Capcom has made it official: Resident Evil 5 is coming to the PC on September 15th. The fifth installment in the popular survival horror series was released for the Xbox and PS3 in March of this year, to some controversy. The version being released for the PC has some improvements, specifically the addition of 3D, intended to take advantage of Nvidia’s 3D Vision goggles.

From the press release:

CAPCOM REVEALS SHIP DATE FOR RESIDENT EVIL 5 FOR THE PC

A Whole New Dimension of Horror Comes to PC Fans

Capcom is pleased to announce that Resident Evil 5 for the PC will release on September 15, 2009 in North America and September 18 th in Europe. PC gamers will get the ultimate Resident Evil package in the new PC version as new features will include NVIDIA®’s new GeForce® 3D Vision technology (wireless 3D Vision glasses sold separately), new costumes and a new and improved mercenaries mode with three times as many enemies.

Fans that pick up the PC version will be the first to experience stereoscopic 3D out of screen effects as their living rooms are transformed into the world of Kijuju. Infected Majini coming at players from every angle, dust flying in and out of screen and the scariest bosses to date are taken up a notch . Resident Evil 5 PC is a whole new level of fear players will never forget. The game also supports Stereoscopic 3D in all of its cut scenes – an industry first.

These groundbreaking stereoscopic 3D effects were developed in close cooperation with NVIDIA, which is why the game is part of NVIDIA’s “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” partnership program. Resident Evil fans can check out the 3D action for themselves today as a new stereo 3D tech demo with benchmark is available to download today on NVIDIA’s official site at http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_re5_downloads.html. To find out more info on NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision technology, click on the link here, http://www.nvidia.com/3dvision/.

If you can’t get enough of RE5 for the PC, it will be making its public debut at Comicon 2009 in Booth #5133 in full 3D . It will also be shown to thousands of gamers at this year’ s Penny Arcade Expo in the Fall. More details on the game will be hitting in the upcoming months.

About Resident Evil 5

From the ashes of old conflicts, a new terror arises. The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons all over the world. Now a member of the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSSA), Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent that is transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures. Joined by another local BSSA agent, Sheva Alomar, the two must work together to solve the truth behind the disturbing turn of events. Featuring a revolutionary new co-op mode of gameplay, Resident Evil 5 will let players experience fear together as terror moves out of the shadows and into the light of day.

Co-producer and series veterans Jun Takeuchi (Lost Planet) and Masachika Kawata (Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles) unleash an unprecedented level of fear for the new generation in Resident Evil 5, the sequel to one of the highest-rated videogames in history according to Metacritic.com and Gamerankings.com. Promising to revolutionize the series by delivering an unbelievable level of detail, realism and control, Resident Evil 5 is certain to bring new fans to the series. Incredible changes to both the gameplay and world of Resident Evil make this a must-have game for gamers across the globe.

The Resident Evil series has sold over 40 million units since the original game was released in 1996 and has spawned a multi-million dollar trilogy of films from Sony Pictures. The latest installment of the game, Resident Evil 5 promises to revolutionize the series just as Resident Evil 4 did.

Boutique PC companies have it rough these days, unless they come up with something truly original or compelling, it’s extremely difficult to fight against the bargain brands. However, for those willing to spend a few extra dollars, some amazing machines are out there. One such brand is MainGear PC, one of the relative newcomers to the game. Maingear recently sent us one of their X-Cube 3D Vision machines to review, and it’s quite impressive.

Obviously this machine was designed to be used by the LAN party crowd, since Maingear decided to use a Silverstone Sugo case. Generally speaking I don’t like to see high end components in a mini-ATX style case, as they have a tendency to over heat and the power supply rarely has enough juice to do the job. Silverstone overcame this by using multiple fans in the lid, and making the case large enough for a full size power supply. The side effect of this is that the case is quite loud. Of course, considering the specs, this is to be expected.

Performance and specs

This machine definitely has the power to get things done, in fact I think it’s safe to say this has to be one of the fastest machines I’ve ever used:
Processor: Core i7 920 (2.67GHz)
Chipset: DFI Lanparty Jr. X58-T3H6
RAM: 6GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz
PSU: Silverstone Strider 1000w
Video: NVidia GeForce GTX 295 1792 GDDR3

The “3D” in the X-Cube 3D comes from the Nvidia 3D Vision goggles that also came with this system, combined with the Samsung SyncMaster 2233rz monitor. While this is available as an add-on to the X-Cube, you’ll have to decide whether the 3D option is for you. I would encourage caution since the goggle technology is still a little rough and caused headaches. They also made the games look REALLY cool, and there was minimal framerate loss when the goggles were active.

Speaking of performance, this machine really shines. In 3dMark06, the X-Cube scored a very respectable 18293, and in PCMark05, a 12085. Of course, if you’re like me those numbers are nice, but what really matters is the FPS when you are gaming.

>In World Of Warcraft (yeah, I know it’s a bit old, but I wanted to see it in 3D) my settings were completely maxed out, and running at 1680×1050, the max that the Samsung supports. I consistently saw 77 FPS, even in some of the new Lich King areas that are notoriously slow. When using the 3D goggles the FPS did take a slight performance hit, coming in at an average of 63 FPS, which is still very smooth and definitely playable.

>Far Cry 2 gave the machine a much harder time, again running at 1680×1050, with AAx4, Bloom on, and the rest of the settings at very high. The “Farm” demo delivered 70 FPS, and in actual game play I consistently ran at about 65 FPS. The 3D goggles again created a bit of a performance issue, dropping the average FPS to about 52 during actually game play. This created some minor issues when there were large explosions going off, but the added cool factor of the goggles outweighed the performance hit.

What I didn’t like
Now not everything is perfect about this system. There were a couple of flaws, admittedly fairly minor. One issue is the blue LED’s on the front of the case. Silverstone decided for whatever reason to use LED’s bright enough to compete with the sun, and so you definitely know when the computer is on. In fact, no other lights are needed in the room when the computer is on as a result. A more serious issue showed up on the back on the computer. After unpacking the machine I noticed that the case cover didn’t have any screws in it, and the metal plate that goes over the USB, network, and sound ports on the back of the machine was pretty bent up. A minor issue, but still not something you’d expect from a company that spent so much time on making sure the cabling was run correctly.

Bottom Line
So the X-Cube 3D came with the Samsung SyncMaster 2233rz monitor, Razor Death Adder mouse, Razor Lycosa keyboard, and the previously mentioned Nvidia 3D Vision goggles. Grand total for what is admittedly a very high end system came in at $3433. Considering today’s economy, I don’t know that many gamers out there are still looking to drop quite that much on a new PC. Keep in mind, the system that Maingear sent us is pretty much a “dream machine” configuration, and you can adjust the specs to your particular needs.