B3yond the Report 03.17.09

Posted by Derek Robbins on 03.17.2009

This week on B3yond the Report, we learn more about the Resident Evil 'series reboot'. We also hear of confirmation of a new game featuring Sackboy! Not only this, but there's also confirmation on Bioshock 2's multiplayer! All of that plus more this week on B3yond the Report.

Hello and welcome to B3yond the Report. This is your host Derek Robbins. I missed last week because I was on Spring Break in the exotic location of Branson, Missouri. Yes, I realize this qualifies me as the lames college student on the face of the earth. I mean, a pokemon loving, Branson attending spring breaker just screams winner, doesn't it? Let's get this show crackin', eh?

B3yond the News of the Week



Resident Evil stuff

Friday was a big day in the Robbins household. After attending the midnight launch of Resident Evil 5 – on the day of Drew's birthday no less – we were very amped to play Capcom's latest entry into the legendary franchise. Given how popular the series is though, obviously talk of a new Resident Evil was going to surface and luckily for everyone…we already have some information on it! It's nothing big like "gameplay" related, but it certainly is news that could shake the series – and its fanbase – at the core.

Last month Resident Evil producer Takeuchi pretty much said that Resident Evil 5 would be the last of its kind and Resident Evil 6 will be a bit of a series reboot. This of course got a lot of people speculating and I'm sure the next quote won't put an end to that. Chris Kramer sheds some light on this issue, saying that this Resident Evil is sort of "waving goodbye" to several of the storylines featured in previous games. Here is what he had to say:

It's a really good time for new players to jump in, because what we're doing is kind of waving goodbye to a lot of storyline elements from, essentially, act one of the Resident Evil franchise.

Resident evil 5 is really setting the franchise up for what's going to happen now going forwards, so establishing new characters and storylines, and pretty much a new direction for the game.

If you're late to the party and you haven't been playing the games for the past 15 years, all you need to know is that the game's a lot of fun and just filled with action, so you don't have to worry about the plot, as we're kind up picking up and starting afresh.


I will say that Resident Evil 5 is a very good jumping in point for people un-accustomed to the series. You see, the game offers various documents that tells you the long history of what exactly started in that mansion so many years ago. I would say that it's arguably the only place where you'll find a coherent arrangement of the Resident Evil plot. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's still a total mess…but a lot of the stuff in Resident Evil 5 makes it LESS of a mess and I can respect that.

So, I wonder if their "new direction" is with characters such as Sheva? Are they going to abandon Albert Wesker and Leon Kennedy? Will William Birkin's work on the T-Virus be totally forgotten? Will the new focus of the franchise as a whole, and not just the past two increments, be on the plagas? It certainly makes me wonder what is to come. I'd really hate to see everything just end though. My favorite part about Resident Evil is probably the totally wonky plot and if that's thrown out the window, well, what else is there?

It's also interesting to note that he says that Resident Evil 5 is just a "fun game" where you don't need to worry about the plot. I would have to say I pretty much agree with him so far. I absolutely love the game but the story isn't really all that compelling. 4's story was laughably B-movie and I damn near loved every minute of it. So far, 5 just doesn't have that charm. Kind of a shame, honestly. If you're looking for a game to just pick-up-and-play though…RE 5 is certainly at the top of the class.

Speaking of actually playing the game, I wonder if this "reboot" will send the series back to a more traditional route – actually being scary – or further along the current route of being an action game? While I love the Actiony Resident Evil, we're really short on survival horror games and I wouldn't mind seeing the franchise return back to its more scary roots. Right now the gameplay just totally prevents it from scaring me at all. I mean, sure, seeing a dog's head split open is kind of creepy but it doesn't exactly have me jumping.

That's in the future though. Right now we JUST got Resident Evil 5 and to nobody's surprise – except Drew, who might be a tad slow – Capcom already has some DLC announced. The game will now sport a versus mode for you to tool around in. You have two kinds of modes from what it looks like. Slayer, which pits you against someone else to see who can kill the most manji (you can also do it in teams of two, I think) and Survivor which pits two teams against each other with the last team standing as the victor. The maximum number of players is four.

