I'm thinking of starting a complete run of all main story entry in the franchise sometime this year and possibly report on this endeavor in a blog (but maybe not because i'm a lazy bastard).

I played 1,2,3 and 4 more times than i can remember but there are still some i haven't played, or not played enough to remember much of anything about them.

I want to play the whole thing in story line order.

The plan!

1. Resident Evil Zero (never played)
2. REmake (Chris' scenario)(never played)
3. Resident Evil 3 (up to regaining control of Jill after the Carlos section in the hospital)
4. Resident Evil 2 - Claire A/Leon B (i would play both concurrently, i.e. clear the Police Station with one, then with the other, sewers with one, then the other etc)
5. Finish Resident Evil 3
6. Code Veronica X HD (played only once and don't remember much about it)
7. Resident Evil 4 HD/Separate Ways (chapter 1 with Leon, chapter 1 with Ada, chapter 2 with Leon, chapter 2 with Ada etc)
8. Resident Evil Revelations (also known as Revelaitons)(never played)
9. Resident Evil 5 up to chapter 2.
10. Lost in Nightmares
11. Finish Resident Evil 5
12. Desperate Escape
13. Resident Evil 6 (never played)

The questions!

1. Does everything in the plan checks out?
2. Are any of the spin-offs important to the story?
3. Is there a cannon version between Claire A/Leon B and Leon A/Claire B?
4. Is playing RE6 a bad idea?

I personally wouldn't enjoy very much of that run, but this seems like a great idea. Also yes playing RE6 for yourself is quite important (A lot of people led be to believe that RE5 wasn't very good but I played it and it was one of the best games of the year for me. I still think RE6 is a piece of crap though.)

I think that looks awesome. How regularly will you be posting?

No interest in RE Survivor for the playstation? Games bad.

The canon story in RE2 is Claire A, Leon B, and no, none of the spinoffs are necessary. Darkside Chronicles does include a prequel to RE4 starring Leon and Krauser, though, but ehhhhhh. I would personally consider playing RE6 to be a bad idea yes, but the reception is a lot more divisive than it is wholly negative, so it may be worth checking out to see which side of the camp you fall on. Plus there's 2 substantial patches that improve the camera and apparently make the QTE's easier to get through.

Questions:
1. You need to play all the gun survivor games too.
2. Gun survivor is totally important...
3. Resident Evil, cannon?
4. Nope, it'll probably be a welcome respite from some of the terrible controls earlier in the series.

The Chronicles games? Those were cannon right?

God, I've always wanted to do something like this, too. No streaming equipment of any kind, though. ='(

Video or no deal.

@Daneian: No idea but it might be a while. For one thing i don't have a gamecube or a wii to play Zero and REmake so i have to deal with that first or download them ILLEGALY D: and an emulator.

@Yummylee: @AuthenticM: Doing video is also something i want to do eventually and this might be the opportunity to do so. Need the gear to do so however so that's another obstacle to getting this thing started.

All in all i'm just starting to think and plan this and it probably won't be for a couple weeks until everything is set up to do the thing.

@Pr1mus:

I have both of those games, and the means to play them. So I could play them for you via a livestream, and we could record ourselves talking about it as we go through the game.

Follow me on Skype.

Ahaha. Have fun with RE6. It's gonna be a looong day. According to my Twitch page, I have clocked in 14 hours so far and still need to do Ada's mission.

I mean, if you're going through all that trouble you might as well play RE6. I enjoyed it well enough, not more than RE5, but enough to finish every campaign and play a bunch of Mercenaries.

@Fattony12000: That's an interesting offer but i really want to play them myself. Also if i do video it wouldn't be a traditional let's play because i find them super boring and probably wouldn't have much to say to keep things interesting for the duration of a game. I was thinking more of editing together some of my favorite sections in each game with maybe a mix of live commentary while playing and record some after the fact. Some sort of highlights for each game if you will.

Why not play RE6, sure it is a long game and mostly a slog but if you played all the others. It is unfortunate that it would be the end of your run. Playing the worst game last.

If you're going to play through the all of the main story games, you might as well play RE6. It's not a very good game but Code Veronica is pretty awful too

I feel bad for you. I couldn't imagine enjoying a single moment of this endurance run. It would be a true test of endurance for me.

@Sauson said:

If you're going to play through the all of the main story games, you might as well play RE6. It's not a very good game but Code Veronica is pretty awful too

What? Code Veronica and 2 are the best ones. And REmake.

@Sooty said:

@Sauson said:

If you're going to play through the all of the main story games, you might as well play RE6. It's not a very good game but Code Veronica is pretty awful too

What? Code Veronica and 2 are the best ones. And REmake.

