Playdate: Resident Evil 4 (08/23/2019)

@the_nubster: I'm curious what they found bad about it to play (RE6). I mean It's not a very good game. Admittedly I probably gave it more time than most people did as I completed all of Leon and Chris and finally called it quits in the middle of the Wesker campaign despite being fascinated with the absurdity of what was happening. If I remember correctly you get Ryu like moves with your fists and they may or may not have glowed or something.. That said, the shooting was fine. RE5 shooting felt really on-point and this was a continuation of that. You still had the RE4 melee moveset where you could stun guys with a shot to the leg and run up for a cinematic hit. You had your best-hits moments mostly through Leons campaign like the cemetery or the underground areas. You had the big gross bosses seen throughout RE4 in the Chris campaign. I actually enjoyed it graphically, especially the varied UI each character had. Don't get me wrong, RE4 is definitely a game for the books as it introduced the over the shoulder perspective which we use to this very day. I definitely don't think it stands up to this day as a timeless experience.

@xdot: @curufinwe:

No one comes to Giant Bomb for "l33t g4mepl4y", and no one really cares about endgame stats or how someone thinks they're better at video games than the GB staff.

It only took 4 minutes for things to go to shit.

@humanity: RE4 and RE5 play exactly the same but RE6 is a weird mushy experience. The enemies don't react when you shoot them, and the melee is cool but governed by a stamina meter which gets in the way of its usefulness. It also doesn't snap to target the same way that the melee in RE4 and RE5 did, and I missed as many kicks or curbstomps that I connected with, which is hugely deflating. The writing in it is also just bad-bad; RE4 and RE5 lived squarely in B-movie camp but RE6 was trying really hard to be a serious thriller and completely missed the mark.

Congrats on kicking RE4's ass Abby!

I quite enjoyed this RE4 playthrough. I haven't played the game since its PS2 release so this was a nice stroll down memory lane as well. As someone else said the game's first 1/3 is still amazing. If I were to split the game up I would do it like this:

1/3: Amazing (The classic part of RE4 that most people remember when they think of this game)

2/3: Good (The middle part of the game is still good. Not as memorable as the beginning but still enjoyable)

3/3: Serviceable to okay (Honestly after watching this playthrough I think it's safe to say that the last third is the game weakest. Overall the entire game is still quite good but this last third is not the game's finest moment)

After seeing this playthrough I think the game would still land a good 4 out 5 rating for me. Still a great game. But there was a lot of smaller sections of the end that I have more or less forgotten. Probably for a reason.

@the_nubster: Oh yah the story was definitely trying to be a lot more dramatic and a lot less campy. It was this uncanny valley of storytelling where characters were delivering serious speeches with dramatic scene directing.. but what was actually happening on the screen was absolutely ridiculous. I don't remember the shooting being bad or worse than the games before but it's been a long time so I'll take your word for it!

Even though I enjoy this playthrough, I hope they move back to playdates that are different games each week instead of these full playthroughs for a bit.

thank you Little lord boy great stuff ! how about The Darkness next eh ?

Wahoo! Can't wait for whatever's next in this playdate series.

@curufinwe: This ain't an either/or situation; and the fact that you think it is is something you should probably reflect on, my guy.

@sephiroth1983: And you suck so much at being a human being, my guy. Reflect on your priorities.

Ya, Abby is pretty bad at this game. Hopefully that doesn't push people away from trying it out.

As much as people are debating back and forth on how much Abby's skill played into their perceptions of the game. And while I am firmly in the camp of not shitting on Abby for how good someone is at video games you can clearly see her enjoyment peaks when she is doing well and goes down the tube whenever she hit the slightest roadblock.

And this is a facet of the game and most games of this era that doesn't mesh with modern perception. This game came out in the period were games were transitioning into today where they are made to be completed and completed with relative ease from were they were made intentionally fuck off hard just so you couldn't beat it in one rental. You're meant to fail and retry bosses. You're meant to struggle with certain sequences. You're supposed to see the "You Are Dead" screen. While RE4 is forward thinking with an adaptation difficulty it still has an antiquated in this respect.

But I don't think this means the game aged poorly. A lot of people want this from games even today. From Software makes their bread and butter off of them.

About halfway through this series everyone started talking like they are on NPR.

The merging with an animal talk reminds me of the cow and dog boy (played by Keanu Reaves lol) from Freaked. If I had to bet money on Dan loving any movie he's never seen, it's that one. That movie feels like walking into the insanity of Dan's brain for 90 minutes with no way out.

I hope Abby does a classic resident evil game next. I would recommend code Veronica.

....or maybe silent hill 2.

Dan asks a lot of idiot questions which is very fun to laugh at but also Abby is like "what is literally everything" during so many conversations, and I'm younger and probably much less cultured than her so that is currently my favourite dynamic on giant bomb.

Rest in power little lord boy

Great series. Never played nor seen RE4 so this was a great way to see it. Very fun.

I'd love to see a return to different games playdates at least for a while.

I'd echo the Dead Space comments but I'm not sure. I love Dead Space. One of my favourite games for sure. Problem is, I have a feeling Abby going back to game from 2008 may not mesh well with her and she really doesn't seem to be into stories in these types of games so I feel like I'd be more angry watching it than anything. Which is weird cause I know someone else's opinions don't invalidate my own. It's kind of why I don't watch the Mass Alex series.

"I'm not gonna write 'It took me too long to poop' in a journal." - Dan Ryckert, 2019

I know everyone says RE4 is a classic, amazing game. But this series just reconfirmed the fact that it's a dumb, bad game for long stretches of time. Always has been.

