Hey everyone, I’m Shawn Baxter (Snow) from Capcom-Unity. Our amazing Resident Evil 5 Demo goes live today on PSN, so I thought I’d tease you a bit with some of the cool things to expect, whether you’re an old fan or new to the series. One of the first things I noticed is how good the game looks. It’s hard to get by the beauty RE5 has to offer. Better still, you get to play through two beautiful stages in the demo. Aside from the sweet graphics, there’s plenty more that the demo has to offer.
For those new to the series, the controls can seem a bit different than you may expect. The RE brand has always forced you to take your time, stop while shooting, and conserve your ammo. It really helps add a sense of tension a normal shooter can’t offer. But to help those who are new to the world of RE, we have new control types that ease things up a bit. My favorite is Type A, which is probably best if you’re a fan of the previous games, especially RE4. Next on my list is Type D, which I find myself loving more and more. Type D is best if you’re new to the game, and it offers something the others don’t… Strafing! May seem like a simple thing, but in a game as tense as RE5, it can really help in those situations where you have little time to react.
Alright, so I’m sure you’ll love the graphics and controls, but there’s something even better that the Resident Evil 5 demo has to offer: Co-op. Best part is, you can play co-op online over the PSN, or even split-screen for some couch co-op. Now, of course you can play single player, but nothing beats actually playing through with someone who can plan and strategize with you. For an RE game, the fact that I can play with a buddy adds a whole new level of fun. Nothing like getting into a swarm of Majini, and having your partner shoot a few in the face so you can uppercut or flip-kick one of them!
Once you’ve played through the demo, you may want to try taking on the Executioner (huge axe-guy) with a buddy. The first time you play through the demo, run! He is extremely tough. But once you get comfortable with the game and controls, try and bring him down. I’ve tried, and he is extremely hard, but it is indeed possible to kill him, so don’t give up.
Oh, and a quick tip I’ve found is to aim for the heads on the Majini so they stagger back. Chest shots work, but one shot to the head means only one bullet expended, then push Square to pull off one of the crazy powerful melee attacks. If you get them to fall on the ground, run up to him and stomp ’em with your boot or stab with the knife if you’re playing as Sheva!
February 2nd is just around the corner, so add me to your friends list, and I’ll catch you online for some co-op Majini butt-kickin’! PSN ID: Snow_Infernus
See you online!
Just to let you know why I WON’T BE BUYING this game:
I wanted this game to play with a friend (offline co-op), but now I saw that in the demo that the split screen is so annoying, and leaves too much black spaces. Many other games looked great in split-screen mode, but this game just looks horrible and it’s very annoying.
Very disappointed.
Both my brother an I were going to pick this game up, but after playing for 2 hours we both were like no why are we spending money on this game. The controls are horrible, the graphic are not at Ps3 standards. We both Loved RE4 and feel this is a step back for the series.
If your smart delay the game and fix it.
I dont really get where the 5gb install comes as kind of a problem for even 40 gb ps3 owners either… the 120gb drive upgrade for 360 is what 149 bucks now right?… for 139 bucks right now u can get a 500 gb drive for the ps3 online so i dont get where ps3 owners dont have an easy hard drive upgrade option …
i was just lookin at newegg.com right now and even if you have even the 40 gig drive still you can get 2-4x the space for 45-60 bucks…
this is part of the reason i wanted the ps3 because i found out how much microsoft was pocketing on the hard drive upgrade option..
Things are really turning badly for Capcom here: more people disliked the demo than otherwise, almost everybody dispises the traditional Capcom 5GB mandatory installs (whitch is still justified by the lie of speeding up load times, when in fact if it was just that, it could be optional not mandatory), it’s preety clear the 360 version is once again superior and to add the cherry on the top of everything, it seems like the game has no trophies? That’s just BAD if it’s true…
Once again, that talk a Capcom producer had about all the 2009 games of Capcom suporting trophies was one more lie?
Good morning Shawn,
I have a question for you, and i would greatly appreciate it if you could answer my question to you:
The demo has been available on Xbox360 since December 5th, and has just hit the PSN, therefore 2 full months later. Why? How much did Micro$oft pay you?
The demo was pretty good.
Part one of my comments:
Hi,
I’m a long RE4 fan, I’ve owned both the PS2 version and now I own the Wii version. I love the game.
However I was disappointed with Resident Evil 5 for a number of reasons – most of them deal with the control options. There were a lot of changes that simply didn’t make sense.
For instance, the designers put the aim button on L1 and the fire button on R1, which is all fine and dandy if it serves some purpose. Usually designers do this because they want the players to have their right hand free from the face buttons so they can rotate the camera while they strafe and do other things. But in Resident Evil 5 (And 4) you have to stop when you’re aiming anyway so there isn’t any point to requiring this button setup – I have to get used to it for no reason and honestly after completing RE4 on Professional mode once with the PS2 controls, I’d rather stick with the old RE4 controls.
