Not to worry, Capcom told MCV:

“We’re never going to create a gore-free Resident Evil title to try and get a lower rating as it’s a game about the horror experience and gore is part of that,” said Rhys Cash, Capcom UK's research and planning manager.

“We’re primarily about making great games and if it’s appropriate to the title we won’t shy away from making a 15+ or 18+ title.

What if Sega president Simon Jeffery's wagging tongue is actually a prophecy foretelling the advent of RE5 to the family-friendly Wii?

“As we’ve shown with Resident Evil 4 Wii and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles there’s still a market for more mature titles even on these formats.”

Cash also said Capcom sees no need to "shy away" from adult content, but that he feels the wariness about shock value indicates not a prudishness on the part of the industry, but rather a desire for more complex content instead of gore for its own sake.

Capcom refuses to cut the gore in RE5 [MCV]

When we talked to SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery at E3 last week, he showered us with knowledge and know-how. He also threw in a quick mention of a game we hadn't heard anything about — officially, that is — Resident Evil 5 for the Wii. To say that we were surprised to hear it mentioned would be an understatement, despite our non-reaction if front of Mr. Jeffery.

We followed up with a couple folks about the on camera slip of the tongue, starting with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime.

Discussing our Executive Pop Quiz, in which we asked Nintendo Corporate Affairs VP Denise Kaigler if Resident Evil 5 was getting a Wii version, Mr. Fils-Aime fired back with a "Not yet!" and a laugh that left us more confused than when we started the question.

Talking to Capcom's Chris Kramer outside the publisher's E3 meeting room, he seemed genuinely surprised to hear of such a product. We told him that we already knew about the existence of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and he suggested that Mr. Jeffery was simply confusing the two products.

As far as a Wii port of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 title, Kramer asked of us "Have you seen Resident Evil 5?" implying that such a port would be almost impossible, adding that he'd not heard any such product was in the works for Nintendo's platform.

Finally, we followed up with Mr. Jeffery himself who said the mention of Resident Evil 5 for the Wii was just a "simple slip of the tongue."

"We’d been discussing the Res Evil 5 showing at the Microsoft event earlier, and it was still on my brain – that’s all," he wrote in an e-mail.

After the surprise announcement that Dead Rising was making the transition to the Wii — as Resident Evil 4 did, very successfully — we wouldn't discount anything at this point. Capcom seems to love all platforms equally. Resident Evil 5 for Wii has been officially denied, albeit in roundabout ways, so we won't cancel our pre-orders for the superior Wii version just yet.

But who knows what the future holds?

To answer the question that was posted on your blog, there are black members in the development team. We do have staff working on the game, who are aware of the historical background and we are constantly checking these kinds of things with them.

Course, he doesn't say how long those staff have been working on the game, but slow, reactive progress is progress nonetheless.

‘Resident Evil 5′ Producer Comments On Horror, Chainsaw Ownership And Whether Black People Worked On His Game [MTV]

The demo starts off with my character (Chris) holed up in a shack with Rosario Dawson.

Okay, so she isn't Rosario Dawson, but the South African B.S.A.A. member Sheva Alomar bears a striking resemblance to the Clerks II actress. In fact, throughout the demo I could be overheard mumbling, "out of the way, Rosario" or "I'll save you Dawson!" Perhaps an unintentional likeness, but I'd like to think that if I found myself in the middle of a zombie holocaust Rosie would be nearby, just in case.

Chris and Rosie are holed up in a shack, peering out the window as a big boss baddy has a character executed by a bulky figure with an axe, much like RE4's giant guy with chainsaw. Of course we all know what happens when you peek. The bad guy sees Chris through the dirty window and orders his minions to attack.

You're in a dirty shack in a small African town and you're surrounded by zombies. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO!? You and Rosario Dawson open fire, of course. The controls are very similar to RE4 right now, though of course that's subject to change. Hold down the right trigger to pull your gun, aim with the stick, fire with one button, reload with another. Pull up the menu to switch weapons, left trigger does a melee attack with your knife.

These new zombie-ish enemies begin pouring in, crawling over obstacles, coming through windows, or using the door like polite diseased madmen. Killing them is extremely enjoyable. Shoot them in the head and it could blow off, revealing a strange tentacle creature sprouting out of their necks. The enemies react to where you shoot them, which is even more enjoyable when you switch to the shotgun and start shooting them...well, everywhere.

