Capcom today announced a spurt of new stuff for Resident Evil 5, to be dribbled out this February and March as downloadable content and a boxed "gold edition". A new episode will be set in the castle seen only in flashbacks, where Sheva will be replaced by the considerably less interesting Jill Valentine, minus her weird bird costume. There will, however, be new costumes for Chris and Sheva. And new characters and weapon loadouts for Mercenaries mode. However, there is no word of any of this being available for the PC.

What's more, it seems that Capcom has reneged on their promise to even complete the PC release of Resident Evil 5. When the game was released for console systems, Capcom charged players five dollar to unlock a competitive mode called "Versus". This was available as soon as the game was released. But despite telling players Versus mode would either be included with the PC release or available for download shortly thereafter, it seems Capcom has changed its mind. I've just been told there are currently no plans to release Versus mode for the PC.

I wouldn't normally mind missing out on being charged five bucks to unlock a feature, but the real bummer in this situation is that Versus mode is a fantastic way to play Resident Evil 5. If you've tried Mercenaries mode, you're only getting about a quarter of the game's multiplayer awesomeness. I couldn't care less if Capcom doesn't give the PC version whatever upcoming B-side material they're releasing next year. But I do wish they'd at least complete the PC release by doing whatever it takes to unlock or restore one of Resident Evil 5's best features.