Topic: Resident Evil 6 is Apparently as Bad as Operation Raccoon City

[Adrock]

Is anyone planning on getting this?

I decided to pass for now since Wii U is launching next month and I'm convinced that it will see a port eventually. It's currently getting mixed reviews from most reviewers. Kotaku says it's getting "mauled" by critics though I wouldn't go that far by some of the reviews I've read. If there are major issues, hopefully they'll get ironed out when/if a Wii U version comes out.

It's kind of strange how Revelaitons had a much smaller budget and development team yet managed to get near universal praise while RE6 is the McKayla Maroney Not Impressed face across the board. I wonder what happened there. The only thing I can think of is the lack of Jill Valentine in RE6. It has to be.

EDIT: Sorry, posted this in the wrong place. Hopefully, a mod will move this to the General Gaming discussion. My bad.

[MagicCow64]

I wasn't optimistic about this game after RE5, but damn.

http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-6/reviews/resident-evil-6-review-6397185/

"Resident Evil 6 is a mishmash of elements put together without any sense of care or direction. Series faithful might stumble through for the sake of story, and perhaps to appreciate those few moments that recall when Resident Evil was at its peak glory. But this long, poor sequel is the ultimate test of patience for even the most dedicated. "

[BranDonk Kong]

Hmmm, based on the short bio about the person who reported it, this is the most meaningless review ever. I don't know of anyone that takes Gamespot seriously after the whole Kane & Lynch debacle.

[MagicCow64]

I dunno, if anything Gamespot tends to carry water for major releases. Either someone at Capcom USA broke this guy's heart or the game is actually in 5 territory. If so, it's hard to read as anything other than another sign of gaming industry crack-up.

[TJ Spyke]

Right now the Xbox 360 version has a 69 average on Metacritic, higher than the GameSpot score but still not very high. Destructoid gave it a even lower score (3/10).

[broodwars]

The game in general seems to be getting pretty mediocre reviews (5-7 scores), so I don't think GameSpot is that far off this time.

It doesn't surprise me, really. When I played the PS3 demo last week, I thought the game was god-awful so it doesn't shock me that the full game's apparently pretty underwhelming.

[ShyGuy]

What happened to Resident Evil? Where did it go wrong? Was it 4? 5? The movies?

[broodwars]

What happened to Resident Evil? Where did it go wrong? Was it 4? 5? The movies?

I think it started going wrong with RE5, though I will still defend RE5 as a good decent enough game for what it was (an action-packed finale to the Raccoon City "saga") even if I didn't altogether care for it in the end.  However, RE5 was where Capcom really started abandoning the horror elements of the RE series for mediocre 3rd person action set pieces, whereas RE4 still had elements of horror in it.  The movies are their own mess, though elements of them have infected the general game series in the form of set pieces and cutscene moments.

[Pixelated Pixies]

It was all down hill after that logo was revealed. A Giraffe and a Human Being should never engage in fellatio. I don't care if there has been a zombie apocalypse, it's still not right.

[nickmitch]

The things the negative reviews are saying (from Metacritic) really outweigh the positive reviews.

[xcwarrior]

Capcom is losing its way. I just hope they don't screw up Monster Hunter.

Got to remember people, this is the company that doesn't see a point to do anything for Mega Man's 25th anniversary.

[TrueNerd]

This is the best review I've read of the game, and one of the best game reviews in general I've read in a while. Just the link title alone is great.


http://killscreendaily.com/articles/reviews/why-resident-evil-6-devastating-parable-about-heroin-addiction/

Capcom is losing its way. I just hope they don't screw up Monster Hunter.


Got to remember people, this is the company that doesn't see a point to do anything for Mega Man's 25th anniversary.

Not nearly as unforgivable as not doing anything for Metroid's 25th anniversary. But that's for another thread.

[oohhboy]

RE5 was most definitely where it went wrong. The horrible inventory system, the focus on "Co-op" gameplay that turned the game into a giant escort mission. The horrible environments. It was an action game with no where enough ammo or effective way to conserve it. The awful cover system. GIVING THE ZOMBIES GUNS.

You could tell they were trying to replicate RE4 by turning everything up to 11, but they had failed to understand what made RE4 great in the first place resulting in a distorted mess of a game. RE:R has it's own flaws, but they weren't the sins RE5 committed.

[shingi_70]

Eh metroid isn't nearly as important to nintendo as megaman is to capcpom.

Really shocked to see the socres. I knew the game was going to be medicore and had me unhyped but I didn't think. It. Would be critcally panned pretty much across the board. I'm suprised it got a 39/40 in fatimsu.


Guess its time to reboot.

