Somebody said there were boxes and other things that I can use as cover, but my problem is that I don't want to run out in the field towards something I think I can use as cover only to find out I cant and then don't have the AP left to get out of there.
Basically, if you can't see through it, it will stop bullets. What I meant by the crates is that, even though you can't kneel near them, they will still provide some level of cover against enemy fire because they will block bullets, even for a standing character being shot at.
I actually don't think it would be quite -that- much work to bring VC2/3 up to a respectable level; the assets for the games are actually in pretty good shape as-is, with much of the signature look of VC1 the result of the engine itself. A straight port of the maps into the VC1 engine should look pretty spectacular. You could get around the need to port the multimap system by literally just remaking the maps as one large map broken up into three sections, and facilitate moving between maps by changing the limits on reinforcement movement. Sounds to me like a much shorter order than designing and balancing a new game from scratch.
You are, I think, somewhat overestimating the quality of the PSP assets - scaled up to proper widescreen resolutions, the lower poly count and the texture quality will become readily apparent as problems (and despite the recent question about an even higher-def texture pack, VC1's textures are quite good). Never mind the
interface elements, which are the real killer - all the interface elements for both games are designed with the PSP's 480x272 screen in mind. They will look like
ass at 1080p and will need to be redrawn entirely.
The cutscenes are also a huge problem - either all the cutscenes need to be redone VC1 style with new, higher-def models that can take the scrutiny (meaning, they'll also need to be
animated in addition to the texture and model work and that gets really expensive), or the interface problems from above apply and everything needs to be redrawn so the static elements don't look bad at 1080p.
I'll grant it wouldn't be
exactly as much work as creating a whole new game from scratch - for VC2, if nothing else you have the voice and script assets done, so that's SOMETHING - but there's still a ton of work involved for more than just a small programming team. You would basically need to reassemble the art team to redo the game, and guaranteeing a profit off of that is going to require a guarantee of
big sales... which is why I mention Christmas and breaking several hundred thousand units. If VC1 PC does that, we start talking about the amounts of money that would justify that kind of effort.
(BTW, continued napkin math tells me that the VC1 PC port
must be profitable already. The staff was likely pretty small and involved little asset work, mostly "just" software engineering, so the budget can't have been very big - and if VC1PC is around 50k sold so far, that budget has been made back and then some. Those continued sales are currently going straight into Sega's bottom line.)
@spacedrake not sure if you saw but I confirmed sega was very happy with sales of this port.
I certainly did, and I have no doubt they are. "Happy about the port's performance" is one thing, though; "port selling enough to justify further, far more labor-intensive ports" is another matter, sadly.
