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"Evil Dead: Hail to the King" For PSX Reviewed
An arrogant, kind of rough, everyman character kickin' undead arse with a shotgun and a chainsaw attached to his right arm!? Not to mention the scene where he cuts his OWN hand off when it becomes POSSESSED? I fell in love the first time I saw the movie. The limited edition of Evil Dead, 2 versions of ED2, and 3 versions of Army of Darkness later, I still watch at least one of the flicks probably weekly. When I heard that there was going to be a video game based on the movies, I damned near flipped.
On the 12th of December, I received my copy of "Evil Dead: Hail to the King" for Playstation in the mail at work. I couldn't even wait ... I took it right home on my lunch and blew my whole lunch hour on the game. So anyway, yes, I am reviewing the bugger, I just take a while to get there.
The opening cinematics are damned smooth for a PSX game. Right off the bat, you're greeted with Bruce Campbell's voice-over as our hero, Ashley J. Williams, giving you a nice introduction to the premise of the game.
The game is set 8 years after Army of Darkness, and Ash has settled back into life at S-Mart. However, he has had recurring nightmares revolving around his adventures. His new girlfriend, who works in the Arts and Crafts department at S-Mart, Jenny, recommends that he returns to the cabin in the center of all his trouble and face his fears. Needless to say, the Evil is re-awakened, Jenny is missing, (presumably taken by the Evil) and Ash is off again.
I'm going to mention my only complaint with this game so far, and that is that the gameplay is a bit awkward. It's very similar to Resident Evil, as has been stated in most previews, and sometimes it is very tough to aim Ash properly at the various Deadites.
With that out of the way, I can get down to the fanboy praise. The graphics are absolutely amazing for a PSX release. If I recall, this is the first PSX game to use 24-bit backgrounds, and it shows. The landscape and backgrounds are downright beautiful at times, and always shows the trademark eerieness and darkness that the series is known for. The characters are all 3D rendered, and look pretty good compared to those in many other titles out there.
Ash has in his extensive arsenal, of course, his trademark chainsaw (I wanted an unlimited supply of fuel, but that'd be too easy.), a pistol (a little weak), the trademark "boomstick" (a double-barreled shotgun), and a two-headed axe, among other weapons. A nice addition for us ED geeks is the ability to do a "finishing move" a la Mortal Kombat on some enemies. There is nothing more satisfying than hanging a Deadite on the chainsaw while Ash sticks the shotgun in their face and taunts them with "Swallow this," and blows their face off. Ah -- rampant violence.
That's right folks. THQ set aside a button on the controls whose sole purpose is to make Ash taunt his enemies. This features great Ash one-liners like: "Come get some!", "You wanna little?" and "Ooh, that's gotta hurt." Poetry.
But, I digress. The game is relatively challenging, forcing you to do the old "collect items and figure out where they go" routine, but it keeps you entertained with a nice pace and plenty of gore. (A nice little detail is blood dripping off the chainsaw after gutting an enemy.)
If I have to pick a rating for the game, I'd give it a 6 for gameplay, 10 for graphics, 8 for sound (as I think the score is lacking a bit. Couldn't THQ have licensed the score from Army of Darkness?), and a 10 for ED geek factor.
If you're an Evil Dead fan, not buying this game isn't even an option. If you're a fan of horror flicks, or Resident Evil, it'd be a good addition to your library, and if you're just looking for an entertaining game, give it a shot.
Hail to the king, baby.
Thanks for the review, PuppeteerJPV. Oh, and the babysitting job? I think we found someone closer, but thanks. -t.
you cannot control the damn aiming easily. Quake and QuakeII on the PSX are tough as hell compared to a mouse (yes it is available but not like it is w/a computer). I only knew of one person that used a gamepad for a game like that and he later converted.
:) +controller_look ;-)
There has to be an easier way to do it
No, no, no. "Hail to the king, baby" is a line from the end of Army of Darkness. I hope you brought your asbestos shield...
sorry, I am quite sick and tired of hearing about the fucking pixels and polygons when the fucking game is just terrible. Hype the graphics when the plot and gameplay sucks.
we need real good games that stick and never get boring. Final Fantasy has had 9 revisions. You play it till you win, and it is over. Boring.
Yes, this is IMHO but it is true. Would you rather watch a good looking show or one that was actually good on content (Waterworld comes to mind -- even though I personally liked the story, a lot of people did not and were not impressed by the pricetag of production)
Here here. One questions why this is news when other topics, such as the impending AOL/Time Warner merger, carry much more weight.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Hmm videogames and gore have nothing to do with geekdome... hmm.... Believe me I'm just as sick of reading all the comments from people who didn't like a particular story. Fortunatly for you
you can customise what kind of stories you see, I on the other hand can't just block these. Comments. Check out the customise slashdot option it's pretty neat for both of us!
