Before Santa unloaded his sack into my games room (erm…) I’d been bitten by the collecting bug once again, but have grown slack in the documenting of new entries. So this update is an amalgamated one – old-school games gleaned from eBay and full-price purchases from my own wallet; and games I received as Christmas gifts. Together, they form a substantial update. I’m going to be a very, very busy boy in the coming months.

Update #34

Christmas Presents

Uncharted 3 (PS3)

Tomb Raider Trilogy (PS3)

Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus Classics HD (PS3)

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (PS3)

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)

Gears Of War 3 (Xbox 360)

Need For Speed: The Run (Xbox 360)

Scene It? Box Office Smash (Xbox 360)

Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo 3DS)

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D (Nintendo 3DS)

Tales Of The Abyss (Nintendo 3DS)

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (Nintendo 3DS)

The Rest

Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)

Driver: San Francisco (Xbox 360)

The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox 360) – £3.00 from eBay

Turning Point: Fall Of Liberty (Xbox 360) – £2.20 from eBay

Table Tennis (Xbox 360) – £2.51 from eBay

Turok (Xbox 360) – £1.65 from eBay

Blur (Xbox 360) – £9.50 from eBay

BioShock (Xbox 360) – £1.91 from eBay

Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) – £4.70 from eBay

Eternal Ring (PS2) – £0.99 from eBay

Evergrace (PS2) – £2.00 from eBay

Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary (Ps1) – £1.50 from eBay

Final Fantasy VI (PS1) – £12.51 from eBay

First up, a confession. Despite trying to use ‘we’ and ‘our’ wherever possible, Infinite Continues is a one-man band. Hello, I’m Ashley. I have a full-time job and a full-time girlfriend and even a full-time, newly-acquired, cat. I have interests that aren’t gaming, and an occasional social life, and mood swings and bouts of laziness and other fallacies and weaknesses that generally put the skids on a one-man, all-encompassing videogames site. Without others to write the content, these fluctuations in the ebb  and flow of a typical human life will, of course, result in the digital tumbleweed that rolls breezily across this domain with alarming frequency. So, from now on, I will call a spade a spade. Everything from now on is ‘I’, me’ and ‘mine’, as the Beatles would say.

Secondly, writing original content is hard. I suppose this is why a lot of sites of similar exposure levels as this one are content with regurgitating content from the big boys, spinning the same news story as you might read on dozens of other sites. I’ve never done this on IC, and will never do so, for two reasons. One, I find such stories pretty boring to write, and why do that to myself when, chances are, you’ve already read it elsewhere. And also, I’m not a games journalist – I receive no press releases, no advance review copies, I have next to no contacts in the industry. Everything here is the fruit of my own labours, with the money from my own wallet. And that’s fine, I’m just calling a spade a spade again. Essentially I’m just a big videogames fanboy hoping to add his voice to all those that already talk about videogames online. On his own bloody slickly-designed (in my modest opinion) website.

Where does that leave IC moving forward then? To be honest, I’m not sure. I have no plans to close it down for good, as I have built up a following and presence (of sorts) which I’d be loathe to lose. But there may be a period of transition as I get to grips with what content should go up here. Many people are drawn here by my Videogame Minimalism works, which is great, but something I’ve tried to distance from my writing. Others have come for the interviews with indies that I conducted in the past. I presume others come for the updates to my games collection, a sprawling mass of boxes which essentially consumes the entirety of the attic room of my house. Whatever has brought you here, I want to thank you for coming, and hope that you’ll stick around as I try to resurrect Infinite Continues from its ashes. Perhaps now that I’ll be writing it directly from my own point of view, I can dispense with the stifling veneer of professionalism and inject a bit more personality and honesty into proceedings. Because I’m just the same as you – a person who loves games. Infinite Continues is just a platform for me to get excited about them, and now I’ve reinforced that fact to myself once again, maybe a few people might lend their opinions so we can have a good old chinwag about them round these parts.

Of course, if you’d like to contribute to Infinite Continues yourself, to stave off the overbearing silence that descends on this place between my posts, that would be good too. Drop me an email at contact [at] infinitecontinues [dot] net.

And you can also find me chatting bollocks about videogames on the Infinite Continues Facebook page, and on Twitter.

Thanks for your attention, and hope to see you round here again soon!

Below you’ll find out what games we picked up, but we’ve decided not to put the prices – these were all full-price games at high street prices anyway.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off back to the crushing difficulty of Lordran’s swamps and castles… Expect a First Impressions post on Dark Souls too.