It has cool parts, but it needed to be half as long.

thanks for the playthrough. i've always wondered what the ending of RE4 looked like :-)

i think the criticisms are accurate. but also, RE4 brought a lot to the table. 3rd person over the shoulder shooters, that played well on console, prior to RE4? RE4 maybe doesn't hold up as a classic game, but it still was very fresh at the time and brought a lot of good gameplay mechanics and ideas to the table, that are now considered norm.

RE4 always lost my interest halfway through and i've never played it through to the end, but i'd still agree more with dan's "Resident Evil 4 is a classic and one of the best videogames ever made" statement more so than his outrageous and impossible to get on-board with "Super Mario Sunshine is a classic and one of the best videogames ever made" insanity bullshit nonsense statements.

Super Mario Sunshine is a travesty.

@boiter: Agreed, it did a ton of great stuff for third person action at the time. As someone that played it for the first time immediately after Gears of War, however, it already felt outdated two years after release.

RE4 really tried everything. It definitely has a good deal of varied scenarios. So even though a chunk of it didn't land for me, I'll always respect this weird thing.

RE5 with a friend, though? Nonstop fun!

I'm all for giving Dan shit sometimes, but damn @alex you go hard in the paint on this

Can't believe the reverence people have for this game.

If Krauser had joined the air force, would he be a Luftkrauser?

Anyhoo, if they decide to stick to survival horror, I think Dead Space would be a better choice than the older, clunkier REs. However, that game would also benefit from the Frite or Shite treatment for maximum jump scare effect, since it has a genuinely creepy atmosphere. It might be fun to have Abby try out the older Resident Evils, eg. to the first death, just to show how far the series has come, how much the remakes have improved them, and why RE4 was such a big deal at the time.

I can't believe how far Abby got with Dan there. Bravo.

To everyone saying "GBE is being too hard on Dan" :

Dan is a fun, happy, non-pretentious guy who loves entertaining people. He doesn't take himself that seriously at all, and he is in on the joke (and the fact that the joke is mostly just him being himself). It isn't hurting his feelings.

I don't know him personally, but I can say with some certainty that he is not upset about being made fun of, and actually enjoys it.

Furthermore, I doubt that any of you guys know him personally either. Dan is friends with everyone making fun of him here, has known all of them for quite some time (even Abby who is the newest member has been on their team for like 2+ years). The people who are making fun of him are his good friends.

Everyone watching this has paid to do so, so you absolutely have the right to criticize something you are paying for, but when your point of contention is "I can't watch this because the guy whose thing is asking dumb questions is made fun of for asking dumb questions even though he himself thinks it's hilarious as well", then I can't follow you there.

Conversely,to the people saying "Abby is bad at games and should blame herself, instead of the game, even if it does have shitty controls", blah blah:

Yes, RE4 was revolutionary. It doesn't mean it's still a blast all the way through in 2019. It's almost like the people trying to "protect" Dan want the rest of the crew to actually bully Abby for being the youngest, or not catching all references that are close to or before her time. How rational is this line of thinking "What!? You haven't played Resident Evil 4!? You GOTTA play it"

And then when they're playing it the first time:

"Ok, well when I told you to play it, I assumed you were going to love it and only say how awesome it was and agree with me. But...you called it 'dated' in certain spots, which is unacceptable, this game is from 2005."

@vinny@alex@danryckertCapcom is recruiting members of the RE Ambassadors program for playtesting of an unannounced RE game. A week or two ago they had sign ups for Japan, and last week they had sign ups for LA and NYC.

Abbie with the clutch last second door open!

The game really is divided up almost perfectly into 3rds of decreasing quality.

Still a phenomenal game, and still has the most fun Mercenaries Mode, but oof. It does drag.

Can't wait to see what's next! People suggesting Dead Space, y'all outta your MINDS.

HEEYYYYYYY, MIKEY!

I wish Mahardy was here for this.

If Abby likes puzzles and wants less combat I suggest the Silent Hill games, less so the first one, but 2, 3, and sometimes 4(the room) hold up still.

I would personally appreciate a break from an Abby-centric playdate. Her RE4 playstyle was frustrating to watch, but whatever. The game is designed so that anyone can beat it, and she got through it. That's great. I can even tune out the routine of placing blame upon the game every time something mildly challenging came up, because God forbid a video game expect the player to learn something new or develop their skill set. What was driving me up the wall was how unreceptive Abby was to any and all advice. Any time someone tried to point something out like "Oh there's a lever you probably need to pull over there," it was met with "I know!" like an angry teenanger. It's like, chill out. They're just trying to help.

I come to GB for the banter and tend to barely pay attention to what/how they're playing, but I would contemplate sitting out a playthrough of Dead Space because it would be absolutely filled to the brim with that stuff.

@fishinwithguns: I think the issue (for me anyway) is more that making fun of Dan for his dumb questions is overdone and stale. His dumb questions are far more entertaining than stifling them tends to be.

Cringing hard during the jet ski part. Out of all of it, that's what got me the most. The prompt is right there and she's confused.

I need a giant pencil like that.

edit--- I have ordered the giant pencil.

Yes, bird Krauser goes down in about 5 seconds if you use that weapon.

(Can't remember if that trick is for the entire Krauser fight, or just the bird part. I think the game does throw in a few hints, like he keeps saying "Fight fair" or something.)

Well played Abby. Look forward to what ever is the next survival horror game you play as it is always entertaining.

Well done, Abby and co! Enjoyable playthrough to watch overall, though the game itself did drag on a little the last third. Looking forward to more GBE playdates, hopefully crazy multiplayer chaos ones or similar survival horror.

Really enjoyed this play through, well done Abby!

Everyone who is complaining about her skill can do one. Typical ‘gamer’ bros just wanting to make themselves feel good by shitting on others.

@zelnar: Ok yeah, I kinda agree with tha