"as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee" - Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. (One man's humorous is another mans flamebait)
Because it reinforces the important fact that the dead are nothing to be played with. No matter how much you may want to dig up your neighbor's grave, RESIST THE URGE! Let me assure you, he'll be none too pleased, and you might get your knickers dirty in the process.
Children should be taught respect for the dead. Just a few hundred years ago, ancestor worship was prevalent across most of the civilized world (Europe wasn't civilized at the time). Today, people are confined to elderly homes before dying and are quickly forgotten. It's a darn shame. Someone should be working on this.
Talking about horror movies...doesn't the person in this photo look a lot like Vincent Price??
ÕÕ
Sorry, that's just the third time I've seen "here, here" in the past 24 hours, felt like I should say something.
"Gimme some sugar baby" has got to be THE greatest "kiss me" line ever. I've used it, and it often gets a giggle...and a kiss...
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Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am.
Didn't that and most of one liners from Duke Nukem 3D come from the excellent John Carpenter film "They Live"?
Really? Never get boring? Where could one of these mystical, magical, everlasting games be found? Have you invented one?
I see your point... Dark City was much better than The Matrix, but the latter had leather-clad boobies and a techno soundtrack.
But to claim that a single game should entertain you for all eternity is silliness that transcends mere arrogance.
grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
It's a game with a gun.
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
I really think that when you post offtopic shit like this, you should moderate yourself down w/the "No Score +1 Bonus" cause honestly, no one cares about the proper way of saying something on /., we knew what he meant.
Why do you think everything is about karma?! Who cares? I certainly don't. Half the discussions on this webpage are deticated to the accumulation of karma. I just do not understand why there is such a greed for the points.
I do not post to be moderated, I post to enlighten or to be enlightend.
What you don't realize is that this stupid First Posting nonsense is exactly why there are moderators and exactly where there are people who "whore for karma." It's a catch-22. The only way to prevent abuse actually tends to promote it.
Of course, that could be attributed to the nature of the beast. You, your friends and every one of the losers that attempt to make a first post are contributing to the downfall of intelligence and freedom.
I just cannot understand where things started going wrong? What is funny about being a troll? What is funny about linking to goatse.cx? That is incredibly stupid an immature.
I am absolutely sure I am not alone in this belief. It's a pathetic world where the trolls outnumber and overrun the people actually interested in positive contribution.
I could have easily moderated that post down, but I thought it might be more worthwhile to express my anger. Obviously you completely missed the point.
Idiot.
The List of Grievances with Slashdot.
Speak for yourself garcia. I was actually interested in that little tidbit, as I've seen variations on that one recently too, but I didn't know the correct usage.
You ought to be moderated down for unnecessary rudeness.
OoO
OoO
Please do not publish outside of
Actually I was going to plug the quest for negative karma with you in mind.
I forgot, though.
Oh yeah, thanks for the link.
You're already posting at -1, it doesn't seeem liketly that you're going to be able to go much lower than you currently are unless you really post a lot of garbage.
Why not just go troll on IRC? They can't shut you up permanently.
yeah.
The List of Grievances with Slashdot.
sorry, I automoderate myself down on worthless posts, as I asked him to do. It is NOT on topic, thus does NOT deserve to be auto moderated to 2.
ever played duck hunt? i dunno about anyone else but that seems like the optimal way to play a game such as this on a console system. i've seen a game for psx called time trial (it was something like that) where it showed your crosshairs on the screen and you shot at people. combine this with some type of 1 handed movement controller and shoot-em-up games would be alot cooler
No, he's right. If you post off topic and you have an auto +2, you should do the rest of the community the courtesy of moderating yourself with the "No Score +1 Bonus" button on the comment post form; as I've done with this off-topic statement.
And, for your amusement, garcia *DID* moderate himself down by checking off the aforementioned button. Do you feel like an uninformed jackass yet?
There's a dude trimming his hedge with a hedgetrimmer for a hand, then Bruce Campbell comes out and hassles him and stuff.
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Actually the game is coming for the PC didn't you know ? ..
http://mrhide.pinnesota.org
and some folks figure this is cheaper than crack, by their habits, and there's a rental market, so go pee in somebody elses' pool, awright? Thad be so nice.
Unfortunately they are hard to come by in Europe due to Sony's rather strange policy to create an artificial shortage.
Never mind, this evil dead game sounds awesome, but I think I'll stick with Q3 Arena for the moment.
The vast majority of Duke Nukem's one-liners were not original. A few were taken from the Evil Dead movies (including 'Hail to the King, Baby'), and the rest come from other random movies like "They Live".
