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Games Entertainment

Resident Evil 5 Dev Talks Demo Feedback 114

Posted by Soulskill from the bigger-guns-more-zombies dept.
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.
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Resident Evil 5 Dev Talks Demo Feedback More

Resident Evil 5 Dev Talks Demo Feedback

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  • Control Scheme (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Aladrin ( 926209 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @07:02AM (#26967997)

    In other words, everyone really hated the control scheme, but we don't really care what the customers think. We know better than them. It's not like they've played FPSs or Zombie games before and know what they like.

    I played the demo. The controls were horrid. It -acts- like FPS controls, except that you can only turn very slowly, you can't move and shoot, and basically just can't deal with everything that's going on without a lot of grief.

    I am by no means King of FPSs, but I know a good control scheme when I use it.

    On the other hand, they're following the same tradition that has prevented me from playing every other RE game: Horrid controls.

    As for the decision becoming clear once the game's out... It's already clear! Hubris, ignorance and laziness. Period.

    • Re:Control Scheme (Score:4, Insightful)

      by OK PC ( 857190 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @08:09AM (#26968391)

      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.

      • Play a Call of Duty game on the consoles. I'm rather surprised myself as to how much I'm digging using a limiting control scheme. The game prides itself on the intensity of realism, and using analog sticks with limited turning and movement makes the game feel much closer to real life than twitch-mousing does.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rob1980 ( 941751 )
      On the other hand, they're following the same tradition that has prevented me from playing every other RE game: Horrid controls.

      Yup. I played Resident Evil 10 years ago and couldn't stand the controls then. I tried the RE5 demo just yesterday in fact and the controls STILL suck, just differently. Won't be buying this game.

      • I played Resident Evil 10 years ago

        You played it years ago? So how would you say RE10 stands up in the series?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MikeBabcock ( 65886 )

      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.

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        Resident Evil has always had this control scheme. If it were changed and they still called it Resident Evil, I'd be pretty upset.

        It seems like they changed the camera, but didn't change the controls. Why aren't you complaining about the camera?

        Anyway, RTFA. The whole thing is a fucking advertisement for hubris. Let me summarize:

        Q: It seems like people want to use the whole screen in co-op, instead of the black bars on the sides. It's hard to see what's going on in co-op even on a 34" HDTV [destructoid.com].
        A: Fuck 'em! We spent a lot of effort on this visual effect, which we have decided makes the game easier to play. At least, on our 52" DLP.

        Q: Peopl

        • The visual split screen is a good idea -- it enforces a nice 16x9'ish viewing field which doesn't change the FoV when playing split-screen, whereas normal split-screen systems do (you lose height or width).

          Sure, its not utilizing the whole screen, but it allows their render engine to be much more aggressively optimized and have a similar play experience to full-screen play.

          The racism thing is stupid. The last game took place in Europe and all the zombies were white. Now its in Africa and they're all black

          • The visual split screen is a good idea -- it enforces a nice 16x9'ish viewing field which doesn't change the FoV when playing split-screen, whereas normal split-screen systems do (you lose height or width).

            Shucks, changing the FoV might almost give you functionality similar to having peripheral vision. It would be terrible to give the player the option to choose, wouldn't it?

            PS the Wii's hardware sucks comparatively -- they'd have to write essentially a whole new game to work on it.

            I don't know that I agree. Lots of games have had a port with reduced capabilities on a given platform, and still sold fine. That's a marketing decision, though. Ultimately I don't care. I'm not playing it anyway. My issue is with the pure arrogance. Maybe he should just go work directly for Sony.

    • What I think makes this previous from the other RE is mainly the pace. RE4 made it quicker but not "gonna send you down a hallway, WAIT there's a chainsaw. too late you're dead. Please restart demo" quick. Insta-death + poor controls for the speed + starting over from the start....no thanks.

      I played the demo once and gave it up after that little scene. I'm not going to restart a demo if you're trying to force your learning curve ahead of time.

    • Re:Control Scheme (Score:5, Informative)

      by ObsessiveMathsFreak ( 773371 ) <obsessivemathsfr ... om.net minus bsd> on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @09:21AM (#26969017) Homepage Journal

      The controls were horrid. It -acts- like FPS controls, except that you can only turn very slowly, you can't move and shoot, and basically just can't deal with everything that's going on without a lot of grief.

      Resident Evil does not and never has played like an FPS. Ever. Resident Evil plays like a survival horror game. That's the whole point.

