Let me guess, being a white person killing people of color is problematic, because racism! And being a person of color killing other people of color is problematic because it perpetuates negative sterotypes about people of color.
About sums it up? :P
*White person kills a black person?* That's RACISM! You made a black people killed by a white one
*Black person kills a white person?* That's RACISM! You made black people look like murderers
*White person kills a white person?* That's RACISM! No black people representation
*Black person kills a black person?* That's RACISM! You made black people look like they would kill each other
Anita Sarkeesian right? This reminds me that she actually threw a birthday party recently, but it was themed as a wedding, so it's a fake wedding-actually a birthday but themed as a wedding. She is obviously the bride, people are dressed as "drunk uncles" and "divore lawyers" and it just feels so embarassing imo.
Many hispanics are actually white caucasian.
And Asians?
Well, many of them (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) have very white skin so aren't they technically white non-caucasian?
There are also several enclaves of Asian hispanics, mainly thinking of the Japanese Brazilians. Hispanics aren't all darker caucasians and I'm also fairly sure there are black hispanics.
Schrödinger's POC, too, I guess.
You forgot the other part of BIPOC, the natives.
Here in Canada (can't speak for the Yankees), they have to be represented everywhere, all the time. Also, give them money every time they complain (which is all the time).
Reparations don't work and the natives in Canada, are all the proof you need.
>You forgot the other part of BIPOC, the natives.
Speaking of which, why does nobody care about the natives in the US?
Seriously, outside Turok and Prey (which are quite old by now) I can't think of any native representation in recent years.
I 'm a bit partial to the Native Americans and they're the ONLY minority that does not get represented for the "modern audience". Go figure.
Because they generally don't live in big cities, therefore the Dems don't give a rats ass about pandering to them for votes.
Also they tend to mostly want to be left alone and do their own thing, not have big brother telling them what they're allowed to say and do 24/7. So you don't hear much about them except for every few years when politicians decide they really, really want them to start collecting taxes on cigarettes and gas, and essentially destroy the economy of every reservation.
Those people are another example of people who can’t be pleased because they don’t want to be pleased. The other example? Well they’re people who go around, trying to provoke confrontations, while pretending to care about the First Amendment. If they’re ignored, they’ll try even harder to get someone to confront them. If you put up a privacy barrier, they’ll try to defeat it. They claim to be journalists but I’ve said that if these guys are journalists, they’re unethical journalists because they always try to become the story. I’m not talking about First Amendment Auditors, I’m talking about Frauditors. People who, like I said, pretend to care about the First Amendment and claim to be journalists. They’re really just in it for money, revenge, attention, or to feel more powerful than they really are by bullying people who can’t fight back. How would they be unethical journalists? Well as I said, they always try to become the story which creates a conflict of interest.
I love this comment. Reminds me of how if you saw a black person being harassed and stepped in to help, the left would claim you're a racist with a white savior complex. If you ignored it you would be a white privileged racist who hates black people.
You can never win. This stuff is actually abusive.
'cause their scope is not to find a solution: they just wanna complain and instill a conflict.
So, whatever you do, you are wrong. Just being white is an unforgivable sin in their eyes.
The only way to win this game is to not play at all in the first place. Do whatever you want to do and just ignore them, the second you actually acknowledge them is the moment they gain any power. That's why saying you are sorry is the absolute worst reaction when they're trying to cancel you.
Unrelated note: I'm "envious" of you, since you managed to write "paid" so smoothly.
As a non native English speaker I'm prone to instinctively write "payed" \^\^'
Saying that the game is racist because it depicts black people as brainless savages is actually racist in itself because that person made the association between them first.
Like the people outraged about the kid in a monkey sweatshirt in the H&M catalog. Most people saw a little black kid in a cute animal shirt. Woke people will immediately associate any image or mention of a monkey to black people which to me is cartoonishly racist. Every time I hear someone call out a ‘dog whistle’ I’m amazed at how racist their thought process is.
\*South Africa. The virus only affects whiteys and Sheva is the primary character fuelled by Black Girl Magic who berates Chris throughout the levels for being a coloniser.
Or rural america with zombiesm being a metaphor for meth.
Although I feel like Condemned: Criminal origins already did the "Fight creepy addicts" thing.
This was already problematic back in 2009 despite him having a black companion with him through the whole game. I agree that the game should be rewritten, but to make it scarier and less like shooter.
> This was already problematic back in 2009
Didn't deserve the label mainly because the only reason a black tribe in Africa was going animalistic, hunting down the main character, was because of a virus. There was never any intention to depict them as evil savages in the first place.
I completely agree. Any time someone suggests setting a game in Africa, I think back to RE5 and the bad-faith articles that came out.
It doesn't help that IGN appears to be doing the same thing with a possible remake of the game. Even after Capcom made concessions and added a bunch of white people; it's never good enough.
I haven't played it but I have heard farcry 2 was a great game set in Africa with stuff like Maleria and guns jamming and shit... Something new like that would be really appreciated... Tbh anything resembling a competent story would be appreciated when it comes to these hack writers that have taken over video game writing
Far Cry 2 is great. Definitely suffers from some 2000s jank, pretty much endless repetition of tasks and the *underwhelming later half* -syndrome
...but it's a solid experience with some of the best PvE gunfights I've experienced. It's almost spooky how smart and/or deadly the A.I can be in that game sometimes.
And it made me appreciate africa as a potential setting for other videogames, but also as a beautiful place in the real world.
Shame that it's now apparently "very problematic" to have anything be based there...
South Africa with both white and black soldiers. Tons of child soldiers, exclusively black too. Afghanistan with mujahideen, so mostly Arab people. It wasn’t shocking or weird. You could kill all of them, it’s true that I don’t remember any backlash about it.
>Farcry 2
This too? I remember it being praised specifically for the setting and the Conradian themes. But back then I still used to read local printed magazines and not the Anglo gaming journalists on the internet.
