Resident Evil 4 Remake

[00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren, and I'm joined as always by Jacob Price. Jake, it's January 18th, 2024. We're back another week to talk about video games. Last week we did

[00:00:26] our 2024 predictions, made some wild, crazy predictions about video games in 2024. Some exciting ones. None of them have come true yet. None of them have been completely blocked. Nothing yet. We didn't lose a prediction already in week two, which I think actually last year

[00:00:51] happened. But yeah, no, it's another week. Let's just dive right into it, Jake. Let's talk about what happened today. We had a gaming media event today with the Xbox Developer Direct. Yeah. Dude, four games were really highlighted. We had a vowed, held late to our history untold.

[00:01:17] That's what it's called. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. I say that out loud and it feels super vague. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, he discovers the equation that is Pi. I don't know.

[00:01:35] I'm going to be honest. I don't love the name. Not sexy to me. Something about like circle. I think the idea, and I sort of get from the video and the trailer and all

[00:01:46] that. Like I get the concept of it. I think the concept is very cool. But the name for some reason just didn't, just not that sexy. I don't know. Honestly though, out of all the games presented, my hype increased drastically for the Indiana

[00:02:01] Jones game. Like, yeah, I think it looks great. The more I sit on it, the more I look at, you know, gameplay footage, I look at screenshots. Dude, did you know that it's actually Troy Baker doing the Harrison voice?

[00:02:16] Yeah. So I was watching the kind of funny reacts to it and they were like, that sounds like Troy Baker doing an Indiana Harrison Ford impression. And it is. It is. Dude, he does a great job. And he nails it. He does a great job.

[00:02:27] He does such a great job. But yeah, I think at first I was like, no, first person. And then I was looking at it and I was like, you know what? They stated it really well

[00:02:40] in the video. One of the devs is like, we understand that people want to see the classic, what they say like the classic Indiana Jones silhouette. And so that's why they have those moments where you do see third person, all the cutscenes are in

[00:02:53] third person. They even got, you know, Harrison Ford, you know, the character model looks like Harrison Ford. And so I don't know. I'm getting more and more excited for it. Looks great. That I probably walked away feeling the most hyped

[00:03:07] about that. And I'm super glad we got a Hellblade 2 trailer release date May 21st. It's coming. Yeah, that's a great release date for that. Man, I sort of unexpected to be honest, but with with Stalker 2 being delayed to September, I think that's

[00:03:28] going to be perfect timing, right? Like that comes out right before June. Then they can make all their new announcements and then you have Stalker 2 being the holiday game or the fall game, right? Yeah, I don't think there's a lot of competition in May either. Currently.

[00:03:44] I mean, see what happens with Switch, but yeah. Yeah, I seriously doubt anything will happen with Nintendo. Although there's got to be in Nintendo Direct any time now, right? In the next few weeks? Typically in February, right? That's kind of their track record. Their history is

[00:04:02] February. They tend to give us a lot more info. Just some sort of direct. Well, let's go kind of game by game. They started with a vowed from Obsidian. We've seen this a few times now. They had a sort of a bigger showcase last

[00:04:19] June and then this was a bit of a deeper... This was probably the deepest dive that we've seen. Showed off a little bit of combat, showed off some dialogue and branching decision making, which is what Obsidian's obviously known for. Jake, what was your impression of a vowed?

[00:04:36] I was a little... The word that you used I'm going to borrow here was a little underwhelmed and it's really tough for me to put my finger on exactly why. I think part of it is, I think overall I do like the art direction, but I

[00:04:52] wasn't like... And maybe this is just the wrong trailer for it, but I was just not invested in the characters or the creatures that I saw in game. The melee combat maybe looked a little stiff, but the magic combat looked dope as

[00:05:09] heck. And so I'm kind of walking away, not more hyped, but not less hyped. I'm pretty neutral, maybe a little lukewarm on what I saw in a vowed. I was definitely more excited coming out of this for Helblight 2 and Indiana Jones.

[00:05:27] Yeah, I think they dropped the ball maybe a little bit from a hype on this. I think they needed to get people a little bit more hyped up with this presentation and I don't feel like they probably accomplished that.

[00:05:43] I think to your point combat did feel a little stiff. I do like the fact that there's some parrying in there and there's a little bit more reactivity it looks like. I saw some parry windows and

[00:05:53] some things like that, which this is a game that I honestly think will be really solid. I don't think it's going to blow your socks off game of the year, but I do think it's going to be really solid and probably play a lot better

[00:06:09] than it looks, to be honest. I think you're right. This is probably one of those games that you don't want to watch somebody else play it. You want to play it. You know what I mean? You want to be totally immersed in your play style

[00:06:24] and something that I like, they brought up seven times in one minute is that you can kind of quick swap between loadouts. They had this huge variety of loadouts and the ones that really stood out to me was one handed wand and one handed sword

[00:06:41] and then one handed wand or sword with a pistol. I was like, dude, I don't think I'm going to play this game defensive at all. I think I'm going hard offense because that's what looked the most fun.

[00:06:52] Yeah, no, I mean it, yeah, to your point combat did look a little bit flat. I did, you know, the spell casting kind of looked cool, but maybe it looked, I don't know, something like maybe just a teeny bit off.

[00:07:10] I think the dialogue and the upsetting knows how to do that. You don't have to convince me personally. I think you still have to market to that effect, but like you don't have to convince me that Obsidian knows how to do that part of it.

[00:07:23] That's what they're good at. Like that's what they dominate. I was hoping to see a little bit more of maybe a little bit more immersion, you know, a little bit more kind of high production on the combat just, you know, make it feel, make it look better.

[00:07:39] I don't know, something. I still think again, I love Obsidian. I think it's going to be great. It just, it didn't do it for me to your point. Yeah, I'm going to definitely play this day one because I think Obsidian's been on fire

[00:07:50] and you know, there's really no reason to doubt. Just to add in one last thought here, I think it was mostly like the enemies and how the enemies fought in combat didn't, it felt. That is yes. Something about it felt really rigid. I don't know.

