Impressions and Reminder

Playing The Umbrella Chronicles was not bad. A couple of friends laughed at me for wanting to play it so bad because they read reviews that said it was bad.

I half agreed with them. First off, graphics were not the best in the world. The cutscenes reminded me of the Resident Evil 1 remake for the gamecube. But the in game graphics looked like a dolled up Playstation 1 one. Yeah, that's what I saw.

Now mind you, I'm not a graphics ho by any means, I still go back and play some N64 games for funsies. I appreciate great graphics....when they're expected. I don't expect drop dead gorgeous graphics from Wii games. That wasn't what it was built for.

Either way, the gameplay is a rail shooter, plain and simple. You aim and fire and eventually reload by shaking your nunchuk (if you use the Wii Zapper) The game recommends you use the nunchuk outside of the Wii zapper in a separate hand, but I tried the other way. Keeping the nunchuk in the zapper is not problematic, as you can jerk the back of the zapper to reload your gun, the problem comes in certain fights where they want you to shake the nunchuk from side to side to dodge a monster. It's tough for the game to recognize you're emulating an seizure to get that dodge in when the nunchuk is in the Wii Zapper.

Outside of that, the game is somewhat difficult for me. Which I like. But it's also frustrating. You don't get much health to begin with, and the end bosses take it down quickly if you are not careful.

The other aggrivating thing is that The Umbrella Chronicles was touted as a game that "filled in the gaps" of the Resident Evil story. Helped you figure everything out. Which is a good thing. However, alot of their "backstory" is collected as a series of files that you collect by shooting stuff in the game, like pictures on the wall  or vases and the pick up the umbrella logos that appear. then you can read the files in the menu after the game. Yep...read. No video cutscene....no audio accompaniment....just reading. Nothing against that....but it would've been nice to have some better delivery of it.

Outside of that, it appears the game branches out a lot. As you finished one chapter, you get several branch off matches that help to tell the story of the individual characters.


All in all, not a bad game. The atmosphere is nowhere near as scary as the original Resident Evil games. But it's a fun play and worth a rental or Gamefly spot.




So there you go. I played alot of Rock Band last night too and tried to get used to playing on Hard....it sucks. Power chords are a problem for me and moving from power chord to power chord is extra hard for me. I liked using the Fender guitar better but I don't own the whole pack, just the game. I might pick one up at a later time. Who knows.

I also watched Ratatoullie last night. I love anything Pixar does, it's pure gold. I was kinda concerned that Disney totally owning them would cause their quality of movies to go down. Not sure...it's Pixar through and through. Such a good movie.


Either way, good day to all!


HEY! GH3 Fans! Don't forget to pick up Dream On by Aerosmith for GH 3 this weekend. It's only available until Monday night!