CAPCOM, a Love-Hate Relationship

[Gollon]

I have recently played both Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising, and these two games really show off the integrity of CAPCOM. Specifically, the balls they have.

Take Resident Evil 4, a game about cultist Spaniards who have kidnapped the American President's daughter in hopes of turning the entire U.S. of A. into evil mind controlled mutants whose heads explode into eyeballs with knives on ropes attached. The little Spanish Napoleon ghost even comments on Leon using the word "terrorism" and overall the game is filled with characters attacking America to inspire us to want to play it even more!

Then there's Dead Rising, a game badgered with complaints of terrible survivor AI. I think, however, that this AI was intentional and is perfect. It shows just how panicky and retarded some people will get in a dangerous situation. The aggravation you feel towards the survivors is really strange when you think about it. You are getting angry at people you are trying to RESCUE because they are too ignorant to know how to handle themselves. Also both of these games involve Hispanic Terrorists attacking Americans on an amazing scale. This leads me to believe that CAPCOM is secretly trying to make us hate Hispanics more, and try to make illegal immigration an immense issue.

That's AWESOME! Who wouldn't love a company trying to control our minds into thinking another race is problematic? They've been doing it for years too. In Mega Man we were prejudice to ROBOTS, in Street Fighter we were prejudice to Russians, and in Devil May Cry we were prejudice to the undead! This is why it bothers me when people say that Resident Evil 5 is going to be racist. I say to them, "What's your point? So is EVERY CAPCOM game they've made before!"

And that's why I love CAPCOM, because they are prejudice to EVERYONE. BUY anything they make for the good of equality, and cheeseburgers, and Budweiser, and watch football!

~Gollon, American.

 

[PurpleRain]

Lost Planet you're prejudice to Akrid and Pirates. Damn them survivors for... surviving! Also, how can you not be prejudice to zombies, it's a little hard to hold there hands and sing in peace if they're biteing yours and moaning like no one's around.

But it's a good point there, I think CAPCOM has something against the Spanish. Damn them for trying to destroy America! Hey, when did Japan like America once again?

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

I think, however, that this AI was intentional and is perfect. It shows just how panicky and retarded some people will get in a dangerous situation.

You can't possibly be serious?

edit: looks like you were being sarcastic. Is it really needed to start throwing around the racist comments again? Expecting a lock soon if that's the case.

 

[end_boss]

I think, however, that this AI was intentional and is perfect. It shows just how panicky and retarded some people will get in a dangerous situation.

You can't possibly be serious?

edit: looks like you were being sarcastic. Is it really needed to start throwing around the racist comments again? Expecting a lock soon if that's the case.

I'm not being sarcastic when I say that the AI is perfect for what I interpret as a different reason than DDA gave. I think the AI is perfect because it's a spot-on reflection of how stupid minor characters are in a zombie horror B-movie.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

I think, however, that this AI was intentional and is perfect. It shows just how panicky and retarded some people will get in a dangerous situation.

You can't possibly be serious?

edit: looks like you were being sarcastic. Is it really needed to start throwing around the racist comments again? Expecting a lock soon if that's the case.

I'm not being sarcastic when I say that the AI is perfect for what I interpret as a different reason than DDA gave. I think the AI is perfect because it's a spot-on reflection of how stupid minor characters are in a zombie horror B-movie.

There is no excuse for pisspoorly coded ai, from which alot of newer games suffer. With today's resources there is no excuse, but people keep forgiving them for it because "it looks pretty" or whatever. I was annoyed to death by hl2 teammate ai, the far cry sidekick, the idiotic teammates in cod4, etc. This isn't because of "a realistic look on idiotic humans", it's just poor coding for me.

 

[Same River New Water]

I have recently played both Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising, and these two games really show off the integrity of CAPCOM. ... Also both of these games involve Hispanic Terrorists attacking Americans on an amazing scale.

Excuse me, I haven't played Dead Rising - I didn't realise it was a game about Latino Zombies.

