Some Thoughts on Resident Evil 5

I've been playing the "Resident Evil" series since the original was released for Playstation in 1996. I was hooked, as were most gamers of that era, by the absolute atmosphere the game created. Gamers can point to the first time the rabid, infected dogs came crashing through the hallway window, or the first time we encountered a licker in "Resident Evil 2," or any time we narrowly escaped Nemesis without dying (which was every time) as being generation-defining moments for video games released in the mid-to-late nineties. I regard the first three in the series, all released for Playstation, as undeniably classic video games, each of them in their own special way.

I chose Nintendo's Gamecube as my primary last-gen system for two reasons--the "Metroid" and "Resident Evil" series. At the time, Capcom, the owners of the "Resident Evil" series, had signed exclusivity deals which guaranteed all "Resident Evil" games to be released only for Gamecube. The first game was another undeniable classic, a remake of the original that was twice as good and, in my opinion, is the best refinement of the classic Resident Evil gameplay ever released. The second game was a prequel, "Resident Evil Zero", which was stale. The story was only marginally interesting and only so because of the involvement of Albert Wesker, one of the best villains in all of video games.. Most of all, the gameplay had begun to feel stagnant and overly complicated, and many agreed that the series needed to change in order to stay relevant.

Then came "Resident Evil 4" a game that changed everything about the series. In what might be considered a true Copernican revolution for videogames, the fixed camera angles that had been the singular, unique signature of the series had now become something entirely new--an over-the-shoulder perspective. Amazing. Slow, mindless zombies had now become frantic, enraged mobs of infected Spanish villagers. Awesome. The game's longstanding emphasis on item retrieval as a necessary means of progression had become idly rotating items within the space of a grid to manage nothing more than ammunition, first aid, and weapons. Wait a second. Frustrating escort missions, terribly easy boss battles, terribly easy action gameplay, and terribly absent puzzle-solving. Am I even playing the same game anymore?

The answer, of course, is no. I say "Resident Evil 4" was not a survival horror game, but an action game. It traded in careful inventory management and conservation of already scarce ammunition and aid sources for mowing down waves of enemies at a time. I was critical of "Resident Evil 4" when it came out to endless critical praise. After I had beaten it, I was wondering why everyone had so readily eaten it all up. It was, at its core, only an action game that lacked in depth or difficulty--two things I had come to depend on from the series. Only the story, I thought, made it a true "Resident Evil" experience.

The best news that any dedicated fan could hope to hear about "Resident Evil 5" is that, as an action game, the series has finally come into its own. Although I was openly pessimistic about the game leading up to its release, still reeling from my disappointment in "Resident Evil Zero" and "4", I can honestly say that "Resident Evil 5" is the title that made me love the series again. It is, without question, one of the highest quality games in the current generation, and as a side note...deserves recognition for being the first game since November to break my rampant Fallout 3 obsession.

It's perfect, really, how this game manages to be so well-rounded and oddly shaped in such a way that allows for almost anyone to love it. Do you like third-person shooters? "Resident Evil 5" is definitively a third-person game, more naturally and convincingly so than "Gears of War" could ever hope to be, but unlike "Gears," I wouldn't call it a shooter. The biggest difference between those two games is one of control: "Resident Evil," as a series, has never allowed the player to fire his weapon while moving simultaneously. So, guess what. Do you dislike third-person shooters? "Resident Evil 5" is such a distinctly different control experience than every other third-person shooter in existence, minus the broken fakes like "Deadspace," that even you can enjoy this game. The developers have truly crafted something engaging, difficult, yet widely accessible and immensely rewarding.

Deep cooperative multiplayer that has clearly been thought-through and successfully developed into a beautifully functional balance, a truly diverse range of intelligently designed enemies that includes a near-perfect blend of only the best in "Resident Evil 4" and older games such as "Resident Evil 2," four levels of difficulty that each drastically alter the experience, the deepest weapons cache to date in the series history, the deepest mercenaries mode in the series history with full-blown online cooperative play that only enhances the overall experience, and the highly addictive and balanced replay value that is driven by an infinitely rewarding weapon upgrade and collectible items system are what make this particular take on the core "Resident Evil 4" gameplay such a truly landmark experience. It resembles "Resident Evil 2" in much the same way as that game refined to near-perfection the unique formula of the game that preceeded it, and concretized it in a way that could appeal to nearly everyone while also carving out a very distinct, individual identity.

