Step this way please, fans of pre-rendered backgrounds and pixellated blood spatters. There is something waiting for you in the window of the local internet video game store, GOG.com. Resident Evil 2, the original 1998 survival horror, is now buyable, downloadable, and yes, even playable on PC.
]]>Ray tracing is coming back to the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes on PC, according to Capcom. That’s after the graphical option was quietly removed from both games this past week, following a recent update. Fans had been wondering if the move was deliberate or not, but Capcom’s announcement seems to confirm that it was just a mishap. So, zombie slayers should be able to go back to running around in realistically lit corridors full of shadowy corners very soon.
]]>I’m fairly sure that zombies are the perfect video game enemies. They’re relentless, for one thing, happily chomping their way through anyone who gets in their path. The undead are faceless as well, so you don’t feel too bad about escorting them back to their graves. Yet they can be poignant, dramatic reminders of friends and family that meant a lot to characters too, depending on who the shambling corpse used to be. If I was going to hire any enemy for a game, I’d hire a zombie. Then they’d eat my brain. That’s why I hired them! So to celebrate our very iconic, vitality-challenged friends, I've put together a list of my favourite zombie games.
]]>Resident Evil modders have had an eventful week. First, Capcom released a free update for Resident Evils 2, 3 and 7 Biohazard which introduced ray tracing and higher framerates. Unfortunately, the update also broke every existing mod for those games, with no quick fix available.
All's well that ends well, though. In response to "overwhelming community response", Capcom have made the previous versions of the games available again, so that those wishing to use mods can roll back if they wish.
]]>A Dead Space return has long been rumoured, with everything from a remaster of the first game to a new game being hinted at. It looks like it’ll be somewhere in between, with reports suggesting that EA Motive are working on a remake of the original game, and an expected reveal at July 22’s EA Play Live.
]]>Like a giant Katamari made of scabs and jump scares, Dead By Daylight has collected another classic horror fiend to stalk its servers. The upcoming Resident Evil chapter will, unsurprisingly, bring the Umbrella Corp's Nemesis to the multiplayer horror game. The new beast won’t be turning up on his own, though. Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine will be added as survivors for the meat-weapon-gone-rogue to chase.
]]>What's a holiday if it doesn't come with a sale on games loosely related to its theme? A terrible trick, which is part of what makes Halloween a real treat—discounts on horror games galore. The Humble Bundle are joining in on spooky sales with their own Halloween offers. Some are, appropriately, horror games. Some others are just vaguely grim, I guess. But hey, they're all on sale.
]]>It's funny how remaking a game can give you a wholly different vibe. The original Resident Evil 2 was a great game for its time, but by today's standards it's as scary as a children's Halloween costume, unless you're playing it for the very first time. The Resident Evil 2 remake, however, is a modern horror masterpiece.
]]>Science, the most difficult of the arts. We are trained from toddlerhood to respect and fear the products of scientific advancement, such as the selfie sticks or mechanical pencil. The unsurpassed boffins who create such devices are worthy of admiration. But there is one realm in which science is not such a gentle guardian of the people. That’s right, it’s videogames. In games, scientists are treacherous, evil, stupid, murderous or some genetic concoction of all the above. Here are the 9 worst scientists in PC games.
]]>Have you exhausted your Steam library? Okay, let me rephrase that: have you run out of things you’re excited to play in your Steam library? Well, if you’re a fan of Capcom games, then the latest discounts from Fanatical are well worth a look, with Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5 and Monster Hunter: World's Iceborne Master Edition all going cheap today.
]]>Let us wish a blessed Good Friday to all the Catholics in the house. Now, get out. Your fish-sharing magician cannot compete with these 9 videogame characters who see death as nothing but a passing nuisance. These 9 heroes of reanimated flesh. These 9 unkillable beings of limitless power and mystery. Where is your precious Holy Spirit now, loser? Look at these 9 luminous freaks who have monstered sinew and reality to their will. Read my list feature, disgusting mortal, and repent.
