If you never had the misfortune to play it, know that the PC port of Resident Evil 4 was one of Capcom’s (and Ubisoft’s) darkest moments. So shoddy was the coding that it turned one of the greatest games of all time into a poorly-optimised, bug-riddled joke.
Now, so as to squeeze a few more bucks out of a game that’s already been ported to every video game system on the planet, Capcom is re-releasing the game on PC, this time doing the right thing and doing it properly.
Well, to a point. The code’s probably just the Xbox 360 and PS3 HD re-releases tidied up, but even that’s a massive improvement over the garbage originally released in 2007.
Called the Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition, it will run at 60fps, and will be out on Steam on February 28.
Comments
31 responses to “Capcom Trying To Make Amends For One Of The Worst PC Ports Ever”
meh… too little too late.
I think all if not most of the AAA titles from capcom that came over to pc had GFWL. Thats why I never played em on PC.
Well good news! GFWL is shutting down shortly (couple of months from memory).
All I need now is Uplay to bugger off when I buy a game through Steam -_-
This game is awesome. Played it on Gamecube, picked it up cheap on Wii and loved it even more (it has all the added content too).
The aiming actually worked really well with the wiimote.
Funnily enough, I played Resident Evil 5 with Move expecting the same magic and … well, it sucked.
You played both and the move one didn’t work well?
Interesting.
Yep. I think it was a combination of the button layout and the gameplay. Move is great tech but for some reason it didn’t gel with Resi 5; for me, at least.
I had no idea there was even a PC version released. I’m kinda glad, because I probably would have bought it.
I loved RE4 on the Gamecube. I even have that completely stupid and impractical chainsaw shaped controller.
Haha, I searched high and low for that chainsaw controller, no one seemed to have it a the time. Got extremely lucky in both finding and funding it. Kinda disappointed how hard it is to use, but it’s still cool 😛
Ha, yeah, it’s as impractical a controller as could ever be conceived but … It wasn’t really made to be used 🙂 Damn it looks good on Mt shelf though.
I realy think capcom need to stop wasting their time and just put all their effort to repairing the demage that has been done to Resident Evil.
I was reading that the Resident Evil 1 remake for Wii or Gamecube(forget which one) sold so poorly that capcom decided to take the series on a more action path cause they thought the poor sales was the sign that no one was interested in Horror Survival games anymore.
I think right their shows us what is wrong with capcom.
If they had stuck to the Horror Survival Resident Evils for 5 and 6, and if they were true to the Horror/Survival RE we knew, they would have sold the same amount and still made massive profits.
But again, it just shows how far Capcom have fallen.
I loved the RE1 remake on the Cube. I hated RE4… I’m shooting??? Some weird Eastern European bogans??
I never played the gamecube remake. RE4 was ok, but it was where RE started to loose its identity.
…do you really want me to explain the plot to you? Because this is RE we’re talking about, a game where the plot being stupid is half the charm.
And this is why many developers start to fail. Maybe if they listened to feedback rather than assuming what went wrong then we’d all be better off. I think developers either are completely oblivious to the seemingly endless amount of internet forums with people venting their issues about games, or they disregard them as a handful of trolls saying a game’s crap just because and then making up their own excuses about why a game failed to sell
And your comment is one reason why developers need to start listening.
Alot of us have been playing games since the 80’s, or like me, since I was 5 in the 90’s with Playstation 1. Ive known Video Gaming from a very young age, have played hundreds of video games, from amazing to just outright crap. So thats one example of why the Gamers are the best people to listen to.
The Gaming Community have been playing Video Games for sooo long, that we have just as much passion in Video Games then Developers.
Its at the point now where the Gaming Community know more about what makes a good game then developers cause we are playing so many different video games.
Once Developers…and PUBLISHERS! Start listening to the Gamers, then their will be a massive improvement.
Like GTA5, most people I talk to about it say multiplayer was not needed and those resources could have been used to heavily improve the Singleplay which lost its fun factor after the Story is finished because of the lack of a variety in activities. Nothing was new. So that is one example of Gamers know best.
One Developer I have alot of respect for is IO Interactive. They know fans of Hitman were not happy with Hitman Absolution, so they got onto the Forums on their website and around the web, and are now creating a Hitman game with the sandbox feeling of its missions like the older games and a huge amount of Variety and use the old undercover ststem. Thats a real developer, listening to the gamer.
But with Next Gen, and Sonys and Steam Greenlights ability to give indies and unknowns a chance to revolutionise the Industry one again with new ideas and styles, Ive got High Hopes for the industry again.
But I also think that Publishers are one of the biggest issues for the Industry.
I completely agree about publishers. SEGA are my enemy of choice atm for Rome 2. Crowdfunding is also another way for developers to bypass having to answer to anyone although they need to get results as they’re using gamer’s money and they can be even more demanding than publishers. Interesting to see people like Obsidian and Chris Roberts going through crowdfunding though when they probably would’ve been able to easily get a publisher to back their games. It seems like the developers are enjoying the freedom of not working under a publisher
Take a gander at this
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38205/Opinion_Player_Metrics_Vs_The_Vocal_Minority.php
Good article on why the “handful of trolls” probably should be ignored.
