Resident Racism

If the trailer for Resident Evil 5 released at E3 this year caused consternation among gamers, it was largely due to the frustrating absence of any footage from the game itself. Indeed, for the vast majority its new, apparently African setting seemed to be a refreshing and evocative change in location for the franchise, and easily the most interesting thing about an uninteresting promo. A few days after the shows conclusion however, the game’s developers were greeted with accusations of casual racism.

In an article for the blog Black Looks, Kym Platt claimed that, intentionally or otherwise, the imagery in the game’s trailer was highly contentious. “The new Resident Evil videogame depicts a white man, in what appears to be Africa, killing black people. The black people are zombies and the white mans job is to destroy them and save humanity,” Platt observed. “This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of black people as inhuman savages, the killing of black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this videogame is marketed to young adults. Start them young…fearing, hating and destroying black people.”

GamePolitics reported on the complaint and was immediately inundated with angry complaints, many of which were laced with the sort of racism their authors insisted was not present in the Resident Evil trailer. “Never have I been so harassed and insulted, and all because I questioned the imagery in this game,” Platt replied. “The response has been horrifying… They called me names like ‘nigger’, ‘bitch’ and ‘whore’.”

While this kind of ignorance doesn’t categorise gamers in general, any regular visitor to the medium’s more popular forums will no doubt have witnessed it before. Another blog, the Young Black Professional’s Guide saw the reaction as no great surprise. “Trying to talk about the sensitivities of race to a gaming demographic is extremely difficult,” it explained. “The majority of readers are young white males who are either too immature to have a clean conversation about it, or too illogical to draw comparisons. I understand the angle some of the mature gamers are taking .Resident Evil has always been about a white guy killing zombies, why should killing zombies in Africa be any different?” it continues. “On the other hand, the images used in the game- already disturbing because its Resident Evil- also reflect hateful images that were real and meant to evoke hate towards black people in the not too distant history of America .”

This seems to be the relevant point, and one that angry gamers are apparently missing. The imagery may not be not be intentionally offensive towards black people, but it is inherently offensive and that should be avoided with just as much diligence . Perhaps if it were a game asking you to guide a plane into a pair of large symmetrical buildings in New York City there would be a greater attempt at understanding. Perhaps if it were a man in military dress gunning down while , shaven-headed emaciated zombies in a Poish field those offended would be shown more compassion.

If Kym Platt’s cautionary words appeared to be reactionary at first, the the response they received was far more so. As the blog Microscopiq commented: “If LocoRoco’s Mojas were a kind of high-tech blackface, Resident Evil 5 takes blackface into the high definition era. Its horror alright, just not the kind of horror Capcom intended.”

Now back to the Wii...

Its been some time since I had the opportunity to tell you anything that's been going on in my Wii world, 'cos frankly, well nothing has... For about a month it was shoved away in a draw, with no action whatsoever happening on it... The Saturn got played, the Dreamcast got played, the DS got the occasional airing and the PS2 began to grow on me as a console... But the Wii? Well frankly, nothing... Then I gave one of my only Gamecube games, Metroid Prime 2 an outing, but it didn't grab me much... But at least the Wii was hooked up again...

My youngest Ginger, Ted, borrowed Zelda: Twilight Princess off a mate of mine, but again, I didn't bother with it. I need to play some of the older games before I give that an outing...

Having been flushed with love for Red Steel, I got stuck on a particularly tricky sword fight, so I've faltered on my progress with that, (however it's a game I really want to finish at some point...)

But the old Wii got a new lease of life recently, when I hooked up a wireless broadband connection over here at Krishna Towers, and the world of the Wii Online finally came to life in the Early family home...

The Weather and News Channels failed to excite me much, although I guess they're rather cool.

But what did float my boat, was the chance to rinse out my credit card one more time, downloading Retro classics on the Virtual Console, and finally understood what the 'Classic Controller' I'd bought for myself was all about...

First of all I downloaded the most excellent Megadrive/Genesis title, "Comix Zone". I'd never even played this title (or knew about it 'back in the day',) but had read a glowing review of it in the wonderful Retro section of the most excellent Games TM Magazine.

Such a fabulously original concept, the game revolves around the concept of a comic artist getting sucked into his own comic book, then having to battle his gruesome artistic creations in a lovely sidescrolling platformer/beat 'em up... The game is a glorious visual feast, looking for all the world like a living comic, with our hero moving from frame to frame, both left to right and up and down, ripping the 'page' where necessary to progress... The colours are lurid and the musical score and soundbites of dialogue compliment the game nicely. Its clear that this game must have pushed the capabilities of the Megadrive to its limits. The game is clearly a labour of love, and stands out as unique in it's genre... Check out it's Wikipedia entry here...




The nextgame I've downloaded is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Originally out on the N64, this is one of the most 'modern' games available on the VC. I can't tell you too much about it, as I've only played what amounts to the game's tutorial. But my first impression is that it is a good looking game, with a rather complex control system! If the VC can support 64 bit titles, then hopefully it will soon be supporting 32 bit Saturn titles too... But for now, at least the Wii is a working console in my home again, and as a bonus, my Retro repertoire is expanding. For more Zelda goodness look here...




But hey, if you want a definitive guide to the Retro potential of the Wii, may I point you in the direction of my brother, Gnome and this rather stunning post...

For a damning review of Streets Of Rage 3 on the VC, head over to J's place here...

Strutter Gear - Mike's Range of Executive Accessories

Mike Strutter Smoketank

Paul Kaye at his best!

This guy just kills me...

Le Treamcast! C'est tres belle, n'est pas?

Here is a rather lovely video first posted at the Hunyak by the 'American Dreamcaster' Caleb.

