Capcom released the demo for Resident Evil 5 last week in Japan, but did you know that you, the average American Xbox 360 owner, can play it right now? It’s extraordinarily easy, since all you need is a bank CD or DVD and the wherewithal to burn a data disc.
Are you ready?
It’s like this: the demo was released in Japan, and only Japan, last week. It doesn’t have a U.S. release date just yet, so if you’re hankering to play today (and don’t mind dabbing into a gray area that may or may not be piracy) and don’t want to wait around till Capcom officially releases it here, do the following:
1. Go to The Pirate Bay (or your favorite BitTorrent tracker or whatever)
2. Search for the file “Resident Evil 5 Demo For Xbox360” (I don’t think a direct link is allowed, but you can figure it out) and download
3. Unrar the resulting archive. You should end up with a file called “re5_demo.” Move the rar’s out of the directory (00080000) while leaving “re5_demo” there.
4. Burn the “Content” folder as a data disc (not an ISO or anything fancy). I used Disco for Mac OS X.
5. Put that disc (it can be a CD or DVD, doesn’t matter) in your Xbox 360. It’ll show up as “mixed media” in the menu.
6. Select your game demos tab (Game Library in the NXE) and you should see the demo there.
7. Play!
(If you’re someone who needs photos for this type of thing, this site has a few that may help.)
Like I said in our podcast, I played the game no problem earlier today, and my Xbox 360 isn’t modded at all. If you liked Resident Evil 4—who didn’t?—you’ll probably like Resident Evil 5.
The game is scheduled for release in North America on March 13, 2009.