Resident Evil 5. An eagerly awaited game awash in a sea of racial controversy that seems silly when every morning for the past week I woke up, look out the window, and was greeted by a 200 foot tall advertisement for Tropic Thunder featuring Robert Downey Jr. with his face painted black. I think the gaming public has pretty much moved on at this point, which is nice, because I don't want my hands-on impressions of Capcom's E3 demo for the game sullied by conflict.

The demo starts off with my character (Chris) holed up in a shack with Rosario Dawson.

Resident Evil 5's got to be one of the highlights of the show so far. It's been around for ages, I know, but it showed up at E3 this year ready to really show itself off, and as such has gone from "oh, this is barely concept art" to "oh, it's a game that you can play, and looks brilliant".

Don't Be Surprised If There Are RE5 Controls Surprises

The Resident 5 footage shown here at E3 is gorgeous. Jaw dropping, even. The game really looks like what people have been waiting for. What's not to like? The criticism level against the game has been the fact it uses Resident 4's controls. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you liked Resident Evil 4! But as RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi pointed out:

It's possible that a lot of people who play Resident Evil 5 may not have played Resident Evil 4. But they might have played Gears of Wars or Call of Duty. Those are both games that I and our team really, really like. So don't be surprised if at the Tokyo Game Show, the controls are different. For now, we have the control set up for RE4. I'm not confirming or denying anything, but we like to surprise people.

Another interesting tidbit: When Takeuchi saw Gears of War, he thought the guys that made it must really like Resident Evil 4. And when he met the Gears of War team, they told him, yes, they were big RE4 fans. And like that, we come full circle! Or something.

This is Capcom's big E3 trailer for Resident Evil 5. Loads of gameplay, loads of the same alien bug things you grew to love in Res 4. As for the rest...the voice-acting at the start? Awful. The desert zombie biker gang? Awesome.

The Microsoft press conference at E3 2008 saw a game demo of Capcom's Resident Evil 5, after which Jun Takeuchi announced the release date for the eagerly anticipated title. Resident Evil 5 will be launching worldwide on Friday, March 13th 2009, except for Japan who get it a day earlier. Friday the 13th? Really? How many months do you think they pushed it back just to get that special, more-evil Friday the 13th release?

Game Club Beyond Good & Evil: Discussion One

OK boys and girls time to kick off the first Game Club discussion about Beyond Good & Evil. Hit the jump to join the chat which will be hosted on CoveritLive. As was the case with original Game Club, you'll need to take turns commenting or asking questions. I will be moderating all comments on the chat program. Please keep your comments on topic only. I'll also leave comments live on Kotaku for those of you who want to talk more generally about the game.

Keep in mind we are only talking about what's taken place through the end of the Black Isle Mines section of the game.

The First Assignment

Game Club Meets Tonight

Don't forget the first Beyond Good & Evil Game Club meets tonight. We're testing out some new software that has no limits and allows for some pretty decent comment controls. Make sure to check back at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time tonight to discuss our first assignment. If you forgot to play check out the link and get on it. It took me about an hour to get to where I needed to be.

Game Club Beyond Good & Evil First Assignment

Game Club Beyond Good & Evil: The First Assignment

Alright, as promised today we're kicking off the rejuvenated Game Club with a group play through of fan favorite of Beyond Good & Evil. If you're interested in playing through a game along side a group of friends and then discussing the deeper meaning of the game and its plot, don't forget to hop in.

We will be meeting weekly, on Monday's at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, though this month with the holiday and E3, is going to have an odd schedule. I'm pretty sure it will be easy to get through the game in four meetings. So let's plan on our first meeting to start on July 7 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. Just come to the site and look for the Game Club Beyond Good & Evil Discussion post.

In this first assignment for Beyond Good & Evil you'll need to complete the the Black Isle Mines section of the game. Make sure you don't play past that point because I'd like us all to be on the same page, so to speak. After playing through the chunk, try to think up some interesting questions and discussion topics. I will have a list of my own, but I'm hoping we can all ask each other interesting things to discuss.

The game is available for the Xbox (not backwards compatible) PS2, Gamecube and the PC via Steam and Gametap.

