Resident Evil (4, but we can discuss other versions if you wish)

agreed

Sweet. So is it basically RE4 gameplay + the old-school slow pace and ammo scarcity?

basically. the pace isn't that slow, leon is as nimble here as he is in re4. backtracking to grab a key or whatever is way less stressful because you can kind of see what's coming and make a run for it instead of falling prey to camera angles.

the level and puzzle design remain as good as ever. i thought the new controls would break the whole thing but it's just sort of recontextualized this virtual space that i've seen in a wholly different way for 20 years.

I want it

Is the unkillable hulking dude who stalks you through the whole thing as stressful as it seems?

Thinking of watching this on twitch. Can anyone recommend a non annoying streamer?

My fave Dark Souls dude is doing it: https://www.twitch.tv/saintriot/videos

Thanks

The first 30 minutes of gameplay for the new one makes it seem like a first-person Bloodborne (with conspicuously terrible writing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBMEYUMsSFw

new one is good but again doesn't say "RESIDENT... EVIL" in an evil voice at the menu screen, cmon capcom

starts off in a RE7/RE1 oh shit oh shit run away mode but ammo accumulates quickly and now its headshot city for these trash mobs

i think i have re7 on my stadia, want to give it a go, i haven't played any of the RE games since the very unfortunate one set in Africa

5 and 6 are bad, 7 is real good, play it imo

my brother is a fanatic (he has a resident evil podcast) and says it is pretty good and village is great. think i will get on 7 this weekend

I think I got 7 on sale back when, but one reason I never started it is it seemed to lean too heavy on the "bitch" misogyny and torture porn stuff. This one intrigues me, because the clips I've seen of it make it seem totally ridiculous, particularly the dialogue.

Playin Village and am not taken in by the opening run-thru-trash-village quite yet. Gimme some castle shit

the castle is the best part, followed by the cod silent hill bit after. exploring and unlocking shit in the village is good too.

currently insanely bored in an endless factory level full of unscary bullet sponge enemies. hoping it will pick up again.

Just finished Village and really enjoyed it, though the whole thing did feel a bit slapdash in some ways? The character and environment designs were amazing, but the execution felt kind of half-assed. I guess that's inevitable given the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach they took.

Anyway, the Benevento house section had me terrified in the best way possible.

Yeah, I finished Village over the weekend. It was OK. I didn’t love it, even though it checked a lot of my RE boxes. Similarly to the poster above, I found that Factory level to be kind of a drag. Wasn’t crazy about all the end game stuff in general.

I played through and thoroughly enjoyed the RE2 remake a few months ago, I think my expectations were higher coming off of that one.

But yes, the doll house area… oof. Scared me good.

Can I just say that as someone whose memory, patience and attention to detail are relatively sound, games like "Resident Evil 2" (my first RE game, which I just started) are still really challenging. Granted, not long ago I played "Signalis" (as I understand it a throwback to games like the original RE) which was tougher than this (so far), however any video game that requires a pen and paper is a pretty big ask, imo. This is definitely fun, but it takes almost a certain level of zen to accomplish tasks that require diligence and deliberation as much as skill. Following "Bioshock," I kinda wish it had a similar floating arrow that indicates which way to go next.

lol killing zombies is a little annoying. I hate the way they take so many shots before they're downed but it doesn't make clear they're down and out. I get the "gotcha!" mechanic, but it forces you to use up ammo shooting these things repeatedly when these would-be ankle biters are lying on the ground kind of maybe moving but maybe not.

I just unleashed the Terminator, and holy shit, this is the most stressful game I've played since "Alien:Isolation" (which I never finished). I was having enough trouble with the limited resources before he showed up, so I chickened out and reduced the difficulty level to "assisted." I don't usually do that, but I was going to end up breaking the left stick from constantly pushing it down to run.

I hate having to press down on the a joystick to do anything sustained in any game, btw. Just seems janky and designed to damage the equipment.

lol I just did some googling and found (inevitably) lots of people that claim this game is easy, and that ammo "practically falls out of the sky." Um, not where I'm at, it's not. My Leon is a terrible shot just limping around bleeding to death and moaning all the time.

I would enjoy watching this playthrough.

If I can sum up my gameplay in one word? Slow.

I remember the original RE2 being very slow and deliberate, which makes sense given the awkward controls and perspectives. It's kind of strange to think of it using the RE4 style, but I'll probably play this at some point.

It's as slow and deliberate as it can be while still being chased by a relentless killer monster that doesn't care how long it is taking you to solve a puzzle. I think the game is giving me a break from that dude right now, though. I just outraced a giant mutant alligator.

