Come-back and introducing the PICASO system

Hello everybody,

so I've said in my last post, I've been drowning quite a bit in "real life" work and personal mess. I've been out of town for a while for my job, which means no Wii for the time being. I'll get back to Resident Evil 2 eventually, but in the meantime, I'll try to get working on a few posts I have to tackle for a while.

The first one, and probably the most important one, is the COWARD system modification. Considering Trick's advices, I'll try something which is a bit more obvious concerning the categories. I'll drop the Originality grade too, which doesn't hold a lot of interest considering I'm playing game series, and I'll introduce another grade based on Side Missions and Optional Stuff, which is quite important for me. I always like a game rewarding exploration and personal path instead of a long corridor (FFXIII, I'm still looking at you).

So here goes my new notation scale, the PICASO System :

P goes for Pleasure/Enjoyment, replacing the Delicacy grade.
I goes for Intelligence, replacing the Cleverness grade.
C goes for Controls/Inventory, replacing the Reactivity grade.
A goes for Appeal, stays as it is.
S goes for Storytelling, replacing the Writing grade.
O goes for Optional Stuff, a new category replacing the Originality grade.

Considering this new scale, I've used it on the three first games I've explored so far in this blog :

-Resident Evil gets a 4 in Optional Stuff. The possibility to explore the game as two different characters is interesting and adds to the replay value. However, there is not a lot of optional things to reward exploration and the "new costumes" you unlock for your characters when finishing the game is, IMHO, not a huge incentive to play through it again.
Resident Evil PICASO Rating : 40 (instead of 42)

Yep, red is better, but it still doesn't make you an interesting character...

-The Legend of Zelda grabs a 8 in Optional Stuff. This is a game that definitely rewards exploration, with a lot of secret places to find (especially when you consider how old the game is), and Nintendo really went the extra mile with the "second quest" idea. Granted, the new layout of dungeons is simpler and difficulty mainly comes from extra enemies everywhere, but it's a great way to extend game length. They could have gotten away with the same dungeon layouts, and just make enemies harder to kill, but they didn't, so it's definitely a thing I have to reward.
The Legend of Zelda PICASO Rating : 57 (same score)

Wow... really?

-It still hurts to think about my Blood Omen experience, but I'll do it for you, guys. This game has a lot Optional Stuff to search for, especially if you want to max out your character's stats. There is always a new item to find, or even new and interesting powers to get that are not mandatory to finish the game. I'll go for a 7, because backtracking is rewarding and it's great to search every nook and cranny giving the whole experience a "Metroidania" feeling when you constantly unlock new areas to explore with your new powers.

Legacy of Kain Blood Omen PICASO Rating : 47 (same score)

Not a great use when you can't finish the game, though...

Well it didn't change a lot, but I hope you find the new system clearer than the first one. Please let me know in the comments!

Game A1 : Resident Evil - Final Rating

It’s finally time to apply the COWARD system for the first time and see if it Works… All in all, I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil, even if I acknowledge there are a lot of flaws who will be adressed in the sequels or the remake…(and assets we'll never find again in this series)  Let’s try it… here goes nothing !

Cleverness

First category, first difficulties : Resident Evil is a bit of a mixed bag here. In one way, your approach to this game gives you the illusion of liberty. You feel free to wander the mansion how you see fit, cleaning zombies in one place or just running in the corridors avoiding them to keep your ammo. At first, there is a real feeling of exploration. Of course, pretty soon, you realize you’re on a predetermined path. Each key leads you to one part of the mansion where you find a few items, a lot of foes, and another key, and so forth. The puzzles themselves are not particularly clever : with a few exceptions, they consist mainly on pushing items sokoban-style or following instructions. The scarcity of ammo force you to do resource management during the course of the adventure. Shoot everywhere or save a little too often (like I did) and you're probably getting in trouble for the rest of the game. I'll go for a 5 there, mainly because it makes you feel more free than, for example, RE3.