RE2 is amazing but Code Veronica? You're a crazy person.

Sounds awesome. Yummy's right, Claire A/Leon B is the accepted view. The Resident Evil Wikia has an area about canon storylines and such if you want to look into that.

And play RE6. Though some hate it, others like me love it. It's best to see what side of the camp you fall on. Also, if you stretch things out into May, you can play Resident Evil Revelations when it comes out for consoles. That takes place before Resident Evil 5.

In regards to the spinoffs, I think they are worth playing. Umbrella Chronicles gives some insight into Umbrella and Wesker, and Darkside Chronicles makes Krauser from RE4 not feel totally random. Plus, it kind of resolves a loose plot thread from CVX. They aren't necessary, but I'd play them. Same goes for Survivor and Dead Aim. Though in those cases, they don't have much to do with anything. And they aren't exactly...good. There's also the Outbreaks. They're interesting to see the Raccoon City Incident from multiple viewpoints, and it has a couple of neat details, but again, it's in no way necessary. The Chronicles games and Revelations are the main spinoffs that are worth playing. I also personally think Operation Raccoon City has some cool stuff in it, and is better than the Survivors and Outbreaks, but that one's pretty rough around the edges. Play at your own risk.

As a side note, I've actually been creating movie versions of the entire series in chronological order, editing it into tight blocks and bouncing back and forth between events when necessary(such as the entire Raccoon City stuff). They're pretty awesome, and makes it way easier just to sit back and soak it all in. I cover everything from:

Resident Evil 0, REmake, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Code: Veronica X, Outbreak 1 and 2, Survivor, Dead Aim, Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside Chronicles, Gaiden (I know it's issue with non-canonicity, I flubbed it a little), 4-D Executor (same as above), Operation Raccoon City (also same as above), Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6 (Still working on that one)

The thing's mammoth. Right now it's split into 9/10 episodes, each movie length. Would put it online, but Youtube's kind of a pain. Is there any other way to do it that's feasible?

Whatever, back to the topic. Yeah, I would go whole hog if I was doing it, but your mileage may vary. At the very least, I would play RE6 since you're definitely playing all the other main entries. I leave the spinoffs up to you.

@Pr1mus: Based on my knowledge of the canon, this planned playthrough should work. The light gun games can fit into the story but I don't really consider them vital. Stick with what you have now, and if you feel you need to take a break or give any streaming viewers "a bonus" you can do some of the other games in the series.

@Pr1mus said:

@Fattony12000: That's an interesting offer but i really want to play them myself. Also if i do video it wouldn't be a traditional let's play because i find them super boring and probably wouldn't have much to say to keep things interesting for the duration of a game. I was thinking more of editing together some of my favorite sections in each game with maybe a mix of live commentary while playing and record some after the fact. Some sort of highlights for each game if you will.

How about I get a friend of mine to play through it, take screenshots of interesting sequences and then fax them over to you along with .ogg recordings of my voice going "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SCARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY GHOSTS RESIDENT EEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" over and over again? Just send me a SAE with all your details so I can send a telegram to you.

@Fattony12000: That'll work :D Let me find my ink ribbons and typewriter to type all my details.

Bonus points for having fax and .ogg in the same sentence.

You need to add Revelations to your list. It is part of the main story, so you can't overlook it.

@IBurningStar: Done!

This is something I can endorse, even if playing that amount of Resident Evil at one time would burn me out for life. I played through Code Veronica X again a few months ago, and that almost did the trick by itself (It's way too long for its own good, basically. Also RE0 is underrated. ) I don't know what else to tell you, other than that all Resident Evil spinoffs range from utter crap to totally ok and you shouldn't play them, and also that yeah, you should play Resident Evil 6 to know for yourself. I'd also suggest you play the original PS1 version as a contrast with how much they changed in REmake (I'd also jokingly suggest you play the unreleased GBC port since that's been released to the public, but I'm not going to force you down that road).

And hey, if this pads out long enough, maybe this nebulous RE 1.5 project that is either an elaborate hoax or the real deal will be released and you can play that too. Yeah.....

Is REmake significantly different from the original? I just finished up Resident Evil: Director's Cut, so I'm curious.

@Pr1mus: This is a cool idea. You should check out The Dark Id's Resident Evil LPs on LPArchive, they're amazing. He set the bar pretty high, but I'm willing to check out what you're doing regardless.

I fully endorse this idea, I did something like this on the run up to RE 6 and had a blast. It'd be awesome if you did blogs during you're run. I was to lazy to do them and ended up regretting it. Also considering doing something like this since Gears of War Judgement is not to far off.