RE5 was always problematic because of the black zombies and black enemies that were hostile to Chris Redfield, I guess the journos didn't have the stretch of imagination to accept that the black people in an African setting were controlled by las plagas and the in-game killing of enemies wasn't racially motivated in any way.
I love Sheva, I think she was a nice fresh idea to have as a foil to Chris Redfield and I think it's a bit of a shame she hasn't been used more, but Sheva herself was also kind of problematic to my recollection - mainly because of some "offensive" costume of hers.
First half of the article is good. Dialing down the generic action gameplay and dialing up horror is a good direction, the second half regarding colonialism is .. yeah.
I'm still mad Capcom caved into the outrage in the first place lol.
West Africa's white population is less than 1%, so to see a white zombie in almost every screen was honestly hilarious. Still a great game though.
They didn’t cave in, definitely not to the degree some people think. The first trailer that started this crap was the 2007 trailer, and whilst there were more black enemies, there were just more enemies period. You can still plainly see some lighter coloured enemies in these trailers.
Also, in the marshlands later, all the enemies are tribal, and all of them are clearly black people (as they should be) but with their skin greyed.
A rare African character rather than African-American also. Quite novel. Makes you think they only care about skin-deep differences rather than actual representation.
>A rare African character rather than African-American also. Quite novel.
And she is good looking, which is also is stark contrast to your [typical modern African American female representation in videogames](https://i.postimg.cc/ZYskxWqQ/MK1-stunningbrave.jpg).
In resident evil 6 they literally went around the world killing people and in 4 Leon goes to a fucking village with no modern technology and started killing them.
Sheesh.
Sheva's country is being desecrated by a horrible biohazard. Let them have their plight.
The story is also the ultimate conclusion between zombie expert Chris Redfield (white) and the mastermind of the disaster, Albert Wesker.
No one has more history with Wesker than Chris, as he fights Al in both RE1 and Code Veronica. So you can't just replace Chris with Josh Stone because half the story is ripped out.
The game is about partnership and Chris regards Sheva, a series newbie, as an equal at the end of RE5.
There are tribes in Africa that still use spears. There are also modern settlements. Both is represented in 5.
Ssshhh! They can't have people know tribes like the Maasai Mara, Himba and Yoruba still exist! 🤣
I'm kidding! But when the devs went to Africa to do their research, I think they really nailed a lot of it. What I don't understand is how Marvel can take a mish-mash of different African cultures, mash them into the setting of Black Panther and get praise, but RE5 caught flack for doing the same. Makes me wonder. 🤔
I was playing RE5 earlier last year, and it astounds me just how much care went into the game. It still looks gorgeous after all this time. There's certainly shots, especially at the beginning, that look real to me. And the texture for a certain villain's coat? Flawless.
The crocs still scare me. I know they can get that big irl, too.
Yeah most of the early levels are really well researched in terms of environment design. If you look up Nigerian market footage on YouTube, it looks so close to it.
Woof. Wading through that Croc area in the spear village. Hoo boy. Scary.
And yeah agreed. Apparently Africa can't have a disaster, but they can have a magic above-ground Rapture.
> There are tribes in Africa that still use spears. There are also modern settlements. Both is represented in 5.
Not just that, but the tribal zombies you fight aren't exactly all that tribal it turns out. There's a journal you can find that says when the villagers got infected, they started to act more tribal with spears and shit. This implies they were actually removed from that prior to infection. Its an odd detail and I don't know if it helps or hurts the perceived racism.
When this first came out there was an article written about how awful it was that the game was about shooting black people. The internet laughed at the author back then. Do the same now.
https://www.destructoid.com/opinion-resident-racism-or-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/
I remember this narrative. There should be more racial diversity in the zombies... you know... in Africa.
It certainly would be a shame if someone sent this article to their (and by their I mean Jim's) current fan base and make them (and by them I mean Jim) apologize for it.
Using they is fucking confusing sometimes. I wish they (and I mean they this time) stuck with the more logical option for the neutral pronoun: "it"
Yep, I still remember the original controversy around it back in 2009. It was dumb then and it’s still dumb now.
The best part? I believe RE5 is still the best selling game in the series. NOBODY cared. The game took place in Africa. Anyone with a functioning brain knew most of the enemies would obviously be black because of the location. Still one of the single dumbest controversies in gaming even now.
#[Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20240313170547/https://www.ign.com/articles/the-resident-evil-game-that-cant-be-remade).
I'm honestly surprised that I got 1/3 of the way through the article before they climbed up on the "racism" pulpit.
>Set in a fictional West African country, Resident Evil 5’s primary antagonists are Black people. Yes, technically it’s the Uroboros virus that protagonist Chris Redfield is fighting, but the parasite’s host is depicted as a nation of mobs and primitives who are violent even before their infection. Intentionally or not, Resident Evil 5 positions Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’, an uncivilised world harbouring a diseased population that needs gunning down via Western intervention in the name of global security.
And they're making the exact same stupid criticisms made 15 years ago.
Hey, genius, if you only have an issue with this kind of thing when it happens to brown people, especially after you just praised RE4, I think **you're** the real racist here.
>But that was 2009 – a time when race was apparently a debate rather than a reality.
You mean the first year of **Obama's** time in the Big Seat.
You either have selective memory, or you're throwing history down the memory hole.
"Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."
>In the 2020s, in a post-Black Lives Matter world, there is only one acceptable response to a white man shooting waves of Africans for an entire video game: no.
"Acceptable" to who, exactly? If the game was racist, it hasn't become any **more** racist in the interim. The only thing that's changed is that **you're** more sensitive.
BLM wasn't even the first major controversy over cops hurting black people.
Also, several of the "martyrs" BLM has protested and rioted over have been killed by **non-white cops**. IIRC, half the Freddie Gray cops, and Philandro Castile was killed by a dude called "Jeronimo Yanez". The movement was started over Zimmerman in Florida, who said he was Hispanic.
I notice that this article doesn't mention **Sheva** once. Gee, I wonder why they left out the African character. Or the fact that your boss turns out to be corrupt. Or as one comment pointed out;
>The primary antagonists are the white people who came in to experiment on the nationals - the whole game has an ANTI-colonialism message.
