We already know that Resident Evil 6 will allow for branching and intersecting story lines, but it seems like Capcom is trying to take this one step further by putting these intersections online with a “Crossover” system.
The Playstation Blog put up a post this weekend discussing this Crossover feature. Basically, at certain sections of the game, the characters’ stories will align with one another, and if you are playing by yourself, then you might get an AI buddy to help you in the next section. However, this Crossover business extends online allowing friends and random people to join your game at these sections.
So if you are playing as one character, a real live person playing another character might join your game if you are both heading towards the same spot in one of these Crossover sections. And once you complete that portion of the game, you will split up and go your separate ways.
PlayStation.Blog: So Crossover randomly pairs players around the world playing at the same part of the game and at the same time? So we can’t just invite friends to get through a specific crossover section?
Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Producer, Resident Evil 6: Yes, that’s exactly how it works….The concept of this feature is to have people joining you in real time and seamlessly, so whenever you happen to be at a point where you get to China as Leon, for example, somebody else in the world who’s playing roughly at the same time and they’re also about to get at that point or they’re already there as Jake, he or she will join you. So the idea is more to have a surprise about who’s going to play with you. If want to play with your friends, we recommend, first and foremost, playing with them within the storyline on the co-op, so you’ll be Jake and your friend is Sherry, or you’ll be Leon and your friend is Helena.
Fortunately, you can set it all up to play with just your friends if you don’t like the idea of some random person joining your game and telling you how much you suck.
Another thing we learn is that the older inventory system is getting a slight change. The inventory still exists, but you will no longer be forced to go to it every time you want to switch a weapon, say. So that’s nice.
There is more with Yoshiaki Hirabayashi in the PS Blog post right here. Check it out.