[00:08:07] Also, the dino type enemies not bringing the vibes for me. I don't know, man. I literally was thinking of the show dinosaurs. Yeah, I totally agree. They were kind of like standing there and then like one by one

[00:08:22] they would sort of chomp at the character and I was like, okay, is that what we're doing here? I get it. All right. Maybe I'm missing something. Is it just a bad trailer? I don't know. It might be. I don't know.

[00:08:33] I don't know, but like Cameron and I are both saying we're definitely going to be playing this one. We love Obsidian. I loved Pentamint. That was my favorite games that came out when it came out. Cameron and I both love Grounded. The Outer Worlds was a fantastic game.

[00:08:49] So there's no reason to really doubt here and they're returning to their bread and butter, like to what they really made their name for. So I don't know. Yeah, just kind of a mixed little mix.

[00:09:01] Not quite as hyped as I was on the other games that I saw. I agree. Next we had, is it Aura? Dude, Aura. I feel so bad for this game because no one's talking about it.

[00:09:15] I mean, dude, this is like a game for a very, very specific audience. Yes. This is like if you are a 4x strategy nerd, you're all over this. And I think if you're a 4x nerd, like this looks great. Yeah.

[00:09:34] I do like myself some Civ, but by no means am I like a 4x person. I really like Civ 5 and Civ 6 and all that. But I mean yeah, I think if you're, this looks awesome. This looks great if you're a 4x fan.

[00:09:50] If you're not though, you're just sleeping right here. Yeah, I think out of all the games shown, this one I totally agree with you is there's a much more targeted audience here compared to the others, right? I feel like Aura History Untold is going to be like,

[00:10:06] I don't know if it's going to move a ton of Game Pass subscriptions, but people who are subscribed and like the genre are going to find something that they really love.

[00:10:13] Whereas I feel like Hellblade II, Avowed and Indiana Jones are purposely designed to try to increase Game Pass subs. They're trying to push specific types of sales. Yeah. Aura Untold is, and honestly, people see this as a criticism.

[00:10:29] I say Flood Game Pass with a huge variety of games and this is what Xbox I feel like it can be really comfortable about, as opposed to like Nintendo, maybe less so Nintendo, but at least compared to PlayStation where they have this massive variety of games from indie,

[00:10:45] double A and triple A spheres. And Aura History Untold is just another game that is going to beef up the just huge slate in variety that Xbox has to offer. So while Cameron and I aren't super jazzed about this game,

[00:11:03] I still think it's a great game to add to the Xbox collection. Yeah, absolutely. And that definitely seems to be very much the strategy is variety.

[00:11:14] I mean, in a way, they're sort of copying the Netflix model where they have like a few things that are super, super top tier high production, high quality ultra high budget. But overall though, it's really about the quantity and the cadence of content. Right.

[00:11:37] And that's what they seem to be honed in on. And my biggest takeaway actually was listening to the commentary around both of out and next up in the show, which was Hellblade 2, like calling out that these are like more condensed experiences like straight up like in the presentation,

[00:12:00] like saying like, hey, these are shorter condensed experience. We're like delivering you a very specific experience and then we get out. Right. And that's I personally love that. I think that's maybe controversial for a small group of the gamer audience. I think that's amazing.

[00:12:16] And I think that's the perfect strategy thinking about kind of Matt Booty and kind of maybe how he looks at this and like how he works with these studios is like, hey, like you don't need to make the most massive game in the world.

[00:12:27] Like let's just let's just deliver a solid experience and kind of get out. Not saying that that's, you know, what these devs did.

[00:12:35] I mean, I could totally see that being the case and I could see those conversations being had knowing kind of what's happening with massively bloated triple A budgets. Yeah.

[00:12:46] And Microsoft relying on having this steady stream of content from these studios and saying like, hey, don't be afraid to just like make this a smaller, more condensed experience right like cut the fat. Right. Yeah, it doesn't need to be a 60 hour experience.

[00:13:03] If you can give the player a solid 15 to 20 hour campaign with plenty of things to explore and discover on the side, that's still a really good game.

[00:13:12] And I think what I hope anyway from the slate of Xbox games coming this year is that they just all release with a ton of polish,

[00:13:20] you know, that we don't have a repeat with Redfall, that we have a bunch of games that are feeling good and they're feeling smart and they're feeling, you know, snappy and well put together.

[00:13:30] And I think I do actually after looking at this Xbox developer direct and looking at sort of the list of Xbox games confirmed and, you know, rumored to come out in 2024, they can have a super powerful year like this could be finally Xbox's year to shine.

[00:13:50] But yeah, I think that's kind of the last I have to say on the developer direct. I don't know. Do you have any other thoughts? No, just Indiana Jones. Dude, Indiana Jones. I like I first watched it and I was like, I don't know.

[00:14:07] And then I watched it again and I was like, yeah, dude, I'm getting the indie vibes. And then I watched it again and I was like, you know what, if I'm watching this over and over again, there's got to be something here that I'm really enjoying.

[00:14:17] And dude, I just think it looks good. I think it'll be a really good adventure. And that's the word that they kept throwing out when they were talking about it. And I'm convinced like I think they got the Indiana Jones adventure in that game.

[00:14:29] Yeah, I think I definitely think so. I mean, it seems like they're going straight for like basically doing another film in the franchise, but just as a video game. And I think that's a great way to go about it.

[00:14:46] I there's been a teeny bit of not like backlash, but just complaints that it's not a third person action adventure game akin to uncharted. But the thing is, is like this is machine games.

[00:14:58] And I think we had the conversation machine games makes first person shooters. That's what they're good at. Yeah, that's their thing. Right. And so if you're going to give the project to machine games, you are going in like with a vision of a first person Indiana Jones.

[00:15:14] But it looks like they're kind of mixing it up where they have a combination of first person and third person elements. It said like some of the traversal happens in third person, you know, certain actions will like back the camera.