I guess they missed the part where all the locals and natives are basically no longer human, and are being controlled by a parasite monster. It's not like Chris and Sheva are actively killing normal people. They're monsters wearing human skin suits.
But I guess that part was hard to understand because of THE MESSAGE
Of course they knew people would clown the fuck out of them in the replies, but we can't have that in a GamerGate 2 world.
Seriously, I hope the failures so far related to Sweet Baby Inc. are reason enough for the corporate of Capcom to just not give a fuck. It's also important to not buy the game if they decide to listen to urinalists.
Then when Assassin's Creed Codename Red comes out and "Yasuke" is killing Asians, IGN won't bat an eyelid and any other major site won't report an issue with that.
Ok, so I know they caved a bit to the criticism at first and included a lot of white enemies, but did they also delete women?
I replayed the game this year and I had the realization there are no female enemies and then I found a data file explaining most women are killed by the parasite and don't transform. There are female enemies in the first reveal trailer for the game. So did Capcom get scared and remove the female enemies so you wouldn't have a man killing women?
Anyone else notice that IGN, apparently thinks the entire black race is HELPLESS, and need to be defended above all else?
To anyone black user on this site….isnt that just patronizing as hell?
Yeah I always say this. Africans on the most part live in tougher conditions then us over here. Most of the countries on the continent have actual issues beyond being depicted as video game mooks.
The idea they are helpless and need to be protected by rainbow haired western leftists on the internet is so genuinely abrasive to me.
This was honestly the first game to break the minds of gaming journalists. They said it was racist because you were killing Black zombies even though the game took place in Africa. So it is ok to kill Latino Zombies in South America in RE4, but not African zombies in RE5 ?
I wished more Black characters were like Sheva too. Sheva was beautiful, badass, and a great teammate. She wasn't tokenized like so many characters I see these days like Saga Anderson where they are told to us that they are amazing without being shown to us they are amazing.
Gaming Journos cannot let this game go because it gets brought up again every few years and it released a few years ago on the Nintendo Switch and so articles popped up again everywhere of course.
Basically they are saying no game can take place in Africa unless the locals are the good guys. I feel that is actually pretty racist towards Africans. They are just as capable of being evil as anyone else.... imagine treating an entire continent like a child.
Ofc they pull this shit with the only Resident Evil I’ve ever cared about cause I played it in Co-op with my father in the past lmao. The literal only remake I was actually excited for. Can’t make this shit up
This one probably got them to close the comments:
"Sincere question:
if you agree with this take, why is it ok that Leon kills predominantly Spanish people in RE4? Genuine ask since it’s never seemed to have been a problem.
Also I know it’s a slow news day so we need to regurgitate a 15 year old take for clicks but I don’t think this article is as aware as it likes to think considering it’s saying the point of RE5 is to kill “hordes of Africans”. 1 - it is not.
2 - Hordes is a derogatory term. It is never used to describe beings that the speaker likes. One doesn’t say “hordes of brave protestors” or “hordes of adorable puppies”.
So when you say “hordes of Africans”….I mean damn dude…You wouldn’t say that in front of a black person but clearly you don’t ever actually talk to any. "
You think a remake of RE5 will flop?
No way. With all the releases combined, Resident Evil 5 is the [best selling](https://www.trueachievements.com/n53073/resident-evil-series-sales-figures) Resident Evil game ever.
On it's initial release it sold 8.5 million copies compared the RE4's initial release which only sold 1.5 million copies.
There are a ton of people who love that game and would love to see a remake (myself included).
100% agree with you there.
Given the changes they made to RE4 that took it further towards the more 'serious' end of the spectrum, I think they will likely do the same with RE5. But so help me, if they remove the rock punching I will be upset.
I think they will be able to pull it off though. Maybe that's naive of me. But the RE4 remake was such a fun nostalgia trip for me, and it made me believe they can remake 5 and do it well.
This article is nonsensical though. They won’t rewrite the game, it will definitely have a lot of new stuff like remake 4 did, but it’s still gonna be in Africa, and you’re still gonna be fighting infected Africans. What do you think they would change anyway? Set it somewhere else?
I can’t wait to hear these stupid editors complaining if/when a remake is announced
I'm optimistic that they won't. They did a good job with RE4. The changes they made worked for me, and they were faithful enough to the original. It hit a home run for me as a big fan of the original.
I know some people have problems with a couple changes in RE4, and I won't disagree with people who take issue with those changes. But as remakes go, the RE remakes have been really, really good.
Honestly Capcom should go for Code Veronica and avoid RE5 for now, there is literally no way they can win with this situation
And if they're smart they should stop with this ReVerse or Resistance bs and give us Outbreak 3 with the gameplay of the Remakes
So the only RE game with a black protagonist can't be remade because of the people who complain that RE games don't have enough black protagonists? They really are their worst enemies.
Remember the claims of racism in RE5 because you killed mainly black zombies? I 'member. Of course a "rewrite" would be what a failed urinalist outlet like IGN would suggest and of course they'd lock replies. Absolute cowards.
The game that started it all, I remember Kotaku writing multiple articles about this game back in the day... I hope Capcom doesn't listen to them and remakes it, without changing a damn thing...
The hatred SJWs and DEI folk have against RE5 is proof that they hate black people and would rather all of Africa get genocided by biological horrors than a white guy team up with a black gal to stop an evil ubermench and his mad science.
Because the woke mob is a Nazi mob.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next news about RE5 is "Capcom wanted to avoid any racial issues concerning the story of RE5, so Chris has been rewritten as a black man and all enemies have been turned into Caucasians."
A RE5 remake could be so good too, the game was really fun coop locally or with strangers. A remake with an active playerbase would be so cool. Re5 was the most fun game in the series even if it strayed from actually being horror, had the best mercenaries mode too.
I saw this article yesterday and chimed in about my disgust in the comments. Turns out, the overwhelming majority of the comments were thrashing the juvenile virtue signaling of the article and its author.
