Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5 (バイオハザード5), is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was developed and published by Capcom. Capcom officially announced Resident Evil 5 on July 20, 2005. It was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan, and March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe.

Plot
The game starts in 2009, six years after the destruction of Umbrella. Chris Redfield has become a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance and is sent to investigate possible Bio Organic Weapon smuggling in Africa. Upon arriving in the Kijuju Autonomous Zone, Chris meets his partner, Sheva Alomar of the BSAA West African branch. Together, the two individuals attempt to rendezvous with the BSAA's "Alpha Team", who were attempting to intercept a supposed B.O.W smuggler named Ricardo Irving. However, the situation quickly escalates as their local contact is executed and the pair are forced to fight literal crowds of Las Plaga infested Majini.

Eventually, they find Captain DeChant, the only remaining member of Alpha Team. Fatally wounded, the Captain warns them of Irving's betrayal and gives them a file. Moments later, the two find themselves face-to-face with a bizarre and dangerous creature, seemingly made of leech-like worms. Destroying it, Chris and Sheva send the newly acquired data to HQ, soon meeting up with the BSAA Delta Team. Captain Josh Stone, leader of Delta, gives Chris a memory card containing images of research material. Among these is an image of Chris's supposedly dead partner, Jill Valentine. Chris and Sheva search for Irving, still determined to discover Jill's fate.

It is during this time that Chris reveals the truth behind Jill's supposed "Death": In 2006, Chris and Jill were working to track down Albert Wesker. They attempted to gain answers from Umbrella's former President, Ozwell E. Spencer recently learning of his possible location. By the time they arrived at the estate, however, Wesker had already murdered Spencer, and they are forced to fight. Severely outmatching the pair, Wesker prepared to finish Chris off. Jill, sacrificing herself for Chris, tackled Wesker through the nearby window, and over the surrounding cliffs. Unable to find her body, the BSAA was forced to assume that both had died in the fall.

Chris and Sheva then encounter Irving, accompanied with a mysterious, cloaked woman. The woman provides Irving with a control parasite, and he quickly mutates. After defeat at the hands of Chris and Sheva, the dying Irving utters "Excella Gionne". With another possible lead, the pair trudge on.

When they come upon the pods seen in the research material, Chris frantically searches a nearby computer for Jill's location. They are forced to fight U-8 before they can check, and discover afterward that the pod is empty. Excella Gionne appears and denies any knowledge of Jill, much to Sheva's doubt. When Chris and Sheva encounter Excella again, they are fought off by the cloaked woman who accompanied Irving. A stray round knocks away her mask, and Wesker makes his appearance. The agitated Chris is quickly left speechless when Wesker reveals that the woman is Jill. Chris attempts to reason with her, but she attacks him with a flurry of hand to hand moves and starts an intense battle. Wesker arrogantly claims that he can spare only seven minutes for the pair, and eventually leaves Jill to handle them. Chris again calls out to Jill, and she attempts to resist the P30 used to control her. Wesker then activates a device, causing her great pain and administering more P30. Jill attacks Chris and Sheva again, and Chris cradles the severely weakened Jill. She apologizes to both, stating that she was fully aware of her unintended actions. Ignoring her own state, Jill tells the pair to leave her and stop Wesker. Chris objects, but grudgingly agrees when Jill questions "Don't you trust your partner?" As they leave through an elevator, Jill finally says: "You're our only hope at surviving this."

Chris and Sheva manage to board Wesker's ship and soon locate Excella. She flees, dropping a case of chemicals. After a brief flashback from Wesker's point of view, Chris and Sheva find the now dying Excella. Wesker then calls out over an intercom, casually discarding Excella. Simultaneously, Uroburos burst from her, killing her, and consume the surrounding corpses. Destroying it, they discover that Wesker plans to spread Uroboros around the globe with a bomber. Jill then calls and informs them of Wesker's weakness: regular doses of serum. Overdoses would not maintain his superhuman abilities but weaken him, and Sheva realizes that the case Excella dropped contained the serum.

After doggedly pursuing Albert Wesker across the wilderness, Chris and Sheva find themselves in the bombers' hangar. Wesker had stocked the plane with enough Uroburos-carrying missiles to infect most of Earth. After combating Wesker in vain with conventional tactics, Chris resorts to injecting Wesker with the serums Excella dropped. This weakens him, allowing Chris and Sheva to fight on more level ground. Wesker is forced to escape with his Jet, but the BSAA team is able to pursue him. He reveals that the bomber is climbing to the ideal altitude for global infections. He is soon blasted out of an airlock by Chris, but manages to grab onto Sheva. Tortured by the memory of Jill, Chris jumps forward and catches her hand after she loses her grip. Sheva shoots Wesker in the face, and he falls into the caldera of an active volcano. The craft itself crashes into the same volcano shortly following.

The two agents are shocked to find a battered Wesker. Arrogant to the last, he plunges his right arm into an intact Uroboros missile, and is immediately engulfed by the symbiont. Chris and Sheva desperately fight the Uroburos-empowered Wesker precariously over a molten battlefield. The heaving volcano causes the ground to crack and melt, sending Wesker tumbling into the magma. Josh, piloting a BSAA helicopter, spots the pair, and Jill Valentine kicks a ladder to the them. Chris and Sheva barely escape as the ground melts beneath them.

Enraged and defiant, even in the face of his own mortality, Wesker attempts one last gambit, snagging the BSAA helicopter with his monstrously mutated arm. Jill tells Chris and Sheva to use the RPG-7s mounted in the rear of the rocking cabin. The two partners send a pair of anti-tank rockets racing down into the corrupted face of Albert Wesker, ending his life in a cloud of flame and ash.

As the chopper flies away in the final cutscene, Chris remarks: "More and more, I find myself wondering if it's all worth fighting for," a phrase used several times in trailers. He concludes with: "For a future without fear.....yeah, its worth it." The game ends with the chopper flying into the dawn.

Gameplay
Resident Evil 5 features similar gameplay to Resident Evil 4utilizing the same over the shoulder view. The game's environment also plays a significant role. The Mercenaries minigame, which was featured in both Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4, also made a return.

The game also features new types of enemies. The extended E3 2007 trailer revealed several sequences involving Redfield attacking hordes of fleet-footed enemies, who possessed melee weapons. Takeuchi has also stated the game's enemies will also possess human-like intelligence and awareness. Furthermore, he stated they will be different from the previous ganados. Takeuchi said that they have "greatly increased the number of weapon variations" compared to the previous games in the series, while the requisite handguns and shotguns also return.

In an interview with XBOX360ISM, Keiji Inafune stated that the game will feature some online elements. Resident Evil 5's main story mode can be played with two players, in a co-operative online mode. The feature will allow players to enter or leave anytime during the game. Players will not always stick together, and can be separated at points during the gameplay.

Trailers at Tokyo Game Show 2008, revealed an "offline co-op mode." This mode delivers the same co-op experience as offered by the online co-op mode, only with two local players controlling the action in split screen.

Cast
Yoshio Iizuka (motion capture stunt double) -Albert Wesker
 * Roger Craig Smith (voice)/ Reuben Langdon (motion capture) - Chris Redfield
 * Karen Dyer (voice and motion capture)/ Michelle Van der Water (model) - Sheva Alomar
 * D.C. Douglas (voice)/ Ken Lally (motion capture)/Ilram Choi (motion capture stunt double)
 * Patricia Ja Lee (voice and motion capture)/ Jade Quon (motion capture stunt double) -Jill Valentine
 * Nina Fehren (voice, model, and motion capture) -Excella Gionne
 * Allan Groves (voice and motion capture) -Ricardo Irving
 * T.J. Storm (voice and motion capture) - Josh Stone
 * Adam Clarke -Ozwell E. Spencer
 * Chris Mala -Kirk Mathison
 * Douglas Rye -Dan DeChant
 * Dave Mallow -Dave Johnson
 * Liam O'Brien -Reynard Fisher
 * G.K Bowes -Allyson aka Woman in Trouble.