]]>That up there is Leon from Resident Evil 2 wielding a gnarly lookin' combat knife. Eventually that knife will have bitten one too many zombies and break, leaving ol' Leon in a lurch. In this year's Resident Evil 3 remake, Jill and Carlos will fare much better with their now indestructible knives. Capcom wanted you to always have "something you can rely on."
]]>A deadly outbreak, broken quarantine, a malevolent pharmaceutical company and store shelves utterly devoid of toilet paper. Perhaps Resident Evil 3 is hitting too close to home right now - or perhaps, it's never been more timely. With the RE3 remake's release just weeks away, Capcom have opened the gates to Racoon City a little early with today's free demo. Take on the Nemesis, evade the walking dead - but just remember to wash your hands, yeah?
]]>The greasy realm of the videogame is not always the best place to look for good writing. For every Disco Elysium there are roughly 800 Detroit: Beyond Humans. But it is a good place to look for wondrous, over-the-top nonsense. I’m talking about character dialogue so flamboyant and exaggerated, you could insert some line breaks and it would instantly become a verse in a glam rock anthem. Here are the 12 most extravagant, exuberant, and intense lines of dialogue. In games, subtext is just whatever’s written on the side of the nuclear submarine.
]]>Everyone loves a good action game. It's the driving force behind so many of our favourite PC games, but only a few can lay claim to being the best action games of all time. That's why we've compiled this list - to sort the pulled punches from the bestest biffs that PC has to offer. Whether it's the joy of pulling off a perfect combo, riding the wave of an explosive set-piece or the hair-raising thrill of dodging enemy attacks in slow-motion that gets you going, there's an action game here for you.
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>Rural life is disgusting. All those shrubs and trees, how awful. You should pack your checkered pouch and head into the big smoke. The shining cities of videogameland are calling to you, and the team of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, will be there to help you get settled in to your disgusting, overpriced flat no matter which giant urban maze you choose. Trust us, life is so much better in the city.
Ignore the rats. You'll get used to them.
]]>The organisers of speedrunning marathon Games Done Quick have breezed past their previous charity fundraising record, gathering $3,003,889 (£2.4m) across the week-long event. They’d already set their own speed record by hitting $1 million on Thursday – the biggest rush of donations always comes at the end – so it’s a multi-record setting event and all in order to give people medical care. Everyone bask in the feel-good glow for a minute.
]]>Being a toddler in 1998, I arrived fresh to the Resident Evil 2 remake with bright eyes and principled reservations. I don’t like horror games and I’ve avoided them for most of my life. So when I booted up the newest Resi, I was cast into the deep end of the survival horror pool with no floaties. My first playthrough was fraught with thick Geordie expletives. Yet one of the more puzzling revelations of the game was how it teaches you to face your fears not just by peppering zombies with shotgun shells, but also by speedrunning right past them.
]]>Replacing all of Skyrim's dragons with Thomas The Tank Engine was all fun and games, but I’m beginning to think we have accidentally unlocked a terrible curse, an urge in the heart of modders everywhere to insert him into more and more games. His latest appearance sees him replacing Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, and I think the horror of being relentlessly pursued may have become even creepier with the addition of this expressionless Engine.
]]>With his final breath, I like to think that Resident Evil 2’s Robert Kendo cursed the lying huckster that installed his double glazing. ReMakesident Evil 2, clearly conscious of besmirching the good name of glass salesman the world over, fleshed out Kendo’s story into one of its most human scenes, but still left a haunting question mark hovering over the fate of him and his daughter, Emma.
]]>I refuse to play Resident Evil 2, because I am, proudly, a coward. But if you’re braver than me, there’s now more game, and you can get it for free. The Ghost Survivors takes players into a “what if” universe, offering alternate stories for three pre-existing characters as they try to escape from the biological disaster that befell Raccoon City. All of them are teased in this here trailer, which I watched at great peril but which happily had no jump scares.
