RE 4 Impressions..?..

[Goldni]

Since the other RE4 thread went off topic I thought this thread would be aplicable for those who have purchased RE4 today to give impressions of the game so far. Here are just some of mine from the time I spent with it so far.

First of all RE's fire, flames and smoke effects > every other game to date period! I've never seen this done so realistic. Very nice job there.

Character models = to or > than just about every game out there. Tons o detail and polys. Ninja Gaiden maybe = imo.

Some of the best water effects and water (in realtime that is) this side of Half Life 2.

Environments that are beautiful yet a mixed bag afa textures.

Seeing this level on graphics on the Cube is amazing. Makes me wonder what Retro could have done with MP2 Echoes had they opted for 30fps instead of the 60fps. Anyways I'm very impressed with the graphics alone not to mention the atmosphere and music..Anyways anyone else pick RE4 up today?

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Haven't been as lucky. I should have it tomorrow. Great impressions....Thanks.

 

[Deepak]

Goldni, how do RE4 fire effects match with those in MGS3? And smoke effects with Killzone?

 

[Goldni]

They're the best I've seen. And the explosions are incredible. Lighting is very good as well.

 

[Bohdy]

I'm waitng for the Aus release so answer some questions for me Goldni

You mention the water effects how are they more impressive than in the demo? Because I looked under a bridge and I wasn't impressed by the water at all. It was just the ol' rolling texture effect.

And IMHO, just going by the demo the game has the best Texturing I've even seen in a video game! Everything just looks so fitting. Bear in mind I'm not talking about texture resolution though, as the textures definately suffer from the Cube's lack of ram. I hope Capcom keeps the source textures around for use in a next gen port, as they would look a treat!

Oh, and is there any indication that the lighting is per-pixel yet? Because its hard for me to tell from the demo and trailers.

 

[cybamerc]

Lighting is per-vertex. No console system can do those graphics with per-pixel lighting.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Xbox probably could in the right hands.

How's the gameplay?

 

[Bohdy]

Lighting is per-vertex. No console system can do those graphics with per-pixel lighting.

Umm, I'm confident that Rebel Strike has similar or higher poly counts than RE4 (albeit far inferior art) and it features (very nice) per-pixel lighting, and a whole buch of other effects to boot.

Its just that a lot of second gen games had switched to per-pixel and I was hoping it would become a trend, but lately the big-name Gamecube games have stayed with per-vertex in the quest for higher poly counts.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

From the IGN review:

"Bringing both gameplay types together is a control scheme that for the most part remains disappointingly unchanged from previous Resident Evil games. Kennedy is manipulated minus true analog control. Push the analog stick and he walks. Hold the B button down and he runs. Same as it ever was. Also, in our play experience with the game it became abundantly clear that many of the battles would have benefited from a dodge or strafe function, which Capcom has chosen not to include."

I just don't think this game is going to be all that great with these problems that have always bugged me before. This might be a case like Metroid Prime where hardcore reviewers have just overshot like crazy on the review scores despite the inherent control and gameplay problems. They really want Nintendo to score a big win so they inflate the scores. All IMO, of course.

 

[London Geezer]

From the IGN review:

I just don't think this game is going to be all that great with these problems that have always bugged me before. This might be a case like Metroid Prime where hardcore reviewers have just overshot like crazy on the review scores despite the inherent control and gameplay problems. They really want Nintendo to score a big win so they inflate the scores. All IMO, of course.

I guess the controls being what they are isn't such a huge problem for them, when looking at the whole package. Considering they're not broken, they're just old, and at the end of the day, they're the same as the old games, which means people don't have to learn new schemes and get accustomed to them.
One could penalise them for keeping things the old way in the controls department, and one could just look at the game for what it is and get over it.

 

[Bohdy]

The controls in the Demo (supposed to be improved in the final version) took a few minutes to adapt to but they worked very well for the game. Sure they could have added shooting while running, strafe and some other things but its clear that it was a conscious decision not to for the type of gameplay they were going for. Some reviewers even picked up on this, but others whined after forcing their pre-conceptions on the game.

Honestly, it seems to me that you are actively looking for reasons to putdown the game, Johnny. Then again, I don't think that I have had a more than temporary problem with the controls of any game. It may be a huge deal to you however (for some reason), in which case your concern is somewhat understandable.

 

[London Geezer]

I only had problems when the game controls are broken. Which is very rare these days.

 

[Teasy]

This might be a case like Metroid Prime where hardcore reviewers have just overshot like crazy on the review scores despite the inherent control and gameplay problems. They really want Nintendo to score a big win so they inflate the scores.