Capcom is charging five dollars for this content which has many people up in arms. It pretty much is on-disc content. They are using the same sort of character models and gameplay with nothing new added except for the actual functionality. They claim that versus wasn't planned, but why are ten of the trophies in Resident Evil 5 versus mode related? I figure they just wanted to suss an extra five dollars out of the user-base. Whatever. You can at least play as Jill and Wesker now! That's got to be worth something, eh?

I expect more DLC to be announced eventually, so hang-on tight. Between this and Street Fighter IV, it's going to be a bumpy year for Capcom DLC.



Publishers want Sony to lower PS3 price, Sony laughs at their feeble attempts

It is now looking as though the analyst that predicted the Playstation 3's price would go down in a matter of days is wrong. That's pretty much a shame because I would love more people to hop on this little bandwagon. I'm not the only one wanting people to embrace the thing though. Several publishers are now urging Sony to stop fucking around and lower the price so they can more effectively compete with their rivals at Microsoft and Nintendo.

Peter Moore, the current head of EA sports and a former executive at Microsoft said that "Sony obviously still has a ways to go with their pricing." Well, I mean, duh. We've all been saying this one for months. Hell, even the loyalists will admit that Sony's refusing to lower prices on their monolith is probably hurting sales in a major way. I'm glad to see that not just consumers feel this way. You see, consumers can't be trusted. They want everything on the cheap. Publishers though? They know their shit.

Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot adds: "anytime a console manufacturer reduces the price, software publishers benefit." Mark Rein of Epic Games probably decides to bring up the most common argument in console war threads: "You make very good money on PlayStation 3 if you develop a good game. You can very easily take that
game to Xbox 360 or PC." It's a common argument because it's true. You can make more money on the other systems because more people have them because, you know, they don't cost an assload of money.

So, what does Sony have to say about all this? Surely they can't be spinning around in their chairs with fingers in their ears shouting: "LALALALALA" can they? Well, apparently they're not budging. SCE's Senior VP of marketing Peter Dille has this to say:

Everybody in the development community would love for the PS3 to be free, so they could just sell razor blades. Sony is concerned with profitability, as well as the installed base.

I'm not quite sure what he means by this razor blade comment. Could someone shed the light for me? The developers want to make the PS3 free so they can sell a totally un-related product that they don't specialize in and make less money than they do currently? Okay. I will essentially take this as a: "Fuck you guys for wanting us to make our system cheaper, we'll do our business and you can do yours."

I find it interesting that he says Sony is concerned about profitability AND the installed base. How is this even true? Analysts everywhere say that the installed base of the Playstation 3 would rocket upwards if they just cut their prices. I mean, look, I can understand them saying that they wanted to maximize their profits. That's reasonable. I bought my Playstation 3 at a cost of $400. If people are willing to pay that much for the system, why would they go down? To say that they care about the installed base is very weird though. You want it to get into more hands but you don't want to lower the price? Yeah, it's not like the economy is bad or anything.

Look, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Right now, Microsoft's cheapest system is $200. Yes, it's not the complete package and it will take you about $100 to get everything you should be getting out of a current gen console, but for those people who need an immediate gaming fix, you can get one RIGHT NOW for that much money. The Nintendo Wii only costs $250 and appeals to a wider userbase than the PS3 does. The CHEAPEST PS3 is $150 more than the Wii and $200 more than the cheapest X-Box 360! In current economic times, I really don't need to tell you why Sony needs to seriously look at the price.

Let's look at it from a more casual gamer's view point. 90% of a console's library is cross-platform. If you want to play Grand Theft Auto you can do so on either system. Same with Call of Duty. A more casual gamer probably doesn't know every single exclusive that the PS3 or 360 has. They will be more apt to pick up a 360 because it's not only cheaper, but offers a library that they consider to be about the same. PS3 exclusive titles, as strong as they may be, really won't help them in this case.

So Sony, please, I'm begging you…take a long, hard look at reducing the price of the monolith. It's a great system, but people will have a very hard time justifying the price tag at this point in time. If you want more people to get a hold of your product, you know what must be done.

