Having had a small clearout of games earlier today, I’ve picked out a few games in my collection that I want to concentrate on for a while. Knowing me, I’ll change my mind within the week but you never know, writing it here is good motivation It’s in no way because the games are bad (they’re all pretty good really!), it’s just that my attention span is pretty poor at the best of times. Anyway, on with the list!

Call of Duty 2
I’ve recently got this back after lending it to a friend for a while. It’s one of my favourite 360 games and also one of the first I bought for the system. I started playing it on Veteran back in 2007 and never really progressed very far. It was part down to lack of patience, and mostly down to my crap attention span. However I fancy going back to it so I’m determined I will now. My Dad used to love watching me play it so it makes sense to finally do it on Veteran!

Condemned
I’m roughly halfway through this now so I’d like to get it done. It’s a good game that holds up well despite its age (both it and CoD2 were launch titles at the end of 2006) that deserves my time, especially as I’ve owned it for about 2 years now!

Dead Space
I’ve only owned this a couple of days thanks to trading a few games in. Initial impressions were very good. The graphics are very impressive, the HUD is an interesting concept and I love the audio logs. However now I’ve reached the fourth chapter I’m starting to realise its flaws. It all seems a little repetitive without really mixing anything up. It’s also only made me jump once which is surprising!

Fallout 3
I want to finish off the last of the achievements before Broken Steel. There’s not much left to do but I feel a bit burned out after obsessively playing it the last couple of weeks, so I’m leaving it a little while first. I have points waiting for Broken Steel’s release.

Grand Theft Auto IV
Yes I’m rather behind! Some very good friends of mine got me this at launch last year but my life was a total mess at the time and despite playing it a fair bit back then, it somehow got left behind a little, and I’d really like to return to it now. Plus I might get The Lost and The Damned once I’ve completed the main game.

Tomb Raider Underworld
I recently won a DLC code for Beneath the Ashes thanks to NowGamer, primarily the Twitter feed of one of its journalists. So this seems a perfect excuse to go back to Tomb Raider and try out the DLC and go back to the main story.

So yes, I have plenty to get on with! And that’s even before I mention the rental copy of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on the Wii, GTA:Chinatown on the DS and my forthcoming copy of Resident Evil 5 that I’m reviewing next!

Q. Previous Resident Evil titles have seen the player working very much alone. What made you decide to move to a full co-operative experience this time?

A: Action titles nowadays, really the expectations are that they offer co-operative play. Obviously Xbox provides Xbox Live; it’s easier to deliver a co-op experience. It’s that much easier for the developer and also we’ve seen some great games released over the years that offer co-op play so a game coming out in 2009 really has to have it to be up there or at least matching what’s already out there so yeah that’s kind of the reason why they put that there, plus it also allows some new things. There have always been female partners in previous Resident Evil games, but there hasn’t been the true co-op play. Now with the next generation power of the 360, they can fully utilise the power of co-op properly within the gameplay as well.

Q. Do you feel having your co-op partner at your side detracts from the feeling of being alone against all odds??

A: I guess that’s a very good question actually. Resident Evil has historically been a single player experience, there have been exceptions of Outbreak but that’s slightly different. By and large though, it’s been about you, saving yourself, looking after yourself and trying to stay alive. When we looked at the partner side of things, initially we thought where’s the tension going to be? We’ve got two of you fighting against the enemy, I think the tension is there though, more so, as you’ve got to worry about someone else too if you play the game properly.

There is of course the issue of not caring about your partner, but if you do that you’re not going to complete the game so now it’s a case of looking after someone else: sharing ammunition with them and taking on the confrontation together. Now obviously we’re here together today and we’re playing co-op via system link so we’re sitting beside each other and maybe the tension is not so great. But I think if you’re playing over Xbox Live, and you’re however many miles away, and all you’re going to have is the headset and there’s going to be moments where you’re shouting ‘come on, I need some ammo, come on’ and that tension, that bit where you have five seconds and your partner’s down to critical health and you’ve got to run to get to them, or you’re that person on critical health and you’re waiting for your partner to come to you and you know I think the tension is still there.

There are still some great set pieces that you haven’t seen today, still some of the great moments like the earlier Resident Evil games. You’ve mainly seen the demo release in the sections that you’ve played today, you see the outside somewhere but you haven’t checked out the mine sections where it’s pitch black and you can’t see around the corner, those kind of classic Resident Evil sections. So tension is very much still there.

Q. Will the game provide us with any true teamwork challenges, where the players must work together to overcome obstacles for example?

