SI>        You don't even know the story to the games.  In RE Umbrella was 
 SI> researching a virus.  It some how escaped and affected a lot of people 
in 
 SI> the mansion.  You find out that the virus was made to 
 SI> produce the Ultimate 
 SI> Biological Weapon which turns out to be Tyrant.  With the help of Chris 
 SI> Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Barry Burton they stopped Albert Wesker.
  But once again, just what is the most common enemy you battle?  Zombies.  
Lots of them.  Tyrant just happens to be the Ultimate Bad Guy for the game.  
As decorated as the plot is, that's basically what it boils down to.
 SI>        Now in RE2, You find out that Chris has disappeared and Claire
 SI> Redfield is looking for his brother.  There's a new 
 SI> virus in town and it has 
 SI> affected the whole city.  The G-virus is much better than the T-virus in 
 SI> everyway.  It has the ability to heal itself and it can 
 SI> reproduce. You later 
 SI> find out that Chris took off and went to the Umbrella 
 SI> Headquarters to take 
 SI> care of it (RE3 anyone?).
  And of course, the enemies in the second game just HAPPEN to be stronger 
than those from the first game.  I guess this has nothing to do with the fact 
that veterans of RE will want a game that provides more of a challenge?  :-)
  It might seem like I'm slamming the games, but really I'm not!  It's just 
that I don't think it's as much of a "magnum opus" as you make it out to be.  
Is it making deep introspection on the potential pitfalls of overzealous 
scientific experimentation?  Or is it calling on every B-movie plot for its 
inspiration?
 SI>        The stories are different in RE2 depending on 
 SI> who you use.  Play the 
 SI> games.  They're very very good.  Resident Evil 2 is 
 SI> called the Gaming Event 
 SI> of '98.  RE was called the est game in '96 by the 
 SI> Player's Choice Awards (I 
 SI> think). 
  Gaming event of '98?  No.  Seeing as how we're not even 3 months into the 
year, that's more than a little premature.  There are plenty of contenders in 
the gaming arena, and the ones I've heard of plan to offer far more 
interactivity and features than RE2 has.
  I don't doubt that RE2 is a good game, probably one of the better games of 
the year, but I wouldn't dare call its release the be-all, end-all gaming 
event of the year.  I suspect that the honour may go to Sega and their Katana 
system, because it should be much more powerful than the PSX and N64 - 
combined. 
--- Maximus 3.01
---------------