[Adrock]

Ignoring the fact that pharmaceutical companies are inexplicably creating Bio Organic Weapons, giving the zombie-esque dudes guns was only ridiculous to me because the gameplay didn't evolve enough/at all to make them work. In RE4, enemies were created around the additions and limitations of the gameplay. They were given axes and other melee weapons, but not guns because players didn't have the mobility to accommodate gun wielding bad guys (besides the slow Gatling gun quasi-mini-boss). In RE5, players still didn't and were barely bailed out by the fact that there were now 2 of you. While I liked RE5, it didn't really work as a single player game anymore and the co-op wasn't good enough to effectively ruin the single player experience.

Revelaitons did a good job of altering the gameplay enough to accommodate the more-zombie-like Ooze. Despite its relatively minor flaws, it had come closest to reconciling pre and post RE4 gameplay. Still, I think the series is really missing Shinji Mikami's direction and game design expertise.

From what I've read about RE6, excessive QTEs and mish-mash of ideas are the major strikes against it. Plot and dialog are also apparently still laughable, but I feel like that's part of the charm of the series. Killing of the series main villain in RE5 did kind of paint Capcom into a corner. Where does this leave Chris? I'm sure RE6 seeks to answer that one, but killing him off would change the series. It would give the impression that no one is safe and that the development team is willing to go all out though it still starts with the gameplay.

[ShyGuy]

So at out of the modern Resident Evil games, it goes:

RE4>Revelations>RE5>Umbrella Chronicies>Darkside Chronicles>RE6>Racoon City ?

[ejamer]

So at out of the modern Resident Evil games, it goes:

RE4>Revelations>RE5>Umbrella Chronicies>Darkside Chronicles>RE6>Racoon City ?

I feel like the Chronicles games are getting a raw deal here. They are pretty solid, although obviously trying to provide something very different than what the mainline series games are trying to offer. Being so different does make them hard to rate... but I'd probably put them over RE5.


Outside of that quibble, I mostly agree with your listing.  I'd also suggest that 5/6/RC are still worth playing, barely.

[Adrock]

I'm apprehensive about putting the Chronicles titles on the same list as the main games. They're good, but they're so different that they don't really belong in the same conversation. It'd be like listing Mario Kart alongside Galaxy.

Without having played RE6 (didn't even try the demo), Shyguy's list is pretty accurate. I'd need to play RE6 to see if it falls before or after RE5. Some of the complaints I've read about RE6 applied to RE5. Looking at RE5 in retrospect, I expect to like RE6 more.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I'm apprehensive about putting the Chronicles titles on the same list as the main games. They're good, but they're so different that they don't really belong in the same conversation. It'd be like listing Mario Kart alongside Galaxy.

I only owned Umbrella Chronicles, admittedly that was a few years ago, but I remember that game being pretty bad. It was plodding, boring, and the shooting simply wasn't all that satisfying. I remember the headshots in particular being really unsatisying (ranging from at best underwhelming to at worst laughable).
 
The one redeeming quality of that game, that I can remember, was that it was willing to poke fun at the series, as it brought back the terrible dialogue and voice acting as well as some of the more cheesey elements of the series. As an on-rail shooter though I thought the action was pretty woeful, especially when compared to the likes of Deadspace: Extraction and House of the Dead: Overkill.

[ejamer]

Yeah, headshots weren't satisfying at all, and the controls in general didn't feel as responsive as I would've liked. But the Chronicles games did sum up the story well, and offered a lot of content. (Maybe offering a lot of content isn't a good thing when you don't enjoy what's being offered, but I didn't mind the gameplay even though it was lackluster compared to Dead Space Extraction or House of the Dead.) Of course I would've preferred a "real" Resident Evil game... but a playable retrospective isn't so bad.

[Adrock]

I rented them for free when I worked at Holywood Video. I'm sure that contributed to my enjoyment of the games.

To get back on topic, has anyone here played more than the demo of RE6 yet?

[ShyGuy]

Maybe the Wii Chronicles game belong in the spinoff section with 3DS Mercenaries. Of course, do we put Operation Raccoon City in the spinoff camp as well?

I think technically one of the mediocre RE FPS games came out on the PS2 after RE4, but I don't know if that puts it in the modern Resident Evil column or not (Modern= RE4 and forward)

[Adrock]

I forgot about Racoon City Operation. I only played it for a little bit. It was okay. Like Mercenaries 3D, the gameplay retains the over the shoulder view so at least it's within the same realm as the main titles. I agree. We should probably consider them separate as well. If we count them, RCO would be last.

[broodwars]

I forgot about Racoon City Operation. I only played it for a little bit. It was okay. Like Mercenaries 3D, the gameplay retains the over the shoulder view so at least it's within the same realm as the main titles. I agree. We should probably consider them separate as well. If we count them, RCO would be last.