A: Yes… *laughs* again, one of the things that hasn’t been shown in the demo or today is the puzzle element. Anyone who’s played Resident Evil 4 will know that there are quite a number of puzzles there, mainly action based puzzles and within Resident Evil 5 there are a similar percentage of puzzles. So they might be, Chris has to be in one place while Sheva has to be on the other side of the area turning a crank or they could be, you both have to pull something at the same time or you have to find items…I think also generally there’s the working together just to make progress through the game. So on certain occasions, Sheva might take the high ground; get elevation, while Chris is staying on low ground so those kinds of things. You play together for the most part of the game, but there are various incidences where you have to split up to solve puzzles or complete sections.

Q. There are some who feel that Resident Evil 5 is simply an updated Resident Evil 4 and aside from the inclusion of co-op the game offers nothing new on its predecessor. What would you say to this?

A: I would say there is more to it. There is just the sheer fact that we’re on next gen consoles, that we can add a lot more detail and richness to the world, you can tell the filters used to create the smoke haze here *points to example on screen*. You’re really immersed in the world, other new features to Resident Evil 5 are the vehicle based action, action where you’re based on a jeep or based on boats. You’ve got enemies themselves, who are far more advanced than Resident Evil 4. Whereas previously they were limited to just being on foot, they’re able to ride motorbikes, and jeeps and cars and vans and lorries…they’re quick and faster than previously. There’s also some other little bits and pieces I can’t really tell you about but will add to the gameplay experience. So I think overall, if you’ve played Resident Evil 4 and you’ve played this, it’s not just simply Resident Evil 4 in HD, there’s more to it than that. If you haven’t played Resident Evil 4 I think you’re going to come to this and think ‘ok this is great, it’s got a real mix of gameplay’. Hopefully if you’ve played Gears of War or Dead Space and you liked those games, you’ll really enjoy this as well.

Q. Following the release of the demo on Xbox and PSN there has been a great deal of debate over the games control system. What were the developer’s intentions with decisions such as not allowing running and shooting, changes which ultimately have split the community?

A: Resident Evil has always been about, ever since Resident Evil 1, standing still, taking aim and taking your shot. Now you could say back in those days that was partly due to the power of the machines, but that was really tense then, ammunition was limited and the survival horror genre was born with that and Alone in the Dark. So we’ve moved on, 13 years hence from that time, and you know people have played games like Gears of War but it’s the one that a lot of people have played and therefore will have experienced a certain control mechanic they’re used to. I think then the demo’s been put out there, and it throws you right into battle pretty much. You don’t get a lot of opportunity to experience the controls before you’re like ‘aaargh’ running scared, basically fighting for your life. I think with the people that have come here these past few days who have played the demo and have since played the game from the beginning. They’ve really gone ‘you know what, playing the game from the beginning is an experience’ it allows the opportunity to get used to the controls before you’re really thrown into the thick of things and I hope that people when they can play the full game will feel the same way. No it’s not the same control mechanics as Gears of War but then if you made it a run and jump game it wouldn’t be Resident Evil. There have been some concessions by the team in terms of putting in some different control mechanics that are perhaps more akin to what people are used to but they decided against going the full way because in our opinion that wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game.

Q. I love being scared and certainly the early incarnations of Resident Evil were very good at this (that first ‘Licker’ in Resi 2 almost killed me)! However there seems to be a trend for survival horror games to put more and more enemies into the action. Whilst this is very impressive from a technological viewpoint it does dull the fright-factor considerably once you’ve seen your 200th zombie. Has Resident Evil 5 still got the potential to scare the living daylights out of you, or is now just a hugely impressive gore-fest?

A: I don’t think it is a gore fest, I mean it’s not gone for the splatter house look. It could have been much more visceral in what they showed. Yes there’s blood but it could have been even more over the top, we transported a lot of the action from dark corridors to the daylight and yes there are a lot of zombies….sorry infected but they’re in your face now, the fear now is how am I going to get past all those zombies…..infected so I think that you have to put more enemies in because it’s expected. I think that you will still be scared because as I said before, there are those moments in dark corridors where you don’t know what’s round the corner, and there’s also some great Resident Evil beasts if you will, monsters, that are huge, supernatural, fantastical, that are ‘how the hell am I going to kill that?’ and you probably won’t get to kill it the first time and you’ll keep going till you do. But the first time you see those things, they will scare you and you’ll worry about how you’ll survive. I mean sometimes even the simplest thing scares you, I can use a classic Resident Evil moment, dogs jumping through the window into the corridor, great game moment and a similar thing to me would be first T-Rex in Tomb Raider, and there are still those moments in Resident Evil 5. Yes you’ve got someone by your side, you know great, but I think the fear is still there.

As a slightly superstitious sort I never expect anything good to ever happen on Friday the 13th. However that was all to change when kleaneasy and I were invited along to check out the latest installment of the critically acclaimed Resident Evil series at Capcom’s London Headquarters. We were given access to the review build of Resident Evil 5 as well as the opportunity to interview Capcom’s Ben LeRougetel. Thus we set to work with the much anticipated co-op mode, armed with only a slice of pizza and a wired controller.

