Gaming Resident Evil 4

[James]

[color=#707875]I haven't seen a thread about this for a while, so I thought I'd bring it up again.

Specifically, I wanted to show off some of the most recent images of the game. Although these are only scans, I am really stunned by how amazing this title looks. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Doom III, in most respects. And that's definitely saying something.

[url="http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-78.jpg"]Just look at this boss for example. Insane detail. Real-time, in-game graphics too.[/url]

The game was recently shown in playable form to a select group of media, behind closed doors. From what we've heard, the game is said to be [i]incredible[/i]. You can play from three different perspectives (first person, or two variations on third person). One of the third person views apparently has Leon at the very side of the screen...and it plays a lot like a FPS, but you still have that third person view.

The game also displays Leon's health and ammunition on screen. In addition, Leon has slightly more flexibility when it comes to fighting. He can shoot (obviously), but he can also use action commands to kick/punch/push zombies upon close contact. Leon can also easily aim in different directions, including up and down.

[url="http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-82.jpg"]Another cool in-game shot, demonstrating the action command and the "thid person 2" viewpoint.[/url]

The game takes place in South America and you visit various locations throughout the adventure. You can really see in these shots that the game has paid great attention to detail, in terms of architecture and whatnot.

In addition, the zombies have changed. They are now more "people-like", in the sense that they can walk and run faster. They can also pick up debris and throw it at you (they can throw all sorts of objects) [i]and[/i] they can use weapons. When an object is thrown at you, you can time your shot to shoot it down, however.

[url="http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-83.jpg"]Lovely particles.[/url]

If you want to see more images (some far, far better than what I've shown you), go here: [url]http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/00905.html[/url]

I'm pretty excited about this latest Resident Evil. It seems to really be re-injecting some innovation and uniqueness to the franchise. And it's obviously an amazing demonstration of what GameCube can do when pushed. It's a shame that more developers don't really push the current generation consoles in this regard.

A few other details:

1) The game is in widescreen format as a default. It was deliberately designed this way. If your TV doesn't support 16:9 ratio, the game will have black bars on the top and bottom.

2) Worlds are completely wide open.

3) No load times with door opening; everything is real time.

4) A few, very brief load times travelling between major areas.

5) Enemies will react to damage done to them in particular places. If you shoot someone in the foot, they'll hobble. They react to shots from all sides (front, back, left and right). If the villager is running and you shoot their foot or leg, they will fall over on the ground, for example.

6) As mentioned, villagers are armed with all sorts of things (axes, pitchforks, sickles and all sorts of stuff), which they can throw at you.

7) You can barricade yourself in, by putting objects in front of doors. You can also use your action button for limited physical combat and you can even push ladders off buildings while villagers are climing up them (villagers can also throw things at you whilst they're climbing).

8) In one level, you're in complete darkness. You can't see anything until the sky lights up with lightning, which allows you to see the villagers (ie: no torch).

9) Villagers feature advanced A.I. If you shoot a villager, he won't always go after you; he may run away (he is intelligent enough to know that he can't compete with a gun). If you follow him, he'll lead you to an area with more villagers, where they'll team up. Villagers will also climb up the sides of buildings (using ladders) and dive through windows at you, or try to knock down doors, in real-time. They will also work together cooperatively.

10) The camera is generally a lot closer to you this time. This creates a very claustrophobic atmosphere. Also -- especially at the start -- you are surrounded by bloodthirsty villagers. They surround you from all sides and they'll try to grab at you as you come close. So you're constantly trying to "run for your life", so to speak.

11) Whilst the controls are almost the same as the original games, the new perspectives make RE4 "feel" a lot more like a first person shooter. The entire game apparently feels very different and much more "free".

12) You can use your action button to do many, many things. You can hide behind trees, push tables in front of doors, dive through windows, etc etc.

Amazing stuff. I think this could [i]really[/i] re-ignite my love for RE, especially considering that Code Veronica left an awful taste in my mouth (although RE's remake was pretty darn amazing too).[/color]

[Semjaza]

There's not much to say other than that I'm excited about the game. I have been for quite some time. The only disappointing news so far is that all the areas shown originally were entirely scrapped. I suppose in some ways the earlier stuff wasn't "Resident Evil-ish", but it was still cool. I'd like to see those ideas show up in another game, at least.

P.S. -- You have to copy and paste those links into the address bar to see the images.

[Break]

[font=arial][size=2][color=#CC0000]I must admit, the graphics do look very impressive. This could be the only RE game that I buy, not being a fan of any earlier games (too scary for easily scared Weh ><). If it would feature more action than mystery-solving, hair-tearingly annoying parts in the other games then I would definately be in.