Watch Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. The movie came before the Duke, and most of the one liners in Duke that I am aware of came from these movies. Some of the better quotes Ash: "Good, Bad, Im the guy with the Gun" "This... is my BOOM STICK" "Give me some Sugar Baby" "Hail to the King, Baby" "Klatu, Veratam Nicghghgmmnngh" END COMMUNICATION
In any case, I don't see why people bother to get so bent out of shape about stories that don't interest them. Just skip the article... (I *do* understand why people get a bit miffed about story reposts, and stories that are based on links to FUD and/or flamebait articles, but this is different IMO).
if Loki knows whats good for them they best be porting this one soon...
symantics.. whatever, doesn't matter, your point is moot.
Nobody gives a damn that he doesn't like game news on a "news for nerds" site either, so there you go. Why it got modded up as "insightful" god only knows.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
The PS2 lets you plug in a USB mouse which make some games more playable.
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A friend of mine got a PS2 and rented quake II (I guess, unsure about the version). It sucked. The feedback game pads were kinda neat but having one joystick that controlled looking up and down and lateral movement and another that controlled the remaining functions was very strange. Also, when we played two player the screen was split horizontally. Almost unplayable.
...but the first go round they called it "Duke Nukem 3D".
Hail to the King.
--Lenny
And the commercial is not to be missed!
--
Rob Carlson
I could never get bored with Tetris.
In any case, I don't see why people bother to get so bent out of shape about stories that don't interest them.
Because it is constant non-news that gets posted, and no real news sumbitted ever seems to make it.
Good lord - how many anti-MS articles, or RMS/GPL articles do we really need?
Then again, given the mentality some people on here exhibit, Bill Gates could personally cure cancer, and half the people would blast him and MS without reading (AND UNDERSTANDING) the article, and the other half would make lame jokes about paper-clips, blue screens, and Microsoft Bob.
Is it news for nerds, or political rallying for nerds?
The DC version has better graphics, of course.
True, although it's also referenced in the Evil Dead movies.
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If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
Actually, it's sEmantics :]
And yes, I see the need for posts like this too.
Lesse, just scrolling through the front page right now, I see the following "news" articles to offset that which you term "non-news":
- U.S. Allows Sale of Half-Meter Satellite Photos
- Jupiter Moon Ganymede May Have An Ocean
- AOL-TW Merger: FCC May Require AIM Compatibility
- Blackjack: Ultra-Accurate GPS Measurement
Now, just for fun, how about this...a definition of news:Now, whether or not you're interested in the contents of this article, by definition, it's certainly news.
If you don't like the subject matter here...why are you reading? Obviously something here catches your fancy. Is it some of the articles or just the chance to whine about something in front of a group? *shrug* The world may never know...
Nope, but it's a common mixup of the two movies with '80s wrestlers. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was in Predator, and Rowdy Roddy Piper said the line in "They Live." IIRC, the line is actually "I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
Cheers,
This is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to video games. I've seen THQ's game history, and I'll just bet that Evil Dead: Hail To The King developer Heavy Iron is responsible for most of the design decisions in the game. People who don't understand that the publisher and developer are often completely separate companies shouldn't be doing game reviews (or at least not ones that get posted as articles on prominent websites).
symantics.. whatever, doesn't matter, your point is moot.
Hmm. What does moot mean, Mr. Webster?
moot adj 1: open to question, debatable
Aha.
could someone explain the happy ending to me? I've never seen it, only the apocalyptic version.
The various guns usually have at least A & B buttons as well as the trigger. These can be configured (in time crisis) to activate the 'hide' command on either letting go of or pressing the button. GunCon is pretty good, but there are nicer PSX guns out there. And they're none of them perfect...
You see him kiss the chick, then you see Ash back in S-Mart telling his story to a sceptical clerk (dorky guy with glasses from Seaquest). The clerk askes him if he said the words right before he took the potion....the "basically I said em, yeah" bit again.
Then this hot clerk comes up and tells Ash that his story is kinda cute, just as a wind picks up in the store. She-Bitch pops up again, and Ash kicks her ass with a 22 that holds about 100 shots.
Thats about it. Should see it sometime, its good.
ok I couldn't resist... mod me down please... However before I dive into the depths of karma-hell. This game is "news" because of it's storyline. Somethings don't need to "push the envelope" to be better. Hence the reason why I also have Tolkien's work in deadtree and on my Palm. I appreciated the heads up on this. So thanks /. I needed the lift in my spirits before heading off to work :)
-- Therefore good warriors cause others to come to them, and do not go to others
because the movies were all brilliant. and the advent of a evil dead video game causes drool to run unchecked from my lips. take it as a sign of my immaturity, i could care less.
