Resident Evil 6 - Better than Resident Evil 5?

[Hagane]

On topic: despite the press, I'm quietly optimistic I'll enjoy RE6 thanks to a few reliable voices of reason here.

I'm cautiously optimistic myself. Most criticisms I've seen are bullshit, but I'm concerned about the overabundance of QTEs and cutscenes, which to me are the worst blights of modern gaming. Too bad I'll have to wait a month and a half to play this.

[Skykid]

On topic: despite the press, I'm quietly optimistic I'll enjoy RE6 thanks to a few reliable voices of reason here.

I'm cautiously optimistic myself. Most criticisms I've seen are bullshit, but I'm concerned about the overabundance of QTEs and cutscenes, which to me are the worst blights of modern gaming. Too bad I'll have to wait a month and a half to play this.

Well I'll probably be waiting longer, since I've got no home console access at all at the moment. QTE's don't necessarily ruin a game, although it is sad to see them heavily implemented as a part of a formulaic business strategy.

I just have some faith that Capcom are still capable of making a playable, atmospheric game, even if it's not the creative direction long term fans would have liked.

[Strider77]

Guess what guys.......



MGS2 had good gameplay, it even let you do more than you could in MGS1. It's true. But it was not half audio book though, just half movie.

[Skykid]

Guess what guys.......



MGS2 had good gameplay, it even let you do more than you could in MGS1. It's true. But it was not half audio book though, just half movie.

I thought you wanted to drop that conversation?

MGS2 had sporadic moments of decent gameplay wedged between intrusive galas of incomprehensible bullshit, intelligence insulting exposition and frustratingly overcomplex control setups that made you feel less like a stealth pro and more of a stealth twat.

It's of some disbelief that folk are willing to champion that game over MGS1, which benefits from less needless baggage, simpler control setups, greater emphasis on gameplay and atmosphere, superior locations, characters, plotting, lithe pacing and an altogether more focussed adventure.

As Njiska said, it's about the whole, not the sum of parts.

Less is more, and that will always be the case when it comes to Kojima, because he's his own worst enemy.

[Khan]

So I managed to pick this up today for my 360, so far only played a few hours but enjoying it as much as RE5 maybe even a little more.

[BulletMagnet]

Split off the Metal Gear-ish stuff into this thread.

[replayme]

Ok, so I'm thinking about trading in my XB360 copy for the PS3 version. But with that being said, I'm not sure if the PS3 version is that much of an improvement over the XB360 version.

Probably better off spending that £10 on something else - like Yakuza: Dead Souls, Lollipop Chainsaw, Binary Domain, or even Shadows of the Damned. Or maybe even the PS3 version of RE6.

First World problem, I know...

[mesh control]

I'm going to treat this thread as if it's the Resident Evil catch all...

Played Revelations for a couple more hours today, finding that's it's not good.

The screen desaturates when you are low on life. This being your only real notification of your health becomes a nuisance. The dodging mechanic is wonky and I'm not sure if it's meant to be abused.

The mission variety (yes, you're not just stuck on a boat) has brought me to the hypothesis that the game doesn't know what it wants to be. Jill's missions are reminiscent of older REs: tight corridors, finding keys, avoiding enemies, conserving ammo, etc., while Chris' feel like a adventure game and whatever Jill's partners name is, his mission was a shooter mission: kill everything.

Onto the controls:
Controls work great for Jill's play, but once you get more than three enemies on screen it becomes a hassle. The biggest thrill during those parts is just being done with it.

I would skip this one, Skykid. Unless you can get it for $10.

[mesh control]

I'm only three hours in, so maybe it will get better...?

[Strider77]

Ok, so I'm thinking about trading in my XB360 copy for the PS3 version. But with that being said, I'm not sure if the PS3 version is that much of an improvement over the XB360 version.

Probably better off spending that £10 on something else - like Yakuza: Dead Souls, Lollipop Chainsaw, Binary Domain, or even Shadows of the Damned. Or maybe even the PS3 version of RE6.

First World problem, I know...

I have it on PS3.. what are you hoping to have improved? What issues does the 360 version have?

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I just figured out that you can do a ground slide, then plant a remote bomb by some enemies, and then set it off while still sliding. So action!

[Friendly]

Ok, so I'm thinking about trading in my XB360 copy for the PS3 version. But with that being said, I'm not sure if the PS3 version is that much of an improvement over the XB360 version.

Probably better off spending that £10 on something else - like Yakuza: Dead Souls, Lollipop Chainsaw, Binary Domain, or even Shadows of the Damned. Or maybe even the PS3 version of RE6.

First World problem, I know...

