Capcom Makes a Big Announcement That Gets (LOST) In the Shuffle. On a (PLANET)

So, I got out of work today and had a gang of shit to do, and have not had access to the video game related parts of the internet while I was at work, so when I turned on the old 360 at around eleven tonight I was genuinely surprised and excited to see that Capcom had a "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" about a game they were releasing. (By the way, this also shows how good the new 360 blade/NXE works since this info was literally shoved down my throat before I could get to Street Fighter).

At first I saw my menz Jun with a Raccon City Police Department jacket on. Then he said a "new game" that the fans had been demanding would be revealed TONITE IN THIS VERY VIDEO! Immediately my mind raced with thoughts of my dream game which chronicles the adventures of Barry Burton Jill and Chris as they crusaded around the world on a boat hunting down Umbrella remnants. OHHHHHHHHH maybe it’s another Resident Evil light gun game to clear up all of those "loose ends" from the other light gun games or maybe it’s a straight up Hunk adventure game where you find out why you "cannot kill the death" or why the "death can't die." I was literally frothing at the mouth. BUT THEN he takes off the jacket and says oh no. This Jacket has nothing to do with my announcement. Holy shit.

THEN when the jacket comes off i see underneath the jacket, a v-neck sweater with a turtleneck? I stopped for a minute and thought about it. My initial disappointment that a new and possibly old school style version of Resident Evil wasn't coming out was then overwhelmed with new Joy that the sweater and the turtleneck were another obvious hint. Jun was dressing as none other than Roy Bromwell the famous American exchange student who helps out his friends at the Taiyo School only to go on and later be elected president in the great game Rival Schools! It must be a call out to a rival schools sequel. FINALLY. Enjoy the kick ass J-Pop.




Also Enjoy From Wikipedia the Bio of Roy Bromwell

Roy Bromwell is a character first introduced in Rival Schools: United By Fate. A rich foreign exchange student from the United States, he is often portrayed in the games as main character Batsu's rival. He is also an American football player, with a number of his in-game special moves named after elements of the sport. In the first game, he is ordered to investigate the school kidnappings by his father, with Tiffany and Boman joining him. During their investigation, the American trio is defeated and brainwashed to the service of Justice High, but eventually is freed thanks to Batsu and his Taiyo High compatriots. This causes Roy eventually rethink his ideas about Japan and its people. His ending in the game has him return to the United States determined to change the way of thinking in his home country, and 30 years after the games take place, he is elected the President of the United States. [FUN FACT Taiyo HS is the same HS that Sakura from the Street Fighter games goes to, she also makes an appearance in the rival schools games.]

That’s a pretty great announcement. Sadly in reality it turns out that the game is in fact Lost Planet Two. I kind of enjoyed Lost planet One, but I feel like it is was so forgettable. Although the game play was frenetic, and actually has a really nice old school arcade shooter feel, with some interesting multilayer components including the grappling hook stuff, it didn't grab me. I think the problem however was the main character, because generally I love a mech game and love shooting stuff, and it can't be denied that even as an early generation 36o Game LP One looked tremendous, and moved smoothly, and your little dude aimed well and they gave you lots of awesome robots to play with.

My main issue with Lost Planet One is my problem with most Third Person Action games. Ina third person game, unlike a first person, the character really needs to stand on his own as an interesting well developed thing that you indeed care about. The difference really comes from perspective.

In a first person game it doesn't really matter who your "character is" since the player is actually the one directly interacting with the world, holding the gun, flipping the switches, it’s actually better if the game does not force a personality onto that character since it would be psychologically like forcing an emotion or ambition on the player, which the player may not have. Instead, the player must gain ambition from his perception of the world as it unfolds around him, make things happen to the player that make the player feel personally involved, that any slight against the HUD is an attack directly at the person holding the controller. (Which is why the ending of COD 4 is so great.) The proof is in the pudding, some of the best First person shooters have literally a milk toast know nothing say nothing machine SEE Gordon Freeman, and all the nameless dudes from call of Duty, all the way back to the DOOM guy and the Wolfenstien guy. Indeed, even if a first person game has a character with personality like Duke Nukem or Master Chief, that personality is communicated to the player subtly via quips or muttered lines.

A third person game puts the player next to or behind the on screen character. Due to this perspective the player is not interacting with the world, but is in a position more akin to watching a film. The character must stand out in the overall context of the story. Take Max Payne or my favorite character Jack Slate from Dead to Rights. BOTH of these character play compelling corny action heroes like any good Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie, complete with weird back stories, kick ass lines when they kill a bad guy and unique looks. The Resident Evil Games are the best example of doing a third person game "right." Capcom has spent so much time and care on the development of their characters in crafting huge over arching story lines and individuals with such depth and personality that characters like Chris Redfield can be re-introduced nearly 7 years since his last appearance with a full mythology ready to accompany him into battle, a mythology and a motivation which the player genuinely care about as they watched Chris and Claire and Jill and Barry and Steve and Billy etc. etc. etc. work out the mystery like a great soap opera or wrestling angle. For example, Resident Evil: Code Veronica (you can get it for the PS2 for like ten bucks, and it is likely one of the finest Resident Evil Games.) The first art of the game develops slowly with Claire Redfield, Chris's sister, trapped on an island, attempting to resolve its mystery. The whole game Claire, whom the player has already met in Resident Evil Two as the plucky fighter who dealt with the police station, is still searching for her brother Chris, whom we know as the baddass who killed a plant, a tyrant and punched Wesker in Resident Evil One. When Chris Finally shows up midgame in a tank to save Calire, after Claire has been flown off the Island, the player, due to the cut-scenes and the revelation of the story genuinely cares about Claire and is now pumped to see Chris loaded up like NATO ready to go after Wesker. To the Player this "has to happen" the mythology is so built up that this moment is "destined"

The third person game is a movie and without proper character development and attention it is a soulless movie. Even when we are talking about cheesy movies the difference between something like Leslie Neilson's Naked Gun and the film abortion called Meet The Spartans is gargantuan. Although both films are similar genres and similar "quality" the extra time that Leslie Neilson took developing Frank Drebbin makes his movie more memorable and funny to the audience than anyone in the soulless Meet the Spartans (or any of those movies by those assholes, even if Kevin Sorbo I think is in Meet the Spartans, Kevin Sorbo is the figure head for my religion.)

Lost Planet's character is Meet the Spartans as Jack Slate is to Naked Gun. Both games technically shooters indeed with time, Lost Planet is a more proficient shooter. BUT I don't give a crap whether or not the guy in Lost Planet lives or dies or finds his dad or whatever the hell is going on. Which is why I still own Dead to Rights and not Lost Planet. Game designers should take note of this and really try to make their characters memorable, even if that means they come off as "over the top" underplayed and reserved characters are ok in Akira Kurasawa movies but have no place in a video game, and no game designer is Akira Kurasawa so let’s cut the shit. Most game makers could be John Singleton though so let’s at least try. No one cares about a character who could be THE MOST cookie cutter character ever. Let’s count the ways (1) Amnesia (2) Is more than what he appears/is the king/is the best mech pilot (3) Looks like the lead singer from hoobastank.

I reserve judgment on the new Lost Planet so far since it looks like it is about the "Ice Pirates" and pirate kick ass. So let’s hope my warnings are noted, and the Ice Pirates are interesting in some manner. However, the fact that this game is not called Lost Planet 2: Ice Pirates or Lost Planet 2:Revenge, is unforgivable.

Also Jun. Next time you take off your jacket to reveal another jacket, let's make sure it looks more like this.