Resident Evil 5 Update
New details on the first next generation Resident Evil.
by Anoop Gantayat
August 1, 2005 - An update on Resident Evil 5 has just come our way from the latest issue of one of our favorite Japanese magazines, Famitsu Xbox (soon to be Famitsu Xbox 360). The September issue of the magazine features a four page look at Resident Evil 5, and while the screenshots are old, the interview with producer Jun Takeuchi is new.
In the interview, Takeuchi reveals some juicy details on the visual side of the game. You may have noticed the particularly impressive shot of the main character aiming his gun at the screen. The character uses a whole lot of polygons, with modeling going down to the detail of each blade of hair that makes up his stubble.
The game's powerful visual engine will contribute to facial expressions. The game engine, in its current form, gives the developers the ability to set values for muscles throughout character faces, allowing for fine tuned facial expressions. Takeuchi notes that he's unsure if this will make it into the final game or not.
Capcom is working to make the game run at a smooth sixty frames per second, twice the frame rate of the GameCube Resident Evil 4. According to Takeuchi, this will allow for some gameplay situations that could not be achieved in a thirty frames per second game, and he points to this as evidence that the game will indeed have a strong action component.
Outside of visuals, we can expect real physics from the game. Takeuchi is hoping to make the world reactive to your actions, allowing you to break things by shooting them and topple things by kicking them.
For the complex visuals and physics that will go into the game, Famitsu Xbox asks Takeuchi if it's possible that the game will use middleware, such as the Unreal 3 engine. Takeuchi responds that his team is currently investigating such solutions. Takeuchi feels that, while many Japanese developers have spent time creating their own engines until now, this requires too much money and time.
This was touched upon in our original story on the game, but one area the development team is hoping to focus on with Resident Evil 5 is giving players a sense of the surrounding atmosphere through visuals. Heat and cold are key words for Resident Evil 5, Takeuchi reveals, with the game's visual engine being able to clearly express changes in temperature. This is something that can only be done with high definition visuals, Takeuchi states.
Finally, Takeuchi confirms that the game will follow along the lines of Resident Evil 4's gameplay system. This doesn't seem to indicate that the game will play exactly like Resident Evil 4, but that it will play closer to Resident Evil 4 than the original PlayStation games.
The Resident Evil 5 team is currently considering sharing the previous PlayStation Meeting and Xbox Summit Resident Evil 5 trailer with the public at the September Tokyo Game Show. We hope to hear more on the game then.
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I hope this becomes the norm for next-gen.