We started out in an African town exploring the surroundings. Very early on the action kicks off with a few FMV sequences to display the horrific nature of the Infected. The game’s storyline is explained succinctly, explaining that Chris and new partner, Sheva, are on a search and rescue mission. Our first real task was to figure out a control method type that we could get on with. I settled on the control type that felt most reminiscent of Gears of War as it felt most intuitive. It was welcome to see four different control methods open to players as I don’t think I would have been very comfortable with the default method. It did still take a few minutes to adapt to the realisation that I couldn’t just ‘run and gun’ but I can blame Gears for getting me too used to that method. Experienced players of the Resident Evil series will find no problems reverting back to this style and the inability to shoot and run at the same time does feel realistic despite also infuriating at times. Early on I came to realise that sometimes running is a better option than fighting. We were quickly outnumbered in one early town scene and against all our gamer instincts, and reverting to our natural instincts, we fled. Good move it turned out as we were able to flee down an underground tunnel and move onto the next segment.

We moved onto a part of the game that will be familiar to those who have played the demo: the Public Assembly area where you’re surrounded by Infected people and the huge executioner approaches you with a huge axe. We held out there for as long as possible. I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I spent much of that time running away as I ran out of bullets much quicker than I’d anticipated. But eventually rescue came and saved us and we could move onto the next segment. It was a good example of just how precious bullets are in this game, there was a decent amount lying about and Infected drop them, but you do need to make every bullet count. This is most definitely a Survival Horror game not an FPS. It was quite an exhilarating experience however and certainly improved by the addition of co-op play, rather than being alone in the fight, aided by a robotic like AI character. Shortly after this, I witnessed a blonde woman being dragged off by some Infected villagers to be turned into one of them. It was a nice cinematic touch that perhaps strangely reminded me of King Kong. It certainly helped the Hollywood blockbuster feel of the game. We met up with the woman not long after she’d been ‘turned’ into an Infected via a parasite put in her mouth. She became a whirling dervish of nastiness and flung herself towards us despite numerous bullets to the head. Unfortunately our time was nearly up so all that was left was to witness a few other players’ excursions. I was a bit worried that after my go at Chapter 1, I had yet to be scared in the slightest. A far cry from earlier Resident Evils which almost all managed to terrify me at one point or another, however I witnessed one section set in a mine that looks very much like something I could have nightmares about. It was pitch black, and the player was only able to either hold a gun or hold a lantern, it wasn’t possible to do both. Meaning the two players had to work together to ensure one could provide light so that the other could shoot whatever was coming towards them. It reminded me very much of Alien Versus Predator, being forced to choose between sight and weaponry. It certainly looked very promising and I look forward to seeing more set pieces like that.

Combat was much the same as previous installments with bullets being precious and having to stop to aim or reload. I found that headshots weren’t always effective when using a pistol as it just didn’t provide strong enough firepower. Although I didn’t experience it myself, there should be upgrades available in later chapters making the pistol more effective. As well as this there are plenty of other weapons available, with the shotgun being my personal favourite, with its ability to clear a path through a wave of Infected very nicely. As always it is distinctly satisfying to headshot an enemy and I noticed one achievement was for 20 headshots. One annoying discrepancy I found in combat was that sometimes I would have an Infected pin me and I would die extremely quickly, while other times I would have plenty of time to waggle my joystick furiously to get away or wait for my partner to aid me. Also at times, one player would be pinned and dying, and the other player would be unable to move to save them for a split second or two before the FMV kicked in to say you’d failed. Hopefully these are things that will be rectified in the retail version.

Everything on the whole feels faster in Resident Evil 5 than previous incarnations. I’m not sure if it’s possibly Capcom’s use of this generation’s hardware, but a lot more seems to happen in real time. Using items is conducted in real time which makes things much more frantic, both a bonus and a flaw depending on how good you are at reacting quickly during a zombie….I mean Infected invasion. Even the loading times feel nice and swift. The loading screens that you encounter are quite interesting too, as they provide the history behind the Resident Evil storyline. With such impressive looking graphics as well, Capcom seem to have the full package of requirements needed in a modern Xbox 360 title: fast loading, great graphics and a co-op mode.

There were some concerns over the game, primarily the way it dealt with co-op. It all felt a bit too predictable. Almost every game is infinitely improved if it offers a co-op mode but from what I saw, it did feel a little gimmicky and lacking in substance in Resident Evil 5. However I have yet to see some of the more complex puzzles that have been promised by Capcom so hopefully I’ll live to eat my words. The main encouraging factor that the game had was that I did want to keep playing. I was disappointed to have to stop; I wanted to see what would happen next. This for any game has to be a huge redeeming feature. I look forward to seeing the full build of the game.

PS: I wish I had a real camera then some of this would be in focus properly