Takeuchi stays quiet on Resi 5 rumours

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi dodged questions about co-operative gameplay and a cover system at Capcom's Las Vegas showcase last week.

A hastily retracted report prior to Captivate 08 claimed that Resi 5 would include drop-in online co-operative play and a cover system, but Takeuchi would only confirm the inclusion of a new female character - shown off in a new trailer released as the event embargo lifted.

Pushed on the control system, Takeuchi said it was "very similar to Resident Evil 4", with one "very, very big difference". "But we're not quite ready to talk about that just yet," he said, "so hold on and we'll be happy to tell you all about it." Asked whether it was a cover system, he said: "If I told you that now, you wouldn't have anything to look forward to at E3!"

Resi 5's producer did confirm though that the game would stick to Resident Evil's principle of not letting you fire at the same time as moving. "One of the things that distinguishes Resident Evil from other games is the sense of fear and foreboding, and we feel that system itself is one of the biggest differences between us and other first-person shooters and third-person shooters," he explained.

"If you were able to move around and run away from the enemies and shoot them while you're running, it would result in a game that's not the game we're trying to make. It is taking one ability away from the player, but we feel it results in a better game."

As for Chris Redfield's new female companion, we don't have a name yet, or any real details. All we see of her in the trailer is that she's wearing summery clothes, has dark skin and dark hair. She also speaks with an English accent. Previous reports described her as a mercenary, and she tells Chris she knows how to handle a gun.

During a presentation of the game, Takeuchi also said that development is currently "60 percent complete" and the final game will be over 20 hours long when it's finished.

Resident Evil 5 sends Chris Redfield off to Africa to investigate the origins of the T-virus, where he's inevitably overcome by lots of angry zombies wielding machetes. It all looks similar to Resident Evil 4, but in a good way, and we were able to watch one of Takeuchi's colleagues play through the village section seen in trailers during the show, although Capcom wasn't allowing hands-on. You can check out our report on all that in our Resident Evil 5 preview.

The full game's due out by the end of March 2009 on PS3 and 360.