Betas, breasts and the making of Resident Evil 5

[Archelon]

I find the "armour coat" thing to be a bit far-fetched for my liking.

Carbon fiber essentially serves the same purpose, but if his coat was treated the same way that carbon fiber is to be able to repel shrapnel, then his coat wouldn't move.

At all.

So it's not too far-fetched.

[MeanBob]

I swear, it's like every RE game always has good ideas that could've been put in, but are always scrapped. Some of these facts that most of us never knew about has their ups and downs, but some of them just suck, like Jill having to have been planned to die. Others were just dumb; boob sizes, cuz they wanted to make it look sexy - I don't care about that!

Some things that were scarpped I actually liked; Wesker controlling the virus with his mind...? Really...?

And wait, there were supposed to be zombies in this one too? C'mon!

What the hell, Capcom?

Seriously.

What the hell?

Exactly my words on certain points.

Sometimes I wonder how the game woulda been like if Shinji Mikami didn't leave or at least took part in some part of development

[Darkmoon]

I don't think a Mikami version would have been all that different. A lot of RE5 feels like preasure to try and make a new RE4. A lot of it's a logical extension to what appears to be the design philosphy behind RE4, the survival action idea. In a lot of ways, it really is RE4 with more...more plot, more action, more enemies, more guns. Unfortunately it was also being very conservative, trying to keep the RE4 formula that made it such a success, and things didn't mesh as well. Forced co-op with poor computer AI was something of a killing blow, although the fact they didn't bother even tweaking the Ganado AI for the Majini was pretty shitty too. Ganado's simply aren't a good enough enemy to copy and paste from game to game. They don't live up to there own hype.

But, yeah. There were a lot of good idea in this game that would have made it better, if not for the competing with the action market philosophy. I remember the images of Chris in a deserted hospital with zombies that someone posted a while back. It gives me a sad, sometimes, to know the RE I would like to play never gets past beta these days.

[MeganGrass]

PrimeBlue put it best.

It doesn't matter what game, franchise, console, etc. -- if someone finds predevelopmental ideas/art/etc, they bitch about the differences. I, am definitely no exception to this -- I would have a loved single player, zombie-filled, tyrant version of BH/RE 5... but my major question to these magazine publishers and the developers who can't keep their mouths shut:

Why do you even let the public know of such details? And more important, what frickin' difference does it make?

It's almost as if they are trying to create an uproar of fans, and maybe even a 'black-market' of videogames (). BioHazard 1.5 is a prime example of this harebrained theory.

[Darkmoon]

Ask Capcom. This is all info from the Biohazard 5 artbook.

[Det. Beauregard]

Any word on whether the grid-style inventory from RE4 was supposed to be carried over to the single-player beta RE5?

Here's how I see it. After the success of RE4 (even amongst casual fans), Capcom thought they could make a successful RE game for the masses. This is why RE5 began development right after RE4's release, but the cool beta ideas were scrapped after a while due to RE4's massive success (PS2 port, Wii edition, etc). Hence, you get the final version of RE5, marketed to the casual gamer crowd - linear co-op crap with lots of boobs and nonstop action. Unfortunately, RE5's sales were massive, and thus I predict this style is the future for the series.

Why even release this book? So die-hard fans can get extremely disappointed at what would have been a way better game than the final product? It's almost as if they're making the evidence of their massive screw-up (obviously not from a financial standpoint) public. I'm still convinced that if the beta RE5 was the final version, it would have sold just as well due to people's love for RE4. I would understand making Mercenaries co-op, but the full game?

This makes me sick. Sure, RE 1.5 and 3.5 looked cool, but at least the final products were still great. But this is pure garbage.

[Archelon]

What I would be interested in finding out is how much of this stuff was scrapped due to the technical limitations of the current generation of consoles. For example, the scenario where you would be fighting an army of El Gigantes (which sounds awesome, by the way, if it played out like the artist's renderings suggested) probably wouldn't be doable without some serious smoke and mirrors. Even the desert area with the enemies crawling up out of the sand probably would have been extremely difficult to implement effectively.

Nothing story-related would have needed to be changed due to technical limitations, so I imagine they were just trying to "trim the fat," so to speak, and streamline the plot from the way it was originally intended, but I don't really consider the final product much of an improvement. I imagine a lot of the plot changes were also made as a result of the switch to co-op so they could better accommodate Sheva's character.

Something we should keep in mind, however, is that a lot of this stuff was scrapped even before the decision was made to make the game completely co-op compatible. We know from comments from Anpo, for example, that the level leading up to the confrontation with Irving, and said confrontation itself, would have been essentially the same even if the game wasn't co-op. The main difference would have been that Josh would be dead by then, and Sheva would instead be the one driving the boat.

So while the artbook mentions that originally we would have fought Irving in the city, that idea was scrapped at some point before they actually started working on the levels.

[Pikminister]

...Hence, you get the final version of RE5, marketed to the casual gamer crowd - linear co-op crap with lots of boobs and nonstop action. Unfortunately, RE5's sales were massive, and thus I predict this style is the future for the series.

And by casual you must mean the type of casual gamer that ONLY plays TPS/FPS games, right? You know, Halo, GoW, etc. and that barely touch games from any other genre. Got it.

That's why one of the producers mentioned being influenced by such "action-packed" games during a couple of interviews. It was obvious to whom RE5 was being targeted. Fans got the table scraps.

[Det. Beauregard]

And by casual you must mean the type of casual gamer that ONLY plays TPS/FPS games, right? You know, Halo, GoW, etc. and that barely touch games from any other genre. Got it.

