Okay, so, controversy-courting thread title. And maybe it's been done on here before; I dunno.

Anyway. There's been a whole furore over the content of the 5th Resident Evil game, and there's almost certainly going to be a whole lot more when the game is released around next year. The basic premise is that it's set in Africa; so most - maybe all - the zombie baddies in the game are black. This is all fine; and no, I don't think the game is racist in the least. The content has to reflect the game's setting.

But every time I watch the trailers (and especially this one): for example

http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=10929

I can't help but feel a bit unnerved. If I didn't know the series history, I'd find that quite shocking: muscled white American dude marches into ramshackle town, kills hordes of poor-looking black people. It's partly down to the decision to make the zombie more human-like in the last game.

People often point to comparisons with the trailer for Blood Diamond:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzov48npPik&feature=related

which didn't produce anywhere near as much controversy, but contains very similar content. But I think there's a world of difference; for a start, there's actually sympathetic black characters in there.

Any thoughts?