Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

[Moonface]

I'm basically running the recommended settings for my rig, but with two exceptions. I have raytracing on normal, and the cutscenes only in 1080p instead of 4k. I don't have a 4k TV, nor do I want a 4k TV. The human eye cannot resolve 4k outside of perfect circumstances (giant TV, short viewing distance, high visual acuity), so there's no goddamn point, you graphics whores.

Wait, you can set the cutscene quality separately from the gameplay quality or something? I didn't know PC games offered that choice, especially when the cutscenes are in-game so I would've expected them to just share the same quality settings as the gameplay.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, the cutscene and gameplay quality settings are separate for some odd reason on PC. I don't know why, but my recommended settings keeps trying to put the cutscene quality at 4k, and I have to tell it "No! I don't want 4k! Stop wasting your time rendering in 4k!"

[Moonface]

Weird. I get that the cutscenes are a more controlled environment than the gameplay is and less is happening in comparison but I would've thought that if your PC isn't comfortable above X quality for gameplay that it would be the same for cutscenes since they're both in-game. It feels odd to me as an option anyway as well though because I get the impression it would be visually jarring to see an environment in X quality in gameplay, but then a cutscene triggers and suddenly the environment quality spikes to Y. Especially for how this and a lot of other games try to make the transitions seamless when using in-game cutscenes since there's no cut away like you get for pre-rendered cutscenes.

[Monocle]

I'm basically running the recommended settings for my rig, but with two exceptions. I have raytracing on normal, and the cutscenes only in 1080p instead of 4k. I don't have a 4k TV, nor do I want a 4k TV. The human eye cannot resolve 4k outside of perfect circumstances (giant TV, short viewing distance, high visual acuity), so there's no goddamn point, you graphics whores.

I think the game looks perfectly fine; my only issue is with gameplay freezing if I play for longer than about 2 hours.

I would adjust those settings. 1080 is fine but the rest aren't. 

I'll send you the digital foundry video with the analysis of the pc settings. The video is running a 2070 super which much weaker than your card but the optimized settings they had make more sense. 

Plus modding in DLSS instead of using the built in FSR (because FSR is shitty) is a much better way to go. Never went below 60 fps at 1440 and was only using 50% of my card's power. 

start the video at 0:47

graphical analysis video

[Moonface]

Ugh, so I'm in Chapter 15 right now and the Iron Maiden's in this game are infuriatingly bad. It was way better when the last plaga was on their backs instead of now being in their head, because I'll be damned if I can land a shot on their head when they want to run full speed across a room, and even if I did land a shot on their head it wouldn't kill the plaga even if I shot directly over the white. The three encounters with them right after Mike were enough to make me stop playing for the day.

For as good as a lot of the improvements are my overall feelings are that I wish I had waited for a price drop on this. But that's also been my view on almost every game I've played over the last year, because nothing I've played felt worth my $70 really.

[Maniakkid25]

I would adjust those settings. 1080 is fine but the rest aren't. 

I'll send you the digital foundry video with the analysis of the pc settings. The video is running a 2070 super which much weaker than your card but the optimized settings they had make more sense. 

Plus modding in DLSS instead of using the built in FSR (because FSR is shitty) is a much better way to go. Never went below 60 fps at 1440 and was only using 50% of my card's power. 

Okay, but you are missing one very important piece of information: I don't care. F***, I don't even know what DLSS and FSR are, much less have an opinion on which is better! Unless you have a specific gameplay reason why I should change my settings, then I don't care! The game looks perfectly fine the way it is!

[Moonface]

I would adjust those settings. 1080 is fine but the rest aren't. 

I'll send you the digital foundry video with the analysis of the pc settings. The video is running a 2070 super which much weaker than your card but the optimized settings they had make more sense. 

Plus modding in DLSS instead of using the built in FSR (because FSR is shitty) is a much better way to go. Never went below 60 fps at 1440 and was only using 50% of my card's power. 

Okay, but you are missing one very important piece of information: I don't care. F***, I don't even know what DLSS and FSR are, much less have an opinion on which is better! Unless you have a specific gameplay reason why I should change my settings, then I don't care! The game looks perfectly fine the way it is!

Not that it matters to me since I'm on console and don't get all these settings, but I dunno what DLSS and FSR are either.


Did anyone try out the Mercenaries mode at all yet? I'm wondering if it's gonna feel really easy whenever I get to it after suffering with Hardcore mode so far. XD

[Monocle]

Okay, but you are missing one very important piece of information: I don't care. F***, I don't even know what DLSS and FSR are, much less have an opinion on which is better! Unless you have a specific gameplay reason why I should change my settings, then I don't care! The game looks perfectly fine the way it is!

Well you spent all this money on your rig so I'm trying to help you get the most out of it. Genuinely just trying to help you get the most out of your money. 

And yes there are gameplay reasons, like textures not loading correctly, everything looking blurry, and game crashes because of wrong graphics settings. 