Second, having those buttons on the shoulders is senseless considering the only time you use both analogs is while you’re running, yet for some reason the run button isn’t mapped to a shoulder button. The R2 button is used for the map, which isn’t something – as far as I know – that you’ll be using while you’re running through hosts of zombies. It’d make much more sense if you could switch that to the run button, or better yet, put the run button on L2 and the knife button on R2, but which shoulder button it’s on is just my preference, the important thing is that it should be on the shoulders so you can have access to the camera while running. Also, in this way, you’ll also have your thumb on the right stick most of the time so when you hit the L1 button you don’t have to move your hand off the run button so you can aim your gun – your thumb would already be there – kind of how your thumb was already on the stick that aimed your gun when you pushed R1 in Resident Evil 4.
Then there’s my other gripe about the controls, which I couldn’t do much about since there are only 4 controller options and none of which fix the problems I mentioned (The game really needs fully customizable controls, it would fix all of this – Devil May Cry does it, why cant RE5?)
Why did they switch the X and Square buttons? Before it was Square to run and X to access the environment. I can’t help but wonder if this was a change made because it’s also on the Xbox 360 and that’s something they’re used to. But if the Run button was mapped to a shoulder and your thumb is generally on the right stick, I think the action button should be mapped to the X button so you can quickly slide your thumb over from the right stick to grab things or flip switches or whatever you need to do.
Right now there is a lot of unnecessary finger play that really needs to be fixed, and I really hope I don’t have to wait for a patch – or more importantly – don’t have to just deal with it. I feel like this game is fighting me, and I don’t think it’s just because of my preferences.
Alright, that’s the last part of my comments. I really hope someone important reads this, because I don’t know where else to give feedback.
Originally can’t connect to a friend @253.
Alright, I can connect to another friend just now as a host but unfortunately I can’t join friends invites. AND EVERY game I host, I have to play with a dark screen filter, like behind the XMB, only the XMB icons are not showing. I also had to quit game and restart again in order for invites to get through to my friend after every session ends.
It also crash a couple times while trying to connect. I’ve already preorder this game but the ONLINE COOP right now seems like a real mess. I’ve spend more time trying to connect/troubleshoot than actually play the demo.
I had try swapping HDMI/Component cables, disabling screen saver and different resolutions and that dark overlay is still there, making indoors extremely dark.
Some have commented the same problem above and I really hope this get fixed in the REAL game.
Would be nice to have text chat too.
Scariest and most “real” looking Resident Evil yet, judging by the demo. Intense and frantic.
like i saied before camera and control are bad , 5 gb am not going to complain about its not a real big deal to me. i played the demo on both system and i know this will upset you but i just dont see any major differences there were a few color images but that it i just dont see a real big different . this game is a no buy for me RE 4 was a better game then 5 also capcom you guys had two years to figure out how to make games on the ps3 am not buying your excuses .
**quote**
Hey Jac,
I personally went to check again about the frame rate issues. I played for a while and had no frame rate drop whatsoever. Everything went smoothly.
Later,
Shawn
**quote**
Either you are lieing or you have problems detecting frame drops. In any case, Resident Evil 5 on PS3 isn’t nearly as smooth as the 360 version.
Hobbling the main characters’ controls doesn’t create tension, it creates frustration. Perhaps some people enjoy that in a video game, but I don’t.
I had a go with the RE5 demo, but was completely confounded by the fact that my character can’t climb or jump onto relatively small objects, unless the game gives you a prompt. Also, as soon as you want to shoot, you’re rooted to the spot. It’s like travelling back about 15 years in video game design!
I actually don’t believe the spin about the loathsome controls being a deliberate move to ‘create tension’. I think it is simply a reflection of how out of touch the developers/designers are with modern video games.
There have been plenty of other tense and scary video games over the past 10 years that didn’t rely on limiting your character’s movements (clever level pacing, use of music/audio etc.) and, in 2009, there’s really no excuse here.
RE4 may have been well received despite all of this, but that was some years ago now; people will not be so forgiving this time around.
This is great! I love PS3 & PSN
You know, I played both versions. D/led it on my 360, and just now did the PS3 version. I think they both look good(some xbots are saying the 360 version looks MUCH sharper, but I think any difference is negligible), I noticed the PS3 version has a slight better framerate(where as the 360 version has just a bit more screen tearing)…but like any game that grew up on Playstation(like DMC), it just plays better on the Dualshock 3 as opposed to the 360 controller.
