Classic survival horror has seen a resurgence in recent years, aiming to capture the essence of the old style of gameplay made popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s through titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

More than ever, we’ve seen authentic new takes on this format crawling from the grave, with games like Tormented Souls, Signalis, Crow Country and most recently Hollowbody, ?crafting dreary atmospheres within grungy, unforgiving worlds.

This same DNA is wrought throughout Becrowned, a new psycholo??????????????????????????gical horror game from the team at 13th Street Studio, founded by its lead developer, Earnest Anpilov.

“We are a small indie studio, and we are making the game of? our dreams,�?said A??npilov in an email interview.

“We've been developing the game for several years in our free time, which sometimes isn't enough to fully commit to the project. It's a hard and lengthy process.�?/p>

First conceived in 2021, Anpilov began working on Be??crowned on his own, introducing more people to the team as th?e project took shape.

“The best ??part of development is interacting with the team. Each of us is passionate about this project.�?nbsp;

The game features classic survival horror gam?eplay, including clunky combat, constrained camera ??movement and, of course, traditional tank controls - although a more modern control scheme is also available.

But most importantly, Becrowned is faithful to the genre in its atmosphere, with a haunting soundscape that com??pliments the stylistically antiquated visuals.

“Thanks to a special rendering? style, the g?raphics have a classic PS1 - PS2 aesthetic while still incorporating modern technological advancements,�?said Anpilov.

A demo is available on Steam as of Sep??t. 27, taking place during a chapter from the middle of the main game in which the protagonist, Richard, finds himself trapped in the run-down Karpenter Asylum.

This mental hospital previously treated patients with psychosis and other illnesses, including Richard’s father, Clint??????????????????????????, who suffered from severe C-PTSD upon returning home from military duty. The further Richard delves, the more details he uncovers on unethical experiments run on t?he patients, as well as his own family’s history and trauma.

As players step forth into the dilapidated halls of the abandoned facility, they are greeted by the eerie soundtrack that creates a sense of discomforting calm, reminiscent of the early Silent Hill games; a tranquility that could be dis??turbed at the drop of a hat.

“We are heavily inspired by old-school survival horror games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Alone in the Dark,�?said Anpilov.

“We also draw inspiration from old horror films, and our writer is a huge fan of Lovecraft and similar literature.�?/p>

Amid the bizarre puzzles and punishing difficulty, there are a number of thoughtfully ??placed scares and tense set piece sequences that make your skin crawl as you escape enemy pursuit.

Resources are extremely limited but tightly balanced, keeping even the most careful player under tension to scr??ape up enough ammo and health pickups between each of the conventionally janky enemy encounters.

However, not all of th??e demo��s jank is quite so intentional or charming. Fights with ??enemies are unbalanced, as the attack patterns of close-combat foes are easy to exploit, while ranged enemies are instead rather difficult to avoid and can wipe out a full health status in only a couple of hits.

In addition, the demo still has a few bugs to iron out, ranging from small UI errors,? to loading glitches that can soft-lock your save file.

But all of these issues are easily excusable from a demo ve?rsion, especially from such a small indie game developer.

“There are various challenges, ranging from the technica??l difficulties of implementing? certain mechanics we want in the game, to the simple lack of resources,�?explains Anpilov. 

With over an hour of gameplay, the demo provides a surprisingly succinct and contained story, but Anpoliv expressed that “this is just one of many locations.�?/p>

“Becrowned will feature a dark fantasy setting with th??e ruins of majestic castles, industrial horror with concrete jungles, and classic Lovecraftian horror with? sea monsters. All of this is connected by a grand narrative,�?said Anpilov.

“This year, we all got together to film video material for in-game live-action content. It was amazing! We had very little time for the shoot, and each of us worked perfectly as part of a big, well-oiled machine.�?/p>

Becrowned is targeting a release on Windows and macOS, with full Steam Deck optimization. The team hopes to be able to bring the g??ame to Nintendo Switch in the future as well.

The post Becrowned is the manifestation of fans’ love for old-school horror appeared first on Destructoid.

With the release of director Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus on August 16, the longstanding Alien franchise has been launched back into the spotlight. Fans hadn't seen a new film since 2017's Alien: Covenant from legendary director Ridley Scott. Thus, there has been plenty of buzz surrounding the entire series as of late. This renewed interest isn't limited solely to the franchise's cinematic installments. Naturally, all-things Alien have made their way back into the mainstream, including one video game set to cele??brate a landmark anniversary in a few month?s.

On October 7, 2024, Alien: Isolation (which Romulus drove home is indeed canon) will turn 10 years old. The survival horror game, developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega, fills in the gaps between the events of 1979's Alien and it's 1986 sequel, Aliens. Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) daughter, Amanda Ripley (Andrea Deck), sits at the core of the narrative, as she tries to figure out what became of her mother and her allies. Being an Alien story, i?t only makes sense that she and her companions are soon ambushed by the dreaded Xenomorph, throwing players into a fight for s??urvival against one of the most iconic and terrifying science fiction monsters in history.

10 years is a long time. Society, popular culture, and entertainment as a whole can and have changed drastically in that time. So with a decade behind it, how does Alien: Isolation hold up i??n the modern gami?ng landscape? How has the perception of it changed over the years?

Despite its shortcomings, Isolation has aged quite well

When I first gave Alien: Isolation a try shortly after it released, I was just a teenager who loved the Alien movies and wanted to further explore the franchise, as well as the entire horror video game genre. To say that the game delivered for me on those fronts would be an understatement. I appreciated the game's connections to the films and was equally intrigued by its deviations. The visuals absolutely blew me away, the gameplay kept me engaged, and, admittedly, the Xenomorph gave me a few good frights here and there, but that only made me want to play more. Sure, the game wasn't perfect, with some sections stumping me (or boring me) and the Xenomorph itself unexpectedly glitching out on occassion, but on the whole, I couldn't complain too much. After finishing Isolation, I set it down for quite a long time.

In the years since Isolation arrived and I completed it, I've only played it a handful of times, most recently doing so to reassess its legacy at a decade old. Surprisingly, now in my twenties, I feel much the same about Isolation as I did in my teens. The graphics, while still strong, do show their age in places. I can recognize that Amanda's story has some imperfections and weak points, but it still draws me in. Also, even as I've become less adept at stealth, the gameplay mechanics still suffice. Of course, there were still a couple spots where the Xenomorph caught me off guard, and some areas I was swiftly reminded are a slog to get through. Nevertheless, to say that Isolation holds up would be an understatement. It may not be the best in its?? class, but for 10 years old, it's still an excellent s??ci-fi horror title.

I'll even go a step further. Considering how well Isolation has aged?? over the past 10 years and its lasting legacy, dare I say it deserves a place in the conversation of all-time horror game classics.

Isolation earned praise then, but what about now?

When Alien: Isolation dropped, I was far from the only one singing its praises. Upon release, most major gaming and entertainment publications awarded it high marks. In fact, at the time, Destructoid's own Chris Carter was quite pleased with what it had to offer, ultimately awarding the game a commendable 8.5 out of 10. Simultaneously, when it came to horror games, the Alien franchise, and general video game fans, the positive remarks they made about it far outweighed the negative ones. That's all well and good, but that was then and this is now, so what is the legacy of Isolation among today's video game-playing masses? Well, it's fair to say that it has remained an overwhelmi?ng fan favorite, and its fanbase continues to expand.

With its 10th anniversary rapidly approaching, Isolation is still gaining new players. Thanks to the release of Alien: Romulus and the hype surrounding it, Isolation saw an astounding 320%?? player count rise on Steam. Even without the aid of Romulus, though, the positive word of mouth coupled with the enduring love for the Alien saga has kept Isolation on the minds and tongues of gamers everywhere. Not only is there an active Isolation subreddit with around 28,000 members, but Reddit as a whole is full of Isolation-related chatter. Some threads are newcomers to the game debating giving it a go, others are mini-reviews applauding it. Evidently, the fandom that has rallied behind Isolation is extremely passionate, ?hence w?hy the title remains so prevalent in the horror gaming world a decade on.

Of the numerous Alien-based video games to come out since Ridley Scott's Alien premiered a staggering 45 years ago, none are quite like Isolation. It's scary, visually stunning, and pays homage to the films it's based on while carving out its ?own niche. Seeing as it's still widely played and adored after a full decade, clearly, these elements and more comprised the recipe for success. Here's to another 10 years.

The post 10 years on, does Alien: Isolation hold up? appeared first on Destructoid.

It has been 45 years since director Ridley Scott's Alien first blew moviegoers away, and its cultural impact doesn't seem to have diminished in the slightest. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is still an icon, the Xenomorphs are still terrifying, and the ??franchise it has launched is still going strong.

Having taken a few years off after some disappointing and confusing entries, the Alien franchise has finally returned with director Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus, a film that certainly has its ups and downs and has even generated some division among Alien enthusiasts since debuting on August 16.

For the most part, Romulus brings the Alien series back to basics. It introduces a new crew of space colonist characters, led by Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), who take it upon themselves to scavenge the wreckage of a nearby abandoned ship, the USCSS Nostromo. Little do they realize once they board the ship that it's not entirely empty. Before they know it, they're set upon by alien hordes, forced to fight for their lives and?? do everything in their power to escape before it's too late.

Is it the most lore-heavy or game-changing installment in the Alien saga? Not quite, but there's still plenty to enjoy and plenty to study up on before seeing it. If you want to get the most out of Alien: Romulus, these are? the films in the franchise you should check? out first.

Prometheus comes first

Compared to most other Alien movies, 2012's Alien: Prometheus is quite ambitious. It's not so much a straight-up science fiction horror movie as much as it is a massive, epic lore dump explaining where the Xenomorphs came from, how and by who they were created, and what their earliest ??interactions with humanity were like. While there are plenty of moviegoers and critics out there who find the film to be a bit of a drag, the film isn't a total swing-and-miss.

Prometheus does an excellent job providing an origin story for the Xenomorphs in all of their biomechanical horror and offers some truly compelling performances. Most notable is Michael Fassbender as the android David. Additionally, Prometheus is a visual spectacle with grand yet spine-chilling settings, excellent camera work, and breathtaking costumes. To top it all off, the plot, while a bit messy at times, is fascinating and sure to Intrigue those new to the Alien series.

