The comments, by the Rt. Revs Mark Bryant, Brian Smith and John Goddard, apparently first appeared in a news release sent out in the past week, written and reported by a freelance journalist. I couldn't find a copy of this release. MCVUK, whom we cited yesterday, only reported Capcom's reaction to the comments; MCVUK did not originally report the clergy's remarks.

Anyway, the Rt. Rev. Smith said his remarks were taken out of context and made out to be more authoritative than they were. "I made it clear that I was not qualified to make a comment," Smith told TVG. "I suggested that the researcher should contact someone in one of the dioceses in London where I understood she was working."

Rt. Rev. Bryant added that his comments had been misrepresented. "I know enough not to go offering outright condemnation of things about which I know comparatively little," he said.

So, OK, sounds like these guys were played to type for purposes of someone's attention-grabbing news release. Sounds plausible. My original point still stands: Why did Capcom even bother to respond? Either these guys, or the people using them, are pikers looking to stir up a fight. Best to just let that dog lie.

Priests Misrepresented In Resident Evil PR Stunt News [Total Video Games]

Not sure who Bishop Bryant, Archdeacon Brian Smith or the Right Rev. (that's right, Rev.) John Goddard are, but they say the game promotes violence and an interest in the occult. Blah blah blah, encourages violent behavior, blah blah, slippery slope, blah blah, we know better than you. Really, it's like they ripped a page from World's Zaniest Scolding Clergy Mad Libs, filled in the blanks and mailed it as a press release.

Capcom's Leo Tan says to MCVUK:

This is scaremongering and typical religious hysteria. You cannot blame society's ills on video games. It's just absurd. Most games (and movies) like Resident Evil show characters fighting evil not supporting it. Unfortunately the clergy is showing a lack of understanding of the video games industry and is too quick to splash the holy water and lump video games players into stereotypical boxes.



And the three ministers were thus chastened, apologized for their knee-jerk scapegoating and said they would get back to making their communities better, rather than making games worse.

Or, they just nodded smugly that they got a defensive reaction from Capcom. Yeah, I'm betting on the latter.

Capcom Responds to Clergy Criticism [MCVUK]

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a follow-up to 2007's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Both Wii games are lightgun takes on gaming's most famous horror series. The first presented Resident Evils 0, 1 and 3 in an on-rails shooting-gallery format. The new game remakes Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica, wrapped with a short new pre-Resident Evil 4 adventure called Operation Javier. All three scenarios star returning Resident Evil icons — Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, Redfield and Steve Burnside, Kennedy and Jack Krauser — allowing a player to pick one to control or to have a friend shoot as the other one.

The new game has not just its Wii predecessor and the older Evils it remakes to which to be compared. It can handle that. But it also unwisely invites comparison to Resident Evil 5 and unavoidably to the ribald 2009 Wii lightgun game House of the Dead: Overkill (reviewed here) and the brief but bold 2009 genre peer Dead Space Extraction (reviewed here). That's quite the swarm of comparisons.

Loved
Three Tales...: Darkside Chronicles and its predecessor present a pleasant way to re-visit gaming's past without forcing dull re-hash. If you want to experience Code: Veronica or RE2, your previous options have been to play through the original games or read a Wikipedia summary. I enjoyed the middle path of playing them as re-imagined on-rails shooters. The Duck-Hunt-on-wheels format trims a lot of the creeping and snooping from the re-introduced Resident Evils, for better or worse, but it also helps compress some full-size games into eight-level experiences. That allows players to experience three narrative arcs, three culminating boss battles, and observe the connections across the three adventures in one fat-free game. That offers plenty more for the dollar than the comparatively skimpy Dead Space Extraction.

