Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City likely to not release until 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Kevin Douglas Femmel

(Oct. 10th, 2011) — Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City is getting a mixed reaction from fans and they just might have to wait longer to actually play it. Some still groan about how RE games just aren’t scary anymore, and some are willing to let the series branch off into new genres so long as they are spin offs. Raccoon City is a team based shooter. It mixes elements of Turok and Left 4 Dead. Players can move while shooting, have different abilities, and play in teams of 4. It’s a pretty drastic change for the series, possibly more so than Resident Evil 4 was.

Fans care about Resident Evil, after seeing the movies turn into complete garbage and the games spin into non-scary Chris “Hulkamania Running Wild” Redfield bashing endless quasi-zombies in the face with his 20-inch pythons. I can understand why people would hesitate when they hear that Resident Evil is going full third person shooter. It would be wrong to write this game off, as it is not altering the main series and features some of the coolest twists on the third person shooter that I’ve seen in years.

I recommend fans of all shooters to give Raccoon City a try when it arrives in stores, … at some point in the future. Capcom previously has said it will arrive Winter, leaving hope that a December release was possible. I don’t know about you guys, but I totally expected a Hall0-0-Ween release. That isn’t happening. Copies haven’t even been printed yet. There is still a chance that the game will release after Black Friday just time for Christmas, but that would be missing half of the biggest shopping season in an already crowded fall line up of games.

Capcom has been mum on an exact release date, but they could be right. It could still release in the winter. Just not December 2011. What I’ve gathered from information that I’ve heard in various developer interviews and retailer holiday planning is that this title is going to slip out of 2011 and into a January-March 2012 release date to coincide with the release of Resident Evil: Revelations. If this proves true, I can’t say it is a bad move. Capcom would be giving the game a lot more attention in stores as the only real competition they have in Q1 on the 360/PS3 is SSX, Twisted Metal and Mass Effect 3. Raccoon City’s marketing could also let Revelations piggy back so that Revelations doesn’t get a lot of its own ads, just a few seconds of “and look out for this game too” near the end of the Raccoon City ads.

Only time will tell if Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City makes it out in 2011, but I don’t think its hard to imagine why it will or why it should slip to a time when gamers will be able to pay more attention to it.