For those of you wondering if Resident Evil 5 will be ported to the Wii like Resident Evil 4 was then you may be sadly disappointed. In an interview with Kotaku Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi said that that “With the difference between hardware specs for the Wii and the PS3, porting might be hard”. He went on to say that they currently have “no plans” to release a Wii port of the game. However, Takeuchi did express a desire to bring the Resident Evil games to a larger franchise

“I think, while Resident Evil 4 is a great game, its appeal was limited somewhat to maniac players,” Takeuchi said. “With RE5, I wanted to bring the series to a larger audience. I think its important to do the same for the next RE.” - Source

The Wii Resident Evil titles – such as The Darkside Chronicles – are part of this plan, making games that are fit for the Wii’s technical capabilities and not creating a game that is a bad port from a technically superior console. I’ve always thought that porting games to the Wii from Xbox 360 or PS3 is a bad idea, and games like Dead Rising proves my point. It can work though, the recent Ghosbusters game being a good example, but it’s usually better if it doesn’t try to emulate something that the Wii just can’t do.

Capcom is yet to decide on a producer for Resident Evil 6.

While we’ve seen a little of Dead Rising 2 in a viral video that was released back in February we’ve yet to actually see a proper trailer - until now of course! Capcom have released the first official trailer for the game; revealing a little of why there are zombies outside the mall of the first game and also introducing us to Chuck Greene.

Chuck Greene…

CHUCK Greene!

There’s a name that makes you think of a beefy guy playing American football for his college; which makes perfect sense as Chuck is apparently quite the sports fan, if whacking zombies with a baseball bat can qualify as a sport. He also likes to drink cocktails in the middle of a zombie infested city, and doesn’t forget to get a gift for the kids while he’s at it. All-in-all Chuck sounds like a pretty neat guy!

Oh, I almost forgot. He also likes to attach chainsaws to both ends of a pole, or just dispense with the walking and attach them to a motorbike instead. So, not only is Chuck a neat guy, but he is also a pretty inventive killing machine; which, to be honest, is a skill worth having when 7000 zombies are crammed on one screen. He really wants to live up to his ‘manly’ name doesn’t he?

Look at for more Dead Rising 2 at E3 this June.

The original Dead Rising was one of my ‘Bargain Bin‘ choices. Check out why I loved the game here.

If you’re still on the fence about signing up to an Xbox Live Gold membership (it’s worth paying for in my opinion. It’s not exactly expensive and it is pretty damn good, if you can excuse the hordes of foul mouthed 14 year-olds that populate it) then Microsoft is giving all Silver members a chance to try out the Gold service for free this weekend.

Xtival ‘09 will run from the 1st to the 4th of May and promises competitions and tournaments throughout the weekend. There are also some ‘exclusive’ HD movies, music and game downloads available; but if it’s anything like the Prodigy videos offered last year then I wouldn’t be too excited about that.

As for the tournaments that Microsoft mentioned Capcom are holding a Street Fighter IV tournament of sorts. Read more about that here.

A few days ago I brought you word that Capcom were about to announce a new Resident Evil game specially for the Wii. Well, Capcom have now officially confirmed that not one but three new Resident Evil games are on their way to the Wii. So, Wii gamers, you can hardly complain that Capcom ignores your demands.The first game will be titled Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which will be a sequel to the on-rails light-gun game Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. The story will be based around the events of Resident Evil 2, and will feature our favourite Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. The game will play the same as its predecessor, but will feature a new evade system. Capcom also promises that the game will fill in the missing pieces that Umbrella Chronicles left untouched.

The other two games are remakes of older games in the series, hence the ‘classics’ tag. The Gamecube remake of original Resident Evil - complete with zombie dogs - will come to the Wii, as will its prequel Resident Evil 0. Both will take advantage of the Wii Remote’s motion-sensing capabilities.

The Darkside Chronicles will be coming this winter, with the other two games also being released later this year.

Darkside Chronicles official, Resident Evil, RE0 Wii-makes US-bound - Gamespot

UPDATE:  Here’s a trailer for the game. It looks pretty good graphics wise, but then again the first Umbrella Chronicles didn’t exactly look awful.

