Are you buying Mercenaries 3D?

[Darkmoon]

That's a borderline irrelevancy, though. For the majority of the people he's presenting the game to (read: trying to sell it to), they're likely not even going to know that RE4 is the only game to have enemies with chainsaws in it. That's assuming they even played RE4 to begin with. As has been proven countless times by the members of this board and others, it doesn't matter how much the established fans piss and moan, they're still going to buy the product regardless, because it's Resident Evil. That's essentially a given, a guaranteed sale for Capcom, as it were. The ones they ultimately have to sell the product to are the newcomers, the ones who have never played a Resident Evil before, or have only played a little of the games, or even just RE4.

And if they've only played Resident Evil 4, then it's likely to them, it wouldn't be Resident Evil without a chainsaw enemy, so from their perspective, his comment would make sense. You really have to look at the audience. The fact that so many established fans took such offense at his comments (a sure sign that some fans take this stuff way too seriously) is, frankly, laughable. Again, if someone like Jun Takeuchi or Masachika Kawata had said it, that would be another matter entirely. In fact, I think Kawata has said similar things in the past, and I don't ever recall anyone jumping on him like they did Kramer.

Different strokes, dude. If I'm gonna trust the guy as a source of information then I expect his information to be valid. Why should I trust him when he tells me this is the scariest RE game ever, the most complex and compelling plot ever with the most exciting enemies ever when he clearly doesn't have a fucking clue what anything before RE4 was? Sure, if they've only played RE4 then they won't care...but it was the RE4 crowd who were the guaranteed buy in this time. They were getting what they wanted, more of RE4. I'd have said the older fans and the ones who haven't touched RE4 were probably the ones he should have focused on, and I admit, anyone new to the series would have been fine most likely.

But, honestly, it just strikes me as lazy. It's not as though he's being paid $5 an hour to work on a game that'll net a few hundred thousand in profit. He's being paid a hefty salary, flying around the world on the companies cash to promote the biggest, most successful game series they produce. For that kinda cash you'd think he'd have enough professional pride to spend a day or two just reading through detailed synopsis of the previous games or something.

But that's just me. It's irritating, and it makes him relatively useless as a source for me because I simply don't trust him to do anything more than try and sell the game. And yes, I know that's his job. But it's quite possible to do that AND give out accurate information.

[Smiley]

I think if you're getting paid to market then you should know your product through and through. Most people involved in sales will tell you that.

However, we can let things like the 'Barry' comment can slide. After all the game series is a very messy canon to the point where Barry himself didn't even appear in Umbrella Chronicles. When it comes to Resident Evil (more specifically the remake of it) in one scenario Barry can indeed die from the tyrant.

[Stu]

I think if you're getting paid to market then you should know your product through and through. Most people involved in sales will tell you that.

The people making the games don't even know their own product through and through.

[Archelon]

But it's quite possible to do that AND give out accurate information.

Except he gave out accurate information. About Resident Evil 5. Which is the product he was trying to sell. Like I said, his knowledge, or lack thereof, regarding previous games in the series is irrelevant. But, different strokes.

Now if you really want to complain about someone giving out inaccurate information regarding the product they're trying to sell, what was that guy's name at Capcom who kept saying you would be able to move and shoot at the same time in RE5?

[Mr. Rod]

(snip) This was my issue when Biohaze (I think it was Biohaze?) interviewed him, and they were practically blaming him for changes that had been made to the franchise over which he had no control whatsoever.

Yes we did a podcast with him, but we didn't blame him for not knowing such details. If anything we as staff members thought it was funny but nothing to worry since he's clearly just a PR guy. Then people started to tear his words apart and call him a noob. Just to clarify.

[Darkmoon]

Except he gave out accurate information. About Resident Evil 5. Which is the product he was trying to sell. Like I said, his knowledge, or lack thereof, regarding previous games in the series is irrelevant. But, different strokes.

Now if you really want to complain about someone giving out inaccurate information regarding the product they're trying to sell, what was that guy's name at Capcom who kept saying you would be able to move and shoot at the same time in RE5?

I only remember the run and gun thing as rumour, not something outta Capcom. But yeah, if someone within the company said it, they really need to be pointed at, laughed at and forced to leave under a crowd of humiliation. Unless at the time it was run and gun and they found that the Majini AI couldn't cope, of course. Which strikes me as entirely possible...