At the end of the day, Prometheus doesn't have many deep-cut connections to Romulus as it is set a while before it in the year 2093, but it does lay the groundwork for both it and the other Alien films.

Alien: Covenant is worth checking out, but not overly-essential

Moving ahead roughly 11 years after the events of Prometheus, we get 2017's Alien: Covenant. While still maintaining some of the grandeur of its predecessor, Covenant leans more into the hallmarks of the Alien saga.

A group of colonists land on a remote planet that seems to be nothing short of perfect. Of course, having seen Prometheus, we, as audience members, know that the presence of Fassbender's David is not a good sign. In short order, the colonists have to defend themselves from far more Xenomorph??-loo??king Xenomorphs than those present in the 2012 film.

Even though in tone and style, Covenant angles into what made the Alien films so beloved and recognizable. It very much maintains the narrative thread of the somewhat tonally distant Prometheus while revealing more about the evolution of the Xenomorphs. This may be fascinating for some, especially those who found Prometheus engaging, but to others, this could make Covenant entirely skippable.

Much like Prometheus, Covenant isn't too closely tied to Romulus outside of its larger lore connections. So, if you're into the lore of the franchise, it's definitely worth checking out before Romulus. If not, you could wa??tch it ?for entertainment value, but it's not quite essential.

Alien is a must before Romulus

With Prometheus and Covenant behind us, we now move on to what is either the best or the second-best film in the entire Alien saga, depending on your personal taste.

1979's Alien started it all, with the crew of the USCSS Nostromo being picked off one by one by a mysterious and frightening alien entity. In the end, Ripley is the one brave enough to stand toe-to-toe with?? the Xenomorph, defeating it once and for all...or so she thought.

As has been said for decades, Alien is a masterclass in horror, science fiction, and the intersection of the two, but those aren't the only reasons why you should check it out before giving Romulus a try. It's quite literally a prequel to the new film, set 20 years before Romulus in the year 2122.

As you've likely pieced together already, the USCSS Nostromo Rain and her companions investigation in Romulus is the exact wreckage left behind by Ripley, her fellow crew members, and the Xenomorph in Alien. It doesn't get much more direct than that, but in all honesty, even if they weren't connected, no Alien series rewatch of any kind is complete wi??thout th?is film.

What about the Alien vs. Predator duology?

On paper, a crossover between the Xenomorph of the Alien franchise and the Yautja from the Predator franchise should be a match made movie heaven. In truth, these legendary silver screen creatures' two meetings on the big screen have left much to be desired??.

Sure, seeing them come to blows in Alien vs. Predator and its sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, is a fun novelty, but as far as full movies?? go, they miss the mark in multiple way?s. The human characters are forgettable, the plots are uninspired, and for the most part, they don't do much to push either franchise forward.

The only reason the AVP duology is even being discussed here is because they supposedly take place in the year 2004, nearly a full century before Prometheus. Thus, one might imagine that they're needed to understand all of the films that have been mentioned on this list. In reality, the existence of Prometheus effectively erases them from the Alien franchise canon. If you want to watch them anyway for one reason or another, feel free, but just because they're set before Romulus does not mean that watching or not watch?ing them will impact your understanding of the ??new movie.

With that, your pre-Romulus viewing guide is complete. Once you've watched it, you'll be in a good?? spot to g?ive Romulus a go. The feature is now playing exclusively in theaters.

The post Which Alien movies do you need ?to see before Alien: Romulus? appeared first on Destructoid.

Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks has averted closure after KRAFTON, Inc. purchased the studio and the aforemen??tioned IP from Microsoft.

Announced in a Krafton press release, the PUBG publisher said it “welcomed the talented people of Tango Gameworks to their team,�?after an acquisition that would “include the rights to Tango Gameworks�?acclaimed IP, Hi-Fi RUSH.�?/p>

Notably missing from the acquisition are the IPs of the studio's previous works, Ghostwire: Tokyo and The Evil Within, which Micro?soft will continue to retain at this time.

Established in 2010 by industry veteran Shinji Mikami, Tango Gameworks is no stranger to new ownership, as it was purchased by Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, that same year. In 2021, it came under new ownership again following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax. A sequel to Hi-Fi Rush was in the planning stages prior to - and possibly contributing to - the announcement?? in May that Tango would be among four studios slated to shut down.

With Krafton’s commitment to “maintain continuity at Tango Gameworks, allowing the talented team to continue developing the Hi-Fi RUSH IP and explore fu?ture projects,�?it appears that the studio has been granted a second chance to resume work on this follow-up title.

Although studio founder Shinji Mikami left in 2023, the creative director at Tango Gameworks, John Johanas, confirmed in a post on X/Twitter that he would remain at the studio, stating, “We’re back, baby!�?/p>

Although it's unclear how many other previous staff members will return to the company, Krafton stated that they “[intend] to support the Tango Gameworks team to continue its commitment to innovation and delivering fresh and exciting experiences for fans.�?/p>

No news was shared on whether the upcoming physical release of Hi-Fi R??ush via Limited Run Games will be affected by this transaction, but it does not appear likely as the press release stated that “there will be no impact on the existing game catalog of The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and the original Hi-Fi RUSH game.�?/p>

While this is an uplifting turn for the nearly-defunct studio, it is worth noting that Krafton’s is not without its own track record of layoffs, with 32 staff let go from Striking Distance Studios last year after its debut title, The Calisto Protocol, fell short of sales expectations. Regardless, this is undeniably a ??more ideal outcome for the company than anybody could have expected, with renewed opportunity under new ownership.

This surprising turn of events offers a faint glimmer of hope to the desperate fools like myself still holding out for the Tango team to conjure up The Evil Within 3 someday. If Toys for Bob ca?n partner with Microsoft for a new game after separating from them earlier in the year, what’s stopping Tango from collaborating with Microsoft on another Evil Within title in the future?

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There's plenty of buzz surrounding Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as it creeps closer to its release, and understandably so. Fans of the Zombies mode had it especially good recently with the release of a t?railer showcasing an ??intro cinematic and snippets of gameplay for one of the game's launch maps, Terminus.

That trailer made it immediately apparent who the real big bad of the ongoing Dark Aether storyline is, and for longtime Zombies players, it's both a surprise and not much of a surprise at all who's pulling the strings. After being teased previously in Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, Dr. Edward "Eddie" Richtofen (Nolan North) stands revealed as the arc's bad guy, and he has a pretty ma?ssive target on his ??back.

As seen in the Terminus trailer, his name is scribbled on Grigori Weaver's (Gene Farber) prison cell wall, indicating that he has some serious revenge com?ing his way. William Peck (Zeke Alton) also expresses interest in killing Richtofen for stealing his life's work.

We'll have to wait and see if he appears in the flesh, but how is the maniacal German scientist back in the Zombies spotlight? Ahead of the release of Black Ops 6, let's take a trip down memory lane to discuss what became of Richtofen by the end of Black Ops 4.

Richtofen's role in the Dark Aether storyline

To understand Richtofen's place in the Dark Aether saga, we have to go back to the end of the Aether story in Black Ops 4. To sum up the past decade or so, everything in the multiverse ?is enveloped by the Dark Aether, a twisted, corrupted version of the real world. Our main Zombies crew in their Primis and Ultimis forms are killed, and the cycle they'd been trapped in for so long is destroyed. All that remains of this multiverse in the new one born out of it are Samantha Maxis (Julie Na??thanson) and a young Eddie from another dimension. They walk hand in hand to the new world, though they don't live peaceful lives by any means as they become adults.

While Samantha grows up to become a military operative and joins the front lines against the Dark Aether's invading forces, Eddie's story takes a more surprising turn. The specifics of his childhood remain unknown, but as an adult, he serves as the Director of the Requiem, which is a unit of the Central Intelligence Agency that monitors Dark Aether activity. Though she doesn't know it, as revealed in Black Ops: Cold War, Richtofen is her boss and later her interrogator as he tries to unlock her powers after she's exposed to the Dark Aether. He also oversees the arrests of her companions, hence why th??ey're in prison before the events of Terminus.

What is Richtofen's latest scheme?

This brings us to Black Ops 6, where Requiem has been disbanded, and Richtofen seems to have given up his position at the CIA. For now, all we can do is least speculate as to what he's been up to and how Eddie went from an innocent child to a ruthless government figure w??ith no regard for the lives of others.

At the heart of whatever he's concocting is his fascination with the Dark Aether. Could it be that?? he simply wants to harness its power for himself, much like how the previous Richtofen took an interest in the power of the Aether? Or, is he mo??re so a pawn in a larger game? Richtofen was previously influenced by the Apothicons and the Shadowman (Robert Picardo) to do their bidding, so maybe they or another malevolent entity is swaying Eddie for an unknown end.

Then again, since he has memories of the previous multivers??e, unlike Samantha, maybe he wants to resurrect it and those within it, believing her Dark Aether abilities could be the key to making that happen. He might want to show her what they lost so she contributes to his grand plan to restore the banished multiverse.

Are more Zombies legacy characters on the way?

With Richtofen making a comeback, some wonder if other legacy Zombies characters could emerge in Black Ops 6 and beyond. Seeing as Richtofen's fellow Zombies icons Tank Dempsey (Steve Blum), Nikolai Belinski (Fred Tatasciore), and Takeo Masaki (To??m Kane) are?? all dead, they're not likely to come back. On the other hand, there is one tenured Zombies crew that could theoretically pop up during the Dark Aether saga.

The Victis crew, known colloquially as the TranZit crew since that was their debut map, was introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Abigail "Misty" Briarton (Stephanie Lemelin), Samuel Stuhlinger (David Boat), Russman (Keith Szarabajka), and Marlton Johnson (Scott Menville) make it all the way to Black Ops 4, helping bring an end to the multiverse and kickstart the new world seen in Black Ops: Cold War and Black Ops 6.

They don't nece?ssarily die at the end of Tag der Toten, simply being sent off to the Dark Aether. While it's entirely likely they were killed or went insane while there, there's a slim chance they're still alive, waiting for a chance to help out once aga??in.

