Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

[Fused King]

All I want to see = JACK KRAUSER!!!

He was so damn badass in RE4, I can't wait for some light shed over him:awesome:

Edited August 20, 2009 by Fused King

[Zechs Merquise]

All I want to see = JACK KRAUSER!!!

He was so damn badass in RE4, I can't wait for some light shed over him:awesome:

 

I'm pretty sure he'll be in alongside Leon as his partner, maybe even playable

[Goron_3]

All I want to see = JACK KRAUSER!!!

He was so damn badass in RE4, I can't wait for some light shed over him:awesome:

 

He was EPIC in that game! He came out with some seriously funny lines too:

 

Leon: KRAUSER! Where's Ashley?!

Krauser: Do you really wanna know?

Leon:..........

Krauser: She's beyond that gate

[marcel]

"It was a bit of a trial and error, this shaky cam. It was probably a little too much, so it's a little toned down now." - Masachika Kawata

 

It's good to hear that the camera in Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles has been toned down, but has anything else gotten a makeover? Is there going to be less gore in teh game than originally intended? Of course not, says Kawata. Darkside Chronicles is going to push the M rating to its limits!

 

"Obviously if you are creating a horror game, you have to deal with gore, blood, decapitation, but it is getting a little bit tricky because of ratings. I feel this is as much as I could go this time around."

 

(from gonintendo)

[James McGeachie]

I think they actually took that line the wrong way. It sounds more like the violence is toned down this time, since he said "it's getting a little bit tricky because of the ratings". I'm starting to think there's no decapitation in any version this time around since there hasn't been any in any videos.

 

That would be lame as fuck but hopefully I'm wrong.

[lostmario]

Wii Zapper box with Wi-Fi connection logo Online highscores please.

 

 

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=4940

Edited August 25, 2009 by lostmario

[Owen]

Cool boxart! IGN's previews aren't sooo positive though..and i'm getting a bit tired of on-rail shooters! I'll wait for it to enter the bargain sections!

[LostOverThere]

Still tossing up whether to get this or Dead Space: Extraction. High score tables would be godly.

[marcel]

Cool boxart! IGN's previews aren't sooo positive though..and i'm getting a bit tired of on-rail shooters! I'll wait for it to enter the bargain sections!

 

the previews are from the e3 build, and there main problem was the massive shaky cam. Wish is reportedly being massively toned down.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'm pretty excited about this. I'm weighing up the idea of getting a new Resident Evil themed sig in preparation.

[lostmario]

Two new gameplay trailers

 

 

[Daft]

Looks alright. I can't see it being worth more than £10/15.

 

I'll give it a rent.

[dwarf]

You know it's going to be a fun experience but the replay value isn't as great, other than multiplayer. However it looks like they've ripped a lot out of Umbrella Chronicles, like that whole first trailer pretty much in terms of the level and the same enemies in the second.

Gives you the impression they haven't tried too much, seeing as they've recycled so much of it. If you haven't played UC then I'd get that before this because essentially it's the same.

[dazzybee]

Dwarf, dwarf, dwarf....why do you say such things? How do you know it's "essentially the same"? What the hell are you watching because it must be entirely different to watch I'm watching... in fact, are you sure you're not just watching Umbrella Chronicles trailers?

[dwarf]

Have you played UC?! The first trailer lostmario posted... The content is ripped straight from from it. Don't turn blind on me Daz.

[dazzybee]

Of course I have. I played it last night bizarrely (still haven't re-unlocked that new mode when you complete everything)...

 

I really don't see it. I think it looks brilliant!!

[Retro_Link]

Well it looks a much better experience than Umbrella Chonicles, more submersive what with being able to see the other player, reloads, and generally more cinematic.

What I really don't like about on-rails is that what you look at is predetermined (especially in moments like that Code Veronica cargo lift decent etc... I want to be able to look around and find things for myself. If there's a bit more camera control in this game over U.C. then to me it's looking more enjoyable.

[Guest Maase]

Even worse is the fact that you're supposed to find secrets.

While when you move and explore its easy, with UC, the exploration consisted either of: "Be more concentrated at destroying stuff and picking things up than killing Zombies" or "Click A thousands and thousands of times while you click B thousands and thousands of times".

That really sucked.

[Dante]

Blog Updates

 

Invitation to the Darkside.