For fans of zombie killing who only own a Wii there’s not currently many recent games available that allow you to flex your zombie killing skills. Sure, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop - a sub-par port of the Xbox 360’s Dead Rising - recently came out but there’s nothing new for fans of the most successful zombie videogame franchise ever created; Resident Evil.

The last time we saw Resident Evil on the Wii was the light gun game, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, released way back in 2007. Before that came a port of Resident Evil 4, which, although good, means it’s time for a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately Capcom won’t be bringing the latest game in the franchise, Resident Evil 5, to the Wii. Instead Capcom have something else up their sleeve for disappointed Wii owners.

“It was made for the Xbox 360 and PS3″ says Capcom’s Associate Producter Marketing Manager Matt Dahlgren of Resident Evil 5, when questioned by Joystiq at a recent Capcom event in Toronto. “That being said, Nintendo Wii fans will be very happy very soon.”(Source)

So what would make Wii owners so happy? Matt also responded to a comment from Game Focus about a possible Code Veronica remake.

Game Focus: One of the staff here loves Code Veronica (Fale) and was wondering if we would see a XBLA or PSN release of this game.

Matt Dahlgren: Nothing is planned for the game regarding a remake on PSN/XBLA, but what I can say is if you are a fan of Code Veronica you should pay attention in the next couple of weeks there is some news you should be very pleased with. Tell him to pay attention on the 12th (March).(Source)

It’s worth noting that 12th March is the day before Resident Evil 5 is released, so whatever is announced may shift Wii owner’s attention away from not getting Resident Evil 5, although I’m sure Capcom wouldn’t mind Wii owner’s buying a PS3 or Xbox 360 in order to play their game.

Whether it’s Code Veronica, another remake or Umbrella Chronicles 2 we’ll find out for sure next week.

Wii’s Resident Evil fans will be ‘very happy very soon,’ Capcom says - Joystiq
Resident Evil 5 Exclusive Interview - Game Focus

After teasing us with the promise of an announcement of a new game over Xbox Live Capcom have finally officially announced Lost Planet 2. Lost Planet 2 is the second sequel Capcom has announced in the last few weeks, the first being Dead Rising 2.

The game will take place ten years after the first game, with some levels departing from the frosty conditions of the first game and heading into the jungle. It will also feature co-operative play and will join in on the current trend at the moment to have a Gears of War style cover system (co-op and Gears cover system? That’s all bases covered then!).

Also, Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi is producing the sequel.

There’s no date for the game as of yet, but a trailer was released on Xbox Live only. If you don’t have access to Xbox Live at the moment Kotaku have the video for your viewing pleasure.

I only ever played the demo of the first game, and from what I played I found it pretty average. Of course, I can’t base the entire game off a demo so I might pick it up in the Xbox Classics range instead; which means that the game is available for a relatively cheap price.

UPDATE: Kotaku has a scan from Japanese weekely game mag Famitsu that hints that Lost Planet 2 may only be for Xbox 360. It also reveals that the game will have online play and the co-op will be for up to four players.

UPDATE 2: It’s true, as for now Lost Planet 2 is only being developed for the Xbox 360.

UPDATE 3: Ok, scratch that last update. A Capcom spokesperson had this to say:

“All we can say at this time is that we’ve announced Lost Planet 2 for the 360. That’s all I can say” - Kotaku

So maybe it isn’t an Xbox 360 exclusive after all, and let’s not forget that Capcom said that all its major console titles would be developed as multi-platform games in the future (source).

Image courtesy of Gamersyde.

A few days ago a viral video popped up on YouTube (see the bottom of this post). The video looked to be a viral for Dead Rising 2; which was further strengthened through the mentions of ‘Willamette Mall’ (the setting for the first game), the character Isabella, quick flashes of zombies in a casino (remember that Dead Rising 2 was rumoured to take place in Las Vegas), and a flash of ‘2′ at the end. Of course, you got the cries of ‘FAKE’ but the more intelligent of us got excited about a new sequel. Thankfully Capcom have now confirmed our ’suspicions’ that the video was for Dead Rising 2.