[00:15:26] And so they're doing a mix so that you can like you mentioned Jake like see Indiana Jones and like his silhouette. But overall, I think they nailed the vibes. Yeah. Graphics look really great. You're punching Nazis in the face, which is always awesome.

[00:15:41] This team just really has dialed in on what they're good at, which is they've really hate Nazis. And every game they make you are just killing so many Nazis and it's great. I mean, that's what a great win. What a great studio ethos to live by.

[00:15:56] Yeah, you hate Nazis and that's what you design your games around. That's I mean, it's yeah, that's so funny. So if you listen to our predictions episode, you learn that I lost our 2023 predictions episode.

[00:16:08] And so Cameron is having me play the Wolfenstein games, a new one, the new order and the new Colossus. That's what I have to play this year. And actually after watching the Indiana Jones trailer, I'm really excited to get into those.

[00:16:21] I'm going to try to kind of move those up on my backlog priority and get through them soon because I really want to get a feel for what machine games it's going to bring to Indiana Jones. Yeah, I look solid.

[00:16:36] And if you and Jake, you're going to play the Wolfenstein games because you lost the bed last week. So so I think if you haven't played the Wolfenstein games and you watch this trailer, you're like, I don't really know about this like first person melee situation.

[00:16:52] But the thing is, is like that's what machine games does. And you'll see like if you play those games. And also like you'll see if you play those games like this team like knows how to get done. Like they just they know how to get this done.

[00:17:07] So yeah, there's like a 10 second clip in that trailer where you are fist fighting a Nazi. And I was like, that looks cool. That looks really dope. I actually really do want to punch a Nazi in the face in first person.

[00:17:20] You know, I don't want to do that on third person. I want to do that in first person. So yeah, the last things I want to bring up is that today, January 18th, we have two relatively significant game drops.

[00:17:36] The first one is Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. That's probably the first it is the first like big AAA studio game to come out. And then we actually have an indie game that's releasing to pretty great reviews, which is a sequel. It's Turnip Boy, Rob's a Bank.

[00:17:50] That came out. So those will be the first games from 2024 that I play this year. Well, that was the Xbox showcase. Super fun. Great, great presentation. I wish there was something to sink our teeth into like a little bit sooner.

[00:18:05] We got release date windows like fall 2024 for about May for Hellblade in the end of Jones supposedly this year. Although I could easily see that getting pushed to early 2025 easily. I could easily see that getting delayed. Yeah. But they did announce it for this year.

[00:18:25] So, you know, could happen. Yeah. I mean, how cool would it be to have Hellblade in May? Let's see, stock or two in September? I don't know. A valve would be like October or November and then Indiana Jones December.

[00:18:40] That would be a really stacked second half of the year. Right? Yeah, it is. Right. That does raise the question to me of like when do they release this? Do they double up in December or did they push something out of the window?

[00:18:56] And it makes me feel like probably they're going to push something out of the window. Yeah. And it would be Indiana Jones out of all those games shown just based on the release windows and the degree of specificity for when those are going to launch. Right.

[00:19:10] Because like what does it benefit them to have released both a vowed and Indiana Jones during holiday? You know, I actually read something about this and I can't remember if it was speculation.

[00:19:23] So the source is a little fuzzy here, but just hear me out that if Game Pass gets two big games to come to it,

[00:19:35] within a month, that people might just be that much more likely to buy like a three or six months subscription because it'll be cheaper than purchasing the two full price games up front.

[00:19:47] So I could see them doing something where they put a vowed and Indiana Jones relatively close to each other to push individual sales obviously on like steam, but to push Game Pass subs during the holiday. So I don't know.

[00:20:03] I don't know how much water that theory holds, but I remember reading that like about a year ago and it always stuck with me like, oh, that could be an interesting strategy to push Game Pass subs. Interesting. I don't know. You're better.

[00:20:18] You're more well versed in this kind of stuff, but it was an interesting thought. I mean, that makes sense to me like Game Pass was fly. I believe they released some data that Game Pass grew only by 13% and last year it grew by 20%. Okay.

[00:20:35] And so they probably missed their goals and targets like a teeny bit this last year. That being said, like, I mean, I guess they had I mean, they had Starfield. So that was supposed to be like their massive Game Pass.

[00:20:51] But they had Starfield, but they didn't have like a consistent cadence of content. And so I imagine that like caused Game Pass to take a hit. So I don't know if you overload it this year to sort of catch up.

[00:21:03] Maybe that does something for you from a business standpoint, but I'm not sure. I mean, I would like it. Yeah. So yeah. And in a three month span, you just essentially make up how much you pay in your subscription all year long. Right? Yeah.

[00:21:19] You could totally to your point from earlier, right? Like you could see a case where you have this huge marketing push around Game Pass because you have so many games, right? And you really press the marketing on like look at the value. Yeah. Look at this.

[00:21:35] You're getting stock or two new game from from, you know, loved franchise. You're getting a new game from Obsidian. You're getting a AAA Indiana Jones game all on Game Pass. Like get it. Yeah. You're getting a new game next three months. Yeah.

[00:21:50] So buy your three month subscription now, you know, and get access to those three games and hundreds more. Listen, Microsoft, you could just hire us for marketing. We've just planned out your fall. I keep telling them.

[00:22:02] By the way, last week it's like the person I was trying to call out is Aaron Greenberg. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Who we probably need to tweet at more. So we are great guys. I'm here. Well, that was the developer direct fun stuff.

[00:22:20] That was pretty much the big news of the last week. I think, you know, there are some other things, but I think that's all I wanted to talk about. So I think we can take unless you had anything we could drive drive straight into our first game of 2024.

[00:22:36] Let's dive in. We will be talking about Resident Evil 4 remake and we will be talking about this in four categories. Our first category is narrative. We're going to be talking about the story of Resident Evil 4 remake. And this story is so off the wall, it is amazing.

