Resident Evil 5

• Play co-op if possible. It's infinitely better than with an AI partner.

• The game is designed to be played multiple times; you keep all the ammo and gun upgrades and all that through successive plays, so don't try to play on harder difficulties the first time around. You will get your ass handed to you by enemies and will not have enough ammo or firepower to take them down. Play the game on normal once through, then do the harder difficulties with better weaponry.

• The game tends to rush you through areas, but there's often no penalty for exploration once you've cleared out the enemies. This is also a good way of picking up treasure you missed during battle.

• The game is really about inventory management. For that reason, you might want to invest in a lot of capacity upgrades for your weapons so that ammo takes up less space. Often times, we had a full 3/4 of our inventory devoted to weapons and ammo, sometimes more.

• Try to save your special ammo (ie. anything except the handgun) especially the magnum for boss fights or special enemies.

• However, don't be afraid to be generous with your shotgun ammo. It seems to be surprisingly ineffective against bosses and the game gives you quite a lot of it, so go hog wild on packs of normal enemies from time to time.

• If you're having trouble with a boss fight, you're doing it wrong. The enemies may be tough but the tricks to defeating them are always extremely simple. Like, shoot the giant pulsating orbs simple. Or, fire these giant rockets simple. Or hold down the fire button simple.

• You unlock different guns by fully upgrading the first (and usually weakest) gun you get in every category, so you're kind of penalized by using the better weapons.

• The first hunting rifle is pretty awesome, though. If you're playing single player, it's a good gun to give to your partner, since the AI is pretty accurate, and the rifle only fires single shots, so your partner doesn't waste tons of ammo. It also does as much damage as a magnum bullet if you keep upgrading the firepower.

• Also, if you don't plan to go through the game multiple times, which is likely with a rental, spend twenty minutes doing the egg trick once you get halfway through the game so you have enough money to play around with the unlockables a little before the game is over.

• You'll get most of the guns on the way though the game if you explore a little bit. Don't be afraid to buy a gun if you really want to, but you never have to.