Like many people during the pandemic, I eventually got round to watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and later The Legend of Korra on Netflix. Needless to say they quickly become some of my favourites, probably my favourite animated shows of all time. After feeling a somewhat bittersweet feeling upon ending them I felt I should delve a bit more into some of the expanded material, including the large library of games that Nickelodeon released over the years. I was pretty saddened to find that most of the Avatar games were stuck on the PS2, and physical copies are pretty hard to come by. The only game version of this world to be released one the last generation of consoles was a Legend of Korra game by Platinum Games of all people. This sounded like a great experience, it would be a great-end cap to my Avatar/Korra experience. A fun character action game made by a fantastic developer, even if it looked particularly underdeveloped and budget compared to their best work.
Only playing the game was for more difficult than anticipated. Despite being released on both old and next-gen platforms in 2014, the game is virtually non-existent on all of them. After some digging it became apparent that the game had been delisted by its publisher Activision in late 2017, likely after their license to use the Korra IP expired. This is a common problem, but the issue was particularly aggravated in this case as the game was digital-only, with no retail release. The game could only be played ever again by people who had purchased it prior to this 2017 delisting date, to everyone else it may as well not exist. But I was adamant there must be some way around this – I wasn’t going to let the game’s apparent erasure stop me from finding it. So I began reading various Reddit and forum posts about the game. The vast majority of these were populated by people in the same boat as me –lamenting the loss of a game they could never play. Thankfully this search bore fruit. Various retailers were still selling digital downloads for the game. Despite the game’s delisting these codes do provide you with the right/license to own the game and therefore it will download despite not appearing on the store itself. This particular loophole has been used by many as their last resort to access delisted games. So I went ahead and tried to acquire one of these Korra codes for myself. However these codes are as impermanent as digital games themselves. Only a limited number of them exist, they are not a viable long-term option to access these games as there will one day be none left to activate. Not to mention that Sony has began to crack down on this workaround by officially pulling download codes from retail stores, meaning only a few remain scattered across the Internet. By the time I started my search all the Xbox codes for Korra were sold out and so was the PS4. My only option was to purchase a code for the PS3 which Amazon still, somewhat surprisingly, had in stock. So I dusted off my PS3, entered in the code and began to download this ‘lost’ game. There was something strangely exciting about it. Finding a way around PlayStation’s systems and being one of the last people to download something that was no longer meant to be. It felt like I was preserving the game in a way, doing my part to protect this insignificant little piece of video game history. The game itself is a short, fun, character-action romp. It was a large critical dud upon release with mainly mediocre reviews, and some particularly harsh ones from the bigger outlooks like IGN and GameSpot. Although I enjoyed it more than these critics, it certainly has many of the flaws of a below-average licensed game. The story is non-existent with virtually none of the characters from the show’s large ensemble besides Korra. In fact, apart from its faithful implementation of the bending systems and some of the music, the game feels almost nothing like the show it’s based on. The game clearly had a limited budget - with repeated use of enemies/assets - and feels undercooked compared to Platinum’s usual high quality fare. The game was derided for being exceptionally short, only clocking in at about 4 hours. Despite it’s small price tag and repayable nature, this length struck a nerve with many critics particularly with the large volume of content reuse within this short span. It’s only real saving grace is the combat system. Throughout the game you unlock Korra’s bending powers, each of which feels distinct and faithfully recreates the original bending and martial arts styles from the show. There is also a heavy focus on countering/parrying enemy attacks to deal large amounts of damage, similar to Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. The game can be quite challenging on its higher difficulties, meaning you need to utilize each of the bending powers and the counter system to full effect in order to survive. This creates a very satisfying combat loop of countering and switching between elements based on the situation at hand. I’m almost tempted to say its like the modern God Hand, which was similarly lambasted by critics upon release. Seriously the IGN review for that game is wild. Although this may be giving it too much credit – God Hand feels similarly underdeveloped in many ways but it has a level of quirky charm and combat depth that Korra doesn’t even scratch the surface of. Despite it’s major flaws, Korra’s combat loop kept me compelled to hop back in for many subsequent runs to go for higher ranks and get all of the collectibles from improved play. I even decided to Platinum the game. Platinuming a game is something that is usually reserved for only games I’m having a huge amount of fun with, but Korra kept me coming back, excited to unlock trophy after trophy. This may have been more so motivated by my ATLA obsession than the gameplay itself, but it still kept me engaged enough to dedicate this time to it. Yet above all, I think there was something else driving me. The game’s unavailable status gave it a certain aura that compelled me to complete it. That I’d be one of the last few people to ever download it, that when the final digital code is sold it will be gone, that one day when my PS3 powers off for the last time I would never be able to play it again. There is a bitter sweetness to how impermanent a digital game like this can be. Although the loss of this game may seem trivial to many, this issue of ‘lost games’ is one that has become increasingly prevalent in this digital age. Activision is a common culprit for delisting their games when the licenses run out – from Platinum’s TMNT game to scrubbing years of Transformers games off all digital platforms (e.g. Devastation and the critically acclaimed Cybertron series). Delisting was not as severe for these examples as the majority of them received retail releases and can still be acquired physically for varying prices – but Activision has set a clear precedent of doing this and I can see many ‘lost games’ in their future, particularly as the industry as a whole moves away from physical releases altogether. This is becoming a problem as we approach the digital only age. Although most of the examples I have cited are lesser-known licensed fair, there can be serious damage done to game history and preservation. Take P.T. for example. This is one of the best horror experiences ever released, so much so that I feel it is wrong to classify it even as a demo. Yet when Konami and Kojima had their big fall out, it was scrubbed from the PSN store. P.T. will only exist in its official state for as long as the last PS4 with it downloaded continues existing. Sure, hackers have mined the games files and took it away to cyber-heaven on the PC front, but it sets a horrible precedent that such an important piece of gaming history can be wiped out of existence. And I think a similar point applies to Platinum’s Korra game as well. Regardless of it’s quality, I think its sad that the old licensed Avatar games are still somewhat available in their physical form more than 10 years later on platforms like eBay (even though they’re from the PS2 generation), when a game like Korra has been lost forever simply due to it’s digital-only status. I feel its important to highlight and preserve a game like Korra, because it’s likely that no one else will. A game like P.T. will be remembered years from now, but what about all the games that don’t leave such a monumental impact before being delisted?