Rating : 5

Originality

I agree that Resident Evil created a subgenre of video games. However, it was preceded by two major influences. Shinji Mikami, creator of the game, recognizes the influence Sweet Home (NES - 1989) has on his work. The way the doors open, for example, is directly taken from it. It even seems Resident Evil was, at first, supposed to be a remake of this game, before going to a different direction. Even if Mikami never acknowledged it, I find too many similarities between this game and Alone in the Dark (DOS - 1992) to not think the two are unrelated. You have a choice between two leading characters, the action takes place in a dark mansion crawling with zombies and other beings, with only a few ammo to take them out. Even if the explanation for the events in Alone in the Dark lurks within the Chtulhu mythos instead of the bio-technology approach of Resident Evil, the two games are really close. Anyway, you can't ignore the gigantic influence Resident Evil had on the rest of the industry, spawning a huge series and hundreds of followers like Silent Hill or Dino Crisis.

Rating : 5

Writing

Most of the backstory in the game is learned through different reports and journals found scattered around the place. They're pretty well written, and it makes up for the horribly acted cut scenes. Of course, the story itself is as cliché as it gets. The good guys fight against the evil corporation, there is a traitor among them, blah blah blah... As I mentioned before, a pretty nice touch is how you understand that Wesker is the traitor : you find clues in the various documents around the lab, first a picture (he is the only guy in the whole world wearing sunglasses), then a name... until you confront him and he shots Rebecca (too bad he misses her though). Of course, if you don't read the docs, it feels a bit like you missed a cutscene, but, hey, they have been written for a reason, right? This touch, however, isn't really enough to fill the huge gaps in the story : Umbrella is barely mentioned and there is almost nothing concerning the mansion (it will be pretty well addressed in the remake, but not here), so it lacks a bit in this category.

Rating : 3

Wait, what? He missed you? errr... I mean, glad you're alright!

Appeal

Of course, I have to judge this category by putting back the game in its context. It's 1996 and the rendered 3D for the backgrounds, and real-time 3D for the character is the technological pinnacle of the year. This game made Playstations flying from the shelves and almost single-handedly buried the aging SNES and Genesis. A year later, the Director's cut was a bit better-looking, especially showing new camera angles who go a long way to add to the overall experience. My biggest concern is how bland the mansion looks. A lot of rooms feel a bit empty. The sound design is interesting, though, because you can always know when a hostile is in the same room, even if it's not shown visually. If you compare it to other 1996 3D releases (Tomb Raider or Die Hard Trilogy for example), it does pretty well, but I'll be a bit harsh here because I really think the beginning of the Playstation era was one of the darkest periods of video game graphics...

Rating : 4

Reactivity

This is where Resident Evil really drops the ball : the controls are awful. The infamous tank controls are at work here. Missing a "quick turn" button like in the sequels, your character takes forever to turn around, getting hit a few times if you're in a bad position. The aiming is pretty awful too. Between the arbitrary camera angles and the importance turning yourself in the exact direction of the enemy, you're more than likely to waste a few bullets shooting around. The crows or dogs, in particular, are really annoying. I know it's kind of the point that these things are hard to shoot at, but it's sometimes really a hassle. The interface is kinda difficult to bear too. The six-items limit inventory (ok, ok, I've seen now that Jill has a eight-items limit, but that's not the point! ;) is pretty harsh, especially considering your character is just too stupid to be able to switch an item with another one. Combined with the inability to temporarily drop an item somewhere else than in the magic box, there are some situations where you have to spend ten minutes going back and forth places just because you took too many green herbs and are not able to pick a key item.

Rating : 2

Don't know what I'm shooting at, but I'll get them anyway!

Delicacy

Overall, was Resident Evil a nice game to experience again? I guess it was. The construction of the game is quite nice, and it manages to keep you on your toes the whole time. As soon as you're accustomed with zombies, the hunters come into play. As soon as you know your mansion layout, you gain access easily to new areas, etc... The horrible quality of cutscenes and the controlling problems sometimes get you out of it, (granted, it's especially the voices of Chris and Rebecca that are aggravating, maybe the experience is better with Jill and Barry) but all in all, it was nice being able to see again where it all started. I'm glad the remakes exist, though, because it means we'll see the Spencer Mansion again, and in all its glory.

Rating : 6

FINAL COWARD RATING : 42

A bit below the medium mark for this one, so it works for me. I think the Director's cut would have fetched a few more points, but I will skip it, considering it's basically the same game, and that DS and Gamecube versions exist anyway. We'll see with the next games if the rating was justified and if the COWARD system works...

To the green pastures of Hyrule we go!

Game A1 : Resident Evil - Won!