]]>I’m not usually one for speedrunning. I do however get a kick out of being able to get through a game much faster on the second or third time around. There’s just an immense satisfaction of revisiting a brain-bending puzzle or boss fight that had you agonising over an hour the first time, only to mop it up in minutes on a second run.
Of the different reasons for playing games, mastery has a strong appeal for me, something I get a great deal from Dark Souls -- but it’s a buzz I’ve also found myself getting with the Resident Evil 2 remake, so much so that I’ve been replaying it a lot more than I ever expected to.
]]>A hugely impressive reimagining of a classic videogame has been released, so there's only one thing for it - mod it until it's just like the original. Boo, 2019, boo!
Take, for example, videos which replace the free-moving over-the-shoulder camera of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 remake with the fixed camera angles of the 1998 original. While I'm very happy with how the remake does it, this return to fixed cam does lend it a powerful horror movie je ne sais quoi - I should very much like to play that Resi 2 hybrid.
But will that ever be possible? I asked the chap behind the videos about how he'd done it, if and when it'd be released, and why embark on this reverse-remaking in the first place?
]]>First person to make a "booby" remark goes straight into the shark pit. We're only interested in dangerous mechanisms that kill or maim over-confident explorers and other unsuspecting types. Yes, the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, is talking about the deadliest, most disturbing, or otherwise silly death traps in videogames. Be they in temples, tombs or tunnels, traps can be anywhere, so long as it begins with a “T”. Alliteration is important.
]]>The Resident Evil 2 remake is a blood-soaked good 'un. The infested police station and sewers of Raccoon City have been recreated to bring the 1998 zombie romcom kicking and biting into the present day. Among other polishes, it gets rid of those dated fixed camera angles. The good Capcom boys and girls have given us an over-the-shoulder camera while injecting their survival horror classic with new life. Excellent.
Actually, sod that. Would you not rather play it in first-person mode?
]]>It worked! Everyone, it worked! The sacrifices we all made, they were all worth it. Some said we were fools to ritually slaughter those Fortnite players and smear our naked bodies with their blood and entrails, but look! No GTA V in the Steam Charts! And no Monster Hunter World! Sure, there's still flipping Clancy Siege, and obviously nothing short of sacrificing a god could take out Plunkbat, but it's a chart filled with fresh, new and even lovely games!
]]>The zombie remake first confounded Matt in his Resident Evil 2 review, before winning him over with its survival horror. Since then, two RPS folk who remember the 1998 original have had time to confront the undead. So what's our final verdict?
Brendan: Oh hello, Matt. Hi, Dave. Fancy meeting you two here, among these burning ambulances and smashed-up lamp posts. Raccoon City definitely isn’t what they advertised on the brochure, is it?
Matt: "Raccoon City" is a ridiculous name and time has somehow made you all forget this.
Dave: It could have had a more appropriate name, but then it wouldn’t be Resident Evil without the B-Movie schlock.
]]>Stop whatever you're doing and go and buy some entirely superficial DLC for the latest release in a mainstream videogame franchise right now. Today is the day Rock, Paper, Shotgun betrays everything it once stood for (for about three hours one day in July 2008, probably). Because today is the day I played the excellent Resident Evil 2 remake in the nothing-less-than-glorious Noir mode.
]]>Videogames! That’s the topic of this week’s podcast. Okay, you got us, we couldn’t be arsed to prepare a theme. But we have been playing with a lot of these glittering videowotsits. Graham comes on to discuss the teeny-weeny strategy game Wargroove, which is out tomorrow. And John has been enjoying the company of penguins in Subnautica: Below Zero. Meanwhile, Brendan has been traipsing carefully around in Resident Evil 2, trying to escape a big man in a hat.