I also didn't like some of the other games because you were confined to one mansion or one town, etc. In this one, you can just wander around and stuff, if I'm not mistaken, which would be more suited to my tastes. Has anyone got any details on the storyline of RE4 yet? It seems as though it will be a significantly different than the other games.[/size][/color][/font]

[Shwa]

I dont know..the storylines for the other resident evil games have been pretty good so far and all. I'd like to know when it comes out and for what system, i think i forgot to read that part if it was mentioned but oh well :D

~Laters

[Semjaza]

It's for GameCube. It originally wasn't mentioned because when James first posted the thread we still had a specific Nintendo section heh.

I don't think any specific release date has been announced, but it's coming out sometime late this year.

[The Vampire: Ed]

[FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=Red]Actually, the "zombies" in Resident Evil 4, according to Game Informer, aren't zombies at all. They're just villagers, humans, in a trance like state. Most likely a new virus or something, but they're not zombified in this Resident Evil. There won't be any zombies at all this time around apparently, and neither will the Umbrella corporation. That seems like a spoiler, but I doubt it's much of one since they'll probably cover the collapse of the Umbrella corporation in the opening sequence. Maybe it's that new corporation Wesker claimed to have sold his soul to in Resident Evil Code Veronica.

Anyway, the game looks fantastic. In my opinion the best looking game to date, and it should be more than enough proof of GameCube's true abilities. A lot of people probably doubted something as amazing looking as this could be done on the GameCube, myself included to be honest, but it really looks superb. GameCube has some fantastic looking titles under it's proverbial belt at the moment, but nothing as spectacular as Resident Evil 4.

I look forward to seeing the game in action, and finally seeing new life breathed into the almost dead series.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Charles]

I read this article about two weeks ago; it's exciting news. I know that nearly everything I'll mention was highlighted already, but I may as well go for it.

For a long time, I considered myself a rabid Resident Evil fan. I loved the idea of B-movie esque zombie horror in video games well before it became the norm. It goes without saying, I anticipated the first game's release for the PSX well before the media lavished it with praise. Not only was it an original Capcom effort--it was [i]good.[/i]. [b]Really[/b] good. It left a lasting impression on me because it was the first truly great game of the 32-bit generation. Resident Evil was a point in gaming where I absolutely the industry's foundation was going to be rocked. Subsequently, the series has faltered. It's been solid, but only because the same successful formula has been replicated over and [i]over[/i] again.

Resident Evil 4 strikes me as a notable turning point in the series because for the first time in a long time, I'm interested. The most promising piece of information the article mentioned is this:

[quote]Tired of where the series was going, Mikami decided to take it in a new direction. Change the persepective in a Resident Evil game? Remove the zombies? Sounds completely insane, but that's indeed what has happened.

"I remember playing [Resident Evil] Zero and saying to myself that this is just more of the same, "confided Mikami. "This is why I wanted to change the system. With the new system I once again feel nervous and afraid when I play it."[/quote]

I couldn't agree with the general sentiment here more. It's such a refreshing confession, and it makes me glad to see his involvement here once again.

The series was so bereft of intensity and originality, I just couldn't stand it. Resident Evil simply didn't generate the atmosphere its competitors in the genre managed to create. Play one hour of Fatal Frame 2 even, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

This new direction should curtail the convoluted storyline and give the series a fresh new beginning. They've exhausted the possibilities with the Umbrella corporation and zombies. I'm much more excited at the prospect of fleeing from human pursuers who [i]think[/i] in a sense. Who set traps like laser trip-wires. It should be interesting to navigate past these dilemmas in such wide open areas with an entire village at your heels. It's also cool that you can eavesdrop on their conversations (although they're in Spanish). [i]And,[/i], if injured, they're able to flee and lure you into ambushes. It's just such an attractive element--dealing with more intelligent foes as opposed to lumbering vegetables. The fact that you can barricade yourself in a building with a table and leave them villagers beating on the door only sweetens the pot. It almost reminds me of [i]28 Days Later[/i].

When Resident Evil Code Veronica released, the opening sequence had me concerned that the series would abandon its take on horror in favor of a more action oriented style. Instead it appears that they're just adopting a new brand of horror. I couldn't be more excited, really.

[NorykoAngelcry]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=darkred]Wow. . those screens are mind blowing! I haven't seen anything with that beautiful of in-game shots in a long time. Now, there are beautiful games out there. . but nothing that makes you shiver like this game does, and that's just from the screen shots!

All the originality that is going into this series is blowing my mind right now. . I am low on cash, and was passing up quite a few games that I was interested in. . this game, however, I am going to put on the wish-list! From everything that you guys have been discussing, this has blown the door wide open on what I was expecting from this game (obviously what they were going for!). Can't wait to see more, and get a chance to play this.