If they or others ??don't come back, though, at least longtime fans can spend some time with Richtofen, the twisted lynchpin of the entire Zombies g??ame mode, yet again.

The post What the return of Ed??ward Richtofen could mean for Zombies in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 appeared first on Destructoid.

Gaming’s indie horror scene has hit it off strong in 2024 with the likes of Crow Country and Withering Rooms making a great impress??ion among critics and players alike. But the second half of the year is stacked w?ith even more excellent looking horror games on the horizon from smaller publishers and independent development teams.

The following games have been lurking in the shadows fo?r long enough. Here's a spotlight on what's to come for indie horror fans during the rest of 2024.

CONSCRIPT

Unlike any of the other games listed here today, CONSCRIPT does not feature supernatural entities or undead ghouls. Instead, it focuses on the atrocities of war, and the toll it takes on the soldiers ordered to co?nduct it. The game is played from the perspective of a French soldier during World War I attempting to survive in the trenches over the course of the years-long c??onflict.

Inspired by the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, CONSCRIPT adapts the combat and puzzle mechanics from classic survival-horror games in its portrayal of the historical horrors. After seven years in the making, CONSCRIPT is finally available now as of July 23, 2024, as w??ell as a demo currently available on Steam.

Zoochosis

Anybody yet unfamiliar with Zoochosis would have thus been unable to draw obvious comparisons, so now is as good a time as any to head that off at the pass: if John Carpenter’s The Thing was set in a zoo, you would have Zoochosis.

With that established, this first-person simulation game casts players as a night-shift zookeeper while an infectious disease spreads among the animal residents, causing them to undergo a macabre metamorphosis into hostile, disfigured abominations. Job responsibilities involve socializing with the animals, feeding them, cleaning up their spaces, and monitoring them to ensure they don’t grow an excess of limbs and scale the walls of their enclosure. Standa?rd procedure.

In order to prevent further loss of life - be it the animals ?or their own - the protagonist must develop vaccines to spare the animals from transforming. The player’s decisions will affect whether or not they can be saved in time, as well as which ending they receive.

Prepare to capture all the grisly body horror through the body camera lens when Zoochosis is freed from its cage on September 23, 2024.

Post Trauma

With its unsettling designs and focus on psychological horror, Post Trauma is shaping up? to be a very promising debut title from Red Soul Games.

Our protagonist, Roman, is a heavy-set train conductor in his late 50s, who finds himself trapped in a warped subway ??system inhabited by disturbed creatures and infested with malignant tend??rils, lining the dismal tunnels the deeper he explores.

The cryptic puzzles and fixed-camera angles are inspired by classic horror franchises, with the setting in particular evoking the opening hours of Silent Hill 4: The Room. Post Trauma is on schedule for a fall 2024 arrival, but for those eager to get on board, a demo for the game is available on itch.io.

Clock Tower: Rewind

The Clock Tower series has a storied history as one of the original gaming horror franchises that ended up fading into obscurity. The premier game in the series, Clock Tower, was released for the Super Famicom in 1995 by Human Entertainment, but now WayForward is debuting it outside of Japan for the first time with Clock Tower: Rewind, an enhanced port for modern platforms.

This point-a??nd-click adventure horror title puts players in the role of a young girl named Jennifer, who is among a group of orphans that have recently been adopted and sent away to an old Norwegian mansion. However, shortly after their arrival, the children find themselves pursued by a half-pint killer wielding a set of scissors twice his stature. With the aptly named Scissorman stalking the manor halls, Jennifer must locate the rest of her adoptive siblings while evading the murderous prowler.

Get your oversized scissors ready, the ribbon cutting for the game’s release is set for October 31 in Japan, with other regions listing a October 11 - November 11 shipping window.

Bye Sweet Carole

Developer: Little Sewing Machine - Meangrip Studios
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment
Platforms: PS5, PS4, XSX|S, XBO, Switch, PC (Steam)
Release: 2024

On the subject of Clock Tower, this twisted take on a classic Disney animation blends the run-and-hide gameplay and side-scrolling perspective of the former with the aesthetic of Snow White or Alice in Wonderland. From the creator of the Remothered series, Bye Sweet Carole’s ?authentic hand-drawn presentation appears pleasant and inviting, starkly juxtaposing its dark themes and violent imagery.

When a young girl named Carole goes missing from an orphanage, her f?ellow resident and friend Lana goes searching for her, and in the process finds another world unlike her own full of strange creatures and homicidal hares that will hunt Lana? throughout the game.

Be prepared to get lost going down this rabb??it hole when the game rele??ases later in 2024.

Hollowbody

At first glance, Hollowbody presents itself as a sci-fi noir story, starring an il??legal smuggler named Mica in search of their partner Sasha, who went missing on a dangerous job in a restricted area alone. Mica attempts to follow after her, but upon entering the restricted airspace, her flying vehicle malfunctions and crash lands amid a dilapidated suburb hidden beneath the clouds. With the futuristic-cyberscape veneer stripped away, Mica is left stranded in a morose town full of plague-ridden monsters.

Emulating the aesthetic of a PS2-era horror title, Hollowbody features a mix of dynamic- and fi??xed-camera angles ??along with traditional survival-horror combat and puzzle solving.

Hollowbody will only b??e roughly three hours long, aiming to be a short-story, but players that are on the fence can try ou??t a newly updated demo on Steam before the game releases later this year.

Sorry We’re Closed

A vibrant standout from the pack, Sorry We’re Closed is no les??s rife with macabre creatures, rustic environments an?d unholy imagery.

A curse has been placed on our protagonist, Michelle, that threatens to cut her life short in a manner of days; however, the demon that inflicted the curse barters an opportunity to lift it if Michelle ventures into the dangers of the demon world to fulfill their bidding. Sorry We're Closed is played from a fixed-camera perspective and, with the use? of a Third Eye granted to her, Michelle can peer into the parallel reality of the demon world. This vision can also expose weak points on enemies, allowing her to dispose of enemies in first-person combat.

W?ith numerous diverse characters to engage with and influence, player’s choices will lead to multiple outcomes in determining the fate of Michelle’s story.

A demo is avail??able on Steam ??now, with the full release expected for some time in 2024.

Echoes of the Living

Perfectly encapsulating the visuals and atmosphere of the Resident Evil (2002) remake, Echoes of the Living is a love letter to the classic franchise, with two playable characters, zombie fil??led streets, fixed camera angles, and elaborate puzzles.

The plot is a direct homage to Resident Evil 2, right down to the dual protagonists of a young lady looking for her brother father and a new guy in town looking fo??r a fresh start right before a zombie outbre??ak sweeps through a small town, all set in the late '90s.

While it may not be an original idea, it is certainly a welcome one if it can pull off the same level of tension and design as its inspirations. A playable demo was previously available during the October 2023 Steam Next Fest, so hopefully the game will recei?ve another demo prior to launch, which is lis?ted for release in 2024.

Tormented Souls 2

Keeping in theme with Resident-Evil-like games, the original Tormented Souls from 2021 garnered attention for its traditional approach to survival horror, including restrictive fixed-camera exploration and combat pa?ired with perplexing puzzles, all set in a detailed and claustrophobic hospit?al.

Tormented Souls 2 retains these core elements as it furthers the story of protagonist Caroline Walker, who now must seek out a cure for a supernatural illness that plagues her younger sister, Anna. Her search brings her to the South American town of Puerto Miller that harbors a deranged cult with a dark and storied history.
Although details are still scarce, this up-and-coming horror franchise is set to arrive later this year.

Fear the Spotlight

As part of the Blumhouse Games publishing initiative for smaller horror projects, Fear the Spotlight leads the pack with ??a??n impressive start. This polygonal adventure garbs itself with a retro aesthetic, but features a modern third-person perspective with a fully voice-acted narrative.

The story follows a young girl named Vivian, who has been convinced by her friend Amy to break into their school after dark in order to perform a hokey séance for fun; that is, until actual spirits are summoned forth, and Amy’s demeanor changes from thrill-seeking teen to an indoctrinated acolyte of dar??k forces. Now pursued by a spotlight-head monster, Vivian must hide from its gaze to survive, all the while solving puzzles, uncovering mysteries, and trying to find Amy to escape the school with their lives.

Although Fear the Spotlight was originally r?eleased in 2023, the developers removed this version in order to undergo a major overhaul of features and content before re-releasing in 2024.

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A week after Nintendo nearly broke the Internet with a very cryptic and unnaturaly creepy video of a smiling man wearing a bag over his head, the company has finally revealed what the Emio viral campaign was all about. Turns out Emio is the star of a new game in a series dating back to the Family Computer (Famicom) Disk Syst??em days that is about to make a spooky retu??rn.

Via a video that can only be accessed directly on YouTube, Yoshio Sakamoto, the man who's been behind the series this whole time, reveals that Emio is the star of Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club.

What is Famicom Detective Club?

It's this club:

It's also the name of an adventure game series that has long been on hiatus. So far, it's composed of only two entries: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. They came out in 1988 and 1989, respectively, and were both desi?gned and directed by Sakamoto.

The Missing Heir is about the investigation of a mysterious death in the Ayashiro Dynasty, whereas The Girl Who Stands Behind is a prequel that follows the investigation of a creepier folklore tale seemingly more akin to what Emio is teasing.

These are adventure games in the visual novel style where we play as a y?oung detective who roams the Japanese countryside and solves mysteries by interrogating people and examining objects. Though its gameplay was similar to that seen in many visual novel titles of the time, this series was ground-breaking for its themes of murder and drug abuse.

The original games never saw the light of day outside of Japan, but you can play remakes of the two original Detective Club series on the Nintendo Switch. I've never played either game, but it seems like there are those, like Destructoid's own CJ, who like??s their stories and finds the remakes engaging enough for you to get nowada?ys. There are also detractors, who claim that the original games haven't aged well for modern audiences, and that the great??-looking remakes still suffe??r from the same gameplay problems plaguing the original games.

