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Famitsu reveals Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, confirms RE4 port [update 1]
[Update 1: fixed the name of the DS game. Thanks, SnesR0X, and no thanks to the many similar DS-game subtitles!]It's been a while since we had a directed blurry-Famitsu-picture staredown, and this one is, as usual, totally worth staring at. Famitsu printed a long-awaited look at Capcom's Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, the Wii-exclusive RE-series-spanning game.According to the article, it's a first-person gun shooting game with playable characters from past REs including Chris, Jill, Wesker, and others. Whether it's a true FPS or an on-rails affair like Resident Evil: Dead Aim remains to be seen.Also in Famitsu was confirmation that Resident Evil 4 is getting an enhanced Wii release. Rumor has it that all the PS2 extras will be included, but the only definite is an added Wiimote-controlled knife mode. Sounds like RE Deadly Silence on the DS.[Thanks, zshadow!]
Mysterious Wii 'Sadness' explained!
Has the mysterious Sadness weighed down your soul, pervading every fold and crevice of your aching heart? Well cheer up, Game Informer brings the first illuminating details of Nibris' dark horror adventure: It's pre-WWI, and you are Maria, a woman desperate to protect her son Alexander after a train derailment lands the two of you in the always-creepy Eastern European countryside. Alex has been blinded in the accident and is starting to act "odd." Your subsequent fate will share eerie similarities to ... Slavic legends!Nibris estimates that Sadness will provide 15 heart-pounding hours of "No Alex! Not that way!" action, in addition to 10 tear-jerking endings. You ready to unleash your inner-mother? We hear Cooking Mama is a great way to stir up those maternal instincts ... try starting there.
Third Resident Evil film to be buried in desert
And in our wildest dreams, it would be right next to those E.T. The Extra Terrestrial cartridges. Too bad you can't win them all. Or even one, in the case of non-sir Paul W. Anderson. He's the man writing the script (if that's what we call randomly flinging words at a blank page) for Resident Evil Colon Extinction, the third film adaptation of Capcom's survival horror series. Previously, he directed the first Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat (hey, that wasn't so bad!) and Predator castration epic, Alien vs. Predator. Speaking at a recent Hollywood and Video Games summit, in Beverly Hills Mr. Anderson outlined his original vision for the shambling corpse of a trilogy. The first film would act as a prequel to the game, the second as an intersecting companion and third as a post script.Interestingly enough, the third film just happens to be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, which is either a tired narrative device or some sort of meta-commentary on the series itself. The world's been overrun with undead fellows and the only survivors, which include Milla Jovovich's Alice, Jill Valentine and Code Veronica escapee Claire Redfield, must make a run for it in armored convoys. "So that's where the movie takes place, primarily in the deserts of Nevada and around Las Vegas. But of course, it's a Las Vegas that has kind of fallen now, because what's happened is, with no one to take care of it, the desert has come back in and half-buried Vegas. So... we built all these casinos which are sort of buried in the sand." We'll take a gamble and hold out some vague hope that this will pull a Resident Evil 4 and make the series sparkle.Or not. This Hollywood machine is rigged.[Thanks Killer_Twinkie!]
Silent Hill 5 rumor round-up
QJ.net rounds up some Silent Hill 5 rumors from the Team Xbox forums and provides instant analysis: The game will have a next gen release, all signs indicate it'll be coming to the PS3, but it's likely the 360 will not be left out in the cold. It'll be developed by an American R&D team. Gameplay will be influenced by the highly successful and popular Resident Evil 4 They pretty judge it "Obviously," "Interesting," and "Neato, but don't screw it up" in that order. I'll silently agree.