And Wesker returns as the central villain for the first time since "Code Veronica." What more could any "Resident Evil" fan ask for? Really.

Art of Noise

"Noise Music" refers to a specific genre, still very much in its infancy, which I believe to be one of the most interesting cultural developments of the past twenty-or-so years. While it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where this music began, it is certainly true that it has existed in one form or another for a very long time, dating back to albums such as John Coltrane's Interstellar Space (1967) or Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica (1969).

Noise does not refer to simple atonality. Similarly, it does not refer to the unwanted sounds which are all about us. Instead, Noise refers to a form which most brilliantly recollects every important, major musical and artistic development of the past century. More specifically, Noise combines the energy and simplicity of Punk, the free-form and expressive compositional nature of Jazz and the technological fascination of Electronic music.

Noise has always existed in the furthest reaches of any given musical underground. A casual listen from those who are uninitiated would be sufficient in determining why: Noise has absolutely nothing to do with any mainstream taste or time line. The complete lack of reverence and disregard for mainstream culture, and especially Western notions of musical composition, have rendered this music simply incapable of ever "crossing over."

It is not an impotent, safely crafted expression of self, but rather, a collective instance of war being waged on all that is mundane, thoughtless and easy. Most importantly, these Noise artists could care less about whether or not we understand what they are doing, and many of the genre's best acts seem to exist in their own time and space, completely independent and unflinchingly brave.

The sheer originality of this movement is something which arouses much fascination in me, because unlike the many genres that have predated it, Noise does not become increasingly irrelevant as artists push the genre forward and the philosophy behind such music is accepted and understood as being one of the last, great forms of musical rebellion. More importantly, when one looks at the history of the genre, and the recent explosion of Noise acts which have blossomed in the past ten years, it becomes ever clearer that Noise is decidedly a music that is of and most relevant to this particularly digital generation.

It is also interesting to note that as Noise continues on, it becomes more inclusive and timeless, helping to give definition and a home to music that was well ahead of its time. This is the case with the albums mentioned at the beginning of this article. When Coltrane first released Interstellar Space, it was considered an album of contemporary, avant-garde jazz music, and this was fine, considering that at the time there quite possibly was no other explanation for the way it sounded, but because of more modern composers such as Justice Yeldham and bands such as Ultralyd and Black Pus, we have a more complete understanding of the influence and importance of Coltrane's visionary work. Likewise, when Captain Beefheart released Trout Mask Replica, it was an avant-garde rock album, but because of modern bands such as Arab on Radar, XBXRX and AIDS Wolf, we can see that such albums were merely disconnected instances of a genre which had yet to be named.

This is not the case today. Noise has now been more clearly expressed and defined as a musical philosophy. Increasingly, people of all ages, from all over the globe, have discovered the freedom which Noise can so distinctly provide. Festivals such as the annual International Noise Conference invite anyone and everyone to participate, regardless of talent or stature. The results, of course, are always mixed, but its specifically this chaos which gives such merit to Noise as a overly modern art form capable of sustaining its own freedom through the sheer diversity of artists involved.

But the most striking and urgent aspect of Noise is the way in which it simply does not move backwards. It is incapable of regression. This is true primarily because the history of Noise is also the history of technology, and as the capabilities of technology increase exponentially with every year, so does the ability of Noise to express itself more perfectly. Also, it is of the highest importance that I make clear the boundless forum which is the internet. I believe that, given the sheer capitalistic, bottom-line mentality which permeates all Western music (whatever sells the most is best), a genre such as Noise would find it nearly impossible to exist without the kind of free distribution and promotion which only the internet could hope to accomplish.

For those of you who are exhausted by the mainstream, and realize the hypocrisy of the conforming non-conformists, Noise offers the only true alternative. It is the freest form of music alive today, and albums such as Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's Calibration (2008) seemingly point to the brightest of artistic futures for the genre--a future which holds, in its very essence, the promise, creativity, diversity and originality of our own human consciousness.