It's been a while.

So it's been well over a year now since I posted a blog on this site, even though I visit the old Giant Bomb about 30 times a day whilst putting off uni work. I hope everyone is doing awesome.

Soul Calibur 2

I've never been as into fighting games as most people on this site seem to be. I grew up on Tekken 1-3 and a bit of Soulblade but never really dabbled with the "serious stuff" like SF2 until I was 16 or so, and even then only briefly. Whilst I may not be in a suitable position to judge Soul Calibur 2, I would argue that it's one of the most deep, well balanced, and enjoyable fighting games ever made (lets just say in the "3D" fighting game market). It made me realise how poor Soul Calibur 4 is in comparison, it feels so sluggish and unresponsive now. You'd think that an entirely offline, 7/8 year old fighting game would get boring after a few months, but my roommates and I spent about 3 hours a day on it for 9 months, I think that says it all.

Resident Evil 4

I really don't think I can say anything here that won't just be repeating the cries of hordes and hordes of Resi fans, but yeh, this game is insane. I played through it twice when it first came out, thought it was ok. I didn't really "get it". I still struggle to put my finger on exactly what it is that makes this game so great outside of it's contemporary "what-it-did-for-gaming" context but I think I can narrow it down to a few things: satisfying shooting mechanics, challenging but not infuriating difficulty, replayability like no-one's business, and an appropriately "eerie" game world (something lacking from 5 I thought). Furthermore, I don't think this game has aged badly at all, and I think this is precisely because of it's clunky control scheme; because Resi 5 used a similarly "out of date" interface it kinda established itself as something outside the canon of Gears/Uncharted/every other over-the-shoulder shooter. It's hard to explain but it just feels very "Resi", rather than very PS2-era-shooter. You get me? I'm probably talking nonsense.

So there's my first blog in ages, and it's about Soul Calibur 2 and Resi 4, at least I'm current with my gaming then...

I'll try and write another, more ordered/interesting, blog soon, been playing lots of Red Dead/Undead Nightmare, Uncharted 2 and Yakuza 3 amongst others. So stay tuned if you're in anway interested!

Peace.