Unless your a more cunning linguist than me, you'll struggle with the detailed description proffered by our Gallic host, but the visual demonstration is more than adequate to understand what the Treamcast consists of. For more about this most lovely console, look here... and here...

The only other Treamcast owner I know is 'Treamcaster' who has started the rather wonderful Dreamcast Inn. Over there, you will see this rather lovely photo of his Treamcast online...

My Treamcast is my most prized video game posession. Like to own one yourself? Look here...

Hang 'em all!

Whats it like to live in the Bronx? Compton? Beijing?
What's it like to live on the frontline of modern urban living?
It's shit! I don't live in any of those inner city hell holes, but I do live in A inner city hell hole!

Yep! Today I got home to find my 'castle' violated. The entire backyard was destroyed by thieves that had robbed my next door neighbour... 8ft. of my back yard wall had been destroyed by scummy crackers robbing scrap metal for a quick few quid... I hope they get slow and painful testicular cancer.

Rejoice in where you live! Its not here, and that should be cause for celebration!

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes: First Thoughts...

Well, I finally plugged my Wii back into the TV on Friday night after a prolonged absence from gaming. The recent trip to Wales and the subsequent grim realisation that the vacation period was coming to an end, had left me in something of a gaming limbo...

Added to this was the fact that my game collection has been randomly scattered throughout the house, stuffed into bin bags, shoe boxes, in cupboards, under beds, obscured by shoes and so on... The Dreamcast, Saturn, DS, PS2, Master System and Wii had remained unplayed (even when Mrs. K was out at work.)

Added to these facts were the factors of extended periods of drunkeness, visitors to the Krishna household and also the start of the English Premiership (that's football folks....)

I also got rather into watching movies (the affore mentioned Departed, This Is England, Bourne Supremacy, Kicking It Old School, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Pirates Of The Carribbean and so on...)

The above circumstances led me to something of a gaming torpor, nay impotence, that got me rather worried for a bit... A knock on effect was me then losing the will to blog... Or even to post on my favurite blogs - Gnome's Lair, GGOTG, The Elderly Gamer, J's Corner, The Dreamcast Junkyard or even *choke* The Saturn Junkyard...

Still words of kindness and encouragement from Gnome, Elderly and NebachadnezzaR, beagn to thaw out my steely resolve... I've been galvanised into action! I've started to gather together my disparate games collection, and in doing so have found a couple of gems I'd forgotten about - my Neo Geo emulator for Dreamcast, my Dream Key discs, Marvel vs. Capcom for the PS2, some great PS2 demo. discs, Soul Blade, The One, Pandemonium and Phantom Menace for PS1 - and various other little bits and bobs... I've cleared a big space in a cupboard in my son's room, so if not on display, at least they'll be centralised... I'm gonna sort through them all and anally catalogue them. If you're (un)lucky I might even share those lists with you...

So the Wii was now plugged in, but for what? What could I play? Then whilst perusing the Corner, The Elderly and The Lair, one game seemed to be receiving a lot of attention, and stirring up a lot of excitement... the up and coming Metroid Prime 3 for Wii.

Now I know nothing about the Metroid world, a relatively recent convert to the world of Nintendo, I'd not grown up on the franchise. In fact the only thing I did know about the game was that the heroine was named Samus, and that the game was a FPS... not my usual thing...

I'd picked up MP2 for the Gamecube a couple of months earlier, after a guy called N1NT3ND007, from the Planet Dreamcast Forum had been raving about it... But I had simply put it next to my computer and forgotten about it. But I lifetd up a bunch of stuff on Friday night, and there it was... So in it went!

Opening sequence? Meh... I've seen better opening sequences on The Saturn! But by the time it got to the ship landing and Samus popping out, I was intrigued... For some reason I expected spectacular graphics... They were OK, but not stunning... (bare in mind the only other GC game I'd seen was the Resident Evil re-make). But then I stopped and 'caught myself on'... If this had been a Dreamcast game, I'd have been creaming over the graphics... And then it struck me... There was something a bit 'Dreamcast' about the whole feel of the game, and at that point, my defenses dropped and I started to get into it!

First of all, I loved the abilities of Samus' suit. I loved the scanning visor, the information gained, and perspective seen through it. I loved the firepower of the blaster and its ability to 'charge and blast'. I loved the 'lock on' feature, the environments and Samus' ability to morph into the little bomb dropping sphere that can roll through nooks and crannies. I loved the arachnid type aliens, somewhat reminiscent of the movie "Starship Troopers". Hell, even the convoluted storyline began to make some sense...

The only downside to the whole experience was when I got to the Temple Assembly Site, I died and got thrown right back to the start of the game... I had preumed that the Wii would have saved my progress at the save points, but alas no! So, my learned friends, what's the deal? Is it possible to save progress on Gamecube games played on a Wii without purchasing a GC or Wii memory card? I'm not touching it agin till some kind soul can enlighten me... Plus it seems like a game that requires an intense amount of gameplay, and I'm not sure I'm in the zone for that right now... If you want to know more look here... for a walkthrough (and I'll be using this if I play it) look here...

Bush Is Another Word For C**t...

"First of all may I apologise for my recent posting/gaming lethargy... for the first time in a long time, real life just got in the way! I've not been playing anything recently, except checking out the odd new Saturn purchases (as flagged up on the Saturn Junkyard) or the odd game of Mario Kart with my youngest son over the wireless DS connection.

I aim to rectify my tardy and slovenly stasis this week, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, take a look at the above documentary if you've got a bit of spare time on your hands. After I got my new PC last year, and was able to access video streaming through my broadband connection, it was the above film that amazed me more than anything that I had watched or read on a monitor before...

Its nothing new, but it is rediculously compelling and confirms all my suspicions about the current US administration and the lengths they will go to in order to force through the New World Order agenda... Keep the Faith FK fires faithful, my blogging powers will shortly return!