Now I’d like to go back to the meaning of “Darkside Chronicles” for just a moment.

 

　

　

Even when we started this project as the sequel to Umbrella Chronicles, the Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica scenarios were to be the primary focus. These stories were left out of Umbrella Chronicles, and I had some regrets about that. But now, since we were doing a sequel, I didn’t want to just tell a story in the traditional way. I wanted to be a little unorthodox.

 

 

When I reexamined the scenario of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, I noticed some things they had in common.

 

 

Claire plays a major role in both titles, and both titles take place very close together on the Resident Evil time line, so there is a good deal of continuity in their storylines. And, neither title is solely about a corporation or organization, per se; they both are narratives about individuals who find themselves caught up in terrifying situations. At the time, there were some things that were a little confusing and unclear, but I think Leon and Claire, the star characters of these two titles, did a good job of helping to tie up loose ends.

 

 

Umbrella Chronicles is, as its name suggests, an objective documentary-style account of past events, which tries to do away with any human emotional elements. The basic style of Umbrella Chronicles is to not depict the emotions of the characters more than is necessary.

 

 

But, I like emotional stories, and I believe that since horror evokes in us the emotion of fear, it isn’t altogether different than say a dramatic story of the lives of people. So with that in mind, I thought for the next “Chronicle”, why not tell a dramatic personal story?

 

 

When you look at Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica as an emotional, dramatic story, underneath you’ll notice something ominous and dark that is not just viruses and zombies. At their core, both of the stories are about human weakness and desire. It is the darkness inside of people that makes us fear.

 

 

In Resident Evil 2 there was the darkness in the Birkin household.

In Code: Veronica there was the darkness in the Ashford Family.

 

The darkness inside. That is one of the themes of this game. Why did the Raccoon City incident occur? Why wasn’t the development of Biological Weapons stopped?

Why does darkness seep in? Where does the darkness come from? That is how we as developers want you to feel when you finish playing Darkside Chronicles.

 

Cut Scenes Taking Shape

Shirogumi inc. is creating the cut scenes for Darkside Chronicles, and Mr. Hidekazu Gondoh is directing them. Shirogumi has been doing CG animation for quite awhile, working on game cut scenes, TV commercials, and CG in feature films. They most recently worked on K-20: Kaijin Nijyuu Mensou Den (K-20: Legend of the 20 mysterious faces), and will be working on BALLAD Na mo Naki Koi no Uta (BALLAD: The unnamed love song) this September.

 

 

 

Hidekazu also worked on Umbrella Chronicles with me, and in my opinion he’s not your average director. He offers great opinions on the story which make the cut scenes even better in the end. Mr. Hidekazu’s mark has been left on the game’s story. He has especially strong feelings about the Veronica story which he was involved with.

 

 

I talked with Hidekazu from the beginning about how we wanted to do the cut scenes. We aimed to emphasize the games central concept of presence through the cut scenes, so they were suffused with a sense of reality. At that time, we weren’t exactly sure how we wanted to increase the realism of the cut scenes in the game, but I agreed with the director that we had to imbue the scenes with a raw, real feeling.

 

 

One other thing we aimed for was quality that exceeded the high standards set in Umberella Chronicles. That was an absolute must, and difficult since the cut scenes in Umbrella Chronicles were great. One thing we were careful and conscious of during Umbrella Chronicles was creating a sense of uniformity between the cut scenes and the gameplay itself. We didn’t constrain ourselves quite so tightly this time around, and we decided to let the more powerful aspects of the story come through with high quality CG this time around.

 

 

Of course just saying “We’re gonna make the cut scenes look better!” won't get it done. Actually executing those goals comes down to CG technique, and Hidekazu has that in spades.

 

 

Hidekazu took care of all the storyboarding, and actor’s motion capture performances were recorded at Shirogumi’s studio. After that, we recorded voices in Los Angeles. A lot of different steps and many people are involved in the process of creating the cut scenes for this game. It's a very tough job to oversee and control everything that goes into the creation of these scenes.

 

 

Right now we are in the process of finishing off the game’s final scenes. All the rough cuts I’ve been getting from the director are absolutely incredible. This is thanks to Hidekazu’s skill in direction as well as the technical expertise and hard work of the team at Shirogumi.

