DynamicDifficultyAdjustment
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'Resident Evil 4' secretly adjusted its difficulty for you
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most beloved entries in the survival horror franchise, and the last game before the series moved towards a more bombastic, action-focused style. There are many reasons to love this Leon Kennedy adventure, but one that often goes unrecognised is its dynamic approach to difficulty. As Pocket Gamer's Mark Brown explains, Resident Evil 4 would subtly tweak your experience depending on how well you were playing. Enemies would deliver greater damage, for instance, and appear more aggressive if you were easily charging through each area, and some players have suggested that ammo drops would automatically decrease for your preferred weapons. All of this culminated in a game that naturally balanced challenge and progression -- you never felt completely safe or in control, but neither did you feel that tricky sections were impossible. As Brown notes, to Capcom's credit they've never confirmed the feature's existence -- all we have are anecdotes and corroborating gameplay footage from the fans.
A numerical history, and future, of flOw dev That Game Company
On the first floor of Moscone's North hall last Friday, flOw developer That Game Company presented their storied origins. Co-founders Jenova Chen, who took a brief recess from the company to help on the DS version of Will Wright's Spore, and Kellee Santiago, met at the University of Southern California. "I don't see [video games] as being any different [than other interactive media], it's all story telling," Santiago said. Chen, who affirms that his proudest work is flOw and Cloud, explained their place in gaming with an ever-popular culinary allegory. Think of Gears of War as steak and World of Warcraft as chicken. Let's give lettuce a relation to Nintendogs and fish can be Brain Age. "Let's say you focus on chicken, but somehow you find a way to make it accessible and customizable," said Chen. The according Power Point slide shows the chicken transition into a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. "That also expands the audience or customers. How can you make existing games more accessible to wider audiences?" Does that mean flOw is a bowl of cereal? All we know now is that we're quite famished.