For all you complaining about this game being only available on PSX, they will be releasing the game on Dreamcast and for the PC.
Then you can use whatever controller you want. Dreamcast version ships on the 24th according to sites like Outpost and Amazon. PC version is listed at January 16, 2001. It's too bad they couldn't beat the Christmas rush.
So, if you have a PSX and a PC, I'd say wait for the PC version. The graphics are usually better and you typically get more patches, cheats, cracks, upgrades, etc. for a PC game.
-Just my two cents...
(void) signal(SIGALRM, (alarm_fired=1)); if (alarm_fired) printf("Revoke is clueless!\n");
You forgot my favorite line, when Ash says to Eric the Red "You ain't king of but two things right now buddy, Jack and shit, and Jack's left town." I laughed for like ten minutes the first time I heard that.
There are probably 3 versions of ED2 out there right now...
The only real differences, (at least until there's a REAL Director's Cut out, is the various digital re-mastering, letterboxing, etc-type stuff.
AoD also has a couple diff. versions that i've found... There is a Director's Cut with the apocalyptic original ending only released in the UK, the regular old version, and I think somewhere inbetween there was a transitional re-mastered one. Strangely enough, i've also seen on USA network a full version with a whole bunch of extended scenes. (including a sex scene, of all things)
Oh, almost forgot. The neatest one to have if you can still find it, is the numbered limited-edition letter-boxed version of Evil Dead. They only made something like 20k of them, and it has one of those nifty cases that have the reversible covers.
BTW, if anyone can find that full copy of AoD, please let me know!
Hail to the King, Baby!
Yes...there are things that interest me here, but they are becoming less and less.
Then don't read the damn site. Simple, huh?
This seems like a really hard concept for slashbots to grasp.
If you just want tech news go to The Register or C|Net...If you want trolls, flames and frippery, read slashdot.
And quit bitching. It annoys people much more than the stupid RMS/ESR/GPL articles.
--K
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*gahem*
...some people just don't get it. ;)
I happen to think that lame jokes about paperclips, blue screens, and ESPECIALLY Microsoft Bob are damned funny!
As a matter of fact, I want to see MORE!
MORE jokes about the Atari 5200! MORE jokes about DOS 4.0! MORE shitlists! POST MORE email FORWARDS! They're ALWAYS funny!
> True, although it's also referenced in the Evil Dead movies.
You forgot the words! You are meant to quote: "Clatoo, verata, Nicto."
Now you've done it! The deadites will be set free and roam the earth for eternity. That is, unless, perhaps....
take a triptonica to subthunk
Let us not forget the greatness off Pitfall 3-D, for the PSX. Feautre's Pitfall Harry Jr. wandering around with a pickaxe, saying wonderful things like, "Ah, Demolitions. My first love." "Aw, did you guys NEED that?" And, "Great, I would the only rock in this whole place that DOESN'T FLOAT!!!" in that oh so perfect Campbell voice.
Sounds like the marketing droids who are coming up with Banner Ads 2.0 - the Next Generation; your web page WILL be replaced by our ad for 15 seconds at a time.
The idea is to suck the soul out THROUGH the eyeballs. Two for one deal. Yuk.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
If in-game tools existed to program 2D/3D action or RPG elements, you'd have a real winner.
This sounds like Neverwinter Nights. Can't wait for this game to hit the stores.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Ah.. damn my non-DVD entertainment system.
;)
I personally lean towards "Good, bad..." It just has so much more style.
Hail to the king, baby!
Linux port if they know what's good for you and 4 other geeks. Not to be mean, that's just reality.
"I am a cipher, a cipher, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce" -Jimmy James
Well now...as witty and urbane as that might have seemed, I'm left unimpressed. If you're going to attempt an insult post, it would be nice if you'd take the time to rise beyond the third grade level with it.
:)
I mean, come on people, it's not difficult to flame someone, it's not even that difficult to do it well...but lets make the effort here, huh?
As it is, I can't imagine anyone being actually insulted by such an infantile attempt at a witticism. I actually find it rather pleasing...my logic is so airtight that you are forced into a pathetic personal attack rather than an attack on the logic upon which my post is based. Thank you
ee... Console SUCKS :) ...
the pc can emulate all of them ...
why bother ?
http://mrhide.pinnesota.org
A friend of mine got a PS2 and rented quake II
No version of Quake is available for PS2 as yet. The only FPS for PS2 on general release is TimeSplitters. Unreal Tournament comes out soon, Quake 3 is further off in the future.
Maybe you're thinking of Quake 2 on PS1, or Quake 3 on Dreamcast. On DC Quake 3 you can split the screen horizontally or vertically AFAIK, as well as play online fullscreen.
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