"The biohazard threat has not ended! Just when it seemed that the menace of Resident Evil had been destroyed, along comes a new terror to send shivers down player's spines. Chris Redfield, returning Resident Evil hero, has followed the path of the evil literally around the globe. After joining a new organisation, Chris heads to Africa where the latest bioterrorism threat is literally transforming the people and animals of the city into mindless, maddened creatures. Chris must take on the challenge of discovering the truth behind this evil plot. In Resident Evil 5, Capcom will teach players to fear the daylight as much as they have feared shadow in previous games.

Promising to revolutionise the series by delivering an unbelievable level of detail, realism and control, Resident Evil 5 is certain to bring new fans to the series."

I had a chance to sit down and play Resident Evil 5, Ben Lerougetel from Capcom was on hand to talk us through the game and also to answer any questions we may have.

The demo we were playing was the same one that was shown at The Tokyo Gameshow and we had a choice of two areas to play.

Resident Evil 5 follows the story of Chris Redfield (so you get to find out where he has been over the past few years), who has traveled to Africa, he is a member of the group called BSAA, Ben explained that something had occurred and Chris had been sent in to investigate by the BSAA, he is then met in Africa by Sheva, who is a member of the African BSAA and is there to assist Chris with language as well as assisting him to defeat the undead.

The levels we played briefly were set in daylight and looked very good. The first thing I noticed was that you now have two styles of control set ups, those of you who are familiar with Resident Evil 4 will know the first controller set up and this one I found a bit twitchy as I'm used to the traditional FPS set up, changing to the FPS set up I was able to control it much better.

This time around you are playing co-op, Sheva keeps very close to you and throws you ammunition and aid whenever you need it. This was explained that Sheva has been designed to be telepathic and will know exactly what you need, similarly you also can give her ammunition and aid when she needs it. Friendly fire was on, but although you cannot hurt her by firing at her anything explosive will hurt her. Whatever you pick up you have the choice whether to keep it for yourself or give it to Sheva. If you find yourself on the ground as I did a few times, Sheva will revive you, you can also revive Sheva and she will ask for help, by pressing the B button you can assist her. You can run using A. Although Sheva stays close to you at all times, she can also stand on top of buildings whilst you are on the ground and team work is used by you giving her a leg up, covering the area from above, while you are covering the ground.

The enemies that approached us came at us with knives and shovels and surrounded us. Sheva does a very good job of shooting them, but this time around you are working as a team, so when she shoots them you also take them down.

Ben went on to explain that the whole game can be played with an Xbox Live friend in co-op mode, basically taking the place of Sheva.

I asked if there was any chance that Resident Evil could be taken back to its roots some day with the original controller set ups and Ben explained that although certain areas of core gameplay still exist in Resident Evil 5 , gamers of today would not understand the aspects of the previous Resident Evil control set ups and Capcom have improved and presented Resident Evil in a new way appealing to more players, as you will see when you get a chance to play it.

Although at this present time Ben was not able to confirm any side stories such as Ada from Resident Evil 4, or any other multiplayer modes, he did not rule out that there wouldn't be any, so this will be something to look out for before and after the game has been released.

Resident Evil certainly looks very good and the introduction of daylight is a nice change from playing in the darkness. The two choices of controller set ups will be the best of both worlds allowing those who got used to them in Resident Evil 4 to carry on using that and those who are used to the now more traditional FPS set up to be able to just pick up and play. Co-Op will also be a great feature.

Resident Evil 5 will be released in March 2009.