Why in the world would reviewers in general want to inflate the score of a game to help GC.. honestly you really are nuts. You don't think a game is great (or don't want to) so that means nobody else can? Its just shear pig headed arrogance. I mean I didn't like Halo, never saw the big fuss about it. But if I was ever insane enough to try to disqualify its reviews by coming up with some crackpot conspiracy theory about its reviews then hopefully someone would put me out of my misery.

Now to the controls, which would have been a fair comment if it had been a geniune one. Here's the full quote from the review with the bit you posted highlighted.

Bringing both gameplay types together is a control scheme that for the most part remains disappointingly unchanged from previous Resident Evil games. Kennedy is manipulated minus true analog control. Push the analog stick and he walks. Hold the B button down and he runs. Same as it ever was. Also, in our play experience with the game it became abundantly clear that many of the battles would have benefited from a dodge or strafe function, which Capcom has chosen not to include. And yet, despite all of this, the process of controlling Leon is far improved thanks to a combination of a flexible new camera that shoots the action from behind the character's back and a new action button that enables context-sensitive functionality.

Because the view remains behind Leon at all times, that momentary sense of disorientation that accompanied entering a new room in former survival horror games is thankfully absent.

Isn't it just such a suprise that you posted the part that sounded bad and cut it off just before he said "and yet". When will your blatent trolling ever stop?

 

[Ali-G]

This might be a case like Metroid Prime where hardcore reviewers have just overshot like crazy on the review scores despite the inherent control and gameplay problems. They really want Nintendo to score a big win so they inflate the scores.

I can't even believe you just said that Why would they do that? Because the press love Nintendo so much?????

Face it, the game looks great and no amount of cut and paste hatchet work or conspiracy theories from you will change that.

 

[Bohdy]

I liked the unedited version, Ali-G.

In "civilized" forums such as this one it can be hard to just speak the obvious truth.

 

[Ali-G]

You're right, I'm going to say it again and this time I won't edit it. Johnny should be banned for his blatently obvious trolling. He does it all the time and this latest effort is just pathetic.

 

[rabidrabbit]

...
This might be a case like Metroid Prime where hardcore reviewers have just overshot like crazy on the review scores despite the inherent control and gameplay problems. They really want Nintendo to score a big win so they inflate the scores. All IMO, of course.

That's exactly how I thought when the Halo (1) reviews of 10 came.
That game had it's fair share of problems (repetitive levels, backtracking, awful framerate in later levels to name the most obvious ones) but they were totally given no mention in those reviews, and which imo should have affected the "perfect" scores.
In part it was (is) the launch excitement frenzy that cause the review scores of better than average launch games to inflate, but some of the reviews were just too much.
Also, it might have helped that those who got the game to review early, were probably given quite strict guidelines as to what they can and cannot tell about the game, to avoid "spoiling the experience" for gamers .
That happened with Halo2, and it has been confirmed.

 

[cybamerc]

Johnny Awesome:

> Xbox probably could in the right hands.

No.



Bohdy:

> Umm, I'm confident that Rebel Strike has similar or higher poly counts
> than RE4 (albeit far inferior art) and it features (very nice) per-pixel
> lighting, and a whole buch of other effects to boot.

Rebel Strike (and Rogue Leader) uses some per-pixel effects but most are per-vertex.

They're also very different types of games from RE4.

> Its just that a lot of second gen games had switched to per-pixel

I don't know where you got that idea from.

You can find a few games with global per-pixel lighting on Xbox but they have extremely basic environments and few characters on screen at once.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I clipped the quote to highlight the issue relevant to me. Others mileage may vary.

As far as inflated score: Sure, but Halo went on to sell 5 million copies and people still play it to this day, so the public obviously agreed with thos scores. For Metroid Prime, the game fell quickly off sales charts after the initial hype and Nintendo hardcore fan buying frenzy. The reason: It wasn't as great as it scored.

I'm worried this is true of RE4 as well.

Sure, anyone can tolerate a bad control scheme if necessary; especially hardcore nostalgic professional reviewers, but that doesn't mean I have to.

 

[Teasy]

Johnny, you clipped the quote to try to make it seem like a big negative, simple as that. After all if you're talking about controls then the section you quoted was not the only bit that was relavent to you, or anyone else looking for control info.

As for your latest crackpot theory on sales confirming or disproving review scores. That's barely any better then your last review conspiracy theory. Plenty of excellent games have sold really poorly and plenty of poor games have sold really well (The Matrix sold multiple millions of copies and was crap). Halo sold so well because of a mixture of things. It got great reviews, it was a launch title and really the only game on the system for quite some time and it was the right type of game (FPS with plenty of hype and advertising). Once again stop trying to find ways to try to justify your horrendous hatred of GC games.. its getting extremely sad.