From time to time you'll be forced to do the old left-stick waggle out of a grapple trick, or you'll get the opportunity to deliver a special attack with a button push in certain situations. Rosie gets into a lot of trouble with the zombies, required you to rush to her aid, brutally brushing off her attackers. She also returns the favor, responding to your calls for help when things look most dire.

Your enemies keep coming in relentless waves, as the whole point of the demo is to survive until your support opens an escape route via missile strike. The game looks slick, though there are a few places where nitpicking can be applied. At one point I took cover against a wall and could see the zombies on the other side clipping through as they lined up to scale the surface and take us out. Other times enemies reacted strangely, such as the executioner from earlier, who would take a swing at me and then just stand there with his back turned until I did damage to him. Of course an E3 demo isn't the full game, and I am sure they'll get that cleaned up in post.

While I am not the biggest fan of the Resident Evil series, I have stuck with the series over the years and am happy with the evolutionary steps the franchise has taken. Resident Evil 4 wowed me when it debuted on the GameCube, with graphics unlike anything we had seen on the system and new gameplay mechanics. Resident Evil 5 isn't as much of a leap. It looks great, but aside from a few mechanics (you crouch to pick up items) it feels the same as the last one. That fact bothered me for a moment, and then I pulled out the shotgun and took out six of the crazy bastards at once. Not too big of a leap, but when your starting point is as excellent as 4 was, anything above that is icing on the cake.

It's possible that a lot of people who play Resident Evil 5 may not have played Resident Evil 4. But they might have played Gears of Wars or Call of Duty. Those are both games that I and our team really, really like. So don't be surprised if at the Tokyo Game Show, the controls are different. For now, we have the control set up for RE4. I'm not confirming or denying anything, but we like to surprise people.

Another interesting tidbit: When Takeuchi saw Gears of War, he thought the guys that made it must really like Resident Evil 4. And when he met the Gears of War team, they told him, yes, they were big RE4 fans. And like that, we come full circle! Or something.

The Microsoft press conference at E3 2008 saw a game demo of Capcom's Resident Evil 5, after which Jun Takeuchi announced the release date for the eagerly anticipated title. Resident Evil 5 will be launching worldwide on Friday, March 13th 2009, except for Japan who get it a day earlier. Friday the 13th? Really? How many months do you think they pushed it back just to get that special, more-evil Friday the 13th release?

Director Paul W.S. Anderson recently talked to MTV's Movies blog about the likelihood of another Resident Evil movie. It's still being discussed. Hey, they haven't even got the storyline worked out yet (if they'd actually stuck to anything at all resembling the game, that might not be an issue).

I'm just starting to talk to Sony about it,” Anderson confessed. “I don’t even know if anything will come of it, but there’s a possibility it might happen.”

The last flick ended on a cliffhanger, as MTV recalls, so another film is likely at some point:

“I love the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise and we always try to make the best possible movie we can. If we could find a good ‘Resident Evil 4’ to make, then we would do it,” he said. “But I wouldn’t just do it for the sake of it, that’s for sure.”

Wouldn't do it just for the sake of it, huh? Then salve me by making a Code: Veronica flick, utterly faithful to the game, Ashfords and bug jewels and the whole nine yards. That, I'd go see.

What about you guys? Do you like the RE movies or find them an abomination? What would the "good" Resident Evil film look like?

‘Resident Evil 4’ Likely, Says Director Paul W.S. Anderson [MTV Movies Blog, Via Multiplayer]

BioHazard [Yamaza via Hatimaki]

A couple weeks ago, a friend sent me a A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a YouTube link. He described it as “African genocide.” Not knowing what to expect, I clicked on it. What I witnessed for those next 3 minutes, was nerve-wrecking, painful, mind-numbing and heart-racing. It was a trailer for a Video Game called “Resident Evil.”

This specific trailer was an eyeful in the most horrid sense. It wasted no time in capitalizing upon the long history of blatant depictions of Africans as savages and helpless imbeciles. The trailer featured a Caucasian male mutilating African villages, along with Africans. With the not-so ancient history of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, the issue of racial insensitivity and indifference must be brought to the centerfold. This patent-reality must be interrogated excruciatingly to expose the silliness of those who claim the 21st century marked the dawn of a post-racial world.