The game is coming to PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (yay for multi-platform!). It will take place several years after Dead Rising in a place called ‘Fortune City’, a setting that confirms the earlier rumour as a fictional re-creation of Las Vegas. Apparently the zombie virus was not contained at the end of the first game and has spread across the U.S, leading to zombie outbreaks - one of which your character will get caught up in. Notice how I say ‘your character’, as there’s no sign of Frank and his trusty camera as of yet. Check out this gallery for more images of Dead Rising 2.

I’m incredibly excited for this game, and I even hope that they keep the time system in. They do need to fix the one save at a time system though, as that was pretty ancient.

Dead Rising was one of my ‘Bargain Bin‘ choices, so if you haven’t played it yet you can now pick it up on the cheap.

The Resident Evil 5 demo hit Xbox Live yesterday, much to the delight of thousands of Resident Evil fans. However, before going in one question remained on many people’s minds; is it just Resident Evil 4 HD?Let’s take a look.

Public Assembly - one of the two levels included in the demo - was my first destination.I was immediately greeted by gorgeous visuals, although there was some noticeable screen tear. While the colours may not be the brightest ones in the rainbow the washed out appearance does transfer that grim sort of feel that Resident Evil 4 gave to an African setting. The character models also look pretty good, and Chris himself seems to have been spending a lot of time in the gym since we last saw him. The new co-op character, Sheva, stood by Chris; and for the moment I remained sceptical of her intrusion into the Resident Evil universe.After a short test of the controls I ran a short distance to a hut (with Sheva following) and was greeted by a cut scene. You may have seen part of this scene in pre-release trailers, but the short version of it is; guy with megaphone, raging crowd, massive dude with axe, someone gets their head chopped off, megaphone guy see’s you. After this has ended you are attacked by the people from the crowd. These are largely the same as the people from Resident Evil 4, and spout the same creature from the stump of their neck when their head is blown off. They immediately begin to smash through the windows and pour through the doors, prompting you to test out the ‘new’ control system.

The first thing I noticed was that you, again, can’t move while aiming and shooting. It could be argued that this adds to the tension and may help drum up some fear, but it also feels like you’re playing a game from years ago. The cramped conditions of the two levels in the demo mean that you can’t get many shots off before the horde is on you, and being able to strafe (EDIT: I’ve since noticied that you can strafe, but my complaints about limited movement while aiming still remain) while shooting would have somewhat helped matters. Instead you find yourself quickly running out of the room and into a more open area, but not – as it happens – by much.

After a short while axe guy makes his appearance, or rather slowly walks towards you while you go and make a cup of tea. Ok, so this is not as bad as it sounds as, again, the cramped conditions mean that you can’t really hope to outrun him much anyway. If you do find a place to hide he’ll just come and smash the wall of wherever you may be hiding down. This was one area that somewhat impressed me, but not by much. It’s also worth noting that Chris can now gradually destroy doors by shooting at them. In any case you have to keep running as axe guy seems impossible to kill.If you run out of ammo then you can collect those dropped by dead enemies, or find some lying around. Eventually though you’ll have your first experience with the inventory system, whether your changing weapon, healing yourself or – god forbid – giving and swapping items with Sheva (Sheva has an inventory to, meaning that she often has to pick up more ammo just like you. In reality this means that she often grabs items before you have the chance, but at least you can easily get them back off her). The inventory is in real-time, meaning that you have to quickly find what item you want when you’re facing a horde. Running out of ammo when you’re surrounded is slightly frustrating, as you have to bring up the inventory and switch to another weapon, all the while losing valuable seconds to the attacking horde. The best thing to do is to simply run off and often directly through enemies. The AI seems so slow and dumb that they often won’t even try to hit you when you run past, something I discovered more on the next level.