 

[Gollon]

I have recently played both Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising, and these two games really show off the integrity of CAPCOM. ... Also both of these games involve Hispanic Terrorists attacking Americans on an amazing scale.

Excuse me, I haven't played Dead Rising - I didn't realise it was a game about Latino Zombies.

No, Dead Rising was about Carlito and his sister Isabella who had some sort of "Totally-Not-The-T-Virus" Virus to infect Coloradoans.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

In Mega Man we were prejudice to ROBOTS, in Street Fighter we were prejudice to Russians

Don't forget that Flame Man in Mega Man 6 had a TURBAN.

Ahh, good ol' Zangief. President whatshisface had some killer dancing skills. But if anything, I think Thailand is the victim of prejudice in this case, what with the 2 main villains (Sagat and Bison) calling it home turf. Also, Capcom gave some subtle jabs to Americans' sexism and insistence that females should assimilate themselves into the opposite gender. (Guile to Chun Li: "Go home and be a family man!") Don't forget those crazy violent Japanese folk that walk around barefeet everywhere and think of nothing but fighting.

 

[PurpleRain]

I don't really think Capcom's racist (this comming from a guy who's never played RE4). I don't like all this talk that RE5 is racist because you're killing black people. It's set in Africa, who're you going to kill? The Chinese?! The stereotype of the spanish terrorist in DR did seem a little off, but nothing to slap your face and be offended about.

 

[LordOmnit]

There is no excuse for pisspoorly coded ai, from which alot of newer games suffer. With today's resources there is no excuse, but people keep forgiving them for it because "it looks pretty" or whatever. I was annoyed to death by hl2 teammate ai, the far cry sidekick, the idiotic teammates in cod4, etc. This isn't because of "a realistic look on idiotic humans", it's just poor coding for me.

You are quite right (except when you put the commas outside the quotes and forgot to capitalize the acronyms) with that whole statement. Although how can you seriously say that people in those kinds of situations wouldn't react in such a way? I mean, are you insane or stupid? Of course people aren't going to be acting very smart, in fact, they will be acting crazed. What I agree with is that poorly coded AI is not acceptable, but how can you blame them for not spending a shit-load of time on writing cutting-edge AI for psychopaths and dumbasses?
[[Note, I haven't actually played it, I'm taking you guys' word for it and running on the underlying issue as opposed to talking about the game itself. For all I know, you could be pulling one over on me, but I assume that since you person(s) started it then you have an actual concern over this.]]

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

There is no excuse for pisspoorly coded ai, from which alot of newer games suffer. With today's resources there is no excuse, but people keep forgiving them for it because "it looks pretty" or whatever. I was annoyed to death by hl2 teammate ai, the far cry sidekick, the idiotic teammates in cod4, etc. This isn't because of "a realistic look on idiotic humans", it's just poor coding for me.

You are quite right (except when you put the commas outside the quotes and forgot to capitalize the acronyms) with that whole statement. Although how can you seriously say that people in those kinds of situations wouldn't react in such a way? I mean, are you insane or stupid? Of course people aren't going to be acting very smart, in fact, they will be acting crazed. What I agree with is that poorly coded AI is not acceptable, but how can you blame them for not spending a shit-load of time on writing cutting-edge AI for psychopaths and dumbasses?
[[Note, I haven't actually played it, I'm taking you guys' word for it and running on the underlying issue as opposed to talking about the game itself. For all I know, you could be pulling one over on me, but I assume that since you person(s) started it then you have an actual concern over this.]]