[00:22:56] It is one of my favorite stories in recent history. I freaking love Leon S Kennedy. What a guy. Second, we'll be talking about the mechanics. And so here we'll be talking about sort of what we're doing in the game. Just there's a lot of combat in this game.

[00:23:10] So we'll be focusing a lot on just that aspect of the game, how you're interacting with different systems within the game. Third, we'll be talking about the gameplay loop.

[00:23:19] And so here we'll be talking about essentially like we kind of get into game design and almost level design to a certain degree, which is like how the game keeps you going and like what are the overarching patterns of play.

[00:23:32] Sometimes we talk about how like a game session will be defined when you're playing a game. And then finally, we'll be talking about impact on the industry here. We get a little more speculative when we think, okay, what did this make a splash in the gaming industry?

[00:23:47] Who's taking notes and what notes are they taking about the game? So just as a quick reminder, Resident Evil 4 is a game that we're talking about. And if you are new to the show, I just want you to let you know that we really don't go over spoilers.

[00:23:59] We'll typically talk about things that happen within the first like 25% of a game. But also this is a remake and this game's been out forever, so we might slip on this episode. Alright, let's dive in. Resident Evil 4 remake your good boy Leon, the homie. He's an agent.

[00:24:20] He was an agent for the American. I'm gonna blow this because it's been a long time since I played this. Jake, you're gonna come in with the corrections. Okay. Your homie Leon, he's an agent for the US government. He's been sent into unknown Western European Southern-ish country. Spain.

[00:24:39] It seems like it might be Spain. Does it say Spain? I don't think they ever say it's Spain. I don't think they say it, right? They just speak with thick Spanish accents. They speak with Spanish, like with his spanish accents. Yeah, they're speaking peninsula European Spanish.

[00:24:57] Yes, but you get anyway, he's sent in to rescue the president's daughter. Yup. Yes, it's that weird and wild. Yeah, and that kind of sets the stage. And then this game is just wild. You follow Leon's adventures.

[00:25:22] Leon is the ultimate, I would say like if a golden retriever could be serious, that's Leon S. Kennedy. You know what I mean? But like a graph golden, like think shadow from Homeward Bound. But maybe less wise. My gosh, I'm butchering this. Leon is the best.

[00:25:44] I love Leon and I'm saying this unironically. Like playing through the game. I was like, yes, dude, this guy is amazing. But yeah, so he is recruited. He's part of Special Forces. He's supposed to save Ashley, the president's daughter who's been abducted by a cult.

[00:26:02] And I think at some point they must mention that it's Spain. So they're there and I love the beginning of the game. Leon is in a cop car with two officers. They stop because one of them needs to go pee. He doesn't come back.

[00:26:18] Leon goes to investigate and the dude is taken and killed basically. And so Leon's like, all right, I got to do this by myself. Grrr. And so he just whips out his pistol and starts shooting zombies left and right

[00:26:33] as he just like trudges his way through rural Spain trying to track down Ashley. I don't even know what to say. Like the villains here, I don't know if campies are around here. Yeah, dude, that guy I could not stop laughing, dude. Ramon Salazar, right? Incredible.

[00:26:54] Did you get the achievement where you stand like in front of his painting and you throw eggs at it? What? Okay, time to boot up Resident Evil 4. Yeah, you got to boot that backup. That gets you a golden egg, I think.

[00:27:09] And I wanted it because I needed more money at some point. So I ended up looking it up at that part of the anyway. Dude, oh my gosh, amazing. You know what I'm talking about though?

[00:27:19] Like when you get to his throne room, this is a bit spoiler-ish, but you get to his throne room and then it has like the paintings up. Yeah, I got the quests because like we're cut.

[00:27:29] This is kind of mechanics, but you get like little quests and they have you do little errands and one of them is like defaces guy's portrait. It is some in this is part of the writing in the narrative. There are these random disgruntled villagers, right?

[00:27:42] Who are not infected by this zombie virus. Who are writing notes pleading somebody to go do things like deface portraits or shoot annoying blue medallions or you know shoot a specific symbol on the tombstone. And it is so outrageous that you can't help but find it endearing.

[00:28:04] And I think that's just kind of the way to describe the story overall. It just goes off the wall. But like we talked about in a Resident Evil 2 remake episode, Resident Evil manages to balance this off-the-wall comedy with horror and like really grotesque enemies and images

[00:28:27] in a way that I don't think a lot of horror franchises can really get. They're like they just don't nail that balance. But I think Resident Evil 4 is like Resident Evil 2 on steroids when it comes to that

[00:28:40] on both sides with the action, the serious, the horror and the campy and the comedy and the just ludicrous nature of the characters and story. But gosh darn it! It is so charming. It is so endearing you can't help but to love everyone there.

[00:28:57] Yeah, I think we mentioned this like in our Resident Evil 2 remake conversation and I'm so glad you ended up playing that. And then that kind of led you to play this because I really think this is one of the best games of last year

[00:29:10] like for sure. It's like it's so good. It's such a tight, tight experience with amazing pacing and super fun gameplay and it looks incredible. I mean it just looks amazing. But yeah, to your point like I don't know how they do the serious

[00:29:28] goof and nail it. How do they pull? I don't know how you can pull this off. I seriously have no idea how they do it. I really don't know. Like so for example in the early part of the game the first big bad is Mendes, right?