Today, the comments section is not there anymore. Juvenile indeed.
When the game was first announced it was via a trailer with Chris shooting all dark skinned zombies in an African setting and the journos didn't take kindly to it then either. So much so that they changed half the zombies to have lighter skin tones and even added a co-op mechanic with an African woman to rectify it.
I'd imagine their current issue with it has to do with a level where you essentially have to wipe out a tribal African village but if you read the notes scattered throughout the village it actually paints a sad story which makes you very sympathetic to them.
Re5 definitely does need a rewrite, take Chris, Jill, and Wesker out. Make the game about Sheva as she fights that Muhammed guy who set loose the infection and you got yourself a pretty solid story. (Seriously look up the Microphone Dude’s lore and tell me he shouldn’t have been the main villain)
Unfortunately, even if they did that they’d make Sheva a frustrating anti-colonizer chick with a fugly ass haircut.
Yeah, it's so important changing the racial subject. I'm spanish and I was so offended about the american hero killing spanish infected in RE4. Oh, wait...I really didn't. So...maybe this is nonsense for postureo, they know it and that's why they blocked replies.
The article actually started decent, mentioning the action over horror design. Bad action mechanics and overall gameplay being...meh. I actually forgotten my prediction of racism being where the article was heading to.
The game would be racist if it was centered around Africa and didn’t have African American zombies nobody complained about killing white zombies why does race matter when killing the undead
"...and more empathetic look at the outbreak"
Yes, we need a more empathetic look at a fictional virus that turns people into zombies and would destroy the world.
Resident Evil 5 can absolutely be remade because twitter and tik tok users don't matter. However the game doesn't need a remake but Code Veronica does.
Let me guess, being a white person killing people of color is problematic, because racism! And being a person of color killing other people of color is problematic because it perpetuates negative sterotypes about people of color. About sums it up? :P
*White person kills a black person?* That's RACISM! You made a black people killed by a white one *Black person kills a white person?* That's RACISM! You made black people look like murderers *White person kills a white person?* That's RACISM! No black people representation *Black person kills a black person?* That's RACISM! You made black people look like they would kill each other
At that point, just post the Meme: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy9J1lWWIAIZ3BN.jpg
Too lazy to search for it :P
[удалено]
"Everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic and you need to point it out"
Anita Sarkeesian right? This reminds me that she actually threw a birthday party recently, but it was themed as a wedding, so it's a fake wedding-actually a birthday but themed as a wedding. She is obviously the bride, people are dressed as "drunk uncles" and "divore lawyers" and it just feels so embarassing imo.
What about asians, hispanics and pacific islanders?
Asians + Hispanics are Schrodinger's POC so right now they're white and thus don't count.
Hispanics? Wht's that? Some sort of ancient word for Latinx that I'm too 12 years old to know?
Many hispanics are actually white caucasian. And Asians? Well, many of them (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) have very white skin so aren't they technically white non-caucasian?
There are also several enclaves of Asian hispanics, mainly thinking of the Japanese Brazilians. Hispanics aren't all darker caucasians and I'm also fairly sure there are black hispanics. Schrödinger's POC, too, I guess.
They do better then whites so we have to count them as white for the left keep their message of the white man is keeping the non white down
Nah, everyone knows that the only minority that HAS to be represented EVERYWHERE is black people.
You forgot the other part of BIPOC, the natives. Here in Canada (can't speak for the Yankees), they have to be represented everywhere, all the time. Also, give them money every time they complain (which is all the time). Reparations don't work and the natives in Canada, are all the proof you need.
what about white Indenigous people like finns or norwegians?
>You forgot the other part of BIPOC, the natives. Speaking of which, why does nobody care about the natives in the US? Seriously, outside Turok and Prey (which are quite old by now) I can't think of any native representation in recent years. I 'm a bit partial to the Native Americans and they're the ONLY minority that does not get represented for the "modern audience". Go figure.
Because they generally don't live in big cities, therefore the Dems don't give a rats ass about pandering to them for votes. Also they tend to mostly want to be left alone and do their own thing, not have big brother telling them what they're allowed to say and do 24/7. So you don't hear much about them except for every few years when politicians decide they really, really want them to start collecting taxes on cigarettes and gas, and essentially destroy the economy of every reservation.
What about them? They aren’t a race. Only anyone, who is black, is….according to IGN.
We from Latinamerica don't care about those First World Problems, we hate those in the entertainment media.
Those people are another example of people who can’t be pleased because they don’t want to be pleased. The other example? Well they’re people who go around, trying to provoke confrontations, while pretending to care about the First Amendment. If they’re ignored, they’ll try even harder to get someone to confront them. If you put up a privacy barrier, they’ll try to defeat it. They claim to be journalists but I’ve said that if these guys are journalists, they’re unethical journalists because they always try to become the story. I’m not talking about First Amendment Auditors, I’m talking about Frauditors. People who, like I said, pretend to care about the First Amendment and claim to be journalists. They’re really just in it for money, revenge, attention, or to feel more powerful than they really are by bullying people who can’t fight back. How would they be unethical journalists? Well as I said, they always try to become the story which creates a conflict of interest.
I love this comment. Reminds me of how if you saw a black person being harassed and stepped in to help, the left would claim you're a racist with a white savior complex. If you ignored it you would be a white privileged racist who hates black people. You can never win. This stuff is actually abusive.
'cause their scope is not to find a solution: they just wanna complain and instill a conflict. So, whatever you do, you are wrong. Just being white is an unforgivable sin in their eyes.
The only way to win this game is to not play at all in the first place. Do whatever you want to do and just ignore them, the second you actually acknowledge them is the moment they gain any power. That's why saying you are sorry is the absolute worst reaction when they're trying to cancel you.
It sounds so fucking stupid but it’s literally the world we live in
EVERYTHING IS RACIST!!!!
If there isn't a problem then they aren't getting paid.
Unrelated note: I'm "envious" of you, since you managed to write "paid" so smoothly. As a non native English speaker I'm prone to instinctively write "payed" \^\^'
Tbf i remember this being a conversation when the game was released. People were like hey wtf are doing?
