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Capcom Tries Space Dinosaurs, Online Zombies
Thanks to GameSpy for their review of Capcom's Dino Crisis 3, in which their Xbox-exclusive "second-tier survival-horror franchise" barely survives a bizarre transition into space, thanks to "stunningly inane combat sequences" and "a camera that constantly switches between useless views of the action." A brief interview with the producer reveals even he thinks the franchise "...maybe not as [viable] as Resident Evil." On that note, TotalVideoGames.com has an interview with the producer of Resident Evil: Outbreak, the forthcoming PS2-exclusive online title, and he suggests: "Whereas other games have and will make use of voice chat, we decided not to. The main reason for this is to preserve the essence of Resident Evil games, namely the fear." Do these Capcom franchises still grip gamers like they used to?
Repetitive suspense scenes, godawful voice acting, and plots with holes Nemesis could hopscotch through without ducking have leeched much of the suspense away I fear. As with many horror movies and games, the first will always be the best. The most potent fear is that of the unknown.
Not to say that it can't be done, but it's gonna take a restructuring of Craven-esque proportions to bring back the chills and screams to the series.
And don't get me started on Resident Dino, I don't have the strength. Something has survived.... and it wasn't gameplay, plot, or thrills.
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
Something tells me, however, that it probably won't come in the form of Tomb Raider 6: Keep Raidin' Them Tombs.
DecafJedi
my weblog: apropos of something
I for one welcome our new evil overlords. Let us up they enjoy being resident here.
For some reason, that thought saddens me very much.
I no longer play any capcom games due to the fact that capcom has honestly not really made a new game since their first releases of their various concepts: street fighter, resident evil, dino crisis, etc. Street fighter original was great and so were its immediate relatives like Street Fighter 2, but then came "Street Fighter: Electric Boogaloo" and all its brothers, which was crap. Same exact games as Street Fighter, just with updated graphics. Resident Evil has taken on the same update formula; I enjoy a good story like anyone else and while RE has a good story, unfortunately, I hardly think its good enough to justify "Directors Cut" that was made of one version and then to make many sequels that ultimately did not innovate that much. Capcom has not made a new game for a long time since they've had the blessing of having very bright developers from the start that they can keep reusing their concepts over and over again, even now years after and never have to worry about actually taking a risk on a game. What was once good is no longer, so do everyone a favor and do not buy Capcom games, for by doing so you support the creation of endless clone titles. Witness Dino Crisis 3...
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
I admit it, I own and enjoy all (except Biohazard: Zero) or the Resident Evil games. I don't enjoy them because they're scary, because frankly they aren't particularly so. They're suspenseful to a certain extent, but in the end it's more of a sci-fi zombie anime kind of thing. A bit campy, and intended to be.
I think changing the name from Biohazard to Resident Evil did the series a disservice in people's expectations. Resident Evil sets you up to be some kind of dark mystical haunted mansion your characters are walking into. It's OK for the first one, as it ended up, for me, working like a plot twist (Ahhh, evil corporation testing a virus, interesting). Biohazard implies mad biologists, or some kind of 28 Days Later type plague happening, which sets you up better.
In the end though, I like these games (and most "survival horror" type games, be they scary or not) because I believe they're the direct descendents of the venerable text adventure. Encounter various puzzles walking your path, find the key item or whatever to get through. Backtracking to rooms you couldn't open before to find different key items. Set piece monster battles (for the most part). The parallels in the game structure between Resident Evil/Silent Hill and the various Infocom text adventure games are pretty stark. I remember way back when, all the dead trees me and my family printed "verbose" logs of Zork 1 on, trying to work out the best way through the game. It's no different from people methodically working their way through Resident Evil or Silent Hill, trying to get the shortest complete times, etc.
And about "camera problems." Every game I've ever played and liked, SOMEONE lambasts it for having horrible camera problems, and 99% of the time, I don't have a clue what they're talking about. Spiderman was accused by zillions of having horrible camera issues, to which I say, how the hell would you implement a camera that perfectly tracks a guy who can CLIMB ON WALLS for goodness sake. No one has given me an answer that's any better than what Neversoft did. And with most survival horror games, people complaining about the camera just don't get it, and aren't worth arguing with. I'm not saying that Dino Crisis' camera isn't horrible, because I don't know, and not having an Xbox, I'll probably never know unless I seek out someone with DC3 to check it out. However, I'm suspicious of all reviews that blame the camera for a bad rating.
