PS3 Fanboy

UGO has landed an interview with Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi to discuss the upcoming survival horror sequel. Takeuchi begins by defending the RE5 team's decision to use Africa as a backdrop, insisting it is not a race issue. In fact, Chris will not even leave Africa for the entirety of the game. Gameplay-wise, he tells us in the current version of the game, it will allow you to "switch weapons in real time but we can't 100% confirm that that's how the final game will end up." Another gameplay element highlighted is destructible environments -- seemingly safe hiding places can be eliminated by getting knocked down.

Takeuchi also speaks of utilizing next-gen console technology to create "bright, outdoor environments" with an "action-based, a different kind of horror." Quick-time events will also remain in the game, but will "be much more active." Takeuchi then teases everyone by glancing at a PR representative when asked about a co-op mode and responding with "Right now I don't have anything to say about that. All I can say is just wait for E3." He is right, we can't wait for E3 to find out more!

The new extended Resident Evil 5 trailer is available on the PlayStation Store (and here). The brief teaser we saw at E3 is expanded upon, showing off some of the more incredible environments and terrifying "non?" zombies to be featured in this next-gen sequel. And yes, it's all in real time.

Watch the trailer, enjoy the new screenshots, and don't forget to visit the PlayStation Store to download the trailer in full HD glory. [Update: This video is of the Xbox 360 version. A PS3 version is definitely in the works.]

While analysts and pundits (rightfully) debate the honesty and reasoning behind the whole PS3 pricing debacle, it's clear that consumers have just been focused on one thing: the price tag. Sony mentioned during their conference that sales at all their major resalers had doubled already and it looks like they weren't kidding -- Amazon just ran out of their entire stock of PlayStation 3s and aren't getting anything until next week. Normally, stocking issues is more of a Wii phenomenon but it looks like a lot of people were either waiting in baited anticipation for the price cut, or a lot of people are scared Sony is going to jack the price of the PS3 back up to 600 dollars later this year.

Interestingly, sales of the PlayStation 3 have been so strong that its pushed the Amazon special pack-in movie Resident Evil into the top 5 movie sellers across all formats, including DVDs. That's something that even top tier Blu-ray releases can rarely do for even a couple days, and Resident Evil has been holding there all week. Since it's pretty unlikely that an older Blu-ray disc would undergo such a resurrection in sales by itself, that alone indicates that the PS3 sales have been extremely good at Amazon. With great games finally coming out and a decent library starting to form, this is a good time to be a new PS3 owner -- but how long will the sales spike last? Until the only option is a $599 80GB PS3?

*UPDATE*
Looks like they got an early new shipment of PS3s and they're back in stock at Amazon. Go get your buy on!

*UPDATE 2*
Holy crap, they just ran out of stock again. People REALLY want their PS3s, don't they?

[Via N4G]

You read the subject line -- Capcom isn't rushing their latest Resident Evil title to make some quick bucks. They are taking their sweet time (and probably relying on the attractive Devil May Cry 4 to boost sales a bit) to make sure we're getting the best product starring Chris Redfield we can get. In fact, Capcom must really love that poster boy -- he's been in the most games. The original (which we'll count as the fantastic GameCube remake), Code: Veronica and now this. However, poster boy #2, Leon Kennedy, stars in the best games of the series -- the second and fourth. Debate all you like.

Capcom released some financial reports and guess what game isn't listed on this fiscal calendar's release schedule? Yep, Resident Evil 5. This means we can expect to do the business with the zombies and whatnot around April of next year. At the earliest. Every single game just seems to get farther and farther from release! Eventually, developers might just shrug their shoulders and say "well, we just don't want to release games anymore." We kid, of course, but the waiting game is so boring.

Jensen Ackles is rumored to play Leon Kennedy in the fourth, yes, fourth, Resident Evil movie, scheduled to being filming next year. This isn't to be confused with the third RE movie, "Extinction". The fourth is "Afterlife". The fifth is "Overkill". Just kidding, there's no fifth. Yet. Do we really need a fourth? Do we really need a third? Maybe. Even though the movies horribly destroy everything the games stand for, they must be popular somewhere to be getting a third and fourth iteration. Let's just hope we get Resident Evil 5 to wash the bad taste out of our mouths between these movies.

This Ackles guy is supposed to be pretty good. Honestly, we've never seen him in his show "Supernatural". Some say he fits the bill of a Leon Kennedy. But let's be honest -- he won't be a Leon. Leon is way too cool for that. What? Leon's not real? Hogwash. Hey, how about this: in the third and fourth Resident Evil movies, what would you want to see? It can be a scene from one of the games, it can be something you wish was done better (mansion exploration would have been cool)... or it could be Milla Jovovich getting obliterated by a thermonuclear explosion. Hey, we'll need Leon to have the spotlight. Move over, "Alice".