Hollywood's next victim: Clock Tower
If you're still trying to get that Silent Hill taste out of your mouth (tastes sort of like a lead paint sandwich with a nice, tall glass of gore, in case you were wonderin'), then Hollywood's latest property oughta provide additional sustenance. Because Alone in the Dark wasn't an obscure enough game to base a movie on, Chilean director Jorge Olguin has just been tapped to helm the adaptation of Capcom's creepy (and popular in Japan) survival horror title, Clock Tower.Variety reveals, "Penned by Jake Wade Wall (When a Stranger Calls), pic concerns a young woman who receives a disturbing phone call from her estranged mother warning her not to come home. When she investigates, she uncovers a terrible supernatural truth from her past." This sounds an awful lot like the plot for Clock Tower 3. It all makes sense now: teenage girl, spooky house, Scissorman ... hopefully the combination of an acclaimed director and a well received plot can deliver gamers a worthy film.[Via NeoGAF]
"Erotic" themes too much for Sony in America
Rule-of-rose: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Rule. Of. Rose.Alright, so it's not quite Lolita but Sony's Rule of Rose has its own controversy. The Japanese game is being published by Sony in Japan while they've opted to pass on publishing the title in the States. The reason: the game's erotic undertones involving prepubescent girls. Yeah ... err, but that's just what it appears to be! In an interview with Gamasutra, the game's director Shuji Ishikawa explained his motivations and why they thinks there's nothing inappropriate with the content:"Right, the erotic aspect you mentioned earlier isn't supposed to be the main theme. There are definitely erotic parts to it, and some things that might make people uncomfortable, but it's not the focus. It shouldn't be a problem. It's about intimate relationships between all people, not just children, not just girls. There will be people who don't understand it, but others will."And it won't be toned down for the west."Publishing rights in the U.S. are being handled by Atlus who, it appears, have no problem with the content. When asked why they wouldn't be publishing the title in the States, Sony producer Yuya Takayama replied, "How shall I say this...well, when Sony looked at the game, they felt it wasn't really in sync with their corporate image. Their personal pride wanted it to be a bit tamer, if it were to have the Sony name in the U.S. I personally appealed to them that it wasn't that kind of game, but it didn't quite work out for me."Gamers can be relieved that -- unlike many Japanese games whose themes and topics are considered either inappropriate or untranslatable -- Rule of Rose will be coming to the States despite our often puritanical inhibitions. However, you can be sure this isn't the last we've heard of this "controversy."[Thanks, cringer8](Update: embedded trailer after the break for additional context. Great comments!)
Silent Hill: Origins poster at E3
Here's another snap from the pre-E3 LA Convention Center, this time of Silent Hill: Origins. Common sense dictates that this is simply an alternate title for the forthcoming PSP remake of the original game, titled Silent Hill: Original Sin. Rampant desire and unlikely to be fulfilled dreams, however, suggest that it's the name of the gloriously rendered PS3 version of Harry's twisted quest to find "a little girl with black hair" and his occasional run-ins with deranged cultists, meat monsters (with sewing machines for hands) and deserted wheelchairs. I can hope, right?It's great that the original game in an excellent series is being revisited, but I'm dubious of how well a portable platform will be able to reproduce the qualities of Silent Hill. Immersion may be difficult to pull off successfully in a handheld device, but given its video and audio capabilities, the PSP is likely to be the best choice for a survival horror title.
Preview Alert: Resident Evil DS
For all the innovation that's present on the platform, it's somewhat unusual to find DS owners getting so fervent about the remake of a 10 year old game that's already been remade once before. Then again, the game in question just so happens to be Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, a title crammed to the brim with, silly plot developments, Jill sandwiches, puzzle-solving amulets and, most importantly, grotesque zombies. What's not to like, right?1up has posted a nice little preview of Capcom's portable evil, confirming some of the things we were wondering about and detailing some of the differences between the DS version and the original. With a touch-controlled menu, first-person slashing sequences, cooperative wireless play and the ability to literally blow poison back into an attacker's face, it seems like the game makes pretty good use of the DS' abilities. After all, it could have been very easy for Capcom to just slap a map on the top screen, call it a day and watch the franchise rake in the cash.Now if only we could get a version of Resident Evil 4...[Update: Corrected a "wi-ly" typo.]
New Resident Evil screenies
After watching the video trailer of Capcom's re-REmake of Resident Evil earlier this month, it became apparent that Capcom was making every effort to appease survival-horror fans...well, at least the ones that enjoyed the series before Resident Evil 4 fixed revitalized it. Yes, the static camera angles, obtuse "place the magical obsidian gem into the fish statue" puzzles and robotic aiming have all returned, but the allure of slashing zombies in first-person view and an apparent multiplayer mode will undoubtedly prove much too hard to resist.Still, it would have been far better to see the game drop the fixed camera angles and adopt an over-the-shoulder view with precise, stylus-driven aiming. The environments are all real-time now, so why not? Why can't you use the guns in first-person mode? And how about a Nintendogs-esque mini-game where you attempt to train a chained zombie, only to have him nibble your arm off at unexpected intervals? Ponder these questions while you absorb the new and very bloody screenshots of the game.[Correction: Upon closer scrutiny (thanks el pero de nate), it seems we gave this remake a bit too much credit. The environments aren't real-time, but we still stand by our ideas for making the game better.]