But this is just something we'll have to disagree on. For me, if I was Capcom, I'd make sure my PR guy knew what he's talking about before I let him loose. At the very least I'd expect him to be smart enough to keep stum if he doesn't know the answer for sure. At least then he looks honest and slightly ignorant, instead of just ignorant.

[WhiteLycan009]

I'm not too fussed, I'll be picking it up on it's release, but mainly i'm diein' for the Revelations demo...

[Det. Beauregard]

I think CODE: Veronica qualifies as more of a "pure horror" game than either RE2 or RE3. Of course, that depends on your definition of "pure horror." Atmospherically, CV has both RE2 and RE3 beaten in that regard, but it suffered from overabundant ammunition, healing items, and just an overall ridiculously easy difficulty.

On the flip side, both RE2 and RE3 also had copious amounts of ammunition and healing items, but they were more challenging than CV. So again, I guess it comes down to one's definition of a "pure horror" experience.

I agree; CVX was definitely more "horrifying" and eerie to me than RE2 and RE3, which were brighter games visually. That's not the only reason (there's lots of eerie fog and stuff in CVX), but it's one of the biggest.

I disagree about CVX being easier, though. That game is easily the hardest of the classic games in my opinion; RE3 is probably a close second, though.

[Smiley]

Well it depends. Some games have stronger strengths than others. Code Veronica had one of the best knife run throughs I've ever experienced in the classics because the knife wasn't totally useless on enemies.

[Archelon]

I only remember the run and gun thing as rumour, not something outta Capcom. But yeah, if someone within the company said it, they really need to be pointed at, laughed at and forced to leave under a crowd of humiliation.

I'll see if I can dig up his name, but he had to be corrected on a number of occasions, not just for saying that you could run and gun at the same time, but also that you would be able to switch your over-the-shoulder viewpoint on the fly with the press of a button ala Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid 4.

EDIT:

Mike Webster

[Darkmoon]

Wow. Extra special fail on his part.

[Pikminister]

This is might just be a nitpick, but I purposefully didn't mention the Invisible Enemy mode in my previous post, because it is an unlockable mode.

When discussing the difficulty of the game, I mean the main campaign that you play the first time through, before you unlock any other modes, even if they are actually more challenging. The reason for this is that any game can be made more difficult if there are new parameters, whether they are implemented by the players themselves or the game.

Well REmake is still more challenging that the original. Even on a first run. At least that was my experience with said games.

The original's main difficulty was the obtuse controls. It was like trying to 'drive' a big ass truck through a supermarket aisle. Plus not being able to do a 180 turn. Eventually, even that difficulty was a non-issue the more you played it. In term of scares, I only remember getting scared when that dog came crashing through the window.

With the REmake, the difficulty was 'enhanced' by the fact that the zombies could become Crimson heads. And that some areas had been changed around. Thus even if I had already played the original, that didn't make things easier. Since there were no guarantees that items or weapons would be found in the same areas. It was like being in a new place. So you were on your toes all the way to the end. Uneasy about what to expect around the corner or inside a room. Because stuff had been changed in the REmake. And it was done to kill your confidence. And I enjoyed the hell out of that.

In the case of something like the Invisible Enemy mode in REmake, or Nightmare mode in RE2, the games aren't made any scarier, just more challenging. Again, this is just my perspective on it, but when judging a horror game, the base mode is what I go by as far as how scary or challenging it is.

So much stuff had been screwed around with in the REmake, that it surely made your confidence take a hit or two. Yeah I know, you pretty much had the same enemies in the game. But once you saw a Crimson Head pop up from the dead, you had to end up wondering what else had changed.

On my first run with REmake, I remember thinking about the possibility that the Crimsom Heads could transform into Lickers. I was paranoid! I didn't go online to find out the truth, though. I wanted to experience the game with no outside help or spoilers of any kind.

IMO the extra modes are part of the whole experience. You can't say that they don't count, since in the case of the Invisible or Real Survival mode (In Real Survivor mode you can't auto-aim anymore and the magic boxes do not connect with each other. There isn't much ammo and the enemies have a lot of health/energy), you still play the whole damn game from start to finish. It's not like a Mercenaries or mini-game mode where stuff isn't canon or whatever. It is the complete game. Its just that you're playing it at a higher level of difficulty.

[Archelon]

IMO the extra modes are part of the whole experience. You can't say that they don't count, since in the case of the Invisible or Real Survival mode (In Real Survivor mode you can't auto-aim anymore and the magic boxes do not connect with each other. There isn't much ammo and the enemies have a lot of health/energy), you still play the whole damn game from start to finish. It's not like a Mercenaries or mini-game mode where stuff isn't canon or whatever. It is the complete game. Its just that you're playing it at a higher level of difficulty.