- I know I've said it before, but with that extra money you could save on your shiny new PS3, you could buy THIS gem of a game. Come on, you know you want to. Seriously, even Mark likes it. Mark hates games like this! You got to damn go out there and buy it. It may have been the best exclusive all of last year (that none of you played :( )

Another LBP game?

Sony confirmed recently that Little Big Planet would be coming to the Playstation Portable. It seems like a natural fit to me. Honestly, I could see myself toying around with the level editor while watching TV or traversing fairly lame user created stages while catching a bus-ride. Interestingly though, Media Molecule has decided that the buck will not just stop there. Already, plans are being brandied about for Sackboy to be in yet another game. So guess what? If you thought that LBP was just a one-hit-wonder, well, you were wrong! Here's what Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans reveals in an interview with Gamasutra:

Quite recently actually, we were bouncing ideas around... and then at a certain point, we're like, "We're gonna just take a character, we're just gonna try this direction." And I can't say what it is, but it's really fucking cool.

It's a quite interesting thing because it was like a magnet. Everyone sort of [joined in] on that thing, then I suddenly saw these people kind of going, "Oh my god, far from being tired of LBP, I suddenly see this untapped potential."

And in ways that hopefully will still be fresh so when it comes back, people won't be like, "Yeah, they just exploited that thing, and it's really fucking obvious that they would do that." I think LBP is in their future, and hopefully in surprising ways.

[...] We started the company and we called it "creative gaming" rather than [that]... As I said in the talk, there's a very broad church. We can actually pick a different bit of the spectrum.

So, it doesn't have to be LBP-style creativity. It could be musical, or it could be God knows what. I think there's definitely a fixation at Media Molecule around the idea of engaging players creatively.

So what I gather is that they're going to take Sackboy and throw him in some sort of new environment that won't have people say: "Oh, there's MM, just milkin' it." Well, that's good to know. I really wonder what it could be? From the sounds of it, it's not going to be like the Little Big Planet that we know and love for the Playstation 3, but instead sort of a spin-offish title. Will it be something like with what Nintendo and Square did by pulling Mario out of platformer land and placing him smack dab in the middle of an RPG? Or will they go someplace entirely different and make LBP a game where you can create entire genres to play through, not just the platforming one?

It'll be interesting to see where this goes. Media Molecule is a very talented team that I have faith in. If they can pull off another hit I'll be all over whatever it is they decide to run with. Kinda surprised that they're sticking with Sackboy, but at the present time he's almost at a mascot-like level so I shouldn't be horrendously surprised. I'll be keeping my eye on this and if something develops I'll be sure to mention it in one way or another. I mean, you'll have heard it by then, but dagnabbit, I'll be here to parrot the information. Just how useful I am.



Weekly PSN update

Oy, well, hopefully it's better than it has been:


PLAYSTATION STORE
• Qore Episode 10 (US$ 2.99)
• Pulse (Free)
Games:
• Red Baron Arcade (US$ 9.99)
• BUZZ! Junior: Jungle Party (US$ 4.99)
• Astro Tripper (US$ 4.99)
Add-ons
• Hot Shots Golf Out of Bounds: Playable Sackboy (US$ 1.99)
• BUZZ! Quiz TV National Geographic: Prehistoric Pack ((US$ 7.99)
• Burnout Paradise
o Boost Specials Collection (US$ 7.99)
 New vehicles: Carson Extreme Hot Rod and Hawker Mech
o Carson Extreme Hot Rod (US$ 4.99)
o Hawker Mech (US$ 4.99)
• Street Fighter IV Shadaloo Pack
• Alternate costumes for Seth, M.Bison, Sagat, Balrog and Vega.
• Rock Band
o All I Want - The Offspring (US$ 1.99)
o Losing My Religion - R.E.M. (US$ 1.99)
o The Kids
Aren't Alright - The Offspring (US$ 1.99)
o Way That it Shows - Richard Thompson (US$ 1.99)
• Guitar Hero World Tour
o Rise Against Track Pack (US$ 5.49)
 Audience of One by Rise Against (US$ 1.99)
 Death Blossoms by Rise Against (US$ 1.99)
 Ready to Fall by Rise Against (US$ 1.99)
Demos (free)
• Red Baron Arcade
• Wheelman
• The Chronicles of Riddick
• WWE Legends of Wrestlemania
PLAYSTATION STORE FOR PSP

