No, the level design in RE4 is pretty great.

There's one section where you wander through the dark and you can hear these wolf enemies around just out of your field of vision. The lightning flashes and you can see them for a brief moment but then it's dark again and you just feel worse. It's a really great way to build tension.

Another section has the wolf enemies out for you again but this time in a hedge maze. They pop out of corners but the great part about it is that they don't pop out in front of you for just the cheap jump scare. They come from behind (you can hear them) instead. I'm constantly doing the 180 turn to look over my shoulder.

Another has these invisible bugs. You might miss them if not for the warning you get from one of the villains, bragging about some sort of creatures. Then you're constantly creeping forward, looking for the fog of their breath, their footsteps in the water, or your laser aimer to act funny.

There are tons of these moments and RE5 has very little of that (there's an elevator scene that's pretty good) and a lot of is an inferior version of a sequence in RE4. Like I already mentioned the shack sequence in the beginning where they keep everything on the ground level to make sure you can see everything, cut down on entry points to guard, and give you a partner to guard the fewer entry points. It's a sequence that I love in RE4 but find pretty mundane in RE5.

yes and i don't need to see any more :P it was my favorite showing at E3 and i just want to play it.

The blind enemy appears a couple times.

Anyway, I wasn't saying that the raid on the shack in RE5 happens a bunch. I'm saying it's an early example RE5 aping RE4 and doing a crappy job of it.

i never liked the RE games before 4. the camera and controls were all wrong. i could deal with clunky combat controls to a certain extent if the character was supposed to fumble around with weapons (although i'd expect more mechanics to round things out if that were the case), but they were usually supposed to be trained killers. then i can't justify the camera for any reason. like there's no game world reason why the character shouldn't be able to see 3 feet in front of them in a lit room. it feels clunky rather than scary. capcom traded a working camera for better visuals (that look hideous now anyway) and a failed attempt at aping film.

i didn't like 5 either though. it's like capcom took the mechanics from RE4 and stuck them in horrible levels with mundane enemy designs. the very beginning where you have to defend the shack from the villagers pretty much sums up the game. it immediately recalls a very similar level in the beginning of RE4 but strips out nearly all the fine details of the design. it's on one floor so you can easily see where your attackers are, it has minimal entry points to defend, and the presence of a co-op partner means you have more guns to cover fewer entry points. it's like capcom built their way up to 4 and then felt the need to work their way down again.

well, the newest lara croft title came out last year and it was obviously a big game. it wasn't an open world fantasy RPG and it was a reboot, but i don't see what either has to do with the topic of gender. it had a fairly big controversy in the previous E3 because the developers decided to tackle the rape issue, but it came out, sold well, and major critics pretty much universally liked it.

what would be my reaction? it would be pretty much the same as usual. i'd check out some of the media released for it at some point (whether intentionally or not) and evaluate whether i want to play it or not. in the case of the new tomb raider i haven't tried it yet and i'm not too keen on it. the uncharted formula didn't appeal to me with a guy and i doubt playing as a woman would change much. although more to your point, i grew up in a time where lara croft as a character was sold as sleazy sex appeal and that image has never really left my memory. this year, i played transistor though and loved it.

well, there are features from past zelda games that i've liked more than others. i like exploring 3D worlds more than 2D ones. i like being dropped in the world and having the game just let me explore wherever i like and finding rewarding things all over the place. i like the combat from skyward sword and twilight princess. i like the puzzles from ocarina of time. blah blah blah

there are ideas from other games that i think would be cool in a zelda game too. the stamina bar from the souls games would be awesome. the seamless transitions into dungeons from shadow of the colossus would be great as well.

however, my perfect zelda game probably wouldn't be simply a combination of all those ideas (if that were even possible). it's how everything fits together to convey something about the game world or nintendo's vision of game design.

eh, not really. one side of my family is "polish" and another is "irish" but both my parents grew up in america and i've got ancestors from all over europe. the only difference it made was that my mom made a bunch of irish food when i was i growing up. i'll have a guinness on st. patrick's day but i'd celebrate pretty much any holiday that provides an excuse to go out to bars early.

no cities or towns either. you defeat the colossi with minimal distractions. the game wants you to reflect on each encounter so the spaces in between bosses resemble big zen gardens.

i tried going once when i was 18. there was a group of 4 of us and the one girl came up with the idea. the problem is that the club she chose was 21+ and none of us were 21. i feel like i still got the full experience though because i saw a woman drag her husband out from the club and they proceeded to have an argument.

i wouldn't eat dog meat because there are too many dogs i like. this is why i don't get close to any pigs.

frog doesn't seem too intimidating although i'd probably first try them at a quality restaurant rather than risk a bad experience.

i might try bugs but it would depend on the presentation. live? no, i'm too much of a sissy. more likely they'd have to be fried or transformed somehow.