Thoughts on Resident Evil Review Bombing

[Springhosen]

So I've been watching the Resident Evil Revelations review bombing controversy for a little bit and now it seems to be spreading to other games in the series. While Resident Evil 2, 3 and 4 still have positive Steam reviews, according to PCGamesN, it seems that Revelations, Remake, Zero, 5 and 6 have taken a turn for the worst due to the concerns with digital rights management software.

I don't have a gaming PC at this time so I don't use Steam. I can only take their word for it that the reviews on this platform for these games tanked due to this controversy.

As a platform gamer, I also know jack about modifying games from their original state and the effects that digital rights management software might have on someone who does this regularly, though I have seen that at least one modder for the series claims that this update did not cause the recent performance issues with Revelations.

Even though I don't really have a dog in this fight, I still wanted to reach out to what was left of the forum and see if anyone had any thoughts on the series being review bombed because of this. Might lead to a decent discussion.

• Do you mod?
• Have you experienced performance issues with any game, in the Resident Evil series or otherwise, due to DRM software updates?
• Do you think it's reasonable to assume that DRM software led to the performance issues with Revelations or is this an unfounded claim?
• How do you feel about fans review bombing the series because of DRM?
• Why do you think 2, 3 and 4 have been spared from the brunt of the review bomb?
  • Do you think the overwhelmingly negative reviews will spread to them in the future?
    • Do you think that they already have negative reviews, but their scores haven't suffered as much due to more favorable starting reviews for these titles?
    • Do you think that fans are not review bombing these games due to their personal biases leaning more toward them? Essentially starting with games they're not fond of, or perhaps hoping that tanking an already controversial title or title with mixed reviews will make more of an impact?
• Do you think this will impact future games/software updates?
  • If yes, how?

 

[Turo602]

Yeah, I've heard about this too on Twitter. I don't game on PC so the topic is kinda over my head. I didn't know people were review bombing the games, or specific games in the series. My guess would be the ones being review bombed were the most affected games since the main complaint I've seen was that in Revelations' case, the game had performance issues on PC that required mods to fix that are now being removed due to whatever DRM Capcom is implementing.

 

[Springhosen]

I honestly wish I knew more about the specifics of modding and the effects the DRM software can have because I think it's an interesting situation.

Again, a modder for the series has indicated that the claims are bologna and the software has nothing to do with the performance issues, but everyone else seems to think it does so it's hard to form an intelligent opinion from my limited viewpoint.

I have not heard about any other titles suffering performance issues though and, supposedly, Capcom has been adding DRM software to many of their games for years, not just the RE series. I somehow feel like if it was a big issue, it would have been well known before this. I think this is the biggest thing that makes me skeptical about the knee-jerk censorship of sorts.

 

[Ikawaru]

Steam gamer here. I dont think it's complex and I think it's mostly due to poor porting and the usual gripes people have these days about bad corporate practices. The thing with consoles is that they are very tightly controlled by their corporate owners which makes review bombing more difficult wheres platforms like Steam are much more open sourced and have a different overall consensus. Plus the fact that many companies, including Capcom, disavowed PC gaming for a long time so poor ports are the result and then comes the haters.

It's just the sign of the times really, corporations suck, open sourced EVERYTHING is gud, **** the man with the suit, challenge the hierarchy and the patriarchy. It isn't gonna get any better now that Pluto has entered Aquarius, expect more stones thrown at anything structural in the coming years.

I digress though. Don't think too much into it, seriously at the end of the day as long as more care is given to the PC audience, which seems likely given Capcom announcing they want to make PC their primary platform, the complaints should lessen. It's just Revelations WERE kinda shoddy ports and when shoddy ports happen, the entire can of worms gets opened up, and that is all there is to it.

 

[Springhosen]

@Ikawaru I think I understand a bit more, thank you for the explanation.

To be fair, the original Revelations seemed pretty shoddy on consoles as well, but that's neither here nor there I guess when you're talking about a community that feels unseen and unheard in the gaming sphere. And I get it. I think part of the reason why my husband and I haven't fully made the PC leap, other than funds, is because of game accessibility for the medium in the past. It does seem like more things are moving in that direction though, which is good.

A little off topic of review bombing, but on topic for the subject of shoddy ports: Does anyone know why a company would prefer to port a portable version of a game to their digital store instead of using a digital version of the console version that already existed?