Resident Evil 6 Announced

      I have good news and bad news.

      Capcom has officially announced Resident Evil 6. That may be the good news--the truly good news, in my opinion, is that you once again get to play as Leon S. Kennedy (and Chris Redfield too). It is said to be released on November 20, 2012.
      Ok, now savor that for a minute.
      The bad news is that each playable character (Leon, Chris, and a yet-unidentified mercenary) has a companion.
       I do sometimes appreciate the companion characters--after all, it allowed my brother and I to play co-op in Resident Evil 5. However, it is only while playing co-op that I appreciate these characters. I hate that they have annoying voices, I hate that they can't manage to be useful, and I hate that they always chase you around with green herbs. I had to force Sheva to use a useful weapon by taking away all of her non-useful weapons because otherwise she wanted to do nothing but stun rod everything, including the chainsaw zombies. I died about a hundred times trying to get through that area until I realized that was what she was doing--using a stun gun and picking up all the ammo, leaving me with none.
      I'm pretty sure Sheva wanted me dead.
      So now, in Resident Evil 6, we get a split-perspective story line (that will undoubtedly meet up at the climax) and three different companion characters (to hate). Were any of the companion characters ever popular? And by popular, I mean appreciated by players that didn't just like to check out the female-shaped pixels. I don't think the answer to this question is in the affirmative, which makes me wonder why these characters keep popping up in Resident Evil games. I do appreciate the ability to play co-op, but I'm not sure it's enough to justify the resentment these companion characters instill in me. What's your position on the companion characters? Does the co-op ability make them worthwhile?