Hit the jump for the Game Club rules.

Another Resident Evil Movie "A Possibility"

Director Paul W.S. Anderson recently talked to MTV's Movies blog about the likelihood of another Resident Evil movie. It's still being discussed. Hey, they haven't even got the storyline worked out yet (if they'd actually stuck to anything at all resembling the game, that might not be an issue).

I'm just starting to talk to Sony about it,” Anderson confessed. “I don’t even know if anything will come of it, but there’s a possibility it might happen.”

The last flick ended on a cliffhanger, as MTV recalls, so another film is likely at some point:

In Japan, it's pretty common for video games to have pachinko machines. Heck! Movies, anime and manga character even get pachinko machines based on them. It's not just spinning metal balls! New pachinko machines even feature large LCD-type displays to keep players engaged. Pachinko maker Yamasa's Resident Evil machine puts poor Jill Valentine through the standard series of scares and shootings — if only for suggestive glances!

BioHazard [Yamaza via Hatimaki]

A new salvo's been levied at the now-infamous Resident Evil 5 trailer by Tolu Olarunda at the Your Black Writers blog, who was upset by the trailer's imagery.

A couple weeks ago, a friend sent me a A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a YouTube link. He described it as “African genocide.” Not knowing what to expect, I clicked on it. What I witnessed for those next 3 minutes, was nerve-wrecking, painful, mind-numbing and heart-racing. It was a trailer for a Video Game called “Resident Evil.”

Sega Says Leaked "Crucible" Is Not Its Silicon Knights Game

Return of the Game Club

It's been more than a year since I first floated the idea for an Oprah-esque Game Club to quite a lot of support. Heck, I've even had people email me about forming local Game Club chapters for physical meet-ups, including one developer. Since that time we had a beta of sorts and played Mr. Robot together. And then things got quiet... too quiet.

Have no fear though, I didn't forget you Game Clubbers, in fact I was working behind the scenes to line up some changes to the club to make it a bit easier for more people to participate and to bring in someone who can help kick off what I hope will become each month's new game. (More to come on that soon, I hope)

Today I can announce that we will be bringing Game Club back starting July 1. Our first title? To kick things off on the right foot we're going with Kotaku pick Beyond Good & Evil.

Now don't jump the gun and start playing it now, if you haven't already. The whole idea of Game Club is for it to be a shared experience. Expect more details coming out over the next couple of weeks as I finalize everything, but until then here are the Game Club's rules.

Capcom "Had No Choice" But To Set RE5 In Africa. Apparently.

Resident Evil 5 Jun Takeuchi talks, well, Resident Evil 5 and explains why the game is set in Africa. Apparently, because of hints in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Capcom had no choice! Takeuchi does forget to bring up the magnificent zombie mustaches. He should be ashamed.

New Resident Evil 5 Interview [Capcom Blog]

Update: We've moved the video to the jump because it was causing issues with our front page.

Capcom USA Not So Interested In Resident Evil 0

That Resident Evil 4 Wii port did some good business for Capcom. So the Resident Evil 0 Wii port makes sense! So why not bring that Japan-only Wii port to the US? Well, Capcom USA doesn't want it, it seems. Like, really doesn't want it. Capcom exec Christian Svensson explains:

Nothing is ever final, but we’ve been asked twice if we’ve wanted to bring it Westward and twice we’ve declined.

Yeah, would any American Wii owners actually buy it if Capcom ever did decide to port it? Sure a few would, but...

Capcom USA Declines [Capcom BBS via Go Nintendo]

The Resident Evil 5 trailer has shown up on the Japanese PSN, and it's slightly different from the Japanese RE5 trailer Capcom showed at Captivate. The beginning and the end are the same, but the middle is quite different. The PSN trailer does not explicitly show the parasites, and there is no blood. Instead, the Japanese PSN Resident Evil 5 features new scenes and a new shipping container yard area. Now that is one magnificent zombie mustache! Screen grabs below.

Biohazard 5 Trailer [The-Horror via NeoGAF Thanks, Paul!]

Let's Analyze The Resident Evil 5 Trailer

Enhanced RE5 Trailer [Albotas]