Kotaku Darkside Chronicles Updated Impressions

[A-J]

Kotaku have posted a new preview for Darkside Chronicles. The preview gives off mixed impressions and tries to make something of a comparison between Darkside and the recently released EA title Dead Space : Extraction. Read the entire preview at the link below.

Kotaku Darkside Chronicles Impressions

[Archelon]

It's do or die for Masachika Kawata, as far as I'm concerned. If he's going to be handling the franchise from now on, his past efforts haven't exactly given me much confidence. I'm hoping DSC will change that, but I have a feeling it won't.

[DarkMemories]

Eh, personally what I read there was "EA gives me extra money to say these things".

I'm sorry, but Dead Space: Extraction is a terrible rail-shooter that attempts to mimic Darkside Chronicles ideas and fails. The author of this article himself seems not to understand the game itself; whereas games like Extraction and HotD: Overkill are meant to be fast-paced, in-your-face thrill rides, the goal of Darkside Chronicles is to deliver a methodical, interactive horror experience with key moments of suspense intertwined with the RE series narrative.

[Jill's Boob]

Eh, personally what I read there was "EA gives me extra money to say these things".

So, the author of that article is biased? Not even just biased, put paid off by EA to write poorly about Darkside Chronicles? Will EA be paying off every other media outlet that says something negative about DSC?

Frankly, what I read in your post can clearly be considered as "biased."

I'm sorry, but Dead Space: Extraction is a terrible rail-shooter that attempts to mimic Darkside Chronicles ideas and fails.

Except that Dead Space Extraction was released a month ago and DSC is still a month away from release. Capcom still has a month left to tweak DSC, but if you've played Umbrella Chronicles, then you should more or less not be surprised by the "meh" reaction stated in the Kotaku article.

[Sephiroth]

Well they said the graphics doint look good im well I hate to say but the Operation Javier stages graphics doint look as good as the RE2 and CV one but fingers crossed the game will be good well at least just RE and CV then I will be happy but I doint really give a dam about the Operation Javier stages

[Archelon]

At this point, it really doesn't matter which is the better game, because Darkside Chronicles will, in all likelihood, utterly destroy Extraction in sales for the simple fact that it has "Resident Evil" in the title (despite Kawata's protests to the contrary). Capcom will see that and get the impression that they don't need to change a thing, or at the very least, make a few minor tweaks here and there to the formula for the next game.

It seems even more likely now when you consider Extraction's abysmal sales so far.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6237478.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1

[DarkMemories]

Except that Dead Space Extraction was released a month ago and DSC is still a month away from release.

Sorry about the confusion, but for some reason I had it in my head that Extraction was announced after DSC (ergo, I came to the conclusion that it took a handful of ideas from DSC (shaky cam) as a quick-attempt to cash-in and was released more quickly). Again, mistake on my part.

As for what I said about the bias; well, think about it: he slights the graphics of one scenario in DSC because they're in bright daylight and then praises Extraction because the game takes place in dark areas and is therefore able to hide jaggies? You telling me the scales aren't being tipped in that judgment?

That, and I can't think of one thing in DS: E that wasn't better accomplished in either Umbrella Chronicles or HotD. It's really a mediocre on-rails game.

Oh, and the only thing "meh" about Umbrella Chronicles was that they didn't even bother trying with the RE3 scenario, and even then, the totally inaccurate chapter was still more fun than Extraction. Harder too.

[A-J]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6237478...dlines;title;1

Wow that's just disastrous

It looks like such a nice game.

[Archelon]

Wow that's just disastrous

It looks like such a nice game.

It's a sad fact, but M-rated games simply don't sell on the Wii, unless they have brand recognition on their side, which, despite its positive critical reception, Dead Space has yet to achieve, at least to the level of Resident Evil, anyway.

And when you can make a game for as little time, money, and effort as possible, but still have it sell like gangbusters (see Umbrella Chronicles), then there isn't going to be a whole lot of motivation to actually release something of high quality. Especially when you consider other games that developers have put a lot of time, money, and effort into end up selling terribly.

[DarkMemories]

FYI, I still think Dead Space's sales reflect its quality. Let's compare it to another rail shooter that came out this year.

House of the Dead Overkill: 45,000 units in its debut month

That's not a large number by any means, but in my experience HotD was a fantastic game and really demonstrates how good a rail-shooter can be.

Is it really that hard to believe that Dead Space: Extraction just isn't that great? Though I suppose you could argue that HotD is another game with brand recognition, but I digress...

[Archelon]

I haven't played Dead Space Extraction yet, so I can't really comment on its quality, or lack thereof, whatever the case may be. I wasn't a huge fan of the original, though, so even if Extraction turned out to be an incredibly polished experience, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference to me. I'd still like to try it out, but I'm not exactly expecting great things for the simple fact that the original didn't really appeal to me.

I was just making more of a general observation regarding the current state of M-rated games on the Wii, rather than specifically singling out Extraction.

[Mr_Zombie]

Capcom still has a month left to tweak DSC

At this point, a month before release, the game either went gold already or is near going gold; if it hasn't been tweaked yet, it won't be tweaked now.

One interesting thing about the article:

I played the first level of Darkside Chronicles at a Capcom event in New York yesterday. It was set in the game's new slice of content, a South America-based chapter, Operation Javier

So either he meant first level in the demo Capcom was showing, or the game starts with Operation Javier. That would explain why Leon is narrating in RE2 intro.

[Archelon]

So either he meant first level in the demo Capcom was showing, or the game starts with Operation Javier. That would explain why Leon is narrating in RE2 intro.

I actually suggested the very same thing over in the characters thread, because another preview mentioned that the story plays out as a series of flashbacks rather than one cohesive narrative. So I thought maybe the game starts with Operation: Javier, and then when Krauser tells Leon he wants to know everything that Leon has gone through with regard to BOW's and Umbrella, that would be where the RE2 scenario would start.

[TheBatMan]

yes this would be a better way to present the game i think. Then when you have completed the game i imagine you can unlock the option to play each level in their entirity seperately.

[Archelon]

It does make me wonder how they'll handle the CV scenario, though. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to have Leon narrate that one, too, but I suppose they could just say he's recounting what Claire and/or Chris presumably told him about what they experienced on Rockfort and in Antarctica. Unless they have Claire or Chris (maybe even Wesker?) narrate the CV scenario, though I'm not entirely sure how that would work from a storytelling standpoint if Leon is telling Krauser everything.

Of course, it also begs the question, even if Leon knows all about what happened during CV, why would he just randomly tell Krauser about it when he wasn't directly involved? Maybe once you beat the RE2 scenario, the game will shift back to Operation: Javier, and then once Leon and Krauser learn that Javier is using the T-Veronica Virus, that will prompt the shift to the CV scenario.