Some cool 1.5 exclusive screenshots ;)

[Alfred]

And where do you get this information from ?

[Guest]

And where do you get this information from ?

It has been mentioned a few times by numerous people that this was the assumed purpose of the disc. IGN also had access to a debug build and they actually took photos of some of the debug features and put them on their website.

[Rick Hunter]

And where do you get this information from ?

It was the "preview" version. I remember I saw the pictures of beta 2 in magazines one or two months before release, I especially remember the white untextured car, I always found it odd. That was a real version sent to the press to write a preview, unlike the 40% version of 1.5.

[Gemini]

Beta 2 has debug functions and that was intended for reviewers.

It was never intended for reviewers, for the simple fact that dialog strings have most kanji mixed up, making everything impossible to understand unless you only listen to the voice acting. You would never send such mess to anybody outside CAPCOM.

[Kegluneq]

Metal Gear Solid's like the only thing David Haytor, most of the other cast has been swapped around (although the JP cast has remained consistent, right?) - Consistency in Narrative? har har har.

You don't have any idea about what you're talking about. Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2's cast was brought over for Metal Gear Solid 4, completely unchanged. Only character whose voice was changed was Johnny Sasaki's. There's been no replacement of the voice cast of the Metal Gear Solid series in any of its versions (except Revolver Ocelot's JAP VA, but this was because the VA had passed away; even then, they brought back Liquid Snake's VA to do the role).

Another great example is the Fallout series. New Vegas, a game released more than 10 years after Fallout 2 managed to bring back the VA of a character that had been voiced by said VA back in Fallout 2. This is how important consistency was to Obsidian, the creators of the Fallout series (or the people who contributed greatly to it).

Resident Evil had like, one fucking character being voiced consistently by the same person. Pardon my blunt honest, but you're either completely blinded by your fanaticism or you're completely clueless about the professionalism that some companies have achieved in the game industry's VA. Resident Evil is a turd in this department.

[Alfred]

I think Geluda may be referring to these pictures.

















These were the only images of Resident Evil I could find on IGN, but these aren't from Beta v2, they're from a almost final build of RE2.

[Guest]

^I never said they were from beta 2, the point I was making was that media companies do get a hold of debug builds and do publish images of debug features. Making sure a build is absolutely perfect for journalism is not top priority, they know it's beta code and know what to expect.

It was never intended for reviewers, for the simple fact that dialog strings have most kanji mixed up, making everything impossible to understand unless you only listen to the voice acting. You would never send such mess to anybody outside CAPCOM.

Preview code doesn't have to be perfect, as long as people know it's preview code bugs/errors/inconsistencies are to be expected. The build is hardly a mess, while unfinished it's very much playable for a large portion of the game, much of its content works as is intended. If someone was to play the game to get an idea on what the final product might be like beta 2 would serve that purpose very well.

[Gemini]

Preview code doesn't have to be perfect, as long as people know it's preview code bugs/errors/inconsistencies are to be expected.

That's not the point. It's just not professional sending around builds with visibly broken or incomplete stuff and CAPCOM would never do that. They'd send screenshots instead. Preview builds are a much different thing than BETA builds.

[Alfred]

That's not the point. It's just not professional sending around builds with visibly broken or incomplete stuff and CAPCOM would never do that. They'd send screenshots instead. Preview builds are a much different thing than BETA builds.

Got my point of view.

[doriantoki]

You don't have any idea about what you're talking about. Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2's cast was brought over for Metal Gear Solid 4, completely unchanged. Only character whose voice was changed was Johnny Sasaki's. There's been no replacement of the voice cast of the Metal Gear Solid series in any of its versions (except Revolver Ocelot's JAP VA, but this was because the VA had passed away; even then, they brought back Liquid Snake's VA to do the role).

Another great example is the Fallout series. New Vegas, a game released more than 10 years after Fallout 2 managed to bring back the VA of a character that had been voiced by said VA back in Fallout 2. This is how important consistency was to Obsidian, the creators of the Fallout series (or the people who contributed greatly to it).

