An update on Resident Evil 5 has just come our way from the latest issue of one of our favorite Japanese magazines, Famitsu Xbox (soon to be Famitsu Xbox 360). The September issue of the magazine features a four page look at Resident Evil 5, and while the screenshots are old, the interview with producer Jun Takeuchi is new.

 

In the interview, Takeuchi reveals some juicy details on the visual side of the game. You may have noticed the particularly impressive shot of the main character aiming his gun at the screen. The character uses a whole lot of polygons, with modeling going down to the detail of each blade of hair that makes up his stubble.

 

The game's powerful visual engine will contribute to facial expressions. The game engine, in its current form, gives the developers the ability to set values for muscles throughout character faces, allowing for fine tuned facial expressions. Takeuchi notes that he's unsure if this will make it into the final game or not.

 

Capcom is working to make the game run at a smooth sixty frames per second, twice the frame rate of the GameCube Resident Evil 4. In making this move, Takeuchi's team felt that they would be able to express things that couldn't be expressed with thirty frames per second. He points to the increased framerate as evidence that the game will indeed have a strong action component.

 

Outside of visuals, we can expect real physics from the game. Takeuchi is hoping to make the world reactive to your actions, allowing you to break things by shooting them and topple things by kicking them.

 

For the complex visuals and physics that will go into the game, Famitsu Xbox asks Takeuchi if it's possible that the game will use middleware, such as the Unreal 3 engine. Takeuchi responds that his team is currently investigating such solutions. Takeuchi feels that, while many Japanese developers have spent time creating their own engines until now, this requires too much money and time.

 

This was touched upon in our original story on the game, but one area the development team is hoping to focus on with Resident Evil 5 is giving players a sense of the surrounding atmosphere through visuals. Heat and cold are key words for Resident Evil 5, Takeuchi reveals, with the game's visual engine being able to clearly express changes in temperatures. This focus on heat and cold came about as the development team considered things they wanted to do using high defintion output. Takeuchi feels that his team has been able to create a sense of atmosphere that was previously impossible through standard definition.

 

Finally, Takeuchi confirms that the game will follow along the lines of Resident Evil 4's gameplay system. This doesn't seem to indicate that the game will play exactly like Resident Evil 4, but that it will play closer to Resident Evil 4 than the original PlayStation games.

 

The Resident Evil 5 team is currently considering sharing the previous PlayStation Meeting and Xbox Summit Resident Evil 5 trailer with the public at the September Tokyo Game Show. We hope to hear more on the game then.

> IGN

A compliation of the Mana games.

Back at E3 Square Enix announced a new project titled "World of Mana," which at the time led gamers, publications, and the like to believe a MMORPG of some sort was in the works. Wrong! Last weekend at Square Enix Party 2005, we were given our first real information regarding Square's latest project. "World of Mana" is not a game, it is a complete revival of the project, similar to what Square Enix is doing with Final Fantasy VII. According to their official press pamphlet:

 

"Our staff are working hard to bring the world of Mana to everyone in various genres and platforms. Please look forward to the Mana series from now into the future."

 

While we don't have any additional information, we do have the project logo along with a screenshot of a house and some trees. GAF will make certain to report any details of new game(s) as they arise.

gamesarefun.com

A few interesting tidbits about the Xbox 360 were revealed at a recent campus party in Spain. The following list was highlighted over on the Team Xbox forums:

 

    * Square is developing multiple games (not just FFXI)

    * The internal fan will be variable—very quiet during movie playback

    * Controller can turn the system “ON”

    * Videochat will support 8-player minigames

    * HD cable will be included, plus component AV adaptor (dispelling all speculation)

    * Price & additional content will be revealed at a game conference in Liepzig, Germany (Aug 18th-21st)

Tons of pics

> Joystiq

Among the revelations at the two-day Square Party 2005 event were some details surrounding the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XII. The first news, which Square planned to make an official announcement about, despite it being projected on the huge walls surrounding the FFXII theater, is that the game will ship in Japan on March 16, 2006. That's pretty late for a game considering the localization on the game's storyline is 100% complete, according to a source within Square-Enix. The current logic is that Squenix is holding it back to avoid it locking horns, sales-wise, with Tetsuya Nomura's upcoming Kingdom Hearts II. FFXII is still coming out within the fiscal year, though, so sales will still count towards the company's annual revenue -- savvy, but tough for gamers waiting to see the Empire Strikes Back-meets-Final Fantasy themes in action.

 

The second revelation, and far more surprising of the two, is that FFXII director, Yasumi Matsuno, is no longer working on the game. The former Quest developer (Quest made games like Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle for the SNES and Sega Saturn) is the mastermind behind such brilliant games as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but is said to be temperamental. When part of the FFXII team was said to have left Square-Enix for Hironobu Sakaguchi's new development studio, Mist Walker, Matsuno was reported to have not shown up for work for a month until the crisis was resolved. In fact, we're not sure what Matsuno is working on now, and whether he was kicked off the team or if he voluntarily removed himself, although he is still said to be at Square. The RPG powerhouse is reported to have a replacement at the helm already, the choice of whom is likely to raise the eyebrows of many people who have been following the troubled chapter's evolution. As we learn more about this development we'll let you know.

www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3142452

**Update: The reason why Mr. Matsuno stopped working on the game was apparently due to a health reason and concern.