I'm doing the best I can with my writing, english isn't my first language ( I'm dutch ). I'm not asking them to blow a shitload of money on ai coding, I'm asking them to at least give my teammates the same coding as the enemies I face. If you've played some more recent fps involving teammates, you must have seen how good enemy ai has become these days ( xray vision and baseball pro grenade throwing skills included ) yet I don't see this reflected in my teammates.
Take cod4 for instance on hard. If you stay back a bit and let them fight on for a while, you'll notice that they will barely kill any enemies at all. Sure they'll take cover and fire some rounds, looking all nice and dandy but they don't do anything to help achieve the goals. But if you look at the enemies, as soon as they see you you will get shot/killed asap. When in cover, you get 3 grenades at your feet emmidiatly while they almost never throw them at your teammates. The same could be said with hl2, where they were basically fodder that got in the way.
It's an extremely lame way of making the game artificially harder for the player, forcing him/her to kill all the enemies and do the work ( player, grab the bazooka! player, use the AA gun! for instance in call of duty ). Of course I can expect the obvious counterargument "but if the teammate ai did everything it would be no fun", which could be true. But there are other ways of making a game harder without slapping rambo on the players forehead. For instance seeing a teammate use that heavy bazooka or AA gun, only to be killed to force the player to use it ( or not at all if we finally want to stray from the liniear fps gameplay ). Would come off way more natural and immersive.
Sorry for the long post, but "real people are dumb" as an excuse for poor ai coding is just not acceptable for me.

 

[LordOmnit]

Let me revise that last quote real quick:
"Real people [in horrible situations] are [certainly going to be] dumb."
You keep forgetting that horrible situations amendment and start talking about other games, when this was actually started to talk about another couple of games altogether.
I'll admit that the teammates in HL2 were the short end of the stick cut down a few more (plural for a unit of measure scaled to usage at person-sized levels) and that you tend to be a target a hell of a lot more often than other people but if that becomes a serious problem for you asthetics, then just turn the difficulty down and go in there Halo-style (which is what my brother complained you couldn't do in HL since Freeman was *GASP* a somewhat athletic HUMAN). I do think that AI for FPS' where the people are not supposed to be complete shit-head who would think to fling trash bags as weapons, but the enemies probably should be smarter than the allies because how else would you be in the situation you are in if you were smarter than them (for HL2 as I haven't played CoD or whatever else)?

 

[end_boss]

Okay, since my point went completely over your head, what I'm saying is that how do we know that Dead Rising WAS poorly coded AI? If the AI behaves exactly as people do in the source materials that the game is blatantly referencing, then how do we know that it wasn't coded specifically to pay homage to b-movie idiots?

 

[LordOmnit]

If I went away from that, then I apologize and I originally questioned the point of having high-quality AI for idiots rather than shitty AI for idiots. As in it doesn't make a difference because people act stupid in highly distressing situations and if they noticed that bad AI acts stupid then, well...

 

[squirrelman42]

everyone's a little racist sometimes.

 

[braincore02]

trudat! me, i can't stand whites. they blind me reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. they're too shiny! like a bunch o' lightbulbs all skeeboppin all over the place!!!

 

[end_boss]

If I went away from that, then I apologize and I originally questioned the point of having high-quality AI for idiots rather than shitty AI for idiots. As in it doesn't make a difference because people act stupid in highly distressing situations and if they noticed that bad AI acts stupid then, well...

Sorry, I didn't direct my post at you. I forgot to hit the Quote button. My post was in response to DDA.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

It's true that people in cheap horror movies die in idiotic ways. Not enough reason for them to impliment such a thing in a game imo though. Sadly one can never know for sure, the setup for the story and gameplay in dead rising was more focused on that of a horrormovie you could have a good laugh at. But if most sidequests were about rescuing people, why annoy the player to death with idiotic ai? It puts a negative impact on the otherwise fun gameplay. If it really was intentional, which I doubt, then they should get some better betatesters to point it out because it doesn't improve the gameplay. It helps to ruin it.

I'm sorry that I've thrown in some other game titles as a comparison, but like I said there is no excuse anymore these days to badly code friendly ai.

