Looking at Midway's recent financial debacle, one can start to appreciate that handful of developers that have withstood the test of time- so to speak. With Resident Evil 5 due out in one month, and the reinvented Street Fighter releasing in only weeks, Capcom deserves to be mentioned. Having crafted some of the best series' to ever grace the console world, Capcom has become a fan-favorite- and rightfully so. Many of us can still remember dropping quarter after quarter into the bulky street fighter arcade machine, or screaming shrilly like a girl when a zombie shot headfirst through a window in Resident Evil. These two games (among many others) have helped to yield some of the greatest memories in gaming- if not in some people's lives. For me, it's the latter. However, regarding Resident Evil, it seems that Capcom has taken away the qualities that made the previous games so mesmerizing (in the eeriest of ways), and turned it into a mainstream, "over the shoulder", Ghost Recon wannabe.

Streets that used to be dark, gloomy, and display carnage and desolation are replaced with sun-lit African locations where creatures Capcom swears "aren't zombies" run on sandy streets, screaming a blood-curdling cry- a scythe in one muscular hand. Needless to say, Resident Evil no longer feels….well, like Resident Evil. The atmosphere has changed, and in an age where graphical processors can make you see the glint of sweat on a soldier's brow, atmosphere can mean everything. Spine-tingling scares and puzzles and scarce ammunition has been replaced with full-scale warzones and massive shoot-outs.

We live in an age where people don't want to think when playing a videogame. In a Halo-society, we want big guns, big maps, and a lot of spare time. There is nothing wrong with this- videogames were created for that sole purpose- but having to "think" is what made Resident Evil stand out on its own. It's a shame to see the once "cult-favorite" walk the path that so many others have, when originality is what made the series as great as we all know it to be.

Don't get me wrong, the change started with Resident Evil 4, and that won Game of the Year, and it deserved the honor. I'm sure Resident Evil 5 will share a similar fate- or so the newly released demo suggests. The new direction Resident Evil has taken by no means makes the series falter- the games are still great. That being said, it seems that Capcom has shrugged off its faithful in order to please the mainstream crowd that desires more Booms! And I believe Capcom knows this. Unfortunately, a CGI movie featuring old characters doesn't quite dress the wound.

Maybe I'm becoming a crybaby fanboy (the one thing I promised I wouldn't become), and perhaps I'm blowing this whole ordeal out of proportion, but I think not. If you are a real Resident Evil fan- those who can still remember the distinct growl of "S.T.A.R.S.!"- I'm sure you'll agree.

I played the Resident Evil 5 demo just recently with a friend of mine, on the new co-op mode (one welcome feature of the new way of things). We both continued to get slaughter by the swarms of creatures "that aren't zombies". After five or six futile attempts at survival, my friend shouted in anger, "We are Resident Evil veterans, man! Why can't we beat this!?" I laughed, almost loudly. The answer was simple.

This is no longer Resident Evil.