The point I was trying to make was that Invisible Enemy and Real Survivor add limitations to the game that, yes, make it more challenging, but you can make the main game more challenging by adding your own personal limitations, such as never using an item box, only using a knife or handgun, no healing items, etc.

The difference is that the limitations you place on the game aren't forced by the game itself. You can make pretty much any game harder by creating your own rules for a playthrough. You don't need the game to do it for you. That's why I wasn't counting those extra modes when I said I considered the original Resident Evil more challenging than REmake. Without those added limitations, I think the original is still harder.

Maybe I'm just not making any sense here.

To put it another way: Nightmare Mode for Resident Evil 2 makes it much, much harder than RE1. However, were I asked which game I considered more difficult, I would say RE1.

[Pikminister]

The point I was trying to make was that Invisible Enemy and Real Survivor add limitations to the game that, yes, make it more challenging, but you can make the main game more challenging by adding your own personal limitations, such as never using an item box, only using a knife or handgun, no healing items, etc.

The difference is that the limitations you place on the game aren't forced by the game itself. You can make pretty much any game harder by creating your own rules for a playthrough. You don't need the game to do it for you. That's why I wasn't counting those extra modes when I said I considered the original Resident Evil more challenging than REmake. Without those added limitations, I think the original is still harder.

Maybe I'm just not making any sense here.

To put it another way: Nightmare Mode for Resident Evil 2 makes it much, much harder than RE1. However, were I asked which game I considered more difficult, I would say RE1.

Well RE1 is a heck lot easier to me these days than RE2, RE3 or even the Chronicle games. I beat RE1 again like 2 months ago and found it not only easy but also very short. Perhaps by going out of my way to make things difficult for me (not picking up stuff and ammo) the game could be more challenging. You could pretty much do that with any game.

Yet its funny that most ppl forget to apply that strategy with RE4, though. Especially those that get the vapors because the game 'forces' them to destroy every barrel that comes their way or puts a gun to their heads, making them pick every item/ammo that a fallen enemy drops.

[RetroRain]

I never liked Remake. I'll never understand why it got so much attention. I bought it and played through it, but I didn't think it was really anything great.

I didn't care for the new rooms and areas they added, and the new path you had to take to get to the Umbrella lab. I thought Lisa Trevor was un-necessary too, and the whole dog not crashing through the hallway the first time was another big mistake. It was like they knew we were expecting it, so they only make a slight sound. It was ridiculously obvious that if you were to enter that hallway again, the dogs would then crash, so they might as well have had it done the first time around.

I didn't care for the crimson head zombies, the new crow room, and there is just a lot I didn't like that they did.

Don't get me wrong, the game had a lot of potential, but I feel as if they wasted it.

There were a few instances in which the zombies could burst through the doors, which I thought was a good thing, but they should have also had more promixity-based ones.

Like in one of the first preview trailers of Remake, Chris walks down the hall, and then the zombie bursts out of the door and grabs him. That was awesome. I know you can still get that to happen, but it has more to do with timing. You can run away, and the zombie will eventually come through the door. More promiximity-zombie doors would have been awesome, as soon as you got next a door, a zombie bursted out of it and attacked you.

Another awesome thing, which was in one of the trailers, was 5 or 6 zombies outside the crow room, which cornered Rebecca. They took that out too.

The previews for Remake were better than the actual game, which is not much of a surprise, because Capcom always seems to bin stuff that actually is cool, and comes up with a lame reason for why they did it. >_>

I could go on and on about why I didn't think Remake was great.

That being said, my favorite Resident Evil game is the first one, more specifically, the original Director's Cut (not the lame music rescoring one, that was Biohazard Complete in Japan, and we didn't get the extra content over here, which it said in a gaming magazine that we were getting).

Resident Evil Director's Cut is the best Resident Evil game in my opinion. It is creepy, it has atmosphere, despite not being completely dark like in Remake, and it has 3 game modes, new costumes, Forest as a zombie in Advanced, and both Original and Advanced really give the game some replayability value, which is a plus. And the sharper quality camera angles in Advanced are awesome. And you feel like you are in a real mansion, in the middle of a dangerous forest. The characters feel more realistic, and you get the feeling like this can actually happen in real life. That is why I love Resident Evil 1.5. It feels so much like the first game in terms of realism and atmosphere, which is why I want to play it so much. It looks that good.