[00:29:42] And he's like this priest and he's the super intimidating presence obviously kind of coming off of like that Mr. X type of vibes just like a giant, you know, impenetrable like unstoppable force and he's creepy looking man. Like it really takes like the Catholic priest

[00:30:00] the real Catholic priest that makes him creepy. He's got this creepy false eye and then early on one of the big boss fights is against him and he transforms into this hideous scorpion monster thing and he's gross

[00:30:14] and then after you defeat him you can pick up an item he drops and what's the item? It's his false eye and like I can't remember the description but it's like weird creepy false eye could fetch a high price

[00:30:30] and I just started laughing. I was like who on earth would buy this? Of course the merchant would because the merchant in this game is just inexplicable you know a total enigma. Yeah because it's a this is just a video game video game

[00:30:48] where you have like a vendor who just magically shows up in the world there's no like sense of immersion on that and there doesn't need to be that's like the beauty of it right? That is the beauty of it and I think that's probably why Resident Evil 4

[00:31:02] is a beloved game and why it deserved and got such a fantastic remake is because the video game narrative logic is so video gamey it very much harkens back to a time where it was like hey you know Bob quick we need some sort of explanation because

[00:31:19] right now we want for balancing the currencies and economy of the game the player needs to get 12,000 pesetas like what do we do after this boss and Bob's like you know what Mendez is a creepy eye the merchant will buy it

[00:31:32] and they're like you know what works great it's going to tie in with this mechanic and like real Dave Jackson you know who friend of ours he's in our discord from Tales From The Backlug podcast said he's like

[00:31:44] you don't look at this narrative under a microscope you just then go along for the ride and you enjoy it just enjoy the ride and that's exactly like that's the thing though is I feel like Resident Evil 4 especially it's just like

[00:31:55] don't ask questions man just enjoy it man just just enjoy this game and it's so easy to turn off that part of your brain that wants to like find plot holes how they accomplish that is so difficult to pinpoint

[00:32:07] yeah it's crazy that they can also have I think the reason that it works so well is they can genuinely like freak you out like the horror works really well yeah and a lot of cases right like you are freaked out and creeped out

[00:32:24] and like what's around this corner and you have those feelings and then suddenly you know you'll be just doing something you'll be you know shooting a rocket launcher at like some kind of like yeah or fighting a giant like mutated fish like on a lake

[00:32:42] for some reason oh my gosh or you know you're suddenly like in a castle and you turn the corner and you're selling gemstones to like a vendor like we just talked about yeah somehow they make that dissonance work

[00:33:01] and this isn't interesting like so I've been thinking about this a lot and I realized that a lot of the games that I really like have this this sort of fluctuation between either so that the example that I'm thinking of right now

[00:33:22] is actually Ghost of Tsushima has this really incredible balance between visceral very serious very violent like you know visceral brutal gameplay but then suddenly you'll be walking running through the world and see like this you know beautiful pristine beach with a sunset and then you'll like walk into

[00:33:51] a hot spring and you know to think about the emotions of dealing with your father right like yeah so that balance so in Resident Evil obviously it doesn't it does something very different where it's got like crazy goofy storyline that's

[00:34:05] just like rock sit back and enjoy the you know action movie popcorn ride balanced out with super dark scary horror and it just makes everything work and just function so well and yeah yeah so I think you're right I think it

[00:34:24] comes down to just sort of like really masterful pacing one of the examples I'm thinking of this really early on in the game you come into like the village initially and zombies start attacking you and you're like okay you're dealing

[00:34:38] with the zombies and then they keep coming and then they keep coming again and they start coming for a really uncomfortable amount of time and at this point I was panicking I was like dude I'm down you get bogged down

[00:34:50] like the game makes you feel like anxiety oh yeah like yeah I was like down to like two bullets I had picked up three knives and two of them were shattered and I was like hanging on to do your life for the last one and at one point

[00:35:03] the game I feel like becomes so oppressive because you have like no resources to really fight back that you panic and you just start running around and so I died a few times I was like dude how there's no way I'm

[00:35:15] gonna kill all these dudes like how do I do this and so it's tons of anxiety adrenaline rush and then you learn like oh wait this bell rings and suddenly the zombies stop attacking you and they all just slowly exit and to me

[00:35:30] that's like a moment where the just a masterclass a great example of how the game like really makes your blood pump and you are filled with anxiety and adrenaline and you're like dude I'm screwed and you're thinking about you know ammo economy and how you're managing your resources

[00:35:46] and then suddenly the game kind of puts the brakes on and then you can kind of proceed with the game and I really liked that because it was a wake-up call that's like hey you're gonna have to be smart about how you play

[00:35:58] this game we might hit you with something that feels super unfair and oppressive so really like get prepared and I really liked what how that worked because from there on out it's the game just set

[00:36:11] down and put me in the position of okay I need to be really smart about how this play how I play this game this isn't like high-paced action necessarily there's a lot of action in it but you know Leon walks

[00:36:25] slowly you can focus if you stop moving and really focus in on your shots the payoff is so much better so yeah we're kind of talking about the game broadly unless so narratively at this point but I think

[00:36:39] what Cameron I really want to get down to is that this game manages to pull off a kind of narrative that is extremely difficult to pull off but very much yields a lot of fruit it's a ton of fun and it's just fun

[00:36:53] it's good old-fashioned video gamey fun yeah I mean it I had never played this game before remake and and I played this and was like I can definitely absolutely see why this is one of the best it's considered one of the best

[00:37:07] games of all time yeah before we move on I promised our discord that I would because I teach Spanish and you know Spanish or like a Hispanic literature that I would talk about the linguistics of this game

[00:37:22] listen they nail they absolutely nail the Spanish accent my one criticism my one criticism is that oftentimes enemies will be using the boss which is a way to address multiple people at once when it's just Leon in the room

[00:37:39] and not when it's Leon and Ashley and so those zombies no good got something fried in the brain where they're using the wrong pronoun you know to address everybody in the room otherwise sounds like a pro a programming

[00:37:54] issue I mean I'm being super super nitpicky here obviously right but otherwise I love listening to that thick accent I think it works super well for horror to like thick powerful and you know really oppressive I feel like abrasive consonants I think worked extremely well

[00:38:12] for setting the tone the last thing I want to mention about narrative is that there's a character that shows up later Luis and he very much forces upon you like the literary reference to don't keep hot day which

[00:38:26] you know he refers to himself as the key hot day I got a good laugh out of the fact they kept referring to Leon is Sancho Panza and Leon doesn't know what's going on and for those who don't know don't keep hot day is this

