This Friday will mark the US launch of the long awaited, much anticipated, possibly the BIGGEST game of 2009 with Resident Evil 5! Some of us with independent game stores nearby (like myself) may even be lucky enough to pick it up Wednesday (tomorrow). I'm lucky enough to have an independent game store nearby that will have RE5 tomorrow. I hope I'm not the only one in the clan who's getting RE5 (early or otherwise).

I'll be still stuck in North Carolina.....but at least I have m PSP!

Oh, man! This game is so sick. Everything looks great. Only downsides so far are that you still cannot strafe and shoot and a minor annoyance or two with the AI. Other than that, this game is looking damned nice.

man can't wait for this bad boy. i hear they're adding some online multiplayer too.

What sucks is that i got a friend that works in Gamestop and he says they did in fact get them on wednesday but they can't break the street date. stupid Friday the 13th gimmick

You REALY need another human to make the game fun. I played with RAy and had a great time. PLaying with the computer...sucked in my opinion.

Mike's absolutely right. Playing the game with the CPU's AI compared to a human is like the difference between night and day. While I really enjoyed playing the game by myself for the first couple of days, after playing with another real person that actually knows how to play the game (like some of the random children playing online ), I really don't want to go back to playing the game any other way. The AI for Sheva is decent (compared to past RE AI), though her computerized, almost mechanical responses get annoying and stale after a few hours.

The game is surprisingly short (less than 14 hours on normal setting with the highest chapter being 6-3) but fulfilling and other than that and the AI, I really have no qualms about RE5 and I'd say is a perfect candidate for Game of the Year 2009.

P.S. There is no strafing while aiming. I know there are a number of people that would like this ability, and at first I did, too. But long-time fans of the BioHazard er, uh... the Resident Evil series will recognize the shooting scheme. I like the fact that Capcom, while developing such a unique new game, made the bold decision to implement such a retro feature.

I think I'll rent this game sometime.

*SPOILERS, DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN*


Alright I'm a long time Resi fan so I'll be as fair as I can be on this one. First off I will agree, this was the most anticipated game of 2009 for me. I own RE0-4, Code Veronica, and now 5 and I'm a huge fan. As an independent game, it's awesome. Perfect amounts of action, visuals are absolutely amazing, a lot of replay value and unlockables. Now, as a resident evil game, it didn't live up to my expectations. The one key thing it was missing, and I know MANY people have said this...Zombies. It's just not resident evil without them, and 4 only got away with it because it was such an amazing game. They did a better job with the story then they did in 4, as it didn't pertain much to the actual series, but they also tried to do too much. Killing off Wesker was, IMO, the worst mistake ever. I understand he needs to die at some point, but to me he was always THE personification of antagonism in the RE series, and without him it just won't be the same, but that's not to say they can't bring him back somehow. Not only that, but the final fight with him was rather...easy. I played it through on Veteran my first time through, and I'll admit, I got my a** kicked many times throughout the game, but he didn't even kill me once. The inclusion of Sheva and Co-op was interesting, I haven't had the chance to play with a partner yet as I wanted to play through by myself the first time through, and she was as I expect, really dumb. I probably called her a dumb whore more times than I can count during my first play through. My biggest gripe with this game is it just wasn't scary. Sheva was always there with me which reduced the fear factor and it was just too shoot'em up. IMO, RE3 was the best because of one thing, Nemesis. If you have played it you know every time he busted through the door and groaned STARS you said fuck me and ran the other way. Like I said, as an action game it was brilliant, but as a Resident Evil game, well I hope they go back to the basics for 6.

(All statements are merely my opinion, you may not agree with them but please respect them)

Great review, AJack. I couldn't agree with you more. About Wesker; I think what we fought in 5 was merely a clone-type duplicate, allowing them to reconstruct the plot of RE6 around this curve ball. The difficulty of this game was nowhere near the older installments (Nemises and before, pretty much), but it still kicked my ass, initially. Nemesis is also my favorite of the series-- it had just the right blend of the original games with a little tweak in the right direction. The STARS moan of the creature almost always gave me the chills. I miss the actual zombies, but can see why they took it in the direction they did.. although, there's nothing like a great zombie game.

Oh I hope to god it was just a clone of Wesker. And I agree with you, I do understand why they chose to go with Las Plagas again instead of zombies as it was revealed in the story, but it still didn't sit right with me. Supposedly RE6 will be completely different, again, but also won't be coming out for 8 years which I'm hoping it just a rumor. I don't think they need to go back to the fixed camera angles, although I for one didn't mind it at all and thought it added to the suspense. They do need to reconsider the puzzle elements of the game that seem to have disappeared from the series. 4's puzzles were super easy and I don't even remember any for 5. Puzzles made the game difficult and added to the survival element as you needed to solve something ridiculous while worrying about dogs jumping through windows. Like I said in my last post, I played 5 on veteran my first time through, so I didn't have a crap load of ammo, but I still enjoyed the original games more with practically none what-so-ever. It's just another thing that adds to the suspense the series was trying to create. Bottom line, go back to survival horror, leave the action games to devil may cry and your other productions Capcom.

i really enjoyed the game but i agree RE needs to get back to its roots. the degeneration movie hit the nail on the head. blackmarket t virus sales equal zombies all over the world, and on a plane (I've had it with these mother f*cking zombies on this mother f*cking plane! )

oh and i hear Chris' roid rage boulder punch is slowly reaching meme status

Can someone help me beat the last level?

Are you asking for one of us to play along side your or to give your pointers. I'll gladly do either just let me know.

Play along side of...
But I been working 15 days straight...and no idea when i'm getting time off.

alright well just let me know, idk how we are going to connect to play together tho, the online setup is kinda lame for finding friends.