Thinking About Video Games

Sometimes, there is no cavalry.


Sometimes, that’s not an issue

As would be apparent to any regular readers, I took the last couple days off from writing after months of keeping to a strict schedule of writing everyday. This was kind of in response to a number of random elements coalescing into what would become a wall of exhaustion that I hit going a hundred miles an hour, which needless to say, was a fairly definitive stopping point of a non-negotiable nature.


Being launched into a wall at high speeds is the
entire point of some games, but often times, it’s
a bit more metaphorical

I can’t say I’m fully operational again, I’m more or less surprised I’m even out of bed, as the past couple of days have been nothing but a vertical non-state of being, but there are far worse ways to become derailed. I did mention during my wrap-up of my writing involving the RE3 remake, that it was a combination of wanting to reflect and kind of a post-project completion depression of sorts, which most certainly came to pass, so perhaps it was all unavoidable, in a way.


In that kind of unique, political approach
of confrontational Nemesis is so well known for

Which, you know, these moments are kind of frustrating, but are a part of a reason I’m gratified to have an unofficial conduit of sorts to write through, as I think if I was just straight up forced in regurgitating headlines, or was had deadlines involving playing through games at a breakneck pace, I would be the same kind of miserable I was towards the beginning of 2017 when I finally stepped away from writing about video games entirely…and nearly for seven years straight at that, save for a random one off five years after the fact.


There are worse ways the situation could have
resolved itself, is what I’m saying

I’m still not completely sure how I want to possibly change things up moving forward, in reference to whether or not I should refocus my endeavors in terms of delivering randomness on ATE, as I’ve had thoughts as of late as to what value is. Maybe there is no great definitive answer. Maybe randomly mentioning about how Halo going for a drastic change up by offering a shift in perspective from first person to third being a game changer is good enough on a random day. Maybe citing my excitement for what seems like a resoundingly positive reaction to the Silent Hill 2 remake prompting me to think we have a Silent Hill resurgence on our hands is enough to merit the making of a brief article. Perhaps I’ve been on the right track all along by offering up new ways to analyze life in general and applying that perspective to games in a microcosmic way of verifying it’s veracity as valuable, and that being enough of a reason to get out of bed and write something.

I’ll continue thinking of better questions in the mean time, cause as usual, I’m still not settled on the idea there aren’t better ones yet left to ask.

~Pashford

The Mercenaries: Operation Greener Grass

The bill comes do…always.


The reaction to the relative value being exchanged depends
on which end of the transaction one finds oneself

My opening statement can be applied to a great number of ways one “pays” of course, as the currency at hand is not always cold hard cash that one ends up paying with, so to speak. With that in mind, and following up on my thoughts from yesterday about contrasting value on the heels of my Resident Evil 3 remake, I finish up ending in a tonally appropriate way, as I look at a final, key element that the RE3 remake lacked, in showcasing a relative value of something lost, per my utilization of the A.R.T methodology, in deconstructing what did and didn’t work in Capcom’s approach to remaking Resident Evil 3. That of course, brings us to the topic at hand, and one that Conker (see above) has already posited for us.


The absolute mad lads they are

My final moments in celebrating Resident Evil 3 involve the original (not the remake), as we have one last great example of what could be used analogously as “absent rain” in my assessment of the remake. Within that regard, what an experience or moment lacks does help make up it’s very essence, as has been observed in the idea of something like a vase, in that the internal void that helps to create the “-ishness” of what is a vase, is indeed part of what isn’t there. In my original conjuration of my theory of what helps to frame value, it was relative to the lack thereof that helps us form our perspective on what remains, though in this instance, I think what isn’t there creates a painful reminder of what was lost in translation.


Fitting phrasing: imagine a remake of this film lacking Murray

Perhaps I’m being unnecessarily heady right now in complicating what is essentially “just” missing post-game content in the form of a minigame, but “The Mercenaries” felt like an extraordinarily vital part of what made the Resident Evil 3 formula work so well. Within the realm of the tradition of RE unlockables, There was a battle minigame involved as a reward for beating the original Resident Evil, but it was a mode that was exclusive to the Sega Saturn, so not many people even got to enjoy it. With that in mind, many were first treated to this style of post-game RE awesomeness in the form of “The 4th Survivor”, after one fulfilled some in-game reqs involving beating RE2, which had the player controlling an Umbrella operative named HUNK as he escaped the RPD on the eve of Raccoon City’s destruction.


