I am a man and I’m digging a hole…

Last we left off, I was finishing sealing up the Hellmouth uncovered beneath my shed.  This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. (It’s hard to tell if you’ve made progress digging a hole by showing pictures of similar holes, although I much prefer the Muppet paraphrasing of Dickens)

I have been digging and scraping and moving rocks and digging and scraping again. It has been hard going and I’ve removed over a tonne of stones and bricks so far. I also took the opportunity to cut down the tree which was always shaded by the larger tree next to it. It was going to be in the way of the roof of the new shed so out came the chainsaw.

It was also an excuse to take a break from the digging which has been fairly relentless. Working over that large an area is hard work so it’s nice to have a distraction with some other destructive activity.

What’s that? Surely I can’t have pulled that much junk out of the ground? I ask that you look at the photo below. All of those stones, blocks, and bricks were buried under the shed. And that’s not even the lot of it. I believe I’ve found the wall that used to divide the hall from the living room. Thank you, kind previous owner, for leaving me this last parting gift.

The digging wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t for all the other nonsense. I’ve started to use stakes and wire to dig the right depth, checking the level with a spirit level. There’s still more earth to remove, but I’m making daily progress. Except today. We’ve had excellent summer weather with rain and wind all day. The forecast is better for tomorrow, although the weekend might be a little dodgy. I have also hired a cement mixer and plate compactor from National Tool Hire (although fulfilled by Speedy Hire) which were delivered next day. I considered using the handheld tamper but I thought it might just kill me in the process.

The trench is looking much more reasonable after a lot more digging and raking. The lawn took a battering from the fire but I expect it will recover relatively quickly. First job once I’ve finished digging is to compact the soil with the plate compactor, then lay the hardcore down in two layers, compacting between each, followed by the sand-cement bed for the pavers. Finally the paving stones themselves go down. That will be a feat in itself as there are a lot of them, and they’re not exactly lightweight.

Of course, what would a post be without another Resident Evil dive…

Resident Evil 5

Yes we’ve made it to the less exalted end of the spectrum. Not as fully reviled as the sixth installement, but not the finest example of Resident Evil out there. Resident Evil 5 is a third-person over the shoulder game which follows on five years from the events in RE4, with Chris Redfield travelling to Kijuju in West Africa to apprehend a baddie who is planning on selling a bio-organic weapon (BOW). Expect to hear a lot more about BOWs; they’re a mainstay of the Resident Evil universe. This was the first proper co-operative installment as you work alongside your new partner, Sheva Alomar. Sheva ideally would be played by a second human, but if you’re playing by yourself, AI takes control with variable results.

I really enjoyed the game when it came out, and there are still aspects I enjoy now, but it has aged. The control scheme feels clunky and the inability to move and shoot or reload, or dodge out of the way of enemies, adds an artificial level of difficulty. It doesn’t help that I’ve been playing the remakes lately which have done a lot to update and refine the mechanics. Perhaps I’m judging it a tad too harshly given that it’s a fifteen year old game.

It was my entry point into the series. Yes, I had memories of nightmares induced by Nemesis stalking my brothers around RE3 and of the terrifying RE2 demo we had on the original PlayStation, but I never really played those games. RE5 was the first one I was fully immersed in, and sunk hours into co-op with my brother. Playing with the AI isn’t as fun, although it is generally functional and occasionally gets inexplicably killed.

RE5 firmly leans into the action-shooter genre which is somewhat detrimental to the series as a whole. This metamorphosis is complete with the sixth installment (which I’m yet to play) which fully leans into action packed madness. There was a major course correction with RE7 which is a terrifying game, and RE8 keeps things on track. But what does that mean for this game?

You can expect painfully drawn out sequences shooting from the back of cars and boats, not to mention an abundance of quick time events (QTEs). QTEs were at their peak in the late 90s-early 00s, but thankfully they have been virtually eliminated in modern titles. Do I miss them? Do you mean, do I mean missing being crushed by a giant boulder repeatedly because I accidentally hit the wrong button or panicked? Not really. They don’t add much beyond a traditional cutscene and can be rage-inducing at worst.

There’s still plenty of fun to be had with the usual over-the-top story telling, and quite an extensive range of weapons to choose from. I am looking forward to unlocking an unlimited rocket launcher again. I never tire of watching a boss build up to a terrifying size only to eat a rocket immediately, triggering the death cutscene. Very anticlimactic.