      Resident Evil 5 uses the over the shoulder control scheme as RE 4 (In fact, the exact same control scheme, and indeed gameplay mechanics in every way shape and form(which is not in and of itself a bad thing)), and which can be seen in Dead Space. You have a limited field of vision as enemies slowly advance. The goal is to increase tension by restricting your off-screen view. You must plan the outcome of the encounter with much less than perfect awareness of your surroundings.

      Survival horror games are all about management. Enemy management, ammo management, health management. The game is a long series of encounters in which trade offs must be made. Go for the critical hit but likely to miss headshot, or the more sure body shot. Take down nearby villager or more distant las plagos? Use shotgun/rifle/grenade ammo now, or save if for a more difficult encounter? Use green herb now or wait for a red herb booster? Run or shoot? This is the bread and butter gameplay of the genre. The control scheme is a part of that.

      They are not about fragging enemies in quick succession, while circle strafing or bunny hopping around the room. I would go so far as to say that survival horror games are about as far away as you can get from FPS games without getting rid of guns altogether. The controls promote split second decisions that have serious consequences. Make the ewrong move, and you're in trouble. It encourages players to make serious tactical decisions.

      Resident Evil is not an FPS. It is a survival horror game and plays as such. Long may the genre endure I say.

      • that said, has anyone here played Silent Hill 5?

        if so, how was it?

        • OT- but I will tell you SH5 sucks big time, very buggy and uninspired. This from a fan of the series. If you must, rent it.

          • right.

            the soundtrack isn't bad, though.

            what did you think of SH4? i have yet to finish it.

            • I didn't mind it as much as many fans did. I mean it was certainly a departure, but I think it was done tastefully. The problem with 5 is that it tries to be RE4-like, but is just a really weak effort. It is very unpolished, and seems like it was rushed out the door. Perhaps it could have been a better game if given more time, we will never know for sure. SH5 is not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but there are so many better ones out there that I think it is only worth playing if you are

              • thanks for the good info. i am also a SH junkie, and will probably play it just to have played it.

                i have the OST for SH4 in my car cd player right now.

        • Yes I have. Its nothing like the original SH games. They pull scares that the originals tended to avoid, such as the generic jump out at you scary. That type that RE uses heavily is very heavily used in SH 5. Control scheme is about usual, and by that I mean bad as always. Story isn't that interesting compared to the old ones. In short it shows that the original SH creator didn't work on this one.

      • That said, I think this way of gaming has hit an impasse. Everyone complains about controls but most don't realize that they are intentionally bad. That is one of the ways they introduce challenge. Same as back in one of the first of these types of games, Alone in the Dark. Controls always suck in these games.

        However I think that in this day and age, intentionally crippling the player control wise to make it difficult is a pretty lame way to design a game. I loved RE 1 and 2 because it was a zombie gam

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sbetsho ( 841441 )
      This would only be issue if the rest of the game would be like a FPS-game. Here the enemies are relatively slow and don't have guns to shoot at you. Had you fps-controls, the game would be too easy and less intense, unless the enemies had guns as well, in which case it would hardly be a Resident Evil -game.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Theoboley ( 1226542 )

      I couldn't agree with you more. I Played through half the demo and because of the horrid controls, and my record of breaking controllers over my knee when games frustrate me, this game will be a pass for me.

      The other RE games weren't nearly as bad as this. Another gripe I have is that I'd rather take care of myself in a game rather than having to babysit another AI computer player who can't shoot for beans.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      RE4 had excellent controls, I hear these are much the same. The older REs had really awful controls. I went back to RE0 after playing RE4, couldn't finish it, it was that bad. RE4 was pretty much ideal. Maybe you're just bad at them.

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by Aladrin ( 926209 )

        Or maybe you've never played a game with good controls.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Hatta ( 162192 )

          That's certainly possible. If there's a survival horror game with better controls than RE4, I haven't played it. I'm certainly interested though, so what do you suggest?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Toonol ( 1057698 )
      Too bad it's not coming out for the Wii. The RE:4 control scheme for that was nearly perfection... and that's amazing for the notoriously clunky RE series.

      I can understand that the developers didn't want to mimic a FPS control scheme, because turning Resident Evil into a generic shooter like Dead Space would really degrade the franchise. That's no excuse for poor controls, though.

    • I completely disagree. RE:5 isn't trying to be Gears of War or Halo or Call of Duty - it's not trying to be the game everyone loves. It's the best game in the developers' minds, and I'm happy with that. "Good control scheme" in your mind is boring same old same old to me. I loved RE4 and I've played the RE5 demo several times. I agree that before RE4 the games were near unplayable, but RE4 and RE5 are really good at what they do. Just because it doesn't appeal to you doesn't mean it sucks.