]]>The Resident Evil 2 remake is a lovely thing indeed. A polished, Dead Space-esque re-imagining of a horror classic. Capcom aren't cutting corners on support, either, as there's a chunk of free DLC - The Ghost Survivors - due out on February 15th. It's adding three "what if" scenarios based on three minor characters that never made it out of Raccoon City. Players will be dodging zombies as a soldier, the gun shop owner and the mayor's daughter. Also due on same day are some chunky PSX-style costumes for Leon and Claire. Take a peek at all three characters and the outfits below.
]]>Once bitten, twice shy, is not a good aphorism for zombies. They're not very shy at all. In fact, some of them are positively bold. They've wreaked havoc with this week's Steam Charts, taking over nearly half the entries. Which, admittedly, saves me thinking up a bunch of other stupid shit to write.
Yes, click through, read on, for the bunch of stupid shit I did write.
]]>Close to midnight, something evil was lurking in the dark: Resident Evil 2 launched. Under the moonlight, players saw a sight that almost stopped their hearts: Capcom's 1998 survival horror game remade with the sheen and glisten that 21 years of technological advancement have brought us. Whether that's something to scream about or not may depend on how much you want a game playing largely like a 1998 survival horror. Young Matt didn't quite click with some of 1998's conventions in his Resident Evil 2 review, though I'm not entirely sure he was even alive in 1998 and ooh the youth of today etc.
]]>Certain moments in Resident Evil 2 are imbued with a specific kind of awful. Moments when calculated slaughter gets drowned under a tide of undead flesh, all thought of eradication consumed by escape. There's this deep, prolonged pull of fear, punctured by sharp desperation. Moments when a dozen zombies and worse lumber between you and presumed safety, grabbing and biting and clawing as they drag you to the floor over and over again. It's messy. It's grim. It's kind of brilliant.
]]>If you fancy playing the Resident Evil 2 remake's demo past its 30-minute deadline, good news: canny corpsegnawers have figured out how to reset the timer. It's a little fiddly but if you want to amble around the Raccoon Police Department HQ for longer, exploring or puzzling or popping heads, that is now an option. While the demo is still due to expire at the end of January, this is one arbitrary timer evaded. I'll leave you to untangle the ethical issues of breaking software rules to become a cop to shoot cops who are eating cops.
]]>A lot of people first discover this Pulitzer Prize-winning* column via the Steam pages for their favourite games, and it's always a pleasure to welcome in new readers to RPS's most respected feature. So if you're new, welcome! Please settle in and find out why Steam Charts is the industry's most respected and revered games journalism.
]]>As far as bad first days at a new job go, you can't really beat Leon Kennedy's - go on, try the new Resident Evil 2 remake demo and tell me I'm wrong. Released somewhat later today than expected, the thirty-minute demo for the upcoming horror rework is live. It weighs in at a hefty 7.2gb download, and expands to slightly larger than that. Grab it here on Steam - you've got thirty minutes to play (after setting up your controls and settings), and the download disappears on January 31st. Below, some quick thoughts on the all-too-short demo and a little teaser trailer.
]]>The demo of Resident Evil 2's remake will put the squeeze on players beyond the usual 'trapped in a building full of zombies and wall-smashing monsters' tension. Due on January 11th, Capcom's "1-Shot Demo" gives players just half an hour to explore the Raccoon City police headquarters with a mission to complete. Die, and you restart, but the clock keeps on ticking down. Win, and you restart, and the hands keep on turning. Once your thirty minutes are up, you're locked out of the city until the full game lands January 25th. An odd choice, but one sure to cause some panicky deaths.
]]>It's now 2019, meaning we're just weeks away until Capcom's long awaited remake of Resident Evil 2 is unleashed onto the populace like a viral outbreak. Since this is more re-imagining the original game than a direct port, there are some big changes. This guide hub will include all the information we know about the game's release date, trailers, and details on the special edition and pre-order bonuses.
]]>Wow 2019 is a thing, huh? How are we all doing? Relieved? Bowling a hangover and a nagging sense of trepidation? Maybe you work in retail and, surprise! You were supposed to be at work half an hour ago. Time loses all meaning post-New Year break, doesn't it? You're just sort of adrift in a sea of empty Quality Street wrappers. That's okay. We're all there too.
