h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which also kicks ass to a not imconsiderable degree. Unlike GT2, Resident Evil 3 has really fantastic music. Nice to see the Capcom soundtrack people have followed on from their fine work in RE2, which has possibly the coolest game soundtrack of all time.

I bought Resident Evil 3 for a friend, cos I didn't look 15. And I've never played on it since . Oh, if only I was as into this sort of thing as I was ages back...

To me, it looks like more of the same. Kill zombie with guns, kill bigger things with bigger guns, solve rock-hard/easy puzzles and get scared so much you sleep with the light on.

It's a winning formula for a game, but it sems to be getting a little strained. Whaddya say 'bout it, then?

It's pretty good, but not as scary as RE2; they seem to have gone in for zombies jumping out on you in a big way, and there's only so many ways you can do that - through doors, though windows, etc. The big Nemesis geezer - he's a real doublehard bastard with his bazooka sellotaped to his arm, but not actually that frightening, and he's in the game all the bloody time. It's like, "Well that's another 15 minutes of game gone by, so I'm due for the Nemesis to turn up. Oh, here he is, round that corner.".
So, yeah, it is really more of the same. More dodgy voice acting, more obsessively recreated firearms, more unpleasant surprises (though they in particular seem to be getting stale). The one thing that keeps the game going is the story and atmosphere. The opening CGI sequence, a last stand by cops and helicopter-riding soldiers against hordes of ravenous zombies, rocks, and the whole thing's really, really dark. If the plot and atmosphere weren't there, it'd probably be a bit crap to be honest. Style over substance.

The main appeal to me about the Resi games is the story. And the scariness. I remember running through the 'music' from the Police Station in Resi2 through my head at night. May not sound much, but it's kind of unnerving in the pitch black of night

However, the only way to really get scared by these games is to play them in the dark on your own, and I'm just not keen on that. So I'm missing out on one of the best bits of the game!

Hey, you know when you do Scenario B on Resi2, there's this big guy who's dropped into the police station from a helicopter at the start, and every so often he pops up and smacks you round the head. Who the hell was thay guy?!

That big guy (the Tyrant?) is a blatant Terminator rip-off! But he's still cool. What I can't get is why, if the chopper's dropping loads of the buggers all over the city, they make such a big deal of him getting up from the pummelings you give him. Why not just have a different one come up and give you a slap?
The way they shocked and scared you in RE2 was pretty imaginative compared to RE3. Remember that bit in the interregation room where a Licker smashes through the two-way mirror at you? Or the first time you see one, when it crawls silently across a window. Or when the big bald guy turns that corner and marches stoically through your gunfire. That was sheer class. So far at least, nothing that impressive has happened in RE3. Just zombies jumping through windows. Tch!
I like the darkness in the RE games, like they way they imply that Jill Valentine is suicidal in RE3, and that bit in Clare's scenario where they made it look like the insane police chief had gutted and stuffed the mayor's dead daughter. That was sick!
Man, the music in Resident Evil 2 rocks! That's the only game soundtrack I'd even consider buying on CD.

Tyrant? Wasn't he in Resi1? Actually, I don't think so. I think it wa just a big gribbly monster at the end of Resi1.
So, did they drop loads of these guys in the city? Why? Was it Umbrella doing it?

Now, when was I scared in Resi2? well, you read the magazines and talk to friends, so a few of the surprises you don't get to apprciate. But no matter how many times I checked the guide (yeah, I cheated), I was never reading for the Licker jumping through the window!
Hey, remember when you walk through the corridor of the police station, and these zombie arms reach through the windows and grab you? I thought it was some sort of big spider, before I heard the moaning.

Oh yeah, in the sewers. I'm an arachnipohobe, but I don't have much of a problem with the Resi spiders. But when hey walk straight up to the screen...yuch!

Hey, you know that bit when you come out of the police station with the machine gun, you walk across this small bridge and this big monster comes up in front of you. Just what is the point in that thing? I just stood there and shot him, neve gave me no problems. The little cocksuckers that came out of him, well they were just annpying...