Chris report entry 3 : We did it! We gained access to the underground laboratory beneath the mansion, saved Jill who was locked in a cell room, then proceeded to blow up the whole thing! It's a good thing Brad was still flying above us in his helicopter. It was not an easy task though : The laboratory was crawling with self-healing zombies and fast things with a lot of claws. And Wesker was a traitor! Who would have guessed he was working for this dark corporation Umbrella all along? Turned out everything was some kind of test for their Biological Weapons! He regretted his treachery when his own creation, the Tyrant (the biggest and meanest zombie around) put its claws in his torso instead of thanking him... Thanks to my beloved Magnum and the rocket launcher Brad tossed me, I was able to change it into minced meat quite quickly. Glad this is all over. I'm wondering where Barry is, though...


Total time played : 10 hours -- Total "you died" screens : 14

OK! Done! I'm glad I was able to get back on this blog with my first "Won!" status. This was a tougher nut to crack that I thought... Actually, I'll look into this, but I think the game is much harder when you play as Chris, or maybe I was just remembering the Director's Cut version, which has been tampered a bit to lower the overall difficulty. Or maybe I'm just getting old and the "difficulty of old times" may be too much for me now... nah I don't think so...

I've killed that thing so many times I think I'm able to do it in real life now...

The last part of the game really gets better. After the hunters appearance, it's all starting to make sense. You know the mansion whereabouts better and are conveniently armed (even if there is never a profusion of ammo, it's still a survival-horror after all). The laboratory is suitably creepy and the documents you read are a bit more coherent. The discovery of the treachery of Wesker is particularly well done, because you find clues in the documents before the "big revelation". To be honest though, anyone who has seen at least one horror/thriller movie in his life is able to see it coming from afar.

The end boss is correct, even if it's a bit on the low difficulty side. If you've gathered enough magnum rounds and didn't waste it on zombies, you have a lot of firepower on your side. The fact he comes back at the last minute after the countdown to explosion is set (that will become one of the trademark of the series) really is stressful the first time.

You thought you had plenty of time to catch your helicopter? Think again.

Overall, the end game is a suitable climax for the game, with more than its share of revelations and brain-teasers. There is a few different endings to see, depending whether you're able to release your partner from his/her cell before blowing up the place. Resident Evil has always been known for its post-game content (the mercenaries minigames or new game+ in a lot of the subsequent entries for the series) and it's good to see this one has a costume room to open too, where you can change the outfit of your character.

It's also of course possible to do another playthrough with the other character (which I'll obviously not be doing here if I want to see another game one day), which has a lot of differences in the path. Jill is kind of protected by Barry on the beginning of the game, and gets access to the shotgun really sooner (as far as I remember). I'm not sure there is a lot of differences about the endgame though.

So I'll go set my first COWARD rating, we'll see how it goes, then to land of Hyrule I'll go!

What a tough guy?! Love. It.

Series B and C... a little something for everybody?

I was thinking about it for a few days, but I'm shifting a little the purpose to this blog. Instead of focusing on one series, risking alienating a good part of the potential audience who don't have any interest concerning this particular series, I'll play games from three series at a time.

Of course, I'll concentrate on a game from family A before playing a game from family B, then to C, I won't mix the games in themselves to avoid confusion.

So here it comes :

SERIES B : THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

The Legend of Zelda	1986	NES
Zelda II : The Adventure of Link	1987	NES
The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past	1991	SNES
The Legend of Zelda : Link's Awakening	1993	GB
Zelda : The Wand of Gamelon	1993	CDI
Link : The Faces of Evil	1993	CDI
Zelda's Adventure	1995	CDI
The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time	1998	N64
The Legend of Zelda : Majora's Mask	2000	N64
The Legend of Zelda : Oracle of Seasons	2001	GBC
The Legend of Zelda : Oracle of Ages	2001	GBC
The Legend of Zelda : Four Swords	2002	GBA
The Legend of Zelda : The Wind Waker	2002	GC
The Legend of Zelda : Four Sword Adventures	2004	GC
The Legend of Zelda : The Minish Cap	2004	GBA
The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess	2006	WII
The Legend of Zelda : Phantom Hourglass	2007	DS
Link's Crossbow Training	2007	WII
Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland	2007	DS
The Legend of Zelda : Spirit Tracks	2009	DS
The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword	2011	WII