Price Drop
• Arthur Maclean's Mercury (originally US$ 9.99, now US$ 5.99)
Games
• Mercury Meltdown UMD Legacy (US$ 9.99)
Demos
• Resistance: Retribution Demo
Well, for starters, the games this week look pretty standard. I haven't gotten a chance to play any of them, but from looking at reviews, Red Baron looks pretty substandard and generic. There is a demo out there if you're wondering what it plays like, though. I believe it's supposed to be a World War I air-combat game where you control the Germans. You also have Astro Tripper which looks like a fun little title and with the price tag? Well, you can't go wrong. $4.99 is nice. So if you have a couple of hours to kill, you could do worse. What, it costs a little less than a Big-Mac meal at McDonald's. The other one is a BUZZ game and if that's your bag, I guess it's good. Can't really comment much on it though.

I can; however, comment on the fact that Qore sucks. Paying money for it still seems like a bit of a stretch to me. Then again, I am a cheap bastard. Speaking of "paying money for", I'm not particularly amped about the idea of playing as a sackboy in Hotshot's golf. Or for new cars in Burnout. Especially that. I was too cheap to buy god damn Yoda for Soul Calibur 4, do you think I'm spending five dollars on a car? Ho ho, I doooon't think so.

I can't really complain about the BUZZ DLC. I mean, if you want more questions, whatever. Good stuff. Since that's all the game really is, wouldn't more questions just increase play time? Yeah, not even I can think of a suitable reason to bash this. I can think of a reason to bash the SF IV DLC though. I still think charging for costumes is an ass move by Capcom. Still though, the costumes that they offer this week are pretty neat looking, especially Balrog and Bison's. I'm not exactly sure what Seth is doing in a Shadaloo pack, but I guess they had to squeeze him in somehow.

The Music DLC this week is actually pretty good on the Rock Band side. I like every song that they listed and if I was the sort to own Rock Band on the PS3 I would totally invest my hard earned money on ‘em. The Guitar Hero DLC is less than stellar, but I've pretty much come to expect that from the franchise, so perhaps it's time that we move on, eh?

Again, pretty happy that they're throwing a Red Baron demo into the mix. It's really the only chance a company would have to get me to download a game I've never heard of. If the demo is really good, why not spend $9 for it? Seems like a good deal to me. The rest of the demos are quite welcome. Wheelman is a former Midway product that has garnered a decent amount of hype, Riddick is a game that's coming off the legendary success of the original and Legends of Wrestlemania? Well, hell, we all could use another arcadey wrestling title. So, all in all, a pretty good week for demos.

The PSP store is still kind of vacant, but it's cool to see it get a price drop and a new game. Apparently this "new" game isn't very new, but hey, at least there's something else on the PSP store. I guess Sony remembered that they had this sucker again, huh? Feels like a couple of months since I saw the last game released for it. You also have a Resistance demo which is a very welcome thing. It's about the only way you'll get me to touch the game. Good job!

Well, it was an okay week I guess. Not great but not as bad as week's past. My thumb is pointed sideways.



B3yond the Tabloids

I know this isn't Playstation related, but sweet lord does Henry Hatsworth look like an awesome game. It's a shame that it's being released on the same day as a DS Grand Theft Auto title (seriously EA, you know better than this) and will be totally passed over. Screw that I say. Go and pick this game up on Tuesday because it looks just damn awesome. Just how many games do we have that let you play as a crotchety old guy who talks like Banjo from Banjo-Kazooie fame? Not enough, I says.

One of the big complaints about the original Bioshock was that it lacked a multiplayer mode. It's a fair complaint, but I wasn't exactly sure that a multiplayer mode was super well-suited for that kind of game. Well, 2K Studios has heard your cries and apparently the second Bioshock will allow you to play multiplayer! So yay, you can go shoot your friends like you can in every other fucking game on the market.