I don’t understand all the whiners…I’ve beared through all the resident evils, and I have absolutely no problems with even the OLD resident evil controls. I know some people can’t grasp it, but why does it matter if you can’t move and shoot? I was playing with some random person on PSN and we were kicking major butt!!! Baddies couldn’t touch us. I really like the Type D controls, but I was even fine with Type A(I am a HUGE RE4 fan). But people are just too used to Dead Space/Gears of War/insert generic over the shoulder game…you all forget that Resident Evil 4 was the real first game that mainstreamed that kind of camera view/control. It really isn’t that hard. I mean…come on my Playstation brethren. We grew up on this stuff!
Btw, people stop whining about installs. Do what I did and get a bigger hard drive. I got a 250GB hard drive for 50 bucks on ebay. Works like a dream. =)
I think that Resident Evil become from a Survival Game to Action game, the first RE titles was ok for me.
I’m gonna have to pass with this.
I tested both demos xbox 360 and ps3, i must said that ps3 version its a lot of problems : first the pixelrate and the framne rates, the chracaters are under a lot of black color to steal his errors or what, we must be realistics the 360 version dont present this problems because the game was designed on xbox 360, so we sony users we gonna expect all kind of this for all multiplataform games OMG!
THE CONTROL AND CAMERA ARE AWFUL… I popped in RE4 and Code: Veronica X just to make sure… and wow, quality games… This one? Capcom should of play tested this badboy longer… I was going to buy it without playing the demo. Now that I have played the demo I will not be purchasing RE5. Its ironic that this horrid demo is causing RE fans to bail on the franchise. LAME!
We all agreed, the controllers are a definitely a problem. Capcom and many of the Japanese developers are stuck in the past. Time to innovate and catch up to today’s standards.
Also, I played it several times on the 360, and believe me…it’s the Xbox version is the better one. It’s sad, especially since the RE series started and became popular under the Playstation Brand. I played them all on y PS1 and Ps2, and as a PS3 owner I feel that CAPCOM has no respect for us. This game is no longer a day one buy for me, just a weekend rental.
But I want to thank you guys at the Playstation Blog for keeping us updated. Keep up the good work, and if you get a chance tell those Capcom boys and girls to start to show the Playstation fans some respect.
I was hoping for more run and gun gameplay now that the zombies aint zombies.
But it looks like we are all stuck with the so 90’s method of stop and pop!
Its so dissapointing as resi has moved from being survival horror to a generic action title, why didn’t they improve the controls to reflect this?
I must admit i didn’t like resi 4 on the gamecube at first, but i then got a hang of it and found it to be amazing. i hoped the same for 5, but after 3 or so hours playing it i’ve come to the conclusion that its a next-gen looker with gameplay stuck in the past.
lets all hope it gets tweeked before final release.
I remember listening to Torrence from the bitbag.com talking about screen shots and how they don’t mean @#$%.
When you look at a still image (paused video) you are looking at how good the game looks in a single frames and not how it looks consistently/overall.
When you first start the demo it tells you that it’s an early build of the game and doesn’t reflect what the finally build of the game will be.
Anyway, the online co-op is so much fun. I am still buying this game no matter what.
I really hope Wesker is playable. Did you guys see how badass he is in the TGS 08 Extended Alternate trailer?
OMG! wow the demo is also. i notice no frame rate drops not even online co-op. controls certainly take time to get use to but the default Type D sucks. It took a while trying to figure out how to play online co-op with my friend but we finally figured it out, the invitation system is done through the PS3’s XMB. Awesome game! beautiful graphics, the lighting is sick.
Where are my promised Bionic Commando Rearmed trophies? Capcom is the biggest traitor. they betrayed me as a customer. Until Capcom sorts this [DELETED] out, I am not looking forward to any of their unfinished products.
I dont like to be treated badly.
Waited for this and i wasn’t disappointed!. Its defo worth the wait till March, i will surely be buying it. The co-op too is awesome, one thing i will say that i don’t like is how the player always seems to be stuck to the right side of the scren.
yeah, thanks for not making us wait til’ thursday, but I still wonder why it wasn’t available at the same time as XBL demo.
The demo is awesome! great graphics and the co-op with a friend is fun.
Between KILLZONE 2 and this game, I’ll be busy this year playing online.
The thing about loading times is this : Capcom won’t be bothered to work around the loading speed limitations of the blu-ray drive SINCE they can just use the HDD and let the consumers pay for their lazyness.
I hope next time they won’t be bother by a DVD9 capacity limitation and make a larger game only able to fit in a Blu-ray or multiple DVDs. Just saying, since they seem to like to make use of technology /sarcasm.
I’m a huge fan of the series and am very excited for this game. I do miss the game being scary, though. It’s all about the action now.
Love the demo! Cant wait for full game.
Here’s the value of a getting to try a demo before purchasing a game.
Just saved myself $60.
@375
Demos are good for consumers and bad for publishers if the demo sucks.
RE5 definitely isn’t a game for everyone as you can tell from the comments on this blog.
@PS Blog
Don’t get lazy just because this blog is getting so many comments.
I still want some info on what’s coming this Thursday.
