Get ready to enter the ‘Matrix’ online
KIRKLAND, Wash. – After seeing the first “Matrix” movie, did you want to be Neo, just a little bit? Did you want to be the one that broke the bonds of the earth and leapt from building to building, or stopped bullets with a touch, or whacked the bad guys with some mighty kung fu?
Even after the movies lost some of their luster during the sequels, the little-kid, comic-book-super-
hero-lover inside many people – including me – yearned for a black trench coat and a truly awesome pair of sunglasses.
Warner Brothers and Sega are banking on your desire being strong enough to buy “The Matrix Online” early next year – and then continue paying an as-yet-undetermined amount every month to play. It’s an online game set in the “Matrix” universe after the third movie has ended, with an underlying storyline being written by the Wachowski brothers, who directed the movies.
I sat down with “Matrix” last month at the headquarters of Monolith Productions, the company that’s developing the game for WB. They’ve got a good pedigree, as the developers of games including “Tron 2.0” and the “No One Lives Forever” series. They’ve been working on this one for a few years now. It was supposed to launch in November, but a last-minute publisher shakeup helped to push it to somewhere near the end of January.
Ongoing mini-movies made available in the game – one will be released with every update, which will happen at least several times a year – may be one reason why Matrixites will buy in.
‘Resident Evil’ resurrected?
While on the coast to look at upcoming games, I swung by Capcom’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., to check out “Resident Evil 4.” It won’t be available for the holidays, but may well be worth a second look during the post-holiday lull.
“Resident Evil 4” is the latest installment in a stagnating series of games that most recently spawned a lackluster (but very successful) movie. That sums up the series for me: lackluster but incredibly popular.
I’ve never been fond of this series’ poorly placed camera angles, stiff character movements and mindless point-and-shoot action. Fortunately, the encounter I had with the latest chapter went a long way toward convincing me the game is worth
a try when it debuts in January.
The graphics are terrific, for starters. It easily has the best-
animated hair ever in a GameCube game (which is a good thing, because the lead character when you begin is a floppy-haired guy who moves it around a lot). The camera has been moved to an over-the-shoulder view, which makes the game feel more fluid.
But the best improvement is in the intelligence of the creatures you face: They’re not actually zombies this time, unlike the earlier games.
Your pistol comes with a laser sight, and when the bad guys see that thin red line coming, they do what comes naturally: duck, twist away and hide. Their actions are completely realistic and at full speed, something that set me back on my heels when I was playing the game.
The physics are improved as well, so you can shoot someone in the arm or some other body part or weapon and they’ll react naturally, cradling the limb, for example. Nice.
“Resident Evil 4” is exclusive to the GameCube and is a Mature-rated title, a rarity in the gaming world. Keep an eye out for it.