"Do these Capcom franchises still grip gamers like they used to?"
Yes! Evertime I hear they're making *another* Resident Evil game I nearly wet myself!
http://www.emptylogic.com/suprnova/torrents/299/sm b3.torrent
Bittorrent file for an amazing video of Super Mario Bros 3. It's pretty sweet, I'm spreading the .torrent link everywhere that I can.
Capcom seems to have bouts of creativity and crapulence. It seems like they come out with a creative idea, and then milk it way past its dead (EIDOS's Tomb Raider anyone?). I enjoyed RE2 and RE3 despite their obvious and innane short comings (I joke alot with my friends about the architects who construct buildings that require orbs, chess pieces or whatever to open a simple lock, while at the sametime the building is rigged to explode with a 1000 megaton nuke). Anyway, IMHO RE2 and RE3 should have been remade. They really deserved it. Also, DMC 2 was a major dissapointment. Capcom seriously needs to look at itself, realize that "milking" a series will only kill it that much quicker. I already have Eidos on a ban from buying list, I don't know how they got away with releasing Tomb Raider AOD Anyway, lets face it, lots of companies milk their games. I mean we are upto 11 final fantasies now (not counting all the GB FFs). And, how many times has the Belmont clan killed Dracula in Castlevania (AKA Dracula in japan)? Let us not forget Marios endless adventures against bowser. Link's battle for the triforce against Ganon, or Samus's continued exploits against the evil metroids and all the motherbrain like main bosses. Oh! and Snake's constant fights against Big Boss, and all the psychologically disturbed counter terrorist foes gone wrong he must face. Am I leaving any other company out, or do you get the idea. The truth is that once you get an idea you might as well try to extend it for as long as possible. Otherwise, odds are your copying somebody elses idea (BTW: the latest LOTR RTS looks strikingly like WCIII: ROC). My only real point is that once you have a hit, it makes sense to plan out the sequels in such a way as to complement the series, not milk it. Unfortunatly, lots of companies choose to milk.
SIDE-SCROLLING GAMES!
Seriously, camera issues plague every 3D-movement game, outside of a few certain genres like first-person shooters (in which you basically are a camera), rail shooters (again, half the gameplay is controlling the camera for most of them), and driving games (movement type doesn't require fancy camera work - you can't suddenly change direction like you can on foot).
This is a huge problem, and I think it is far and away the main reason old fogeys like to complain that games aren't as fun anymore. I do feel games are actually better nowadays, but gamers are expected to really work with the camera a lot, and I think that frankly sucks. I don't know any gamer who started their hobby because they wanted to mess around with a limited camera movement simulator, but so many recent games ask you to do exactly that.
For certain genres, 3D movement does work very well, and the camera isn't an issue. But platformers, non-FPS action games, and strategy games all play better with a fixed viewpoint. They did 10 years ago, and they still do now. I don't think there is really any way to bring the fixed-view playability to a fully 3D world (outside maybe some new interface that makes camera work seamless - like head-tracking VR goggles), and hopefully more developers will soon learn that and go back to making sure games are designed to play the best, not show off EXCITING BRAND NEW CUTTING-EDGE 3D WORLDS. And more players need to learn that 3D flash can still exist very easily with a fixed-camera, and stop shunning games just because they don't force you to be a handicapped cameraman...
Sorry, I have been getting really sick of camera problems in games. Sure, put camera control in it for something fun to do, to look around and admire scenary. Don't make me manage it as part of gameplay - it gets way too frustrating and monotonous. No game character should ever die because of a bad camera angle.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
I think many people wrongly criticize capcom for continuing to use old fanchises in their games. Honestly, if something works why change it? The resident evil games continue to amaze me with the amount of enjoyment I get out of them. Some of the games may not be great but that's true of any development studio. Also they are trying to make new unique games (ie PN. 03, Maximo) that bring new gameplay features to the table... Give capcom a break, they are doing a good job.
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