[00:38:38] you know this the lowest of nobility in in late Renaissance like Baroque Spain and he goes out on all these misadventures with his squire Sancho Panza and Panza is another word for belly so it's kind of a joke on what

[00:38:56] Sancho Panza is he's just this random countryman sort of like this cowpote character you know and in he keeps referring to Leon as that which I thought was really funny I did kind of feel like sorry again I've been

[00:39:10] really nitpicky I felt like the literary reference was a little forced because if people talk about Spain they always make a reference to don't keep hot day but in pretty unoriginal ways so there I don't know

[00:39:21] tackle me come down on me for that criticism there otherwise you're going to make your students play resume before I wish but but it's clear but I know the boys those places where they're going to say that I said

[00:39:40] I could just listen to that we should just we should get sound effects for the podcast of that and put it on we do a good job I need a I need a board any one

[00:39:53] of those sound boards yes so I can just like cue that that'll be my next podcast when we hit our next milestone I'm gonna buy one of those like El Gato like decks stream decks or whatever no places go down

[00:40:10] I love it alright mechanics I think this is similar to resident evil to remake I think they nailed the mechanics feels great oh it's a sort of slowed down third person like punchy mostly shooting but then what they

[00:40:30] add in this game is crotty kicks and then you can use your night that you've got this like really bizarrely on the nose crotty kick that's like really powerful just it's like Chuck Norris roundhouse kick all day yeah

[00:40:47] Chuck Norris roundhouse kick but it's totally fun because like when the when the guys get all around you and you hit that roundhouse kick you just knock everyone oh yeah straight up and then you can parry with a knife

[00:41:00] and I'm gonna tell you I never parried anything I could not get the timing with a knife I could not figure out the timing with a knife dude I parried everything chainsaws like I sucked at it so bad dude I was parrying

[00:41:15] left and right I like I can make you re-counter all day but I could not do the knife and you can have Harry that the hatchets being thrown at you dude I felt like you had to parry the chain like I wanted to but I ended up just

[00:41:29] going Rambo and just going like pure offense in every fight and just unloading on people and when you get to a certain point in the game like you can totally just do that just nail people but yeah I know you have you have a

[00:41:43] variety of weapons obviously started with a pistol when guys getting close you have to use sort of a combination of melee you have knives but there's like a very limited number so if you get in like a I'm trying to remember Jake

[00:41:58] like when the guys grab you I'm think remind me of like the knife situation yeah the how that mechanic I love the knives mechanic I thought it was it was awesome because they were primarily a defensive tool right so you

[00:42:12] had to have a knife to parry if you're grabbed by somebody instead of smashing a to break free and they're slowly draining your health if you have a knife that still has durability you could just stab them right for

[00:42:24] lower you know what I'm doing I'm mixing up the last of us in this game because there's a similar mechanic in the last of us where you have to have a shiv and if you have the shiv you can like get away from the clingers

[00:42:35] the clickers the clickers I want to say anyway sorry I mean you can do that in this game but I really liked it I mean obviously there's stealth takedowns with the knife I think that resident evil 4 it does an excellent

[00:42:51] job with weapon durability right where yeah you had to be on top of when you're using your knives and you do want to use it as kind of defensive measure rather than using it offensively because you want to keep that durability

[00:43:04] up so I used it all the time and I thought it was really fantastic I really loved it and it paired extremely well I feel like as hey this is my last resort then the enemy managed to get this close to me I have to use

[00:43:19] my knife now if I'm out of like shotgun rounds or whatever otherwise you would just use guns and you try to keep the waves at bay so you wouldn't have to use a knife and I found that to that combat like those balanced mechanics of

[00:43:33] like what you use in what range and how you use things offensively versus defensively to be just like perfectly balanced like I was a huge fan of of the weapons and the variety and the different circumstantial you know the different circumstances in which you would use different weapons

[00:43:53] yeah totally it's they're all super satisfying to use like you get you end up with a lot of different varieties of different things weapons and you can upgrade them and you sort of have to sort of choose wisely like which

[00:44:05] ones you upgrade you end up getting a magnum pistol at one point that just blows people's heads off so bad but you get such limited ammo that you know that you kind of have to be strategic with it a little bit yeah and then

[00:44:20] you end up with an SMG and so then and then you'll end up where these guys with shields and you can just disintegrate their shields with the SMG and like break them down but your pistol sort of old reliable and

[00:44:32] that's kind of what you lean on mostly because that's what you're going to have the most ammo for but it's just fun like it's just fun third person shooter gameplay and it's got sort of that little bit of rock paper

[00:44:44] scissors element when you run into certain types of enemies where you'll have certain types of weapons that will do better but at the end of the day like if you know as you get better at the game you can just pull the pistol

[00:44:55] out and sort of handle pretty much everything which I also liked I never felt like like I felt backed into a corner and the anxiety of having so many enemies rushing me but you get it to a certain point

[00:45:06] in the game where like you're good enough you can sort of handle yourself with just the pistol and and kind of figure that out and then the other weapons just become fun right you become sort of overpowered

[00:45:17] with the shotgun and the other things so that's so well done great combat. Yeah I absolutely agree I think the combat is easily one of the highlights of this game and I absolutely agree with you it's really

[00:45:30] difficult to strike a balance when you have a big variety of weapons between one that is just like totally OP your go to versus you know finding and creating enough situations to use a variety of guns

[00:45:42] I want to mimic what you said about the pistol the pistol becomes the over reliable and as you get as you upgrade it you know and as you get better more comfortable with your pistol as it becomes more powerful

[00:45:54] it really can become your go to but situationally if you balance you know the survival aspects of this game and you balance your ammo economy you'll be like oh look we're coming into a scenario there's a bunch of long range instead of trying to sit here and pick

[00:46:08] peoples off you know with my P shooter pistol let me bust out the stingray which was one of my go to rifles to use you throw a scope on that thing there's like a part where actually