If you're going to do that with what is honestly a pretty terrible game from what I've played of it, you might as well toss the Gun Survivor and Outbreak games into that category as well.

[Stogi]

I haven't played a good horror game in a long time....

A shame really.

[broodwars]

I haven't played a good horror game in a long time....

A shame really.

I've heard good things about Amnesia, and I will actually stick up for Silent Hill Downpour being a good game (with some major issues).  Plus, the two Dead Spaces are pretty good as well.

[Stogi]

It seems like PC is where they are at the moment. Between Amnesia and DayZ, I have been considering giving them a shot. I just don't like playing on a PC though. It's hard enough for me to be scared now-a-days, but when I'm sitting up right at a desk...it's not going to happen.

At least I don't think.

[Adrock]

If you're going to do that with what is honestly a pretty terrible game from what I've played of it, you might as well toss the Gun Survivor and Outbreak games into that category as well.

I haven't played either, but don't they pre-date RE4? Isn't that the stipulation here? I'm going by ShyGuy's list a few posts back.

[broodwars]

If you're going to do that with what is honestly a pretty terrible game from what I've played of it, you might as well toss the Gun Survivor and Outbreak games into that category as well.

I haven't played either, but don't they pre-date RE4? Isn't that the stipulation here? I'm going by ShyGuy's list a few posts back.

Outbreak 2 might have released after RE4, but the others definitely came before, yeah.

[shingi_70]

What survival horror series are still active and not in a medicore state.



I can only think of Alan Wake and the amensia titles.

[ThePerm]

The demo was pretty fun.

In the Demo there were 3 different campaigns. Each character had a different feel. It seems that when you have the full game it will be like having 3 different games.

Leon is Survival Horror
Chris is Action
Jake is somewhere between the two.

I finally got to play my umbrella chronicles too haha, and it got really fun towards resident evil 1.

[ShyGuy]

Okay, we need to make a definitive Resident Evil List

Main Series:
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 1 (Including REmake, DS Port?)
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
------Modern Era-------------
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil Revelations
Resident Evil 6


Spin Offs:
Gun Survivor games (how many?)
Resident Evil Outbreak
Resident Evil Outbreak 2
------Modern Era----------
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Resident Evil: DarkSide Chronicles
Resident Evil: Mercenaries
Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City

What have I missed? Wasn't there a GBA game too?

[TJ Spyke]

No GBA game. There was a Game Boy Color game though: Resident Evil: Gaiden.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Ask me about playing the little known RE arcade game

Also, Outbreak is a good game!

[TJ Spyke]

From what I can find, the arcade ones were just the console games basically.

Apparently there have been a bunch of cell phone games too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_games_in_the_Resident_Evil_series

[S-U-P-E-R]

Erm no, gs2 code veronica was some crazy thing with a giant gun mounted on the world's biggest 4 way joystick. It had a two screen setup like a lot of the Time Crisis games.

[leahsdad]

RE5 was most definitely where it went wrong. The horrible inventory system, the focus on "Co-op" gameplay that turned the game into a giant escort mission. The horrible environments. It was an action game with no where enough ammo or effective way to conserve it. The awful cover system. GIVING THE ZOMBIES GUNS.

Eh, giving the zombies guns wasn't the worst thing.   The "zombies/ganados" at the end of RE4 had freaking chaiin guns, those guys were still fun.   

But the inventory system...my god, why is it so small, and the freakin game doesn't pause!   Argh.

I really, really thought after playing Revelations that they found their way again.  Such a great game, I still play raid mode on and off.  And quite possibly the best final boss that the series has ever had.  Hell, all the bosses in that game were great.

I guess it's not so bad that we're not getting a Wii U port of RE6, eh?

[Adrock]

Revelaitons was pretty close to RE4's quality that I'm frankly baffled that RE6 is apparently so bad. RE:R was definitely flawed. It lacked variety in both setting and enemies. Your partner was useless (but thankfully couldn't die). It introduced 2 of the worst characters in the series. And it relied more on stats than skill. Still, it wasn't just good for a handheld title, it was just good on any scale.

I still think a Wii U port is coming. I hope Capcom uses that opportunity to fix the game's shortcomings like Team Ninja is supposedly doing with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. The PS3/360 versions can be patched, but it would be nice if a Wii U version just came that way. I wouldn't say no to extras either. Nintendo should offer to help Capcom because the port could be really big for Wii U. It could go a long way in showing consumers their commitment to core gaming.

[Ian Sane]

So Resident Evil sucks now.  Sonic sucks now.  Final Fantasy sucks now.  What the hell happened to the big Japanese videogame companies?