Shanty Town is bigger than the previous “survive constant waves of enemies” level, but it still suffers from the tight passageways with hardly anywhere to run. You’ll come across the first point of Sheva being around on this level. Chris can give her a boost up to a rooftop, where she is supposed to provide cover. In reality she barely seems to shoot, and her laser sight can often get in the way of your own. Later instances only confirmed my beliefs that Sheva is as thick as a brick. For example, sometimes she’ll walk in front of you while you’re trying to kill enemies and simply stare at you. Other times she’ll stand behind you and barely get a shot off, leaving you wondering just what the hell she is there for. Later on in the level she has to split up with you, which largely means she screams for help while you try to shoot enemies from across the street. All this can be solved by simply playing with a friend instead, but there is not always a time when you can play with others. So, what used to be single-player experience that left you feeling incredibly isolated is no longer the case. Instead you have to play with AI dimmer than a broken lightbulb.

The final part of the second level see’s you facing off against a chainsaw wielding maniac. What should have been a thrilling encounter actually bored me to tears. Again it was largely shoot-run-shoot-run, but even if stood next to him he didn’t seem to want to cut you apart. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it after discovering he was in such a poor demo. Anyway, at first I couldn’t figure out how to kill him, so spent most of the time shooting at enemies (he is joined by constant reinforcements of other enemies) and running away. Finally I discovered that you’re supposed to shoot him in the head a few times, and then give him a right hook with Chris’ fists of steel. What? A high powered rifle won’t kill him but a simple punch will? You have to repeat this a number of times, until he finally dies and you can pick up the key to end the level. This feels like something out of a Megadrive game rather than a HD 2009 video game. I’m not saying that bosses shouldn’t be hard to kill, but are really supposed to expect that a fist can beat bullets? Haven’t games like Dead Space already changed the boss formula for the better?

Resident Evil 5 doesn’t add much more to the formula than what Resident Evil 4 had already accomplished. In fact the only thing distancing it from its predecessor is the co-op mode, and this only seems like it will be fun with a friend. Is it really too much to ask to be able to move just a little when aiming a weapon? Instead I have to constantly run in circles while stopping to shoot every so often. Of course, it’s only a demo and the rest of the game may change my mind, but I can’t honestly see myself buying this (at least not straight away) unless I always have a friend to play it with. Even then it’s really nothing special, and I’d take Left 4 Dead over this any day.

The demo for one of the most anticipated titles of 2009 - Resident Evil 5 - is now finally available on Xbox Live. Japanese gamers originally had access to the demo on 5th December, but it is now available to the rest of the world.  Unfortunately Playstation 3 gamers will have to wait until 2nd February to get their hands on the demo, as Microsoft has secured one of those annoying ‘exclusive’ deals.

Capcom have included two levels from the full game - Public Assembly and Shanty Town - with the ability to play both in both single player and online or split-screen co-op. If you have the misfortune to not be near your Xbox 360 right now don’t forget that you can head over to Xbox.com and add the demo to your download queue. The 478mb demo will begin to download as soon as you get home and turn your Xbox 360 on (if you’re a silver member then, sorry, but you don’t have access to the demo as of yet).

I had a quick play through the demo myself and I have mixed impressions, but I’ll post those later when I’ve had a bit more time to spend with it. Feel free to let me know what you think of the demo in the comments below!

Eurogamer let’s us know that a “source close to Canadian developer Blue Castle” has told them that “the studio is making a sequel to Dead Rising“.

It’s  not the first time we’ve heard this rumour. Way back in February a rumor appeared that Blue Castle was listing an unnamed “action game” for the Xbox 360 as one of three projects. Then there were the rumours flying around that the game would be set in Las Vegas, although we’ve yet to see any evidence that shows this may be the case.

So why is this news any different? Mostly it’s because we haven’t heard anything else about the game since February, and even then we didn’t actually know if it was Dead Rising 2 or not. However, Eurogamer’s source has stated that it is Dead Rising 2 and that they “can’t wait to show off the game”. We won’t actually know if it is a sequel to the 2006 zombie-fest, but talk has been flying around for a while now and the source states that “it’s been hard to keep quiet”. Of course, whether or not this source is reliable remains to be seen.

I loved Dead Rising, so a sequel would be right up my street. Until we hear more about a possible sequel you can check out why I think the game is a great budget buy and then buy it yourself. If you haven’t yet played Dead Rising - but love zombies and video games - then you’re missing out on one of the best games the 360 has to offer.

Blue Castle making Dead Rising 2 - Eurogamer.