Hard enough to unlock, some considered the mode
a degenerate spawned from hearsay and rumor back in the day

There was also the much harder to unlock other secret character named Tofu, who was, appropriately, a walking bean curd .


Rare you see a zombie game offer up a vegan
alternative

However, and as briefly just mentioned, both characters were quite difficult to unlock normally, so while more people were exposed to the idea of the post-game mode in the Resident Evil series with 2, it really wasn’t until 3 that people likely got their first taste of true greatness, as Mercenaries was unlocked for simply beating RE3, even just on easy, and obviously, being available on the PS1 version, there was a good chance if one at least had the constitution to simply beat the main game, you probably got down on what ended up being one of the best unlocks in a video game I’ve ever seen.


*We’ve ever seen, comrades

That’s what ended up being *just so* fascinating about Mercenaries as an entity: such a simple concept, with such basic execution providing excellency through simplicity alone. For those not in the know, you essentially just controlled one of the three main mercs involved with Umbrella’s paramilitary group from the main game of RE3, the UBCS, in the form of either Carlos, Nikolai, or Mikhail, as you fought your way through the streets of Raccoon City. No real story, no focus on dialogue or cutscenes, just the meat and potatoes of the Resident Evil experience wrapped up in a fast paced arcade experience, full tilt. What was fantastic about Mercenaries was that it had more of a compellingly relentless feel of engagement, with the player fighting against time itself to finish the scenario before the clock reached zero. The different characters all had differing loadouts of weaponry, creating some variety in how you wanted to approach the scenario, and one could score more time, depending on how many enemies one killed, or civilians saved. You could always just “zombie maze” your way right past any encounter, helping to flesh out the strategy involved. Best of all, your final score could accumulate into unlockables for the main game involving super powerful weapons, further adding to the replayability for both the minigame and the main one at the same time


Carlos, learning a grammar lesson the hard way; the
pluralization of Nemesis is Nemeses

Fairly ingenious, albeit so simple, Mercenaries added such a tremendous value to the entire package, and even Capcom knew this, as they would go on to reuse similarly structured modes for other Resident Evil games in the future, and eventually just straight up bringing back Mercenaries mode for RE4, 5, and beyond.


Guess who’s back? Back again.

Capcom ended up seeing enough value in the concept to make it into it’s very own game, The Mercenaries 3D for the 3DS. While the game did meet with some controversy over what was seen as a shady business tactic by Capcom to curb the used game market by not being able to delete the save file on the cartridge, and many others decried the game for being overpriced for what was being offered, it was still a damn good time.


Raccoon City Reunion Right Here (and Krauser)

Aside from some small blemishes in Mercenaries history, it is largely celebrated as the piece de resistance in Resident Evil fame, and with good reason. Why Capcom thought it was at all a wise decision to not include it with the remake is beyond me, as Mercenaries seems like a vital part of the DNA that makes up not just the core fundamentals of what made RE3 so groovy, but it an integral part of the value of the RE series as a whole. I would posit the notion that after Capcom justified making Mercenaries into a full game experience, they would use that reasoning as a citation enough for the exclusion of the mode in the RE3 remake, but the RE4 remake eventually saw an update including Mercenaries as well, so that notion doesn’t hold water. Were it not for that fact, you could look at the absence of Mercenaries from the RE3 remake much like Nintendo omitting the old school NES games, like Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, available for play in future Animal Crossing games after the Gamecube version, operating under the assumption the company isn’t going to just give games away for free as unlocks in one of their titles, when they could easily charge you for a digital copy or the full price of a title. But again, the RE4 remake, with Mercenaries included exists, so any logic there after is whatever broken handwaving they wish to utilize.


The RE3 remake did come with a multiplayer
component, but it’s about as meh as meh gets

So yeah, that represents my celebration of what wasn’t, however queer of a notion that may be . As mentioned when I started, and as previously stated in my summation of my finalized thoughts involving the RE3 remake, what we ended up getting was a “respectable salute to the end of Raccoon City”, but a Mercenaries sized hole is left apparent in the heart of the entire experience. It’s true what they say. The grass is always greener, and you don’t really know what you had, until it’s gone. Gone.


Gone.

~Pashford

Encyclopedia Muranica: The Absent Rain Theorem

Sometimes, you’ve got to look at the absence of what’s not there for the deepest, relative value you care about, and the lack observed thereafter will help put into perspective what matters most.


