N-Query

DS and PSP, Resident Evil scares, Zelda trailer and more.

Scary and Bloody

Hey gal pals (sorry I had too). Recent trailers of warrior within look excellent. I was a big fan of sands of time and im looking forward to warrior within just as much as anybody. but one thing concerns me. i'm a bit squeemish and I scare very easily. I'm not a fan of horror movies at all (that's mainly why resident evil 4 is so low on my wishlist, username is enbob, check it out). i was able to tolerate eternal darkness and a few bloody/scary movies like die hard with a vengence and along came a spider. so my question is, do you think I will be able to stomach warrior within with all the decapitations? do you think the gore is just emphasized in trailers to appeal to an older audience? likewise, do you think resident evil 4 will send me crying to my mommy? i'm a dude by the way; in case 'gal pals' through you off.

Matt responds: I think you'll be all right, especially since you survived Eternal Darkness. The Silicon Knights-developed psychological thriller is definitely the gorier and scarier of the two titles. That said, Prince 2 is undeniably a bloodier game. There are common decapitations and when heads fly blood spurts, too -- not sand.

As for Resident Evil 4, stay far, far away. If you're squeamish, this is probably the worst game for you. It's going to be one of the bloodiest games on the market, period, when it debuts early next year for GameCube. And that's to say nothing of the scare factor. I admit freely to screaming like a wee school girl when being chased to my eventual doom by some of the crazed villagers in the game.

DS, PSP and Other Stuff

Hey Matt,

For someone who does the Nintendo Channel; you dont seem to like them that much.

You Seem to prefer the PSP over the DS, and you also seem to prefer other consoles over the GameCube. On top of that, you make it obvious by nit picking about everything that Nintendo has done.

Just for example, you said that Nintendo hasnt proven to you that the DS is as Innovative as they say it is. Well, in your opinion is it more innovative that the PSP, which is basically innovation-less.

The PSP seems to be a minature Playstation 2, with battery life. And i dont see why you would be so gung ho about it; especially with Sonys bad reputation for making shoudy breakable products.

Matt responds: I seem to prefer the PSP and other consoles to the DS and GameCube respectively? Funny, I don't remember writing that. I guess it's because I didn't. In fact, I clearly remember stating that I wanted the DS more than I did the PSP. But alas, I should have expected such a response. It seems to happen whenever I don't bow down and praise everything Nintendo does.

To answer your (accusations) questions, I consider the PSP to be far less innovative than the Nintendo DS, in theory. It is, in my opinion, almost entirely without innovation from a pure gameplay standpoint. It merely brings standard console gaming home to the handheld market.

I don't often mention PSP's lack of innovation, however, because that's not its selling point. Sony has not touted the PSP as the most innovative thing ever. We've all known what the PSP is from the start: a very powerful handheld.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has positioned DS from the beginning as the innovative new handheld that's going to change the way we all play games for the better. And I'm simply not buying that claim yet. Not when I have yet to see many games that really take advantage of the touch or dual-screen functionality and truly benefit the experience.

And don't misread my statements, either. Just because I'm not convinced that DS will bring about a revolution in the way we play, doesn't mean I don't think it's going to be fun. I already stated that because of games like Metroid Prime Hunters, which seems to bring about near-PC-like mouse control to a handheld first-person shooter, I'll be first in line to get my DS.

As for your claims that I prefer other consoles to GameCube, well, I'll just let my eight years covering Nintendo consoles exclusively for me. There's no reason why I couldn't go to write for one of the other IGN sites if I wanted to, but obviously I don't. And further, I'll be playing through Metroid Prime 2 before Halo 2 by choice this November.

But I will be playing Halo 2. And that's because I won't deny myself a good game based on some ridiculous allegiance to one console.

Moonlight Sonata

Hello, I am intrigued by Resident Evil 4. Looks like it could be right up my alley. I write regarding the recent RE preview you had. It was a good piece, but I noticed that Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata was featured rather prominantly. Will this peice that is near and dear to me as a pianist be featured in the game? I don't know that I aggree with the usage on an artistic (and somewhat personal) level. You wouldn't use Vivaldi's 4 seasons for Zelda no matter how perfectly it would work in certain aspects of both the music and the game.

Nick Moore

Matt responds: It's not in the game. Our video gurus at our Insider channel decided to add it for the opening of the featurette you watched because, put simply, they couldn't find any other Resident Evil 4 music to fill the space. All the demos we have are almost entirely without music, which is of course used to create a sense of spooky atmosphere as you wander through these quiet, cryptic environments.

The Extended Zelda Trailer

Is Nintendo EVER going to plan on releasing the extended trailer out to the public?

Matt responds: Probably not. Believe me when I write that we've tried to get it. Several times, in fact. Obviously to no avail. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo just waited it out until E3 2005 and then unveiled the game in playable form there. After all, while the extended Zelda trailer we saw was pretty cool, it was just an extended trailer, showing more of what we already saw.

On an interesting side note, gamers are really insane for this sequel, for obvious reasons. While sales of Legend of Zelda: Four Swords were extremely underwhelming for a Zelda game, if the sheer traffic we get when we post a story related to the new Zelda is any indication, the game is going to be huge. Honestly, despite showings of Halo 2 and Gran Turismo 4, Conker and Metroid and everything else at E3, when we posted the Zelda trailer on our site we got more traffic than any of the other IGN sites during the whole show. Insanity. Nintendo really needs to get out there and start hyping this one. It really wouldn't take much to create hype that far exceeds that for Halo 2, with a little effort on the publisher's behalf, and that could be good for GameCube sales and Nintendo image.

Metroid Icons

Matt,

Kudos to you and your colleagues on an excellent site; I've been an Insider for a few years now and I've always been pleased with my decision to join up!

Just thought I'd let you all know that I have posted a set of icons and wallpapers for Mac and Windows themed around Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to a website called ResExcellence. The icons and wallpapers are all in one download, so if any of your MP2 fans out there want to customize their Mac or PC with some GUI goodness, just click away: http://www.resexcellence.com/archive_icons_01/

Mike

PS - Ever thought about changing Frangoat to Flangoat?

Matt responds: Thanks for the heads up, Mike. And you might be on to something with that whole Flangoat thing.