New 360/PS3 Resident Evil game announced

Slant Six Games has thus far made its bread off of Sony's SOCOM: Navy SEALs franchise. However, last year word emerged that the studio may be branching out when Kotaku ran a rumor indicating that the studio was staffing up for Resident Evil: Raccoon City, a "team-based" spin-off for the franchise.

Now, it looks as if those rumors were well founded. Gaming website Stick Skills claims to have secured an advance copy of the May 2011 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, within which are the first details on Slant Six's Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Stick Skills ran down the details from the story on its website and forwarded a photo of the periodical to Joystiq.

According to the website, Operation Raccoon City will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this winter. It will reportedly be set in 1998, around the time of Umbrella's original T-virus outbreak. The squad-based shooter sees gamers assuming the role of one of four members in an Umbrella Security Services troupe.

A player's objective will reportedly be to cover up all evidence of the outbreak, indiscriminately killing zombies and survivors alike. However, not all humans will be easy prey, as the "three-corner conflict" reportedly sees gamers facing off against US Spec Ops.

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6305877.html

I really enjoyed the second one.

Fuck all RE games past Code: Veronica. They're nothing like RE, not even remotely scary/tense. It's casualized action bullshit for dumb COD kiddies. 4 was half of that already plus dumb escort missions.

alterworldruler said:

Fuck all RE games past Code: Veronica. They're nothing like RE, not even remotely scary/tense.

This is how I feel.

Admittedly, the formula for the old generation of RE games (I count six of them, including the RE1 remake for the Gamecube) became somewhat tired and outdated so someone HAD to make a change to the gameplay. But in doing so the series lost all it's sense of spookiness and atmosphere.


edit: THIS is the direction the series should have taken. Unfortunately it was deemed uncool to make any more horror games :(

alterworldruler said:

Fuck all RE games past Code: Veronica. They're nothing like RE, not even remotely scary/tense. It's casualized action bullshit for dumb COD kiddies. 4 was half of that already plus dumb escort missions.

I actually liked RE4... Kind of. Probably one of Capcom's few decent games in my opinion. I don't know about you but I actually like to see where the fuck I'm going and it's nice being able to see what I'm fucking shooting at. RE5 on the other hand was an abysmal piece of shit.

A player's objective will reportedly be to cover up all evidence of the outbreak, indiscriminately killing zombies and survivors alike.

Mowing down innocent civilians. Perfect. Fox News is going to have a field day with this.

Craigs said:

Mowing down innocent civilians. Perfect. Fox News is going to have a field day with this.

If only everyone would quit acknowledging Fox News even has an opinion on anything and not grant them undeserved relevancy :/

Quit whining about RE4 and RE5. They were responsible for revitalizing a long-stagnant franchise. And I seriously doubt anyone can defend the earlier "tank" controls.

Craigs said:

Fox News is going to have a field day with this.

No such thing as bad publicity. Plus honestly, who gives a shit what some out-of-touch "journalists" say?

Are you guys talking about something like this? http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/25/duke-nukem-dustup-games-capture-babe-mode-players-slapping-women/?test=faces

To be honest, I didn't really even have any interest in the Resident Evil series until 4, and even then, I didn't pick it up until the Wii version. I absolutely loved it, though. I'm just not someone who believes in this whole notion of "bad controls = horror." Sure, it wasn't too terribly difficult, and I'm sure the tension was far less than in previous Resident Evil games, but more importantly, it was FUN, which is what I believe should come first.

On a related note, I'd like to point out that Eternal Darkness, which is an incredibly good game, is a good example of how you can have a game be genuinely scary without having to make combat absurdly difficult or anything like that - the combat system was great, you weren't artificially handicapped or anything like that, and yet the game still managed to create an atmosphere of dread.

I honestly don't think it's the controls that make people like the proper RE games over the over-the-shoulder-TPS-that-makes-you-stand-still-to-do-anything titles. More like the fact that the proper RE games were, well, RE games. They actually had something to do with the RE universe plot, had fairly strong horror elements.

4 and 5 have about as much to do with Resident Evil canon as Far Cry 2 did with Far Cry 1.

Xeros612 said:

4 and 5 have about as much to do with Resident Evil canon as Far Cry 2 did with Far Cry 1.

You obviously didn't play RE4 or RE5 then. They had plenty of connection to the older games (RE4 less so, however). Hell, didn't you watch the cutscenes in RE5? They were all about the plan Wesker had since RE1- gathering virus samples from every bioweapon to create the mother of all viruses.

hobomaster22 said:

Are you guys talking about something like this? http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/25/duke-nukem-dustup-games-capture-babe-mode-players-slapping-women/?test=faces

That article made me laugh. Also I'm still wondering how long they're going to ride this whole "Kids can get ahold of vidya games too easy" wave before they realize everyone knows they're full of shit.

Finally going back to the roots. I'm tired of this new stuff they've been doing with parasites. I personally prefer the Outbreak series. This sounds similar to it, I'll definitely have to play it.

alterworldruler said:

Fuck all RE games past Code: Veronica. They're nothing like RE, not even remotely scary/tense. It's casualized action bullshit for dumb COD kiddies. 4 was half of that already plus dumb escort missions.

Have you actually played those two games, because they are nothing a like.

caco_killer said:

Have you actually played those two games, because they are nothing a like.

I have and I agree with alterworldruler.

alterworldruler said:

Fuck all RE games past Code: Veronica. They're nothing like RE, not even remotely scary/tense. It's casualized action bullshit for dumb COD kiddies. 4 was half of that already plus dumb escort missions.