RE6 was on my Game of the Year List, it is fine. As for the rest of it, Good Luck and Have Batman. I look forward to reading blogs.

The story in the Resident Evil games is ridiculous, just play the games, enjoy them and don't worry about what's cannon and what's not cannon.

@Quarters said:

As a side note, I've actually been creating movie versions of the entire series in chronological order, editing it into tight blocks and bouncing back and forth between events when necessary(such as the entire Raccoon City stuff).

The thing's mammoth. Right now it's split into 9/10 episodes, each movie length. Would put it online, but Youtube's kind of a pain. Is there any other way to do it that's feasible?

You could upload it to something like Rapidshare (though, not actually Rapidshare, as that site has gone through changes recently that ruin it for P2P) and dole out the URL on demand/make a post about it.

I, for one, would definitely give it a watch. What kind of file size are we talking here?

@NinjaBerd said:

The Chronicles games? Those were cannon right?

if by canon you mean crappy then yea :D

@Pr1mus: shouldn't Lost in Nightmares come before RE5 since that took place way in advance (the part where you have it now places it at the point when the flashback happens but not the point in time when it actually took place).

@Sisyphean said:

Is REmake significantly different from the original? I just finished up Resident Evil: Director's Cut, so I'm curious.

Yes. Radically different in some ways and even adding a lot of stuff that is pure awesomesauce.

@GetEveryone said:

@Quarters said:

As a side note, I've actually been creating movie versions of the entire series in chronological order, editing it into tight blocks and bouncing back and forth between events when necessary(such as the entire Raccoon City stuff).

The thing's mammoth. Right now it's split into 9/10 episodes, each movie length. Would put it online, but Youtube's kind of a pain. Is there any other way to do it that's feasible?

You could upload it to something like Rapidshare (though, not actually Rapidshare, as that site has gone through changes recently that ruin it for P2P) and dole out the URL on demand/make a post about it.

I, for one, would definitely give it a watch. What kind of file size are we talking here?

Eh, big. That's kind of the problem with uploading it. They usually clock in at around 5 GB an episode. I'd probably have to split it up into parts. I'll try finding something though.

Also, like others have said, Lost in Nightmares takes place before RE5, after Revelations. But if you're wanting to play it as the extended version of the original flashback, Chris actually tells that story while he and Sheva are driving on the boat at the beginning of Chapter 2. You don't have to wait until the Wesker/Jill fight.

@DeF: @Quarters: Playing Lost in Nightmares as an extended flashback is exactly why i put it where it is. But putting it at the start of chapter 2 is a great idea, i forgot about that scene where Chris tells the story.

@Nilazz: Hey! This is all very complex but the RE story is serious business! :D

You must play Dead Aim! You MUST!

I did this last year except I skipped code Veronica and didn't beat Re3. The weakest in the series in my opinion

Alright, after some more thoughts i'm almost ready to start this.

First bummer though, no videos. I'm simply not set up to do streaming or recordings for most games and i never had any intentions of turning this into a complete let's play. This will be only a written blog. Which isn't bad in itself. I want to write and need to get better at it, find myself a style to keep things interesting and this will be good practice.

As planned in the OP i will be playing all the main entries in the franchise with some caveats. Namely Revelations and RE6. That's not to say i won't play them but considering my current financial situation and the number of other games i'm interested in this year i have other priorities on which to spend my money (gaming and otherwise). I suppose we'll see once we get there. There are many more games to play before reaching that point. Maybe i could start a kickstarter to raise 100$ to buy the games? I promise a 30 seconds video of me playing the games to anyone who pledges 15$ or more.

Another little detail was the plan to play each chapters of Separate Ways along side the main game in RE4. Now i don't have a save file with Separate Ways unlocked on the PS3 HD version of the game (unless it's unlocked by default? I don't remember.). I could always play the PS2 version of Separate Ways as i believe i still have my save files. Again, we'll see once we get there.

Other than that i won't be playing any of the spin-offs. This also won't be on any sort of schedule. There's plenty of other games i'll be playing along the way and this will happen as i feel like continuing my progress. Still, i will try to make some progress every week.

So this is it.

Actually i said i was almost ready to start but in fact already have. I did the train section of RE0 today and man this game looks dumb, in a good way. No seriously a hookshot to get to the roof of a train car (complete with formal instructions on how to do so as if this was standard operating procedures on that train.)? Fantastic.

When you do it it's called a lets play.

@JZ said:

When you do it it's called a lets play.

Somehow i've always hated that term so much. Don't know why, i just hate it.

So do I