... With Just The Right Cheese: Someone is going to scold me if I admit to laughing at the giant alligator attack of Resident Evil 2, the awkward flirting of Steve Burnside and Claire Redfield, the proto-Arkham-Asylum menace of Alfred Ashford, the absurdity of crying boss monsters, and so on. If you take Resident Evil seriously, then, be sure to not unlock The Darkside Chronicles bonus mode that allows you to fend off rampaging chunks of tofu. And be forewarned that the game isn't preoccupied with scares but rather the pleasures of shooting lots of monsters, preferably in their weak spots. If you don't take it seriously... if you get a kick out of seeing whether you will next fight little man-frogs or next listen to your partner character curiously brand a boss fight as "whack a mole" nonsense, then, hey, Darkside Chronicles has got it. This game isn't as gleefully aware of its excellent wrongness as House of The Dead: Overkill, but its own brand of mad horror adventure is colorful and entertaining.

Lots To Shoot With: Ammo scarcity is itself scarce in Darkside Chronicles. You always have lots of guns and lots of bullets, all very helpful because there are so many bad guys to shoot. Gold found in levels can be spent to upgrade guns. There's nothing too crazy to fire in the game. Pistols, shotguns, magnum, etc. But it all works. The sense of empowerment achieved once you start improving the guns makes the temptation to replay the levels quite strong, another perk this game has over Dead Space.

The Dark And The Giants: In levels enshrouded in darkness — and, oddly, when the scenario calls for large-scale combat against giant enemies — the game looks very good. Darkside's designers have had a lot of fun with the monsters they've re-purposed and the new ones that conclude Operation Javier. The game has some significant graphical problems (mentioned below) that keep it from reaching the surprisingly high bar of technical achievement and art direction of Dead Space, but the best of Darkside Chronicles' levels look terrific. There are times (not in the first level) when a Resident Evil 5 gamer might forget that they are playing the latest RE on a less powerful console.

Control Options Galore: You can play this game with the Wii Zapper and try it in co-op. I preferred a Remote and Nunchuk set-up, minus the Zapper. You aim your targeting reticule with the Remote and pull the Remote's trigger to fire. I could change weapons on the d-pad but preferred using the analog stick. I could reload with a shake of the Remote but preferred to do it with the Nunchuk. The controls were comfortable.

Hated
The South American Sun: The game's first level, the one I previewed several weeks ago, makes a poor first impression. It is in this level that Darkside Chronicles tried to be Resident Evil 5, placing Kennedy and Krauser in a sun-splashed south-American village and using nothing of the darkness or clever art direction to hide how much worse — less detailed, more jagged — this kind of scene looks on a console that isn't an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. In the sewers, in the shadows, in mansions and in plant-filled greenhouses this game looks quite nice. But outside in the sun, it looks like last year's model. The problem is exacerbated by the game's limited enemy types and animation routines. In the sun, you will notice that the same handful of zombies keeps coming at you. And it will be more obvious in the bright outdoors that the little man-frogs all flop in the exact same way, sometimes, if there are two of them that are shot by the same shotgun blast, synchronized.

Breaking Their Own Rules: The rule is that video game bosses have health bars and that players, who shoot weak spots, can drain color from those bars. That's how bosses die (never from old age, except in one Metal Gear). But in Darkside Chronicles, you better not be shooting that weak spot and expecting that health bar to drain if the boss hasn't animated to the proper state yet. The boss has to writhe and attack you some more, and you — you who shot that bar too low, too quickly — will just have to wait.

Lots To Shoot At: Let no one protest the number of the undead that need to be given metal fillings the hard way in this game. But let's discuss the way money is earned in this game: By shooting up the scenery. Shoot the picture frames. Shoot the lamps. Shoot the white cardboard boxes. Shoot these things when you're supposed to keep quiet. Shoot them — and oops, sorry I hit the non-reacting character I'm talking to who was standing slightly in the way. As game design, it's not a problem to have to shoot all over the place to find the money you'll want to spend on weapon upgrades, which in turn make the game more fun. But as mood killer, this design is just deadly. There's no stealth and creeping horror in a game in which I'm encouraged to blast every pixel and polygon in sight to find some cash.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles makes the wrong first impression, but gets better from there. I understand that purists don't love the liberties taken with the edited presentations of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, but as someone who isn't so devoted to the canon and enjoyed taking three rides through a Resident Evil arc in one game, I was satisfied.