[broodwars]

So Resident Evil sucks now.  Sonic sucks now.  Final Fantasy sucks now.  What the hell happened to the big Japanese videogame companies?

First off, I disagree that Final Fantasy "sucks now" any more than it ever did.  People tend to really cling to the past when it comes to that series and deride anything new.  I probably enjoy the series about as much as I ever have, even if I haven't liked any of the new FFs quite as much as FF X on the PS2 or FFVI on the SNES.

But as for your question, the answer is that the rest of the world passed Japan by while the same big Japanese companies refused to keep with the times, and now they don't know how to catch up again and be relevant so they merely badly emulate now-better Western developers without really understanding their games.

[Ian Sane]

Well I've never played the recent FF games.  I'm just going by the general reviews.  There are some Japanese series that used to be a sure thing and are now not.

I think if you're specifically trying to catch up, you're fucked.  It's like how no one who tries to be cool actually is.  What they really need to do is just make some passionate games where for the devs it's a labour of love.  Odds are they'll get a good game out of it and it will stand out better than a poorly executed copycat.  The followers rarely get anywhere.  Playing catch up is too conservative.  They need to do something radical to become relevant again.

If you can't guess what others want, then just make what YOU want.

[Luigi Dude]

If you can't guess what others want, then just make what YOU want.

That's the problem though, the management to most Japanese game companies are business men with no gaming experience.  All they want is sales and since the West is a bigger market they order their devs to make games to appeal more to the West.  And that's why a lot of the Japanese companies have fallen behind since they making games that the management wants instead of their own games.

This is why Nintendo is lightyears ahead of the rest of Japan.  Nintendo is mostly run by former game devs that worked their way up in the company and actually understand how development works.  This is why Nintendo has allowed most of their devs to make the games they want to make and as a result still has a higher output of quality titles then the rest of the Japanese industry.

Funny how the Japanese company that continues to allow its devs to be Japanese, is way more successful then the companies that are forcing their devs to be Western.

[NWR_insanolord]

Also look at a company like Platinum Games, which is doing a lot of good stuff. Everything I see suggests that this is a problem with Japanese business culture, and Platinum sidestepped all that by having a bunch of creative people go found their own studio.

[S-U-P-E-R]

I seem to remember making almost these same posts about Japanese companies weeks ago in some other thread, I wish I could remember which one. Yeah, it's a problem.

[Kytim89]

What has happened to my beloved Resident Evil series? I had such high hopes for this game. I thought that it would correct alot of the mistake done by RE5 and then become a good successor to Resident Evil 4. I gues it is too much to ask for a game that matches, or rises, above that of Resident Evil 4.
 
I had hoped that this game would get a good enough reception that Capcom would be justified in bringing back the Dino Crisis series. Resident Evil 6 should been developed by a western studio. One of better quality that could understand how not to run a game series into the ground.
 
I can see it now: Resident Evil 6: Needle's Edge for the Wii U. Although the inventory system of this game would work much better on the Gamepad's screen anyway. I wish they would return to some kind of hybrid between the RE 2 and RE4 inventory system.

[MagicCow64]

As far as good contemporary horror games go, shout out to Lone Survivor. It's a 16-bit styled 2D survival horror game. It ends up being not the greatest by the end, but the first half is unlike anything I've played before and genuinely unnerving and upsetting.

As for where RE went wrong, it's a tricky question, because it's so entangled in what made RE4 so good in the first place. It's kind of like how Scream killed slasher movies. And then got totally terrible itself with the sequels.

What I've been thinking lately, especially after playing through Dark Souls, is that someone needs to go really far in the opposite direction from RE5/6. Play it like an actual zombie movie where if you get bit, it's over. It would have to be really hard and unforgiving. Every single monster would have to be as awful as it would be in real life to tangle with one, and you would be better off 99% of time avoiding all fights. I'm thinking a rewind function would go a long way to make this kind of game work, which new console advances could make a reality.

[Adrock]

What has happened to my beloved Resident Evil series? I had such high hopes for this game. I thought that it would correct alot of the mistake done by RE5 and then become a good successor to Resident Evil 4. I gues it is too much to ask for a game that matches, or rises, above that of Resident Evil 4.

That's a tall order, kytim. Your expectations may need to be leveled a bit. Resident Evil 4 influenced countless games after it. My hope for RE6 was for it to be a competent game. It didn't need to change gaming like RE4 did. It just needed to avoid basic game design pitfalls. Some of the strikes against the game are things most seasoned designers would have seen a mile away. And while most reviews lament the loss of "survival horror," I wouldn't mark the game down because of that. Resident Evil has evolved into a more action oriented series because it can. The older games were limited by what was possible back in the late 90s. Those controls are unacceptable by today's standards. Pre-rendered backgrounds are thing of the past and some may not even remember them. Things change. They have to. I don't necessarily think nostalgia should be used against it.