Detective Club: Origins

Producer Yoshio Sakamoto joined Nintendo as a designer, working on games like Metroid and Kid Icarus before his start with the Detective Club series '88. His main inspiration was a 1983 Enix game for the NEC PC-6001, The Portopia Serial Murder Case, which Sakamoto claims had a mind blowing effect on him. (Square Enix would later re-release Portopia using AI chat-bot technology, which did not go over well.) He??'d p?reviously thought games had to be all about action, not something such as procedural investigation.

In a 2000 interview translated by Shmuplations, Sakamoto tried to have Detective Club not emulate mys?tery novels, but something that wo?uld work effectively as a game.

"In the context of a game, I think a complex and detailed plot demands too much of the player, so I ??wrote a scenario tailored specifically to the format that, when viewed objectively, might seem a little half-baked, but is more concerned with having the player enjoy the flow of the plot," said Sakamoto.

Nintendo is a company known for holding on to its employees, so it's not particularly surprising that Sakamoto has been there for so long. But what has he been up to since the release of the last Detective Club game in '89? Well, it turns out that though he's not the most famous names?? in Nintendo's roster, he's still one of its most prolific developers.

During the Detective Club hiatus, Sakamoto would continue to work on some notable Nintendo series, like Wario and Metroid. He wound up directing classics such as Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and also produced Metroid Dread. Do you like all the cool new mechanics introduced in Metroid Fusion? Well, according to another interview translated by Shmuplations, those came about because the team wanted Samus to sport a new look. Sakamoto tried to get them to think a??bout new gameplay eleme??nts, and the in-game reason for them.

"The very first thing I needed them to understand was what kind of game Metroid is. I told them they were like a lowly enka singer who had suddenly struck it rich�?but I don’t think they understood that. [Laughs] My goal, of course, was to impress upon them how important it is that the team that makes Metroid really understand what Metroid is all about."

Yoshio Sakamoto, via Shmuplations

While Sakamoto didn't create the Metroid series, he's arguably one of the most powerful creative forces in the history of 2D Metroid games. Then in the year 2000, Sakamoto even created and directed Card Hero, a Game Boy Color title inspired by Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering that ended up getting a physical? release as short-lived trading card gam?e. He's since worked on a variety of Nintendo games, including Rhythm Heaven, Tomodachi Life, and Metroid: Samus Returns.

My bet is that Nintendo didn't didn't greenlight a new Detective Club from Sakamoto solely due to the popularity of this series. I full?y believe that Sakamoto and his team have spent a lot of time working out how to update the series for modern players in a memorable way. Remember Samus' suit: this ??is not the kind of person to make games without good reason.

Let's see how the Detective Club series has evolved after so long in dormancy once Emio releases on the Switch on August 29.

The post With Emio’s reveal, here’s what to know about the Famicom Detective series appeared first on Destructoid.

Since Phasmophobia took the indie world by storm with its co-op ghost hunting mechanics, there have been a few imitators. Some of them, like Ghost Exile or Demonologist, have kept the basics of developer Kinetic Games' formula, but put their own spin on it. Even things like Lethal Company are going for a somewhat similar vibe. But Mirowin's Bureau of Contacts is trying something a little bit more advanced.

Very much taking cues from the likes of Phasmo, Bureau of Contacts is, on the surface, a ghost hunting horror game?? for up to four players. However, its bigges??t sell is that it attempts to magnify the scares with spooky goings-on that are intelligent and able to shift at will. According to the website, it does this through the use of "generative AI technologies," with the studio boasting that it has "trained a neural network to kill."

Over on the Steam page, the studio d??escribes this neural network as being able to control each ghost’s "behavior and tactics," which changes depending on the actions of players. It's also said to be able to hear your voice and adjust how it acts based on what you say.

How could I not go ahead and install it after a sale?s ??pitch like that?

Bureau of Contacts? More like "bureau of crap-pants"

If you're familiar with Phasmophobia, you already know how this is going to go down. Players enter a haunted location and, with a series of tools at their disposal, must locate and identify the kind of ghost that's hanging around. However, with Bureau of Contacts �?much like other ghost hunting g??ames �?there are some tweaks which do make it slightly more advanced.

For example, while you can ascertain where paranormal acti??vity is happening based on thermometer readings, this game has a little more nuance. The temperature might rise, it might lower, or it can even fluctuate. Similarly, with the EMP reader.?? It's not just a one and done mechanic; you have to actually decide what kind of sound the device is emitting.

It also looks great at the moment, despite it being in the early stages of development. Adequately spooky and atmospheric. However, where the game comes into its own is through the use of horror ??as imagined by this neural network. This may we?ll be the first of its kind in the gaming industry, with Mirowin selling the idea that this is the most "human-like intelligence."

It definitely does increase much of the tension via unpredictability. If ghosts are able to change their behavior on the fly based on what's happening during investigations, then it stands to reason that you can't ever truly know what's around the corner. The video below shows it in action. Phasmophobia has similar voice-activated scares, but here i??t's purported to be more state-of-the-art.

Sure enough, our time in Bureau of Contacts may have been short, but it was pretty intense. There may b?e just the one map so far (it's still in Early Access), but it's sizable enough to get a decent amount of playtime out of it.

As for the scares themselves, it seems there is something to be said for having a highly advanced algorithm?? as the director, deciding how and when it attacks players. We noted numerous instances of unexplained sounds, such as running footsteps, being knocked down by invisible entities, as well as literal traps being laid.

How much of what we experienced was sc?ripted or just ambient sounds is hard to say. It definitely felt like we were never safe so long as we remained in the house. If a neural network is pulling the strings on digital ghosts which watch our every move and listen to what we say, there's gotta be so?me potential for a truly horrifying experience.

I will admit that it's perhaps a little too soon to truly appreciate what Bureau of Contacts is trying to achieve. It's still very much in ??development, but that does mean it's on the cheap side. Currently, of the few hundred that have reviewed the game on Steam, many are impressed with what they've played so far, with one person admitting they "nearly pissed" themselves about four times. Not something I would readily admit to on a public forum, but I'm perhaps more traditional when it comes to embarrassing tidbits.

The game's not been o?ut long, having launched June 20. There was an update recently which did add in a tutorial section. Honestly, if you want to actually get to grips with the basics, it's best to learn via these sections, even if you are fa??miliar with other releases in this genre.

This could? be one to watch out for. One of the backlashes of this is how people feel about games with generative AI. Everyone has their own opinion, of course, with many fearing it could spell the end of human input in the creative industries.

In this case, however, it seems like Mirowin is interested in using AI/neural netwo?rks for scare factors only. It's up to you to decide whether this is a slippery slope into generative artificial intelligence dominating video games and other media, or ??whether you think it can have its uses. Is scaring players half to death "useful"? Only time will tell.

The post Bureau of Contacts?? is a Phasmophobia??-like using gen AI ghosts appeared first on Destructoid.

Focus features has released the long-awaited teaser trailer for Robert Eggers' reimagining of the vampire classic, Nosferatu. It's absolutely spine-tingling.

Though the teaser threatens a vampiric threat capable of consuming an entire town, the The VVitch and Lighthouse filmmaker is promising more atmosphere and harr?owing character moments than all-out ?vampire hunting action.

Genre fans will be glad to see that, much like the classic Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Eggers' Nosferatu seems to blend elements of new and old filmmaking such as CGI and miniature work to come up with uniquely unsettli?ng imagery.

But, having come out in 1922, it's completely understandable that most are entering this ride out of love for Eggers' past work, not because they know a thing about Nosferatu itself. Let's find out all there? is to know about it, shall we?

What is a Nosferatu?

The word Nosferatu has been associated with t??he specific image of a vampire with an almos??t goblin-like appearance. "A" Nosferatu is the opposite of the usual image of the suave aristocrat seen in most vampire tales.

In the popular Vampire: The Masquerade board and video games, "the" Nosferatu ar?e a clan of vampires that's confined to the sewers as the Masquerade believes there's just no way they could blend in with society at large.

"Nosferatu", however, is just the o??ld?? Romanian word for "Vampire".

The original Nosferatu told the story of a vampire named Count Orlock but he was meant to be Count Dracula. Filmmaker F.W. Murnay just wanted to adapt the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula and avoid copyright-related repercussions, so the production changed the name, a few story beats, and the character's overal?l appearance. Eggers is sticking with the name Nosferatu instead of Dracula, seemingly because he loves the classic.

Is Nosferatu a remake?

Though it shares the name with 1922's film, the new Nosferatu is being touted as a reinvention of the classic. This is the second retelling of this sort-of bootlegged story, as Werner Herzog also gave it a shot with Nosferatu the Vampyre back in 1979.

Lily-Rose Depp will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Nicholas Hoult, who'll be joined by Eggers regulars Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. Though we only see glimpses of the titular Nosferatu in the teaser, we know he's played by Bill Skarsgård, whom you might know as Pennywise the clown from It. Nosferatu will open on December 25.

The post Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu finally gets a teaser trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Resident Evil developer Capcom recently announced that it will bring the seventh entry in its iconic series, Resident Evil Biohazard, to all Ap??ple devices with an M1 chip or better. For Mac laptops, that means any Mac Book Air or Mac Book Pro from late 2020 onwards will be able to run the game.

However, this isn’t the first time Capcom has released a Mac and iOS port for the Resident Evil series. The current Mac Resident Evil games are essentially a dedicated show??case of just how powerful the M-series chips and integrated graphics cards can be, especially on de??vices such as the Mac Book Air, which don’t have a fan. 

Resident Evil Games for Mac Available Now

Mac and iPhone users can currently purchase both Resident Evil Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake via their device’s App Store. Resident Evil Village on Mac in particular is a spectacle to behold; I can personally vouch for its impressive performance on the M1 Mac Book Air. While there h?ave been a few audio glitches here and there, the port is exceptionally well ??optimized. 

The Resident Evil 4 remake on M1 devices also has generally positive reviews on the Mac?? App Store, though users should note that you’ll need approximat??ely 125 GB of free space on your drive to install the game, which is nearly double the listed size requirement in the store. 

Upcoming Resident Evil Games for Mac

The Resident Evil Biohazard Mac and iOS port is currently slated for July 2nd, 2024. However, Capcom has also announced on its Apple games page that it will be bringing the Resident Evil 2 remake to all M-series Apple devices as well. We don’t have a release date for this one yet, but if the previous Mac Resident Evil ports are anyt??hing to g??o by, it’s sure to be an exceptional experience.

