I recently participated in an amazing opportunity to have my Resident Evil 5 related question answered by Masachika Kawata, The producer of Resident Evil 5.

Out of the many, many questions asked, I was lucky enough to be picked along with two other lucky people:
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Dante2014: Did you get any inspiration from what couldn’t be done in previous Resident Evil titles? (With the limitations of technology at the time of the releases)

Kawata-san:RE4 actually had deviated a little from the traditional RE style to realise the ideals Shinji Mikami (Producer of RE4) had about the game. In RE5 we intend to concentrate more to the scenario of the story and to return to the mainstream RE. Technology wise, we have attempted to implement what we always wanted to do but couldn’t due to the hardware limitations, to stage ‘fear’ through light effects. Sound Effects have also seen absolutely no compromise whatsoever that can only be realised on the next-gen consoles so if you could manage to get yourself a good sound system you will enjoy it thoroughly.
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The full Q&A can be found on Capcom-Europe forums:
[link]