SERIES C : LEGACY OF KAIN

Blood Omen : Legacy of Kain	1996	PSX
Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver	1999	PSX
Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver 2	2001	PS2
Blood Omen 2 : Legacy of Kain	2002	PS2
Legacy of Kain : Defiance	2003	PS2

Obviously the Series C is much shorter than the other ones, so I'll figure out another series to play if I ever come to finish Legacy of Kain (in my opinion, considering the time it will take, somewhere around march 2056)

So to be clear on it (my frenchitude might be a little confusing sometimes, sorry about that...)
From RE1, I'll switch to Legend of Zelda, then to Blood Omen, then back to RE2. If it works well, I hope I'll be able to interest a wider audience...

What do you think of my choices? Would you like to read about these games?

Game A1 - Resident Evil : Good Will Hunters

Chris Redfield Report, Entry 2 : Ok, the Plant 42 was another abomination, a blood-sucking plant produced by this place. Thanks to Rebecca, we were able to synthesize a serum that could enfeeble it. A few shotgun rounds down its throat (do plants have throats? this one sure did have teeth...) and it was done for. I managed to get the last Mansion key and went back to the first house... to discover our slow and now almost harmless zombies had received some backup. The place was crawling with Hunters, some kind of gorilla and crocodile mix, really fast, angry and more than capable of getting shot a few times before staying down... And this huge snake is back too! The end of the night is still far away...


Time played : 1h15 (4h45 total) - "You Died" screens : 2 (8 total)

Ok, so I haven't done a lot of progress since my last entry. My biggest error was to save a little too often (by Resident Evil standards, too often means six times in four hours) and now, I'm a bit stuck between two bosses, the plant and the snake. The bosses in themselves are not that dangerous, but the place is now crowded with Hunters. They jump all over the place, bite you, jump back and you have to be really careful to offer them the three shotgun shells that they need to stop moving...

Now, I sure am sorry for these crocodile boots I bought at the last STARS garage sale.

You have to give that to the game's credit. Now, you have a few more bullets in your bag, and a beautiful shotgun that kill a zombie in one shot. So, you're starting to feel confident. Even the sharks in the basement are not that dangerous, and you just have to run a bit to avoid the bees and spiders around the place (PETA sure hadn't heard of Capcom when this game went out...)

And then, they give you the Hunter, which is basically the stuff of nightmares for all the Resident Evil veterans. So, my last hour of play can be summarized this way : Open the door to the Plant, mix the serum with Rebecca, go down to the basement, put the serum on the roots, finish the plant with the shotgun, get the key, cross the garden, kill a few dogs, avoid the first hunter, go to the snake, kill the snake, go down to the OTHER basement, try to reach the magic box as soon as you finally get hold of an ink ribbon, get eviscerated by hunters...

Twice.

So I just shut down my Playstation, wonder if I had to start again, and decided that, no, it was too soon to give up. The world is watching me (well, right now, I have one member, so let's say Zenic is watching me) and I don't want to disappoint my audience! It's too soon, I've got so many more games to explore!

I'll go back there, and get pass this rough spot. I'll have the hide of these things and make a lot of nice clothing with it.

By the way, on another note, I liked the chemical mixing puzzle. It's a bit basic, but is a nice change of rhythm after a long part of exploring and killing stuff. This game is still great. I just have to find a way to save my game again...

Game A1 - Resident Evil : Ink And Lead Shortage

Chris Redfield Report, entry 1 : Ever since we entered this god forsaken mansion, I haven't heard any news from Jill and Wesker. I hope they are still around here, alive, and, like me, struggling to find some clues. I have met another survivor : Rebecca Chambers from STARS Bravo Team. She has helped me on one of this place's puzzles, and later she even saved my life by curing me from a bite of a giant poisonous snake. I have gained access to another mansion, some sort of guest house, situated on the other side of a derelict garden full of these horrible dogs. I keep finding clues about what had happened here. Apparently, some sort of experiment on a Virus went wrong, mutating everything around here into some kind of flesh-hungry monsters : dogs, crows, snakes, and everybody working on the premises... Hope I'll find a way out of here before becoming one of them. Right now, I'm investigating intel I got about some sort of man-eating plant, called Plant 42... my ammo is going dangerously low and I've used my last ink ribbon. I certainly hope my first entry won't be my last one.


