Resident Evil 5's release is steadily drawing nearer with each passing day, and with it comes the day that gamers will start looking forward to what Umbrella Corporation has in store for them next.

With the advent of all three console manufacturer's embracing the online universe, and Capcom apparently getting it's shit together in time to bring online Co-op to RE5; one begins to wonder if it may be time to revive the series that first funneled the surrival horror franchise through the series of tubes.

I speak of course, of the Resident Evil Outbreak series. This franchise was Capcom's first, and up till now only, attempt at expanding the Resident Evil experience to the online playing field. Although it seems clunky and archieic by today's standards, Outbreak put what it had avliable at the time for fairly good use. The lack of any form of communication outside of precoded articles triggered during certain situations crippled any chance the game had of garning a larger following, but what was there was undoubtley a bigger leap forward for RE going online than most could have anticapted at the time.

The game, suprisingly enough, played much like the numbered titles to come before it. With eight playable characters each with different abilities, an MMO like item swapping system, and even the chance for one of your teammates to become infected and rise back up only to begin attacking your party; Outbreak brought fresh ideas to multiplayer survival that new releases like Left 4 Dead still have not put to good use.

So the question remains, would you want to play a new Outbreak game on current gen consoles?

Oh fuck yeah, I missed out on the last two Outbreak games.

I actually liked Resident Evil Outbreak aside from the clunky online and complete lack of communication while in game.  However with Resident Evil 5's online co-op and other games like Left 4 Dead I hope something eventually comes of another Outbreak game.