 

 

One of the guiding principles we kept in mind from the beginning while creating the cut scenes was the use of light and the overall mood of the lighting. We used lighting that was similar to the in-game scenes, but more dynamic and active. Another principle was character expressions and eye movement. Characters that might otherwise look a bit doll-like really come alive when their eyes are moving realistically. I was really happy about that small detail as it added realism to the scenes, specifically in Claire and Steve’s expressions.

 

 

I’m very excited that you’ll be able to see all of our work so soon. It won’t be long now!

 

Image Is Everything

 

Image Is Everything

 

One of the things that people often overlook when playing games is environment design. The design of backgrounds and environments in games and in film plays the extremely important role of immersing the audience in the world that the game or film is attempting to create.

 

 

 

The construction of a level is another element that has a direct impact on the playability of a game, so it’s an area where we can’t cut corners. It might even be the part that we actually spend the most money on.

 

 

When period films are made, a lot of attention to detail is paid so that nothing modern gets into shots. In science fiction films, special sets and CG are used to create new worlds. With games, everything is done through computer modeling, and must be created to fit the game’s setting. The problem is that everything, down to the minute details, must be made from scratch. A characteristic of Darkside Chronicles is that many of the background objects are breakable. That means that not only do we have to create whole versions of these items, but broken versions as well. That can be a daunting task.

 

 

Nevertheless, our goal was to give Darkside Chronicles a level of quality that far exceeded its predecessor. Awesome backgrounds are a vital part to achieving that goal.

 

 

First we had to start by nailing down the background design concept. I had Mr. Shigechiyo, one of Capcom’s most talented designers, draw up some concept art for the backgrounds so that everyone could understand the level of quality I was looking for in the backgrounds. Below is an example of one of them:

 

Many of you may remember the scene of the front of this prison cell block from the beginning of Code: Veronica. We left the basic structure unchanged; however, we did play around with the design a little.

 

 

First, in order to really bring out the sense of horror, we focused on lighting. Just making everything dark causes the background to disappear. Therefore, we reconstructed the scene in order to create a sharp contrast between lighted areas and shaded areas. We repositioned the placement of the searchlight (which is the primary light source) and the surveillance camera. They have been moved further into the background.

 

 

This stage is set on a solitary island, but in the original game the level design didn’t really make you feel like you were isolated in that way. Since this is the beginning of the chapter, I wanted to make players aware of the situation in which they find themselves – trapped on an island in the middle of nowhere. To achieve this effect we removed the far wall and showed the ocean and a lighthouse in the distance.

 

 

Once we had our concepts, the next step was to get those concepts into the Wii. So we enlisted the help of some designers from Cavia, the game’s production studio. The designers interpret, arrange and rearrange things in order to make the final product even better. For example, in order to make a puddle of water seem more real, they may use specular highlighting, or to enhance the feel of rain, they may use an effect that puts raindrops right on the camera lens. This kind of imaging technology is made possible by the hard work of the folks at Cavia.

 

All of these things combined are what gives the environments of Darkside Chronicles their high quality. We challenge our team by setting our goals high, and then we enlist the help of designers who can meet that challenge head on. That is what makes the difference on screen.

 

 

By all means, get the game and see just how close we got to the concept art!

[Zechs Merquise]

Of course I have. I played it last night bizarrely (still haven't re-unlocked that new mode when you complete everything)...

 

I really don't see it. I think it looks brilliant!!

 

I agree, it looks great. It's obviously going to have some similarities to RE:UC, after all it is the sequel to it

[Dante]

Small clip of South America.

[Dante]

1up - Leon and Krauser

 

One of the original scenarios in Darkside features Krauser and RE4 hero Leon S. Kennedy in the year 2002, two years before the events of RE4. They're still partners at this point -- Krauser doesn't have the scar so prominent in RE4 quite yet, either -- and they've been sent to investigate a zombie outbreak in a small South American village.

 

Nobody knows what's going on in this village, save for the fact that there's only one survivor -- Manuela, a young girl in a ripped, blood-stained dress. She'll likely play an important role in this mission, but exactly what that'll be remains unknown.

 

The Darkside Chronicles, developed by Cavia for the Wii, is due out November 17 in the US and sometime this winter in Japan.

 

New screens:

[Zechs Merquise]

Can't wait for the new Krauser info and missions.

[Fused King]

OMG, Jack Krauser.......He's almost as bad-ass as Wesker.

Excited:D

[marcel]

if this is ingame, then im really impressed: