Resident Evil may not have been the first horror series ever made, but it's arguably the most well known. Since 1996, we've been killing zombies and getting the crap scared out of us, and we keep going back for more. I've personally loved every game in this series, with the fourth installment being one of my favorite games of all time.

In fact, Capcom kind of did their own version of this month's Musings theme --- As of Resident Evil 4, they've completely changed how the game is played. Instead of a confusing control scheme and semi-fixed camera angles, 4 implemented an over-the-shoulder viewpoint with an unbelievably accurate aiming system (especially on the Wii), and this same reinvention of the game's mechanics seems to be carrying over to Resident Evil 5.

This new control scheme is, in my opinion, a near-perfect representation of how an action game should be played --- If every action game released from this point on would have the same controls as RE 4, I'd be a happy man. However, just because a few improvements were made doesn't mean the series is perfect, and I thought of a few ways it can be improved, so lets take a look.

1. STRAFING: Strafing has never once been a part of the Resident Evil series from what I can remember. In the earlier games I don't think it was needed, but it became one of the main flaws of 4, and I haven't seen any footage of strafing being present in 5. While I was able to get through 4 without a problem, strafing would have made a few parts a little easier. In fact, I can't think of a single time I've ever used the second joystick to manually mess with the camera, leaving me with kind of a "wasted function" feeling with that part of the control scheme.




2. ZOMBIES: Maybe I should actually say lack of zombies... What happened to them? When I played through 4, I figured that they were just using the alternate story and setting as a setup for the fifth installment. However, there have been no zombies in the trailers and game play videos of 5, either. When are we gonna get back to the meat of the story? We've seen Wesker in 4, and Umbrella was mentioned a couple times as well, so everything we need for a zombie revival is there... We just need it to happen now.

3. ITEM STORAGE: I honestly don't consider this to be a serious gripe, but I thought I'd list it anyway. In the original RE games, you could only carry a few items. This was annoying at times, but it did make the game more realistic. Then we got the attaché case in RE 4, which added more depth to the way items were stored and carried. But where did Leon put the case when he was done with it? You open the item menu, see the attaché case, and even purchase bigger case sizes from the creepy merchant, and yet you never actually see the outside of the case. Does he store it in one of his magical, bottomless pockets? I'd love it if they actually showed Chris Redfield in 5 take out a case, mess with its contents, and then bring it with him or something, kinda like the awesome inventory system in the new Alone in the Dark. I mean, it's not like carrying a ton of items ruins the game --- Just look at stuff like Metal Gear Solid. Unbelievable game, but you could carry more than humanly possible at any given time. I'm just nitpicking with this one, but it's something to think about.

So that's it. I love Resident Evil, but a couple tiny tweaks can make it much better, even if they're just detail things. What do you all think?