But uhhh you do you. I'll remember not to bring this up again considering your excessive reaction. 

Not that it matters to me since I'm on console and don't get all these settings, but I dunno what DLSS and FSR are either.


Did anyone try out the Mercenaries mode at all yet? I'm wondering if it's gonna feel really easy whenever I get to it after suffering with Hardcore mode so far. XD

I could explain it if you're genuinely curious. It's just AMD's (FSR - FidelityFX Super Resolution) and Nvidia's (DLSS - Deep Learning Super Sampling) technologies that use AI to study the image and upscale it to look exactly how it would if it ran at native resolution.

So you could run a game at 1080p, so the graphics card isn't using all it's power, but the image would look like it was 1440p or 2160p. Getting better images with less resources. 

AND HELL YEAH I'VE PLAYED MERCENARIES! already unlocked everyone. Got S ranks with everyone in Village. S+ with Hunk in all 3 stages. I have always loved mercenaries mode

[Moonface]

@Monocle: Ah so it's just upscaling stuff. I didn't know AMD and Nvidia actually had different things like that; the only unique thing I knew about Nvidia cards was that RTX stuff.

There's only three stages? That's surprising and sounds a bit underwhelming really, since I'm sure every other iteration of Mercenaries has had a lot more maps than that. o.o

[Maniakkid25]

Okay, but you are missing one very important piece of information: I don't care. F***, I don't even know what DLSS and FSR are, much less have an opinion on which is better! Unless you have a specific gameplay reason why I should change my settings, then I don't care! The game looks perfectly fine the way it is!

Well you spent all this money on your rig so I'm trying to help you get the most out of it. Genuinely just trying to help you get the most out of your money. 

And yes there are gameplay reasons, like textures not loading correctly, everything looking blurry, and game crashes because of wrong graphics settings. 

But uhhh you do you. I'll remember not to bring this up again considering your excessive reaction. 

The only reason I have this graphics card is so that games aren't constantly leaving my PC obscolecent by the need to improve graphics! If my response seems excessive, it's only because I get wound up by people who constantly say "shinier graphics = better"! I still remember vividly when Microsoft bragged that Minecraft was available in 4k, AND MY FRIENDS DEFENDED THAT! ("It's about the textures, man!") If I seem hostile to this subject, it's because I'm sick and tired of the 50 year long dick-measuring contest that has meant that when I want to play the newest games, my PC is always too outdated to play it! I spent MONTHS trying to get Bioshock to run when I only had a 2.0 Shader graphics card, when the game required 3.0! I had to mod it so that it would run, and I was HAPPY with what I saw, as shite as it was! It's the console wars all over again! I don't care what this has compared to that; I just want to play my games!

I haven't had any of the problems you're talking about, so there's no need for me to "get the most out of my graphics card". Like I mentioned in an earlier post: the only issue I've had with gameplay is the game locks up for several seconds after a play session goes beyond about 2 hours, which screams to me "memory leak". So, your concern is noted, and responded to. Thank you.

[Monocle]

@Monocle: Ah so it's just upscaling stuff. I didn't know AMD and Nvidia actually had different things like that; the only unique thing I knew about Nvidia cards was that RTX stuff.

There's only three stages? That's surprising and sounds a bit underwhelming really, since I'm sure every other iteration of Mercenaries has had a lot more maps than that. o.o

sadly. I think the original only had 3 as well? I'm hoping that they add more characters over time. We didn't get the Ada Wong add on that was in the original. I'm hoping she gets added to Mercenaries at the same time as releasing her story segment. 

The only reason I have this graphics card is so that games aren't constantly leaving my PC obscolecent by the need to improve graphics! If my response seems excessive, it's only because I get wound up by people who constantly say "shinier graphics = better"! I still remember vividly when Microsoft bragged that Minecraft was available in 4k, AND MY FRIENDS DEFENDED THAT! ("It's about the textures, man!") If I seem hostile to this subject, it's because I'm sick and tired of the 50 year long dick-measuring contest that has meant that when I want to play the newest games, my PC is always too outdated to play it! I spent MONTHS trying to get Bioshock to run when I only had a 2.0 Shader graphics card, when the game required 3.0! I had to mod it so that it would run, and I was HAPPY with what I saw, as shite as it was! It's the console wars all over again! I don't care what this has compared to that; I just want to play my games!

I haven't had any of the problems you're talking about, so there's no need for me to "get the most out of my graphics card". Like I mentioned in an earlier post: the only issue I've had with gameplay is the game locks up for several seconds after a play session goes beyond about 2 hours, which screams to me "memory leak". So, your concern is noted, and responded to. Thank you.

That's cool. You responded with hostility where I had none. It wasn't just about making the game look better but actually run better like preventing that lock up you experience since I never got that.

but, like you said. I don't care.

[Moonface]

@Monocle: Ah so it's just upscaling stuff. I didn't know AMD and Nvidia actually had different things like that; the only unique thing I knew about Nvidia cards was that RTX stuff.

