This is very simple. Racism is dead as a mainstream phenomena at least in the US. Liberals and such who define themselves by having a battle to fight however, have learned that they can STILL dredge up a lot of contreversy by dropping the word. Let's forget that obviously the mainstream population of the US cares so little about race that we now have a black guy running the country. Nope, let's scream racism anyway to get some attention.
The problem is nobody has the guts to shut these people down for trolling, or intentionally trying to grab some attention through contreversy. Perhaps it will come with time, but right now I'm beginning to think that allegations of this type are very similar to hate speech in their own way. Having little purpose other than to cause chaos and try and incite unrest.
When it comes to Resident Evil 5 itself, I have played it a bit, though I haven't had a lot of time. The game isn't even remotely racist. About the worst you can say about it is that it shows a pretty accurate picture of Africa, without the politically correct lens.
Face it, Africa is basically a wasteland full of impoverished and uneducated people. That is why we spend so much money through things like the Peace Corps. trying to educate the people in the region. Yes, a lot of those people arm themselves with things like spears, simply because such weapons are effective and they don't have anything else. This is why a dude with a couple of crates of guns and a couple of hummers can declare himself a Warlord and take over a section of the countryside. Guys with spears lose to guys with machine guns (I'm being simplistic here intentionally).
We've all seen National Geographic, and heck, it's impossible to miss the stories on the news about the genocides and such in the region, and comments about how the world isn't doing enough, and how countries like the US can be playing Cowboy in Iraq, while all of this stuff is going on, etc... pick your political slant, but the bottom line is that it's reported.
I'm sure we've all seen the "Sally Struthers" type "feed the hungry" movements begging for money to feed starving african children and such.
Now in general, we're aware of all these things, but when people aren't asking for aid, or somehow using the state of the region for political reasons, people are expected to ignore it, focus only on the best/most developed areas and the exceptions.
Hey, maybe the truth isn't as politically correct and antiseptic as you might like, but honestly from what *I'VE* seen on the news this seems like a pretty good portrayal of the region. Tons of pathetic, uneducated, and malnurished people? Well if it was any other way we wouldn't spend so much time sending aid to the region.
To be kind of honest, they do a pretty fair job from what I've seen so far of showing a pretty good selection of the rough areas of Africa. In the towns for example when the infection gets going (I don't want to give too many spoilers which would explain it further) the people your up against are mostly using improvised weapons and tools, pretty much the kinds of things you'd expect a mob to be able to pick up and wield in an enviroment like that.
While it's a bit further than I've personally gotten (due to time) I will ALSO point out that one thing most of these reviews conveinently forget is that as the enviroment changes so do the capabilities of your enemies. The local warlord types are infected also, and you do wind up fighting enemies with guns when it is appropriate to the setting.
I guess what you can say is that the game isn't overly politically correct as it is not working to avoid depicting such things, and only focus on the best/most progressive areas on the region. Not being politically correct is however a far shot from being racist, and I think the contreversy over this game both shows the distinction, and how the politically correct movement is exploited specifically to cause trouble.
As far as the protaganists go, well Chris Redfield is one of the same guys you've been playing since the beginning of the series. He's simply going to a new place. He's now a veteran adventurer type guy, as opposed to the shocked out of his league dude he was in
the first game. Being a guy who is now going out to pick fights with bio-terrors on purpose he's pretty bulked out, and like most fantasy action heroes his build and capabilities are a bit more than could be considered realistic.
When it comes to Sheva, from what I gather having read about the character is that she was born in Africa but was educated and trained in Europe (hence the accent). Being part of an anti-terrorism squad she's got top flight training, and of course being an action hero has the same kind of overblown physique/capabilities as Chris does.
As far as how they appear to the guys they are up against, well highly trained, well educated, special forces guys are exceptional by first world standards. When dealing with a bunch of uneducated, malnurished, guys in Africa who are just trying to scrape by, you expect them to be a bit more capable/effective. When you take malnourished people of the sort aid is requested for on TV, and then shove a parasite down their throat, turning them into a zombiesque horror... well how do you expect them to look?