I'll admit that the teammates in HL2 were the short end of the stick cut down a few more (plural for a unit of measure scaled to usage at person-sized levels) and that you tend to be a target a hell of a lot more often than other people but if that becomes a serious problem for you asthetics, then just turn the difficulty down and go in there Halo-style (which is what my brother complained you couldn't do in HL since Freeman was *GASP* a somewhat athletic HUMAN). I do think that AI for FPS' where the people are not supposed to be complete shit-head who would think to fling trash bags as weapons, but the enemies probably should be smarter than the allies because how else would you be in the situation you are in if you were smarter than them (for HL2 as I haven't played CoD or whatever else)?

I expected that answer because the developers these days feel the same. When a game isn't a challenge anymore because of epic battles, interesting obstacles to overcome, puzzles to solve, etc but because they throw infinite spawns at you with xray vision enemies and idiotic teammates it doesn't help the immersion. It ruins it, like a high level match of counterstrike it's not about thinking anymore but about remembering spawn positions and enemy behavior you have to exploit. I don't want to turn down my difficulty to make the enemies dumber, I want them to be smart in a realistic matter without the nerf on my side.

Let fps games finally stray away from this childish scenes ala cod: there are 5 tanks that surround you, grab the glowing bazooka only you can use with the retarded teammates doing absolutely nothing. I want the stuff hl2 was supposed to be bring, but failed in doing so. ( we've all seen the first strider video ). The only way this is currently implimented is with the mp portion of games, I play alot of bf & mods for this very reason. It's not hard to think up several ways of implimenting this in the sp portion of fps games, I just feel like developers are scared shitless to stray away from the scripting and other lazy ways of making it harder for the player. Give us a realistic amount of ammo, make us play smarter, challenge us.

My 2 cents anyway..

 

[LordOmnit]

I'm sorry that I've thrown in some other game titles as a comparison, but like I said there is no excuse anymore these days to badly code friendly ai.

How many times do I have to repeat myself until it passes throught that layer of granite you people call a skull?
How can you tell the difference between a complete moron who is poorly coded and a complete moron who is expertly coded?
Speaking strictly about the Dead Rising shit-fest, most people in that kind of situation (who survived) would be acting like complete morons, so what does it matter if they act very closely to morons or just coincidentally? NOT SPEAKING ABOUT ANY OTHER GAME THAN ONES THAT DEAL WITH PEOPLE IN SITUATIONS THAT WOULD LEAD THEM TO ACTING LIKE MORONS:
"HOW CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COMPLETE MORON WHO IS POORLY CODED AND A COMPLETE MORON WHO IS EXPERTLY CODED?
Geez, now I'm getting all worked up about this, but seriously, what are you getting at? You don't know if an appropriately placed moron is well coded or poorly coded.
NOW!
Speaking of other games, yes, intelligent allies would be more than reasonable to ask for, but in the end they are hanging around you for what? One, two sections? Throw a hissy fit about part of the game (much as I have about part of the argument) and get over it. Although I haven't played HL2:Ep2 (damn Vista...), so I still don't know how many and often morons are running around with you, but in the first two parts they are there for a little bit and gone, end of story.
About the infinte enemies, think realiztically. You are a small resistance force and they are the overlords of the world.
As for the realiztic ammo thing, they actually took care of that in HL:2 better than HL with having you have about 42 shells in your shotgun max (as opposed to totting around 134) and several clips of other ammo (this still doesn't explain the carrying of many, many guns, but unless you picked up a weapon with every other step then the necessary things would have to be dropped (this was a big problem with Halo, in my opinion; guns are laying around EVERYWHERE with full ammo and extra clips? Bull-mother-fucking-shit)).
Also, if you want them to make you play smarter, then that would be the point of having the limited health thing in the HL series as opposed to an infinitly recharging forcefield in Halo.
Lastly, you have to make up for the lack of realistic movement on the part of yourself by lowering enemies' abilities.

 

[Alphavillain]

I used to think that Capcom lazily rehashed games like Resi, but then they brough Resi 4 out and I had to change my mind. They are one of those companies that have the ability to do awesome things...when they pull their finger out.