There's only three stages? That's surprising and sounds a bit underwhelming really, since I'm sure every other iteration of Mercenaries has had a lot more maps than that. o.o

sadly. I think the original only had 3 as well? I'm hoping that they add more characters over time. We didn't get the Ada Wong add on that was in the original. I'm hoping she gets added to Mercenaries at the same time as releasing her story segment.

I looked it up and the OG had four stages, but the last one was a custom stage not based on anything from the game itself. I guess Capcom didn't see a need to bring over that random map, especially since redesigning a map just for the mode is probably a waste of resources when the other three stages are going to just be taking parts and assets from the campaign.
And thinking on it again, three sounds a little but having more than that would become tedious having to run them all with however many characters this game has for the mode. I already find the number of shooting range challenges to be too much for my tastes.

[Moonface]

Finished the game just now, and overall it's a good remake that I think does most stuff better than the OG, but I think there was some parts I liked better in the OG.

• Not a fan of the main boss fights having ranged attacks that can only be avoided if you know exactly where to move, especially for the Mendez and Saddler fights due to their arenas lacking cover to dodge the attacks that way. Salazar's was the only one tolerable because he at least has an arena where you get a chance to go somewhere that provides cover.
  
• I'm not sure how I feel about Saddler's reduced involvement in the story in the remake. Having Leon and Ashley only meet him on the Island makes it that each chapter feels a bit standalone, as their respective main antagonists are contained within them. I know the original did that with Mendez and Saddler only being in the Village and Castle respectively, so doing it with Saddler now is consistent with that, but I feel his character took a step backwards because of it.
  
• The Island overall is leaps and bounds better than the OG, and fits so much better into the story now as the location feels like it makes sense for existing now. Even just simple things like adding Krauser's name onto a note about the military defenses installed on the island does so much because it gives a sensible explanation for their inclusion that was absent in the OG.
  
• Knife durability is a good thing overall except for the Krauser fight, where the knife is a key component of the fight and thus loses durability rapidly. This was the fight in the game that felt the most unfair to me when I ended up with no knife and thus no ability to parry, meaning if Krauser ever got close in the phases before his final one I was a sitting duck, and he moves fast enough compared to other bosses that you're unlikely to avoid him simply by running.
  

There was also a couple of things that I didn't understand and I either missed the reason, or the game actually didn't explain it:

• I didn't catch why the island explodes at the end. I don't think Ada causes it like in the OG but if not I don't know what the cause is here.
  
• What happened with the second Verdugo belonging to Salazar? It's clearly present in his introductory cutscene, but seems to just disappear by the time his boss fight takes place. I didn't see it anywhere in the cutscene for it to merge into his boss form like it does in the OG, so I either missed it or it genuinely just straight up disappears from existence apparently.
  

Not sure if I'll bother to try and get more trophies for this game or get the Platinum for it. I think some of the trophies are utterly trash, particularly any of the ones that involve getting a time of under 8 hours or even below 5:30:00 hours. Speedrun trophies need to die in a fire and stop being added to so many games nowadays because they just feel out of place to me most of the time.

[Moonface]

Resident Evil 4 Remake | Separate Ways DLC Announced
Separate Ways, the additional campaign for the original Resident Evil 4 and featuring Ada Wong, is coming to the Resident Evil 4 Remake on September 21, 2023.



A free update is also coming for The Mercenaries mode at a currently undisclosed date, while PSVR2 support will be coming Winter 2023.

[Maniakkid25]

I'd be curious to see more of your thoughts on the Separate Ways DLC in the RE4 thread @Maniakkid25 since what you wrote has got me well... curious.

Well, Moony, you asked. I can summarize my thoughts of RE4R like this: While I love the more grounded and dramatic take on Leon's story, THEY DID ADA DIRTY!

RE4R spoilers dead ahead

First off, that main game ending. Oh my god, I want to slap whoever decided that was a good idea. See, in RE4R, they change the ending, and have Ada divert the helicopter after learning of Wesker's genocidal plan. This is supposed to be the same woman that, in RE6, would take orders from goddamn Simmons, who had similar plans!

And then, there is the entirety of Separate Ways, where they just utterly butcher her character! To those that don't know, Ada is not the type to do the right thing at the last moment. She is the type who does the right thing if it benefits her. Yes, she has a soft spot for Leon, but far more often he's helped out because its advantageous to her for him to be alive, and even HE knows that! Her allegiances are meant to be nebulous, and that does NOT HAPPEN IN SEPARATE WAYS! She is far too kind and accomodating to Luis, giving him knowingly empty threats, and she is willing to go out of her way to save Leon's behind. Granted, in the original RE4, there is the time she stops Krauser from assassinating Leon, but that is purely because she knew he had uses left, and that Krauser was going rogue. But in this version, they just took a hatchet to the character, and it's despicable. They did Ada absolutely dirty in this version!