New Resident Evil 5 Footage Hits Japan

March 26th, 2008, 17:12 Posted By: Shrygue

via IGN


That Resident Evil 5 footage Capcom promised for some time this week made it into the new issue of Famitsu as planned. Here's a report on what the Japanese are getting in this week's issue of their biggest games publication.

Rather than a new trailer, the DVD provides just a few minutes of off-screen footage of the game being played in the background of an interview with producer Jun Takeuchi. In addition to the gameplay sequences, the DVD also provides a glimpse at some of the development tools being used to create the models for the game.

Six months back when they shared information on the game, says Takeuchi as part of the interview, the basics of the game's visual quality were set. Since then, Capcom has been focusing on situational aspects of the graphics.

Takeuchi's major talking point for this interview is the importance of light and shadow in the game. This is actually an area he has discussed heavily in past interviews.

Light and shadow have always played a role in Resident Evil, he notes. However, past titles have featured these areas as themes in the scenario, with only abstract appearance in the game. In RE5, they're portrayed realistically, with the abstract areas now a part of the game.

As he speaks, we're shown realtime gameplay footage of main character Chris Redfield walking around what appears to be the remnants of a town; it looks, at a glance, like a ghost town. There are zombies (or creatures we assume are zombies, at least) hanging around a building nearby, with two apparently engaging in a fight. Chris walks over to them. The zombies don't appear to notice him, although this may be a case of Capcom simply having the demo set to a debug mode.

This area shows some of the lighting mechanics mentioned by Takeuchi. Chris walks from the brightly lit outdoors area to the covered entry area of the building, going from light to shadow. It talks a couple of seconds, but details slowly become visible in the entry area as Chris' eyes apparently become adapted. This is something that's repeated in later segments of the footage, to great effect.

The moment when you switch from light to dark is one where you truly can't see the game, stresses Takeuchi. Looking at the footage, it's pretty clear that there is often a moment of pure darkness, at least in certain areas of the screen, when going from a light section of the world into the shade.

With some games, Takeuchi notes, having trouble seeing because of the lighting may cause frustration for the player. But with Resident Evil, it's a part of the game. Capcom is putting effort into this area of RE5 in order to portray the fear of darkness.

Other sequences give us a glimpse at the game's gun play. It looks a lot like Resident Evil 4, with Chris off to one side of the screen. Capcom is making use of real guns wherever possible, Takeuchi notes.

All the gameplay sequences were apparently played on an Xbox 360. While there is a PS3 controller visible near the television, the developer demoing the game has a 360 controller in his hands at all times.

This latest glimpse at Resident Evil 5 may be nothing more than just a teaser. But the fact that the game exists in a playable state in Capcom's headquarters is a good sign that development is progressing well. Hopefully, we'll be the ones holding the controllers the next time RE5 surfaces.

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