2011: Full of Video Game Anniversaries

In the latest issue of NAG magazine, I had a rare read of Miktar’s column. In addition to being a columnist and overseas correspondent (East coast of the USA), he is also a former moderator on the NAG Online forum – although was shunted out of the job, probably because he was a massive troll, according to some. It was bad for business.

But he brought up an interesting conversation piece. 2011 is chock full of anniversaries relating to video games. Landmark, revolutionary titles that paved the way for all the games you play today.

Let’s have a look at those he listed:

30th Anniversary: Ultima, Castle Wolfenstein, Frogger, Ms. Pacman

25th Anniversary: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castelvania

20th Anniversary: Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Civilization

15th Anniversary: Resident Evil, Pokémon, Diablo, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot

10th Anniversary: Grand Theft Auto III, Halo, Devil May Cry

The ones I care about most here are probably Castle Wolfenstein (without it we wouldn’t have had Wolf 3D, RTCW, and every other game that followed in that series); Frogger (played it a hell of a lot as a child); Street Fighter II (hailed as one of the best fighting games of all time – the measuring stick to which all other fighters to this day are compared); Sonic the Hedgehog (come on…); Resident Evil (made survival horror the popular genre that it is – or was, anyway); Tomb Raider (without it, you probably wouldn’t have Uncharted, maybe even Assassin’s Creed either); Crash Bandicoot (played this a lot as a kid, too); Grand Theft Auto III (one of the best games ever).

But suspiciously there were a few left off the list at some point. I think most of the games he mentioned were released in November or December (I know because I looked them up). So there was some sort of trend he was adhering to.

I’d add in Duke Nukem 3D. It’s the last truly great game in that series, which even DNF failed to topple this year. Released at a time when people still used the term “Doom Clone”, it proved that it wasn’t just another rip-off title – it was THE rip-off title; the undisputed king of rip-offs, taking “inspiration” from several films and other games, as well as pop culture. But it had enough going for it to make it pound for pound the best FPS I’ve played to date, honestly.

Quake wasn’t brought up either. Major oversight there. Also released in 1996 like DN3D, it was the first fully 3D FPS, and debuted the Quake engine. Without this engine, we might not have had every other id Tech engine released to date, and probably every other id game released to date, either. Every Doom, Quake, and even Wolfenstein title to follow used a version of the id Tech engine. Many, many games from other developers to date have used id Tech engines as well. You wouldn’t even have Call of Duty, seeing as all CoD games to date have used snippets of id Tech code in the engines that power them.

Final Doom. All right, so it was a glorified double expansion pack for Doom II: Hell on Earth – but what expansion packs at that!

The Plutonia Experiment was particularly challenging. Created by the Casali brothers, it made Doom and Doom II seem like child’s play for the most part. TNT: Evilution wasn’t that spectacular, but it did see one of the most beloved guys at id get hired – and that man is Tim Willits, who still serves as creative director at id today. He started off as just a mapper, and fan of the original games.

If anything, Final Doom showed that fans could make a decent game, filled with challenging maps and maybe tad innovation that impressed developers so much that they hired them and put them on the payroll. This trend has continued to this day, with modders and mappers being picked from the modding community and given jobs. You often see this with companies such as Valve – Valve is predominantly made of former modders.

So anyway, 2011: what a year – for new games and old!

2011: Full of Video Game Anniversaries

Keen Dreams: Assassin’s Creed, and Resident Thief – Starring Samuel L. Jackson

The Keen Dreams series is all about video games in dreams.
There we were, on the first floor of a dirty, dishevelled apartment building. Me, and Samuel L. Jackson, or someone who looked and sounded just like him. We were on the run, and we headed down the stairs to the ground floor. But it was too late to make our escape that way, seeing as they had all ready driven up to the parking lot outside.
So it was back up the stairs, up to the top floor where we navigated a series of obstacles as fast as we could. Sam led the way and I followed, doing exactly what he did so to minimise the chances of screwing up and getting lost or something. Then at the worst possible moment, as Sam was climbing up a ladder or scaffolding, part of it broke, and he came crashing down on to the floor boards below, unable to get back up. He must have been seriously hurt, but he urged me to carry on.
“In here?” I asked him as I climbed up the structure.
“No, in there!” he responded, pointing to a narrow little passage way that looked like it would be difficult to get through. But I did, and as I was climbing along the platform which hung above the room on the other side, the platform gave way, and I too fell down to the floor below. What luck.
What luck indeed – seeing as during the fall, glints of gold twinkling in the darkness caught my eye, as well as the unmistakeable Nazi symbol, emblazoned on a flag in the corner.
I lay still though, although not as seriously injured as Sam was, because the group of thugs at that moment came waltzing in to the room I had been in only seconds ago. They immediately walked over to Sam, who lay on the ground. He made no effort to try and get away. He only yelled, “Happy New Year!” as the thugs got nearer. I watched them through the holes in the wall where bricks were missing, and lay still, waiting for the gunshot.
Then it came, and Sam was gone.
To be Continued?…

Keen Dreams: Assassin’s Creed, and Resident Thief – Starring Samuel L. Jackson

Resident Evil 5 DLC and Gold Edition Coming Soon

At the moment I’m playing Resident Evil 5 on PC, so I found this interesting.

