Snowboarding fun of 'SSX' freezes out 'Silent Hill' and 'Resident Evil' - NOLA.com

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Snowboarding fun of 'SSX' freezes out 'Silent Hill' and 'Resident Evil' - NOLA.com Apr 2nd 2012, 12:14 People tell me I have the best job in the world, reviewing video games. But some days are a drag. I decided recently to test the bestseller "Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City." But it was so blah, it nearly ruined my day. In this third-person shooter, I portrayed a soldier working for the evil Umbrella Corporation, which unleashed zombies upon the world. Interesting premise. I traveled a dull, pre-destined path, shooting zombies and presumably good-guy government agents who were in my way — while I covered up for Umbrella's nefarious butt. The shooting felt dumb and dinky. Some of the boss monsters made me yawn. Bored. So I moved on to the survival-horror game "Silent Hill: Downpour." I portrayed a convict trapped in Silent Hill, the creepy ghost-monster town coated in mist and fog. At first, I enjoyed the pace of "Silent Hill." I walked through the mostly deserted town, looking for makeshift weapons (a wrench, a frying pan). Some moments outright startled me, because the mise-en-scene would be effectively spooky and hushed, when suddenly a villain made noise on my tail (hello, wrench and/or gun). But I had to solve silly puzzles, such as: A) find a knob on one side of a huge room, then turn it; B) then quickly run to another side of the room to turn another knob; C) then run to some entryway that these knobs have briefly unloosed. Coming Soon If you have been wondering what to do with that Nintendo Wii gathering dust by your TV, here's a new game for it. "Xenoblade Chronicles" (Nintendo) is a mythical role-playing game — but with real-time action — that has been hailed as a huge winner by many critics. You portray 18-year-old Shulk, who grew up on a mythical colony that was attacked by visiting robot villains. Then, you acquire a legendary sword and set out on a journey to kill robots and angry wildlife, rescue damsels and dudes, and try to reach the main baddie and stop all this fighting. The game's makers claim the exploratory territory inside "Xenoblade" — forests, fields, towns and dungeons — is literally as big as Japan. So not only do you set about accomplishing main missions, you can also take on side quests, to help various victims. There is some karma here: Your actions and deeds alter character traits, changing the way other people interact with you, thus opening various storylines. For some reason, "Xenoblade" came out in 2010 in Japan, 2011 in Australia and Europe, and now finally hits America. It is one of the best-reviewed RPGs of all time, accounting for critics in Japan, England and America. The April 6 release retails for $50 for Wii. It's rated "T" for blood, mild language, partial nudity, use of alcohol, use of tobacco and violence. There seemed to be something kind of rote and dreary about these puzzles, and the pacing eventually felt like molasses. So I moved on to "SSX," a reboot of the "SSX" snowboarding franchise. This is the sleekest, fastest and most intuitive snowboarder I've played. It suffers only from being an overly familiar genre. "SSX" has fun courses. Winning turns hard within an hour. But it's easy to get a feel for how to move quickly, jump tree stumps and make huge-air jumps while twisting tricks in the wind. I love the dual-thumbstick controls. Plus, it just looks cool. Electronic Arts crafted 27 mountains (with caves, paths and rails) by fictionalizing peaks cribbed from NASA's geotagging of the Alps, the Himalayans and other real locales in Japan, Canada and elsewhere. "SSX" reminds me of the old car-combat series, "Burnout," in its visual presentations and its method of unlocking courses. I won't even give star ratings to "Silent Hill" and "Resident Evil," because they were so unappealing, But I rented "SSX" for $2, and it was worth every penny and then some. ••••••• Doug Elfman is an award-winning entertainment columnist who lives in Las Vegas. Read his blog. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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