After the release of Resident Evil 5's first trailer, claims of racism ran rife, with many people claiming that the black characters were depicted as "inhuman savages".

But with the release of a new trailer there was a noticeable difference in the game's tone. Chris now had a black side-kick, and both white and black people were portrayed as enemies. So was the game redesigned after the racism claims? Capcom says it wasn't ...

When Capcom first showed Resident Evil 5 at E3 2007, there was a collective sense that what we'd just seen was going to stir the pot, as a big brawny white guy had just done his share of laying waste to an angry mob of Africans. Sure enough, Capcom of Japan received more than its share of criticism from those inside and outside of the gaming press. The first to lobby a notable complaint was blog Black Looks, writing that RE5 was "problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages."

We were curious, in light of new media that seems to show a more racially diverse set of enemies and a noticeably less WASP-y new partner for Chris Redfield, if the team had taken that criticism to heart and altered some of their design decisions

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi told us "No, not really." He said via his translator that cries of racism "didn't have any effect on the game design."

Miss Razz via kotaku.com »