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To be honest, I've heard a lot of stories from knowledgeable people about how back in those days, while they were enforced sometimes (probably depending on company and/or title), most of the time journalists rarely returned any of their early preview discs/carts even if they were supposed to and nobody cared. I'd guess mostly because back 15+ years ago the internet wasn't really as big as it is now or accessible and not many people really considered the possibilities of major leaks. This is why every once in a while you might hear of old journalists or a big collector that has old journalist friends that find or have boxes of old preview builds for games. That's how most of these things find their way into the wild.
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Plus it's not usually that hard to make copies and return the origional...at least, so I assume. It can't be any harder than the standard stuff on the disc, after all, and that wasn't hard to get through.Comment
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What about the PSM build of 1.5?
Isn't it possible that it was also a preview disc intended for the gaming press?
I am curious because so many gaming magazines (especially in Germany, it seems) back then had pictures of exactly that build in their articles!
One of those mags (I have the scans somewhere, I'll try to find them again!) actually claimed that they got to play this build.
This seems unlikely tough because they said that the aiming control worked quite differently compared to RE1 (And the final RE2).
According to them you were able to start shooting at enemies immediately without having to press any aim button (R2, that is) first.
But I have never read/heard of this anywhere else, so I doubt it is true...
Many magazines also showed identical pictures, so it is more likely that they just got some kind of "press kit" with footage and info to use for their previews from Capcom instead of a playable disc.
Still it would be cool tough, if I'd stumble upon 1.5 by asking some folks working for the local gaming press.
Nowadays game magazines always make it clear whether they took their own footage for their articles or if they got the footage from the developers press database but back then a lot of trickery/rumors and simply false claims were done in order to keep things interesting for their readers.Last edited by Upaluppa; 04-26-2011, 11:47 AM.Comment
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@ geluda: Of course, the disc could have been in the office for some time. But my point was that I doubt they'd just hold onto some pictures and footage for weeks given the hype RE2 was getting so close to the release date. They could've also made copies of the disc and send the original back to the publisher for all I know, or never send it back at all. We can't know if IGN's build is from a previous or later date than the Trial either. But everything points to the later being the most logical thing.
@ Upa: There are at least one UK mag that also got a hold of that same pictures. They didn't have to necessarily came from a press kit. Some mags appeared to be somewhat friendly with media and shared footage and what not between them. It's also something that happened with some RE1 build, which for all I know, a UK magazine got the playable disc and after they made their review they sent the pics to a Spaniard magazine for publishing. The control thing could be due to them being told how the thing was and then unintentionally distort the information by attempting to give more weight to their pics saying they got to play it. Could be something else entirely too.Comment
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Do you think it's worth trying to get in touch with the reviewer who did RE2 for IGN? If he's able to tell us if the game he reviewed was the same exact game which is imaged on their site, it would certainly help placing it somewhere in the timeline of it's development.Comment
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The Trial Edition had a placeholder graphic for a stuffed bear in Chief Irons' torture chamber and Beta 2 had the bear model itself.Originally posted by Ridley W. Hayes View Post
The IGN build does not have the bear, just like the final, released versions.
Of course it's not a definite proof but this makes it quite likely that the IGN build is even more complete than Beta 2.
That's exactly what I think they did.Originally posted by Ridley W. Hayes View Post
They just commented on the pictures by using whatever they've heard from Capcom about the story/gameplay for reference.Last edited by Upaluppa; 04-26-2011, 11:56 AM.Comment
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Good detective work! I had considered starting a comparison of the backgrounds shown, but it required me to make my way through the retail game again which I haven't got round to doing just yet. This certainly changes my opinions on things, good work.Originally posted by Upaluppa View PostComment
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Torture Room Comparison Shots
Sorry, I couldn't upload them earlier because I was defragmenting my external hard drive with all the Resident Evil stuff on it...Originally posted by geluda View Post
BH2 Final:
No bear, no tiger...
BH2 IGN Beta:
Same as in the final build...
(You won't believe how long it took me to get this half of a second long scene captured into a picture)
BH2 Beta 2:
The only build we know of which features these poor animals in all their cold, stuffed cruelty...
BH2 Trial Edition:
A "prototype" bear is already there. The tiger was probably just not planned yet. (This room is in an incredibly early state in this build)
I really wonder why they decided to remove the bear (and the tiger on the wall) in the first place.
Brian Irons was obsessed with his hunting hobby. He even started hunting down his fellow police officers (and the majors daughter) when he lost his mind completely during the city outbreak.
Those stuffed animals set the mood for this room quite well (and they reflect Irons' wicked mind perfectly), if you ask me!
By the way, I know it's unrelated but this here is also interesting:
Left - Final PSX Version; Right - Final N64 Version
(Take a close look at the pipe construct on the lower path)
I never knew that they changed some backgrounds for the N64 release.
I just noticed this while looking through my old Resi2 background collection which happened to also include a set of N64 BGS.
Makes me think that I should give my dust collecting RE2 N64 cartridge another playthrough sometime soon!