Controversy
The E3 2007 trailer for Resident Evil 5 drew criticism from various sources for containing supposedly racist imagery, specifically that of Caucasian protagonist Chris Redfield fighting and killing an all-black group of African enemies. Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal was quoted as saying "There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery", commenting that the common counterpoint that no racist accusations were levelled against Resident Evil 4, which featured Spanish enemies, was inaccurate; "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." The second RE5 trailer, released in May 2008, introduced the character of Sheva Alomar, an African native and partner to Chris. In addition, the crowd of enemies pictured, while still predominantly black, also featured Indian, Hispanic, and white characters. It was rumoured that the Sheva character and the mixed race enemies were added specifically to counter the accusations of racism, though producer Jun Takeuchi insisted that the accusations made absolutely no impact on development, and that the Sheva character had always been intended to be included.

Development
Jun Takeuchi, the director of Onimusha and producer of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, will take over producer duties from Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Keiji Inafune, who served as promotional producer for Resident Evil 2 and executive producer for the PlayStation 2 version of Resident Evil 4, is overseeing the project. In February 2007, members of Capcom’s Clover Studio were also called upon to help develop the game. However, many developers from the studio moved on to work on the Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, which debuted for the Wii. Several staff members who also worked on the original Resident Evil are involved in development. According to Takeuchi, the game will utilize the same gameplay model introduced in Resident Evil 4, while implementing thematics from the original Resident Evil into the game.

On January 21, D+PAD Magazine reported that Resident Evil 5 will be released with Limited Edition Xbox 360 box art. On January 21, 2009, pictures of the Limited Edition box claimed to allow 2-16 players to play offline via system link. Capcom initially responded stating that their "box art isn't lying", but refused to give any more details. However, soon after, Capcom issued another statement that contradicted their original response stating that the information on the box art was an error and that the correct number of players supported by system link is only two.

Music
The music for the video game was composed by Kota Suzuki. His score was electronic, but includes 15 minutes of orchestral underscore, which was recorded in Los Angeles at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox Studios with a 103-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Additional orchestral arrangements were composed by Wataru Hokoyama, who conducted the orchestra.

Capcom recorded in Los Angeles because they wanted a Hollywood-caliber soundtrack that would increase the game's cinematic value and global interest. The game’s soundtrack will feature an original theme song as well as live orchestral music compositions. The theme song, entitled "Pray", is composed by Kota Suzuki and sung by Oulimata Niang.

Gameplay Changes
Many changes came about during the development of RE 5. There were changes from previous games, and many new ideas were scrapped.


 * Very early trailers portrayed Chris in a survival commando-like costume, using a form of 1911 pistol and a version of Leon's Handgun from RE4 outfitted with a compensator. These were scrapped, save for the skeletal work of the Chris model.
 * The S100 never appears in the game, nor does it appear to be a real firearm.
 * In some early trailers, the M3 appeared with pistol grip and short barrel. In the final game, it had a pistol grip and full stock with a full length barrel and magazine tube.
 * The Sig 556 was originally the FN SCAR or a similar rifle, although limited footage makes identification difficult.
 * In addition to the grenade, flame, and acid rounds traditionally used in Resident Evil games, the grenade launcher can also use liquid nitrogen and electric rounds.
 * The Butcher tells Chris and Sheva to find "Belvek" in the demo, whilst in the final game he says "Irving."
 * Very early trailers showed Chris battling Majini alone, whilst in the final game he meets Sheva immediately after the game starts, before any combat takes place.

Marketing
Although the game garnered much interest among Resident Evil fans, Capcom did not present any footage or information about Resident Evil 5 at E3 2006. Capcom revealed a brief new trailer for the game at E3 2007. The full E3 trailer for the game became available on the Xbox 360 Marketplace and PlayStation Network Store on July 26, 2007.

In late March 2008, the April issue of Famitsu Wave was bundled with a DVD containing a preview of the game. On April 10, 2008, a translation of the video was published on Capcom's official blog. Takeuchi gave new information on the game and showed new gameplay footage. A new trailer shown at Captivate '08 debuted on Spike TV's show Gametrailers TV, on May 31, 2008, as well as the GameTrailers.com website.

A playable demo of the game was released in Japan on December 5, 2008 for the Xbox 360. A playable demo was released in North America and Europe as a one-week exclusive for the Xbox 360 on January 26, 2009. On February 2, 2009, the demo was released for the PlayStation 3. Another preview was released for the movie Friday the 13th, finally giving the name of the virus; "Uroboros"