Update #33

Resistance 3 (PS3)

Space Marine (Xbox 360)

Dead Island (Xbox 360)

Dark Souls (Xbox 360)

Rage (Xbox 360)

Batman: Arkham City (PS3)

Available now as Giclee prints on lightly-textured, high-quality 315gsm ‘fine-art’ paper, are posters of our most popular Videogame Minimalism designs, from Mario and Luigi, through Master Chief, to the most recognisable stars of Capcom’s Street Fighter series. There’s sure to be something there to adorn the bare walls of your gaming haven of choice.

Pop over to our MySoti store to see the full range and pick your size, from A4 to enormous A1. Enjoy!

There’s a very loose theme of survival horror tying this update together, no doubt inspired by a recent playthrough of Silent Hill: Origins from the last update, although it’s obvious that Mario Tennis bucks that theme quite considerably, unless the portly plumber’s eyes suddenly roll up into his skull and he begins drooling underneath that immaculate moustache. Ahem.

With survival horror in mind, it’s little wonder that Resident Evil features. In this case, we pick up the original for the Sega Saturn, perhaps our first purchase for that forgotten relic of a console since this site was founded. We also snap up the remake for the DS, subtitled with the Deadly Silence moniker. The final ‘horror’ title comes in the form of rare oddity D for the PS1. We’ve popped it in, and it’s hilariously bad, and so astonishingly alien to videogame standards of today that we’re considering playing it through for a From The Collection piece, just for the sheer novelty factor.

Elsewhere, NES game Gremlins 2 features; a title fondly-remembered in IC Towers. We’ll be booting up our custom-painted NES for that one soon, make no mistake. And finally, we move one step closer to a complete set of Onimusha games with the GBA entry Onimusha: Tactics, which we mentioned in our last update.

A veritable smörgåsbord of tasty videogame treats then. We’re looking forward to tucking in. In the meantime, you can view the complete update, along with prices paid, below.

Update #32

Gremlins 2 (NES) – £5.99 from eBay

Resident Evil (Sega Saturn) – £7.50 from eBay

Mario Tennis (N64) – £4.99 from eBay

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS) – £8.00 from eBay

Onimusha: Tactics (GBA) – £1.45 from eBay

D (PS1) – £11.99 from eBay

Cross-hatched pencil, ever-shifting watercolour clouds, cartoon platforms, vector geometry; El Shaddai’s art style flits about frenetically at a breakneck pace. As soon as your eyes have accustomed to one vivid, unique effect, you are transported off to another world, bedecked in yet another polar opposite one. It’s initially quite jarring, but there is no denying that Ignition’s art directors have outdone themselves here – given carte blanche to do as they wished, and seemingly struck by too many ideas to narrow them down, they’ve simply chucked them all in. The result is a hodge-podge of one-off visual feasts, used and quickly discarded, any one of which you’ve never seen a videogame rendered in before.

It’s a shame then, given the beauty of the environments, that their implementation lets them down. Jagged edges abound when viewed on a large HD TV, and can’t help but break the immersion. In one particular neon-decked area, with huge floating platforms receding into the formidable draw distance, the result is downright ugly. The main character and enemy models fare better though, and provide a rare thread of consistency through the ever-changing landscapes of El Shaddai’s opening chapters.

So far we’ve yet to find gameplay that matches the sheer ingenuity of the game’s visuals. Enoch, the main protagonist, uses standard combos, power attacks and dash moves that characterise the hack ‘n’ genre; a move-set you’ve practised so often, and clicks into place so quickly here that you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing God Of War if it weren’t for the gaudy, supernatural colours coalescing all around you. Even the weapons are handed out by stealing them from your foes – sound familiar? It seems our well-polished ‘comparison’ tool has gotten a run-out after all.

Familarity sets in further when progression settles into an early, repetitious rhythm. Environments can abruptly be cordoned off in order to spawn a slew of enemies, with the walls only coming down once all have been vanquished. These well-worn hack ‘n’ slash arenas are often interspersed with 2D platforming sections that sometimes call recent downloadable hit Outland to mind, but which lack that game’s finely-tuned physics. There’s something about Enoch’s jump that feels stiff and incomplete which can lead to awkward platforming and common, frustrating falls.

A less than stellar start for El Shaddai then, but if anything can lead us through these unentertaining periods of gameplay, it’s the promise of yet another brilliant new piece of environmental design, yet another artistic lens through which to view the unfolding story. We’ve never seen anything like it, and such originality is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stale marketplace. We think that’s worth sticking with, so expect our full review soon.