I'm pretty sure this game has a dynamic difficulty curve, like it'll give you more ammo if you keep blasting through it? But yeah, definitely try not to shoot as much as possible, otherwise you'll make those inevitable boss fights feel impossible

Someone did the math somewhere, and apparently there is not enough ammo in the game to kill everything. Regardless, this is one of the games where the enemies are pretty much bullet sponges, encouraging you to go for headshots. But headshots are really hard on consoles with a controller, as opposed to, apparently, PCs, with mouse and keyboard.

I think I am finally in the ending stretches, a combination of lowering the difficulty, following walkthroughs, and realizing that years ago, not long after I got the game, I paid like $2 to unlock all the perks you would normally only get from beating the game on hardest difficulty three times or something stupid like that that I am literally never going to do.

I've accumulated a surprising number of these games, hopefully I have an easier time with 3, 7 and 8. I'll buy 4 when it goes on sale.

3 is a bit easier, and is mostly the same game as 2 so you’ll have the extra practice too. I repeat myself here: you are robbing yourself of one of the best games of all time if you don’t play the original 4!

3 is a bit easier, and is mostly the same game as 2 so you’ll have the extra practice too. I repeat myself here: you are robbing yourself of one of the best games of all time if you don’t play the original 4!

I'll try to play the original 4 (I played the very first bit on GameCube back when) before I play the 4 Remake, but if I play the original 4 it's going to be a long while before I get to the Remake. Are the differences between the two really significant, graphics aside?

I repeat myself here

Accidental lol

I’m unfairly recommending the one I’ve played over the one I’ve played for 2hrs, but from those 2hrs? Yes, very different in tone (both story and visual) and gameplay. If it was just gameplay and graphics that were changed, I’d be a little less of an OG4-stan, but the tone of 4 is the heart of 4. The removal of the b-movie trappings was a monstrous decisions by the higher up of capcom who have had a pretty great run in the past 5 years.

I’m definitely being sentimental, remake4 is probably pretty great on it’s own merits, but og4 is just something else and definitely not superseded by the remake

xp’s to Josh:

If it’s your first Resident Evil game (or survival horror game in general) it might put you off balance. You’re meant to be extra cautious with ammo and use a melee weapon or run when you can as ammo is always in short supply. Fundamental part of the thing. This kind of changed in some of the later games that are more action oriented.

Good to know. I don't like running because I hate having to press a stick to run; I don't want to break my controller. I get being cautious with ammo, given every enemy takes like a million bullets, anyway, and doesn't always stay dead, and healing is hard to come by, but I admit I'm not always conservative with shots, or, considering how challenging accuracy is with a controller, able to stay conservative, even on easy mode!; I haven't returned to nu-"Doom" again in a long time, but that one felt less focused on perfect shots and more on spraying everything, within reason, which I think I prefer. I guess if I were into the fantasy of actual survival, maybe; like, in a senses a lot of From games are about resource management, too. But this game is so far removed from logic and reality, even in a b-movie zombie apocalypse context, that I don't feel compelled to conform to its dumb/silly rules. When I'm done with this one, let's see how the others go.

They’re all very different, if you don’t like 2, only 3 is really like it. 7 is a whooooooole other thing (and maybe my fav? At least the first act is)

I think I like 2, but it is kinda dumb, and also not easy, which is a weird dissonance.

that's the quintessential resident evil dissonance (minus 7)

lol yeah, Resident Evil is quintessentially dumb and camp. Part of the charm. Always amusing to hear JiC’s introduction to certain corridors of the video game world. You’re not wrong.

Like maybe highly recommending RE2: REmake as your first shot at the series wasn’t the best suggestion because I think it requires some knowledge of the games and how that particular entry expertly blends old and new.

otm circa. RE2 is a cracker game, but as an intro? I think og4 might take the cake? or 7 if you are more for modern horror videogames sensibilities.

Actually I take it back; 2make is a great litmus test if this series is for you. 3make.... maybe even more so due to its shorter length and its blend of shooty shooty (4-6) puzzles (0-3) and modern horror graphics scary scary (7-8). If it's not for you Josh, it's not for you!

OK, finished RE2. It was ... OK. Looked and played really well. I think I liked the action stuff better than the horror stuff, tbh. That may place me in the minority, lol. The horror stuff ... that's where I was getting a lot of the (and forgive me if I am invoking this incorrectly) ludonarrative dissonance. Like, all the horror stuff works well, mechanically, but it feels cheap, because the surrounding context conveyed via cut scenes is so silly and campy, and it's hard to care about the characters (let alone the end of the world) when it's all kinda dumb and tacked on (especially the love interest stuff). The action stuff, on the other hand, is perfectly suited to stupid, so by the time I got to the more thrilling endgame I was more into it.