So it's casualized because the camera's not focusing primarily on a wall or some other mundane part of the environment instead of the zombies you're shooting at? When I was playing RE1 the difficulty in the game seemed to primarily stem from the fact that the camera placement was just plain awful. There were a lot of times I found myself in a hallway with the camera focused on where I had just come from, or the end of the hallway instead of where I was actually facing and coincidentally where the zombies were and basically forcing me to fire a few times and pray that whatever had been lurking around the corner was dead when the camera finally shifted. That my friend, is what we call complete luck based bullshit and god awful game design.

With RE4 on the other hand, actual skill was involved. Instead of just hitting a button that automatically caused you to aim wherever the enemy was and hit a button repeatedly until you were convinced that whatever you were shooting at (assuming you were shooting at anything to begin with, again with the poor camera placement it was pretty hard to tell), was dead, you actually had to judge the distance between you and the enemy, and then, GET THIS, actually aim at the enemy's weak point. Also let's not forget that some enemies had pretty specific weak points such as the regenerators and iron maidens which made accuracy a necessity.

caco_killer said:

Have you actually played those two games, because they are nothing a like.

Yes. Ragequit halfway through RE4 (Chapter 3-2) and played RE5 demo.

Mr. Freeze said:

You obviously didn't play RE4 or RE5 then. They had plenty of connection to the older games (RE4 less so, however). Hell, didn't you watch the cutscenes in RE5? They were all about the plan Wesker had since RE1- gathering virus samples from every bioweapon to create the mother of all viruses.

I haven't played more than the demo for RE5, true. I don't have the spare funds to buy games I've little to no interest in, and any money I do have is prioritized towards uni purchases. I did do a fair bit of wiki crawl, and that pointed little more than a couple common characters and minor connections.

Maybe the FC2 v FC1 comparison was a bit of a stretch, admittedly.

Resident evil 4 was good and it brought the series down a new direction that really breathed life back into it after the awful resident evil: survivor and RE(Zero). After resident evil 3 the series started to stagnate and the gameplay became a bit outdated, resident evil 4 really dragged it into the modern day (or at least modern for when it was released).
Resident evil 5, on the other hand, was pretty much a copy of resident evil 4, with all the remaining fear element removed, due in large part to the extremley annoying shiva following you around everywhere.
If the future games continue down this route, where the focus is on co-op play and you are punished for playing single player with rubbish AI and inventory system (the resident evil 5 inventory was a step back from the ingenious attache case in RE4), then I wont be buying them.
In response to the thread's topic, I think they need to move on from Racoon city and I dont hold out much hope.

So it looks like you'll be playing as Hunk's retarded brothers and sister who are extremely evil in case you couldn't tell by their unbelievably stupid character designs.
http://img832.imageshack.us/i/operationwhogivesashit.jpg/

Seriously though, Spectre there really does look like his diet consists of paint chips.
Also if I'm reading that right and my french isn't too shitty, Vecktor can invisible momentarily. Sometimes Capcom's sheer retardation blows my mind.

Why on earth did they give Bertha (nice name btw) a skirt? Did they seriously think that she wouldn't be recognizable as a woman otherwise?

Mr. Freeze said:

Why on earth did they give Bertha (nice name btw) a skirt? Did they seriously think that she wouldn't be recognizable as a woman otherwise?

You do realize this is the same company that decided to suddenly redesign Chris Redfield so his biceps were bigger than his head for pretty much no reason. These characters really don't look menacing at all. They either just look stupid or they just look like terrible rip offs from other games.
You got Heavy Weapons Guy's goth brother who doesn't seem to realize those grenades he's got strapped onto him aren't very useful without something to fire them, a stalker who got lost on his way to the zone, a ghost from Star Craft with severe brain damage (not to mention derp eyes), and last but not least, the obligatory chick who's wearing a skirt just in case you couldn't tell she was a chick. Also I usually associate the name Bertha with fat chicks.

Craigs said:

You do realize this is the same company that decided to suddenly redesign Chris Redfield so his biceps were bigger than his head for pretty much no reason. These characters really don't look menacing at all. They either just look stupid or they just look like terrible rip offs from other games.

Not to mention that having exposed skin in a FUCKING HAZARDOUS AND QUARANTINED AREA is stupid as hell. I know that you're just out of art school, but can't you make your characters dress sensibly?

HUNK survived a week in the fucking sewers escaping Mr. X and the infected. These chumps wouldn't last an hour.

God, those characters look dumb.

Who else here is getting tired of seeing enemies with gas masks?

Technician said:

God, those characters look dumb.

Who else here is getting tired of seeing enemies with gas masks?

those aren't enemies, they're the characters you play as. They are evil though. Also again, Vecktor turning invisible. Why? Is he a BOW? Is his suit powered by some super future technology? Did Capcom forget that this isn't a scifi series and that it takes place in modern times? Come to think of it, the entire design of the characters is completely out of place and way too futuristic. Remember those high tech wrist computers we had back in 1998? I sure as hell don't.

They're running this franchise into the ground, though, surprisingly after Silent Hill did.

Craigs said:

Remember those high tech wrist computers we had back in 1998? I sure as hell don't.

Well I don't remember the flesh eating zombies for that matter either, but joking aside, I do agree that the characters don't look too cool.

This is what happens when developers outsource their games. Between this, the absolutely fucking awful-looking DMC "reboot", and MVC3 paid DLC costumes, Capcom is testing my patience.

They always have Marvel vs Capcom 99999 to fall back on.

Teaser can be seen here:http://kotaku.com/#!5787191/resident-evil-operation-raccoon-citys-first-teaser-shows+off-fast+paced-zombie-slaughter

Not sure how I feel about this yet. I'm glad its taking place in Raccoon City and you are killing regular zombies this time. But, the change to a squad based shooter makes me cringe. Like others have stated the co-op and escort missions where a pretty big turn off in the last two games. I'd hate to have to play a single player game with an ai team.