I know that most of the time it’s a small minority of people complaining about something minor that the rest of us don’t care about, but when you get a seemingly large amount of people complaining then developers need to listen. Square Enix for example. There was plenty of negative feedback about XIII and people saying it wasn’t up to standards. They then went on to make two sequels to that game saying that XIII sold well and because of that it must be popular with gamers. But on the other hand, they listened really well to the feedback about XIV. I’ll use Rome 2 as an example again as well, when it first came out, yeah the game wasn’t up to a Total War standard. They’ve worked hard on that, listened to the feedback and are making progress (part of the problem as I said above was SEGA putting a release date on the game and rushing it out). Since then though, people are still complaining just because and in that case, that’s when you should ignore the trolls.
I know the internet is full of trolls, and for the most part the should be ignored, but developers need to learn the difference between trolling because someone gets a kick out of it and listening to genuine feedback
Yeah, but even then FF13 was split. People complained about linearity and lack of sidequests. Problem is that most RPGS, especially JRPGS, are linear by nature and sidequests are usually pointless or too simply. So with FF13-2 they went overboard, making huge areas of nothing that were full of sidequests. They gave fans what they wanted but it didn’t work? Maybe because the real problem with FF13 was the story and characters. Now, with FF13-3 they’re adding more variety, even hundreds of clothing material. Yet, it still looks as hollow and soulless as FF13. Who do you listen to? Which side has the agenda?
Here’s another example, I’ll use one tiny mechanic from a game. In Halo 1, ODST and Reach, you have health, but in Halo 2, 3 and 4 you don’t. I can make articles arguing why health is important for the Halo franchise and still get rebuttals from people saying that no health is more true to Halo. Completely split here, who should the developers listen to?
Developers shouldn’t really be catering to fans or fanboys. We’d never get anything done or advanced. They should be making games that they want people to experience. If they spend so much time trying to appease previous fans (or even trying to get the CoD crowd) then they run the risk of making soulless products.
Fair enough point. You end up listening to every bit of criticism and you’ll go round in circles. I guess another problem would be that beta testers either aren’t providing decent feedback, they aren’t used or the developers aren’t listening to them. With a lot more games offering early access to beta builds and even alpha builds now, hopefully we’ll see constructive criticism being used before a game goes gold
Problem with betas, or rather open to public betas, is that many people see it as a chance to play the game early. Many people view the beta as the final product as well. These people are testing the game, they’re playing it. Then probably complain about changes in the final prodcut. I still remember back during a CoD: WoW beta that many people would race the other team to spots on the map that allowed them to hide within a wall that allowed to them shoot out of but not be shot at. For a beta tester, this is one step before they move onto the next problem. For a developer, this is a problem that they’ll try to fix. For a player that got beta access, it’s something that makes them win better.
You can usually spot these people as the ones who whine about change or stat wiping during release.
I couldn’t stand pretty much every character (except Lightning – and eventually tolerated Snow) in FF13, and resented being forced to play with them.
The worst combat system of any Final Fantasy game to date coupled with the longest tutorial of any game on the planet, forcing me to suffer through character exposition of characters who I actively disliked if not loathed made Final Fantasy 13 the worst game of the series to me.
Imagine my frustration when they kept on fucking announcing more games using the same universe/combat system. 😛
I think it’s more about needing to evolve the series, which is why RE4 (the best RE ever) was created.
RE5 and 6 was just a lack of focus and direction. Not knowing how to move the franchise and trying all of them.
Mechanically I felt like RE4 was the best game in the series, but thematically I much preferred 2.
So they sell a crap game. Make millions from it. Fix it up and sell the same game again to make more millions? WOW!
Do the poor suckers who bought the original PC version get upgraded to this one? Or are they expected to buy it again?
I literally just bought it yesterday for the Wii! Argh!
Don’t fret. It’s loads of fun on the Wii – enjoy it.
This is far from their only offence, I’m pretty sure their the main reason the term “shitty port” came about in the 90’s.
I’m looking forward to it. I know Capcom are renowned for squeezing every last dollar out of something, but look around you, people – the gaming industry is full of over priced DLC, exclusive pre-order content (not to mention ridiculously overpriced limited/special editions that come with cheap knick-knack paddywhack garbage), micro transactions/pay to win, stuck in forever ‘early access’ alpha BS … the list goes on and on. If you ask me the whole scene is looking rather prostitutionalised, so Capcom asking $20 for the best version of Resident Evil 4 doesn’t seem like the crime of the century to me (granted that the original PC port should have been done right in the first place). 60fps for a game that’s only ever been hard locked to 30? In engine cutscenes instead of horrible low quality pre-rendered BIK video crap? Proper controller/keyboard and mouse support? The game will have never looked better, or the action will have never felt smoother. It might be a nine year old game, but it’s one of the best in my opinion.