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Fans who were looking forward to Little Nightmares III will u?nfortunately have to hold on, as the game has now been? delayed.

In a post on the official Little Nightmares Twitter, developer Supermassive Games revealed the game was being delayed, and would ??no?w release in 2025.

"As much as we can't wait for you to return to the Nowhere, we also want to make sure we give the game the care and love it deserves." Supermassive said in the statement. "Quality is a top priority for us, and we know you feel the same way. For this reason, we've made the deci??sion to shift the game to 2025."

"We'll be sharing more about Little Nightmares III later this summer, ?so please bear with us and look forward to further updates." the developer promised.

Little Nightmares III was announced in 2023 with a 2024 release window. It is the first in the franchise to be developed by Supermassive. The game wi??ll follow two young protagonists, Low and Alone, as they explore a haunting 2.5D world that focuses on exploration, platforming, and puzzles.

The previous games in the franchise were developed by Swedish-based Tarsier Studios, who had to leave the franchise when they were acquired by Embracer Group after the release of Little Nightmares II. Tarsier Studios doe?s not currently have an announced project.

Little Nightmares has been a cherished franchise since its 2017 launch. The original game followed Six, a girl who had to escape the horrifying vessel known as The Maw. Though Six retuned for 2021's Little Nightmares II, the character and compatriot Mono do not appear to be returning for Little Nightmares III.

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What started out as a little bonus mode in 2008's Call of Duty: World at War has become a global phenomenon. Call of Duty's Zombies mode is a staple of the franchise, with complex lore, a sprawling multiverse, varied maps, and numerous now-iconic original characters behind it. Not to mention, more than a few celebrity guests have gotten in on the zombie-killing actio??n.

While the likes of Tank Dempsey (Steve Blum), Dr. Edward Richtofen (Nolan North), and Samantha Maxis (Julie Nathanson) have carried the mode from game to game, several notable pop culture favorites have briefly come along for the ride. Malcolm McDowell, Jeff Goldblum, the late Ray Liotta, and more have featured in the mode, and that's just in Treyarch's titles. Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: WWII boast celebrity guest stars of their own.

While every celebrity cameo in the Call of Duty Zombies lineage has been fun, some are just a bit more special and noteworthy than others. Here are the top ?five best the Treyarch franchise has offered up to date.

5. Helena Bonham-Carter as Madame Mirela

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Dead of the Night takes players to the manor of skilled archaeologist Alistair Rhodes (Charles Dennis), where all kinds of paranormal entities threaten the lives of those present. Alongside Gideon Jones (Kiefer Sutherland), Jonathan Warwick (Brian Blessed), and Godfrey (Charles Dance) is Christina Fowler, aka Madame Mirela, as portrayed in voice and likeness by Helena Bonham-Carter. She turns in a solid vocal performance here, and considering her entertainment track record, she was a perfect fit for the Zombies mode.

Bonham-Carter has made a career out of taking projects of the supernatural and macabre variety. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, and more fill her filmography. She's also among director Tim Burton's most frequent collaborators, in addition to being his former romantic partner. Bonham-Carter took the role of Mirela seriously, too, telling CinemaBlend that she personally crafted Mirela's accent and channeled Mrs. Lovett, her Sweeney Todd character, to get her Dead of the Night performance just right.

4. Ron Perlman as Floyd Campbell

Kicking off Call of Duty: Black Ops III's Zombies mode, Treyarch put its latest celebrity-loaded map at the forefront. Shadows of Evil takes place in the run-down, paranormal Morgue City, where seedy inhabitants do vile things to get ahead. One of these individuals is Floyd Campbell: a washed-up boxer who's willing to kill if it means getting to the top of ??his profession. Ultimately, he pays the price for his underhanded tactics. Ron Perlman's unmistakable face and rumbling voice couldn't be more suitable for the grizzled journeyman fighter.

Much like Bonham-Carter, Perlman is no stranger to odd, paranormal fictional universes. He's a mainstay in the works of director Guillermo del Toro, from Cronos to Hellboy, where strange is the name of the game. The surreal French fantasy flick The City of Lost Children, starring Perlman as carnival strongman One, also boasts a similar aesthetic to Shadows of Evil. All of this experience, coupled with the fact that Perlman told IGN he'?d always wanted to play a boxer in some form, drove home the fact that no one coul??d play Campbell quite like him.

3. Joe Pantoliano as Al "The Weasel" Arlington

One of, if not the absolute best Zombies map to date, Call of Duty: Black Ops II's Mob of the Dead features four mobsters attempting to escape Alcatraz Island via a shoddily-built plane. Not only are they unsuc??cessful, but they're trapped in a time loop, forcing them to fend off endless waves of zombies, die, and repeat their failure over and over again for eternity. The mastermind of their initial escape plan is Al "The Weasel" Arlington, modeled after a??nd voiced by Joe Pantoliano to utter perfection.

In a cast chock-full of crime genre legends, Pantoliano very much stands out as Mob of the Dead's MVP. The Sopranos, Matrix, and Bad Boys actor was a prime choice to bring out Weasel's meek and insecure yet innovative and intelligent personality. It's just too bad that when the character returns in Black Ops 4's Blood of the Dead, he only does so as a bird in spirit form, thus pr?eventing Pantoliano from getting another shot at the role.

2. Danny Trejo as Himself

Call of the Dead from Call of Duty: Black Ops I is the first Call of Duty Zombies? map to feature a celebrity cast, and it goes all-out. When their horror film set is overrun, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Michael Rooker have to fight off waves of zombies in the middle of Siberia. Danny Trejo joins them, signature machetes in hand, to slaughter the incoming undead. All four actors thrive with the material provided, but Trejo takes it to another level as only he can.

To say that the Machete and From Dusk Till Dawn actor brings enthusiasm and gusto to the project would be a massive understatement. Trejo put his all into his lines, bringing a bit of comedy as well as plenty of badassery to match his tattooed, weaponed-up character model. The actor told XboxViewTV all about his experience working on Call of the Dead back in 2011, and while he's not much of a gamer himself?, it's abundantly clear that he had a ton of passion for the endeavor.

1. George A. Romero as Himself

Continuing on with Call of the Dead, it's worth remembering who was directing the film that Trejo, Rooker, Englund, and Gellar were working on when they were ambushed by the undead. That person was none other than George A. Romero, who's overpowered by zombies during the intro cutscene and turned into one himself. Throughout the game, he wanders the map with a stage light in hand and loads of one-liners. If you make Romero mad, he'll fly into a rage, sprinting after you with his weapon of choice. All in all, there's not a single soul more fitting to appear in a Call of Duty map than him.

Romero is single-handedly responsible for crafting the modern image of a zombie through revolutionary films like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Even years after his death in 2017, he continues to inspire the horror genre and those working within it. Zombies simply wouldn't exist without Romero, so it's only right that the visionary director was include??d in what has become one of the mode's most beloved maps.

For those unaware, Black Ops 4's Tag Der Toten, a Call of the Dead reimagining, features Romero's signature glasses sitting on a table. This is both a fun Call of the Dead Easter eg?g and a tribute to the ma?n who paved the way.

The post The top 5 best Call of Duty Z??ombies celebrity gu??est stars appeared first on Destructoid.

Suda51, best known for the No More Heroes series, is no stranger to profanity. His games have always balanced surrealist metaphors and symbolism with gutter talk from foul mouthed wrestlers, cops and killers. What made Shadows of the Damned different, at least when it was first released in 2011, wasn't how it ?blended high and low art together. It was the way it was positioned by publishe??r EA to be a mainstream hit.

All of Suda's prior titles had been marketed as quirky, niche alternatives to normal. With Shadows, and its all star creative team (including Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka)?, the publisher was hoping to hav?e a AAA franchise on their hands.

Flash forward to 2024 and Grasshopper Manufacture, Suda's studio, is planning to re-release Shadows on their own, and this time, they are really owning their outsider status. The new content for this "Hella Remastered" edition includes four new costumes. Two are basic change ups for leading man Garcia Hotspur, taking off his shirt and making him into a demon. The other two skins are deep cuts that will only be familiar to Suda's biggest fans. One is based on Eight Hearts, a character from Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and the other is the same suit worn by the main character of Kurayami Dance, a Japan-only manga written by Suda, based on unused drafts for the original version of Shadows.

With the promise of an affordable price point, it seems like Shadows may finally become a hit, especially on Nintendo consoles, where Suda's games historically sell best. Filling the niche for M-rated content that Nintendo rarely produces themselves has been part of Suda's plan since Killer7 first launched on the GameCube. But on the other hand, it could be that the game's sexual, violent, and most of all, curse-laden game will be too much for Switch owners. At PAX East 2024,? I got to ask Suda how he thought Nintendo fans would take to the game, if he would ever give people the option to cut out all the curses, and a lot more.

This is the first time Shadows of the Damned has come to a Nintendo console, which is really exciting. Any thoughts on how Nintendo fans will receive it? You know I love the game, but well, it definitely is a great fit for some families, the kind who watch R-rated movies with their children and grew up listening to the Sex Pistols and whatnot, but there’s a lot of families who might way it’s “too extreme for the kids�?so...(laughter) How do you think Nintendo fans will feel about the game?

Suda51 (via translator): Well I guess Nintendo platforms aren’t really known for having lots of like super violent games, you know? And Grasshopper is one of the few studios that has been able to put out super violent games on Nintendo platforms. In fact, that’s kind of what we do. The thing with Shadows of the Damned though is there’s lots of violence, obviously, but it’s also with the extra added bonus of being vulgar as shit (laughter). The thing that I’m a little bit worried about in terms of families with little kids and Switches is I want all the families out there who have kid??s and Switches is to maybe make sure your kid hasn’t purchased the game or hasn’t ripped it off from somebody or something. Just because I don’t want to and can’t take responsibility if there’s a bunch of kids running around going “Big Boner! Big Boner!�?(laughter). “Where’d you learn that word?�?Parents, that’s not your kids' fault. You should be better parents (laughter).