Should the game be ported to Wii U, really small improvements could go a long way. Move the camera back. Make checkpoints more frequent. Give some indication that bosses are taking damage or at least need to be taking damage and aren't on a cutscene countdown. Nix most, if not all, of the QTEs. These could all probably be patched in the PS3/360 versions though I would be willing to wait a bit longer for Capcom to go back and really tweak the game. Maybe like a Director's Cut.

Resident Evil 6 should been developed by a western studio. One of better quality that could understand how not to run a game series into the ground.

I disagree. I think Capcom should still handle the series, even if they reboot it. I haven't played RE6 yet so this is based mostly on my experience with RE5. To improve the quality of the series, they need to stop looking West on how they should make their games and just focus on making a good one without the pressure of targeting a specific audience. A few people mentioned this above. I would go a step further and say the problem with Resident Evil specifically is that they're copying studios who copied them. Look at how many western games totally ganked RE4's over-the-shoulder view. In a way, Capcom is copying a copy of the thing they invented. They just don't seem to understand the evolution. A good game will find an audience; popular IP like Resident Evil already has one.

[Kytim89]

As far as good contemporary horror games go, shout out to Lone Survivor. It's a 16-bit styled 2D survival horror game. It ends up being not the greatest by the end, but the first half is unlike anything I've played before and genuinely unnerving and upsetting.

As for where RE went wrong, it's a tricky question, because it's so entangled in what made RE4 so good in the first place. It's kind of like how Scream killed slasher movies. And then got totally terrible itself with the sequels.

What I've been thinking lately, especially after playing through Dark Souls, is that someone needs to go really far in the opposite direction from RE5/6. Play it like an actual zombie movie where if you get bit, it's over. It would have to be really hard and unforgiving. Every single monster would have to be as awful as it would be in real life to tangle with one, and you would be better off 99% of time avoiding all fights. I'm thinking a rewind function would go a long way to make this kind of game work, which new console advances could make a reality.

The Resident Evil series should be shelved and then in about five years let it get rebooted for whatever consoles exsist during that time and go back to square one.

[Luigi Dude]

A good game will find an audience; popular IP like Resident Evil already has one.

The problem is the current management of Capcom sees certain Western series selling better so they want their games to appeal more to that audience.  Capcom has already said they want RE6 to appeal more to the Call of Duty audience and are expecting at least 7 million copies sold.  Even though RE5 was already the best selling game in the series with 5.8 million sold, Capcom execs wanted even more resulting in RE6's design ending up the way it did.

This is the same reason why they decided to completely reboot the Devil May Cry series even though DMC 4 was the best selling game in the series at 2.6 million.  Because God of War 3 sold over 5 million copies, Capcom thinks a more western style DMC will get sales closer to it and have already set expectations for the reboot at over 3 million copies, higher then any of the previous games ever did.

That's the problem with a lot of the major non-Nintendo Japanese companies.  They see Western games that involve shooting and action selling more and want their own shooting and action games to get similar sales by changing them to be more like the Western series.  Even if it means completely messing up some of the things people currently like about these series.

[BeautifulShy]

I am watching a Lets play of the game currently and I will mention one thing that does stand out to me as a good thing which sets the tone so far in the 2 videos that have come out for the Lets Play for it. It is the background music. I am listening to the videos with headphones and that is one of the things which stand out to me and one of the things which is one of the main things which is the long standing things which adds then tension in horror games.

The QTE are done differently from RE4 from what I could tell at least some of them so there was some changes there.

I guess I will give my thoughts as I watch more of the Lets play.

[NWR_insanolord]

Resident Evil: Revelaitons proves that Capcom is still capable of doing the series right, so I don't think having someone else do it is the right answer

[noname2200]

I haven't played a good horror game in a long time....

A shame really.

I'm sure there are some good PC games that might be up your alley, if you're interested. Alternatively, have you tried the Fatal Frame II remake? Seriously considering importing it.

[MrPhishfood]

Lemme tell you something funny about Operation Raccoon City.

This was a game I was quite looking forward to and so I preordered it online so I could get it as fast as possible. Then 4 days before release I get the game in the mail and I was shocked at the game's quality. The day after that all the crappy reviews started pouring in.

It seemed the retailer got wind of how crap the game was (or maybe played it themselves) and then decided to ship out the game as soon as possible (and taking payment at the same time) before anyone could cancel their preorders.

Those sneaky bastards.