For example, not pictured: Fry

After a nearly week long romp of raging through Raccoon City, I’m more or less at ease with my adventures through the abhorrently infested zone of nightmarishly ghoulish proportions. As predicted, I took a second to size my unofficial review of the game up, and I think I more or less hit all of the notes of importance I wanted to. “Back in my day”…so to speak, when I was writing reviews in a more official capacity, they use to be far more long winded, maybe even taking a fine toothed comb of the entire process to a certain detrimental nature of sorts. I gladly leave that structural approach behind, as it feels a bit too outdated at this point, and perhaps leaned too heavily on magnifying the nitty gritty details almost obsessively, to the point of being OCD about the most frivolous of nonsense.


Much in the vein of: 0MFG! NEMESIS DOES TENTACLE THINGS TO
MONSTERS IN THE REMAKE! HE NEVER DID TENTACLE THINGS TO
MONSTERS IN THE ORIGINAL!!!11!

One important takeaway I feel of my overall thoughts involving the RE3 remake, was in regards to a notion I mentioned awhile back…which is ironic, cause I don’t even remember what it was initially in reference too, but the idea was sound I think I initially used a different name for the happening as well, but I’m reutilizing it again with the new dubbing “The Absent Rain Theorem”, as it deals with the concept of seeing value relative to what isn’t present. I initially posited it in terms of focusing on how much it isn’t raining when I ride my bike, as opposed to how much it is raining, to help frame my own perspective on the moment itself, and I ended up reusing the very same idea for my review on the RE3 remake, in all of the excessive absences that make up it’s quality.


Another good example: this wall has now enhanced in quality,
because of the massive fucking hole Jill just blew through it. It’s the
absence of material that makes it so god damn metal. The theorem
works in many ways of detailing quality.

To wit; the A.R.T (Absent Rain Theorem) I ended up utilizing was extraordinarily helpful in focusing my perspective involving the RE3 remake by what wasn’t present, more so than what was, and then parsing through whether or not that was good or bad….or just, different, relatively speaking. That doesn’t necessarily mean it drove me down a mad path of delusion involving said quality, or kept me in denial about the inherent “-ishness” (that’s right, I used that idea a little while back, too) of the game, as it in fact lacked too much in most regards, failing it’s own “-ishness”, both in what was absent, and what was present, but I think my approach with A.R.T in mind was a useful philosophical approach that has now worked in a couple of different applications, and I think will get a lot of use out of me moving forward.


Pictured: Nemesis, trying to get (a) value (meal) out of a
Jill (Sandwich)

With all of that said, and the post mortem on the event more or less done and dusted, I figured I would mirror the game a bit in it’s machinations…or at least, the original release of Resident Evil 3, by having my last focus on the game be about what comes after the escape from Raccoon City, and ironically, fits in with my mention and usage of A.R.T, in distilling the nature of what the RE3 remake fundamentally lacks, and one of the core absences that degrade the entire process after the fact.

And that’s the Mercenaries.


Absence makes the heart grow fonder

To be concluded…

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits Pt.3

When it rains, it pours.


Umbrella Corp: redefining unregulated capitalism, one city
at a time

For anyone who hasn’t been following along, I’ve basically been using the last week as a platform to discuss my thoughts on the Resident Evil 3 remake, in all of it’s monstrous glory. The whole thing started as a send up to my regularly reoccurring replay of the title, which usually starts on September 28th, in conjunction with the start of the game itself, and Jill Valentine’s last ditch efforts to escape Raccoon City. I alternate years it seems, between my autumn getaways located in Silent Hill and RC, depending on where the time shares happen to be cheaper any given year.


Cratering infrastructure has Racoon City real estate at rock
bottom prices, you see

I ended up writing “The Save Rooms” as a moment of respite, which aligned quite well with the theme of the article itself. The write up happened as a result of what would appear to be some sort of trepidation in writing my final thoughts on the RE3 remake, inspite of having played through the game a couple of times in as many days. I think I’m so used to focusing on “meatball writing”, the fast and dirty approach to get the job done, that the act has left larger scale pieces outside of my regularly flexed muscles. Though I honestly don’t like content that is gargantuan in scope, whether it be video essays or think pieces. The internet works best in small bite delights, I find.


