Critical Miss: A Parable

[Nincompoop]

Pwnt in the f*cking a**hole!1 O_O
..
I really hope this has happened to someone.

 

[Freechoice]

RE4 "inspired" Gears, spawned RE4: Days of Our Lives and it stopped that damned KH2 from being unanimous GoTY in Famitsu. Speaking of which.

 

[dingles]

This. This visual metaphor of a person ingesting human fecal matter via a sandwich sums it up.

It really shocked at first me how much hate RE4 got from fans. "Oh never mind the the ridiculously improved controls, interface, puzzles, and pacing, THEY RUINED TEH STORY AND MAED IT IN2 A SHOOTER!"

"Ruined the story"? Yeah, the story was already ruined the by the time RE3 was released and before that it was cheesier than a Voltron episode draped in fondue. While not great or original, RE4's story was very enjoyable to me. On accounts that it had practically nothing to do with the original (bat shit insane) cannon and it went about things deliberately self aware. With the added bonuses of likable protagonists, some funny lines of dialog, and a coherent and easy to follow plot and you got yourself a very well executed story.

However, one thing I'll disagree with is the huge praise RE4 gets for its horror. Its pretty scary around the beginning, but once you find the shotgun and some grenades, then it becomes an extremely weird shooter. That didn't bother me (were still some parts that creeped the shit outa me), it was still fun as hell at least! But when people say "past RE game were scarier and more atmospheric", that's just not true. Yeah you can say how RE pioneered the horror genre, but all the games pretty much relied on jump out scares and surprise attacks as opposed to true psychological endurance as practiced by Silent Hill 2 and Condemned: Criminal Origins. Besides, a game/movie/book/whatever can be as atmospheric as possible, but if it has a completely retarded and convoluted story and characters you want to flog every time they open their mouths, then everything just falls apart because we can't connect with situation due to it's inconsistencies and lack of any logic.

This man was clearly not young enough the time of release of this game to be terrified by the regenerators.

 

[nipsen]

Hahahaha. "And now he must complain about it on the internet". lol

 

[Outright Villainy]

This. This visual metaphor of a person ingesting human fecal matter via a sandwich sums it up.

It really shocked at first me how much hate RE4 got from fans. "Oh never mind the the ridiculously improved controls, interface, puzzles, and pacing, THEY RUINED TEH STORY AND MAED IT IN2 A SHOOTER!"

"Ruined the story"? Yeah, the story was already ruined the by the time RE3 was released and before that it was cheesier than a Voltron episode draped in fondue. While not great or original, RE4's story was very enjoyable to me. On accounts that it had practically nothing to do with the original (bat shit insane) cannon and it went about things deliberately self aware. With the added bonuses of likable protagonists, some funny lines of dialog, and a coherent and easy to follow plot and you got yourself a very well executed story.

However, one thing I'll disagree with is the huge praise RE4 gets for its horror. Its pretty scary around the beginning, but once you find the shotgun and some grenades, then it becomes an extremely weird shooter. That didn't bother me (were still some parts that creeped the shit outa me), it was still fun as hell at least! But when people say "past RE game were scarier and more atmospheric", that's just not true. Yeah you can say how RE pioneered the horror genre, but all the games pretty much relied on jump out scares and surprise attacks as opposed to true psychological endurance as practiced by Silent Hill 2 and Condemned: Criminal Origins. Besides, a game/movie/book/whatever can be as atmospheric as possible, but if it has a completely retarded and convoluted story and characters you want to flog every time they open their mouths, then everything just falls apart because we can't connect with situation due to it's inconsistencies and lack of any logic.

Seems to sum it up pretty well.

I never found the older resident evil games to be scary. They relied on jump scares and stiff controls, though admittedly they did gave a sense of desperation at the best of times. But that's not scary, not real horror anyway. Thing is, RE4 just enhanced that facet of gameplay which it got right, and oftentimes (especially on hard) the game does get pretty friggin' tense. The siege at the house or the fight against regenerators being particular standouts.

The story in RE4 is hammy and overracted, but brilliantly so. The older games were plodding and had really, really stupid characters. 4 went about it's story with a hint of self awareness, taking itself less seriously in general, but most importantly by having some decent pacing. Like sandman said, by no means perfect, but at least enoyable.

So yeah, I can't think of anything the original games had going for them that something like Silent hill, Eternal darkness et al didn't do better in every respect.

RE4 at least stood out on its own, as the best of its kind.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Anyway, since I'm never early enough in these comments, I'd like to take the opportunity to say that this is actually my favourite webcomic ever. Of all time. In the universe.

It beats penny arcade anyday.

I think this is relevant.

You know, I always hated that image. A comic like XKCD which is full of obscure smug-ass math jokes attacking PA for being inaccessable? Ironeh.

I don't really know about that, I think it's just affectionate parody more than anything, given that it was done in parody week and all.

It seems less mean in context anyway. Also, this:

 

[adamtm]

staying classy critical miss, i see

 

[Vortigar]

And so, the Jill sandwich gains another level of meaning.

Bad pun time: This thread is a real shitstorm.

Oh God, I'm going off to kill myself now.

i am fortunate that Resi4 was my first. though i still managed to enjoy the others, especially Resi2, though obviously it's nowhere near the level of awesome that was Resi4.

Hey another who played RE4 first. I never played the others though. I ditched the game shortly after the escort stuff ended and I realized I was just not enjoying this game at all (I'm slow like that, I'm always thinking that maybe I'll get into it after this next bit).