That’s what my 8-year old does already. He learned to swear from watching me play No More Heroes 3. That’s where he learned the F-word. (laughter) I thought I turned down the voice acting, but one time I guess I forgot, and that was that (laughter).

Suda51: Sorry! (laughter)

Shadows of the Darned: Hecka Remastered?

So to that point, any thought on making a special mode for Shadows, maybe like the “Naïve Angel�?mode in Bayonetta 3, where they tone down the M-rated content. They left in all the cursing, so I still couldn’t watch any of the cut scenes with my kid, but they self-censored all the gore and other visuals that kids might not be ready for. So instead of ripping out her heart when doing a magic spell, Bayonetta rips out a tomato. And instead of characters smoking cigarettes, they like, stick lollipops in their mouths. So maybe you could make a "Shadows of the Darned: Hecka Remaster" mode, sort of like how R-rated movies used to be edited for TV, with sound-alike actors dubbing over words like “Mother Fucker�?with stuff like “Melon Farmer�? so the mouth shapes more or less line up with the sounds. That might be a way to draw in the Nintendo crowds?

Suda51 (via translator): (laughter) We’re not going to be able to get a mode like that done in time for this Remaster, but if we do a sequel someday, that’s something we would actually give co??????????????????????????nsideration.

That would be amazing. I will work for free, by the way. I will play any character you want but, only doing weak swear words for children. But I’ll record any weak swear words you want. Crap. Fudge. You name it, I’ll say it.

Suda51: (laughter)

You know, before the translator told me what you just said, I thought you were saying “Jonathan, please stop giving me all these bad ideas. You do it every time we talk�? But I guess you don’t hate this one, and that makes me feel fantastic.

Suda51 (via translator): Yeah, I think I get where you’re coming from ??this time. And we’re definitely not going to be doing it for this game because of time restraints and also... I don’t feel like it...(laughter) but we could probably add options to tone down some of the gore in some of our titles to take into consideration a wider variety of players, a wider audience and stuff. But we’re not going to do that for this one.

A game for fans of Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 2?

Right (laughter) Good good good. So, on a more serious bent, sorta, what would you say to people who haven’t heard of  Shadows of the Damned, who maybe know Resident Evil 4, which has been on every Nintendo system since for the last 20 years or so, about the similarities and differences between the games? Do you think most fans of Resident Evil 4 would enjoy it?

Suda51 (via translator): Well, obviously it’s largely a Third Person Shooter, and a lot of the Third Person Shooter elements in the game came from Shinji Mikami [director of Resident Evil 4], who oversaw a lot of the action design and stepped in and helped with fine tuning the ??final product. So while I was responsible for the final script, there’s a lot of him in the game as w??ell. Not just like the story and backgrounds and everything but the way it actually works, the way it’s played. So if you’re into Third Person Shooters, or action type games, then it’s probably worth giving it a try.

Probably? I mean, I don’t think you’re really selling it enough (laughter). Because I wanted to prepare for playing the Remaster today, I replayed the original last week, and I forgot how many times you throw curveballs at player to keep them feeling shocked and excited. Like if you’ve played Resident Evil 4, you can jump right in with the basics here, but you also get to the weird stuff like right away, like needing to change to the light shot in order to shoot goat heads and create safe zones, or having to go from full fight mode into flight mode when you run through the poison darkness to get to an exit. Which come to think it is, something you also had to do in Metroid Prime 2. So I guess that’s another reason for GameCube-era Nintendo fans to feel seen by your game. But yeah, you’re suddenly told you have to shove strawberries into monster baby door lock’s mouths, demons come in wearing shadow armor, all these change-ups that are often saved for later on in a game this size are all coming at you in the first ten minutes or so. Was it a deliberate decision to make the game rapid-fire with new mechanics and action puzzles?

Suda51 (via translator): Well it was a pretty big team on this one, and we worked to fit in as many ideas from various team members that we could in the final game. And when it comes to the script, I really wanted to keep the dialogue going at a steady rate. One of the biggest elements that’s definitely my thing in Shadows of the Damned, from the very start of planning the game, one thing that I had decided from the beginning, is there was going to be a main character and his buddy. It was go?ing to be like partners. I wasn’t sure exactly how it was going to work out, but it I knew I wanted it to be a dude and his buddy. And possibly, a dude and his buddy who is also a ghost (laughter). That was one of the parts of the game, throughout the whole process, I put a lot of work into, a lot of thought into. It was the thing from the very beginning the thing that I was going to do, really pushed for it and just kept putting as much thought and love into it as I could. If there’s one part of the game that’s specifically a Suda thing that I’m personally proud ??of, and would really like people to pay attention to, it would be the buddy element between Garcia and Johnson.

Black Knight Sword: Also Hella Remastered?

Speaking of the script of the game, we’ve talked before about another game you wrote, Black Knight Sword, is like a blood relative to Shadows of the Damned. If I remember correctly, the story of Black Knight Sword was taken from one of your early scripts for Shadows. So it’s almost like a little brother to Damned in that way. The two have similar art direction as well, at least when it comes to the brief 2D segments of Shadows, though I know they had a separate dev teams and publishers. So is there any chance Black Knight Sword will see a Hella Remaster too?  

Suda51 (via translator): As for Black Knight Sword, we don’t actually have the rights to that.?? ??I believe it’s probably THQ Nordic that holds the rights.

Oh no! Do they even exist as that company anymore? They were bought and sold a few times since then I think.

Suda51 (via translator): I think some dude probably bought the rights on eBay a little while ago (laughter). But no, what you’re thinking is how Digital Reality originally published the game with us, but I think THQ Nordic bought them later on. So THQ Nordic, last I heard, still has the rights. We’ve actually spoken before about buying back the rights to Black Knight Sword, but unfortunately, it wasn’t really the right time, so we don’t actually have that right now. There’s no concrete plans to revisit it or bring it back or anyt??hing, but at least the first step is getting back the rights, and that’s something I’ve considered multiple times in the pas?t, so never say never. But not at all anything we’ve got on the blackboard right now.

Garcia's sexy road to stardom?

It’s amazing how many of your characters are in the hands of so many different publishers and have been in so many games on so many consoles. Like every time I see the Travis Touchdown spirit and Mii costume in Smash Ultimate, I still do a little spit take, seeing this foul-mouthed, murderous otaku next to Link and Mario in game. Travis is arguably more famous than his games, in that way. People who have never played No More Heroes still know him. And Garcia, for my money, is just as interesting of a character. In some ways he’s more dynamic because of his relationship with both Johnson and Paula, and all the ups and downs he goes through with them. So what do you think it will take to make Garcia as famous a Travis?

Suda51 (via translator): You have any good ??ideas? (laughter). I’m thinking an OnlyFans. (laughter)

Well the truth is, I think it could happen and it should happen, just based on the quality of the game and the quality of the writing. I think that people are more ready to appreciate Shadows of the Damned now than they were 10 years ago. So I’m expecting this is going to do extremely well for you. This is going to be a lot of people’s first ever Suda51 game and they’re going to come away very impressed.

Suda51 (via translator): Thank you for saying that. And you know, back in the day when we released the original, we had a bunch of older dude?s at EA who were extremely set in their ways in charge of promoting the game. And to put it in a polite way, it’s pretty clear these dudes didn’t know shit about this game (laughter). These were the guys who were supposed to promote it, really not understanding what it’s trying to do, what it’s about, what it is, you know? So hopefully, yeah. Maybe this time it’ll get a bit more of a chance to just be itself.

Super Mario, but in hell

And the way you’re promoting your game now shows that your heart is really in it. When Damned was first published by EA, some people thought “Maybe EA are the ones that really made this game and they just tacked Suda’s name on it for street cred.�?But now you’re out here at replica of a bar in the middle of hell, hanging out with whoever comes in, just like Garcia and Johnson might hang out with whatever demons stroll into their life, you’re showing that the story is really about social connection. Garcia and Johnson are talking to each other non-stop in this game, and Garcia’s connection to Paula is the force that drives him forward from hell and back. And likewise, your drive to connect with the fans through this event, and through this game, well like I said, you wouldn’t be doing this if your heart wasn’t really in it. Now it’s just a matter of people taking a chance on the game and finding that out for themselves.

Suda51 (via translator):  Yeah, that’s still in question, right? One last thing that I wanted to say is there’s probably a lot of people out there who don’t really fully grasp exactly what Shadows of the Damned is about. So to put it in super simple terms, in the story you’ve got Garcia who is a demon hunter, and he’s got the love of his life, Paula who is kidnapped and taken away to Hell by Flemming, this badass demon. And so Garcia and his buddy Johnson traverse the deepest depths of Hell to take out Flemming and get Paula back. To put it in even simpler terms, maybe for the Nintendo fans out there, if Garcia is like Mario, then Flemming would be like Bowser. Paula would be like Peach and then Johnson is basically Luigi. Basically, you’ve got the same exact love triangle as Mario. It’s pretty much the same exact story. It’s like Super Mario Bros., but in Hell. (laughter).

Suda, thanks so much for the conversation. It’s always a pleasure.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is set to hit PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam) sometime this year.

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One of Apple's key selling points of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the devices' ability to play some pretty modern and demanding games. One of which is the recent Resident Evil 4 remake, and it's launching on compatible iOS devices soon.

Capcom announced that the Resident Evil 4 remake will be coming to the iPhone 15 Pro on December 20. It will also be available for i??Pad and Mac dev??ices with the M1 chip or later on the same day.

The Ada Wong-focused DLC, Separate Ways, launches alongside the?? core game. It features additional content that resolves around "a secret mission that expands on the adventure and features thrilling new game mechanics."

The preorder available now enables a demo of Resident Evil 4. It showcases the beginning of Leon Kennedy's otherworldly endeavors, and gives you a feel for how the game works on mobile devices. You can play via the device's touchscreen or with compatible bluetooth controllers. It's also cross-platform playable with a single purchase so you can easily transfer play across your iPhone 15 Pro, iPad, ??or Mac. The latter of which offers keyboard and mouse controls.