So sayeth the memes

So yeah, I’m going to finally Frankenstein my thoughts together, involving some of the pieces I’ve already written, and finalize my reckonings on the RE3 remake, before getting back to headlines as usual on ATE, as dwelling on Raccoon City much longer will likely leave me in a similarly devastated state as the city itself. To wit; and in reiteration: I do think the game feeling as if it is “speedrunning” itself, in terms of story structure and pacing, does butcher some of the finer elements of what made the original RE3 something special. As noted, Brad’s involvement is too minimal, you meet Carlos too quickly, and Nemesis’ debut is far too sudden, with no build up of suspense at all before his big reveal. I know the new remakes are trying a balancing act of maintaining the old school feel of survival horror, while trying to keep the gas pedal pressed down in the vein of RE4, but the first third of the game feels way too compacted narratively speaking to be seen as an improvement, which is further impacted by the remakes lack of branching choices during the non-present live selection outcomes that made the original that much more fleshed out.


The meter maid situation in Raccoon City is completely out of
control

In reference to recalling my next point of interest, I mentioned a disappointment in the re-canonization of events for the RE3 remake, which is definitely more of a preference thumbs down on my behalf than a complete necessity in making the game a better experience. The series has this weird mix of leaning on the background lore to prop it up, while also playing fast and loose with the story elements at the same time. On some level: I get it. People came here to shoot zombies, not read books, but the amount the fanbase seems to care about finer details, and the small care the devs look like they’re trying to put into background stuff is apparent, but it does feel like the bare minimum to check a box. You also have to consider, between originals, remakes, additional content etc, just how much regular and expanded canon exists, the amount of info you could play with, and or the expansion of it in beefing up the story elements of RE3 would go a long way, but alas, nothing of the sort can be said for the remake. With the way they do nothing to add new elements, but on top of that, take away old ones by remixing the game so much, I feel as if we are left with a reduction of points of interests involving the S.T.A.R.S member and Raccoon City in general during it’s final days, and we’re all worse off for it.


We even lost Carlos’ accent in the remake , dammit!

We of course have the gameplay to talk about, which there is plenty to discuss, acknowledging I have only registered complaints with what the title doesn’t have thus far, but the absences are too brutally obvious not to mention (a little more on that later, even). The RE3 remake definitely has a lot of thanks to give to the RE2 remake which proceeded it, as the game makes use of the Re Engine that made 2 look so damn good and feel so nice to control in, so both aesthetically speaking and from a control standpoint the RE3 remake passes muster with luster. The audio design is a bit touch and go, as the gun effects fail to carry any weight, and the new OST kind of seems to just blend in instead of standout and accentuate the experience, save for the old audio cues they use from the original interspersed throughout the experience, which is telling, I think.


Can’t go wrong with a save room theme

Obviously, the RE3 Remake has moved on as the series has, and therefore tank controls are a thing of the past. Aiming, shooting, moving, dodging throughout the environment, all feel non-challenging, which is what you want to hear with any game, especially one where you’ll be fighting for your life on a regular basis. The series has expanded in terms of difficulty both ways: there are plenty of options to make the game both easier and harder, though the baseline difficulty level honestly feels maybe a bit too generous, as auto saves, excessive ammo, and even just regular save points, which felt like they were almost every other room, makes this feel like a very user friendly survival horror experience. One can of course pump up the difficulty and or go for some of the more limiting trophies to spice up your experience, (S rank, no healing, playing on Inferno), but I still feel as if the core gameplay involving Nemesis himself should be far more tense and challenging, given the supposed nature of the beast.


Nemesis always did take laser tag a little too seriously

For all it lacks, and as noted, the amount it does lack feels ample, (no Mercenaries, guys? so brutal), there is plenty of still “good enough” gameplay to get down on here. I think as a remake, Resident Evil 3 fails quite significantly, in basically bringing nothing new to the table, and even taking a lot of what worked off of the table in the process. This is underlined in stark contrast to just how much work they seemed to put into the RE2 remake to make it really feel like a complete reinvention of a classic game, which is an amazing feat. The RE3 remake is a pale shadow in comparison to it’s predecessor, both in terms as a follow up to the RE2 remake, and in reference to it’s original outing. It lacks greatness, but doesn’t skimp on the fun, and acts as a respectable salute to the end of Raccoon City.



~Pashford

The Save Rooms

About to shoot the shit about safe areas in the Resident Evil series. Stay awhile and listen…


Oops, wrong game.