[Adrock]

I only played Operation Raccoon City for about half an hour. My friend at Play N Trade forced me to try it since not even Jill's appearance could convince me to buy the game. I didn't think it was terrible. Then again, I didn't pay $60 for it. I would probably pick it up for $5-$10 if I had the opportunity. It was shallow, repetitive, and unimaginative, but I didn't hate myself for trying it.

[Louieturkey]

I picked up RE ORC for $10.  I'm sure my wife and I will enjoy it for what it is.  We already know going in it isn't the greatest game.  I think I'll feel that way about RE6, though I don't plan to buy it for $60 either now.  I was going to do that before all the backlash came out.

[Kytim89]

Capcom could only milk this franchise so far. After six main installments, and numerous spinoffs and sidequels, I feels as though it is time to put the series to bed. Capcom should have made Resident Evil 6 be the closing chapter of the series. There can be only so many viruses before it gets stale and repetitive, and that is all the series will be remembered as in the future.
 
Here is how I would have done RE 6:
 
 

• It would be the last Resident Evil game for atleast five years.
• The plot of the game would center around a global viral outbreak with major cities around the world suffering the same fate as Racoon city.
• The plot would also have a end of the world theme.
• All of the Resident Evil protagonists would assemble to battle the C-Virus outbreak.
• Some characters would be DLC exclusive with their own part of the world as a set piece.
• Since this viral outbreak is global, and the fate of the world is at stake, the zombies in this game are menacing than ever before.
• Decisions made throughout the game deiced which characters live or die. Leon or Chris dies at the end, but both can not survive.
• Hybridized inventory system betwwen that of Re 2 and RE 4.

[MagicCow64]

Yeah, it will be, erm, interesting to see where RE goes from here. The reviews should sink it, but if improves on RE5's sales, we're probably in for more games in the same vein.

But wait! There is another?

http://kotaku.com/5905277/first-look-at-resident-evil-creators-new-horror-game

[MrPhishfood]

I am intrigued by project Zwei. I cannot find the footage but it was of very early Resident Evil 4 built where it looked like Leon was up against these ghostly kind of enemies. There was this misty gloomy corridor that Leon was walking through and I get the same kind of vibe when I look the corridor in that image.


I wonder if this game is the one Resident Evil 4 could have been.

[Kytim89]

The Resident Evil seeries went to hell once Shinji Mikami left Capcom. He was the lynchpin of the series and once he left Capcom all of the creativity and style of the series left with him. While Resident Evil 5 and 6 are not bad games, I just can not help but wonder what would have happened had Mikami stayed with Capcom to produce Resident Evil 5 and 6. Capcom should have contracted him to work on part six due to the fact that Resident Evil 4 was so popular amongst fans, and it was directed by Shinji Mikami himself.

[TrueNerd]

Isn't Devil May Cry the game RE4 could have been?

[broodwars]

Well, call if morbid curiosity, but I traded-in some games today and ended up with more than enough to pay off Dishonored, so I used the rest to pick up Resident Evil 6 (yes, despite my issues with the demo and the very divided reviews).

I've had a good track record this year of liking games the critics have generally bagged on (Lollipop Chainsaw, Asura's Wrath, Silent Hill Downpour, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, etc.), and the more I think about the experience playing the demo the more I began to question my preconceptions.  Was I disliking the demo because the game was actually bad (it didn't seem so at the time), or because I came in with preconceived notions about what a Resident Evil game "should be" ("hey, this is Resident Evil! It isn't right that I can just run up to zombies and punch their heads off at any time!")?  Considering I played Downpour with a very open mind about what Silent Hill "should be" and rather liked it, I thought it only fair to give RE6 a similar fair shake.  And hey, if I don't like it, at least I only paid trade-in credit and I'm already set for Dishonored next week.

I haven't actually played any of the game yet because work has just been devouring my time lately, but I hope to put in some time with the game tomorrow night after we record Episode 6 of Nintendo Free Radio.

[MagicCow64]

I am intrigued by project Zwei. I cannot find the footage but it was of very early Resident Evil 4 built where it looked like Leon was up against these ghostly kind of enemies. There was this misty gloomy corridor that Leon was walking through and I get the same kind of vibe when I look the corridor in that image.


I wonder if this game is the one Resident Evil 4 could have been.

I know exactly what you're talking about. It got forgotten with the RE 4 reboot, but that original footage looked pretty awesome, and a much different direction for the series. They weird hookman ghost thing was pretty horrible. Here's hoping that's what Zwei is based on.

[Adrock]

The Resident Evil seeries went to hell once Shinji Mikami left Capcom. He was the lynchpin of the series and once he left Capcom all of the creativity and style of the series left with him. While Resident Evil 5 and 6 are not bad games, I just can not help but wonder what would have happened had Mikami stayed with Capcom to produce Resident Evil 5 and 6. Capcom should have contracted him to work on part six due to the fact that Resident Evil 4 was so popular amongst fans, and it was directed by Shinji Mikami himself.