The randomizer mode is great! Makes this old game feel somewhat fresh again after spending ages with nothing but the PSX version!
Last edited by Upaluppa; 04-26-2011, 01:39 PM.Comment
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Yeah, I noticed the bear too but I was doubting if there were two versions of the Torture Room on the beta disc. Good observation though! =)
About the N64 version of RE2. I'm not entirely aware of what is the process when porting a game to a different platform, but as far as I know, it's necessary for the studio to handle all the assets for the game, which might include some unfinished or not-final backgrounds. It's something that also happened with both RE3's PC port -where although small, there are differences between the bg's- and RE3's DreamCast port -where they left some isometric views of some rooms with dev's jargon all over them-. I tend to think that most of the differences pass just unnoticed given that they're so damn small and so damn few.
That particular.. thing on the N64 background looks similar to the heater? box on the West Office of the RPD, the one that used to be at the right side of the room on the beta1 instead of at the back as in retail. Well, at least to me.Comment
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You have to contact the writer and see what he remembers to be able to draw ANY conclusion. Like has been said in the past, some reviewers never even saw a final copy of a game.Originally posted by geluda View Post
There are a TON of reasons that they could have a debug version. The review version may be an "early" review, which I have had a few of. That is, they should be content complete, but they may not be tested all the way and have debug features left in. In some instances, removed features are still present in the game when they write their reviews, causing a discrepancy when the title is released.
There are instances where previews and reviews are written without seeing the game at all. They make their previews based on the media and information sent to them by the developer, as sending out build after build on carts, and even CD-rs, gets expensive, especially early on.
Review titles can also have debug features for the reviewer, to make it easier to see more of the game. Infinite health, ammo, and all that could be given for the quick playthroughs (if they even beat the game). Reviewers don't often have time to sit there fiddling with individual options, it is their job to write material and make money, not to sit around playing around with debug options.
Just a quick browsing of my photos online...
I have a build of Sphynx for Xbox marked for Early Review, which has some debug options enabled, including a teleporter that you cant normally access. Then theres Vexx which is an early preview with a bunch of debug options enabled. So this sort of thing happens quite a bit
YouTube video:
YouTube video:
Then theres the preview copy of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories that I had. Not even fully translated, debug functions with the second controller. Blah blah
YouTube video:
Last edited by Borman; 04-26-2011, 04:47 PM.Comment
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For sure! Well, after seeing what Upaluppa posted it's deffinately changed my mind on the matter. Instead of speculating on what IGN might or might not have been doing, with whatever build they were reviewing, we can actually see first hand that progress had been made to make the Calire build more "finished" than the Leon build. Of course we'll never really know the true dates untill the day (possibly) comes where we get to look for our selves, but after seeing that it deffinately suggests the Claire build was further ahead in development towards the final product. For all we know they could have been compiled on the very same day, Capcom might have compiled two builds with varying artwork and said to someone "which one do you like best?"Originally posted by Borman View PostYou have to contact the writer and see what he remembers to be able to draw ANY conclusion. Like has been said in the past, some reviewers never even saw a final copy of a game.
There are a TON of reasons that they could have a debug version. The review version may be an "early" review, which I have had a few of. That is, they should be content complete, but they may not be tested all the way and have debug features left in. In some instances, removed features are still present in the game when they write their reviews, causing a discrepancy when the title is released.
There are instances where previews and reviews are written without seeing the game at all. They make their previews based on the media and information sent to them by the developer, as sending out build after build on carts, and even CD-rs, gets expensive, especially early on.
Review titles can also have debug features for the reviewer, to make it easier to see more of the game. Infinite health, ammo, and all that could be given for the quick playthroughs (if they even beat the game). Reviewers don't often have time to sit there fiddling with individual options, it is their job to write material and make money, not to sit around playing around with debug options.
Just a quick browsing of my photos online...
I have a build of Sphynx for Xbox marked for Early Review, which has some debug options enabled, including a teleporter that you cant normally access. Then theres Vexx which is an early preview with a bunch of debug options enabled. So this sort of thing happens quite a bit
YouTube video:
YouTube video:
Then theres the preview copy of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories that I had. Not even fully translated, debug functions with the second controller. Blah blah
YouTube video:
Was there ever any indication where the shared beta came from? Like from press, or employees, or...Comment
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I think there is no need to open a thread only to post this, so I put it here:
Euro Demo 31 (not dumped by me) featuring Resident Evil 2 10 minutes Preview, I remember playing this demo back in the days.
If you know any Euro Demo featuring Resident Evil let me know, I was searching this demo for days, sadly inside there is nothing unusual
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Yeah I remember playing this, got it free with OPSM if I remember correctly. Could be wrong though...Comment
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The ten minute demo was awesome, I played it over and over... Much better than the RE: DC preview demo.Last edited by Scream; 04-26-2011, 10:48 PM.Comment
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What makes it better? is there different stuff? I'm going to download it soon.Comment
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