Same energy though, you know? I was sitting down to attempt to Frankenstein my thoughts together involving the Resident Evil 3 remake, and figured it would be appropriate to catch a breather, so to speak, in the spirit of the energy the save rooms of Resident Evil fame have to offer, and the magic imbued within. Obviously, other games have similar moments of respite, the encampment from Diablo 2’s first area springs to mind, and even something like Mario 64’s Castle act as moments of relief amidst the chaos that ensues when exploring the madness found within.


“Wow! What a mansion!”

The Save Rooms from the Resi series probably maintain such a warm place in my heart due to the contrast between what they represent, and the gameplay inherent within the titles themselves, especially pre-Resident Evil 4, as the series morphed into something else entirely from that point on. The Save Rooms (great band name, by the way) come equipped with calming themes of atmospheric backdrops that let you know everything was going to be alright for a few brief moments, reinforcing the notion you were completely safe from harm or needing to make any life or death decisions for a few precious minutes. Of course, the save rooms also came packing with the good old reliable safe box, which housed the breadth of your saved inventory, healing goodies, key items, badass weaponry galore, but also the typewriter (of legend), which allowed one to save their progress, so they could safely reload and live to fight another day once more.


*Slaps ink ribbon* You can fit so many gruesome
realities in this baby

While I am not usually on the generational vibe train that comes with waxing philosophical while looking back at the nostalgic feels of yesteryear, it behooves me to mention that The Save Rooms in all of their ambience inducing glory, are indeed strong with the force of 90’s energy. I find that, at least in the realm of video games, those strong kind of feels are really all one needs to win over the adult kids now a days, as drudging apathy and inane monotony of the everyday howls so relentlessly, any reminder of an enjoyable summers day gone by that may be evoked from something like the sound of a save room theme is all one needs to find chill in this hectic, chaotic mess we call existence, just to give ourselves a well needed moment of zen.


Both Redfields and Valentine agree: Save Rooms
are the way to be! (Leon unavailable for comment
as he was too busy being a real police dude at the time)

Plus, the save rooms also totally ruled when you were summoning the last of your energy, montage style, in getting all of your best equipment out of the safe box, gearing yourself up in a moment of excited rally to take down the final boss at like 5 in the morning while getting totally hyped.


Groovy

So yeah, there’s a little bit of a revelry of warmth from yours truly. I get carried away sometimes with an intense focus on being perhaps, too methodical in my approach to deconstructing games or overly analytical in breaking down their finer components in relation to design or the overall ethos at large that dictates form or fashion, but for once, I figured I would think with my heart and feel with my brain, and reminisce about the cozy feelings found within The Save Rooms.

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits Pt.2

When life imitates art…


We all see bad box art Mega Man in the mirror

During my recent attempts at writing about replaying the Resident Evil 3 remake, in regards to my annual observation of the significance involving September 28th, I’ve been detailing elements of the game I feel just don’t quite hold a candle up to the original. Not because I dislike the game on any real level, mind you, but the fondness I have for classic Resident Evil throbs in my veins to this day, and that sort of energy is harder to beat into submission than a Nemesis that just won’t take the hint.


It sucks when someone misses out on hints of subtleties

While I have enjoyed the bite sized addresses to the elements I speak of, and they have fittingly run alongside the track of the days involving the demise of Raccoon City itself, it also comes at a time when my schedule has turned completely upside down, with me waking up mere hours before midnight to complete a list of activities I prefer to have done by midnight, so my time conjuring thoughts on Jill Valentine and her heroics involving tenure as a S.T.A.R.S member have been not unlike the nightmare of keeping a schedule in order while fighting against the hordes of the undead.


The textbook definition of no chill

I plan on doing some compartmentalizing of my thoughts into one super-cut article here in the next day(?) to tidy everything up a bit, given that I’m nearly out of time to write anything of long winded merit here, but I will leave you with yet another point of disinterest related to why the remake of Resident Evil 3 was kind of a step down from the original in another regard, as the game reduces a players autonomy by dispensing of the branching story options of emergency the original provided. While some were of small note in their implementation, others provided large deviation to the overall pacing of the narrative at hand, and in terms of how you went about navigating the back alleys of Raccoon City.


I hate when they don’t include the relevant number
of self-defenestrations needed when navigating a map

Just another element I’ll have to roll up into the eventual equivalent of a Resident Evil 3 Remake burrito for your enjoyment. To be continued…

~Pashford