I have it on PS3.. what are you hoping to have improved? What issues does the 360 version have?

Shadows supposedly look better on PS3, and some other miniscule stuff. I don't think you'll even notice unless you do direct screenshot comparisons.

[Strider77]

I just figured out that you can do a ground slide, then plant a remote bomb by some enemies, and then set it off while still sliding. So action!

Ok I have to try that now.. I've had alot of fun hopping on my back and unloading on a group of enemies, then tumbling to my left or right into cover to switch guns or reload, then tumbling back in and unloading on the same group while crawling backward ect.

That and learned about the quick shot and quick health refill.... forgot that there is the quick get up if you hold x down also.

Lots of stuff to tinker with for a 3rd person shooter.

[Rupert H]

The biggest difference between the two versions is in the control latency of the 360 version. it's only really obvious on the QTEs where you have to hit a very small marker. On the 360 you have to hit it a lot earlier than the visuals indicate.

Skykid: despite the press, I'm quietly optimistic I'll enjoy RE6 thanks to a few reliable voices of reason here.

I think you will hate it. The Leon campaign is beautifully atmospheric and ticks all the right boxes. The rest of it could be from the next Army of Two game.

[Skykid]

Skykid: despite the press, I'm quietly optimistic I'll enjoy RE6 thanks to a few reliable voices of reason here.

I think you will hate it. The Leon campaign is beautifully atmospheric and ticks all the right boxes. The rest of it could be from the next Army of Two game.

Ah.

Are you coming to Casino tonight? I'll be there from 5, we can discuss over a beer if you're down for it.

[Rupert H]

Indeed. I'll be there from 6.

[Strider77]

Shadows of the Damned.

Get that.... do it.

[Skykid]

Indeed. I'll be there from 6.

Ok, I'll be there at 6:30 at this rate.
Need to sort out some Visa bizness. I'll expect you and the others to have prepared a full live action presentation of RE6, re-enacting all of the features you don't think I'll like.

[Rupert H]

I'll have flip charts, graphs and PowerPoint presentations, along with polygraph results of anybody who says that they think that Chris and Jake's campaigns actually belong on that disc.

[Skykid]

I'll have flip charts, graphs and PowerPoint presentations, along with polygraph results of anybody who says that they think that Chris and Jake's campaigns actually belong on that disc.

And six pints later we all walk out as zombies.

[Strider77]

I'll have flip charts, graphs and PowerPoint presentations, along with polygraph results of anybody who says that they think that Chris and Jake's campaigns actually belong on that disc.

HaHa.. but they do.

[dan76]

And six pints later we all walk out as zombies.

Ya mo b there!

[Ruldra]

The Leon campaign is beautifully atmospheric and ticks all the right boxes. The rest of it could be from the next Army of Two game.

That's the exact impression I got from the demo. Chris' campaign has all the elements of a Call of Duty game: military squads, machineguns, APCs, mooks who behave like soldiers instead of zombies...Jake's campaign feels similar, but it's street thugs instead of soldiers. Only Leon's campaign feels anything like RE.

[Ed Oscuro]

My impression of Leon's campaign (maybe hard difficulty throws more ammo at you? If not, how do you tolerate the extreme reliance on QTE combat?) from the demo is that it was too ugly to take seriously as an atmospheric game (I just can't get past those goofy portraits of Dur Prez), and the parts did not fit together. Take, for example, the idea of sneaking past enemies. Do you sneak past enemies if you think you should look carefully through the whole environment (a rather lamentable feature of the post Deus-Ex, post-Gears world, or maybe that's just a U.S. / Euro-style collectathon platformer problem originally - you are either looking for achievement bling or ammo, straining your eyes for no purpose, and RE6 isn't clearly signposting to me to forget that, and in any case, RE4 made it very enjoyable in fact to look through environments; it does seem that creating good environments and then making no use of them is silly). I would agree that there is a problem in that RE6 is not setting out to signpost things like Ninja Gaiden, for example - a quick look at an environment in that game should quickly reveal whether there is something hidden to look for. L4D, however, tackled the problem of hiding your bling and ammo while keeping a good and consistent visual design. It's like Capcom was thrown back to the stone ages where visual design and signposting weren't developed; a couple offhand blog posts from developers of any recent Valve game reveal more wisdom about how to signpost and design visually without being obnoxious or condescending to players. Even taking just one technique used by the new CS would have greatly helped RE6 deal with its clutter. RE6's Leon demo was a bad flashback to the bad old days of corridor based semi-FPS, semi-third person corridor shooting adventures (like WinBack, but not fun). Actually, the design of the areas in RE6's Leon campaign reminds me more strongly of Day of the Zombie campaigns than it does of many other things - just higher-poly.