      BTW, try to move a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Aladrin ( 926209 )

        'Not being able to hit the target' is not the same as 'not even being able to try.'

        Besides which, if I were moving as slow as the characters in that game, I think I -could- hit the target with both me and them moving. Especially from 3 ft away.

  • Loved it! (Score:3, Informative)

    by nighty5 ( 615965 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @07:19AM (#26968091)

    The demo was so much fun, playing co-op with a friend was really hard. We had to try the scenerio a good 5 times before we finished it.

    The game has a sense of urgency, my heart was pounding during the first invasion of zombies into the house. The game requires a level of strategy I hadn't seen before.

    To all these people that are whinging about the controls, it's refreshing that a somewhat different approach to game playing has been released. I'm tired of all the Doom wannabes.

    Shame on the media for beating up the story regarding "media-fueled race controversy over the fact that Africa's zombies". Here's News! Its in Africa! If the scene was in New York, then you have got a point, but this is just blatant attempt to stir the pot in order to get reviews.

    I'm definitely going to buy this game when it comes out.

  • Race (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Spad ( 470073 ) <slashdot@ s p a d . co.uk> on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @07:20AM (#26968097) Homepage

    Of course, nobody cared that the first 4 games featured white zombies.

    Also, I'd imagine that if the game, set in Africa, featured exclusively white zombies, there would be just as much "controversy" surrounding it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by jgtg32a ( 1173373 )
      Only white people can be racist.

    • Of course, nobody cared that the first 4 games featured white zombies.

      Is there much of a problem with white-on-white racism where you're from? Of course there weren't racial concerns from the first few.

      Not that I have a problem with race in this game, I just think we gamers are being illogical with our reaction to this. N'gai and others raised valid concerns.

      • N'Gai complained about the game after seeing a single clip that was less than three (3) minutes long; you can't raise valid concerns from seeing three minutes of footage.

        • Judging from 3 minutes with -this- game does seem premature. I think there are some things you could identify as racist within 10 seconds, like if the zombies had looked like they were in a minstrel show, but they didn't and you're right, that would have been premature. But as I recall, at the point he made his objections, that 3 minute clip was all that had been released, and wasn't he just saying "I'm a little worried about what I've seen so far"?

        • Playing devil's advocate for the moment, Capcom did choose what imagery was shown in that 3 minutes. It's an advertisement for a game: it's whole job is to impell the viewer to react, preferably (for Capcom) to purchase the game. They are partly responsible if the reaction to the trailer is different.
    • Resident Evil? Africa?

      I thought this was supposed to simulate the events following Hurricane Katrina.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

      "I don't get all this controversy over black zombies. You see, I don't see death. People tell me I'm alive and I believe them because I don't hunger for brains." -- Stephen T. Colbért

      He hasn't actually said this, so that's why I used the é. And I only just changed my signature to this (away from "Real cherries may contain pits."), so save your redundant mods.

  • Race Issue (Score:3, Interesting)

    by N1AK ( 864906 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @07:29AM (#26968163) Homepage
    To try and chime in before comments saying that there is no race issue, and the fact the Zombies are black is irrelevant. The newsweek journalist who made the comments makes extensive attempts to clarify that having black skinned zombies alone wouldn't be an issue.

    There was stuff like even before the point in the trailer where the crowd turned into zombies. There sort of being, in sort of post-modern parlance, they're sort of "othered." They're hidden in shadows, you can barely see their eyes, and the perspective of the trailer is not even someone who's coming to help the people. It's like they're all dangerous; they all need to be killed.

    I have not seen the trailer, but if the author is correct then this issue isn't as clear cut and it can't be dismissed as a black guy getting excessively defensive. I also wonder whether the reason the pre-zombie people are shown as dangerous is by intention, not due to racial prejudice but instead because it builds tension, or whether the developers thought showing the player character interacting with nice friendly local children and then soon after blowing their heads off wouldn't be taken well by players (sometimes it is nice to have clear good & evil although perhaps a game like RE5 would actually be better with more grey area to make players think?).

    Overall I recommend that people who have skipped the race article link thinking it is a load of bollocks have a read, although the guys style annoys me and it is light on details there is more to it than you might think.

    • although the guys sort of style sort of annoys me

      Sort of fixed that, for you...

    • Re:Race Issue (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Posting=!Working ( 197779 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @08:34AM (#26968567)

      The moron who wrote the article decided that every piece of zombie lore and the objective of every zombie game and movie suddenly is racist if the zombies are black.
      "It's like they're all dangerous; they all need to be killed. It's not even like one cute African -- or Haitian or Caribbean -- child could be saved. They're all dangerous men, women and children. They all have to be killed." - like all the other zombie games where you try to save the zombies. Or most modern FPS. Or space invaders. Killing everything has a long tradition in video games.