The Year of the Wii Lightgun Shooter is ending now, with a trio of enjoyable games. Overkill is the craziest. Dead Space is the most innovative. Resident Evil offers the most content. They're all good.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles was developed by Cavia and Capcom and published by Capcom for the Wii on November 17. Retails for $49.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through on normal mode in a shade under nine hours. Unlocked tofu mode and uttered profane language during several boss battles, though not the last one.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Capcom celebrates Friday the 13th by giving us two new videos from Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the Wii, showcasing the all-new Tofu Mode and alternate costumes for the game's characters. The tofu tables are turned in this installment of the series, as instead of becoming a giant hunk of tofu yourself, you must take on hordes of wiggling, jiggling tofu blocks hell-bent on your destruction. The action looks rather disgusting, but quite satisfying too, in a away.

The second video shows off the game's alternate costumes, including Leon's snazzy biker outfit and Steve's cowboy getup. Snazzy! You can try them both on for size when Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles drops next week.

I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, so I will be purposefully vague. This is exactly the srot fo trailer that makes me want to pick up a game that I normally would have no interest in whatsoever. Way to market outside of the embed window, Capcom.

Experience The Darkside [GameTrailers]

Capcom makes on-rails shooters look so very fine. Generally one of my least favorite genres next to that one where you poke yourself in the eye with a sharp stick, this trailer for The Darkside Chronicles has me considering putting a little money down during my next trip to generic local gaming retailer. I don't know if it's the new bosses, the new characters, or a chance to revisit some old friends, but I'm feeling quite compelled to shoot at something without controlling my own movement.

There's a special collector's edition, too, which comes packed with the game's soundtrack, promotional DVD and a reversal sleeve. Priced at ¥8,390 (US$91).

..........Anyone like on-rails shooters?

Is it fair to compare? Not completely. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, a follow-up to 2007's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, is not done yet. It comes out in about a month.

The two Resident Evil light-gun games, both developed by Capcom and Cavia for the Wii and both expanding the fiction of the more interactive Resident Evil games, nevertheless invite comparisons to other games in their genre.

Right now, the comparison favors EA and its well-reviewed September on-rails shooter (they call it "guided first-person experience") Dead Space Extraction.

Capcom's game, which once may have impressed, now seems less successful in terms of graphics and gameplay — and maybe storytelling — than EA's effort.

I played the first level of Darkside Chronicles at a Capcom event in New York yesterday. It was set in the game's new slice of content, a South America-based chapter, Operation Javier, that is set between the events of Resident Evil: Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4. I played co-op with a publicist for the game, each of us wielding a Wii remote, me as Leon Kennedy, she as Jack Krauser.

The controls were simple. Point. Shoot. Shake to reload. Weapon selections were mapped to the d-pad. But ambition may have gotten the best of the game's developers. This first chapter of the game is set in broad daylight. That may provide a visual echo of Resident Evil 5, but it also exposes the jagged graphics the Wii is sometimes prone to make for games with quasi-realistic graphics, the jaggedness that the dark shadows of Umbrella Chronicles and Dead Space Extraction kept hidden. (The screenshots in this post, from Capcom's press site, look smoother than the visuals in the demo I played.)

The opening level of The Darkside Chronicles has Kennedy and Krauser, soon to be rivals in RE4, helping each other shoot through the infected hordes in a South American village. Your taste for shooting ambling zombies in the head may vary with mine — it is a popular pleasure in games. But I just recently was shooting specific limbs off aliens in Extraction, making the gunplay in Resident Evil feel less finessed. Some would say that Resident Evil shotguns aren't meant for surgery on a zombie stomach, and they'd be right. But are you up for shooting piranha that leap out of the water and mutated giant frogs? Would you like zombie body parts to fall off in the places you shoot them?

The draw of Darkside Chronicles will be the fiction, which certainly has a bigger following than that of Dead Space. The game brings back sequences from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica in addition to providing Operation Javier's new bridging content to RE4. It's telling old story and new, in the light-gun format.