Resident Evil had like, one fucking character being voiced consistently by the same person. Pardon my blunt honest, but you're either completely blinded by your fanaticism or you're completely clueless about the professionalism that some companies have achieved in the game industry's VA. Resident Evil is a turd in this department.

Thank you for so eloquently stating this. I agree. I have been staying out of the muck, so to speak, in regards to challenging Carnival (and others) regarding the consistency of the Resident Evil series, as even one comment on the issue and they were already down my throat. But this basically describes the series as a whole, even outside the lack of consistency in voice acting. Don't get me wrong, this does NOT mean I think it's a bad series, or that voice acting is somehow congruent with quality. The RE series has maintained a pretty steady level of quality, all things considered.

[Guest]

That's not the point. It's just not professional sending around builds with visibly broken or incomplete stuff and CAPCOM would never do that. They'd send screenshots instead. Preview builds are a much different thing than BETA builds.

But clearly Capcom did evident by the pictures above. If it wasn't professional they wouldn't sent out any pictures, and videos or any builds showing anything that could be deemed undesirable. If that's the case where did those picture come from and why did they make it to press?

[Rombie]

I think Geluda may be referring to these pictures.

These were the only images of Resident Evil I could find on IGN, but these aren't from Beta v2, they're from a almost final build of RE2.

Oh man, that takes me back. Those images from PSM Online, which was the PS site the original version of IGN replaced and made into PSX.IGN.com back during 1998 (back when Imagine owned IGN, that's what the I stood for). Anyway, I'm fairly certain you are correct about the near final build... they had video at the time as well, and so I would assume a copy was provided to them by Capcom shortly before the games final release as I am fairly sure the images and video were put up not long before the final review was.

PSM Online was the site for the PSM magazine, the independant PS mag, which had exceptionally detailed guides early. I still have their issues with their RE2 guide which was published weeks before the game came out (Feb 1998 issue from Jan). So it's likely that they had access to a near final build on which the review and guide were done on, and these images and the video (which is still listed at IGN's video page) came from.



Sadly IGN only ever noted them as being posted in Feb 2nd 1998 when the site was redesigned sometime after and I can't access the Wayback archive of PSX.IGN.com far enough back to see how long they were to double check my memory.

[Gemini]

But clearly Capcom did evident by the pictures above. If it wasn't professional they wouldn't sent out any pictures, and videos or any builds showing anything that could be deemed undesirable. If that's the case where did those picture come from and why did they make it to press?

Having a bunch of screenshots with a few debug information is very different from sending broken stuff around, especially when the assets showing up in the pictures are more or less what people are going to get in a retail build. This has been done other times with the press, like when Core started sending screenshots of Tomb Raider 4 showing a few debug strings. Still, they didn't send any BETA builds whatsoever, that's not how the industry works. It's totally red area. If they want the press to have a playable version for their previews, they give out trial builds. BETAs are never, ever sent out.

[Borman]

Having a bunch of screenshots with a few debug information is very different from sending broken stuff around, especially when the assets showing up in the pictures are more or less what people are going to get in a retail build. This has been done other times with the press, like when Core started sending screenshots of Tomb Raider 4 showing a few debug strings. Still, they didn't send any BETA builds whatsoever, that's not how the industry works. It's totally red area. If they want the press to have a playable version for their previews, they give out trial builds. BETAs are never, ever sent out.

Totally wrong. In fact, there are some companies that choose to leave in debugging functions to assist the person playing it. Trial disks are often (but not always) for public consumption, and are pressed disks that work on retail consoles. Preview disks are beta versions, and depending on the company, that could entail any number of things.

What some people are trying to clarify is that even if a disk is sent to a person or company for coverage, it usually has some sort of purpose on it. There are discs that can be marked "For PREVIEW ONLY" which means that the person isn't to review it. Similarly, unfinished but nearly finished copies of games are sometimes sent out, in which the writer is able to review it. The key is to differentiate between preview and review in this case. Companies are known to include a fact sheet for what they can and can not write about, including any bugs that they may experience.

[Chris' Boob]

Really digging that cover of that mag for Leon. Hell, even made it my avatar for now Pretty sweeeeet.