IGN - "The Best Resident Evil?"

[cvxfreak]

Resident Evil 2 is actually Capcom's best selling RE.

Most likely not anymore.

[Umon Daisuke]

I'm assuming you're adding up the totals for all SKU's here, right?

[Alzaire]

Results for these kinds of things are going to be heavily skewed and should be taken with a grain of salt for several reasons.

First, you have to take into consideration the site doing the poll and the kind of memberbase it has that is going to answer. IGN is a more mainstream site with a more generalized population of gamers. Most of those 20,000 people were probably not real hardcore fans of the series that frequent the actual fansites. I'd probably guarantee that if the main fansites were polled the results would not be as skewed as IGNs. Even if I were to give you an RE4 win, I'd bet you it wouldn't be such an overwhelming one of 59% to RE2's 17% (comparison on the idea that RE2 is generally considered the best of the classics usually).

Also, keep in mind that 59% is not as much as an overwhelming victory as it looks. This means that 41% of the respondents picked one of the older pre-RE4 classics. Even though RE4 won the poll by itself beating all the others, taking into considering it's always been a RE4 Vs. Classics (all lumped together) argument, then I'd say the classics put up a great fight even in a mainstream poll from a site such as IGN.

The series is 13 years old now. It is no question that RE4's style attracted a ton of mainstream gamers with it's more action oriented gameplay, new controls which the mainstream liked more than the old classic controls (even if they still have some complaints), and flashy top-notch graphics. Most of these people probably never played any of the classics, and like your average person in many formats, will not or did not appreciate them as much as veterans would. There are always exceptions, as there are a decent amount of older fans who like RE4 and would agree it's the best, as well as newer fans who might have played the classics after RE4 and liked them better.

Note, I'm not bashing RE4 or anything. I'm just saying the results from a mainstream site are going to be skewed compared to what the results would be from polled fansites most likely. And that even in a mainstream poll, the classics together put up a fight with only 18% difference, making it not really a landslide victory. Still seems that a very large portion of fans, almost half, vote for the classics. With the margin of error of mainstream vs. hardcore fans, it's all probably a nearly half and half fanbase.

Also, I should say that I don't think it's too fair to call just the outspoken anti-RE4 people elitists. Many of the RE4 fans and defenders are just as nasty, bias, rude and elitist as people from the other camp (and the RE4 fans more often bait the arguments). But it seems that the veterans who stand by their opinions are branded elitists more often than the shitheads of the RE4 fans who aren't any better at all. There's nothing wrong with having difference of opinions. I just think people these days don't really seem to know how to present their opinions as opinions, they want to present them as fact or be rude about it, causing arguments and fights. But there are still decent folk on both sides of the fence at least, so it's not like everyone is bad.

[atlier00]

I'm assuming you're adding up the totals for all SKU's here, right?

I'm going by Capcom's site.

[Stars_g36]

wow is this really happening...who the hell cares...

[missvalentine]

Totally. Worst storyline by far in the canon series. But, yes, in terms of gameplay I don't think the old games come close to 4. And just because I'm new to this site doesn't mean I'm new to the series. I've been with this franchise since the week RE1 came out on the PS1 in '96, and even I can admit that 4 and 5 are just much better games than the others.

doesn't matter when you started, you can start a series from the beginning and still not be a huge fan of it. example, i have the getaway on my PS2, so technically, iim a fan since the first game, and you know what, i didn't even bother with any after that, so when you started does not give you any credit at all. hell i started RE about a year ago, and im a hardcore classic RE fan and hate RE4 for what it's done to the series, and im a shooter fan as well.

and with Gameplay, i think the classics win by a mile in that catagory, i loved the style of gameplay they used in the classics, it was such a departure from the usual games i played, it was unique to me, and i love it so much better than i liked RE4 which i felt i had already played a million times before when i played it.

when i was playing the RE5 demo for the first time, it just felt old, like id played it a million times before already. same with RE4, after i played the RE5 demo i went and played RE3 for a little while, and it was so much better.

i think, in my opinion, that the best RE games, go in this order.

1. Resident Evil 3 NEMESIS
2. Resident Evil (Remake)
3. Resident Evil Outbreak File #2

then the rest of the classics all tie for 4th place, and RE4 gets 5th. and the RE5 demo gets 9903748923752309758923573927th.

Resident Evil 2 is actually Capcom's best selling RE.

no, it just appears that way, RE1 is the highest selling RE game, it's just capcom is retarded an counts RE1 directors cut,a dn RE1, Duel Shock edition and all the after released as complete seperate games.

if you simply add them together, not including Remake, as that is seperate, RE1 still sold higher than RE2 did.

funny thing is, capcom themselves don't know this, cause in the degeneration special features someone says RE2 was the highest selling, a common misconception.

here's my proof,and here.

[Dark_Chris]

1. resident evil 4
2. resident evil remake
3. resident evil code Veronica

[Rakkoon]

1. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
2. Resident Evil 2
3. REmake
4. Resident Evil
5. Resident Evil 0
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Resident Evil CODE:Veronica X

MY opinion.

Note that IGN even has the Dead Aim thing on the list there, so I can guess some of the people who voted didn't even know what they were voting for.