Time played : 2h (3h30 total) - "You Died" screens : 1 (6 total)

Ok. Forget about the cheesy intro, the horrible controls and the blocky graphics : this game is still good. Excellent, even some fifteen years after its release date. As long as you can bear the first hour or so, when every encounter with a zombie means a huge waste of bullets and curative herbs (or a game over screen). Then, you start gaining access to more places, locating keys, solving riddles, and it all start to fall into place.

Still can't kill a crow, though...

There is a lot of things I remember from the remake, so most of the riddles come naturally. I don't think any of them is really complicated, which is a good thing because it's a relief from the zombie killing but doesn't break the rhythm too much. A few of them are a bit annoying, I'm thinking about the "push a statue over this hole so nothing comes out of it and kill you" kind of puzzle that is kinda hard because of the low error-margin on the said statue placement, or another one that implies a lock you can only open by a lot of fiddling around with the buttons, but almost every other ones are enjoyable.

A few things are infuriating, though. For example, you can only have six items in your inventory, you can't drop any on the ground to make temporary room, and it means a lot of going back and forth to one of the "magic boxes" scattered in the mansion where you can keep your stuff. It's particularly bothersome when you have to switch one item for one another and you can't take the first one before placing the other one.

The other difficult thing to accept is the lack of precision in your character's placement. The camera angles are stills and you have to face exactly your opponent to be able to hit it. In a game where every bullet counts, it can be really infuriating to shoot three times in the air before being able to hit your target, just because you couldn't see you were facing four millimeters on your right... it works because zombies are slow and clumsy, but when you're dealing with dogs or crows (arrr... I hate these crows), it can really be game-breaking.

Another heart-stopping moment : Honey, who is the zombie in the cupboard? 

A lot of people consider Resident Evil as some kind of japanese Alone in the Dark. I can see why, when you look at the first game. It's in a big mansion with all sorts of creepy monsters, you can play as a male or female character, and there is a good riddle/fighting ratio in both of them. The subsequent games in the franchise will go for a more action-oriented style, which will lead to a few masterpieces (i.e. Resident Evil 4), but this episode really has his own rhythm and feeling.

Anyway, I've met the first boss, which is a huge poisonous snake, and I've crossed the garden. I was pretty short on ammo at the time, so I look forward to cross it again, considering I haven't killed many of the hostile dogs roaming the place. My resource management so far is ok, I've got a few herbs left, and a whole bag of shotgun shells. But I know I haven't met any Hunter yet, so I'm afraid the worse is definitely to come...

Game A1 - Resident Evil : Pixel Hunting

Time played : 1h30 --- "You Died" screens : 5

Wow. Now I see the problem with the constant stream of remakes for newer consoles. HD is great, but SD games played on a huge TV set sometimes feel like someone puked on the screen.

What I remember for the game the last time I played it :

It's no RE5, but damn is the lighting pretty.

What I'm playing now :

Get off me, you horribly pixellated thing!

Well, OK, that's the point of these blogs, ain't it? You begin with old games and move slowly to the newer ones. But the problem is still the same : The playstation games are ugly nowadays, and the first 3D polygonal games really haven't aged well compared to 2D graphics, like you can see in SNES or Genesis games for example.

The other problem is the controls. It's been a while since I've played one of the RE games plagued with the infamous "tank controls" and I've had a hard time getting used to them again. Once your brains get that up on your control pad goes in front of you, and that the left and right are used to (sloooowly) turn around, you've been eaten a few times. The first game doesn't feature any way to quickly turn around like the later games offer, so we'll have to play without that too.

The last thing about this game is that the beginnings are punishingly hard. When you play as Chris, you start only with your knife, and even when you get the gun, you can empty a whole clip on the first zombie you see, leaving you wondering what you'll do with the next one...

But let's start by the beginning. And what beginning is it! The game starts with what might be the cheesiest movie ever, with real persons filmed. I really hope that the actors were Capcom employees, and not real actors wanting to make a living out of this job because I think one's career can't ever recover from this. I think everyone should see it, because a few minutes of film is better than a thousand words. Just make sure to wash your eyes afterwards.