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron releases in the UK this Friday on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Elsewhere, the PSP gets a rare update with Silent Hill: Origins, thus bringing us one step closer to the complete SH collection. We also snapped up the fourth Onimusha game, Dawn Of Dreams, after thoroughly enjoying the original in our recent trip down memory lane for our From The Collection series. We’re only missing Onimusha Tactics and Onimusha Blade Warriors from Capcom’s samurai franchise now.

We also picked up recent release Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the Xbox 360, and been bungling our stealth attempts every day since. And rounding out the update this week is Silpheed: The Lost Planet, a PS2 title gifted to us for the Collection, and a game we know absolutely nothing about…

The full update, including prices paid, can be seen below:

Update #31

Silent Hill: Origins (PSP) – £9.51 from eBay

Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams (PS2) – £6.01 from eBay

Silpheed: The Lost Planet (PS2) – Gifted to the IC Collection

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360) – £37.99 in-store from Currys

Catherine (PS3) – £40.47 from Planet Axel

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron (PS3) – £38.60 from Planet Axel

Any remaining doubts that Onimusha: Warlords is from the same stable as the monstrously successful Resident Evil series are dispelled within minutes of taking control of Samanosuke (Sam from here on in), and hearing the hilarious localised voice acting come tumbling from his digitised lips. Elsewhere, as Sam crosses a bridge framed with a fixed cinematic camera angle, familiar-sounding crows squawk noisily before flying off-screen. For every typewriter in Resident Evil, there is a Magic Mirror here. For zombies, read demons.

And, boy, are there demons. They infest every nook and cranny of Princess Yuki’s castle, in which the action of Onimusha unfolds. Some bear skeletal faces, others spring and strike like ninjas. Still others are tall as houses. Some, like the crazed scientist Guildenstern, relish in creating yet more demons, such as those that sprout slimy, flesh-coloured tentacles that clone themselves should you slice them open. And then there is the king of demons, Fortinbras, snake-like and enormous, ready to bless the blood-filled skull of the princess so that Nobunaga, resurrected warlord of the Oda clan, can derive immense power from drinking it in order to crush his enemies. Keep up!

Fantastically absurd plot aside, it’s little wonder that Capcom chose to channel their flagship series for the creation of Onimusha – no series (perhaps with the notable exception of Silent Hill) has come close to matching its compelling slice of atmospheric puzzle-based action adventure. Onimusha’s additions to the formula were welcome ones. Combat plays a much more central role in the experience, with pistols and shotguns replaced with katanas and fire arrows. Souls from vanquished combatants also feed into the game’s RPG-like upgrade systems, where red souls can power-up each of Sam’s weapons that he obtains throughout the game.

It’s these weapons that form the crux of the progression through Onimusha’s early areas, with the Thunder, Fire and Wind orbs – which comprise the core of Sam’s various samurai blades – acting as keys to unlock further areas once inserted into his magic gauntlet (given to him by the oni at the beginning of the game). Backtracking and heavy use of the map are still familiar themes, but progression moves along at a fair clip. Puzzles are again integral to the experience – some involve simple number-matching logic problems to unlock trick treasure chests, while others, such as the rearrangement of blocks to save Sam from an early watery grave, are more challenging. More powerful items, which upgrade Sam’s health and magic meters, are stashed in boxes requiring codes to unlock. The answers to these cryptic questions can be pieced together by picking up Seiryus and Genbus, dusty old tomes written in Japanese glyphs.

When the bread and butter gameplay threatens to turn stale, Onimusha furnishes you with control of Kaede, Sam’s orange-clad ninja sidekick, in a dual character mechanic that could possibly have influenced the ‘partner-zapping’ gameplay of Resident Evil Zero, which released a year later exclusively for the Nintendo Gamecube. The onus here is different, thanks in no small part to Kaede’s lack of a gauntlet and associated upgrade orbs, thus relegating combat to a meaningless chore. It’s far more prudent to simply run past any adversaries in these sections, a tactic that reinforces Onimusha’s similarities with Resident Evil even further. Her smaller, un-upgradeable health bar makes her appearances throughout the game more difficult than Sam’s, where the consumption of precious herbs and medicines is a necessary setback. But these quibbles aside, her inclusion in the game adds variety to otherwise one-note gameplay.