I like that it wasn't long, too. I know some complain that RE3 is too short, but that's fine with me, so I'll probably dive right in. RE7 looks like the most conventionally scary of the bunch, RE8 looks more goofy/giddy b-movie fun. Where does RE4 fit in? Should I play it after RE3 (whenever I can get 4 cheaper), or come back to it after RE7 and RE8, assuming I knock out the ones I already have one after the other?

If you like action & stupid, 4 is the game for you.

(in the best way)

Psyched! My pull the trigger price is around $20-$25 (for this, and Ragnarok, and Dead Space, and Plague Tale: Requiem, and Last of Us Part 1; I just discovered the "patientgamers" reddit thread, and those are my people.)

Oh, wait, I forgot, isn't there another character to play as in RE2? Claire? It's a slightly different story, right?

I started the Claire run, and it's different, but I may not be patient enough to make it through again, even from a different perspective.

Save Claire for another time imo. It great to do a different run, but might be good exploring something else first to give yourself some distance. Don’t sleep on 1make and 0 for some old school puzzle goodness

i tried 1make and 0 back in the GC games and it's... tough, especially as they were contemporary with 4. still, i admire the effort that was put into making them, at least

Yeah, I'm playing the remakes, so voice acting and graphics and dialog and gameplay and whatnot all seem really solid. Any camp that's crept in is I think just endemic to the dumb b-movie vibe. Like, if you're fighting a giant monster that explodes into a ball of fire and viscera, and your character's reaction is "whew, that was a close call!" it really doesn't matter how well it's rendered, it's kinda innately silly, which (imo) undercuts the suspense. Which is fine by me.

OK, finished RE3. As I confessed, I played it on easy mode, but I'm not sure how much I would have liked it on a harder mode, where I had to be careful to conserve and equip everything just right. I suppose this game often gives you the option to just avoid things, too, but that's not particularly appealing to me. Anyway, it was big dumb nonsensical fun. I'm tempted to watch a play-through of the OG version.

The camp started with 4 as far as I’m aware? 1-3 originals were more serious, kinda a final fantasy x thing where it was the early days of voice acting/cinematic experience in gaming and it all came of stilted and kinda unintentionally funny as gaming tried to figure it out (look at some of the voice acting from the original 1, it’s infamously bad/good).

this is prob right. tho honestly the ffx cinema still impresses me lol. (these days whenever i replay the opening couple hours and reabandon the rest i do it in japanese w subs, which helps, but might not help if i understood japanese.)

yr note on early RE voice acting reminded me of my+friends' mindblown joy as we discussed whether the voice acting in deus ex was "supposed" to be "like that". i still don't really know. camp in games maybe an underexplored subject tbh. (metal gear solid to thread.)

(metal gear solid not an underexplored subject tho.)

Dipped into the original Resident Evil 4 for a bit, and I think I'm physically unable play it. The controls via PS5 are insane, like aiming from the back of a floating boat, and for the first time playing a game I got dizzy and thought I was going to barf.

Whoa. Maybe try an alternate control scheme? I think I had to change it on the remake (except I changed it to be more like the Gamecube version, lol).

I just bought the remake Separate Ways dlc, excited for more RE4.

One huge problem is that the right stick doesn't work the way it does in newer games, it just kind of makes the dizziness worse. So I have to really concentrate on using just the left stick or even the d-pad, but it still kind of floats and jerks all over the place. And then just turning around to face an enemy in that village was an almost totally disorienting task. You can find anything if you google, but yeah, I found others with the same experience. Possibly to do with the "look-snap"? or FOV? But yeah, some back of the box quotes for you:

Played it so many times in the past, and with the remake about to come out I thought I’d give it a quick run through once more, but I’m getting motion sickness almost immediately every time I try. What’s happened?

Low FOV, removal of the black bars/letterbox which were introduced not only to be cinematic, but to reduce sickness. I actually don’t get sick playing the Wii version, but playing on the modern consoles/modern port, it makes me feel sick.

This happened to me too when I tried it last year, I had to stop and have been waiting for the remake. No clue why but it makes me so dizzy

Oh weiiird. Well, maybe the remake is the way to go after all (although I played the original that was available on PS4 and didn't have any issues).

Also btw you can do a quick turn...i forget what the input is but it snaps you around 180 degrees, and that's way better than spinning around manually. Especially in the village - this game drops you in hard, the first area can be the toughest given that you're not used to things yet.

I played on PC, mouse and keyboard are great for this game. But yeah, maybe the remake is the option for you

> Also btw you can do a quick turn...i forget what the input is

down+B (X on the ps4 pad i assume), same as RE1

There's a nu-Silent Hill coming, right?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, September 19, 2023 4:36 PM (four days ago)

Silent Hill Ascension (interactive live game), Silent Hill f (Japan-set new game) and Silent Hill 2 remake all in the pipeline.