One hopes, though, that game design advances aren't passing Capcom's Wii series by. Extraction presented a more dynamic on-rails shooting experience than the rest of the Wii's many light-gun games have. It did much of the work Capcom and Cavia have attempted of integrating narrative with rail-shooting. But it did so by pulling the player through such physically dynamic sequences — through space-walks and tunnel-crawls and panicked rushes from scary enemies — that it seldom felt like the player was a floating gun. Instead it conveyed the sense that the gamer was the hands of an intelligent character. Darkside Chronicles felt more conventional than that yesterday. It pulled us down dusty streets, allowed us to choose between a couple of branched paths (first player to press the button dictated our decision) and brought us toward a boss. Chatter between our characters was relegated mostly to cut-scenes.

The Darkside Chronicles demo had some awkward moments. Occasionally, one of our characters would get pulled out of our limited control for scripted drama. For example, my targeting reticule for Leon stopped working as an infected person leaped on my character, who was suddenly on-screen as if this was a third-person game. That was a cue for my co-op partner to free me by shooting her cursor at the guy wrestling with Leon. This didn't happen because I messed up. It happened because the game was programmed to run that sequence at that time. In single-player, I was told, these first-person-interrupting scenes would happen to the partner character only, which would probably better preserve the consistency of first-person control. But, in co-op, to have one of our characters removed from our control while the other person can still play, was confusing.

The game has many of the standard light-gun staples. Objects in the environment can be shot to reveal healing items and ammo. Discoverable gold bricks can be used to buy weapon upgrades. An inventory screen accessible whenever the game is paused can allow players to share and swap weapons. We had stand-bys like the shotgun, machine gun and magnum at our disposal, in addition to an infinite-ammo pistol. Holding a button and swiping allowed for a last-gasp knife attack. The game is playable with the Remote or the Wii-Zapper. A Nunchuck is not supported.

Not all prospective fans should be deterred. Pedestrian gameplay that drives players through an expanding fiction that fascinates millions of gamers may be enough to get people excited about Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. And you should know that I was unimpressed with EA's Dead Space Extraction both times I saw it demoed before I was able to play the real thing. Maybe I'm a bad judge of light gun games in preview form? Or maybe The Darkside Chronicles still needs that something special to impress in a genre that just got a boost from a horror series rival.

Zombies! Targeting reticules! Reloading! What more could you want from a Resident Evil-themed shooter, except perhaps the ability to move of your own accord? I kid the rail shooter. Perhaps once it was the bastard-child of the first-person shooter, but games like House of the Dead: Overkill and The Umbrella Chronicles have shown me that the sub-genre is alive and well - on the Wii at least.

"It was a bit of a trial and error, this shaky cam," said Masachika Kawata during a meeting at this week's Gamescom convention in Cologne. "It was probably a little too much, so it's a little toned down now."

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles attempts to retell the stories of two classic Resident Evil titles, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica, in a Wii first-person shooter that takes control away from the player and replaces it with camera controls made to look like they were shot with a hand-held camera.

During my time with the game today I played through an early level of the game, killing 34 zombies (four with headshots) as I made my way back and forth through a set of buildings.

While the level, played on the middle of three difficulty settings, took me just 8 minutes and 36 seconds to shoot my way through, Kawata assured me that the game as a whole would take about ten hours to complete.

He also said that levels are meant to be replayed by gamers hoping to wipe out all of the zombies as they make their way through the game, which controls how quickly you work your way through each scene.

Kawata said they made the decision to take the control of the camera and movement away from gamers because he wanted them to concentrate on shooting.

"An on-the-rail shooter is more of an adventure game, is more about shooting," he said. "So players can concentrate on that."

When I played the game earlier this year during the lead up to E3 the camera seemed to slide around and shake more, making it hard to target zombies when they ambled onto the screen. The shaking, though, also made the game more of a challenge.

This time around I found it easier to go through the level, not losing any life until the final moments of the level.

Kawata suggested I play the game on the highest difficulty, but I can't help but think that perhaps the game's unique jittery perspective has been toned down too much.

What hasn't really been toned down is the game's gore. Playing through the level, I first blasted the hat off of a zombie's head and then shot away a large chunk of his skull.

