Just a quick reminder to anyone who's been keen to check out the Xbox 360 demo for Resident Evil 5, which we reported a little while ago would only be up exclusively for a short while.

We've already pulled it down and had a bit of a run through, and can tell you this is one of the most spectacular looking next-gen games out there. Controls are indeed something of a difference of opinion, and even Resident Evil 4 veterans (such as myself) are likely to feel there could have been compromise made here in certain areas (at least allowing the right stick to swing completely around the character to take in the visuals). Whichever way you look at it though, this is still an intense outing, and one definitely worth checking out.

It's early days yet though, and while each play through of the demo levels might be short, there does seem to be serious potential here for typical Res Evil craziness in bosses, action, weapons and terror. If you grab the demo, make sure you let us know what you think.

Only available to Xbox Live Gold members at present.

*snore*

I'll be grabbing this and letting you know howz it.

So for anyone thats played it, what are these mysterious "Action Controls" like?

less "action" than I'd like.

It's more just a different combination of action buttons, so if you're used to a specific action being mapped to a specific button in another game, you can change it. But you're still forced to stand still and attack the enemy, which while I get has been done for tension because there are so many baddies, it just feels archaic now - especially after Dead Space. A free camera is something I think the game sorely needs as well.

I'm hooked already, but it's not the evolution the series needed...

I'll be checking this one out.

i have never played much other the other resident evil games but i am still pretty interested in it / will be checking this one out tonight

Is this any different to the japanese demo that was released a little while ago?

Had a few more goes - the default controller set-up I think is the best, it has a third-person camera (just didn't find it before) that works a lot better when being overrun in confined spaces. There's a balance, too. In Dead Space the crazy aliens just ran at you non-stop so you needed to be aiming and moving at the same time, constantly. Here, however, majority of the bad guys set up locked zombie barriers around you - they move and react slightly slower than you, meaning you have deft hand, but their number balances it out - plus it's just a hell of a lot creepier.

I'm really digging the melee moves and being able to quick-select your weapon without pausing the action (ala Resi 4) is a huge bonus.

Have I mentioned how disgustingly pretty this game is? 1080p on my 56" plasma is sex

but if it was an LCD it would've been forever lasting orgasmic.

But let's not go there.

Does it still have incredibly bad screen-tearing like the Japanese demo had? Despite that, yeah, it does look really really pretty.

There's a balance, too. In Dead Space the crazy aliens just ran at you non-stop so you needed to be aiming and moving at the same time, constantly. Here, however, majority of the bad guys set up locked zombie barriers around you - they move and react slightly slower than you, meaning you have deft hand, but their number balances it out

Sure, that's a balance, but it doesn't make it seem less dumb. Why should they stop sprinting at you when they get close? Why couldn't they just make them keep running while giving you the option to do the same? You can't even reload without stopping. I dunno, it didn't bother me so much in RE4, but it felt so incredibly out of place in this.

I dunno, different design philosophies I guess. Look how long it took them to change the Resi formula with 4.

I'm playing it a fair bit and I'm not really too worried about it anymore, I agree it's archaic and unwarrented, but passable because there seems to be a lot more the game will offer.

Screen-tearing - haven't really noticed it on my TV

Shinji Mikami is no longer working on the series, so he's not around to shake things up again like he did with RE4. Plus it's pretty rare to get two sequels in a row making major changes.