Resident Evil 4 details

[stonedwal]

Leaked on the Game Informer boards and confirmed by the editor.

1. RE4 can be played in first person or one of two new views. They are basically slight variations on a close third person camera.

2. It must be viewed in widescreen. If your TV doesn't support the 16:9 aspect ratio, the game will feature black bars on top and bottom of the screen to make sure you experience the game to its fullest on a 4:3 monitor. HDTV users, the game supports 480 progressive scan. This is needed because...

3. In 3rd person, Leon fills the far left side of the screen. It feels like you are playing a first person shooter even without Leon on the screen.

4. Controls are the same as before. However, health and ammo will now be onscreen.

5. Even with the old controls, the new views make it feel like an entirely different game.

The following points may contain spoilers

1. RE4 takes place in 2004, 6 years after RE2.

2. Umbrella is gone and the zombies with them.

3. Leon is hired by the president to guard his daughter. Before he can take the job, she is kidnapped and taken to a village in south america where all the villagers hunt him down in an eerie trance.

4. The worlds are completely wide open.

5. No more door animations or pre-rendered cutscenes. Everything is done in-engine.

6. Areas feature a few very brief loadtimes.

7. Enemies will react to damage done to them in places. Shooting an enemy in the foot will make them hobble.

8. Villagers are armed with sickles, axes, pitchforks, and many more sharp objects. Which they can throw at you. These are not mindless zombies.

9. You can shoot the thrown objects out of the air. If you time it right.

10. There is an action button. For instance, you can shoot an enemy and then quickly close the gap and kick them in the chest. Also to move objects in front of doors to keep villagers from you. Also to push a ladder full of enemies off from you and more.

11. In a later level, you are in complete darkness and unable to see anything until the moonlight illuminates the villagers.

12. The villagers are smart. In later levels they get smarter. For instance, if you shoot at one, it won't continue to go towards you. It may run away and if you follow him, it could purposefully lead you to an area where 6 more await with bow guns. They are more human.

[mdn2]

That 3rd person/1st person stuff sounds a bit crap. nothing like RE should be. I was hoping for something along the lines of ED.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

4. Controls are the same as before.

[kwakpriest]

Now that glut of information got my attention and peaked my interest all at once... when's it due?

[Guest Penguin_Lad]

WHERE ARE THE ZOMBIE MONKEYS?

[Tailfly]

That was my first reaction, but then I thought if you are in first or third person(behind shoulder) view it would actually work a lot better wouldn't it?

[Droo]

more of the same then?

RE4 isnt the same as Outbreak i assume.

[Sir DangerM]

What are these "villagers"? Just intelligent zombies/psycho humans?

[stonedwal]

when's it due?

Novemberish for US/JP and 2005ish for PAL.

[Alex W.]

It's going to be really easy to shoot those objects out of the air and knacker foes' ankle tendons with those classic Resi controls!

RESULT!

[Sir DangerM]

It surely must have zombies in. That's the whole point of resident evil.

[dismembo]

I'd be surprised if there weren't any zombies/undead creatures somewhere along the line. Even if Umbrella is now gone I would expect some former employees will turn up.

[kamrantaz]

Are you happy now JPICKFORD?

[___]

Are you happy now JPICKFORD?

*sigh*

No, this is called for:

Have you played it yet?

Has JPickford played it yet?

[Rin]

Amazon says December 31st for PAL.

I really hope they do change the controls.

[MW_Jimmy]

Amazon says December 31st for PAL.

Thats Amazon's way of saying "We don't have a fucking clue".

I really can't see most of that information about Res.4 being true to be honest. We've been told time and time again that the fourth game is going to be about Leon going to Umbrellas European HQ. I really can't see them changing this.

[Wesker]

Thats Amazon's way of saying "We don't have a fucking clue".

I really can't see most of that information about Res.4 being true to be honest. We've been told time and time again that the fourth game is going to be about Leon going to Umbrellas European HQ. I really can't see them changing this.

It appears to be very much true, the pics are out and they sure do look rather bright (I imagine there is a day/night cycle now that the prerendered backgrounds are gone).

Not sure if im allowed to directly link to mag scans (or rather badly taken digi camera pics) here but you can see the pics in the RE4 gamefaqs board.

Personally im not sure what to think, it all seems a bit odd and that storyline is bizarre even for RE games Sure makes me want a video of it in motion ASAP.

[dismembo]

Well maybe the story starts off with Leon doing his bit to protect the president's daughter in South America somewhere. Then he discovers that something weird is going on with the locals which reminds him of the events in Racoon City. He follows a series of clues which take him to Umbrella's HQ, supposedly shutdown but in actuality upto something even more sinister than their previous experiments.

This way you get to experience old and new ideas.

[MonkeyWrench]

3. In 3rd person, Leon fills the far left side of the screen. It feels like you are playing a first person shooter even without Leon on the screen.

4. Controls are the same as before. However, health and ammo will now be onscreen.

If point 3 is correct, I can't see the controls being the same as before, I just don't think it would work using that viewpoint. The controls have been the main focus of critism since the series beginnings, Capcom must surely have got the message now and are doing something about it?

[Wesker]

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[(Bad Egg)]

Hmmmm, I'm not sure if I like the direction its taken, obviously I can't judge yet, and obviously there has to be some horror spin on it, Voodoo or something.

[CurryKitten]

Well, I have to say I'm really looking forward to this now. It sounds bizzare that there are no zombies in it, but has the RE series reached the stage where they simply can't keep re-writing the story to add yet another part of umbrella and another virus outberak.

The screens from the scans do look pretty amazing - nice to see you can still have head explode, and the chainsaw guy looks nasty. It will be weird playing Resi in the sunlight.

At least they are finally trying something new(ish) with this, so kudos for that.

[Jonnyc]

New controls, new look, no zombies, no Umbrella

Resident Evil tennis anyone?

[rgraves]

"Oh look, they have a cave troll!"

http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-78.jpg

Stunning. At last they are trying something new with the franchise.

And this shot does indeed show off some damn fine texture work:

http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-73.jpg

Oh, and the darkness isn't all gone (top shot):

http://www.gf-data.de/gamefront-temp/bio4-83.jpg

EDIT: They are the same as some of the shots above - and the direct links don't work, so you'll have to cut 'n' paste if you want to see them. Soz.

[Sabreman]

There has to be Umbrella. That's the entire goal of the series - to take out Umbrella!

[squirtle]

Ok, does anyone else think that this looks like Ghosthunter on the PS2. I'm just playing through that at the moment (and it's really quite excellent too!) and this looks very, very similar...

[bomber]

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That looks amazing. Respect to Capcom for finally taking it in a new direction instead of releasing another rehash.

[Sprite Machine]

If point 3 is correct, I can't see the controls being the same as before, I just don't think it would work using that viewpoint.

Forwards/backwards and rotate? Pretty much all first/third person games have the same basic system for moving. It'd probably need a strafe, though.

[eves pudding]

I'm thinking one thing and one thing only - a hoax

[df0]

No zombies, no umbrella and a troll. Cool, count me in

Just brainstorming: can it been that Biohazard is/will be developed by two different teams (like PES/ISS at Konami). One team (let's call 'em PS2 team) is free to use zombies, Umbrella, 'old' locations and storylines. The other team (Cube team) is free to do whatever they want but they may not use Umbrella, zombies etc.

I mean, Umbrella is the thick red line through all the BH's, even the Survivor ones. Biohazard without Umbrella is like Ridge Racer with out Reiko Nagase! oh wait...