PTO: Resident Evil 5 Day

Nutgarden5 and I have been planning our Resident Evil 5 day for a few months now.  I even took PTO time off way in advance to just enjoy the day.  We started by waking up hella-early and getting some breakfast at this diner in town frequented by veterans of foreign wars and anyone looking for a deal. For some reason NG5 is always more awake in the morning than myself. It could be the 2 cups of coffee he downed, or the fact that I was up until 2 AM the previous night playing Disgaea 3.  Once my body got used to the fact that it wouldn’t to be going back to bed, I started getting pretty excited for the game.

Just to give you a bit of background, I don’t generally play Resident Evil games, I usually just watch NG5 play.  On the other hand, NG5 enjoys watching me defeat some of the more insane enemies in NIS games.  It’s a very symbiotic relationship.

After breakfast, NG5 had a class at my old alma mater, so I took the opportunity to pay a visit to my adviser, who was also the head of my major’s department.  I had purchased some tea for him at Ito En in New York, and was hoping to give it to him and possibly chat a bit.  Sadly he was out, so I stole a pen and some paper from the history department and left him a note.

After NG5’s class (and a few annoying errands) we began our quest to pick our copy up from GameStop.  We decided against the midnight release just because we both had responsibilities the next morning and it would have just been too difficult.  Fucking responsibilities…

Of course we hit just about every red light, but after much steering-wheel-punching and sailor-like-cursing, we managed to pick up the game. NG5 characteristically reserved the Collector’s Edition, which came with a bunch of crazy shit.  Whether these bonus items are worth the additional $30 is debatable.

Anyway, after a brief installing break and making a few tweets, we were good to go.  The game doesn’t give much time to breathe as you are thrown into the action pretty quickly.  Chris spends only a few minutes in his civilian clothes and is quickly presented with his first weapon.

His companion Sheva accentuates both Chris’s past with Jill Valentine as well as the current situation in Africa.  In addition to her contributions to the story, Sheva also presents  some new game play options which separates the game from its predecessors.

One of these things does NOT come in the collector’s edition

The game’s appearance has its ups and downs.  While overall game-play graphics are fantastic, I find the font hard to read at times.  Also the timeline summary presented during loading screens rarely stay up long enough to finish reading.  This may just be a bit nitpicky, but I wouldn’t mind brushing up on the story.  If this is your first Resident Evil and you were hoping to get an idea of the events of the past games, you may be disappointed by this as well.

The hours quickly melted away and after watching NG5 clear the first 5 chapters, I can say without a doubt that I want the game.  The main story alone is enough to provide incentive, but this doesn’t even take into account the online play, mercenary mode, etc.  I went ahead and ordered the game from Amazon, which will give me some time to wrap up my quest for perfection in Disgaea 3.