Thanks to the release of Resident Evil 5 – including a nice little PS3 bundle – the PS3 is out-selling everything else in Japan, including the Nintendo DS. Resident Evil 5 has shipped over four million copies already and is apparently the quickest launching title the franchise has enjoyed. Well look, when you follow an instant classic like Resident Evil 4, it's hard to do anything else. I guess it's kind of weird that the only Japanese screenshot I've seen for the game has been of the 360 version. Since you're probably wondering, the PS3 version sold 320,000 in Japan on the week of March 2nd to March 8th (first on the chart) while the 360 version sold (79,000). The 360 success is probably coupled with Star Ocean being released rather recently.

Some disturbing news. According to the Houston Chronicle, 24 year old Anthony Scott O'Shea used his Playstation 3 to solicit nude pictures of an eleven year old girl that he met on Warhawk online. Court documents also suggest that O'Shea convinced the girl to "perform" for him over the service. He used PSN to pressure her to give him more nude pictures which he apparently shared among his friends. Disgusting people out there, eh?

Keita Takahashi, who you may know as the man behind the amazing Katamari franchise, recently unveiled Noby Noby Boy. The game has gotten a lot of flack and it is kind of getting to him. Here is what he has to say:

There have been many reviews/criticisms since Noby Noby Boy released. I totally understand as this is such a unique game and I expected those reactions. I don't mean to make any excuses.

That being said, I do get depressed from time to time as I want users to enjoy the game as much as possible. But at the same time, this is what I wanted to create.
In the hopes that more people can enjoy the game, we are currently working on an update.

He also says that there will be offline multiplayer. I wonder how that will work?

Well, for those who were wondering when Lego Harry Potter was coming out, finally…it's been confirmed. Though, it hasn't been officially confirmed. Traveller's Tales animator Charlotte Parker revealed the following in an online resume:

Am currently working as a Cutscene Animator on LEGO Harry Potter & LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which are both in the early stages of production.

So wait, we're getting a LEGO Harry Potter and a Crystal Skull game? Parker, I wish you would have stopped after the Potter announcement. We don't need a Crystal Skull game dagnabbit! Still though, cool news. I'm not huge on the LEGO franchise but LEGO Harry Potter would certainly have my dark heart interested.

I mentioned Bioshock 2 earlier and I feel obligated to mention it again. 2K is promising that the game will in fact be released on the X-Box 360, PS3 and PC. They have said time and time again that it WILL be released on the PS3. When asked whether the game would have timed-exclusivity on the 360 (like the original, which was out on the 360 one year prior to its PS3 release), the company did not comment. Hmmm…I really do hope that's not the case. Bioshock 2 is the sort of game that everyone needs to play.

Remember when that Mike Hickey guy said that sources told him that Sony was working on some sort of crazy BLU-ray-less Playstation 3? Remember how crazy we all thought he was? Well, Sony also chimes in on this with the following:

That would pretty much destroy the PS3's backbone, our games were built on Blu-ray. Quote that: Blu-ray will always be part of PS3.


They also said no PSP-phone was in the works. Oh, so you mean we don't have to worry about another N-GAGE? Good to know, good to know.

According to George Harrison's son Dhani, the new Beatles Rock Band game will feature content that has never before been seen or heard. Whether this means new songs is unknown at the moment, but you better fucking believe that I am excited as all can be at this news. I was at a Branson show run by George Harrison's sister – a Beatles tribute band entitled the Liverpool Legends – I really should have asked her if she knew anything about the game while I was there, but I kind of dropped the ball. Whoops! I am so very excited though. I'm practically throwing money at Harmonix as I type this.

Apparently Capcom is going to be making more HD remixes in the coming year. This is coming off the huge success of the Puzzle Fighter HD remix and the Street Fighter HD remix. Christian Svensson, Capcom's VP of business development and strategic planning claims that not every game out there needs it, but they may go back and revamp several older fighters in Capcom's catalogue. Here's what he said:


Are we done doing HD Remixes? No we're not done. But the next ones that we do will be even better, based on what we learned.

[Marvel vs Capcom 2] would be great to do. There's obviously a fan base for it. It's probably our most requested title. Unfortunately, I wish I had news to share on that front but I don't.