Compared to previous RE's the controls may have been better, but I still thought it was clunky. Maybe it was all the glowing talk about how this game controlled so well that threw my expectations off. I remember thinking it was pretty but that was about it. Plus it's loaded with the most obnoxious QTE's I've witnessed outside of Clive Barker's Jericho.

Same reason I don't care for GTA3 or Vice City. I don't forgive that stuff for any number of features you care to throw at me. Plus I played GTA 1 and 2, so creating mayhem in a town was nothing new to me. Now I got to do it in 3d with wonky controls, unlikable characters and stupid storylines. No thank you. I installed GTA2 again instead.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Anyway, since I'm never early enough in these comments, I'd like to take the opportunity to say that this is actually my favourite webcomic ever. Of all time. In the universe.

It beats penny arcade anyday.

Not a fan of P.A. I take it. If so that's ok, but your engaging in hyperbole none-the-less. Day-to-day Penny Arcade can be less stellar then other times but when you have a gem like this

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/

then the it skews the average into the stratosphere.

This was a good comic today. It makes a strong argument for the origin of seemingly senseless internet bitching.

You're preaching to the choir here buddy - I love penny arcade - I just love critical miss more.

 

[RelexCryo]

I can't say I've played enough RE to really know what you're getting at. Isn't RE4 meant to be like that sandwich that has some extra mayonnaise on it because the chef loves you?

On another note, seems it pays to be up at 2:00 some days

EDIT: That soda can seems VERY familiar...

All Resident Evils before 4 had a very, very bad control scheme similar to how you move tanks(or they were rail shooters.) It turned a LOT of people off to the game. Those who stuck with the game despite it generally didn't like it. By contrast, Resident Evil 4's control scheme was excellent. On the other hand, RE 4 was really more of an action game than a horror title, which is why some people disliked it. On the other, other hand, saying that Resident Evil was ever a horror game is somewhat misleading- You had less ammo and faced desperation fairly often, but the writing, voice acting and such were all so horrible that it was hard to take it seriously.

Well I thought I'd learned enough about RE before you posted that. Now I'm just confused... how many hands do you have?

The controls before RE4 sucked, and the writing/dialogue was so cheesy it was hard to take seriously as a horror game. Hence, RE4 was not a true horror game, but the ones before it weren't either, contrary to fanboy claims.

 

[Bretty]

Love it!

Well said!

 

[mr_rubino]

Thanks, I could have lived without a comic about a man eating human excrement.

If I had posted this in a thread, I would have gotten probation.

One hopes you do anyway. Yours is a no-content post. *exaculates an evil Price-ean laugh*

EDIT: xkcd should stick to math. Everyone and their mom's dog played Seiken Densetsu (2) on the SNES. =( Did he mean Seiken Densetsu 3?

 

[JonnWood]

One of the problems I have with franchises today is that the reluctance to launch new franchises has lead to the mutilation of long-standing series. People slapping the name of, and a sequel number to, games that have absolutly nothing to do with a series except perhaps using some of the same characters and referances to the setting. Resident Evil 4 was an example of this, sure it involved Leon, but at the same time it didn't use "real" Zombies as per the previous games, there was little need for ammo conservation, and rather than puzzles and trying to work out ways to avoid monsters the entire game was largely based around shooting your way through everything (for which there is plenty of ammo, in previous games there simply wasn't enough bang-bang at various points in the game to make this a viable solution). They literally put you into closed arenas like villages and such and won't let
you progress until you kill every bloody thing there.

None of that makes it a bad game, but it does mean it's not a "Resident Evil" game. It also means that fans of the series do have a right to complain about it. I don't think in cases like this it's general internet "moan about everything".

The new X-Com. Even the people complaining say it looks interesting, it's just not a real X-Com game. And it's not. But it'd be very difficult to launch as an original IP, so they they called it X-Com.

 

[HK_01]

I could have done without this comic. I usually love Critical Miss, but in this one I was so disgusted that I was unable to find it funny, in fact I felt kind of sick while reading this.

 

[Canadian Fodder]

Best example I can now give to a friend who insists that the older games are far superior.

 

[w1ndscar]

I can't say I've played enough RE to really know what you're getting at. Isn't RE4 meant to be like that sandwich that has some extra mayonnaise on it because the chef loves you?

I think its more like, the other RE games were good, but had lots of shit in it, and then RE4 came out without any shit. But because it doesnt contain said shit, its not the same so the guy rages regardless

 

[QuadFish]

I can't say I've played enough RE to really know what you're getting at. Isn't RE4 meant to be like that sandwich that has some extra mayonnaise on it because the chef loves you?

I think its more like, the other RE games were good, but had lots of shit in it, and then RE4 came out without any shit. But because it doesnt contain said shit, its not the same so the guy rages regardless

I think you missed my "EDIT EDIT", good sir.

 

[w1ndscar]

I can't say I've played enough RE to really know what you're getting at. Isn't RE4 meant to be like that sandwich that has some extra mayonnaise on it because the chef loves you?

I think its more like, the other RE games were good, but had lots of shit in it, and then RE4 came out without any shit. But because it doesnt contain said shit, its not the same so the guy rages regardless

My apologies, I assumed that the EDIT EDIT referred to the original EDIT.

I think you missed my "EDIT EDIT", good sir.