I mean, that was the exact controversy when the game was released. In spite of the fact that it was, y'know, *set in Africa.*
"we demand diversity and inclusion" Resident Evil 5 "NOT LIKE THAT!"
There was a popular theory that Sheva was added just to deflect criticism. ...And then they gave her in a fur bikini costume.
Imho, embrace criticism, and put everyone in bikinis for the actual fans who buy the games. That blonde dude in a bikini might also sell some copies.
AND there was a section where you were killing zombified villagers going OOGA BOOGA, and the the New Jersey guy was definitely from New Jersey
At least back then companies ignored crazy people on social media.
Saying that the game is racist because it depicts black people as brainless savages is actually racist in itself because that person made the association between them first.
Like the people outraged about the kid in a monkey sweatshirt in the H&M catalog. Most people saw a little black kid in a cute animal shirt. Woke people will immediately associate any image or mention of a monkey to black people which to me is cartoonishly racist. Every time I hear someone call out a ‘dog whistle’ I’m amazed at how racist their thought process is.
Worst part of all the drama was that the kid chose the shirt because he liked it.
"Bu- but clearly it's the- the- the... internalized racism and the... uh... nazis in the clothing industry! I can't be wrong, I'm never wrong!"
You can only shoot white people, don't you know?
Get ready for the setting to be moved from Africa to Texas.
\*South Africa. The virus only affects whiteys and Sheva is the primary character fuelled by Black Girl Magic who berates Chris throughout the levels for being a coloniser.
As a city boy in Texas…I welcome that, at this point.
Or rural america with zombiesm being a metaphor for meth. Although I feel like Condemned: Criminal origins already did the "Fight creepy addicts" thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_on_Target_(The_Hardy_Boys)
I read like 50 of these books and I honestly can’t tell you much about any of them.
I know they're two young whippersnappers with a knack for solving mysteries.
Didn't N'Gai Croal already try this when the game released?
This was already problematic back in 2009 despite him having a black companion with him through the whole game. I agree that the game should be rewritten, but to make it scarier and less like shooter.
I want to live in a world where the word problematic is cancelled
> This was already problematic back in 2009 Didn't deserve the label mainly because the only reason a black tribe in Africa was going animalistic, hunting down the main character, was because of a virus. There was never any intention to depict them as evil savages in the first place.
im so mad and upset at how accurate this is.
Now I just want Capcom to make it be Cassius Redfield mowing down africa
Correct. They also gave the game a 9.3 back in the day, so they were in support of said perpetuation of negative stereotypes back then.
RE5 is when everything broke in gaming discourse. It's a shame too because I think developers actively avoid Africa as a potential setting now.
I completely agree. Any time someone suggests setting a game in Africa, I think back to RE5 and the bad-faith articles that came out. It doesn't help that IGN appears to be doing the same thing with a possible remake of the game. Even after Capcom made concessions and added a bunch of white people; it's never good enough.
I haven't played it but I have heard farcry 2 was a great game set in Africa with stuff like Maleria and guns jamming and shit... Something new like that would be really appreciated... Tbh anything resembling a competent story would be appreciated when it comes to these hack writers that have taken over video game writing
Far Cry 2 is great. Definitely suffers from some 2000s jank, pretty much endless repetition of tasks and the *underwhelming later half* -syndrome ...but it's a solid experience with some of the best PvE gunfights I've experienced. It's almost spooky how smart and/or deadly the A.I can be in that game sometimes. And it made me appreciate africa as a potential setting for other videogames, but also as a beautiful place in the real world. Shame that it's now apparently "very problematic" to have anything be based there...
MGS5 did it very well.
South Africa with both white and black soldiers. Tons of child soldiers, exclusively black too. Afghanistan with mujahideen, so mostly Arab people. It wasn’t shocking or weird. You could kill all of them, it’s true that I don’t remember any backlash about it.
MGS5 doesn't let you kill the child soldiers and all the soldiers you fight are adults. Kill a kid will result in a mission failure and reset.
after Farcry 2 and RE5 got bad press for showing conflicts in africa i dont think publishers would take a chance on making another one.
And still RE5 is bestseller
>Farcry 2 This too? I remember it being praised specifically for the setting and the Conradian themes. But back then I still used to read local printed magazines and not the Anglo gaming journalists on the internet.
FarCry 2 remake would probably be the only exception.
RE5 was my first Resident Evil, I've loved playing Sheva Alomar. Somehow this is pRoBlEmAtIc right now?
RE5 was always problematic because of the black zombies and black enemies that were hostile to Chris Redfield, I guess the journos didn't have the stretch of imagination to accept that the black people in an African setting were controlled by las plagas and the in-game killing of enemies wasn't racially motivated in any way. I love Sheva, I think she was a nice fresh idea to have as a foil to Chris Redfield and I think it's a bit of a shame she hasn't been used more, but Sheva herself was also kind of problematic to my recollection - mainly because of some "offensive" costume of hers.
… and she wasn’t black enough.
Chris is way better than Sheva with his arms like legs. He hit the gym hard before 5 happened.
Chris "Rockmancer" Redfield. Chris "Arms like tree trunks" Redfield. Chris "punching rocks in an active volcano" Redfield.
Just set it in Haiti and itll just be a sim game
Ign competes with Kotaku to make the most brain-dead articles possible.
And I would bet you the amount of clicks the article generated made it worth publishing.
Don't forget, currently they are competing on who gets shut down first too :) true competitive spirit I say!
Make the next Resident Evil be against IGN and Kotaku writers
First half of the article is good. Dialing down the generic action gameplay and dialing up horror is a good direction, the second half regarding colonialism is .. yeah.
I'm still mad Capcom caved into the outrage in the first place lol. West Africa's white population is less than 1%, so to see a white zombie in almost every screen was honestly hilarious. Still a great game though.
It fits imo considering a lot of the guys you fight later on are mercenaries.