Gonna have to play this with a couple friends. . they are such suckers for scary movies, I figure a truly scary game is what is needed. *nods* Leave it up to the gaming industry to again set the standard. .be it horror, action, or anything else. . [/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Ganon6d9]

[FONT=Tahoma][SIZE=1][COLOR=DimGray]This game just tied Metal Gear Solid : TTS for my most wanted game, seriously, can graphics be any better than that (maybe Doom 3, but this ain't about Doom). For some reason the game reminds me of the Halloween movies, especially Chainsaw Dude.
I just can't picture a Resi Evil game without zombies though, I'm still going to expect at least a couple of walking dead-men. Maybe the villagers go into some sort of Crimson-Head type thing after so many hours of playing, here's hoping.
Another theory that I have is that the game will make use of the Cube's clock and have a day-night system. Just compare those two shots of that boss in the Village, one is in the day, one's in the night.
mmmmmmmmmmm...Localised Body Damage....Bear Traps.....Chainsaw Dude......*sits in corner and waits for RE4*[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[The Vampire: Ed]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=Red]All of those screenshots, not including the older ones, came from the March Game Informer. I figured they would have their own screenshots, but that place just scanned and copied all the info straight from Game Informer. Kinda a rip off if you ask me, but I guess it helps people who don't get Game Informer.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Semjaza]

[quote name='The Vampire: Ed][FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=Red]All of those screenshots, not including the older ones, came from the March Game Informer. I figured they would have their own screenshots, but that place just scanned and copied all the info straight from Game Informer. Kinda a rip off if you ask me, but I guess it helps people who don't get Game Informer.[/COLOR'][/FONT][/quote]

It happened mostly because everyone else that has played it or could show media is under a NDA. IGN and other game sites cannot even talk about it yet. GI happened to have the exclusive, so of course it got scanned. I'm not about to go out and buy that magazine, I can tell you that heh.

[Charles]

Here's an animated clip from the game. Obviously, because it's an animated gif, it's not silky smooth. It gives you a good indication of how good the game looks in motion without downloading anything though. I've included some scans from Famitsu people were sharing They don't offer up a lot of significantly new imagery, but the quality is nice.

[url="http://cwb.250free.com/biohazard.gif"]http://cwb.250free.com/biohazard.gif[/url]

[font=Tahoma][color=red][size=1]
I edited the img codes out of your post. That GIF is over 1 MB in size and forcing people to automatically download it every time they enter this thread is a bit much... - Semjaza

[color=blue]Hm, :shrug: They shouldn't complain considering they don't have to download the video itself. :o [/color]

[color=#0000ff]But, good idea; I didn't know the file was that large.[/color][/size][/color][/font]

[Semjaza]

I attached an image I saw at IGN earlier today. I'm really impressed by the lighting showed off in this picture. Not to mention the nice laser sight on Leon's gun and the awesome fire effects.

Edit -- Added Capcom's pic without the stupid IGN logo.

[Ganon6d9]

[FONT=Tahoma][SIZE=2][COLOR=DimGray]I was on IGN earlier and they said there was new media of RE4, being the Resi fan that I am I squealed like a girl(no offense, ladies) then kicked my 56k modem for being so slow and keeping me from new RE, then I found two...[I]two[/I] new screenshots, they weren't even good quality. But the one that Semjaza showed made me soil myself it was so damn good. I'm sure that when this game comes out it will be an ***-rippingly good... er, [I]scary[/I] time. Can't wait...[/SIZE][SIZE=1] Chainsaw Dude comin' to get ya...[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

EDIT: IGN Cube just had a hands-on preview of the game and an interview with Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the producer of the game.

Here's the interview; [URL]http://cube.ign.com/articles/499/499419p1.html[/URL]
Here's the hands-on; [URL]http://cube.ign.com/articles/499/499572p1.html[/URL]
And here's the screenshots; [URL]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/015/015821/imgs_1.html[/URL]

Apparently all of the stuff that was shown at the Tokyo Game Show has been scrapped and they're making a whole new storyline.

[Semjaza]

Yeah, they had mentioned they scrapped it back when this information was first released in GI. It's not a first for them, if you remember what happened with RE2. They were pretty damn far in it when they scrapped it. I hope that some of the ideas from the early versions of RE4 will show up in other games (or even this one). The whole ghost-like atmosphere it was showing was pretty cool, I thought.

That said, this game sounds really great so far. I hope it turns out. I'm just hoping they change their mind with non-analog walking controls. Everything else sounds good to me.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I hope they make the controls more customizeable. I know it's a bit stubborn of me, but I simply don't feel like getting used to controls "relative to the character." I prefer the more intuitive setup. And there are way too many games to get out there this year (and 2005), so I can actually not get RE4 simply because of that reason. After all, we'll see plenty of good graphics from other games (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and even Ninja Gaiden looks pretty darn awesome).

[Ganon6d9]

[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]I don't see why they wouldn't go for complete analogue control considering they've already scrapped what could have been an awesome stroyline, why stop there? I think that by the time it comes out the controls will be analogue, after all, Capcom aren't ones to disappoint.

