What end of the year is complete without some sort of top 5? Initially, I was ready to do a top 5 based on times I lost my pants during 2009 but the rest of the Reckon Crew didn’t want to relive those moments. Can’t say I blame them either. So you get a Top 5 Video Games of 2009, and please, keep in mind that while we use the BG rating scale doesn’t mean all of the games on our top list are going to be Busy Gamer friendly…

#5: Street Fighter 4 – I know most people have been turned off by the Street Fighter franchise with its re-fitted, re-skinned, re-released titles in the past. Or at least I have been. Seriously, how many version of Street Fighter 3 did we see? Street Fighter 3 Turbo, Street Fighter 3 Really Fast Turbo, Street Fighter 3 Dance Dance Revolution, Street Fighter 3 Happy Fun Time Sunshine Edition… Okay, so I might have made some of those up but you get the picture. Fortunately for us, Capcom decided to take all of the things that made Street Fighter a great franchise, slap on some new graphics, and finally reward us for taking the time to learn some moves instead of just mashing the quick kick button over and over. Packed with some extra goodies and bringing back the old school flava, Street Fighter 4 gets my vote for one of the top games of 2009.

#4: Resident Evil 5 – Yes, that came out this year, bitches. Your copy is probably sitting on a shelf collecting dust because you got the big gun after the second playthrough and you decided it wasn’t worth playing any more. Not me. I fire this game up at least once a month and find the time to shoot some Majini in the face… Gorgeous graphics, top notch voice acting, and a solid story made this a game to remember. Unsurprising that another sequel from Capcom barges into my top 5. Someone over at Capcom needs a raise.

#3: Borderlands – I’ll be honest, this game caught me off guard. When I first saw the ads for the game I thought we were seeing a Fallout 3 clone but that was not at all the case. Featuring four classes with customizable builds, a barren wasteland filled with strange beasties and roaming bands of lunatics, and some very funny voice acting, Borderlands caught my fancy with its mix of first person shooter and role playing elements. After all, how many games do you know of that give you a mission to wipe out a horde of midget psychos?

#2: Left 4 Dead 2 – Yeah, I liked the first one and I have to say the second one was done right. Not liking yerself some zombie killing is just downright un-American, I say. Delivering on the promise of more weapons, more action, and more undead, Left 4 Dead 2 built on the franchise by taking a different route and showing us a new band of survivors and their attempt to escape zombies. Now if it just had more Ellis and his stories of his buddy Keith…

#1: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Yeah, it’s another sequel. Sue me. Maybe 2009 was the year to put out game sequels… Modern Warfare 2 showed us CoD4 wasn’t a fluke and managed to live up to our expectations. We wanted more, we got more. Another action packed, fingernail biting single player campaign and had us defending American soil. More controversial content was available through the portion of the game that had us gunning down innocent civilians as we walked through an airport with a known terrorist. I thought I hated the guy for making me do that but then he shot me in the head. Jerk. Stunning visuals, realistic weaponry, and even more multi-player modes had me up late way too many times. And if that isn’t enough, I’ve got two words. Lance Henriksen. ’nuff said.

So, those are my picks for 2009. Here’s to 2010. Two more years till the world ends. Maybe we’ll see “Duke Nukem Forever” before then… Naaaaah.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Here’s an interesting dab of downloadable shenanigans. With Resident Evil 5 player vs. player mode available on Xbox Live today for $5 (400 MS points), it has come to surface that the content is only 2 megs worth of data. This makes us, and some others, believe that the majority of the DLC could actually already be on your disc.

So, it looks like your hard earned money that bought you Resident Evil 5 (including some of  and/or part of the new content), must now be forked over again to unlock it via Xbox Live.

Now, it could be that the 2 megs of DLC could “conceivably” contain after release info but I’m thinking not. I would hope that industry heavy weights would not use or accuse us gamers of being that naive. I mean come on, a majority of us nerds can do the math and would wonder why the download was so little to add another dimension to the game, prolonging the titles shelf life of course (in stores and the home, too).

Capcom, quotes:
“The content that is shipping in the full game exists within its own budget. The content shipping afterward (regardless of how close to release it is… because the goal IS to have it release relatively closely to the base product’s release) exists within its own budget. To try and have it release in a timeframe that is relatively close to the initial release, development starts well before the base product is on the shelves. There’s no other way to keep it within 3 to 6 weeks of the initial release (which is the goal).”

Yeah, well, I don’t know Capcom. I feel some wool being pulled. And the way games are priced, us gamers don’t want to be charged twice for content that we already have available (in data form anyhow). I’d rather wait for devs to make something new and implement at a later date, expanding and keeping the game interesting (while at the same time not tapping my pocketbook too bad).

But of course you don’t have to DL the new content for Resident Evil 5. It’s not like zombies are gonna eat you or anything… well, per se.

[Source]-Crutchboy out.

First Glance:
It’s the latest entry in the Resident Evil franchise. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 15 years, that’s ’nuff said.

The Short Story:
Capcom hits it big with the latest Resident Evil 5. Great graphics, creepy music, grisly scenery, and all of the puzzle solving, zombie shooting goodness you’ve come to expect from the series.

The Score:
High replay value and the new online play allowing you to team up with a friend against a horde of creepies scores RE5 a few points. Unfortunately, a control scheme that you have to relearn after extended absences combined with the sheer amount of story and playtime possible have us deducting a few. It scores a 3 on our scale but it’s a very fond 3.

