Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi has stopped talking about Lost Planet 2 and started talking about Resident Evil 5 again.
Two key questions arose when he spoke with Variety (the Hollywood and now, apparently, video gaming trade mag).
First up: why the bloody heck can't you run'n'shoot? (he was also asked about "not being able to stop the game when you go through your inventory" during the question.
His initial response, "In regards to the inventory that was definitely a deliberate choice. In “Resident Evil 4” when you opened your inventory the game paused. We wanted to have – the way the game is divided up is into chapter. Between each chapter you can look at your inventory and sort through everything..." which, let's face it is waffle.
He was prodded again regarding run'n'shoot. To which he replied, "We’ve always thought the fact that you can’t move and shoot at the same time is very important in the Resident Evil games.
"We wanted the player to be in a situation where if the enemy’s getting closer and closer at some point you have to decide when you’re going to stop shooting and if you’ll run away... That situation, that tension is very important to what the game is."
That should put a cork in the slew of whinging from people who want to run'n'shoot in a game that's not previously appeared to need that option.
So, what of the 'Ressie 5 is hideously racist you know" debate?
Mr Takeuchi begins, "I think what’s most important is the intention of the people who made, let’s say, the image that you’re talking about of a White person shooting Black people. If they have ill will intended then I don’t think that’s a good thing."
He continues later, "I think what’s important is what the people intended when creating that (image of a white person shooting a black person). If they intended to create that with racial meaning behind it then I don’t think that’s a good thing.
"But at the end of the day we’re in the business of making entertainment and what we have created is a game that takes place in Africa and there are scenes where a White person is shooting Black people and other scenes where your African partner is shooting people of (sic) different races as well."
(The uppercasing of 'white' and 'black' comes via Variety by the way.)
Okay, that's simplistic in a "I threw the telly out of the 5th floor window for a laugh! Didn't think it would hit anybody on the bonce did I?" sort of a way.
He goes on, "I think it’s a good thing that you bring in different perspectives from different parts of the world, politics and different things into different forms of entertainment. What’s important there is, if you have somebody who has a message who’s trying to say “This group of people are bad” or “This way of thinking is bad,” obviously that’s not a good thing.
"If we were to start thinking first about how people are going to respond to something we’d end up in a situation where we couldn’t have a game based in Africa..."
The full interview is over at Variety. Looks like there is still plenty of room for debate in this one. Thank goodness.
Two key questions arose when he spoke with Variety (the Hollywood and now, apparently, video gaming trade mag).
First up: why the bloody heck can't you run'n'shoot? (he was also asked about "not being able to stop the game when you go through your inventory" during the question.
His initial response, "In regards to the inventory that was definitely a deliberate choice. In “Resident Evil 4” when you opened your inventory the game paused. We wanted to have – the way the game is divided up is into chapter. Between each chapter you can look at your inventory and sort through everything..." which, let's face it is waffle.
He was prodded again regarding run'n'shoot. To which he replied, "We’ve always thought the fact that you can’t move and shoot at the same time is very important in the Resident Evil games.
"We wanted the player to be in a situation where if the enemy’s getting closer and closer at some point you have to decide when you’re going to stop shooting and if you’ll run away... That situation, that tension is very important to what the game is."
That should put a cork in the slew of whinging from people who want to run'n'shoot in a game that's not previously appeared to need that option.
So, what of the 'Ressie 5 is hideously racist you know" debate?
Mr Takeuchi begins, "I think what’s most important is the intention of the people who made, let’s say, the image that you’re talking about of a White person shooting Black people. If they have ill will intended then I don’t think that’s a good thing."
He continues later, "I think what’s important is what the people intended when creating that (image of a white person shooting a black person). If they intended to create that with racial meaning behind it then I don’t think that’s a good thing.
"But at the end of the day we’re in the business of making entertainment and what we have created is a game that takes place in Africa and there are scenes where a White person is shooting Black people and other scenes where your African partner is shooting people of (sic) different races as well."
(The uppercasing of 'white' and 'black' comes via Variety by the way.)