"Where'd everybody go? Football?" The car scene was fun but you'll notice on replaying it that it is a bland adoption of old-fashioned pixelhunting sequences from adventure games (the bad kind, or at least the kind that have nothing to do with RE, like King's Quest), where you must first do this thing (swivel the joystick around to the right under the seats somewhere) before you can do the obvious (swivel the joystick up to look at the sunvisor where the keys are). So that's got bankrupt gameplay as well. About the actual gameplay, it is startling how badly it compares with RE4.

It is more difficult to target enemies because of the unpredictable and somewhat fast enemies, and this is a good first step. However that is undermined by the fact that we are starting out with a console controller - it simply isn't warranted to ask that much precision in control, at least not when the result is the assumption of many missed shots, but that is not fortified by a satisfying alternative to gun combat, such as good melee or evasion gameplay through that portion. In the early RE games, this was running the hell away from things - Leon's campaign early on seemed to invite exploration, due to the dark 3D arenas filled with the promise of some goodies in the corners; whereas the older REs threw you into a scene where objectives and goodies were always evident, so that you could run past enemies that didn't need to be engaged; this was a core part of the gameplay and added to the tension in a legitimate fashion. It's clear that some areas force this RE staple but the game is misleading about whether you will be able to get by killing things, whereas the original REs made it very clear early on that trying to combat everything would get you killed or leave you weakened for the bosses. Dual pistols and constant (too small) ammo drops, as well as rushes of enemies that seemingly must be put down, are sending the wrong signal.

And some of the ways in which RE6 seems to make gunplay more difficult are merely useless and irritating. I mentioned, earlier, that the AI partner would constantly pepper enemies with a barrage of shots to no purpose, delaying my using a headshot to actually put them down, or even causing me to miss a shot. Honestly, Ashley was far, far less annoying. Ditto parking the AI partner in Zero, or even shepherding partners / children / whatever in the earlier titles. They didn't actively cramp your style.

There are little flashes of brilliance - like having to be cautious around some enemies in the Shanghai section because they turn into smoldering statues that conceal MONSTERS! - like some episode of The X-Files turned inside-out - but the actual specifics of it seem down to pure chance. Maybe that is what people are finding compelling - not knowing what plan you will need to take on, and having to change a plan on the fly (like "I can't win this fight easily, so I'm going to just get the hell outta here"). I am certainly open to thoughts on this.

[SuperSoaker360]

Well, I went over to my cousin's place and she had RE6 as well. I played a chapter through on Splitscreen with her and was amazed at how different the general approach is when playing splitscreen as opposed to playing with another person online.

When playing online, enemy and box drops are separate and different. An enemy that drops handgun ammunition for you might drop a green herb for your partner - both you and your partner are at least guaranteed a drop to call their own. You also are not able to give items like ammunition or herbs to online partners. In splitscreen, drops are shared requiring much more planning with you and a friend. If an enemy drops ammo and your partner needs it more than you do, you'll have to let your partner pick it up instead. In splitscreen, you are also given the ability to give your partner items. This actually changes the pace of the game quite a bit since there is more item-management required between you and your partner. Capcom should have added an option where you can toggle between shared and separate drops online whenever someone is hosting a game. Having this only on splitscreen and not for online play is odd.

Also, I'm not a big fan of having splitscreen uneven like this, but that's probably just me.

[trap15]

Also, I'm not a big fan of having splitscreen uneven like this, but that's probably just me.

I have literally never understood the point of that... Other than "full screen makes the game run too slow, so let's chop out some of the rendering area to speed it up".

[replayme]

So I traded in my 360 copy of RE6 today, only because I have too much else I can be getting on with, and because I'm going to wait for the price to drop.

Ended up getting the following:
Shadows of the damned
Singularity
Binary Domain
Wario ware smooth moves
Boom Blox

Still got change left over.

[Ed Oscuro]

The screen desaturates when you are low on life. This being your only real notification of your health becomes a nuisance.

While this probably puts us men at a disadvantage a bit (and especially a problem for color blindness), I actually don' t mind the more minimalist take on health notification. Some other games add some other effects, which can either be super annoying (the "bloody tunnel" of many games) or not quite (for some reason, the jittery, fuzzy screen in Deus Ex: Human Rev. doesn't annoy me).

[Strider77]

Shadows of the damned
Singularity

I enjoyed both those games.... really liked shadows of the damned.

[SuperSoaker360]

(the "bloody tunnel" of many games)

If I remember correctly, Guitar Hero 5 had a "bloody tunnel" effect when you were close to failing a song.