That's just the right amount of gore, Kawata said.

"Obviously if you are creating a horror game, you have to deal with gore, blood, decapitation, but it is getting a little bit tricky because of ratings.," he said. "I feel this is as much as I could go this time around."

While Leon, Claire, and Steve are clear enough of the cover of the next entry in the Resident Evil rail-shooter series for the Wii, who is that shadowy character in the background? Capcom is being absolutely no help whatsoever.

Front and center feature both Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in their classic Resident Evil 2 outfits, followed by a nice horde of zombies. Also featured in the background is Steve Burnside from CODE Veronica fame along with a shaded "mystery" figure, who you will have to wait to find out who it actually is. :)

Will we really have to wait, or will the combined power of the Kotaku commenting community triumph over vague box art? Photoshop guesses are extremely welcome!

Box Front Released for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles [Capcom Unity]

To be given away free to advertise Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, it appears at first glance to be part of "the rule"; a rubbish black t-shirt doing nothing but blandly advertising a video game. But there's a trick.

Boo! Nice touch, Capcom.

We also get yet another chance to see how they handi-cam look and feel of the game help to highlight the tension in the game.

Can those two even go together?

What Is It? Capcom's on-rails shooter for the Wii boasts two-player coop and what the developers say are the best graphics ever seen on the Wii.

What We Saw
I played through a healthy chunk of the game along side another writer.

How Far Along Is It?
Due out this winter, the game appeared to be mostly done.

What Needs Improvement?
Difficulty: When the developer says that the game's going to be easy to play through it's not a good sign. True, Kentaro Noguchi said that if you want to take down all of the zombies it's going to be a challenge, but I'd rather survival be the challenge.

What Should Stay The Same?
Tight Controls: I was impressed at how well the light gun game played on the Wii. Targeting was spot on and responsive when I played it, making for a fun experience.

Shaky Cam View: Rail shooters can be a bit boring at times, but Capcom fixed this issue by giving the entire game a handheld-shaky cam view. The idea, Noguchi told us, was to make it feel like you were out of control and reacting like real people would when confronted by the living dead. The idea works with the shake adding quite a bit of tension, and even a bit of much needed difficulty to the game.

Amazing Graphics: I was surprised at how good the Wii game looks. Sure it's not high-def Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 graphics, but it's one of the better looking shooters I've seen on the console.

Hot Swapping Weapons: Learning from Resident Evil 5, Darkside Chronicles allows you to assign weapons and items to the d-pad on your controller and hot swap in the heat of battle. It's a fantastic addition to the franchise.

Coop: The cooperative play, handled on a single rather than a split-screen, was surprisingly enjoyable. There are even moments when one player has to save the other from surprise zombie attacks.

Final Thoughts
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicels feels more like an interactive horror simulation than it does a rail shooter. The addition of moody lighting, a shaky camera and tense voice acting makes you quickly forget that you can't control where you look and instead concentrate on what's going to pop up around the next corner.

Day four, meanwhile, was slim pickings — although that Fat Princess trailer really had me laughing. The Super Mario Galaxy 2 trailer was my favorite from day three without a doubt, although Final Fantasy XIII was pretty cool. Give me Yoshi in space over emo any day.

Anyone want to nominate a Best of E3 clip?

Day Three
Watch The PSP Go Sliding In Action
Ratchet & Clank Future E3 Developer Trailer
Gran Turismo 5 Trailer Has, Yes, Car Damage
Super Mario Galaxy 2 Screens And Trailer
A New Final Fantasy XIII Trailer For You To Watch
Heavy Rain Trailer Falls On E3
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles E3 Trailer
Assassin's Creed 2 Gameplay Glides In
Kratos Is In The New Soulcalibur
Whip It With This Castlevania: Lord of Shadow Trailer
Natasha Bedingfield Serenades A DSi

Day Four
You Ever Wonder What The Bottom Of An Avatar Shoe Looks Like?
Today's Most Relaxing Trailer? Echochrono
The Grinder E3 Trailer
Plus-Sized Fat Princess E3 Trailer
Taste Hot Monkey Vengeance!
This Is The Most Technically Impressive Thing I've Seen All Week

"I personally have no fear (about sales of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles), Resident Evil is a massive brand on a worldwide scale and you can't really compare it to MadWorld," he said. "Personally I do like MadWorld, I think it is a very unique game. I think we should be happy to be able to play a game like this. It's kind of disappointing that it didn't sell."