These are strong words, but the trailer's imagery could also be construed as strong. I personally would be hesitant to accuse anything, least of all a video game, of racism without seeing its full context - in other words, playing the entirety of the game. In the absence of that context, imagery alone doesn't necessarily have a message one way or the other.

At the same time, though, I remember when N'Gai Croal said, "this imagery has a history." I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the trailer unsettling, actually. Which is not necessarily a bad thing in media, if it's used to promote a civil discussion, or to create a realistic environment for a game about African zombies free of ignorance or pique.

For my part, I'd caution all of us against a knee-jerk reaction to Olarunda's revulsion. While it is a complex issue, I surely don't find myself aligned with those who see absolutely no potential for, at the very least, misinterpretation of these images.

And comments like Olarunda's remind us that we should be prepared to receive and respond to the games we play in a thoughtful and intelligent way. I feel we'll need all of our facts, both those that support our position and those that don't, in order once this game is actually released and more pairs of eyes begin to fall on it.

Be civil to one another in discussion, by the way - self-righteousness is not righteousness.

Resident Evil 5: A Travesty On All Counts [Your Black Writers via GamePolitics]

New Resident Evil 5 Interview [Capcom Blog]

Update: We've moved the video to the jump because it was causing issues with our front page.

Nothing is ever final, but we’ve been asked twice if we’ve wanted to bring it Westward and twice we’ve declined.

Yeah, would any American Wii owners actually buy it if Capcom ever did decide to port it? Sure a few would, but...

Capcom USA Declines [Capcom BBS via Go Nintendo]

Biohazard 5 Trailer [The-Horror via NeoGAF Thanks, Paul!]

Enhanced RE5 Trailer [Albotas]

Capcom have released a couple of pieces of art showing off Chris Redfield's locally-based, zombie-dispatching partner for the upcoming Resident Evil 5. Her name? No idea. They're not saying. Her purpose? No idea, Capcom are only hinting that she's a mysterious character whose true identity is unknown. One thing's for sure, though: African heat be damned, she's going to need to think more about upper-body protection, and less about her cleavage, if she's going to make it out of the game alive.

Newsweek's general editor of tech N'Gai Croal later levied a similar but more measured assessment, saying that much of what was shown in the initial trailer "dovetailed with classic racist imagery," leaving him with the impression that "Clearly no one black worked on this game."

We were curious, in light of new media that seems to show a more racially diverse set of enemies and a noticeably less WASP-y new partner for Chris Redfield, if the team had taken that criticism to heart and altered some of their design decisions

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi told us "No, not really." He said via his translator that cries of racism "didn't have any effect on the game design."

On the subject of Chris Redfield's new sidekick, one who appears to lean toward ethnically ambiguous, Takeuchi said "We wanted Chris to have a partner who was familiar with the environment. She's been in there since pretty much the beginning."

"In terms of the reaction, we're in the business of entertainment," Takeuchi said. "We didn't set out to make a racist game or a political statement. We did feel there was a misunderstanding about the initial trailer."

The Resident Evil 5 producer said they'd sent a team of Capcom staffers to Africa to do research in the area, stressing that they had decided to include Arab and Caucasian peoples based on what they'd seen while on location. We found it odd that there was virtually no non-Black representation in RE5's debut trailer, but Takeuchi was adamant that the current product is in line with their experiences.

Whether the inclusion of a supporting character who isn't of the white guy persuasion and a more ethnically diverse cast of slaughtering victims will in any way address concerns of racism or insensitivity remains to be seen. What we do hope is that, regardless of the changes to this marquee title, the discussion continues about the topics it seems to unintentionally address.

Our demo started with S.T.A.R.S. team member Chris Redfield in a crude cabin, watching as an angry, infected horde of locals passed by bearing clubs, axes and machetes. After the initial shock of seeing Resident Evil 5 being played for the first time, on an Xbox 360 we should note, it became clear that anyone familiar with Resident Evil 4 will feel right at home with this chapter.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, just that if you're looking for a revolutionary step forward in the gameplay department, a la RE3 to RE4, you might be left wanting. But we digress...

