February 7, 2005 - Although publisher Capcom has yet to officially circulate any details on the upcoming PlayStation 2 port of the survival horror sequel Resident Evil 4, rumors persist about the game's progress, or lack thereof. The latest comes from a translation of an alleged article published in the Japanese magazine CG World. The publication purportedly interviewed the Capcom development team working on the port of Resident Evil 4 to PlayStation 2 and new details were revealed.
IGNcube attempted to track down a copy of the magazine for validation purposes, but our efforts failed. We also contacted Capcom USA for confirmation of the story, but the American subsidiary could not verify the report before publish time. So in other words, until the following information can be substantiated, readers should consider it rumor.
CG World allegedly reported that a brand new Capcom team is underway with the PS2 port of Resident Evil 4 and that significant graphic downgrades have been implemented in order to make the game run on Sony's console. Although RE4 on PS2 will be able to output more textures due in large to the machine's superior bandwidth, the detail of the textures will be sacrificed in order to maintain a steady framerate, according to the article. The GameCube incarnation of RE4 supported 24-bit textures and the PS2 port will supposedly utilize 4 and 8-bit textures by comparison.
Furthermore, the 10,000-polygon Leon S. Kennedy model present in the GameCube version will allegedly be chopped in half to 5,000 polygons on PlayStation 2. The magazine purportedly wrote that the graphics engine in place for GameCube could handle approximately fifty percent more polygons than the one currently in place for the PlayStation 2 build. Finally, the report allegedly indicated that the new PS2 development team is struggling to get the game running at a smooth framerate without sacrificing the advanced texture layering techniques found in the GameCube original.
Readers are warned again to take this information with a grain of salt until the source can be validated. However, if true, this news bodes well for GameCube owners previously concerned that they might not be receiving the best version of Resident Evil 4 and not so well for PlayStation 2 fans hoping that the extra wait for the Sony port would bring visual and audio enhancements.