After this work of art, the game starts. As I said earlier, the graphics haven't aged well. The polygonal models are quite ugly, but to be fair, the prerendered backgrounds were (and stay) beautiful. The voice acting is quite bad though. I especially think about the first meeting between Chris and Rebecca, which sounds like average 80's porn.

I think anybody is familiar with the setting of this game, but I'll quickly recapitulate it. The game follows the story of the S.T.A.R.S Alpha Team, a Raccoon City Police Special Unit sent to investigate Raccoon Forest after the disappearance of Bravo Team in the area. They are attacked by some kind of zombie dogs and take shelter in a nearby mansion. You have the choice to play as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. They can be considered as "harder" and "hard" difficulty levels (Chris starts with a knife, Jill with a gun, for example) and the two paths have a few differences between them, which is really nice for replay value.

Pictured : wrong career choice

The cast, beyond the two main characters, consists of team leader Albert Wesker (traitor!... oops, spoiler alert, I guess), and fellow STARS members Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers. You'll occasionally run into other survivors, who usually won't stick around very long before serving as zombie bait. As you guess, there will be a lot of twists in the story, and you'll eventually discover that the gigantic mansion holds many secrets and has quite a dark history.

This game plants the basics for the "survival horror" genre. You have a lot of hostiles, a really limited amount of ammo and a few basic riddles to overcome. This is quite a departure from other action games of the era, where you usually had plenty of ways to kill your enemies. Here, running is usually the more sensible option if you don't want to resort to your knife to survive.

At first, the game is not that scary. The zombies come to you slowly, moaning with their arms reaching to grab you. What can be scary is that the controls are so stiff you sometimes wonder if you're not playing a zombie yourself. It's no surprise that the zombies have become progressively quicker in the next games of the franchise, where controls get better and better : a slow walking zombie is scary only if your character is clumsy enough that he can't just step aside to avoid being bitten. The ambiance is quite grim and the mansion is appropriately creepy. But there is a few moments where the horror game really takes off : I've been conveniently scared by a zombie who was hidden behind a corner, and I kinda came close to the heart attack when the first zombie dog come into a corridor by crashing the window...

Ok, ok, I admit it. It was pretty damn scary.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this : the mansion layout is different enough than the remake's, and I really don't remember this game as much as I remember the sequels. I'm still discovering where the items are, getting killed often, and making slow progress. I just had my fifth death just after a pretty humiliating encounter with crows. After emptying my gun at open air and missing them about a dozen times just before being pecked to death, I had to reload a pretty far away save (I haven't mentioned the infamous ink ribbons, that you have to find before being able to save). So far, I've found 60 bullets in all (15 in the gun, 30 in the safe and another 15 clip in a room), and considering the average zombie takes 6 to 8 hits before going down, I don't think I'll finish with this game really soon... I'll keep you posted...

SERIES A : RESIDENT EVIL

Here is the list of games I'll be playing in my exploration of the Resident Evil franchise :

Resident Evil - PSX - 1996
Resident Evil 2 - PSX - 1998
Resident Evil 3 : Nemesis - PSX - 1999
Resident Evil : Survivor - PSX - 2000
Resident Evil : Code Veronica - Dreamcast - 2000
Resident Evil Gaiden - Game Boy Color - 2001
Resident Evil Survivor 2 : Code Veronica - PS2 - 2001
Resident Evil (Gamecube Remake) - Gamecube - 2002
Resident Evil Zero - Gamecube - 2002
Resident Evil : Dead Aim - PS2 - 2003
Resident Evil Outbreak - PS2 - 2003
Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - PS2 - 2004
Resident Evil 4 - Gamecube - 2005
Resident Evil : Deadly Silence - DS - 2006
Resident Evil : The Umbrella Chronicles - Wii - 2007
Resident Evil 5 - PS3 - 2009
Resident Evil : The Darkside Chronicles - Wii - 2009
Resident Evil : The Mercenaries 3D - 3DS - 2011
Resident Evil : Revelations - 3DS - 2012

Whew, that's an awful lot of games, and I'm pretty sure by the time I get to the 3DS games, Resident Evil 6 and Operation Raccoon City may be out. Well, that's life, we'll see about that when we're there.

By the way, if anyone sees I'm missing any game belonging to the series, please let me know. I left out the portable games for now, but maybe it would be worth a shot if I can find some way to play them.

Let's go kill some zombies...