Resident Evil 4 isn't the only prominent console title heading towards mobile. Ubisoft also confirmed it will be bringin Assassin's Creed Mirage to iOS platforms. And Capcom's Resident Evil Village l??au??nched for the aforementioned Apple devices on October 30.

Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, and Assassin's Creed Mirage are all landing on modern iOS devices without the need for cloud support. It's a pretty incredible time for mobile phone gaming. If you're hesitant, don't be. Resident Evil 4's remake earned a good score when it rolled out for consoles and PC in March. As did the Separated Ways DLC, which actually scored a bit better.

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November 6 is Stranger Things Day. Canonically, this is the date that season one of the Netflix show opens on. It's a big deal for die hard fans of the show, and Behaviour Interactive figures it's as good a reason as any for another Dead by Daylight and Stranger Things crossover.

It was August 2019 that the first collaboration occurred between Dead by Daylight and Stranger Things. Known a the Stranger Things Chapter, it consisted of two new survivors, a new killer, a new map, and a batch of cosmetics. It quickly became a fan favorite amongst the Dead by Daylight audience. And now, like ??a horror villain that just won't die??, it's back.

The new killer added to the survival game was the infamous, and horrific, Demogorgon. Much like in the show, it was terrifying to see it scurry around the map and lunge at the survivors with its? gaping maw and vicious claws. It also has the ability to move around Hawkins National Laboratory via portals which ??added to both its versatility and potential for jump scares.

The two survivors added to the game were Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington. The duo were playable on a new map within the Stranger Things Chapter, the Hawkins National Laboratory: Undergound Complex. As you can see in the above trailer, it has a sinister and ?ominous feel to its halls. A perfect ??replication of what fans experience when viewing the show.

In addition to the survivors, killer, and map, all of the prior cosmetics will be making their return to the Dead by Daylight in?-game store. The Jonathan Byers outfit is an alternative skin that can be applied. As well as Steve's Scoops Ahoy outfit from season two.

All of the Stranger Things Chapter content is available now in Dead by Daylight. ?Behaviour Interactive didn't speci??fy how long the DLC would be available. So if you're interested in running through the depths of Hawkins as one of the show's heroes, pick it up while you can.

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The Silent Hill brand is about to venture into the territory of interactive entertainment. Tonight, Halloween night, Genvid Entertainment and Konami join forces to invite fans and newcomers alike to enter the world of Silent Hill: Ascension.

What is Silent Hill Ascension?

Ascension is not a game per se,?? but rather a ??web series featuring a completely new story and cast of characters set in the infamous town.

You can just watch the series for free if you'd like, but you �?and the rest of the community �?can pay to try and directly influence the evolution of the new Silent Hill canon.

To have influence over Ascension, you'll need IP. That's short for Influence Points. You can get some IP for free by completing daily puzzles, such as a rhythm game where you play the songs of Silent Hill, but you naturally stand to earn way more po?ints by paying actual ?money.

The best wa??y to earn IP is the Founder's Pack. It costs you $19,99 and includes a season pass that will allow players to unlock all sorts of cosmetics that they can try to get their characters to ?wear in the series.

Ascension will run over the course of 16 weeks, during which the community will get to decide what happens to its characters and to the world of Silent Hill.

The premiere will be about 45 minu??tes long. From then on, each night will bring a new episode that will?? last from 5 to 15 minutes.

People who've purchased the Founder's Pack will get to replay ?the series with the option to find out different possible outcomes.

How to watch Silent Hill: Ascension?

You can either watch Silent Hill: Ascension via the website Ascension.com or?? via its app that you can g??et for either Android or iOS.

Genvid will debut the series premiere of Silent Hill: Ascencion tonight at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT on Ascension.com, the App Store, and Google Play.

If you're too hyped to wait that long, then you can check out Greg Miller of Kinda Funny hosting the premiere Pre-Show at 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT on Ascension.com as well as on Kinda Funny's YouTube and Twitch channels.

�?/p>

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Halloween is upon us, and Steam is still going strong with a spooky weeklong sale. If you're not in the mood to wear a costume and consume a ?questionable amount of candy, you may find entertainment in Steam’s latest deals until November 2.

Steam Scream: The Revenge �?the sale's formal title �?lets players get up to 90% off on a wide selection of scary games. Although these deals end soon, the daily free rewards from the Points Shop as well as? the discounted video games are worth a look if you haven't glanced at it yet.

While there are many standout video games you can purchase in this sale, here are 10 titles I recommend for those looking to get the?? most scares fo??r their buck:

• Inside - $1.99 (90% off)
• Black Mesa - $3.99 (80% off)
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent - $3.99 (80% off)
• Back 4 Blood - $11.99 (80% off)
• Pathologic 2 - $6.99 (80%)
• Darkwood - $3.74 (75% off)
• Duskers - $9.99 (50% off)
• Rusty Lake Hotel - $1.19 (40% off)
• Amnesia: The Bunker - $18.74 (25% off)
• Signalis - $15.99 (20% off)

If nothing listed here interests you, Steam will host some other larger scale sales in the near future. On November 21, Steam will launch its Autumn Sale. Furthermore, the famous Steam Winter S?ale starts on December 21, just before Christmas.

Steam Scream: The Revenge i??s live now, take advantage of it!

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Alan Wake 2 is finally out. It's quite the scary ride, and one our review-in-progress offered plenty of praise for as Remedy Entertainment went back for round two. However, Alan Wake 2 may suffer a few launch hiccups?, as an annoying audio issue affects some Xbox playe??rs.

After the sequel's launch just days ago, player reports have included complaints about the game's audio cutting out with no apparent cause. While the problem has no clear fix, Remedy E?ntertainment has acknowledged its existence and stated that it's looking into a solution.

Remedy also released new patch notes regardi??ng the new update today, bringing general bug fixes for the PS5, Xbox, and PC versions. On both consoles, the studio added localization fixes. Additionally, the Xbox version received tweaks for various visual issues and a problem where players would get soft-locked in interactions.

The Xbox version will also get what Remedy describes as a "significantly friendlier" error ?message when third-party software prevents the game from starting.

While some of those launch day woes may burden your early nightmares, there are more performance-friendly options to play Remedy's follow-up. Prior to launch, communications director at Remedy Thomas Puha confirmed both Xbox Series X and PS5 versions would feature different visual modes so players could choo????se what they value most out of the experience.

You can now experience the full horrors of Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, an??d PC.

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The Walking Dead franchise has ventured into a lot of different video game genres. But it has?? yet to infect the match 3 genre, until today.

Unlike The Walking Dead: Destinies, The Walking Dead Match 3 Tales is a puzzle RPG set within the un??iverse of Robert Kirkman's original comic. Through match 3 ??puzzles, players will combat Walkers and various other enemies while playing as various characters from the series, with each having their own set of unique skills and weapons to aid you.

Both heroes and villains are selectable in the mobile title. Characters?? of note include Rick, Michonne, Carl, Glenn, The Governor, Maggie, Abraham, and more. There's weapon crafting outside of match 3 rounds that can give you an edge. As well as a mode to build your own settlement which leads to unlocking additional survivors and upgrades.

As per most The Walking Dead projects, the game's narrative is a focus of the Skybound Entertainment team. Dan Murray, managing partner at the studio, says in a press release that "fans can now take an active part in the decision-making that lends such drama and emotion to The Walking Dead’s story, whether defending their home or expanding it.�?/p>

The Walking Dead Match 3 features ??brand new comic book-style art. You'll revisit iconic moments from the original comics as well as never-before-seen ones. And the mobile title even features full voice acting as well.

What about The Walking Dead Match 3 multiplayer?

Match 3 Tales has both competitive and cooperative multiplayer included. Players can team up to take down difficult raid? bosses that emerge as threats. You can go up against fellow survivors in PvP Raids, or participate in the game's All-Out War ??mode, which revolves around large-scale player alliance battles. And like many live service mobile games, daily and weekly challenges will occur.

The Walking Dead: All-Stars, released last year for mobile, had a similar comic book style as Match 3 Tales. However, the survival RPG didn't embrace the iconicly intense story of the franchise. Really, since the conclusion of Telltale's The Walking Dead series, the gaming? aspect of the series has had little focus on i?ts comic-verse.

The aforementioned The Walking Dead: Destinies is based within AMC's ever-popular live-action world. And when Negan joined the roster of Tekken 7 in 2018, it was an adaptation of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's take on the television character. So it's refreshing to feel as though we are finally adventuring back into the original world of Kirkman's The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead Match 3 is available for both iOS and Android devices right now.

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Versus Evil has announced that Jukai Studio’s horror game Stray So?uls will release on October 25, 2023. It is coming to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One platforms.

Stray Souls takes place in the town of Aspen Falls, where protagonist Daniel has inherited his Grandmother’s house. He renovates the interior and quickly sells it on the booming real estate market to afford his edu??cation.

No, I’m joking. The town is full of monsters. ?Of course it is.

The plot centers around Daniel discovering he’s part of a ritual that was set in motion at his birth. Stray Souls is based on Japanese survival horror games and carries a bit more than a whiff of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. However, it promises “mind-bending puzzles�?and a choice-driven narrative. It’s by a small team, but it carries with it ??the fancy ?gloss of the Unreal 5 Engine. Plus, it sports the legendary Akira Yamaoka as a guest composer.

I don’t know. The trailers show a lot of what seems familiar. The store blurb also states that its combat features “soulslike precision.�?It kind of feels like its selling itself based on the merits of other games, rather than wha??t it brings itself. Nonetheless, I like checking out horror from small?er developers, so it might be worth a look.

Stray Souls is coming to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox O?ne on October 25, 2023.

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Following its announcement in June, a date is in place for the new take on Atari's Haunted House game. As busy as next month may be, this one is looking to carve a chilling name for itself when it launches on October 12, 2023. Developed by Orbit Studio, the Haunted House revival will be available on P?layStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|?S, PC, and Atari VCS. 

Atari shared a new trailer that shows off more of the isometric action. Promising an "all-ages thrill ride," the latest spin on Haunted House hopes to give us something more enticing ??than previous revivals. Orbit Studio has thrown stealthy, roguelite gameplay into the mix with light combat. As you'll see in the video, the visuals attempt to c??reep along the line between cartoony and spooky.  