      "this dark, dangerous continent filled with people who only want to do you harm goes back a long, long way." - yeah, the first zombie movies used it, and so did King Kong, the Odyssey, "here there be sea monsters", etc.

      "he doesn't really interact with them, he sort of walks through this thing and it's sort of, "Is he there? Is he not?" It's a very strange thing, and it taps into sort of this very racist iconography" - Noninteractive characters in video games are now racist?

      "The music that they're using in the trailer is very reminiscent of the music used in Black Hawk Down which was set in Africa -- Somalia" - Oh just give me a fucking break already. You're really stretching this stuff.

      This next quote rams my point home:
      "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.

      Sorry, but the arguments claiming racism were pathetic. Especially the first one:

      "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)

      Could the game be racist? It's possible, I haven't played it yet. Is anything in the trailer that this guy talked about racist? No.

      • It's like they're all dangerous; they all need to be killed. It's not even like one cute African -- or Haitian or Caribbean -- child could be saved. They're all dangerous men, women and children. They all have to be killed." - like all the other zombie games where you try to save the zombies.

        You took that completely out of context. obviously you're not going to save zombies. But why does every single person in the trailer have to be percieved as evil? Why does every person have to become a zombie? You could argue that it's more fun that way, but you have to be responsible. You have to realize that black people are a bigger deal than spanish people in America. I have never played a RE game before. So therefore when I see the trailer I think, "there's a white guy killing black zombies." Yes, I'm

        • You have to realize that black people are a bigger deal than spanish people in America.

          I hope you realize Capcom is a Japanese company, and the people working on this title have are not Americans, or even white themselves.

        • "But why does every single person in the trailer have to be percieved as evil?"

          You're going to kill them when they become zombies, so why make them happy good people? Would that be more respectable, to kill the happy good people once they become zombies, rather than the evil ones who become zombies? Why?

          "Why does every person have to become a zombie?"

          Because it's a zombie game.

          "What movies exactly? George Romero's early films had black protagonists who were percieved as (perhaps ambiguously) good."

          I wasn'

        • I'm guessing you know nothing about this game since there is a positive black person in the game, the other main character of the game is a black woman that is working with the white male guy; neither of them seem terribly concerned about the race of the zombies they are shooting for some reason, funny that.

          • The objectional content isn't in the game itself. The objectional content is in the trailer for the game. That is where the controversy lies.

      • "The music that they're using in the trailer is very reminiscent of the music used in Black Hawk Down which was set in Africa -- Somalia" - Oh just give me a fucking break already. You're really stretching this stuff.

        You nailed it, this guy is a moron. However I would like to clarify that there is a reason the music sounds somewhat like Black Hawk Down. The developers early on said that they were inspired by the atmosphere of the film, so it is not surprising to see some similarities. I myself noticed this as well.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by interkin3tic ( 1469267 )

        "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

        • 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?

          Or maybe it's because "Spanish" is a designation of nationality, not race, Einstein.

          • Or maybe it's because "Spanish" is a designation of nationality, not race, Einstein.

            I think that's a fairly trivial difference, as you can still be just as prejudiced against a "nationality" as you can a race, and race and nationality are pretty interchangeable terms in so many cases. Anyway, if you do think that is an important distinction, that would be another reason why the lack of reaction to RE4 matters little when talking about the reaction to RE5: there's no hint of racism there.

            Silly insults like calling someone Einstein sarcastically because they weren't careful about race vs ot

            • I think that's a fairly trivial difference, as you can still be just as prejudiced against a "nationality" as you can a race, and race and nationality are pretty interchangeable terms in so many cases.

              I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Have you been to Spain? They're as white as any other Europeans. Also, there are 3 races: negroid, caucisoid, and mongoloid. I guess you could say Mongolians are all mongoloid. Other than that, it's really not applicable.

              I'm not for censorship and don't think this game is actu

              • I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Have you been to Spain? They're as white as any other Europeans.

                Again, that just makes the comparison to RE4 worthless.

                Listen-I'm just trying to educate you, friend.

                Fine, but in the future you might want to adopt a less abrasive tone when trying to educate people. If you insult someone, they don't give a shit what you're saying even if it is right.

        • Re:Race Issue (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Posting=!Working ( 197779 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @05:01PM (#26975609)

          "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.

