I have loved the Resident Evil series ever since I played the first game on PS1 in the late-90s (the Director’s Cut to be exact). I tend to think of the mainline games as distinct eras: original (the first game through Zero), action (4 through Revelations 2), and RE Engine (VII, VIII, and the recent remakes). Even with nostalgia intact and despite a couple of small missteps, I believe the RE Engine era is the best Resident Evil has ever been.
One of the few complaints about the original Resident Evil 4 is that it isn’t as scary as other games in the series. This is mostly due to the copious action and frequent silly moments. The remake keeps the action intact, but also ups the tension and atmosphere. The horror is arguably at its best when the player is put in control of Ashley as she tries to rescue Leon in the castle.
As I planned last week, I watched season one of Interview With The Vampire. It’s an absolutely incredible adaptation; it takes the plot, characters, and themes of the original novel and remixes them in a way that’s both surprising to fans and more relevant to modern society. It’s also grimly funny. Looking forward to checking out season 2 when it drops on Netflix at the end of the month.
I’ve been continuing myplaythrough of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, which inspired me to revisit one of my favorite films, Interview with the Vampire.
I was not prepared for VtM: B. I probably should have read a guide or something before jumping in, but instead I’m figuring out the systems and mechanics as I go. Case in point: I was working on a quest where I needed to talk to homeless characters, and my only dialogue options were incredibly Patrick Bateman-esque.
I don’t know why this took me so long. I knew the game was a classic in one of my favorite genres (messy ambitious action CRPG) and I knew I’d probably love it. I’m a casual VtM fan- never played the TTRPG but I do own a VHS boxset of Kindred: The Embraced (and more recently I’ve really enjoyed the New York visual novels and the comic series from Vault).
I’m a CRPG-loving Elder Goth, what did it take for me to finally play Bloodlines? A one-click mod. I knew unmodded Bloodlines was a nightmare on modern (or vintage) hardware, but I had never done the proper research to get the right mod(s). Then along come GOG with their ultra simple curated mods, which are (literally) game-changing for a kinda dumb and very lazy retro PC gaming enthusiast like myself.