I do remember the 'original' Resident Evil 2, or as the fans call it, Resident Evil 1.5. I wish I could play it too, but that'll probably never happen. Maybe Capcom will put in that blue zombie dude who carried around a big fishing hook on a chain, you never really know. Capcom always manage to surprise people.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[James]

[QUOTE=Ganon6d9][color=dimgray][font=Tahoma]I don't see why they wouldn't go for complete analogue control considering they've already scrapped what could have been an awesome stroyline, why stop there? I think that by the time it comes out the controls will be analogue, after all, Capcom aren't ones to disappoint.

[/font][/color][/QUOTE]
[color=#707875]Well, apparently the new camera views make the controls better, or something along those lines. And apparently the reaction time of the character is faster and stuff. So, it seems to be a much more fast-paced game...and this [i]may [/i]lend itself to the control scheme that they've chosen.

But who knows. From my point of view, it's annoying that Capcom have never really "updated" the control system. I can't think of anyone -- including seasoned RE players like myself -- who would actually praise the control system. Even though I am completely used to it by now, I would still say that it's clunky and unnecessary.[/color]

[Xiou]

It's impressive indeed. It's just a shame it's exclusive to just the Game Cube (at current). Even if I have to wait a few years, I will wait until it comes out for PS2 or PS3. Whichever comes first. No offense to Game Cube owners. It's a good system, but I'm not going to spend money on it just for RE.

[James]

[color=#707875]You'll be waiting a long time, Xiou. RE4 won't be appearing on any other platforms, even in the future. Capcom has been repeatedly asked about this and they continually say that it'll be GameCube exclusive. In fact, I think the game's producer recently said something along the lines of "Never. Never." in response to that question. lol[/color]

[Xiou]

You did say Game Cube exclusive right? I really don't see that the system is doing that well over the other two. I'm sure Capcom knows they can make more money elsewhere. It's obvious that they've lost alot on Game Cube in general. I mean GTA was only exclusive to PS2 for the longest time and finally it did come out for Xbox. It has to come out for another system in the future, and I'll be there when it does. :D

[James]

[color=#707875]Well, the discussion over which system is doing better overall is probably for another thread.

But as mentioned, Capcom has entered into an agreement with Nintendo to make RE4 exclusive to GameCube. This means that you'll need to own a GameCube to purchase the game. That's the whole point of the exclusivity agreement.

The GTA situation is different. GTA wasn't exclusive to PS2 for an unlimited amount of time -- as far as I know, there was a specific time frame agreed on by Sony and Rockstar. The situation is quite different with RE4 and GameCube.[/color]

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

James is right. Also, I'm not sure on this, but the next block of GTA titles will probably be on all 3 consoles much sooner than GTA3 was.

As far as which system is doing better of the three, the ps2 does outsell both the xbox and gamecube almost every month, and whenever a title comes out on all 3 systems, the ps2 version easily outsells the others. So making a title GCN-exclusive means Capcom didn't just want to sell as many games as they could. It could be they want to get on really good terms with Nintendo (though they are on good terms already...) for the sake of future contracts, or it could be that Nintendo just offered them a much better agreement than other publishers.

Whatever the reason, I'm happy it's exclusive because I want Nintendo to do as well as possible in the console market so we keep playing Zelda and Mario games. But I do wish it was also out for Xbox because it would still have more fluid graphics, less-compressed FMVs, and it wouldn't take up valuable memory card space. But whatever. I wont' get RE4 anyway, so it doesn't matter.

[Ashura]

From what has been reported from a number of sources, Capcom is not exactly happy with their deal with Nintendo regarding Resident Evil, as their games have not been selling as well as they expected them to. I has been reported that after Resident Evil 0, Capcom will go back to producing Resident Evil for PS2 (or maybe PS3) and there is a chance that they may produce for XBox as well. Yes, Capcom has been getting a nearly ridiculous amount of support from Nintendo, they just aren't happy with the moolah they're making from the Resident Evil liscense on GameCube. Pretty sad, actually, but that's business.

[James]

[color=#707875]As far as I know, Resident Evil 0 actually did pretty well. Although it may not have reached Capcom's projections.

Various other franchises look like they'll be farmed out to other consoles though. In particular, Killer 7.

The thing is, we really don't know what Nintendo is offering Capcom with RE4. They might be offering to pay for a percentage of the development cost, they might be lowering (or eliminating) licensing fees, or they might be subsidizing the cost of disc production. So it's very hard to tell whether the deal is better for Capcom or not.

Either way, I don't think it matters. Capcom has already talked very specifically about their plans for certain franchises, Resident Evil included. And as we know, while RE4 will be a GameCube exclusive, games like Resident Evil Outbreak will be PS2-based. So PS2 gamers aren't missing out entirely, on the RE front.[/color]