Resident Evil 4.1! Disappointing demo.
Thankfully, I received my Killzone demo code from Gamespot today.
Money well spent. Thoroughly enjoy the Beta.
Awesome!
I’m liking the Demo, though I do find it to be very similar to RE4 I can see some of the strides they’re making to improve the franchise, such as the quick switch buttons assigned to the D-Pad, the graphics are great, and Co-op when working is great plus I’m glad that they added the split-screen feature which any co-op game should support. I can’t wait to get my hands on the control scheme that let’s me move and shoot at the same time
I downloaded the demo yesterday. It seemed okay to me. No framerate issues or anything like that. It’s probably going to be a buy for me.
That being said, my only gripe is that there doesn’t seem to be much “horror” in this survival/horror title. That being said, RE4 wasn’t exactly horror either but it had a great story. I’ll probably pick this up for the story, but as far as horror goes, Siren is much better.
Sweet! downloading it right now.
STREET FIGHTER & RESIDENT EVIL INVADE PLAYSTATION HOME
“Capcom plans on supporting PlayStation Home in a big way. Famitsu has revealed brand new Home content based on Capcom’s upcoming games, Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5. SFIV will receive a post-release patch that will allow players to meet in Home and then jump directly into a Street Fighter match.”
“In addition to game launching, Capcom will also sell costumes to wear in the Home world…”
“Capcom is also developing a Resident Evil 5 game space, which looks remarkably like the game’s opening level. Here, players will be able to congregate and participate in various RE themed events. We’re not sure if those events will involve eating other Home users alive, but we hope so.”
-via Joystiq
Sounds great! There is definitely some PlayStation exclusive content coming for RE5, then! The HOME space looks exactly like the shanty town. Nice work. Hopefully the game launching will clear up the problems people are having (on either platform) with matching-up…
Interesting…I have both systems and I did a comparison my self and noticed that both the 360/PS3 versions are the same.
It’s like they just copied/pasted RE4 into HD and called it RE5.
Where are the zombies?
RE Degeneration is what RE5 should have been.
There hasn’t been a true RE game since Code Veronica.
Oh, and yes, I concur with everybody else.
While I don’t care for the control system overall, the camera was *awful*. I was constantly fighting with it throughout the entire demo.
Hahaha bring it, my updated 160gig(now 119) can take it, but anyway re5 demo = epic demo.
Really enjoyed the demo, especially the mulitplayer aspect- I really love the way you guys do splitscreen on this.
I’m greatly saddened by the fact that you didn’t include 1080 support for the many users whose TVs don’t do 720p. I’ll probably buy RE5 anyway, but this will end up costing a few sales. Are you unaware of the issue or just don’t care?
Also, as much as I LOVE RE:4 (greatest game of all time), a “Real” RE (i.e. Code Veronica) would be nice at some point…
Also, please don’t screw the customers with DLC that should have been in the game in the first place like SF4 looks to be planning on doing (pay for outfits?). A few dollars now is worth a lot less than the fans you’ll lose forever by pulling stunts like that.
If your fans so much as vaguely suspect that you are holding back content now with the intention of selling it to them later there will be hell to pay…
WiCkEd!!!!!
I’m in love, this is evil fun but I’m stuck on Grid, with my HD projector and screen the scale 1s 1×1 and with my surround sound system OMG Sony, good job.
I spoke to FIVE different people today about this demo.
They ALL agreed that the controls are completely crap, and they wont be buying the game because of it. Namely, the stupid weapons inventory system which allows you to get slaughtered whilst trying to change weapons
Thanks for taking time to respond to people questions. I downloaded the demo last night, but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet since I had to work late last night. Looking forward to trying it, especially the co-op mode.
Good game, too bad the controls suck :( … press X to run? c’mon drop that already. The game should be controlled like Dark Sector.
Also WTF is up with the offline co-op?? the screens are ultra small. Great addition though
@Anubis: I was going to reply to you about what Capcom has “done for us” this generation but someone else also covered it.
Capcom has not treated the Playstation brand this poorly, ever. Microsoft must have some kind of huge, overarching agreement with them. Lost Planet was super late, Dead Rising may never be ported, trophy support for most games is nonexistent and patches to add them are mysteries, we get this demo 2 months after the Xbox does, along with framerate drops and inconsistent co-op invites. The final kick to the groin is yet another 5GB install for no good reason (load times are no excuse, Killzone2 and Uncharted don’t need huge installs). Copying the entire game to the hard drive isn’t the way to defeat the slow Blu-ray drive, streaming is.
Oh well, I feel like I’ve complained too much already. Maybe when the game gets released everything will be better.
Giving this poor support and releasing extremely close to Killzone 2 don’t expect the PS3 version to sell that good. It’s terrible to be left with the dumbed down version when PS fans have always been loyal to the RE brand.