It looks as though in February and March there will be some DLC coming for the console versions of the game (Xbox 360, PS3). And on top of that, there will be a retail version called the "Gold Edition” or Resident Evil 5 Gold, which will bundle these DLC packs along with the original game, RE5. That will be coming in March too.

Unfortunately, as with most titles nowadays, neither the DLC packs nor the Gold Edition look like they’re coming to the PC – just consoles as usual.

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Resident Evil 5 'Gold Edition' Trailer Shows Off Downloadable Campaigns, Content

Resident Evil 5 DLC and Gold Edition Coming Soon

New Resident Evil Film, Afterlife, Coming Next Year

*Groan*

There’s going to be another Resident Evil film coming next year, called Resident Evil: Afterlife. The movie has also been confirmed as 3D.

The cast is getting Wentworth Miller from Prison Break as well, to play Chris Redfield. Well, I suppose the movie needs eye candy for the ladies, since the guys have had Milla Jovovich to ogle for years now. Yes, she will reprise her role as Alice. There’s this TV critic and cynical witch locally, named Nikki Temkin, who couldn’t stop going on about how “beautiful” Wentworth is at one stage.

The Resident Evil movies are nothing that an artsy fartsy type would love, It’s just a mindless series about zombie killing that likely won’t ever match up to the games. I watch them, but only when they come on TV. I don’t bother going to the theatre or even hiring it on DVD.

Source:

ShockTillYouDrop

New Resident Evil Film, Afterlife, Coming Next Year

Apocalypse Then: Resident Evil and Risk II

On this day, in 1996, Resident Evil was released on Playstation and sparked off the whole Resident Evil series. The PC version cam about a while later. The sequel, Resident Evil 2, was released a day short of two years later, on March 21, 1998.

Risk II was also released today in 2000. I am an old fan of the board game, Risk, and so playing this was a good experience, although it could get bloody hard at times.

Apocalypse Then: Resident Evil and Risk II

Human Rights Day

Apocalypse Then: Resident Evil 2, Thief II: The Metal Age& Tribes 2

Today is a day of sequels.

On this day, Resident Evil 2, Thief II: The Metal Age, and Tribes 2 was released in 1998, 2000, and 2001 respectively.

Resident Evil 2 is of course the sequel to the progenitor of the now hugely famous Resident Evil series.

I am particularly a big fan of the Thief series, and Thief II: The Metal Age is one of my favourite games of all time. It was preceded by Thief: The Dark Project, which was good, but not as good as said successor. I also happen to have a couple of Thief fan-fiction pieces that I’ve written. 

Tribes 2 is the sequel to Starsiege: Tribes, a game that had a big multiplayer focus, which is now freeware.

Human Rights Day

Resident Racism

Resident Evil 5 has come under a lot of criticism lately, particularly on the racist front, with people claiming that mowing down black zombies leaves them shuddering with guilt. Now gamers are not just murderers in training, but racists as well, according to the media.

In fact, Resident Evil 5 has come under fire since it was first previewed at E3 in 2007.

Capcom should have thought this one through first. 

You saw what they did with Far Cry 2, right? They had black enemies, as well as white and people from different ethnic backgrounds. Did you hear anyone complain about Far Cry 2? No. There might have been some, but they were likely in the minority since I didn’t hear anything about it. Nobody complained of racism as far as the other games in the Resident Evil series are concerned either. Those games took place in America and Europe where there is a mixed bunch of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The story of Umbrella and the T-virus spreading meant that sooner or later it would reach Africa, and indeed, Resident Evil 5 is set in a fictional country in Africa that happens to contain a lot of black people. Big surprise there; people of ethnic origin make up most of the population in Africa and so Capcom had to be demographically correct. They certainly couldn’t have all white, or pink or purple people running around.

Well, the game is out there, and you have people in different camps. There are those who claim it’s racist, there are those who claim it isn’t, and there are those who claim it isn’t, but still get an uneasy feeling when they play it, and sort of sit on the fence and hum and ha, before going in for another session to 'investigate'.

Well, Capcom didn’t intend to make a racist game, I’m sure. They meant to continue the story of Resident Evil and its spread throughout the world, and the player having to contend with the real enemy behind it all- the Umbrella Corporation.

The only way to go now is to make the virus spread to Asia, and infect Japanese people, and have Japanese zombie ninjas and killer Koi. It would make sense since Capcom is Japanese. 

Remember folks, it’s just a game.

Just do us a favour and don’t venture into the Middle East. That is pushing it a bit, and we don’t want them getting upset…

Resident Racism

Apocalypse Then: Resident Evil Movie

On this day, Resident Evil was released in 2002. It used elements from the first and second game, and although it was a commercial success, it received flak from both critics and fans.

Apocalypse Then: Resident Evil Movie