As the town villagers entered the cabin in which Chris was taking shelter, they began to behave almost exactly like their Resident Evil 4 predecessors, dodging fire with a familiar style and lunging after our hero eager to wrap their mutated mandibles around his head. Kawata, at the controls, spent a good portion of his hands-on time shaking off inhuman villagers with a rapid flick of the left analog stick. When Chris fired on the game's zombie-like enemies they took a bullet just like the Spanish villagers in 4, squirting copious amounts of blood then dissolving in a pile of bubbling black goo.

While the majority of the enemies Chris was battling were of the disposable villager type, he was being regularly harassed by a much larger hooded character wielding a giant hammer. Analogous to the giant ax-bearing Ganado from 4, it would knock down walls in houses and swat Chris to the ground like an insect. It's clear that Capcom knows that there was plenty to like about RE4 and doesn't appear to be mucking around with the new formula, from familiar enemies to a recognizable HUD.

What else is returning? When we talked to Jun Takeuchi later that day, he confirmed that the next Resident Evil wouldn't do away with the "quick time events" that peppered the successful fourth entry in the series. In fact, he said that we should expect more in the way of frantic button pressing, not less.

Takeuchi and Kawata then showed off a good portion of Resident Evil 5's outdoor environments, brightly and realistically lit, drenched in sunlight, with impressive draw distances. When Chris Redfield climbed to the top of a wooden structure, it seemed he could see for miles, the smoke from fires burning in the distance visible from all angles.

While Chris had the height advantage, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Kawata lobbed grenades—of the concussive and fire grenade type—showing off some of the graphical candy the team must be proud of. There's little to complain about in the visual department, as RE5 looks to favor stylized realism over gratuitous flash. Even with a relatively drab setting, the game doesn't suffer from too much brown, with blue skies and green tones making things pop.

There was a bit of cinematic flair thrown in as well, with camera angles switching up when Chris elbowed a zombie in the face or when he was thrown to ground, the latter giving us more of a worm's eye view of the action for a brief moment. As Chris took damage, he was also increasingly covered in spatters of blood and dirt, a good visual indicator of his vitals.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much in the way of the game's dark portions—areas seen in the trailer where Chris is holding a lantern—but Takeuchi told us that those scenes were more horror driven. The brightly lit sections were geared toward straight up action.

Our brief time with a hands-off playable certainly kept our interest in Resident Evil 5 piqued, as Capcom seems to be wisely sticking to much of the gameplay conventions set forth in RE4. Everything looks better with a new-gen coat of paint, with cool tweaks like a more kinetic over-the-shoulder camera and smoother animation—we especially liked seeing Chris swap out the numerous guns strapped to his back and hip—keeping our eyes entertained.

Takeuchi played coy about the majority of RE5's new features—he refused to talk about co-op gameplay or divulge any info on Sheva, but we expect to see much more at E3. What we saw, we definitely liked. We're hoping that they'll be a bit more open about the game the next time we see it, eager to learn more about how it plays and, hopefully, getting a chance to go hands-on with it ourselves.

OK, after much teeth gnashing, I realized that the trailer referenced in Gametrailers TV super-galactic exclusive show last night is actually available unto itself at, naturally, Gametrailers. So there it is.

But the countdown has stopped at Capcom's official Resident Evil 5 site , so the site has fully launched. You can catch the trailer there, and check out other eye candy for the game. That is all.

Resident Evil 5 Official web site [Capcom]

If you're looking for a reason to continue your existence until at least late Friday night, be aware that the new trailer for Resident Evil 5—rumored to feature Chris Redfield's sidekick—will be debuting on GameTrailers TV this weekend. In addition to that, we'll also get a peek at EA's Facebreaker and an updated look at LucasArt's Fracture, which seems to have received one more facelift. The GT TV promo teases it all.

Resident Evil infects pachislot parlors [Siliconera]

Resident Evil 5 [GamesRadar via Shacknews]

In other crystal ball news, the published is gaging Bionic Commando to move 1.5 million copies worldwide.

[Pic]

Capcom's console game business was the primary driver behind the company's 11.5 percent net sales gain on the fiscal year, the company announced today, crediting overseas performance of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, Umbrella Chronicles and Devil May Cry 4 in particular.

