A while back Capcom held a special event for fans to try out Resident Evil 5 and the response was so good that they decided to hold a little RE5 community party at Sony’s HQ over the weekend. Thanks to the always awesome CTZ, Wardrox and I were able to attend this swanky invite only shin-dig and see what all the fuss is about.

I'm not going to say much about the game here (I'll try and do another post on that soon and Wardrox has beaten me to it) but I will say that the controls are superb and the game is bloody brilliant. What I will talk about is the actual event which was very chilled out. There were no NDAs to sign, no windy corridors to navigate, no smoke and mirrors or blindfolds, just the game, some food and good times. Speaking of the game, the version we played was very clearly labeled on the title screen as "review copy." We found this to be a little odd as the game was playing in SD through a big HD TV and some textures were clearly not polished/finished and this was increasingly apparent in the cut-scenes. I always thought that review copies were the same as the retail copies except maybe missing a few features such as online multiplayer. Wardrox and I both agreed that the demo on Xbox live/PSN looked better but hell the game is still ace.

Anyways, back to the event. The day started off great. After meeting up with Wardrox we ventured to Sony HQ and as soon as we entered the building and signed our names in the guest book we were greeted by the Capcom community manager Chiara who was really friendly and she addressed us as "the dtoiders." I'm not sure what she was expecting from us but I really liked the fact that she refers to descructoid as dtoid. In hindsight maybe I should have dressed up as a shark to honor the great CTZ. We were then given some funky zombie themed name-tags and ushered into a room around the corner where about a dozen PS3s were set up and just parked out arses down and got stuck into the game.


(photo taken from gameical.com)

I think we got to the part just before the first level of the demo before we were told that it was lunch time! Coming out of the room and turning the other corner led us straight to the cafeteria and since this was a Resident Evil event the menu had a zombie theme running through it. We had the delicious choice of severed fingers (Ribs), satayed entrails (chicken satays), road kill pizza (you would have thought that this had meat on it but it was vegetable pizza), mashed zombie brains (strawberries and cream thingy) and gingerbread men covered in adorable chocolate stitches.


(photo taken from gameical.com)

Now I could write a whole blog about how good the food was. I kind of imagine that the food at any kind of event where it's free, sort of tastes like 3 week old school microwave dinners run through a dead mans pants but the food here was incredible. It was so good that Wardrox and I even contemplated just staying there and eating all the food and taking some home. I mean RE5 comes out in 2 weeks but when will be able to eat this food in Sony HQ again? Those Sony boys really know how to cook up a feast!

We eventually had our fill and made our way back to play some more RE5 only to find a flashing red power light on the PS3 we were playing on. Yes, our triple had died. LOLOLOL but the Xbox event was the last one, it should have happened there LOL. So in the end we hijacked another unused console and carried on from where that game was paused. Luckily for us it was only a little bit further ahead than we were anyway so it all worked out. I think by the end of the session we survived one co-op QTE and got to about halfway through the second chapter. Typically we had to stop just before an awesome section on a jeep. It seems that this time the event was all about playing the game and as a result there was no Q&A session like last time. I really wanted to know if we'd ever see another Resident Evil Outbreak.

Capcom were also running a competition for the "best zombie impression." I think Wardrox was a bit hesitant since he wasn't wearing a hoodie to do his famous hunter impression but he made a very convincing zombie... I think that's a compliment right? Luckily for me I have no problem of acting like a tit to win stuff. If I've learned anything from this event it's that if you want to do a good zombie impression just lie on the floor and try to grab people's legs and if possible claw at their crotch. So yay serious win is serious!

Here's what I won in picture form!


A Resident Evil 5 bag.


A mini Chris Redfield Figurine


A 1gb Resident Evil 5 memory stick (took me a while to figure out what it was! The usb bit folds out to make it look a bit like a key)


A signed promo photo of Chris and Sheva signed by the two producers Jun Takeuchi and Masachika Kawata (apparently only 30 of these exist in the whole wide world!)

A free copy of the game when it comes out


Oh and here is the name tag we were given

The best part was when the Capcom community manager was announcing the winner she said "the winner just had to be a Dtoider."

Hells Yes we have a reputation of some kind!

All in all this was a fucking phenomenal day. I'd like to thank Capcom for organizing the event and being really super nice people, Sony for being really welcoming and overly accommodating throughout the day (they even made us tea and coffee at the end of the event!), CTZ for getting me into the event and just kicking so much arse and Wardrox for not getting me killed and not staring at my/Sheva's sweater balloons all day.

<3 you Destructoid