So, waaaaaaaaay back, Capcom announced HD Up-makes of RE4 and RE:C:V and everyone was like "Yay, RE4 HD and some other game!" except for me, who said "Oh boy, another version of RE4 I'm not buying" since my distaste for RE4 is well-documented. (Though, not well-documented enough, yet. Hint, hint) Then shortly after, it was said that the game would be DD-only in NA and only a few people lost hype, but figured they would actually print the games on a disk -eventually- and announce it just before the DD versions came out to let everyone know your choice of media is doable for them. But that hasn't happened and, with just how poorly Capcom has been doing lately, I'm not holding my breath on seeing a two-in-one disk coming out.
Resident Evil 4 HD just came out this week on PSN and XBL and has generated quite a few issues in the short time it's been out. What some call a blessing, others, like me, call a curse is the fact that the gameplay has remained largely unchanged (except for the fact that Dash and Attack are mapped to the wrong buttons and unchangeable) which is not a surprise. Usually, these HD updos don't do a whole lot to the gameplay itself, as it's more or less about the graphics, and that's generally where you see the biggest difference. Though....apparently that's not really so with RE4 HD. I've only seen a couple reviews and I haven't bothered to read them through, but they mention that the GameCube version of RE4 was clearly the basis of the game and the textures and graphics really reflect that. While they're still HD they're only barely so and they do nothing to address the fact that parts of the game are just ugly and would need completely re-touched, rather than just upscaled.
Another issue, albeit a likely minor one depending on where you stand, is that, after promising "Full Trophy/Achievement Lists" for the games, RE 4 HD came packed with a whole 12 Achievements/Trophies. The numbers are broken up enough on the 360 version of the game so that you'll end up with 1000 points upon completing all twelve tasks, so that's all...well and good there, I suppose. But what about the PS3 version? A trophy was certainly dropped in lieu of reserving a Platinum spot, right? I mean, it's a full game. Full Games get Platinum. Well, no. No it was not and apparently Capcom is strictly about the numbers. And here's the numbers for you: Of the whole twelve trophies, Nine of them are Bronze, Two are Silver and One is Gold.
After doing a little looking around, it would seem that the game also has some fairly noticeable audio issues (admittedly not from the best source, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised), and all of this honestly just has me wondering what the hell Capcom is thinking. This rabbit hole goes much, much deeper, as I've only been talking about one single port of a game they just released. I could bring up any of the multitude of other issues like how poorly their new IPs did (Dark Voooooooooid), how....honestly damaging they've been to their own reputation lately, and all of the poor decisions they've made in the clear and public eye.
Keiji Inafune recently spoke about the 'truth' behind MML3 and it's cancellation (despite never being green-lit in the first place) and said, basically that Capcom's antics were what drove him to want to get out of the company. But, not wanting to leave his projects un-finished, he offered to keep working on them even at his new company. Capcom was...less than thrilled with the idea, clearly as Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3 will likely never see the light of day. It's quite unfortunate on both parts, really, as the former really would have lent itself to getting more people trying out these Creative Sandbox titles, to maybe think a little better of them and broaden horizons, whereas the latter would have...well, just made a lot of people happy.
In one of the classier statements out of this sort of situation one could expect, Inafune doesn't really point fingers, though he should, and says simply that he left behind "a great team" who he hopes somebody will step into his vacated role and really fight for these games and try to see them through Capcom's unwillingness to cooperate. He's not too optimistic that anyone will fight Capcom as he did, but he's not really talking bad about anyone here, which seems a little hard to do, given the circumstances. I guess saying that he had to fight Capcom to have his two projects even considered is sort of a strike against them, but he's being fairly diplomatic about it.
I don't have to be, though. I, like many others, think Capcom's taken up the rotating mantle of "Game Company Insanity" and I'm not quite sure when they, or anyone currently wearing it, will give it up, but as we know, it is a burden that is able to be gotten rid of. EA did for a while after their massive show of goodwill towards new IPs, creating both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, as well as plenty of other moves that were, well, good ones. Only Dead Space stuck (for now), but it stuck good and it's a good thing. Faced with the prospect of Dead Space 3 is a great one, even though I haven't even played the second one yet, and Mirror's Edge hasn't been completely forgotten, though there's not a lot to show for the repeated talks that say as much.
I guess we'll just have to see how this pans out; eventually Capcom will be everyone's friend again, as the cycle starts anew, but I'm wondering at this point just what they'll have to do to make that happen. It certainly won't be easy, but if you give gamers something they really want, it's hard to not win some good will; usually enough to forgive the past. After all, if that wasn't true, then gaming would've died out long, long ago after all those bridges were burned.
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