It's That Friend Who Never Grew Up

I remember a time when I used to get really excited about the Resident Evil series. I remember seeing screen shots for Resident Evil 2 and thinking I must get this game. And the same thing happened for number 3 and for Code: Veronica. When Resident Evil 4 came along for GameCube and PlayStation 2, I couldn't help but feel that the excitement was waning. I mean, it really was more of the same but with a different view point and prettier visuals. But then Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition came out, and all of a sudden I had rekindled my love of making the heads of the undead explode. I mostly felt that this was due to the use of the Wii controls in the game. The Wii aiming gave the game a whole new appeal. All of a sudden, the clunky old controls felt like they had drunk 10 Red Bulls and said "you know what, if we have to stop to shoot, we;ll make it fun". It was awesome, I couldn't get enough and made sure that I finished it.

So Resident Evil 5 is on its way, and after my return to the series, I've been getting a bit excited again. However, something bad has happened. I recently downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo on Xbox Live. All of a sudden, my old friend had stopped drinking Red Bull and had gone back to it's favourite drink, clunky controls! I couldn't believe how much playing Resident Evil with the Wii had improved the game play, until I found myself screaming at Chris Redfield to at least try to move when he was shooting, and at least make a few of those head shots count. I am utterly disappointed in how old the game feels.

I'm hoping that something spectacular happens between now and launch (I know, extremely unlikely), because in all honesty, if it doesn't, I'll wait until this one hits the bargain bins.