 

Body of review:
I’m a long time fan of the Resident Evil series. I played every version I could get my hands on, read some of the books, and yes, sadly, watched all of the movies. I know some of the characters from the franchise better than I know some of my extended family. One day that will earn me a place in the Hall of Geek.

Much of the feel of the old entries is here. The distinct lack of ammo you’ll have in early stages and the horror in the pit of your gut when you hear that hollow click when the chambers empty will all seem very familiar. Then there’s the fact that the zombies are considerably faster in this “episode” and the backtracking through rooms and hallways to give yourself some space to land a headshot just ends with you stuck in a dead end with a bunch of hungry zombies.

The newer melee moves from Resident Evil 4 are back; head stomps, chest stomps, kicks, punches, and a really big knife help you feel a bit tougher when the baddies are gnawing on your ankles. Chris and Sheva can line up melee combos if you pay attention to the onscreen indicators allowing the two of them to hold their own in close quarters.

The single player mode may seem tough at first but you’ll soon notice something… Sheva isn’t a wimp. She’ll go toe to toe with the zombies, she’ll come to your aid when you’re getting your butt kicked, and she’ll heal you if she has any first aid goodies. You’ll notice a distinct lack of her cowering in a corner or running away to hide when the ghoulies round the corner. It makes for a much more interesting game.

There will be times when you’ll have to decide if you want her to run across a seemingly empty courtyard while you hold the door open while other times will see you giving her an assist across the alley from one rooftop to another and then providing covering fire. But keeping her close is always preferred since she can be the one to quickly turn the tide of a battle when you hear that “click” indicating you just burned through a clip of ammo trying to take down one baddie.

As is usual with the series, there’s a lot of game here. Linear levels make for relatively quick progression but going as fast as you can means missing out on goodies. There’s treasures you can find to sell for gold which allows you to buy bigger and better gear for your team and upgrades that you can buy for your weapons as you get them.

Fans of the series will recognize the upgrade process from RE4. And long gone are the days of the “inventory juggle”. You get nine slots on each character and for better or worse, you’ll find them quickly filled. On the plus side, guns will fit in one slot no matter how big they are. On the negative, ammo takes up one slot no matter how little of it you have and will only stack in the one slot to a certain point. Having more than 50 handgun ammo, for instance, means a second slot is required. Same goes for healing goodies, one goodie, one slot. I almost miss the inventory juggle in some ways. I was really good at squeezing every extra slot out of my backpack.

Replay value is high. Once a level is completed, you can go back in immediately to try and run it faster, gather more gear, or just straight up play a bit you really liked over again. Items, weapons, gold, and treasures are saved at the end of each level so if you pay attention and take the time to run through a level again, you can stock up on useful items while increasing your score on that particular level.

Sadly, the length of the game may find some shaking their heads. Online play allows you to team up which does add a social aspect to the game and allows for some quick matches. You’d be hard pressed to find a better game on the market if you’re a fan of the series but the overall time investment and non-intuitive controls make RE5 a shaky choice at best for the Busy Gamer.

Now if Capcom would just let us aim and move at the same time…

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Capcom confirmed today that in the next few weeks, just shortly after Resident Evil 5′s release (which is today by the way), you will be able to add to your game some PVP via downloadable content.

This versus mode will cost you $5 on the Playstation Network or 400 Microsoft points on Xbox Live, and once added to your version of RE5 allows players to shoot it out in a combat survival mode. We are not sure how much of the undead will participate (besides the zombish Majinis) , or other factors that will be thrown in the mix – but feel that any additional options can make this new title better! Even a co-op survival mode could add to the longevity of this title on your shelf.

Capcom states: “Versus allows up to four players to match wits in online battles across two very different game types. Slayer’s Rule is a point-based game that challenges players to kill Majinis. In Survivor’s Rule, players hunt the most dangerous game, each other! Players can begin the hunt as Chris, Sheva or other secret characters, and choose from either one-on-one or two-versus-two team matches for either of the two gameplay styles.”

The game launches today Friday 13th, so get out and grab a copy.

[Source]

-Crutchboy out

(G4TV) – Spurred by the controversy surrounding alleged racism in Resident Evil 5, website Videogamer.com decided to talk to an expert on racism. No, not the Grand Exalted Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan. They talked to Glenn Bowman, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Bowman checked out three Resident Evil 5 levels, and while the academic did note a number of interesting references to indigenous people’s reaction to colonialism in Africa, Bowman did not see racism. “I think it’s silly to call it racist,” Bowman said, then pointed out that in a horror game, you gotta make things scary, so a horror game set in Africa will naturally feature scary Africans and scary African cultural artifacts. Nothing racist there.

“Maybe they’ll make the next game happen in Finland and you’ll have a whole series of Inuits and the like being really scary and running around with Walrus heads on,” Bowman said.

As for why the game is being called racist:

“I think it ties in with what I was talking about, about inverse racism. That in a sense there’s a politically correct position which says this should be your knee-jerk reaction to what’s going on there. I think it’s quite likely but I’m not sure that in any way the makers of this game can be held responsible for that kind of response. I think that might be possible, in which case I think what they really should be asking themselves is, although I can’t imagine people would do this, why are they having those kind of responses? And what negativity is implicit in that positive response? And the negativity is that actually we don’t look at people as human beings, we look at them as black and white…”