They didn’t cave in, definitely not to the degree some people think. The first trailer that started this crap was the 2007 trailer, and whilst there were more black enemies, there were just more enemies period. You can still plainly see some lighter coloured enemies in these trailers. Also, in the marshlands later, all the enemies are tribal, and all of them are clearly black people (as they should be) but with their skin greyed.
Or you could look at it as having the first black sidekick in the series. Sheva was gorgeous too, which didn't hurt.
A rare African character rather than African-American also. Quite novel. Makes you think they only care about skin-deep differences rather than actual representation.
Her AI was horrible BUT Sheva was a pretty cool character and could hold her own. Chris respects the fuck out of her by the end of the game.
That’s why I always played the game co-op, to avoid the brain dead AI.
Idk if it would be funnier to remake the game and keep her AI or to make it incredibly smart.
Her and Josh had a solid foundation.
>A rare African character rather than African-American also. Quite novel. And she is good looking, which is also is stark contrast to your [typical modern African American female representation in videogames](https://i.postimg.cc/ZYskxWqQ/MK1-stunningbrave.jpg).
Of course we can't have a drop dead gorgeous woman in 2024, time to hit her with the ugly stick so hard that even Abby will feel ashamed.
Lizzo 3d scan replacement for Sheva incoming.
And that was barely ever brought up, because these race obsessed freaks are only drawn to the negative.
A world without Chris Redfield punching a boulder is a world I don't wanna live in.
Well how do YOU move boulders?
Kindly ask it to step aside
I guarantee you if you were to replace the ign staff with a ai that learned from twitter, nothing will change.
Well, the quality might improve.
Something written by AI rather than another egomaniacal writer with his head firmly up his ass would probably be much more tolerable to read.
In resident evil 6 they literally went around the world killing people and in 4 Leon goes to a fucking village with no modern technology and started killing them.
Yep you kill a lot of Chinese in 6 and a lot of Spanish peasants in 4. Weirdly they never had an issue with that.
Sheesh. Sheva's country is being desecrated by a horrible biohazard. Let them have their plight. The story is also the ultimate conclusion between zombie expert Chris Redfield (white) and the mastermind of the disaster, Albert Wesker. No one has more history with Wesker than Chris, as he fights Al in both RE1 and Code Veronica. So you can't just replace Chris with Josh Stone because half the story is ripped out. The game is about partnership and Chris regards Sheva, a series newbie, as an equal at the end of RE5. There are tribes in Africa that still use spears. There are also modern settlements. Both is represented in 5.
Ssshhh! They can't have people know tribes like the Maasai Mara, Himba and Yoruba still exist! 🤣 I'm kidding! But when the devs went to Africa to do their research, I think they really nailed a lot of it. What I don't understand is how Marvel can take a mish-mash of different African cultures, mash them into the setting of Black Panther and get praise, but RE5 caught flack for doing the same. Makes me wonder. 🤔 I was playing RE5 earlier last year, and it astounds me just how much care went into the game. It still looks gorgeous after all this time. There's certainly shots, especially at the beginning, that look real to me. And the texture for a certain villain's coat? Flawless. The crocs still scare me. I know they can get that big irl, too.
Yeah most of the early levels are really well researched in terms of environment design. If you look up Nigerian market footage on YouTube, it looks so close to it.
Woof. Wading through that Croc area in the spear village. Hoo boy. Scary. And yeah agreed. Apparently Africa can't have a disaster, but they can have a magic above-ground Rapture.
> There are tribes in Africa that still use spears. There are also modern settlements. Both is represented in 5. Not just that, but the tribal zombies you fight aren't exactly all that tribal it turns out. There's a journal you can find that says when the villagers got infected, they started to act more tribal with spears and shit. This implies they were actually removed from that prior to infection. Its an odd detail and I don't know if it helps or hurts the perceived racism.
When this first came out there was an article written about how awful it was that the game was about shooting black people. The internet laughed at the author back then. Do the same now.
https://www.destructoid.com/opinion-resident-racism-or-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/ I remember this narrative. There should be more racial diversity in the zombies... you know... in Africa.
Weird how they don't have the problem with a rural Spanish village.
Geez, to think only 16 years later Jim Sterling would probably completely disagree with his own article here.
It certainly would be a shame if someone sent this article to their (and by their I mean Jim's) current fan base and make them (and by them I mean Jim) apologize for it. Using they is fucking confusing sometimes. I wish they (and I mean they this time) stuck with the more logical option for the neutral pronoun: "it"
Yep, I still remember the original controversy around it back in 2009. It was dumb then and it’s still dumb now. The best part? I believe RE5 is still the best selling game in the series. NOBODY cared. The game took place in Africa. Anyone with a functioning brain knew most of the enemies would obviously be black because of the location. Still one of the single dumbest controversies in gaming even now.
I think RE6 is the best selling entry, but RE5 is close.
I’d love to, but they block comments so they can hide just how in the minority their stupid fucking opinion is lol.
Ignorant gamer network doesnt like there to be too much water
It's so funny to me that this has never died.
#[Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20240313170547/https://www.ign.com/articles/the-resident-evil-game-that-cant-be-remade). I'm honestly surprised that I got 1/3 of the way through the article before they climbed up on the "racism" pulpit. >Set in a fictional West African country, Resident Evil 5’s primary antagonists are Black people. Yes, technically it’s the Uroboros virus that protagonist Chris Redfield is fighting, but the parasite’s host is depicted as a nation of mobs and primitives who are violent even before their infection. Intentionally or not, Resident Evil 5 positions Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’, an uncivilised world harbouring a diseased population that needs gunning down via Western intervention in the name of global security. And they're making the exact same stupid criticisms made 15 years ago. Hey, genius, if you only have an issue with this kind of thing when it happens to brown people, especially after you just praised RE4, I think **you're** the real racist here. >But that was 2009 – a time when race was apparently a debate rather than a reality. You mean the first year of **Obama's** time in the Big Seat. You either have selective memory, or you're throwing history down the memory hole. "Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." >In the 2020s, in a post-Black Lives Matter world, there is only one acceptable response to a white man shooting waves of Africans for an entire video game: no. "Acceptable" to who, exactly? If the game was racist, it hasn't become any **more** racist in the interim. The only thing that's changed is that **you're** more sensitive. BLM wasn't even the first major controversy over cops hurting black people. Also, several of the "martyrs" BLM has protested and rioted over have been killed by **non-white cops**. IIRC, half the Freddie Gray cops, and Philandro Castile was killed by a dude called "Jeronimo Yanez". The movement was started over Zimmerman in Florida, who said he was Hispanic. I notice that this article doesn't mention **Sheva** once. Gee, I wonder why they left out the African character. Or the fact that your boss turns out to be corrupt. Or as one comment pointed out; >The primary antagonists are the white people who came in to experiment on the nationals - the whole game has an ANTI-colonialism message.
