Exam season is finally over, woohoo! I think I did quite well in yesterday's exam; as predicted, the two questions I had prepared for did appear and they were only ever so slightly different compared to last year's paper.
Resident Evil 4 was simply begging for more attention so I decided to step into the shoes of Racoon City's finest cop for some action-packed, errr... action, for lack of a better word. In the space of 6 or 7 hours game time, I've encountered some of the freakiest and largest bosses I've ever seen in any Resi game, hats off to Mr Mikami for managing to scare even a die-hard Resi veteran. The more I play, it becomes quite clear that the inspiration for a lot of the monsters this time round come from such sci-fi classics as Alien, Aliens, and The Thing. One particular scenario in the sewer with a nasty beasty had my heart racing like there was no tomorrow, a feeling I've not experienced since the first time I watched Aliens as a kid. There's even an Indiana Jones runaway mine train part of the game which is great fun, I got so carried away that I missed the QTE sequence right at the end of the line... Now for the big question, is it the best Resident Evil game I've ever played? Its certainly the most fun but unfortunately as I've mentioned before, it seems to break too many conventions to cater for a wider audience. The remake of Resident Evil on the GameCube shall remain the pinnacle of the series unless the remaining 8 or 9 hours of Resi 4 can prove otherwise. Still a very good game and any 'Cube owner should be proud to have it amongst their collection.
In the midst of Spanish people slaying, I caught an episode of Beck which I'd not seen for a while. Quite an original story (I've not seen anything like it so far), its not actually the creation and exploits of the band that keeps me watching, more the developing relationship between Maho and Koyuki. Its refreshing to see a couple in anime behave like one in real-life; there's no mega punches, cheesey one-liners, or nose bleed moments; just touching glances at what they have between them. I look forward to what else Beck has instore, even if it is just for this portion alone.