Shucks, I got so much to say! This is one big trip down the memory for me

I got the impression that all the cylinders under that helicopter had bald blokes in them. But maybe not. Actually... I aways assumed that those blokes were some kind of Umbrella gene-engineered military force. But... that's exactly what the Nemesis from RE3 is. So maybe the bald guys aren't Umbrella. That helicopter they come in on looks military... Or maybe the Nemesis is like a go-faster-stripes version of the bald guys. Or something.
Yeah, the arms thing in RE2 was pretty frightening. That bit in the Police Station outhouse, where you open a door, get the "opening door" amination - and then a load of zombies march through! That kept me on edge - kept me thinking that I'd open a door and a licker or spider'd jump out at me!

That's something great about Resi. The amount of speculation you can do. Does wonders to widen the plot . Any opportunities to do it in Resi3? How far have you got in it?

Apparently, there's this Survivor Resi game, in the style of Time Crisis. Know anything about it?

I think I'm about a third of a way into RE3 - not sure. There's some interesting stuff in it so far, like the Umbrella Biohazard Containment Team soldiers you meet - seems they've been sent in to try and rescue any civilians still alive. But that might not be their mission. Why are they there at the same time as that Nemesis guy? Speculation... it's great. Half-Life, that's another game you can have fun with the backplot.
As for that new game - it looks really scary! Think of all the things in Resi which are pretty frightening, and then imagine that instead of jumping out on some liitle bloke on the screen, they're jumping right - at - your - face. Agggggghhhh! Like the spiders, or the lickers. And even those little cocksucker things you mentioned - they're irritating in RE2, sure, but in this new game, they'll actually crawl right over your face. Brrrrr!
You need a light-gun to play it, but apparently it plays like Quake - you steer and walk about by tilting and raising the light-gun.
In the game, you're some Umbrella guy who's lost his memory, and ends up crashing his helicopter into another zombie-infested town. And there are these gas-masked Umbrella soldiers with green blood, who may be modified Lickers.

So, are the soldiers in Resi3 acting friendly, in a sort of fake way?
Dang, when my sister lends us her Playstation, I gotta borrow this game off my m8!

I thought the Survivor game wouldn't be so scary, for the reasons which you cite. Having a load of zimnies leaping out at you isn't that scary. If they still manage to make the game scary (over-used word *^_^*) then it'll be a work of genius.

Not trying to spoil the plot or anything, but with the soldiers, one minute it's "We're mercenaries on a mission to rescue innocent people, blah, blah, know nothing about Umbrella's plans, blah" and the next, they're banging on about how they can't work with Jill Valentine because they don't trust her. Hmm. And then they stop caring about rescuing the survivors and instead want to go to a specific point across town. But why?

It's annoying. I keep wanting to know more about the plot, yet I tell people not to tell me irl because it spils it when I play the game! But this is fine.

Sounds typical Resi stuff to me. Where is it they want to go?

A clock tower. But why? Maybe there's something under or inside it. Or maybe it's because the programmers want you to shoot the Nemesis off the top of the thing.

Or, it could get blown up. Any of those things would be cool.

Always seems to be the way with buildings in Resi games, don't it? Either they get irrevocably overrun by zombies, or they blow up. Every time.

You could run down a street full of zombies with a nearly empty pistol, and bump into somebody else with a nearly empty pistol from the next game.

"Hey, I thought I was meant to be in the sequel?"
"Goddamn, my game's not finished yet. You're not meant to be here until the helicopter with the virus crashes!"

"But I can't just leave! I'm trying to escape from the approx. 17,000 completely separate and unconnected paramilitary/civilan rescue/virus technology accquisition/mercenary/unpleasant mutant/gene-engineered supersoldier squads Umbrella have sent into Racoon City for wildly different reasons. Bloody hell, man, how the hell can one company do all that?"
Man, that would be weird.

I reckon Umbrella are actually Microsoft

That makes sense. That bit in RE2, when them two soldiers bust into William Birkin's lab and shoot him up, then nick his virus - standard Microsoft anti-competitive procedure. Happens all the time.

Beware those who try to put Microsoft on trial...

I've run out of wit