact, a handful of the achievements can only be unlocked thru co-op mode.

Revelations couldn’t come soon enough. Fortunately, the game’s official site offers a wealth of information for us fans – from characters, new monsters, back story, game play, even video previews. So head on out here to check them out.

In the mean time, I’ll leave you with these screen shots I’ve swiped from the linked address above. I hope Capcom won’t mind.

Jill Valentine

A member of the BSAA, an NGO founded by the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium.

She is one of the few known survivors of the Raccoon City Incident. Following the dissolution of Umbrella in 2003, she and Chris Redfield decided to continue the fight against bioterrorism and joined the BSAA.

During this mission, Jill boards a mysterious cruise ship to find Chris.

Parker Luciani

Parker joins Jill Valentine on her mission aboard the cruise ship.

Parker carries out his missions with unwavering earnestness.
He tries to mask his seriousness and occasional clumsiness with sarcasm, and he is known for becoming very passionate about his beliefs. Following the events of a certain incident, he transfers to the BSAA to "fight the good fight."

Chris Redfield

A member of the BSAA, an NGO founded by the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium.

He survived what is known as the Mansion Incident in Raccoon City, and now continues the fight against bioterrorism the world over.

Jessica Sherawat

She is partnered with Chris Redfield on this mission.

She and Parker Luciani were originally part of another organization before joining the BSAA.

She always carries her rifle with her, and her graceful figure belies her deadliness in battle. Her ability to provide cover and support holds much promise.

Keith Lumley

This mission is the first time we meet this BSAA operative.

He comes off as cavalier, but when it comes to getting the job done, his skills are on par with Chris and Jill.

When the fighting gets close and personal, Keith uses two kukri knives to finish the job.

Quint Cetcham

Quint is the BSAA’s resident gadget geek, who loves quoting movie lines to match the situation he’s in.

He and Keith work well together, on and off duty.

The Genesis device the BSAA uses incorporates many of Quint’s own designs. The signature headset he sports is just one of the many devices he has invented.

Clive R. O’Brian

Director of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, and key in keeping the organization fighting against
the threat posed by bioweapons.

It is a testament to his leadership skills that he was able to organize such disparate personalities as Chris, Jill, Parker, and Jessica into an elite force.

Raymond Vester

A man with uncertain intentions who appears before Jill aboard the derelict luxury liner.

While his intentions are unknown, it seems he has some of the clues Jill needs to unravel the mystery of the ship.

Raymond comports himself with poise, and his focused stare hints at a military background.

Rachael

This mysterious woman can be seen cradling her injured arm aboard the cruise ship.

She wears a wet suit similar to Jill’s, but she doesn’t belong to the BSAA as far as anyone knows.

We can only speculate what fate awaits her on the ship.

Morgan Lansdale

He is the head of the FBC and has absolute authority.

His attitude towards problems can be perceived as overbearing and firm but there is no one in the FBC who can stand against him.

Veltro, A Terrorist Organization

A mysterious organization whose terrorist attacks have equated them with evil.

Its members usually appear in pictures and videos wearing gas masks, making it difficult to identify individuals.

One of these members appears to be the leader based on circumstantial evidence.

Sony-of-a-B***h

Is it just me or is Sony asking for it?

They were hacked in a series of privacy vulnerability exploits these past months and have only re-upped some of their online services recently. Now they’re announcing another draconian DRM method, the PSN Pass.

New games retail for ~$60. A little too steep for most games where you play and beat the game in a matter of hours. After replaying the game several iterations, you may then decide you’d have enough and you can just sell it. The next person will be able to enjoy (loose term here) the game for a lot less. So all’s well.

But not for the game publishers. They don’t get to profit when you resell your used games. And they really believe they should. Typical greed.

So now Sony’s gonna introduce this PSN Pass. Here, a one-save game feature will be applied to a game title. What this means is that there is only one saved game. No matter who uses it. You can’t start over fresh. You’ll be stuck with your saved game data forever. No joy for secondhand users since they can’t start the game with a clean slate.

Capcom recently announced they’re applying the one-save game feature to “Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.” Now I love the RE series, and would gladly buy the game once its out. But this latest development gives me pause. I’ve had the PC version of RE5, and though I’ve beaten it a thousand times, I still play it ‘cause I can start over. I hope gamers will be well-informed and not support this. It’s just plain wrong.

With Sony adopting this strategy, I wonder if they won’t catch the ire of the hacking community once more and have their online services brought down? Me think Sony’s a little insane in the membrane!