Okay, that's simplistic in a "I threw the telly out of the 5th floor window for a laugh! Didn't think it would hit anybody on the bonce did I?" sort of a way.
He goes on, "I think it’s a good thing that you bring in different perspectives from different parts of the world, politics and different things into different forms of entertainment. What’s important there is, if you have somebody who has a message who’s trying to say “This group of people are bad” or “This way of thinking is bad,” obviously that’s not a good thing.
"If we were to start thinking first about how people are going to respond to something we’d end up in a situation where we couldn’t have a game based in Africa..."
The full interview is over at Variety. Looks like there is still plenty of room for debate in this one. Thank goodness.
Games:
Resident Evil 5
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Comments
SuperSaiyan4 25 Feb 2009 13:32
1/2
Only idiots will find this game racist, what about when the original Res Evil games came out? Were there white folk getting upset? No, what about Res Evil 4 when shooting at the Spaniards? No again.
Oh but as soon as there are black people in the game being shot at BOOM! You got huge problems.
But its ok for a black person to shoot white folk.
Again same goes for say a white person shooting asians in a game people just get uptight and use it as ammo.
Its a game, and as the developer has said its based in Africa and if you look in the demo there are even white folk that are like zombies in there too so its kinda mixed.
Oh but as soon as there are black people in the game being shot at BOOM! You got huge problems.
But its ok for a black person to shoot white folk.
Again same goes for say a white person shooting asians in a game people just get uptight and use it as ammo.
Its a game, and as the developer has said its based in Africa and if you look in the demo there are even white folk that are like zombies in there too so its kinda mixed.
Joji 25 Feb 2009 15:24
2/2
People find objection really because its a game. Games overall should be entertaining, so they put two and two together and get five.
I think more people should take two words into consideration before they loose it, namely context and intent. However, while the righteous wave their flags, few of them will sample the demo to really find out the truth of it all, because research of RE is to taxing for them, on their high horses.
Kudos to Capcom, because the only other game out there set in Africa is Ubi's Far Cry 2 (i think, correct if wrong). Ruffling feathers is a good thing sometimes, as you can never please everyone.
All creeds and colours are a target of Umbrella/TriCell, so they can all be a target for my gun. What else do they expect us to use to defend ourselves with, harsh language?
As for the much talked about RE run n' gun debate, I agree with both sides. RE's tension looses a lot of it were run and gun. They other thing few are baring in mind is that Capcom's engine has to genrerate all those enemies surrounding you, which at times can be a few. It might not be practical to over do it, so by confining and restricting the player somewhat, allows the engine to avoid slowdown or producing enemies too fast or other issues ( won't get too techincal, as I can be wrong). I think taking influence from controls like Ubi's GRAW would be cool.
I hear Capcom may consider the feedback from the controls of RE5, to improve and mold RE6. We all win, and it shows that they do listen to us.
I think more people should take two words into consideration before they loose it, namely context and intent. However, while the righteous wave their flags, few of them will sample the demo to really find out the truth of it all, because research of RE is to taxing for them, on their high horses.
Kudos to Capcom, because the only other game out there set in Africa is Ubi's Far Cry 2 (i think, correct if wrong). Ruffling feathers is a good thing sometimes, as you can never please everyone.
All creeds and colours are a target of Umbrella/TriCell, so they can all be a target for my gun. What else do they expect us to use to defend ourselves with, harsh language?
As for the much talked about RE run n' gun debate, I agree with both sides. RE's tension looses a lot of it were run and gun. They other thing few are baring in mind is that Capcom's engine has to genrerate all those enemies surrounding you, which at times can be a few. It might not be practical to over do it, so by confining and restricting the player somewhat, allows the engine to avoid slowdown or producing enemies too fast or other issues ( won't get too techincal, as I can be wrong). I think taking influence from controls like Ubi's GRAW would be cool.
I hear Capcom may consider the feedback from the controls of RE5, to improve and mold RE6. We all win, and it shows that they do listen to us.