    • Article is old, it's much worse than we thought (Score:4, Informative)

      by NotInfinitumLabs ( 1150639 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @10:40AM (#26970009)
      excerpted from here. [eurogamer.net] A game journalist's experiences with the finished version of the game

      There's also the spectre of the old racism debate, hovering the background. That debate is only going to get louder and more urgent once the game is released, and is being covered beyond the cosy world of the specialist gaming press, since there's imagery in here that goes beyond the general air of foreign menace that caused a ruckus in the first trailers.

      One of the first things you see in the game, seconds after taking control of Chris Redfield, is a gang of African men brutally beating something in a sack. Animal or human, it's never revealed, but these are not infected Majini. There are no red bloodshot eyes. These are ordinary Africans, who stop and stare at you menacingly as you approach. Since the Majini are not undead corpses, and are capable of driving vehicles, handling weapons and even using guns, it makes the line between the infected monsters and African civilians uncomfortably vague. Where Africans are concerned, the game seems to be suggesting, bloodthirsty savagery just comes with the territory.

      Later on, there's a cut-scene of a white blonde woman being dragged off, screaming, by black men. When you attempt to rescue her, she's been turned and must be killed. If this has any relevance to the story it's not apparent in the first three chapters, and it plays so blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous "dark continent" and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s. That Sheva neatly fits the approved Hollywood model of the light-skinned black heroine, and talks more like Lara Croft than her thickly-accented foes, merely compounds the problem rather than easing it. There are even more outrageous and outdated images to be found later in the game, stuff that I was honestly surprised to see in 2009, but Capcom has specifically asked that details of these scenes remain under wraps for now, whether for these reasons we don't know.

      There will be plenty of people who refuse to see anything untoward in this material. "It wasn't racist when the enemies were Spanish in Resident Evil 4," goes the argument, but then the Spanish don't have the baggage of being stereotyped as subhuman animals for the past two hundred years. It's perfectly possible to use Africa as the setting for a powerful and troubling horror story, but when you're applying the concept of people being turned into savage monsters onto an actual ethnic group that has long been misrepresented as savage monsters, it's hard to see how elements of race weren't going to be a factor.

      All it will take is for one mainstream media outlet to show the heroic Chris Redfield stamping on the face of a black woman, splattering her skull, and the controversy over Manhunt 2 will seem quaint by comparison. If we're going to accept this sort of imagery in games then questions are going be asked, these questions will have merit, and we're going to need a more convincing answer than "lol it's just a game."

      • So because black men are depicted as being violent and black zombies turn a white woman into a zombie, the game is racist? Nonsense, that's projection; people looking at the game from a racial perspective want to see racism there, so they do.

    • I seriously disagree; he looked at one clip of the game and made a judgment, granted he didn't say the game is out and out racist but he more or less hinted that he considered it to be racist. What N'Gai Croal claimed is that the images in the game resembled images from the days of apartheid in Africa, and that a white guy shooting black zombies is shocking and racially insensitive (which is a way of saying "racist" without being defamatory).

      I think this quote from the interview with MTV really showed me w

  • The one thing I still use my Wii for.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by VinylRecords ( 1292374 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @08:39AM (#26968617)

    The one thing I still use my Nintendo Wii for is Resident Evil 4. I couldn't believe the difference the motion control scheme made in terms of offering such refreshing game play for a survival-horror style game. I had played RE4 on the PS2 and enjoyed it but the Wii version shames the previous platform releases overwhelmingly.

    Literally pointing and shooting at the screen for Resident Evil 4 on the Wii has spoiled my expectations for what Resident Evil 5 was going to be on the PS3/360.

    Even if they improve the control scheme (I've played the demo, hate the controls) it's not going to be as fluid and fun (at least in my opinion) as the Wii version of RE4.

    Sony and MS need some better wireless guns and controllers for games like this. If fighting games get arcade sticks, racing games get steering wheels, where are the rail gun controllers?

    • I'm pretty sure they do have gun controllers for those consoles. At the least, I know a new Time Crisis came out for the PS3 last year, with a gun controller in the box.

      where are the rail gun controllers

      I'd be a little intimidated if i need a rail gun to take down a simple zombie.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Toonol ( 1057698 )
      Resident Evil 4 for the Wii was great, and you're right about it spoiling Resident Evil 5. Anybody that has played 4 on the Wii is going to feel like they took a step backwards when they play RE5. Better graphics? Sure. But who cares, because that's layered over a game that is just not as much fun to play.

      I know you can get gun peripherals for the other consoles, but I think their presence will be a rarity.

  • RE5 controls (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @09:59AM (#26969477)

    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.

  • Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has a full-on FPS control scheme.

    Yet, Attack of the Fishmen from that game is the single most panic-inducing sequence I've ever encountered.

    Capcom's argument is complete bollocks.

    Hans

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