It’s difficult to look back on Onimusha and its ilk without a huge degree of fondness for a genre that has largely become defunct. There’s a certain charm about fixed-camera action-adventure games that is absent from their contemporary, third-person counterparts. The smash-hit success of Resident Evil 4 sounded a death-knell for the fixed camera perspective in that series, with Resident Evil 5 taking the action and combat elements even further to the detriment of the series enduring quality. Returning to the illustrious roots of the horror franchise now would be too risky for Capcom, who are hedging their bets on third-person handheld title Resident Evil: Revelations and multiplayer shooter Operation Raccoon City. But with Onimusha, a series that has seen no new entries since Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams in 2006, perhaps the time is right for a glorious return to its old-school origins. There is arguably no series that engenders the warm fuzziness of nostalgia as the Resident Evil franchise, and with younger brother Onimusha bearing most of its classic hallmarks, there’s no better IP for Capcom to resurrect to its former glories.

eBay Price Guide: Onimusha: Warlords sold over 2 million copies worldwide, so there’s no shortage of the game on eBay. At the time of writing, you’ll only be spending between £1-£3 (excluding postage costs) to pick up this classic. It’s sequels are numerous and similarly cheap too, with the exception of the afore-mentioned Dawn Of Dreams, which is a little pricier (and which incidentally features in this week’s IC Update!).

Here’s a spoilerific look at Onimusha’s final battle, for those that wish to hear Fortinbras’ dulcet tones again:

Applying the principles of real world photography to the virtual worlds of games is just part of the solution. Hacking and tweaking games to remove player model, HUD and restrictions on the camera are others. The toughest, though, is rendering games from throughout the 3D era, from Deus Ex to Crysis 2, at truly uncompromising quality. There is a massive difference between running a game with top-of-the-line antialiasing and quality settings, and running it with those same settings at resolutions far in excess today’s norms, using offline resampling to achieve perfect results. Only recently, and after extensive research, have such methods become possible.

There is no discrimination here. Art is art, whether it’s in Half-Life 2 or Transformers: War For Cybertron. Not all games give it up easily, though, which is why some games take longer than others, or just won’t appear at all. Few developers have ever volunteered the means to shown their games off, and some don’t even have the means available.

We’ve posted a few of our favourites below, but you owe it to yourself to head on over to Dead End Thrills and spend a good hour or two gawking at the full-size versions. Duncan happens to be a lucid and funny writer too, and his explanations for each piece can be just as entertaining as the image itself. He also regularly updates a similarly-entertaining Twitter account. Top stuff.

Flags Of Our Fathers – Grand Theft Auto IV

Samaritan – Grand Theft Auto IV

Inside Out – Grand Theft Auto IV

Attack Vectors – Killer7

Futurama – F-Zero GX

Portal – Mass Effect 2

Butterfly Caught – Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Junglin’ Guy – Donkey Kong Country Returns

Arch Rivals – P.N.03

]]> http://www.infinitecontinues.net/2011/08/dead-end-thrills/feed/ 0 http://www.infinitecontinues.net/2011/07/icc-update-30/ http://www.infinitecontinues.net/2011/07/icc-update-30/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:12:28 +0000 infinitecontinues http://www.infinitecontinues.net/?p=2876 ... More]]> We kick off this update with a confession. It was only very recently (after idly sifting through the comments on a Game Informer post about a Resident Evil anniversary collection) we found out that, despite not playing PS2 games, PS3 consoles still bizarrely support PS1 titles. Armed with this new knowledge, and the comforting convenience of playing PS1 titles with a wireless controller, we eagerly hit eBay in order to snap up some forgotten gems.

We came up trumps, certainly in terms of obscurity anyway, even if we can’t verify the quality. We added five games to the collection this time out, all PS1 games, and all but one being titles that we had never even heard of before, including a sequel to office favourite Flashback in the form of portentously-titled Fade To Black. The game we were familiar with in terms of its popularity is, of course, Vagrant Story.

The other dusty relics we unearthed on the auction site are The City Of Lost Children (based on a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film of the same name), Necronomicon: The Dawning Of Darkness and Vampire Hunter D. If you know anything about these obscure old titles, or can advise whether we scooped up retro bargains or paid through our collective teeth, don’t forget to sound off in the comments below.

Update #30

Vagrant Story (PS1) – £9.50 from eBay

The City Of Lost Children (PS1) – £4.99 from eBay

Necronomicon: The Dawning Of Darkness (PS1) – £4.00 from eBay

Vampire Hunter D (PS1) £4.00 from eBay

Fade To Black (PS1) – £3.99 from eBay