I pre-ordered this game. I figured I owed RE4 that much.  It is after all my favorite game of all time, even though I am no Resident Evil fanboy.  Sure, I have them all, even the game.com version, but I've never enjoyed them.  At least until RE4.

RE4.  Three sylables that we hard core gamers have adopted as a part of our language. RE4.

Are- Eee- Four.  Three sylable that mean so much.

So RE FIVE comes along and we expect so much, not pausing to notice that Mikami had nothing at all to do with it.  It has to be better right?

My mistake was playing it co-op split-screen the first two times I tried it.  Then I tried it a third time and resigned it to the shelf of infamy. Ridiculous camera.  Nuts.

I recently read Robio's post about how it was just not taking with him, and related with it.  It is a difficult game. I hated it.  The controls are "wrong" by first or third person standards.  Why should I have to stop to look around?  Why after arming a new weapon should my orientation be shifted?  Why after a cutscene is my orientation changed?  All of this matters greatly in the first hour of the game, none of it matters after that.  After that, all you know is that you have a weapon, usually with limited ammo, in your sweaty hand and you have a very limted number of options available to you.  Just as you would inthe real world.

Which is the draw of Resident Evil 5.  Yes, you are limited in what you can do.  Yes, your actions seem awkward.  Yes, you die a lot. Yes, this is fucking shitty and godamnwhycan'tI justfuckingkillthisguy... which is why it is great.  That is what it would be like if a random dude invaded your bedroom at night and you woke up with no idea how to fight back.

I'm loving it.  Change the control scheme to "B", take a breath and change Sheva's actions to "Cover" and after the first HORRIBLE level enjoy the game for what it is -- more levels of RE4, slightly less well thought out. Not bad, but still great.