Being a contract worker and a Masters student at the same time, I am barely alive here lol. I am not saying that they’re hard but it’s pretty tiring to have all days in a week used non-stop. Apparently, I might have my weekends a little bit free after this semester ends. Oh well….

I am planning of making double posts today. For this post, it will cover up things related with my Playstation 3. More than a week ago, my copies of Resident Evil 5 and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. arrived. As usual, Sora kept urging me to play with him after he got to know that I got the game.

Arrived at my home 2 weeks ago on Friday. Barely more than a week ago....

Resident Evil 5 – Verdict

It’s full of actions despite the story is quite short. I finished the game less than 5 hours with Sora’s help. Yeah, I know that he has the unlimited ammo thing since he unlocked them already but with only 6 chapters, the game can be considered as very short. Despite similar control as Resident Evil 4, the introduction of co-operative play means you have to solve some of the riddles by using two people instead of one man show like previous series. Perhaps PS3′s online multiplayer capability made Capcom decided to make the game more fun by having multiplayer elements.

What’s so good about the game anyway? Well, I’ve been a fan of RE series since the first game though I only played the main series and neglecting the Survivor series plus others (oh, I didn’t play RE Zero because I don’t have GameCube). The game has far off left it’s horror theme as it’s push on towards third-person shooter game. As much as some people still insisting that the game as survival horror game, I believe the game isn’t as horror as before or other recent horror games like F.E.A.R. RE5 brings in Sheva Alomar, a new character that acts as Chris’ partner throughout the game (eventually you will be able to use her when you’ve finished the game). The AI is quite good. Helping you each time you got some troubles like being strangled by those mindless zombies or creatures. Like I said earlier, you will be needed to rely on your partner to solve things up. Items can be shared together with your partner. Despite that it’s short to finish the game, there are many achievements and unlockables that kept me playing it again and again. Especially when trying to beat the scores. Each chapters will have grades and once you’ve finished the game, there will be Mercenaries mode unlocked where you will be playing on some recognizable places like in the main story campaign. Beating each Mercenaries map with A grade will unlock you with additional characters with different outfits. Two other characters are Albert Wesker and Jill Valentine where you can play as them on Mercenaries mode.

One of the things that I dislike in the game is that you have to stop when you want to fire weapon. Plus, when in firing mode, it is slow as you couldn’t face back quickly if there’s an enemy at your back. Usually I have to do the quick 180 degrees turn before switching to firing mode. Other than that, connecting to a co-op game with friends is frustrating. Most of the time, my connection to Sora’s game lost. The communication error thing will pop out and have to restart the PS3 then try to connect to the game again. Apparently, this is not related with internet or in Malaysia, the Streamyx connection, which I can tell Malaysian internet enthusiast people will try to point that first but as I searched on the forums and some gaming sites, it’s due to the game itself.

Overall, it’s a superb game. Good actions and great graphics are really mesmerizing. There’s a scene that really resembles Indiana Jones movies. Giving the game with 9/10 wasn’t an exaggerate hype from an old fan.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

Originally I wanted to get this game for PC like I stated before. But I couldn’t resist the tempt to get it for my PS3. This arcadish air combat game is one of my favourites. If some of you didn’t know, HAWX is related with Ghost Recon game in Tom Clancy series. There are missions where you will be needed to protect them from up above. Since the cancellation of Ace Combat 6 for PS3, I was really looking for an alternative for it. HAWX is full of action packed dogfighting and there are many planes that you can choose from the hangar (well, obviously after you unlocked them each time you completed a mission and also your levels). The planes are realistic. As much as I love to try MiG-29 after I unlocked it, I also enjoyed flying the F-15 jet fighter and taking out as many planes as possible (this is arcade, mm’kay? 140 missiles on a plane is just cool). You can choose your viewing preferences as there are 3 modes; Cockpit view, simplified first person view and also third-person view where you can see your beautiful plane while piloting it. I prefer cockpit or first person view tho.

Actually I felt a little bit boring after started to play some few early missions.  It feels a little bit easy and somewhat similar with Ace Combat dogfighting. But then, there’s Assistance OFF mode which was introduced after some missions completed. When flying without assistance, you can perform sharper turns to avoid missile locks, but you’re more susceptible to stalling if you brake too hard. In this mode, the camera angle switches to a wider view of the landscape, which affords you a better view of your current target and incoming missiles. Then again, it can be a bit disorienting and makes controlling the plane even more difficult for those who are not used with it. Graphically speaking, it’s awesome, only when you’re up in the sky. The grounds look just like those old Combat Flight Simulator games when you’re flying in close to the ground. Tho, cities were well built just like real life cities with buildings. While dogfighting can be immersive, the wingmen AI is quite useless. They can be ordered to attack your designated target and also defending you but most of the time, they’re not that helpful.While there are many aircraft to choose from and various attributes, the controlling is very similar on all planes. A difference that can be seen is the speed, for example.

To sum it up, it’s a great air combat game despite some minor flaws here and there. I give it 8/10 and honestly speaking, it’s a little bit biased because I love dogfighting anyway.

Huh?

Bought this baby because I wanted to find a microphone for my PS3. Since PS3 can use any Bluetooth device, I opted to find a headset where I can use it on my HTC as well. So I found this B-Speech Calypso SP. It’s not that cheap as it’s priced RM 230 but it fits perfectly on my ears. Sadly, PS3′s audio output only applicable on HDMI, Digital output and analog output. Oh well, at least it can be used with my HTC :3