TV commentary:
Sherlock- So after hearing both
clevemire and
isabel79 separately mention this show and liking it, I figured I would check it out. It took a few months, but I finally did, since there was nothing on tonight. I've only checked out the first ep so far, but its pretty good. Though I hear from the aforementioned folks that the next two eps weren't as great. In any case, when I heard them talk about this show, I had no idea this show took place in the modern day. Of course, since Sherlock was the iconic detective character, the one who started the trend of modern forensics, if he exists "now", he didn't exist back then. But then who inspired the whole using deductive reasoning and forensics and all that jazz to solve crimes? Its like Hawaii Five-0. Since they exist in the now, that means, 5-0 isn't a commonly used slang word to refer to cops in that world, which is just weird.
Video game stuff:
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City- So learned more about this game from G4's daily E3 roundup. So, the first trailer and various magazine articles highlighted 4 members- the team leader Vector, who has a personal cloaking device, the big guy with explosives, Beltway, the sniper with the weird goggles, Spectre, and Bertha the medic with the big knife. But then the new trailer at E3 had two new characters, Lupo, who's even higher up than Vector since she's ordering him around, and an Asian chick who seems to be another medic/science type, Four-Eyes.
At first, I thought maybe Lupo and Four-Eyes were scrubs and get killed off in the story, but from the person they interviewed on the show, no, there are 6 playable characters, each their own unique class. But its a four-man team, so you'll have to choose which classes you bring, which obviously depends on your situation.
Its been compared to Left 4 Dead and the other "zombie modes" various shooters have been coming out with recently. But it does seem to have some unique elements. Well, I assume they're unique, its possible the other games have some similar aspects. For one, the creators refer to the game being three-sided. You're controlling the Umbrella Security folks, who are trying to cover up what's happening in Raccoon City. But since this takes place during RE2, you have Claire and Leon wandering around, plus a US spec ops team investigating the outbreak. So not only are you having to fight off zombies, you have to contend with them.
But also, they handle the whole getting infected in an interesting way- getting infected with the T-virus, your health bar turns blue and it starts running down. During this time, you still have control, but obviously you're stronger, and more resilient, ignoring all damage except for headshots. But once the bar is depleted, you become a full on zombie and relinquish control to the computer. However, as mentioned before, you have the various character classes, including a medic. Now, some people are inclined to leave the medic behind, being all, "the best defense is a good offense" and relying on just skill and bad-assery to avoid getting hurt by killing the enemy first, forgoing the need for a medic.
But, the medic can cure you of the T-virus infection before it fully sets in. So, that brings in another aspect of gameplay- intentionally getting infecting so you're bad-ass temporarily, relying on the medic to revert you back to a human before its too late. Which I think is a cool concept.