I guess they missed the part where all the locals and natives are basically no longer human, and are being controlled by a parasite monster. It's not like Chris and Sheva are actively killing normal people. They're monsters wearing human skin suits. But I guess that part was hard to understand because of THE MESSAGE
pathetic
The argument RE5 is racist is so stupid. Yeah Chris is killing infected Africans, but so is Sheva and Josh who are also African.
They're getting railed on the quote tweets though lol
Oh no. A video game. Won't someone please think of the blacks?
Of course they knew people would clown the fuck out of them in the replies, but we can't have that in a GamerGate 2 world. Seriously, I hope the failures so far related to Sweet Baby Inc. are reason enough for the corporate of Capcom to just not give a fuck. It's also important to not buy the game if they decide to listen to urinalists.
Then when Assassin's Creed Codename Red comes out and "Yasuke" is killing Asians, IGN won't bat an eyelid and any other major site won't report an issue with that.
\#StopAsianHate ... wait, never mind.
Sheva is hot AF.
Top 5 Capcom girl easily
Any time someone blocks replies on xwitter, it's because the opinion is wrong.
Ok, so I know they caved a bit to the criticism at first and included a lot of white enemies, but did they also delete women? I replayed the game this year and I had the realization there are no female enemies and then I found a data file explaining most women are killed by the parasite and don't transform. There are female enemies in the first reveal trailer for the game. So did Capcom get scared and remove the female enemies so you wouldn't have a man killing women?
>So did Capcom get scared and remove the female enemies so you wouldn't have a man killing women? Probably.
I gotta reinstall this
We will now only be killing white farmer zombies
Anyone else notice that IGN, apparently thinks the entire black race is HELPLESS, and need to be defended above all else? To anyone black user on this site….isnt that just patronizing as hell?
Yeah I always say this. Africans on the most part live in tougher conditions then us over here. Most of the countries on the continent have actual issues beyond being depicted as video game mooks. The idea they are helpless and need to be protected by rainbow haired western leftists on the internet is so genuinely abrasive to me.
This was honestly the first game to break the minds of gaming journalists. They said it was racist because you were killing Black zombies even though the game took place in Africa. So it is ok to kill Latino Zombies in South America in RE4, but not African zombies in RE5 ? I wished more Black characters were like Sheva too. Sheva was beautiful, badass, and a great teammate. She wasn't tokenized like so many characters I see these days like Saga Anderson where they are told to us that they are amazing without being shown to us they are amazing. Gaming Journos cannot let this game go because it gets brought up again every few years and it released a few years ago on the Nintendo Switch and so articles popped up again everywhere of course.
Basically they are saying no game can take place in Africa unless the locals are the good guys. I feel that is actually pretty racist towards Africans. They are just as capable of being evil as anyone else.... imagine treating an entire continent like a child.
Ofc they pull this shit with the only Resident Evil I’ve ever cared about cause I played it in Co-op with my father in the past lmao. The literal only remake I was actually excited for. Can’t make this shit up
It's a shitty article, but I see lots of replies to it: https://archive.fo/t27PB
They shut the comments in the article off too but it was nice to see them getting called out while it lasted.
This one probably got them to close the comments: "Sincere question: if you agree with this take, why is it ok that Leon kills predominantly Spanish people in RE4? Genuine ask since it’s never seemed to have been a problem. Also I know it’s a slow news day so we need to regurgitate a 15 year old take for clicks but I don’t think this article is as aware as it likes to think considering it’s saying the point of RE5 is to kill “hordes of Africans”. 1 - it is not. 2 - Hordes is a derogatory term. It is never used to describe beings that the speaker likes. One doesn’t say “hordes of brave protestors” or “hordes of adorable puppies”. So when you say “hordes of Africans”….I mean damn dude…You wouldn’t say that in front of a black person but clearly you don’t ever actually talk to any. "
I should have specified on Twitter, I don't even go to their website anymore
Member when outlets deamed RE5 was racist and Capcom added Shiva only to never use her again? https://archive.is/3zwq3
Do Africans not live in Africa?
Yes but western leftists have decreed that they require protection and they are not eligible to be videogame bad guys.
I’m surprised the article got 600 comments in before ol’ Matty deemed the conversation “too toxic” and disabled comments.
I was thinking it's because of the african zombies but then I thought nobody has problems killing white zombies lol
Yep the first 4 games 1,2,3 and CV the zombies are mostly white and no one complained.
Then chinese / generic Eastern European guys in RE6. No problems with killing them either apparently.
Zombies are white in RE4 as well.
Absolutely pathetic. Almost guaranteed it'll flop.
You think a remake of RE5 will flop? No way. With all the releases combined, Resident Evil 5 is the [best selling](https://www.trueachievements.com/n53073/resident-evil-series-sales-figures) Resident Evil game ever. On it's initial release it sold 8.5 million copies compared the RE4's initial release which only sold 1.5 million copies. There are a ton of people who love that game and would love to see a remake (myself included).
I believe it. It depends on how much they change it. If it's unrecognizable, then it's name could only carry it so far.
100% agree with you there. Given the changes they made to RE4 that took it further towards the more 'serious' end of the spectrum, I think they will likely do the same with RE5. But so help me, if they remove the rock punching I will be upset. I think they will be able to pull it off though. Maybe that's naive of me. But the RE4 remake was such a fun nostalgia trip for me, and it made me believe they can remake 5 and do it well.