Pretty soon the grim news cycle is going to grind to life again. Only three months until -- no! Don't think about it. We still have a moment here, on the crinkly, brightly coloured waves. Listen to their quiet rustling and think, not about reality, but about games! Yes, lovely, shiny games. We can bury our face right in them. And from that point of view the next 12 months are looking pretty good. Here's our selection of the games we're most looking forward to next year.
]]>I was beaten to death by the bloke with the big eye. If you went through the zombie gauntlet of Resident Evil 2 back in 1998, you will recognise this large, gurgling sod. William Birkin is the zombified antagonist whose pharmaceutical experiments have turned Racoon City into a shambling shantytown. That’s fine. The same experiments also turned him into a bloke with a giant case of conjunctivitis in his shoulder. He just thrashed me to death with a big pipe. It was nice to see him again.
]]>Do you want to see more of Resident Evil 2’s floppy-haired Leon as he runs away from zombies? Of course you do. After a few years of waiting, Capcom’s gory remake finally made the rounds at E3 this year, and gosh does it look flashy. This isn’t a 20-year-old game with a fresh coat of paint, but rather a proper remake. Point your eyes at the new trailer, below.
]]>Capcom's fancy remake of Resident Evil 2 will launch on January 25th, 2019, they announced tonight. The horrors of Raccoon City are looking fancier than ever in the first trailers and screenshots - do remember that this is a full remake built on the Resident Evil 7 engine, not like most of Capcom's recent halfhearted 'HD' re-releases of other games in the survival horror series. Capcom say they've made a few tweaks here and there, but by and large it's still good ol' RE2, only now with shinier guts. That's not me talking; Capcom specifically boast about a "horrifyingly realistic wet gore effect" for zombs. Good. Great. Lovely. See it here in the trailers.
]]>Welcome to the freshly relaunched RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show! You might think this is episode 31, but actually it’s episode 1 again. We’re rebooting it, even though we just did that last year. We’ve started by making it more accessible. Instead of three of us chatting about videogames between snippets of jaunty music, there’s just a sad man saying “Sonic the Hedgehog” over and over. We’re confident you’ll like it.
]]>One way or another, Resident Evil 2 is being remade. Three weeks ago, we peeked at Resident Evil 2 Reborn, a fan project that's been in the works for years and was due to launch this summer. Then, last week, Resident Evil owners Capcom confirmed they have plans for their own official remake. Now, surprise surprise, the fan remake is off.
]]>Remember when I was like, "isn't it weird that a bunch of dudes on the Internet are having to remake Resident Evil 2 themselves instead of Capcom?"
The question was posed, the universe agreed, and so the cogwheels turned: Capcom's gonna make a nice lil' Resident Evil 2 remake for y'all to enjoy. Thanks, VideoGamer.com.
]]>About 17 years ago, back when most of you were a mere twinkle in yer mom's wombish bits, Capcom released a little zombie game called Resident Evil 2. Now the year 2015, in a time where the weird bulbous character models of yore no longer carry the same value in the eyes of my jaded Millennial peers, the final touches are being made to a long-awaited free fan remake called Resident Evil 2 Reborn [official site].
Reborn has been in the making for around two years, initially using the Unity engine before moving on to Unreal Engine 4. It features totally revamped 3D models, particle effects, better lighting, textures and animation. All that fun stuff. You can check out a few clips below.
]]>Resident Evil 2 was my favourite of the early Resi games. Sure, its predecessor was the more iconic, and Resident Evil 2 contains not even one Barry Burton or sleeveless vest jacket, but Resident Evil 2 was my Resident Evil. Until Resident Evil 4, of course.
So here's something very neat indeed! A fellow Resi 2 fan, Rod Lima, has seen fit to import the game's assets into the Unreal Development Kit and recreate the game - purely as an educational project to assist in his learning the UDK ropes. So no, you can't play it.
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