I'm not going to say this confirms it, but come the fuck on. He wants to do it? Yeah, it's going to get done. No way they would just bait the fans who have been clamoring for a remix (or a MvC 3 – which according to Svennson isn't as likely) for a while like that. Capcom is good about pleasing its fans! My money though is that the next HD remix will be for Vampire Savior (one of the finest fighters ever, easily the best Dark Stalkers game) or Project Justice from the Dreamcast. We'll see soon enough I do imagine.



B3yond the Cinema



This is a trailer for Punch-Out: Round 4. Let me put it this way: I dislike boxing but this looks fucking awesome.



An Arkham Asylum trailer. Look, don't get your hopes too high. Not only is this a licensed game but it's also being made by Eidos. Keep it real, guys. That said, looks promising.



Who doesn't like these!? A Resident Evil 5 death montage! Yaaaaay. For the record, there are some spoilers as far as enemies are concerned so watch at your own damn risk, okay?



Hey wow, a new inFamous trailer.



Jeesh, they're making ANOTHER Red Faction game? Didn't they learn not to do that after the second one gave people leprosy? You may ask how I know it did that. Well, I had a pretty good idea when I went to go grab a sandwich and my arm was fucking missing.

The One Man Watercooler



Early in the year seems to be a slow point for games being released. Very rarely does the game of the year come out in one of the first three months, and yet this year…this year has been fucking clogged at the very beginning. Right out of the gate we get Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV, Mad World…and this past Wednesday, the second Friday the 13th in a row, we got Resident Evil 5. Already, that's four games that will probably appear on the 10th hour's top-25 games of 2009.

Let's focus on the last one though, shall we? I was absolutely in love with Resident Evil 4. There were times when I was playing it that I felt I was playing one of the top-10 best games ever. No joke about it, every single second of that game was a total joyride and I say it was absolutely worthy of all the clamor it got. Some of the more hardcore fans complain that RE 4 betrayed the franchise and I can see why they would think that. RE 4 is not scary and is an action game. If you look at it outside of that veil though, Resident Evil 4 was just phenomenal. No, hardcore RE fans will probably still prefer RE 2 (which, to be fair, was god damn amazing), but for the rest of us…RE 4 was sensational.

Armed with that knowledge, I wanted Resident Evil 5 very badly. After playing the demo, I knew that it was practically the same thing but with co-op. When I brought the game home from the midnight launch and played it, that's pretty much what I got. The game plays almost exactly like Resident Evil 4 but with a few twists. For starters, the suitcase system of RE 4 was thrown out. You no longer have to manage how many items you hold by how big they are, instead you can carry up to nine items at a time. Each item takes up one slot. Any spare items can go in your inventory between chapters. You can hold a ton of items there, probably most everything, so you really have no reason to discard your stuff out in the wild any more.

The other noticeable difference is the co-op. Throughout this game, you'll always have another competent gunman at your back. When you're fending off legions of the majiri you'll always have your female companion Sheva at your back. When you're playing with a friend this is pretty fun, but to be totally honest it sucks what little horror that remained in the franchise out. Resident Evil 4 was NOT a scary game by any sense of the imagination and Resident Evil 5 manages to be even less scary. Having someone at your back kind of ruins that. It's fun, oh it sure as fucking hell is fun, but it's not at all scary, and it's kind of a drag.

The partner aspect also makes the game a fairly easy one. I remember my first time through Resident Evil 4 was a pretty harrowing one. I died all the time and feared coming into contact with large groups of plagas. In this game, to this point, I've only died due to my own idiocy. I died at a point in chapter 2-3 (if you've played the game, you'll remember that this is not a traditional chapter) and got eaten by crocodiles a couple of times because I didn't see them. A regular enemy has not beat me to death, nor really have they even come close. It's ridiculously easy and I feel it was made so as an attempt to appeal to a more casual audience. I think if you're a long-time gamer, it'll behoove you to start on the harder difficulty setting because, honestly, normal is just too damn easy.

I shouldn't just complain though because, really, the game is a very fun one. When I'm playing with someone else, I feel that hours of my time could very easily be sucked away. I love fending off the majiri with a mate. It just feels RIGHT. Given that it plays so much like Resident Evil 4 also helps quite a bit. RE 5 steps up the action quite a bit from that game. That is to say, you'll be fighting even more here than you did there. So, if you enjoyed the combat, have I got a treat for you!