You sound like someone who has never played Resident Evil: Revelaitons and considering you do not own a PS3 or 360 (and refuse to buy either for that matter), I have doubts that you've played Resident Evil 5 or 6 so I'm a bit curious what you're basing this on. Revelaitons is an extremely competent game. It's not better than Resident Evil 4, but few games since can make that claim or even come close. I would go as far as to say that Raid Mode is significantly better than Mercenaries Mode could ever hope to be. That was done without Shinji Mikami. I, too, wonder what would have happened to the series had he not left Capcom, but there's no guarantee that Resident Evil 5 or 6 would have had the same impact that Resident Evil 4 did, especially with the higher ups at Capcom handcuffing the people who actually make the games. Considering Clover Studios' rather unceremonious closure, Mikami's departure was hardly surprising.

There are people at Capcom who can handle a series like Resident Evil. The Revelaitons team was given the step-child project on 3DS and managed to make something really special. You've mentioned at least twice in this thread that the series should take a 5 year hiatus which is odd to me. The passage of time doesn't fix anything. Every series simply needs the right people working on it and when it comes to Resident Evil, it seems they're already working at Capcom, despite it not seeming like a very pleasant place to work considering how many senior designers, directors, and producers have left over the last decade. The best thing for the series would be for upper management to give their teams a bit more freedom to just make good games without being force to cater to certain audiences, but that's not looking terribly likely since Resident Evil 6 is tearing up the charts despite the bad reviews.

Anyway, I finally got around to playing the final retail version today at a store (I didn't buy it). I didn't get very far, but yikes. The reviews weren't kidding about the QTE. A few people on NWR are aware of my great disdain for QTE. I hate them in pretty much everything. If I'm forced to endure them, the rest of the game better be amazing to compensate. Resident Evil 4, for example, totally was. There's a part right in the beginning of Resident Evil 6 where it takes like 3 timed button presses just to pry open a door. What the fuc... I had a whole conversation about QTEs and cutscenes today which can be its own discussion entirely. I don't want to stray too far off topic so I'll keep this short: I don't need QTE to exist just to add "gameplay" to cutscenes. Keep them short and get me back to the actual game as soon as possible. There was an egregious amount of QTE in just the opening sequence of Resident Evil 6. Not the best way to start things off. That said, I don't have a very favorable opinion of the game at the moment though I plan on eventually getting the game, hopefully on Wii U, but failing that, PS3 is fine.

[ShyGuy]

My cousin broke down and bought the Resident Evil 6 Anthology which also includes Resident Evil 1-5. I had not done much coop in RE5, so we started there. To my surprise, it wasn't bad with two players. I detested the game in single player, but with two player it was decent. Not a survival horror game, or even action horror, but a decent action game. The tiny screens in coop are stupid though, and the controls feel off compared to RE4, but if you have two people it's worth a try.

[Louieturkey]

My cousin broke down and bought the Resident Evil 6 Anthology which also includes Resident Evil 1-5. I had not done much coop in RE5, so we started there. To my surprise, it wasn't bad with two players. I detested the game in single player, but with two player it was decent. Not a survival horror game, or even action horror, but a decent action game. The tiny screens in coop are stupid though, and the controls feel off compared to RE4, but if you have two people it's worth a try.

RE5 in coop was a lot of fun for my wife and me.  We will get RE6 at some point, but I figure since the reviews call the game horrible, I expect it to drop in price really fast.  So I'll wait and get it when it's below $30.

[TJ Spyke]

The reviews don't call it horrible, just mediocre (mediocre is less than good, but better than horrible). The Xbox 360 version has a 67 average on Metacritic, which is far better than "horrible".

[Adrock]

RE5 in coop was a lot of fun for my wife and me.  We will get RE6 at some point, but I figure since the reviews call the game horrible, I expect it to drop in price really fast.  So I'll wait and get it when it's below $30.

That's a good plan. My brother wanted to play it so he split the cost with me. I definitely would have kicked myself if I spent $60 on the game. It's not the worst by any means, but it's definitely flawed.

I haven't earned enough skill points to upgrade too much so I don't know if the gameplay changes at higher levels. Right now, I'm just pumping bullets into things, even low level zombies. RE6 lacks the immense satisfaction of shooting a hostile in the face or knee and performing a melee move. A whole button is devoted to melee, but rarely do you kick/punch a hostile's face clear off. Like Revelaitons, RE6 tries to change things up from RE4 and RE5, but it just seems like a change for the sake of a change. I'm all for changing things up, but it doesn't quite work here.

