As most of you will have already seen now, Capcom have released the trailers for there latest wii flavoured resident evil games. I always thought that resident evil 4 was a perfect fit for a wii game, and because that was obvious to me, i assumed it would be for capcom too. It apparently was but i have to say i didnt expect a port. I'm not sure how long the information that umbrella Chronicles will be a "lightgun" game has been known but it was a massive surprise to me. I just always assumed that when the wii got an exclusive resident evil game it would be based on the amazingly successfull resident evil 4 architecture but given its own little wii'isms. This "lightgun" news has caught me off guard, and compared to what i expected i am disappointed. Of course the previous resident evil lightgun games only reinforce this disappointment, i find it truly worrying how there is more than one game in that series, and that capcom might think that this is the kind of news that will excite people. In-fact i believe the only reason its not called "resident evil survivor wii edition" is because it will put people off.(credit goes to 1up your for that last comment)

Despite all this, Umbrella Chronicles could be a great game. My memories of lightgun games aren't all terrible. There was a time when me and some friends would all crowed round virtua cop machine and play for hours, also the time crisis serise has always been fun, and finally there is house of the dead, proof that a zombie based lightgun game should be very very fun. But making a game like this for a home console isnt the same as making it for the arcade. Dropping a coin in and picking up the gun just doesn't translate to most home consoles. The lack of home multiplayer was a factor that i often found irritating, TV size and quality until now was mostly worse, the price of these extra lighgun peripherals and finally a living room just doesn't have the same atmosphere as an arcade. The wii however changes this. The wii has already proven that it is one of, if not the best local multiplayer consoles, and the wiimote will work fine as a lightgun, and maybe this would be a good reason for nintendo to release this lightgun case that we have all been seeing pics of since e3 last year. I don't think i need to say it, but i will just in-case capcom hasn't realised this yet, lack of multiplayer will absolutely kill this game.

Looking at the survior games, i actually think the problem was too much freedom. They wernt arcade games, i don't even think they where trying to be, but umbrella Chronicles needs to make this game in the vein of a game like house of the dead 4. House of the dead 4 even has motion controls, and multiplayer (obviously). Basically, what I'm saying is, if Umbrella Chronicles is anything like a home verson of house of the dead 4 then it will be an awesome game, but untill i see more i cant help but be hesitant. Moving on

I picked up a copy of puzzle quest today. The platform on witch i chose to purchase is something i gave alot of thought to. I ultimately wanted the psp version, however my girlfriend expressed an interest in the game, and unfortunately she doesn't have a psp, only a DS. She said that she would pick up a copy once she got back to manchester, so based on this i chose the DS. To me the multiplayer opportunities the DS presented outweighed the graphical improvements of the psp version. As for the game i was pleasantly surprised. Im a huge fan of puzzle games and occasionally i enjoy an rpg or two, so puzzle quest seemed like an awesome games premise. When i first started the game, i wasnt as instantly hooked like i had expected. in-fact at first, i just don't think i "got" it. I carried on playing though, certain that i would eventually like the game, and sure enough after i gained a few levels, bought a few items, learnt a few spells and completed a few quests, the games charm gripped me. And charming really is the best way to describe the game. But don't take my word for it, i believe ryan davis has recently reviewed the game, so check it out.

The last thing i wanted to write about was the past few weeks that i have spent at home for easter, and yes its also about games. When packing i had no trouble deciding what consoles i would be bringing home. I brought the handhelds and my xbox360 and an assortment of games. They have blocked the ports needed to connect to xbox live where i am currently living, so when i came home i used a free month card i got with project gotham 3 and gave xbox live a really good go. It took me a while initially to update all of my games and mess around with settings, but once i got all this out the way i really enjoyed the service, its definitely worth paying for. All the features it offers are intergrated totally seamlessly and has some seriously great games.

However my interest wanned as for some reason me and all my friends became totally hooked on pokemon, and a shocking amount of my time went into that. About a week into this easter break i nipped back to manchester for a da. While i was there i picked up a copy of dragonball z on the wii. Being a dragonball z fan i was always going to like this game, but being a fan of the budokai serise i was also destined to be disspointed. The fighting in the game is really quite fun, although allot of it seems tacked on and the blocking is just stupid, once you give the game enough time it become second nature and can be quite engrossing and there is a stupid number of players for you to play with, so just trying to unlock them all will keep you playing for a considerable amount of time. The reason i was disappointed with the game was the story mode. I really cant discribe just how terribly it tells the fantastic dragonball z story, it does the anime no justice at all.

This brings me to a topic ive wanted to discuss for a while now. Just how massively disappointing the wii has been. Ive got all the current consoles apart from the ps3, and the only one that i was ever truly excited about was the wii, it was the only console i attended the launch for and it e3 last year, it was the console i had picked for the winner of the next console war. Now im not so sure. At launch wii sports was everything i expected, and was basically a demo, Zelda was clearly a gamecube game and while the wii features where a nice touch, i really dont think i would have missed them if i played the gamecube version. And everything else i have to say about the wii i mentioned earlier. So basically the wii for me so far as been, wii sports (pritty much a demo), zelda (a gamecube port), and dragonball z(a ps2 port). If that doesn't say enough then the rest is in the release schedule. Those of you who are from america should just be digging into super paper mario, however no such luck for us europeans, and so far there is no date. The rest of the games im looking forward to also dont have any solid dates, not even for the americans. The only games i can hope to see before the end of summer is super paper mario and maybe resident evil 4. super paper mario started out as a gamecube game and resident evil is being released on its 4th console. Is this all the wii is? i new way to play old games? where is all this innovation that we where promised, what happened to the promise of consistant first and third party support. Im certainly not suggesting that i want games to be rushed out, quite the contrary infact, they need to make these games perfect becasue we simply cannot take much more crap, but someone at nintendo needs to look at this situation and just see how terribly wrong it has gone, and they need to make sure that this doesn't get repeated next year.

Anyways thats all. Ciao 

[Edit] for some reason i cant get the text to wrap, so untill i figure it out, sorry i guess