Kawata added that some of the design staff or MadWorld used to work for him and that they're friends and wished them the best.

Resident Evil, Kawata, said, is such an established franchise that even casual gamers know the name.

"Most if not all gamers know the Resident Evil name," he said. "It's that powerful a game.

"These games have been around for ten years, there are also the movies as well which also expands that to reach casual gamers."

Kawata said that in Japan the franchise is so successful that when a television station does a story on it their viewership rises signiicantly.

"I've had TV stations and channels thank me because their viewership goes up," he said. "So it is a very powerful brand name."

And MadWorld isn't the only example of hardcore gaming on the Wii, Kawata pointed out. Last year, he said, his favorite game was Dead Space and now it's heading for the Wii as another light gun game.

"With that game coming out we feel it is going to be a very nice competitor, help us push our limits and raise the bar for light gun games.

"There is potential in these types of games,"

While Resident Evil maybe a hardcore franchise, Kawata says he thinks The Darkside Chronicles will also reach casual gamers.

"The Wii has a lot of casual gamers and we didn't want to leave anyone behind."

"One of the things we thought we needed to achieve was a near-360 level of graphics," said Cavia's Kentaro Noguchi. "By adding in technology like HDR, global illumination, shadow/lighting and some filters, we feel that we were able to achieve some graphics that are the best you will see on the Wii."

Just as important, said Capcom's Masachika Kawata, co-producer of Resident Evil 5 and producer of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, was the game's atmosphere, something the developers amped up by adding another character, a partner, on screen. They also tweaked the camera to make it look like it was recorded with a handheld camera, shaking as players move through the on-rails shooter.

In the rail-shooter you play as either Claire Redfield or Leon S. Kennedy, or as both in two player games. The game delivers a new story meant to fill in missing pieces of the Chronicles series.

Because of the type of game it is, players don't control the camera at all, which Kawata says allowed the developers to create the sort of horror aspect of the game that they wanted to create.

"Zombies are slow and stupid, if you can move and shoot it gives you the upper hand," he said. "Since you are on rails it's not like you can control the motion, it controls the motion as if you are on a train.

"When we thought about the different risks and rewards when you go with a shooter on rails, it sort of fits the Resident Evil franchise. (The franchise) was initially about not being in total control of your surroundings.

"There were discussions about whether to give control of the camera to the gamer temporarily or not, but in the end, after all of the discussions, we realized we want to make it a rail shooter that has an incredible amount of atmosphere."

To help add the level of realism, the game relies on a more realistic script, one filled less with one-liners and more with the sorts of things a person might say when confronted with a corpse ambling toward them.

The team also added a number of filters to the game, adding smoke effects, blood that splashes on the screen when you kill a zombie. The end result, they say, is the "number one looking best atmospheric game on the Wii."

The Wii game has a few tweaks it picked up from Resident Evil 5 as well, like the ability to assign weapons to the D-pad and switch on the fly. You can also save up your healing herbs and use them later.

In single player mode there will be times when you will have to save or be saved by your partner. In the coop mode you won't ever see your partner on the screen, so that won't ever happen.

Noguchi said that the game, if played quickly, is actually quite easy to play through, but that if a player is hoping to clear all of the zombies from the game it can be quite a challenge.

"For example because the camera is constantly moving, it presents challenges for gamers to see how many zombies they can kill before the camera moves on," he said. "We do think it's a game that will appeal to a wide variety of gamers. It could appeal to casual gamers, people who like shooters and Resident Evil fans."

Okay, so it's technically the first trailer for Biohazard: The Darkside Chronicles, but it's essentially the same thing. Just pretend the Japanese text is a strange code you have to decipher to understand, because for many of you it is.

Thanks Steve for passing this along!