[00:46:20] is separated from you and you have to hit people you have to protect her while she's doing something and I was like I could do this with the pistol but because I have been so good with my pistol I've actually accumulated a ton of rifle ammo so why

[00:46:32] not just switch to this in the scenario where and then make it that much easier for me to sort of manage all the enemies and what's happening so it's interesting because at the beginning of the game I was using

[00:46:44] like pistols shotgun and knife quite a lot but as I got further into the game actually ended up using the shotgun less and less only for like hyper specific scenarios or when I was like bumrushed or something otherwise I was picking off enemies with a rifle

[00:47:00] and then keeping them at mid range with the pistol I hardly even touched like the SMG I didn't even buy the crossbow I didn't even end up using that or bolts and that would introduce an entirely different way of playing the game

[00:47:16] and so resident evil remake when it comes to the combat somehow manages to balance weapon variety it also takes into account player play style and what they're comfortable in how they want to manage these enemies simultaneously so hats off to them for figuring that out

[00:47:32] yeah additionally there's a few other things there's a lot of collectibles sort of randomish collectibles like the what do they call it Jake are they the contracts like the blue you know I'm talking about so you can get money and like

[00:47:54] achievements and extra stuff for doing these little extra sort of you know fine collect the thongs yeah basically around the world and the areas are this is kind of going a bit into gameplay loop but you have these sort of semi open areas that you can rehash

[00:48:14] and explore and kind of go back through and then you obviously have like your resident evil style puzzle solving which is pretty straightforward pretty standard fare there but you know works works fine I think so yeah I'm with you on the puzzles for sure

[00:48:30] where it's I don't know I found them to be more straightforward than resident evil 2 remake puzzles but at the same time it you know I wasn't like blown away by them it was good for mechanical pacing in the game you know otherwise it was good

[00:48:46] basically when it came upon a puzzle section I was like oh great I could probably loot and restock a bunch of things without spending ammo while I'm doing this puzzle section and then I can kind of just move on

[00:48:58] it really just felt like mechanical pacing more than anything to keep things feeling fresh as you're progressing through the game otherwise I mean combat was by far the most fun part let's talk about the gameplay loop this is god of war basically

[00:49:22] let's hear it which base is there what do you call this type of what do you call this it's not it's like semi it's like open zone is that what you call it linear open zone is there a word

[00:49:38] for this that we need to like probably I get what you're saying though because there is like level design in that when you reach a new area you can kind of like fully explore like you are very much pushed linearly throughout this game

[00:49:54] but there become certain moments where it's like hey if you want to go back and explore this area find more collectibles restock find loot and stuff do optional bosses as well hey here's your chance

[00:50:06] and then you're going to move on to the next zone right which yeah that's in god of war I don't know what you would call that linked hubs in a line yeah it's there you can go back through these areas

[00:50:26] and they're exploreable like there's stuff in there that you need to walk around and find and there's different sort of paths through them it's definitely not an open world but then but you basically have these like big levels that are connected by essentially doorways

[00:50:42] that are exploreable and there's even I think remember in the castle is there anyway you find a lot of keys which unlocks new areas and that's kind of how it progresses and that keeps the linearity of it

[00:51:00] where you have to sort of find the key or the next thing in order to get to the next area and that's kind of how things progress and you will find yourself going back to old areas to finish if you're doing like the side quests and collectibles

[00:51:12] and stuff you'll definitely have to go back and explore I did that a few times to just try and get extra money so I could buy more stuff but perfect for this game that seems like a lot of games are using this sort of style of gameplay

[00:51:32] loop I don't even know again thinking of a term I'm not sure what exactly you call it God of War is the one that comes to mind because I was thinking about the random vendor who constantly shows up and it's the same thing here where

[00:51:44] Resniliv4 just has this vendor that follows you around the world and the same thing happens in God of War and it's like an open zone and I think this is a format that coming out of the open world renaissance

[00:52:00] we are going to see this format in many many games I think you could even possibly classify like a Jedi survivor in this although it does have that one area that's pretty much straight up in open world but then it also has little planets

[00:52:16] that are basically like mini zones so I just all appreciated the linearity of it and like we already mentioned a few times the pacing is so good and there's this progression wheel that's so good that it just makes you want to keep going

[00:52:36] and it kind of moves at just the perfect pace where you just want to keep going you never feel like stuck or slogged at least I didn't in this game

[00:52:44] and that's probably one of the best things I can say about the gameplay loop is that I just never felt blocked or obstructed I could always move forward and make progress and just feel satisfied about it

[00:52:56] and I think that's due in part to the linear nature of the game what is great about this game is I feel like it was maybe not overly generous but it was pretty nice when it came to giving you say

[00:53:08] points and checkpoints which would be those typewriters right some of them you could miss some of them are relatively impossible to miss but I felt like as I was playing I would be like oh do I want to go to the next typewriter

[00:53:24] do I want to make it to the next typewriter or the next two typewriters so I was actually measuring my game sessions in like distance between typewriters because it became relatively predictable I feel like for the most part when a typewriter is about to show up

[00:53:40] and you can get to a save point and then you can just kind of log out of the game and I think that there was enough sprinkled in there that you could really play this game in like

[00:53:52] several hours long of a play chunk or you could probably get in and play this game 15 minutes at a time and feel like you're making measurable progress which again I think is a really important balance to make because you're trying to accommodate

[00:54:04] all different schedules of all different players as they're coming into your game and you want them to finish the game and I think Resident Evil 4 does a good job of funneling you towards the end while giving you enough breathing room

[00:54:16] to go out and do side quests and go back track and finish things that you, you know side quests that you want to accomplish before you continue. Okay let's go ahead and move on to our final category talking about the impact on the industry of Resident Evil 4 Remake

[00:54:39] Remakes Jake I think this is maybe up there with Final Fantasy 7 Remake as like the top of the heap example of this is how you remake a video game. Yeah we also got another one of those this year that was also

[00:55:08] extremely well done in Dead Space Remake which was very, very well done although I do think this game is just a better game from just a gameplay and mechanics standpoint. Obviously Dead Space is great but I do think that one requires

