Why, thank you, stranger! Your words are appreciated.
I have indeed played Journey and I promise to think real hard on doing a review. Time constraints and a bottomless bag of excuses have kept me from sitting down with a game and analyzing it as of late. Briefly: I did enjoy it but it didn’t blow me through the roof like all the buzz was telling me it would (although, most people would have you believe it’s the downloadable coming of Christ). It’s a bite-sized wonder chocked full of gorgeous visuals and unconventional ideas, and I really dug it (even if it wasn’t revelatory).
Tomb Raider looks mighty fascinating. I hope the new bent towards a survivalist play style brings something to the table besides scuffs and cuts on their younger Lara. Yes, a lot of its gameplay tropes look photocopied from Uncharted – the comparisons are inescapable – but I have no qualms with a clone so long as it’s good. I just had someone vehemently disagree with me about the quality of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on the grounds that it’s a God of War clone. And it totally is, but it uses that archetype beautifully (I prefer every minute of that game over GoW). If Tomb Raider is good, it won’t matter if it’s a clone – it’ll just be another great addition to that genre structure.
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is more or less an exact port of 1996’s PS1 original. The resolution is cleaned up a bit, though you’re not likely to confuse this game’s graphics with REmake. It has added legacy features like auto-aim and quick-turn so it plays a tad better, and even some of the dual-screen integration is clever. But you’ll want to turn on “Original” mode. I really didn’t care for swiping the touchscreen to slash at zombies in the midst of ugly, first-person knife battles (the only really glaring design mistake…well, besides the game’s horrific version of CPR).
Unlike the modern day I’m trapped in, I happen to love tank-controls and fixed perspectives, so in short, yes, I recommend the hell out of Deadly Silence.