I Love Capcom. They're like Nintendo, only a little less innovative. You see, like Nintendo they make a great game and then sequel/prequel it to death and very seldom change much to the original formula. And just like Nintendo they've made some pretty bold, yet dumb decisions of late, where as Nintendo has opted to not make a system powerful enough to effectively compete, Capcom put out a brilliant game and killed it's sales with a series of stupid decisions.

Let's take a look at what happened Capcom did with RE 4, shall we?

1. They announced the game as an exclusive for a platform capable of realizing the artistic vision of the director.
2. They Forced said director to port it over to a system he is well known to hate (so much so he threatened to cut his own head off if they made him do it), and forced him to add additional content against his will.
3. They Announced that a "better" version will hit said weaker system later on.
4. They are now perplexed that people decided to hold off on the purchase of said game until the "better" version comes out.
5. They then launched the "better" version on a dying, weaker system just before the launch of a super powerful new Xbox 360, as well as an onslaught of highly anticipated new titles for Xbox and PS2. Worse yet this “better” version, while impressive, still featured noticeable graphical and technical downgrades from the GCN version preventing it from being a truly “better” experience.
6. They are now surprised that the game isn't having strong sales... The PS2 version debuted at # 3 on the charts and quickly dropped off, in contrast the GCN version debuted at # 1 and stayed in the top ten for three months straight. In the end the GCN version sold better. So much for the theory that you can make more money on PS2.

Let's take a look at what Capcom did wrong, shall we?

1. Never announce a directors cut 2 months in advance of the release of the original game. This will kill sales of the original edition, as cross platformers will wait so that they can get the additional features.
2. Never launch said directors cut on a competing system without offering the original system and it's fans an alternative with the same features. Those that don’t wait may avoid the game all together in protest of not getting all the features.
3. Never launch a port of an "older" game against the launch of a shiny new more powerful console. Right now all eyes are on the Xbox 360, and overall game sales are down. People were saving up for the 360, and are still hanging onto that money so that when the system can be found they can pick it up. They are not likely to pick up a port of an older game on an older system no matter how great it is. A truly upgraded port on a newer system on the other hand… Think RE 1 on GameCube, and you get the idea.
4. Wouldn't have made more sense to have ported this to XBox 360, or even PS3 with improved the graphics, and sound, and then put in all the additional content on a version that could be universally improved? I imagine, were that done, and if the game were announced, say 5 months after the game debuted on the GCN, then perhaps Capcom could have the blockbuster hit that this gem of a game deserves to be for multiple platforms.

Simply put, RE 5 is hitting the 360. With it supposedly continuing to improve upon the formula introduced by RE4 it would stand to reason that RE4 should be brought to the 360 with graphical improvements over the GCN version (rather than dumbing it down) but with all of the additional content from the PS 2 version (also graphically improved). Fact is that many people can agree that this game offers fantastic game play, and I cannot think of a single good reason that they ported it to PS2 rather than making it a launch title for the 360. After all, about half of the 360's line up were ports of current gen games, and none of them look as good as RE 4 would running in true high definition and all.

I think Capcom needs to "introduce" the series to Xbox gamers anyway, like what they did with GameCube, only on a smaller scale. No need to port every single original game over... just RE 4 since this is the game play experience RE5 is set to improve upon.

 In short, RE4+Xbox 360= a double dip I'd actually go for. In the mean time I'm not buying the POS2 version (No the O is not a typo.)

Seraphim’s blog for the day

 It’s little wonder so many actors and other artists are leaving Utah.

 Over the past several years I’ve heard so much about how Utah is growing artistically, and yet, as an artist, a writer, and a student of Game Development (console and PC) I find myself in a situation where I am STILL working for Convergys after almost six long years, and I have just barely gotten a raise that puts me over $10.00 an hour, despite consistently high semi-annual review scores, that have kept me in the Quality contributor to Key Quality contributor range. Worse yet, the managers at this department hate me, and constantly persecute me, ridiculing me publicly, and often times making me feel that my job is threatened, or accusing me of being “the only one” to make certain minor mistakes despite co-workers complaining about similar lack of familiarity with obscure polices, and making the same minor mistakes. (Please note I blame the management of this department soley for all of it! I'm sure Convergy's itself is a good company.)

 Yet why am I here? What are my skills? Drawing, writing, acting, and martial arts. I have some computer skills as well, but no certifications… yet. Convergys wasn’t always bad, but I am at a point where I have had it with the (mis)management of the department I work for, and yet when I try to find a job that would be more in line with my skills very little, or next to nothing comes up in the state of Utah.

  Sometime try putting Games, Art, film, or Entertainment and Salt Lake City Utah into a search field on www.monster.com… Now put in Customer service… See what I mean? There’s just not much here for people like us who are more artistic in our nature. Personally I would love to see that change, and I love Utah (as a whole) but I’m beginning to fear that a move out of state may be inevitable as well, and perhaps sooner than I would have liked.

      It’s a shame that Utah offers so few opportunities for people like me to work in the fields that they were born for.

 I've been reading a number of posts about this topic and it dawned on me. The posts and blogs are right. These old fogies never play games that they are criticizing! They probably don't play games at all.