[00:55:28] a bit more in a, I think my measurement for how good is your remake is how much does nostalgia carry the weight of the game and if the answer is you're loving this because you played

[00:55:44] it at a certain time and it's sort of fulfilling a vision of like at the time you played it probably not the best remake even though it could be like an incredible game that got a nice facelift

[00:55:56] but for me this felt like a game anybody could come in and play in 2023 and say like oh this is an incredible game and I think that's the mark of an awesome remake and this hits that you know out of the park

[00:56:08] 10 out of 10. Yeah this is, this was my first time playing Resident Evil 4, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while you know that I don't consider myself a fan of horror games but playing this

[00:56:20] game came off the heels of playing Resident Evil 2 remake and I was like ooh people have been talking really highly of Resident Evil 4 maybe I should go in and get the remake right because playing a game that's like nearly

[00:56:32] 20 years old it's hit or miss I think whether or not you can actually kind of get back into the mindset and the historical moment in which that game came out. Oftentimes when you play a game that's 20 years old the video game logic from that time

[00:56:44] period does not mesh with the video games that you're used to now and a lot of times games will only age poorly because of their brand of video game logic or their input layout scheme on gamepad or whatever it is so yeah Resident Evil 4

[00:57:00] very much feels like a game from 2023 but as we were talking about as we were gushing about the game in the beginning of this episode it doesn't abandon the spirit of what Resident Evil 4 is in the Resident Evil franchise being able to balance really scary stuff with really

[00:57:20] goofy campy stuff either so yeah I think it's a fantastic remake and I totally agree with you Cameron I think Resident Evil 4's biggest impact on the industry is one it's I think it's just emblematic of the fact that we live in an age of remakes

[00:57:36] are much safer games to produce you have nostalgia you have a big fan base and you have a whole generation of gamers that doesn't have access to that original game which I'm not necessarily praising but at the same

[00:57:48] time they're like oh people love this game look at all these people who love this game now here's my chance to finally experience and sort of be on the inside of why people love this game so much that's a big

[00:58:00] reason why I play remakes to be honest is like shoot this game that people love from so long ago it's not currently available a remake is coming out I'm just gonna play the remake and kind of feel like I could still be on the inside scoop and understand

[00:58:16] why a game is so beloved so I think it's an easy sale right it's an easy sell and you have less pre-production and your creative you know it's just a much safer bet so why not we're gonna see so many more of these right

[00:58:32] yeah I mean it was one of my predictions last episode is we're gonna see 10 of these released and announced and I think you nailed it where it's and we've talked about this before it's a question of risk and triple A game developments are such massive risks that

[00:58:52] these companies are gonna find any way they possibly can to offset that risk and what you hope is is that they use these remakes as the ability to like hey let's do something let's do it really well but because it's a remake and we have some

[00:59:08] bones there we can sort of save a little bit of cash on this and then if it does really well financially you use that to sort of funnel your next big like marquee triple A new game project right at least that's what you hope so

[00:59:24] I don't you know I'm not gonna say you're gonna be like well remakes are a bad thing and we're losing creativity I think it's just a reality of sort of the industry we're in right and when they're really well done like this I think

[00:59:36] they're fantastic I think when it's like rockstar and they did that GTA whatever 1 through 3 and it was like super horribly done or the Warcraft 3 reforged which was terribly terribly done and just really poorly done that's really bad and we don't want that so in terms of the impact

[01:00:04] I hope people see Resident Evil 4 I don't know how this game did like financially I assume it did exceptionally well I assume I would have to look up the numbers but yeah you hope people look at this and go oh that did

[01:00:16] really well because they really went all out with it and you hope that when these other remakes get done that they will get done at this level yes exactly and I think you are very right in mentioning remakes or like remasters that did really poorly

[01:00:32] right when you do this type of remake it's gotta be done with care and it's gotta be done with the same kind of level of attention and passion as the original project as the original game otherwise it's just not gonna feel good

[01:00:48] people are gonna complain the nostalgia can't entirely carry any remake right there needs to be something else that's new and fresh coming to it and you know remakes I think in that vein are very similar to songs that get covered right

[01:01:04] you don't want somebody's cover of a song to be just a carbon copy of the original you want them to add their own flavor but you want that core originality of the song to be recognizable

[01:01:16] and then people will really get on board with it because it can feel like the original core essence of the song and what the artist is adding to it as they're performing a cover right same thing with remakes I agree with you too now it this is coming

[01:01:32] from Capcom Capcom is a very you know big and there's a lot of money that they're pushing around so I do feel like that they can sort of live that dream of hey let's make these remakes and fund these new projects

[01:01:44] and I agree that's what you hope from from all of these studios that kind of being said it makes me wonder right just kind of the state of remakes and kind of offloading the remake to a different company so I'm thinking

[01:02:00] of like Demon's Souls remake I'm thinking of because this was just in the news too right about the Max Payne remakes that are forthcoming we have the unfortunate example of the Kotor remake right where these are safe

[01:02:16] bets but they have to be managed super well and they have to be done with like I said the same care and passion or same level of care and passion that went into the original products or they collapse upon themselves right so this is not a given the

[01:02:32] remake is not a given and I really hope that Resident Evil 4 remake sends that message very clear right that like it doesn't matter if your game is just was beloved in people think super highly of it and it has

[01:02:44] a great reputation you have to build upon that foundation in order for your remake to be a success well Jake with that this has been another episode of the pre-adventist podcast talking Resident Evil 4 remake thank you so much for listening if you like the show please

[01:03:08] leave us a review on your platform of choice Spotify Apple Podcast Google Podcast wherever you are at you can also join us and continue the conversation on discord you can find a link to the discord an open invite in the podcast description

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[01:03:52] our regular podcast episodes and then access to Jake's indie impressions which he puts a ton of work into those to go deep into the world of indie games thank you so much for listening and have a great night