Resident Evil 5 Dev Talks Demo Feedback 114
MTV's Multiplayer blog sat down with Jun Takeuchi, producer for Capcom's Resident Evil 5, about the feedback they've gotten from the game's demo, which has been downloaded over 4 million times. He comments on the changed control scheme, which has generated a lot of discussion and criticism, by suggesting that their decision will become clear once the full game is out. "We understand that there are many people who want to run and shoot at the same time, but it's not the right alignment for the game." He also says the finished game will have shorter loading times, and he briefly discusses the media-fueled race controversy over the fact that Africa's zombies have dark skin. Takeuchi says, "People will be able to play the game and see what it is for themselves." Kotaku recently ran a preview of Resident Evil 5.
Re:Control Scheme (Score:4, Insightful)
I couldn't agree more, you should never be made to have to fight the controls rather than the game. The claims of the controls being awkward in order to increase tension is true to an extent but I don't want to play a game like that.
There are other ways of manufacturing fear and tension without bad controls.
I think a better approach to not being able to move and shoot would be to allow you to but penalise with reduced accuracy.
Re:Control Scheme (Score:3, Insightful)
I definitely agree here. The controls are part of the game. They may be a little clunky, but if you were able to run and gun ala gears of war, it would completely ruin the atmosphere of the game.
Re:Control Scheme (Score:3, Insightful)
Resident Evil has always had this control scheme. If it were changed and they still called it Resident Evil, I'd be pretty upset.
If you can't figure out how to play the game the way its made to be played, don't play it.
That's like complaining that your monster can't attack people in Monsters (tower defence game) or that Jumpman Jr. can't jump.
RE5 controls (Score:3, Insightful)
If it plays like RE4, it is perfect.
I am tired of dumbing down games by making every single one of them play like Quake. It is highly unrealistic.
I love RE4, play it all the time, and have never had a problem with the controls, nor have they impacted my performance or enjoyment of the game.
People complained about Silent Hill's control scheme, then they modernized it for SH4 which left the game unplayable for many veterans as you couldn't pick the old, more intuitive scheme.
The control issue is an issue for a very vocal minority.
Re:No Wii (Score:3, Insightful)
You have, possibly without realising it, hit upon the real reason there's no Wii port of RE5. And it's far more worrying for Nintendo than any branding/demographic issue.
The Wii can't handle the game from a hardware perspective.
The Gamecube was perfectly competitive with the rest of its generation; more powerful than the PS2 and certainly a reasonable match for an Xbox. The Wii is still closer in its hardware capabilities to a Gamecube than to a PS3 or Xbox 360. Where the Wii does get ports of cross-platform games, these often tend to be co-developed with the PS2 version. Expect to see the Wii cut out of more and more "big news" games as this cycle goes on and developers get more comfortable with the hardware on offer elsewhere. It's not just about graphics - more sophisticated physics modelling and more generally elaborate design philosophies also demand better hardware.
The installed base won't save it, either. The PS2 benefitted from its huge installed base last time around, because most PS2 owners were, to some extent, "gamers". They bought games. The Wii demographic buys, on average, far fewer games (and many Wiis sit unused in cupboards).
Re:Control Scheme (Score:5, Insightful)
Someday you're are going to have an epiphany and realise that MS did not hold a gun to your head, march you into the store and make you buy the fucking console.
Re:Race Issue (Score:3, Insightful)
"The imagery is not the same. It doesn't carry the same history, it doesn't carry the same weight." - So, since the zombies are black, and there's a different history, shooting a black zombie has much more weight than killing a white one. Under this standard, RE4 is full of racism if you look at Spanish history.
So because no Spanish person complained about RE4, no black person can complain about RE5? It's been grandfathered in? Who knows why Spaniards didn't complain. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that racism against Spanish people has historically been nowhere near as bad as racism against black people, so they don't feel the need to complain?
I don't think the game is racist, but the illogical responses from gamers are annoying me.
"Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game." - The only truly racist thing I found in the whole article, because it:
a. creates a stereotype ("all black people think like me, no non-black could possibly think like me")
b. makes a wildly inaccurate assumption based on personal prejudice (see above)
c. is wrong factually (anyone want to make a bet that no Capcom employees working on RE5 are black? Anyone?)
d. is wrong morally (I hope I don't have to explain this)
It's a little absurd that you're claiming now the article is racist because of that one overstatement. It is an overstatement, but you're going overboard in your paranoia to prevent your games from being censored, don't try to throw racism back at those who try to bring it up. If people making these arguments are wrong, two wrong racism accusations don't make a right. If their concerns are valid, then let them say what they want.
And not that it matters (at all), but Capcom is a japanese company, right? They probably didn't do everything in house, the voices at least are probably not japanese people, but it's not like Japan is very diverse. The odds that a black person worked on anything besides voice acting seem pretty low to me. Again, though, that's just odds and is trivial anyway.
Re:The one thing I still use my Wii for.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I know you can get gun peripherals for the other consoles, but I think their presence will be a rarity.
Re:Race Issue (Score:4, Insightful)
"So because no Spanish person complained about RE4, no black person can complain about RE5?"
Ummm, that's not what I said at all. What I'm saying is that in RE4 you go into Spain, all the Spaniards become zombies (or close enough), and you kill them all. In RE5 you go into Africa, all the Africans become zombies, and you kill them all. Just because you kill all the Africans doesn't make RE5 racist, anymore than RE4 was. It's how zombie games are, you kill everyone who becomes a zombie, and everyone becomes zombies. The author is arguing that this basic premise of most zombie games is racist because this one takes place in Africa and the zombies are black. That's BS.
People are free to complain about anything they like. If the article was well thought out and had legitimate concerns, that would be great. But when their complaints are moronic I am also free to rip those complaints to shreds.
"It's a little absurd that you're claiming now the article is racist because of that one overstatement."
The absurdity is all yours, as I never complained the article was racist, I pointed out the one statement in the article that actually was racist and gave precise reasons why it was. It's really (not-Allanis-Morrisette-type) ironic.
BTW, you might want to look up paranoia before accusing someone of it again. Thinking an author is a moron and pointing out his fallacies is not paranoia.