Okay, would anyone argue that there are A LOT of people who have ONLY played RE4 without ever playing any of the classics, but have still given their vote despite that fact? And would anyone argue that a ton of people born after 1990, who have come across RE4 FIRST, played it with their mind set to think it's the one true RE they're playing, and then just browsed through the other REs, have most likely concluded rightaway that RE4 is a much better game? Well, as far as they're concerned, RE4 is indeed the best, truest Resident Evil out there, since that's the way they first saw and experienced Resident Evil in the first place. And let's not forget the people who watched the movie first and loved it, and then learned they'd actually made a game based on the movie, and then saw RE4 and didn't even wonder why a first game would have a huge 4 in the title, and then upon realizing there was no Alice in it either, they started complaining it's nothing like the movie and they were totally disappointed how the true Resident Evil had been ruined and butchered like that. Maybe they voted too.

I love RE4. I've played it countless times and I've done just about everything there is to do there. I love so many things about RE4. Seriously. It's just not better than the older games...it just doesn't feel better to me when I play it. RE4 feels a lot more like a game game rather than a whole experience captured in a game. I'm not even talking about any story, because there is none in RE4. The first thing I immediately hated about RE4 was the lack of real exploration and puzzle solving. Way too much action that could have been left for a bonus game, such as The Mercenaries, and way too much butchering of the original Resident Evil feeling by stuffing all that action into the main game.

If a 'true Resident Evil fan' cannot acknowledge that, then I would not call them a true Resident Evil fan. Therefore, I would not count their vote.

RE4 didn't ruin the series, not at all. But it lacked a lot that SHOULD have been there. If Capcom brought the old Resident Evil feeling into a new game, I would be the first to go 'BANZAAAI!!'

[aris13]

My opinion.

1. Resident Evil 1
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Resident Evil CVX
4. Resident Evil 2 & 3 - For me these two are one game.
5. Resident Evil 0

[CubedSphere]

Call it a personal opinion and get it over with instead of insisting on it as if were a fact. The new style is mainstream action with the hallmark controls of the series slightly modified. The original games were all about exploration and solving puzzles with some action.

They're different and you're not going to convince anyone that one is better than the other; it's just preference and older fans do prefer the original style better.

And yes, I've heard "I've been with the series from day one" a lot of times before

I stated it was my "unpopular opinion" in my first post in this thread. It helps to read.

[rewak]

Move 4 below Code Veronica and that list would be about right.

[Canas Renvall]

Most likely not anymore.

Pretty sure RE2 sold about 4.5 million copies on the PS1 alone. Sorry, RE4. You lose. REmake or RE2 are my favorites.

Not to mention RE2 is their second-best selling game overall (behind Street Fighter II).

And really, who cares about IGN? If they aren't the most biased reporters going on what's popular and what's not, I don't know who is.

[aris13]

Pretty sure RE2 sold about 4.5 million copies on the PS1 alone. Sorry, RE4. You lose.

We're looking for the best game not the most successful one. I love all the games and it's difficult for me to pick the best.

[Yzak]

It's not surprising. I actually hold the opinion that RE4 was the weakest of the games (sadly, on the subject of assuming, I hate being lumped into the group of flamers who hop around forums hating on everybody who loves RE4 most just because I agree with the general opinions they hold about it and Leon), I still really loved RE4. And as someone who has those opinions it makes me that it's so popular and many who got it there haven't played the other games, but there's a line between that undeniable feeling and being an open nutgobbler about it to everybody. Rakkoon made a good point.

My favorite RE games are really hard to rank. ):

1) RE3
2) ... possibly RE0 and RE:CV
3) I CANNOT RANK THE REST. I love them all so much. So they all go here. Including what I am expecting of RE5.
4) RE4
5) Gaiden lol. Even though it's not canon.

[Mr. Spencer]

Resident Evil 2, I have many fond memories of that game along with the original Metal Gear Solid. Both prime examples of series that were once great, now ruined by modern expectations. MGS4 killed MGS, but RE still has hope. It still has a chance!

Oh, and REmake was equally superb. Incredibly atmospheric, realistic graphics thanks to the pre-rendered backgrounds that have become iconic of the series, and overall a well polished and immersive game.

So, to summarise:

1.) Resident Evil 2
2.) Resident Evil (REmake)
3.) Resident Evil: Dead Aim - Yes, I kid you not. Grossly underrated.
4.) Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (More or less RE 2.5)
5.) Resident Evil 0 - Well, /I/ liked it.

Code Veronica was pretty weak and holds up rather poorly today. Even the earlier PSX titles hold up better, again courtesy of pre-rendered backgrounds. RE4 kind of revolutionised the games industry with the over-the-shoulder camera view and all that gubbins, but at the same time it killed what made RE so special, unfortunately things that made the original games so great - the camera angles, the narrow corridors, the tank-like controls - none of that will fly in this day and age, with the standards that have been set. Kids won't play games like that, those kind of games won't sell or appeal to the mass market.

Sure, you or I might enjoy them but it's a whole different generation today. A generation which RE4 has helped to perpetuate. It's happened now, there's nothing we can do about it. Games must evolve, and if they don't evolve, they die. Simple as that.