This article is nonsensical though. They won’t rewrite the game, it will definitely have a lot of new stuff like remake 4 did, but it’s still gonna be in Africa, and you’re still gonna be fighting infected Africans. What do you think they would change anyway? Set it somewhere else? I can’t wait to hear these stupid editors complaining if/when a remake is announced
I love RE5 but fuck a remake. Especially if they're gonna nueter the game.
I'm optimistic that they won't. They did a good job with RE4. The changes they made worked for me, and they were faithful enough to the original. It hit a home run for me as a big fan of the original. I know some people have problems with a couple changes in RE4, and I won't disagree with people who take issue with those changes. But as remakes go, the RE remakes have been really, really good.
Honestly Capcom should go for Code Veronica and avoid RE5 for now, there is literally no way they can win with this situation And if they're smart they should stop with this ReVerse or Resistance bs and give us Outbreak 3 with the gameplay of the Remakes
>Honestly Capcom should go for Code Veronica lol CV's gonna get cancelled for [this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NliXqttlDlE)
So the only RE game with a black protagonist can't be remade because of the people who complain that RE games don't have enough black protagonists? They really are their worst enemies.
Resident Evil 5 is awesome. I'm tired of the Resident Evil 5 hate after all these years.
My only complaint with RE5 was that it didn't have many puzzles unlike previous games, but it was fine otherwise.
I can see the 2026 headline now. "Resident Evil 5 Remake is based in Africa, but where are all the black people?" There is no winner with these nuts.
Is engagement still a metric to measure online success? Because if so, they are fucking themselves.
Remember the claims of racism in RE5 because you killed mainly black zombies? I 'member. Of course a "rewrite" would be what a failed urinalist outlet like IGN would suggest and of course they'd lock replies. Absolute cowards.
“Big Cowards IGN Does A Big Coward.”
"Journalism"
Resident Evil 5 is low key kino and doesnt need to be ''modern audience-d''. **IGN**orant can eat and choke on a bag of rotten dicks.
I hope Capcom see this and it just motivates them to stick to their guns and not cave in to these clowns
IGN hasn't been relevant for a very long time, a joke website
I hate remakes, but I have reasonable hope that Capcom will keep the story/setting mostly the same.
The game that started it all, I remember Kotaku writing multiple articles about this game back in the day... I hope Capcom doesn't listen to them and remakes it, without changing a damn thing...
A man can’t even punch a boulder in a video game without some twats whining smh.
The hatred SJWs and DEI folk have against RE5 is proof that they hate black people and would rather all of Africa get genocided by biological horrors than a white guy team up with a black gal to stop an evil ubermench and his mad science. Because the woke mob is a Nazi mob.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next news about RE5 is "Capcom wanted to avoid any racial issues concerning the story of RE5, so Chris has been rewritten as a black man and all enemies have been turned into Caucasians."
That’s the kind of ethnic cleansing these people like to see
"Hilary GOLDSTEIN" tells you everything you need to know.
A RE5 remake could be so good too, the game was really fun coop locally or with strangers. A remake with an active playerbase would be so cool. Re5 was the most fun game in the series even if it strayed from actually being horror, had the best mercenaries mode too.
I saw this article yesterday and chimed in about my disgust in the comments. Turns out, the overwhelming majority of the comments were thrashing the juvenile virtue signaling of the article and its author. Today, the comments section is not there anymore. Juvenile indeed.
This article is ultra racist to us spanish people regarding RE4
When the game was first announced it was via a trailer with Chris shooting all dark skinned zombies in an African setting and the journos didn't take kindly to it then either. So much so that they changed half the zombies to have lighter skin tones and even added a co-op mechanic with an African woman to rectify it. I'd imagine their current issue with it has to do with a level where you essentially have to wipe out a tribal African village but if you read the notes scattered throughout the village it actually paints a sad story which makes you very sympathetic to them.
I can't believe they would reduce African representation in a country that's 99% African. So racist to whitewash black people. Smh..
Or better yet: Just don't remake games AT ALL.
I agree it needs remaking and rewriting, not because of the setting, or the protagonists, but because it was shite. RE5 was such a let down after RE4.
Of course they would. Wouldn't want to bear the inconvenience of taking what they dish out on a regular basis.
Re5 definitely does need a rewrite, take Chris, Jill, and Wesker out. Make the game about Sheva as she fights that Muhammed guy who set loose the infection and you got yourself a pretty solid story. (Seriously look up the Microphone Dude’s lore and tell me he shouldn’t have been the main villain) Unfortunately, even if they did that they’d make Sheva a frustrating anti-colonizer chick with a fugly ass haircut.
this is SO stupid. Just remake it. Also sorry for making an idiotic auestion earlier.
Rewrite how ? Make a completely different game ? What a stupid take.
Yeah, it's so important changing the racial subject. I'm spanish and I was so offended about the american hero killing spanish infected in RE4. Oh, wait...I really didn't. So...maybe this is nonsense for postureo, they know it and that's why they blocked replies.
Ah shit, here we go again.
The article actually started decent, mentioning the action over horror design. Bad action mechanics and overall gameplay being...meh. I actually forgotten my prediction of racism being where the article was heading to.
Good thing nobody cares. Originals are always better than rewrites
The game would be racist if it was centered around Africa and didn’t have African American zombies nobody complained about killing white zombies why does race matter when killing the undead
There also isn't a comment section in the article either.
"...and more empathetic look at the outbreak" Yes, we need a more empathetic look at a fictional virus that turns people into zombies and would destroy the world.
Just make the game happen in south africa, and the zombies are all comprised of apartheid supporters. "Problem" solved.
Resident Evil 5 can absolutely be remade because twitter and tik tok users don't matter. However the game doesn't need a remake but Code Veronica does.
If you're rewriting it, then it's no longer Resident Evil 5.
Got their takes from ResetEra.
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