Friday, February 17, 2006

What ever happen to the Airborne? Part 3

History of the Canadian Airborne Regiment

General Jean Victor Allard created the Canadian Airborne Regiment in 1965 and the regiment officially joined the Canadian Forces in 1968. General Allard envisioned a large, short term force until a larger regular force can be moved in, rapid-reaction, light mobile force, suited to overseas missions and use parachutes if necessary which will be used in overseas reinforcement and intervention missions within N.A.T.O. Problems occurred when the Airborne was transform into a specialized parachute force, which called into question the Airborne relevance because a parachute force was rarely needed and this was at odds with what General Allard designed it for. The Airbornes fate was seal however, when the media got a hold of a video tape containing bizarre hazing rituals and then the Somalia affair, where four soldiers of the regiment where charged with the beating death of a Somali civilian. The Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded on September 1, 1995.


  • A Battalion usually consists of 300-1000 soldiers and is usually lead by a Lieutenant Colonel.
  • A Regiment usually consists of 2000-3000 soldiers and is usually lead by a Colonel.
  • A Division usually consists of 10,000-20,000 soldiers and is usually lead by a Major General.
  • N.A.T.O is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Resident Evil 4 review- version 2.0

The reason I haven't posted often is because of that game. I love this game, Resident Evil 4 is up there with Super Mario 64, The Legend Zelda: Ocaria of Time, Final Fantasy 7 and Halo as one of the greatest games of all time.

Year it was released: 2005
Released by: Capcom
Console I played it on: PS2 (the only console I have)
ESRB rating: Mature

Story: 7.5/10
Game Play: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Controls: 9/10
NPC A.I.: 10/10
Extras: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
SFX: 10/10
Music: 9/10
length: 35 to 50 hours

In depth review
If there ever was a video game series that needed to evolve, that would be Resident Evil and like the fish that was born with legs to walk on the beach, it has which ensures it's survival (take that fundamentalist Christians and take that intelligence design crap and cram it up your collective ass's. Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh yes Resident Evil 4, I kinda trailed off there). Before I get to the graphics, the audio and the story, I would like to go through the major improves to the series.

Resident Evil 4 has 3D environments instead of the pre-rendered 2D environments of the previous games. The game has an over the shoulder view and a first person view, if you use the sniper rifle (borrowed from Silent Hill) which is good but sometimes you might get blind sided by an enemy. Also you can control the camera to look around with the right analog stick (borrowed from Metal Gear Solid 2) but only 180 degrees of movement. You can also use the right analog stick to zoom in and out with the binoculars and sniper rifle scope. The one improvement to the camera that should be considered in future Resident Evil games is the ability to adjust it on the fly like in the SOCOM games.

One thing I hated about the previous Resident Evil games was the awkward controls which have been changed in this game. The developers used a first person movement controls, so you know where your going. The controls have room for improvement (not to say the controls are bad, there actually they are really good). One improvement I would make is to get rid of that damn run button (which is the square button) and use left analog stick by pressing it forward to walk and pressing it all the way forward to run(like in Mario 64). Another improvement that should be made is some kind of quick equip system by assigning each weapon to an L1, L2, R1, R2 to cut down on using the inventory screen to change weapons (for example if you need the shotgun press the button you assigned it to, to equip it and then hold that button to aim the shotgun and use the X button to fire it). The last improvement I would make would be to use the action only for cinematic stuff like jumping out and dodging enemy attacks, not for climbing over objects or jumping gaps or climbing ladders, you should be able walk up to it and do it by pushing forward on the left analog stick.

Resident Evil 4 graphics are some of the best I have seen on a PS2. The music is pretty good but not memorable and the sound effects are very realistic. The game play is great, different from the previous games because it always offers something new, the puzzle are logical, epic boss battles, challenging and has an a moving forward level design with very little back tracking for things like keys or special items. The new inventory system also reduces back tracking by letting you to carry a lot of weapons and items and you can carry an unlimited number of special items like keys. Weapons and items can be brought from the creepy merchant by collecting gold through out the game. The basic types of weapons are pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, frag grenades, incedinary grenades, stun grenades, sniper rifles, a minethrower, magnums and rocket launchers. Another new feature in this game, is that weapons can upgraded by the merchant but they don't come cheap. The upgrades include increasing the weapons fire power, increase it's rate of fire, increasing reloading speed, increasing it's capacity and add on's like scopes and stocks but that depends on the weapon. There are no zombies in the game but there are infected human called Garados which are infected by parasites called Las Plagus. Anyways the Garados are smarter then zombies because they sometimes work in groups to try to kill you and they use weapons like chain saws, pitch folks and cross bows etc. Also there are infected wolves, giant bugs, face huggers, Garados in shining armor, S&M wolvenrine wannabes, bear traps and trip wire rigged to TNT, to worry about. This game plays more like an adventure game than a survival horror game. The game play is Resident Evil 4 greatest strength.

Resident Evil 4 is an instant PS2 classic and it gets 10 red/green herb combinations out of 10.