Gearheads of War

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/960/...

Though you can't compete against other players outside the leaderboards, Capcom has improved the unlockable Mercenaries mode in one major way: A patch allowing Mercenaries to be played coopertavilly over Live.  The patch is currently online now, so expect to be prompted to this gift of joy when the disc runs. No word on Sony's front, but more then likely it will be available before launch.

Btw, does anyone have any theories on the Resident Evil Wii announcement?  Scuttlebutt says its a Code Veronica remake, which does make sense.  Its much more enclosed than 2 and 3, in which the city landscape probably wouldn't look much better on the Wii considering how much will be put into character models alone...

Resident Evil 5 has placed itself in what is essentially between a rock and a hard place.  On one side, there is the juggernaut known as Resident Evil 4, which claimed universal praise by critics and gamers, and is known as one of the best games ever developed.  On the other end in the stereotypical expectations of this current 'next-gen' line-up of consoles, which states unofficially that a game must be fast-paced, have versatile shooting [run-and-gun], include multiplayer, and run 12 hours or more, a standard mainly called 'forth by those who were raised on Halo, Killzone, and other FPS titles.  I won't lie; there will be people who will not like nor appreciate Resident Evil 5.  However, I can say that most in the gaming community will be satisfied by Capcom's latest installment, despite the discrepancies they will encounter in Resident Evil 5.  

As some of you may be aware, there has been a massive leak of Resident Evil 5 online, from videos to plot spoilers to even a pirated version(s) circling around the net.  Due to this, I've received word that I can divulge NDA restricted information at this time.  I will try to cut back on some major spoiler information out of respect for those who wish to go into the game's heavy plot with an open mind.  

The review may be released come Sunday instead, so look for it then.  

In the mean time, as the title suggests, this is the new Q&A session where you may ask away either questions you deemed too spoiler-heavy or to those I told to return, such as Robbins.  And yes, I can tell you who the bird lady is, and no, it is not a trifecta of penguins, though that would be a twist...

Here's the deal: You ask the questions, and I either answer them or answer with "I do not comment on rumors or specu..." oh wait, that's Microsoft.

This is all pretty self explanatory. You may ask any Resident Evil 5, or even some core Resident Evil canon (0, 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, 4), questions, and I will attempt to answer them at the best of my abilities.

I will respond in three of two ways:

1. I will answer the question and provide details that I'm allowed to divulge.  If there's more I could expand on by the time of the next session next Wednesday, I will request for you at the end to pose the question once again so I can give a more complete answer.

2. I will tell you to ask me next Wednesday during the next session, because it may be to NDA sensitive to discuss at the current time.

3. NDA Hammer.  There's no stopping it.

As some of you have already deduced, I have a review copy of Resident Evil 5 on Xbox 360 and my NDA allows me to post it (w/some new screens if I can get a new capture device in time) at 5:00 PM Central time.  There are a few things though, from questions that have appeared in both of the RE5 diaries released lately, that I believe obligate me to inform my fellow Gearheads before my review.  Now, this is strictly about GAMEPLAY.  I will not, nor can, reveal any unreleased story elements, chapters, enemies, unlockables, etc.  So this is rather spoiler-free.

Ladies and gentleman we have a demo! I'm downloading it now while I go classes...It only weighs in at 472 MB's. so be sure to give it a shot!

I played Resident Evil 4 on my laptop but the PC port was just down right broken so I wasn't even able to finish it. But I really liked what I played.

Anyone else downloading this demo?

I figured this would be an interesting discussion on New Year's Eve. We're on the cusp of the New Year and that means that the excellence of the gaming year 08 is officially history and we can start looking forward to 2009.

Course I just got my 360 back yesterday so I still have a lot of catching up with 2008 to do.  Hell, I haven't even firmly decided on my game of the year and won't until I get to play Left4Dead.  I'm hoping to get some Gearheads to play co-op with me during FFF this week.  That's my big aim.

As for 2009, it's an interesting year to be a Gearhead gamer.  Or even just a 360 gamer in general.  There doesn't seem to be that nuclear bomb of a release as there have been the last three years.  Yes, it has Halo Wars and a new Halo campaign in Halo: ODST, but I'm not sold on those yet.  It also has Resident Evil 5 coming.  I'm just not sure it has that killer exclusive unless maybe we see Alan Wake finally release.  I am excited about Halo Wars because I'm hoping that it will do for the RTS genre what the original Halo did for FPS on console and that is make it accessible and popular.

I'm wondering if some of the predictions about 2008 being the year of the PS3 was off by a year.  Yes, LittleBigPlanet is probably my most played game of 2008 right now (running neck and neck with NHL 09 for that honor), but there wasn't much else for the PS3 at least that I didn't play or want to play on the 360.  GTA 4 had exclusive content for the 360.  Fallout 3 DLC appears right now to be 360 exclusive.  L4D is a 360 exclusive and obviously Gears 2.  There is no doubt in my mind that 2008 was owned by the 360.

2009 is shaping up to look like a year where I'm going to be very glad that I own a PS3.  Killzone 2 is coming in February and by all accounts, it looks like it's going to be something pretty great.  inFamous and Heavy Rain are intriguing to me and my second favorite PS3 exclusive so far, Uncharted (the first being LBP), will be getting a sequel.  That doesn't even take into account God of War 3 which was largely the reason I bought a PS3 in the first place.  

All that being said, I think my most anticipated game of 2009 is the next installment of Call of Duty.  No first person shooter, IMO, has perfected the controls on that genre better than Infinity Ward's control scheme.  Call of Duty 4 was my GOTY in 2007 and I don't doubt that the next COD from IW will blow me away and I guarantee I will be buying it on my 360 as shooters just play better on the Xbox controller.  You know it will be released in November and it will be the best selling game of the year.  I still want to try the multiplayer for World at War, but there's just something intangible about what Infinity Ward does with that franchise that makes the developer special.

So let's hear it folks.  What is your most anticipated title for 2009?  Prototype?  Resident Evil 5?  Something else I haven't even mentioned?

So right now I'm playing the demo. I figured I would explain to those of you who would like to play it now instead of waiting how to do it.

Step one is to go here and download all five files.

Step two: Extract all of the files into a folder of your choosing

Step three: Once you extract the files you will get a folder called "contents" burn this folder onto a cd or dvd.

Step four: Put the cd into your 360. It should show up as "mixed media"

Step five: Navigate to your demos page on your 360 and the demo should show up there.

Step six: Play

If you need help with anything just ask me and I'll do my best to help you out.