 It's interesting that when movies are under scrutiny, political forces tend to ignore that PG-13 movies tend to sell more than R-Rated ones. Similar things occur in games... granted GTA and Halo are like the biggest selling games at the moment, but over all, more E and T rated games are sold in a year than M rated ones. Really most games are completely family friendly. I mean anyone who’d be offended with Sly, Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy is not only an idiot, but a complete fanatic like Jack Thompson.

 It's also amusing to me that they seem to ignore that a good 40%+ of gamers are over the age of 40, and according to Introduction to Game Development by Jeanie Novak, our age group is significantly less violent than their generation was, the youth crime rate has dropped significantly since 1980!

 One has to ask, why are these issues not being addressed? Well the answer is quite clear. the Dem's liberal stance on issues of abortion and gay rights aren't winning over an overly conservative nation (Not necessarily a criticism), therefore the Dems are desperately trying to change their liberal image by forcing a moral authoritarian agenda on media. Will this approach work? No. All they are doing is changing thier image from overly liberal to totalitarian, and who wants a totalitarian government? Not I... I may not agree with the Reps on everything, but at least only one Rep has gotten any press for his totalitarian stance against games, and incidentally he's the same man responsible for some of the most violent movies out there.... Kinda funny if you think about it...

We may never see these games on the system but I can dream. I did at least try to keep these realistic.

1. Resident Evil 4 Special Edition: Slow sales of the PS2 port made me realize that Capcom errored in assuming that the game would do better on PS2 than it did on GCN. Both systems are on their last legs (Granted GCN more so) and to launch it on a dying system not even a month before the launch of a new console? Then it hit me. The X360 has a number of marginally enhanced ports of games available for the XB, GCN, and PS2 anyway... why didn't Capcom port it to the 360 and add all that content? They could have bumped up the graphics rather than stripping them down and could have been a great addition to the launch line up. Heck I'd have bought the game a 2nd time if it were a 360 title, and considering that RE5 for the 360 will be coming out sooner or later it'd be nice to see it's predecessor to introduce the Xbox audience to the series.

Final Fantasy XII: Xbox 360 is getting FF XI anyway, and with as long as it's taking to get it out for the PS2 it seems kinda worthless to put it out only on a system that's dying. The XBox 360 would give Square Enix the room to improve the graphics, and find a fresh new audience.

Kingdom Hearts II: Same as with Final Fantasy XII, the PS2 is on its last legs, and such a great game isn't likely to do as well as if it were available on a newer system with even better graphics (Okay I'm a graphics whore.) I'm not saying can the PS2 version, but put it available for the Xbox 360 as well, maybe with some bonus content.

Guild Wars: I love this game, but... PC games are not without their problems, and I have top of the line parts. The plug in and play nature of the console would make this a great online experience... especially since there's no monthly subscription fee!

World of Warcraft: Only without the online fee... Its an awesome game but I can't afford this and Final Fantasy, and my wife prefers Final Fantasy so guess what? Yeah... Anyhow it would make another excellent addition to the 360 library.

Half Life 2: It came out on Xbox severely stripped down, why couldn't they wait just a bit longer and put out a perfect port for the 360?

Sims 2: PC version=great, console versions = crappy. The 360 should have a perfect port with the extra features without loosing features. Sims could still grow old, have families and die... unless they become a supernatural force! The 360 version would benefit from having werewolves as well, as the ability for Sims to kill each other if they hate each other enough, but in comical non bloody ways.... (Think Looney toons style of stuff here) and with the possibility that the killer Sim may be caught by the police, so there'll have to be silly body disposals whose effectiveness depend on the creativity level of the killer sim... Ah one can dream... It should also include the Nightlife and University expansions as pack-ins.

Ya know I hate politics. I really do. I'm a registered Republican, who hates GW Bush and am really frustrated with the war in Iraq... The patriot act, etc. The solution to the problems we have are not taking away our god given constitutional rights!

Then I take a look at the other side, the democrats. Why on earth are they focusing so much attention on persecuting video games when we have a useless war going on, and when the cost of living is so high that it cripples families, FORCING both parents to work. Whatever happened to a time when you could get away with leaving one parent at home and live off of one income? Why are there violent and moody kids? Because their parents are too busy working trying to pay the bloody bills!

If the Dems want to convert me (They never will because of moral and religious differences but still) how about we stop attacking people's freedom of expression and speech and start addressing more important issues, like lowering housing costs, stopping the exporting of American jobs to countries where the service reps can't speak a lick of English (*Cough cough* Dell *cough*) and putting an end to a war that's cost some $300 billion of US tax payer dollars only to not get Bin Laden, or anything else that will benefit the USA, or make our lives better. We need better jobs, and lower housing costs, not restrictions on video games people.

And to the neo radical conservative Republican, get off your pedestal, you can say there's plenty of jobs in the culinary arts, but you've obviously never worked in that industry where you're severely over worked and even more severely under paid. No American should ever have to suffer the indignity of a career in fast food! Come to think of it, no one anywhere should have to! We all deserve better than that!

Really people, let's stop focusing on unnecessary crap and start making people's lives easier, okay?