Shipments of RE4 and Umbrella Chronicles for Wii "greatly exceeded" expectations, with shipments surpassing one million units, Capcom said, while DMC4 brought "record" sales for the company with over 2 million units. Additionally, PSP's Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd G" is off to a "strong start," Capcom said, with nearly one million units sold.

Sales increased to ¥83,097 million ($805.79 million), while the company's operating income saw a 15.7 percent gain on the year to ¥12,267 million ($118.95 million). Net income increased 33.4 percent to ¥7,807 ($75.70).

The company forecasts a 14.7 percent increase in net sales to ¥95,300 million ($924.12 million) in the coming year, alongside 20.6 percent income growth to ¥14,800 million ($145 million) driven by "the steady growth of each segments, which will be the best records of Capcom Co., Ltd."

A popular video game for the Xbox 360 is getting a sequel this year - and it seems to be raising eyebrows with its level of gore and detail... The game certainly attracted attention for its realistic visuals and battle scenes, but caused some pause when game designers showed off a new attack players can use in the game.

The game presents the player with a number of projectile weapons, but also features a chainsaw for melee attacks. In the demo, the player can use the chainsaw to cut a person in half, starting at the groin and moving upwards. Also, players can pick up the corpses of fallen enemies and use them as a "meat shield" to protect themself from enemy fire as they engage in battle from behind the corpse.

Meh. This is nothing compared to the mainstream media shit storm Resident Evil 5 will cause.
Players Can Use Corpses As "Meat Shields" [AZ Family via Game Politics]

Now that I actually have cable television once again I'll finally be able to feel really bad about missing it instead of being able to fall back on the no cable excuse.

...we really wanted to show the origins of the virus. So for the setting we thought, how about using the place where humankind was born?...we thought we would use Africa, which is now called the birthplace of humanity, as the model.

I looked at the Resident Evil 5 trailer and I was like, "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game." Because I wonder, and I haven't sort of really dug into it that much, but I wonder what sort of advice Capcom gave them. The point isn't that you can't have black zombies. There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery. What was not funny, but sort of interesting, was that there were so many gamers who could not at all see it. Like literally couldn't see it. So how could you have a conversation with people who don't understand what you're talking about and think that you're sort of seeing race where nothing exists?

There was stuff like even before the point in the trailer where the crowd turned into zombies. There sort of being, in sort of post-modern parlance, they're sort of "othered." They're hidden in shadows, you can barely see their eyes, and the perspective of the trailer is not even someone who's coming to help the people. It's like they're all dangerous; they all need to be killed. It's not even like one cute African — or Haitian or Caribbean — child could be saved. They're all dangerous men, women and children. They all have to be killed. And given the history, given the not so distant post-colonial history, you would say to yourself, why would you uncritically put up those images? It's not as simple as saying, "Oh, they shot Spanish zombies in 'Resident Evil 4,' and now 'black zombies and that's why people are getting upset." The imagery is not the same. It doesn't carry the same history, it doesn't carry the same weight. I don't know how to explain it more clearly than that.

N'Gai on the RE5 Trailer [Multiplayer]

The Video Game Blog has posted an interesting list of the third party Wii games that have sold over a million copies. Some of them are pretty obvious like Resident Evil 4 (1.6 million) and Guitar Hero III (1.8 million) while others were definitely a surprise (at least to me) like Carnival Games (1.2 million) and the top seller of all, Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games (3.4 million). There are seven games total on the list including three that are getting pretty close to a million like RE: Umbrella Chronicles (900k) and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (900k).

While all the games on the list may not be your cup of tea, it certainly is interesting to see what sells on the little white console. You can check out the entire list at That Videogame Blog.
3rd party Wii games that sold a million [That Videogame Blog - via GoNintendo]

In January they named the greatest horse of videogamedom, Epona, from the Legend of Zelda series. This month they selected the best dog, PaRappa the Rapper, of course.

The judges this time around were Leigh Alexander, of Gamasutra and Sexy Videogameland, Tofuburger of I Can Has Cheezburger, Evan Wells of Naughty Dog, and myself.... of here.

Hit up the site to read everyone's reasoning and their number two and three spots. I picked the dog in Duck Hunt and the zombie dogs of Resident Evil as my runners-up.

And The Award For Greatest Video Game Canine Goes To... [MTV Multiplayer]

[Thanks, king_e_dawg]