It's also worth noting that the story is better than Resident Evil 4's. That's not very hard because, you know, Resident Evil 4 had a no-hold's barred B-movie plot with hilarious one-liners. The problem is, I almost feel that the improved story works against Resident Evil 5. I come to the franchise for the absolutely ridiculous, and I really feel that this game lacks as much of it as previous installments. Yes, there are some elements of the story that are just fucking bizarre, but it's toned down from RE 4. Still though, you have to compliment it for being more coherent than RE 4. I don't like it like that, but…that's the way it is.

It should also be worth noting that RE 5 is a fairly linear game. Generally, this suits me fairly well because I'm not big on exploring all over the place. Fuck, the Castlevania franchise post SNES is about as close to my videogame kryptonite as you can get. That said, I can see how it would get on someone's nerves to just wonder from point A to point B. You can obviously do other stuff throughout the campaign, such as hunt down emblems to unlock alternate outfits, which does require some exploring…but really, it's just point-A to point-B.

Really, the game is a load of fun. If you're looking for a quick action pick-me-up RE 5 will fill in quite nice. The problem is though, it's just VERY good. It's not great. As I mentioned earlier, there were times during RE 4 where I felt it was one of the most impressive games that I have ever played. Given that RE 4 had a game-long escort mission that is really saying a lot about the quality it had. I just haven't had that experience yet with RE 5. I love playing as steroid-fueled Chris, I think Sheva is an enjoyable sidekick, but something about it just doesn't seem as special. I don't think I'll find an enemy in this game as memorable as Saddler was in RE 4. Chris isn't as goofy of a lead as Leon was. It's just…it's just not as good.

Part of this is probably because Resident Evil 5 doesn't do a whole lot different from Resident Evil 4. Most every gameplay element from that game is carried over. Enemies behave in the same ways, you approach combat in the same way, chainsaw guys are still a pain in the ass…really, RE 5 is just so much of the same. Normally, this isn't a bad thing, but it's being compared to RE 4 and just more of the same isn't going to cut it I'm afraid.

Resident Evil 5 is a very good game. It's one that you should play with your friends. If you do it, you'll have a good time, I almost guarantee it. That said, it's just "very good". It approaches greatness but just doesn't reach there. The magic that was in 4 just isn't there. Is it too much of a rehash? Maybe. I just think that Capcom could have done a better job. Resident Evil 5 is an 8.7 while Resident Evil 4 is a 9.8.

So yeah, I would say you should buy Resident Evil 5. Just don't expect it to be an instant classic like 4 was.



The 411mania Empire



I would have posted a comments section here but, you know, there wasn't a B3yond the Report last week, so there were no comments to respond to! It was my fault because I went to Branson and totally didn't find a replacement, but thems the breaks. If you wish to leave a comment though, feel free to do so below or simply send me an e-mail at [e-mail] Either way. I really appreciate your feedback and truly feel that it helps make me better at what I do. Even if it's bad, it helps me out, so I sincerely thank you.

Now with that out of the way, link time!

Joe Roche writes The Full-Circle 360 News Report. The 8th best Roche, if you believe the statistics Mr. Drew Robbins laid out.

Theo "Diamond Joe" Fraser writes The Nintendophiles. Fun fact: Theo actually IS the best Fraser.

Todd Vote compiles The 411 Game's Top 5. I, uhm, forgot to contribute again. I'm such an ass.

Chris Vicari writes The PC-Spotlight. Remember when both PC writers were named Chris? I do. Remember when Drew wrote a PC column for like two weeks and wussed out because he wasn't man enough like Vicari here? I do too.

I write The 10th Hour.

Drew's weekly three-way dance is entitled Three Player Co-Op This week John Dradshaw Layfield challenges Todd Vote "Or Die" and Drew "Luigi" Robbins for the title of best three-player co-op…guy.

AJ and Mike Minotti host the Exploding Barrel Podcast. Which is now presented by the Squadron of Shame and not 411mania. Still linking to them anyhoo. Being the only podcast that podcasts regularly that I listen to will get them such an honor. (Damn you Penny-Arcade for updating twice every three or so months!)

Well, that's it for this week. I'm out.

'til the crossroads



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