Resident Evil 5 is one of this year's most innovative multiplayer games considering the excellent cooperative gameplay, which includes the challenging "mercenaries" mode. But it really comes into its own once you fold in "versus" mode, which combines traditional multiplayer action with white-knuckle zombie fighting. It's a little action, a little tactics, and a whole lot of tension and suspense. It's also the perfect game for smaller numbers of players. There aren't many multiplayer shooters build for 4-player competitive games.

So I was pleased when a Capcom representative told me that versus mode would definitely be a part of the PC release, either included when the game comes out September 14th, or available as a download. Unfortunately, it wasn't included in a preview build of the game that was sent out last month.

And today, I was told by Capcom that the only official word is that versus mode "is not on the PC game disc". Seeing as it's not yet decided whether it will be a free download or a paid download (Capcom charged console owners $5 to unlock it), it almost seems like the publisher hasn't given the subject much thought. Which is too bad, because I sure have.