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With all the news of RE8 recently I found myself itching to find a similar experience. Although I have previously worked my way back through certain Capcom properties – Resident Evil was series I never did this for. Maybe it was because the earlier entries were these slow-paced, over the shoulder survival horror games, and the later ones seemed to delve to far into action. Nevertheless, I feel there is a large blind spot in my gaming literacy, and that is Resident Evil 4.
Now I haven’t had much experience with the Resident Evil series, apart from playing Resident Evil 7 upon release and recently playing the remastered version of the Resident Evil 1 remake, but I know the franchise has a penchant for reinventing itself with each new instalment, such as the new perspectives introduced in both RE 4 and RE 7. The original three Resident Evil games on the PlayStation were fixed perspective survival horror games with tank controls. My only real experience with them is from the RE 1 remake, but I feel that pretty accurately represents them all. Although the controls are clunky, this kind of adds to the suspense. It reminds me of something like the original Metal Gear Solid, where if the controls were too responsive it could actually make the game to easy (much like it became in the GameCube port, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, where the newly added controls basically broke the game) so I can understand why the tank controls where implemented. As a staple of survival horror, it also introduced resource management to the series, which somehow always seems to be satisfying no matter how many times you do it. The final key piece of gameplay in these games were the use of key items such as keys (well duh), key cards and other very odd items in order to proceed in the game, it turns the games into a bit of a Metroidvania at points with you seeing doors and passages early in the game which are inaccessible, but you come back to them later on with the ability to open them. But by the time we moved on to the sixth generation of video game consoles, Resident Evil had to change too, in order to accommodate for the increased graphical capabilities and more intuitive controls. No more pre-rendered backgrounds (although they were beautiful). No more clunky tank controls. They had to make a Resident Evil for not only a new generation of consoles but a new generation of gamers. Now this wasn’t immediately successful, as we already know there were multiple different versions of Resident Evil 4. The first version began with director Hideki Kamiya who at the time was known for directing Resident Evil 2, he was aiming to create a more ‘stylish’ and ‘cool’ game that was focused more on action rather than slow and atmospheric like the previous titles. However after well-known Franchise director, Shinji Mikami, saw this version he decided it had strayed too far from the franchises survival horror roots and asked them to make it into a new IP, as you can probably already guess this turned into Devil May Cry, now a mainstay Capcom franchise. This story is pretty well known, but there was actually another version of RE 4 before they settled on the final version. This version birthed many ideas that eventually made there way into the final version, such as the over-the-shoulder perspective and the red dotted sight on the end of Leon’s weapons. Eventually after this version ran into some troubles as well, Shinji Mikami was brought on to direct the project. As you may know he was the director of the original Resident Evil as well as the later GameCube remake. Due to this you would think he would have brought the game back to its more survival horror roots, but instead he seemed to double down more on the action that was already present in previous versions of RE 4. Now this isn’t my first time trying to play through Resident Evil 4. I originally attempted it when I was much younger, back when my PS2 was actually relatively new. As a young lad it was essentially like smashing my head against a wall over and over again, especially during those damn button-mashing sections that most definitely gave me carpal tunnel. Although the difficulty is pretty tame now, at the time I wasn’t as experienced or as determined so I eventually gave up. So Resident Evil 4 sat on my shelf for several years, gathering dust along with my PS2 and Scissor Sisters’ CDs. I’d always meant to jump back into it at some point, with the constant reference and praise towards it over the last 14 years since its release, but setting up the PS2 was always a bit of a pain and besides I never really had a reason to jump back into it. Until the last few years where the RE franchise has seen a bit of a renaissance. Both the RE 2 and 3 remakes brought a new look and gameplay that was clearly inspired by RE 4. Not to mention the upcoming RE8 seems to refer back to it in almost everything but name – space-based inventory managed, a gothic Eastern European setting, a quirky vendor. The similarities just seemed so blatant and obvious, that I felt I would be doing myself a disservice to go into RE8 without experiencing the game that very much seems to be its progenitor. Plot-wise this RE4 is a pretty good jumping on point as it is only very loosely related to the other games in the series. Leon is also the main character in RE 2, and there are small references to Umbrella and other characters throughout but apart from these it is essentially a standalone game. The story follows Leon, who is no longer a Raccoon City police officer but has now evolved into a US government agent. He has been sent into an unidentified