That's why one of the producers mentioned being influenced by such "action-packed" games during a couple of interviews. It was obvious to whom RE5 was being targeted. Fans got the table scraps.

I just can't stand that type of gameplay. Move from point A to point B, take cover, shoot, kill, repeat. No point Cs, no exploration, regenerating health bars, etc. Many of these games are developed for this casual crowd that picks up a game for an hour or two a few times a week to get their mind off of reality. Many of these people don't appreciate the story or detailed environments or even the atmosphere - it's all about shooting everything that moves, like on auto-pilot.

Resident Evil was one of the few series that still contained massive exploration, haunting locations, strategy, and interesting characters. RE4 strayed from this a little bit, but the superior gameplay made up for it. With RE5, all that good stuff that made this series what it is has been flushed down the crapper to please people who have short attention spans and who must be entertained every few seconds.

[TheBatMan]

Unfortunately, nothing about the technical side is answered. All the commentary comes from the art department who are just following orders from the development team. I very much doubt any of this stuff got past the planning and storyboard stage.
As far as I can work out, there are three versions that were worked on.
1. Single player, zombies. NPCs Chris, Jill or Barry, Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Tricell CEO, Excella, Wesker
2. Single player, Las Plagas, NPCs Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Excella, Wesker
3. Co-op, Las Plagas.
The biggest changes in terms of design seem to come from the Ndipaya kingdom. Originally everything was to be spherical and it was all supposed to be half submerged in water. There was a concept at one stage for Chris to be able to explore the ruins by swimming underwater, going through arches and looking for air pockets.
A few more points:
*You could explore the merchants shop and actually steal weapons and ammo from him.
*The Tyrant design included tube-like protrusions on its back {think Giger's Alien} that spewed out smoke. It uses these tubes to take in vast amounts of oxygen at once to instantly enhance his physical capabilities. He also has massive veins all over his body. Both his arms were to have claws and his entire arm extended with the claws. At one stage he also had a cluster of spikes on his upper left chest area that would be all closed up but would suddenly spring open like a venus-fly trap.
*Other levels included an abandoned fort and a shopping district.
*One reason why they changed it to Wesker mutating at the end is that they wanted to change him enough to see his internal struggle exposed. Wesker had always been a bit lofty and arrogant, smugly secure in his superiority. But now, possibly for the first time ever, he feels seriously threatened and maybe even desperate, and the developers wanted to portray this. But they wanted him to be still recognisable as Wesker and not be completely taken over like past human enemies
*For the reaper, the artists orders were to design "a really Resident Evilish enemy for the laboratory area." The reason it is so durable is because it only appears in the latter part of the game and the player would therefore have access to advanced, upgraded weaponry.
*The Tanker stage was originally supposed to be completely open so that the player would be able to explore every inch of it.
*The ruins also contained 'an ancient BOW' that was re-activated by the progenitor flower.
*Chris originally fought Wesker in the sun garden. Wesker gets the upper hand then three NPCs turn up to help Chris and Wesker leaves. This triggers the 'ancient BOW' boss fight.

[Dracarys]

The zombie parts sound good.

A few of the things mentioned you can see in early RE5 trailers, you see the chainsaw-executioner, pretty sure you see that tower that is mentioned, I remember Chris sniping from far away the bridge that in the released game has a truck overturn on it.

The multiple storyline thing would have been good for a return also.


I loved RE5 co-op though.

[doomed]

I just can't stand that type of gameplay. Move from point A to point B, take cover, shoot, kill, repeat. No point Cs, no exploration, regenerating health bars, etc. Many of these games are developed for this casual crowd that picks up a game for an hour or two a few times a week to get their mind off of reality. Many of these people don't appreciate the story or detailed environments or even the atmosphere - it's all about shooting everything that moves, like on auto-pilot.

Resident Evil was one of the few series that still contained massive exploration, haunting locations, strategy, and interesting characters. RE4 strayed from this a little bit, but the superior gameplay made up for it. With RE5, all that good stuff that made this series what it is has been flushed down the crapper to please people who have short attention spans and who must be entertained every few seconds.

You are right (although obviously I like various kinds of games, even dumped down ones are fun sometimes, and I quite liked the first 2 Halo games that I've played)

The truth is, in past times gaming was considered a "hobby", something you were passionate about and you wanted your private space to enjoy it, etc..

These days everyone is a "gamer", everyone plays some sort of game. It's like watching TV.. would you define watching TV as a hobby? Of course not... it's just killing time.

Since this gen all strong PC gaming franchises are being turned into mainstreamed (read: dumped down) console games, and since consoles have moved from the private space of the bedroom to the living room (how many times do I have to listen to "gamers" telling me it's all about "sitting on the couch, relaxing a bit with my buddies") sadly I can't see how we can go back.

[Guest]

2. Single player, Las Plagas, NPCs Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Excella, Wesker

Co-op was considered as soon as the Plagas were in the picture, though.

[Grem]

I always considered the final products to be of better quality than the betas, but when I read this....ugh.....damn Capcom, it looked much more inspiring than what we have in the end.

I espacially like the idea that Jill had a more important role, that Excella was a young power hungry secretary rather than a naive bitch with big boobs, Wesker not mutating and dying in the lava instead of that lame and overused rocket launcher finish move, and so on and so forth....

Chris single player, old BOW's....

All these good ideas sacrificed for a stereotypical action game with babes and big guns. Fuck.

[ashkan]

They ruined the franchise forever! But stealing from Capcom's hard drives makes me feel better! Just imagine... we can take whatever we want. like: different betas of Re1.5, Re3.5 and Re 4.5 ! When our dreams come true?

From now on, we can call it "Resident Evil 4.5" or "Biohazard 4.5"