The most jarring thing I've encountered is that the 180 degree turn doesn't always position the camera behind you. You'll turn around, but the camera keeps it's position. I fiddled with the options and I think that's just how it is.

For the most part, I agree with many of the reviews I've read. If there's a Wii U Edition, I hope for a Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge-esque upgrade to fix some of the game's issues.

[broodwars]

The reviews don't call it horrible, just mediocre (mediocre is less than good, but better than horrible). The Xbox 360 version has a 67 average on Metacritic, which is far better than "horrible".

Yeah, people seem to forget that anything above a 5.0 on a 10 point scale is a "good" game.  It's just the degrees to which the game is good.

[Ceric]

The reviews don't call it horrible, just mediocre (mediocre is less than good, but better than horrible). The Xbox 360 version has a 67 average on Metacritic, which is far better than "horrible".

Yeah, people seem to forget that anything above a 5.0 on a 10 point scale is a "good" game.  It's just the degrees to which the game is good.

Because we're trained by the US School System that a C is a failing grade.

[NWR_insanolord]

The reviews don't call it horrible, just mediocre (mediocre is less than good, but better than horrible). The Xbox 360 version has a 67 average on Metacritic, which is far better than "horrible".

Yeah, people seem to forget that anything above a 5.0 on a 10 point scale is a "good" game.  It's just the degrees to which the game is good.

That depends on where the review is from. At some sites, like ours, a 5 is a score that means it has issues, but is still worth playing if you get past them. At other sites that's a 6 or a 7. Your best bet is to read the text of the review and not pay too much attention to the score.

Because we're trained by the US School System that a C is a failing grade.

As a teacher, I'll point out that a C isn't a failing grade, but you should strive to do better than that. Schools generally have 65 as the cutoff between passing and failing, though, which is higher than the 50 we set things at.

[Ceric]

The reviews don't call it horrible, just mediocre (mediocre is less than good, but better than horrible). The Xbox 360 version has a 67 average on Metacritic, which is far better than "horrible".

Yeah, people seem to forget that anything above a 5.0 on a 10 point scale is a "good" game.  It's just the degrees to which the game is good.

That depends on where the review is from. At some sites, like ours, a 5 is a score that means it has issues, but is still worth playing if you get past them. At other sites that's a 6 or a 7. Your best bet is to read the text of the review and not pay too much attention to the score.

Because we're trained by the US School System that a C is a failing grade.

As a teacher, I'll point out that a C isn't a failing grade, but you should strive to do better than that. Schools generally have 65 as the cutoff between passing and failing, though, which is higher than the 50 we set things at.

At master level you must get a B or Higher essentially making C failing.  Even though a Proper Curve in any education system should have the majority of Students getting a C.  Plus must colleges want a 3.0 or Higher last I checked.

[Ian Sane]

Most reviewers tend to give inflated scores and rarely give grades lower than 70% so if your game gets lower than that, it probably really sucks.  NWR might consider 65% to be more favourable but if you're looking at GameRankings or Metacritic, we're going by the average so NWR would be in the minority.

Of course there are a lot of games out there and only so much time and money so why should I bother with anything that gets such unfavourable scores in reviews?  I might miss the odd gem and get burned by the odd overrated lousy title, but overall this practice has worked well for me.  I have no obligation to give every game a fair chance.  I'm not a reviewer that gets free review copies.  I have to pay for this stuff myself and it's solely for my own personal amusement.  No one cares when I skip movies that look like they're terrible and get unfavourable reviews but with videogames this is somehow a mildly controversial attitude.

Moral of the story: no one likes to be wrong or unpopular.  If you like a game most people don't, it suggests you might have bad taste.  If you bought a game that wasn't really any good you effectively got swindled and it suggests that you're a sucker.  Thus it's better to act like reviews are meaningless and that effectively EVERY game COULD be considered good so your taste can always be validated and you can think of yourself as a smart consumer that never gets swindled.

Fun fact: in the real working world accomplishing 65% of a task is not acceptable.  It's like 100% or you fucked up and risk getting fired.  A "C" IS a failing grade.  You do your tasks correctly or you don't.

[TJ Spyke]

Except a C is not a failing grade, nor is a D. Only a F is. And sports are a good example where it doesn't matter. Think about baseball, getting a hit 30% of the time is a huge success. In basketball, Michael Jordan is one of the best ever but his career field goal percentage is 49.7% (with a high of 54.9% in the 1990-1991 season).

[ShyGuy]

Good News Everyone! /Futurama

Cliffy B has offered to save the Resident Evil series.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/cliff-bleszinski-offers-to-help-fix-capcoms-resident-evil-series/

Grab a green herb, grab a gallon of gas for the chainsaw gun...