Eastern European country in order to rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley, from a sort of evil cult. He quickly becomes wrapped up in a large conspiracy which brings him from small villages to gothic castles and eventually secret laboratories. Overall the story isn’t one of the games strongest aspects, there's an interesting cast of recurring characters such as Ada (also from RE 2) and Luis, as well as a bunch of cheesy villains such as Salazar, a little dwarf who looks like Napoleon. Instead the gameplay is the main backbone of RE 4 which makes it so special. In retrospect, the gameplay that was popularised in RE 4 was rather revolutionary. The over-the-shoulder perspective that originated in RE 4 became a staple in many third person shooter games to come like Gears of War and the many clones of it which followed in the subsequent years. It’s easy to see why, as much like DMC, the gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying. At first I thought the close-up camera could make the game feel clunky or cumbersome to play, but the aiming and movement was responsive enough that it made it easy to navigate around the hoards of enemies. If anything it adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed and outnumbered as all the enemies usually cannot all fit on the one screen. Although the game is far more action-focused than its predecessors, it still has an underlying sense of dread throughout with the large hoards of enemies and limited supplies to deal with them. My only real complaint with the game is that I did feel that it dragged on a little too long, which I guess could be seen as a positive for some players. The environments and gameplay are constantly changing in different sections but I did feel that certain sections lasted far longer than they needed to. However this isn’t necessarily a large problem for the game, as there are games like Alien: Isolation which I love despite them being overly long and drawn out. The gameplay is still excellent, even during these less than stellar sections, which really pulls them up in quality. Near the start of the game I also thought I was going to have a big problem with Ashley, as when she showed up the game essentially turned into an escort mission for a few chapters or so, but the game knows when to get rid of her in order to let Leon’s standalone gameplay shine more. Her sections are still a bit of a pain though as she has very low health and can be easily damaged/kidnapped by enemies, which keep the game from being perfect. Graphically the game still looks excellent for a late PS2 game which really surprised me playing through it. Even though it has a relatively grey and muted colour pallet the game is still vibrant and full of character due to the design of the environments and its enemies. Replaying RE 4 has got me very excited for the upcoming RE8 and it’s new approach. Although I did enjoy the gameplay in the original three Resident Evils (or just the first one, as I haven’t actually played 2 or 3), the control scheme introduced in RE 4 is much more fun and engaging too play. While I’m waiting for RE8 to release, I feel I’m finally readd to jump into he recent RE2 and 3 remakes. I’m so excited to see the original RE4 combat style being implemented into these more modern, horror-focused games. The only drawback I could possibly see from this is that it could diminish the feelings of horror and helplessness that existed in the original RE 2, but from the gameplay I’ve seen so far I believe that their use of darkness and a much closer camera has managed to replicate (and in many ways enhance) these feelings in RE 2 & 3. I like the idea that these remakes retain the horror and atmosphere from the original RE trilogy but are still greatly enhanced by the tighter, more responsive, RE 4 style controls. My long-awaited dive into Resident Evil 4 has certainly been fruitful as it has allowed me to appreciate this change in direction for the recent remakes and has got me even more excited to jump into R8 when it releases, it does seem like a spiritual successor of sorts after all. |
authorSo this is weird. I’ve made a website, I’m not expecting anyone to read it (actually I’d rather they didn’t.) Basically I’ve been struggling to write creative things recently, every idea I come up with, no matter how much I think I believe in it, leads me nowhere. I guess you could call it writer’s block, but it’s more so that I tend to overthink and second-guess myself down to the smallest details, this means it takes me forever to make anything and once I have I’m incredibly demotivated to continue it. So, after being inspired by an Australian writer, Gabriel Bergmoser, who’s blog and podcasts I’ve been reading and listening to for the past few years I decided this would be an interesting experiment to try out. Basically I have no idea what I’m going to write, it’s unlikely to be creative or short stories, more-so this kind of string-of-consciousness opinion piece based on the things I’m thinking about at the moment. From films to television or maybe books and music. Anyway I hope you find some of this stuff interesting. Let’s hope I don’t say anything too incriminating considering my name is plastered all over this. Granted, this is something I will probably only update about four times in my life, unless I really enjoy it. It’s more so to help me be more creative and actually produce something for once.
Archives
January 2021
CategoriesNot really sure? Opinions on the blog, mainly about entertainment. I'll also be posting some fiction or short stories eventually for your feedback and enjoyment.
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