Grave situations

Released over 40 years ago, the original Haunted House had folks firing up their Atari 2600 to piece together a magic urn.? A pair of white eyes represented the player as they tra??versed 24 rooms across four floors, encountering the likes of bats, ghosts, and spiders along the way. Flash forward to 2023 and we have Lyn Graves venturing into her uncle's mansion to investigate his disappearance. On the hunt for the renowned treasure hunter's whereabouts, Lyn has to free her friends and fend off frights. Those friends will also be playable, each with their own advantages.

After falling prey to a spirit, Lyn will be sent back to the mansion's entrance. That's where the rougelite elements come into play, as the floor layout and enemy arrangement shifts with each attempt. Haunted House prioritizes stealth, so staying in the shadows and setting traps is preferable to leaping straight into combat. For longtime fans of the original and Atari in general, Haunted House sh??ould ??have plenty of callbacks in both lore and collectibles. 

If it lets us play as disembodied eyes? at some point we'll call it a proper revival. 

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If you're looking for spooky games in October, you won't encounter a shortage, as the month is stuffed with more than you could possibly play. Alan Wake 2 is o??ne of the most anticipated upcoming horror titles, and though it'll be taking us back to Bright Falls, it is evident that there's plenty of new content awaiting.

Recently, Remedy's Sam Lake, dressed in a dapper suit, visited Kinda Funny Games and discussed a lot about Alan Wake 2, the Remedy Connected Universe, and the gaming industry as a whole. A lot of interesting informati?on was unearthed, including the fact that developers once considered a first-person perspective for the upcoming horror ??game.

This idea was sparked by Resident Evil 7's successful use of the perspective. As Lake explained, in many ways first-person is ideal for horror games, as it puts you up close with the monsters that'll jump out at you. However, the team decided that it wouldn't be the right fit for Alan Wake 2 due to the game's heavy focus on its characters and story. Consequently, they?? concluded that "seeing the character on the screen" feels to??o important to the game to ax.

The many influences of Alan Wake 2

Remedy has been quite open with how deeply it has been inspired by Resident Evil's take on the survival horror genre. Gameplay footage from IGN has illustrated how much Alan Wake 2's gameplay feels like Resident 2 Remake, and the comparison is?? only made stronger by the fact that both games feature two story campaigns.

The first Alan Wake game took great inspiration from 90s teen horror like Twin Peaks. This time around Remedy looked to a slew of horror, suspense, and crime films such as Silence of the Lambs, Midsommar, Hereditary, and the works of David Lynch.

The interview is also worth listening to because of what Lake reveals about the ever-growing Remedy Connected Universe. He explains that the Remedy Connected Universe is limited to games owned by the studio. Hence, Max Payne isn't part of the world, as it has found a new home with Rockstar. Quantum Break is also not part of the universe because it wa??s developed for Microsoft.

Alan Wake and Control are certainly part of the universe, and the franchises will further intertwine in Alan Wake 2. Though he is careful to not reveal too much, including whether we'll see Jesse Faden, Lake does state that "there are connection points to Control" in the upcoming game. We may have already seen hints of this, as gameplay footage has shown Ahti the FBC ?janitor in Br??ight Falls.

It is exciting to imagine what Alan Wake 2 would look like as a first-person game, but Remedy's decision for not going in this direction makes sense. We'll finally get to see the next c?hapter of Wake's adventure on October 27 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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But who is the dreamer?

There is no shortage of games that claim Twin Peaks as a primary inspiration, but the legendary TV multimedia experience is yet to take the leap into a full game adaptation. And it's not out of a lack of interest in the medium from its creators. Twin Peaks writer and director David Lynch once started to work on a game that would continue the series called Woodcutters From Fiery Ships, and Mark Frost, Twin Peak's co-writer, met with the creators of Link's Awakening to give them a few ideas.

Then in 2019, both of them signed off on a Twin Peaks VR project, though it's more of a collection of int?eractive sets than a full game. Anything where you get to play as leads Dale Cooper or Laura Palmer, interact with other characters from the show, and work to solve any of it's many mysteries, has yet to materialize in all the years since the show's debut in 1990.

The Blue Rose Team is looking to fix that problem with a short PS1-style demo game based on the franchise. Like the original Resident Evil, it uses fixed camera angles to establish the strong sense of place, and the occasional moment of disorientation, that is part and parcel of any true Twin Peaks experience. Playing it is less like a stressful, survival horror romp and more like a point-and-click adventure, which also makes a lot of sense. Though the show and corresponding movie had some action scenes, the heroes of Twin Peaks are more likely t??o solve their problems through deduction and communica?tion than gunshots and stabbings.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhSUEChBu74

The aesthetics are also a perfect fit for the subject matter. Like with the City of Lost Children for the PS1, taking Lynch and Frost's uncanny reality to low-poly character models and stiff-but-fluid animations just makes sense. After all, this is a show where people regularly move and ??speak backward and ?then reverse their actions. Being transformed into some simple geometric shapes before skating around a sheriff's office with tank controls is not the weirdest thing most of ?these folks have ever done.

After having played the demo, in all its FMV cut scene glory, I was immediately left wanting more, which is exactly what Twin Peaks is supposed to do to a person. Seeing as the two primary musical artists behind the show, and many of its beloved actors, died after Twin Peaks: The Return was released in 2017, continuing in live-action without them wouldn't really be Twin Peaks anymore. But in games, dreams can become reality, and people can live? forever.

Let's Rock.

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What are ya playin', stranger?

The remake of Resident Evil 4 is nearly here, and if you're like me, the release of a new entry in a storied franchise always gives you the urge to seek out context. Sure, you could just play Resident Evil 4—it'll probably stand on its own just fine—but why not dig into some earlier series entries to gain a fuller appreciation of what Resident Evil 4 represents?

[caption id="attachment_365615" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

Of course, nobody expects you to burn through every Resident Evil game over the next couple of days. Frankly, most of them won't do very much in relation to RE4 (it is, oddly, one of the more self-contained adventures in the Resident Evil franchise). But if you want to fully understand where RE4 stands, both in the Resident Evil univers?e and in our own, there are a few titles you should at least take a look at.

Keep in mind here that I haven't played the remake of Resident Evil 4 yet. This is not an expert opinion as much as it is an outline of games that you should play to see where Resident Evil and Leon Kennedy have been lately.

The must-plays

[caption id="attachment_369553" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

There are two games that are decidedly necessary in order to fully "get" any remake of Resident Evil 4. Those games are, of course, the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 and the original Resident Evil 4, released in 2005 and re?released seemingly every day for the last eighteen years.

I don't think I need to explain why you ought to play these games. Resident Evil 2 tells the story of Leon Kennedy's first zombie-bashing adventure, and it also establishes a baseline design language for the REmake series. You can probably skip the Claire Redfield route for now, since Claire is off toiling in Code Veronica land around the time of RE4, but if you've never played it, you should get around to that route eventually. For now, you can just take a quick peek around the Raccoon City Police Department in Leon Kennedy's shoes to see how he went from rookie cop to gloomy action hero and to get a sense of how the REmake series currently functions.

[caption id="attachment_369323" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

As for Resident Evil 4...well, it's Resident Evil 4. And the new game is also Resident Evil 4. I find that a remake is almost always more satisfying when it's accompanied by an intimate understanding of the original work. I'll admit to being an occasional hypocrite on this point (I love Resident Evil 2 (2019) and have never played Resident Evil 2 (1998)), but the original RE4 is readily accessible on modern platforms and it holds up stunningly well. You should give it a shot!

The should-plays

[caption id="attachment_369554" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

You can pretty safely skip the rest of the Resident Evil series and get a robust enough understanding of where the RE4 remake is coming from. But if you've already blazed through the first two games listed above and are still hungry for more, why not play the two most recent Resident Evil games?

Resident Evil 3 (2020) is a much better game than most people give it credit for, and if RE4 is as action-heavy as it seems to be, then RE3 will also serve as a nice bridging of the gap. Leon's not in this one, and it probably won't have a profound impact on the RE4 story, but it might be worth playing just to gauge the level of mechanical continu??ity ??we're getting between these games.

[caption id="attachment_369555" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

I also think there's some merit to playing Resident Evil Village for similar reasons. Between its rural European setting, its attache case inventory system, and its mysteriously friendly merchant, Village shares a lot of DNA with the original RE4. It feels, in a lot of ways, like Capcom's first pass at a Resident Evil 4 remake, and while I'm not sure how large the crossover is between the specific creative teams, I th?ink there's value in seeing two executions on a similar idea.

If you really want to, I won't stop you from playing all the other Resident Evil games, too. Most of them rock.

The post What to play before the Resident Evil 4 remake appeared first on Destructoid.

The invisible controller

There's a prevailing modern philosophy in action game design that says that the controller should "disappear." You should feel like you're doing something when you press a button and the character on the screen responds. You should map "looking around" and "walking" to two different sticks because we look around and walk at the same time. You should put "shoot" on a trigger because it feels a bit like pulling the trigger on a gun. You should not have your character stop in place every tim??e they ready their gun, because holding a gun does not incapacitate the legs.

And yet, Resident Evil 4, among the most celebrated action games ever made, breaks every one of these rules. It constantly emphasizes the break between the player and the character. The presence of the controller is always felt. The movement is bizarre and unnatural. In recent years, it's been subject to some criticism (IGN's review of the remake says the original game's star "struggles to get around as though he’s wearing an old pair of skinny jeans that have??n’t fit him since his police academy days"). When the remake de?mo was released, I heard no shortage of praise for the new, more traditional dual-stick controls, usually accompanied by the phrase "they fixed the controls" or something similar.

But here's the thing: Resident Evil 4's controls were already perfect.

Feeling the fear

The first three Resident Evil games are often celebrated (and sometimes derided) for their bizarre control schemes. These are games about rookie cops and civilians tossed into the deep end of a zombie apocalypse. They're not sprinting through action sequences, they're scrambling when they reach for their guns. Of course they move as though they're being controlled by someone who can't see the end of the hallway. They're scared. The game wants you to feel that fear, and it communicates it by forcing you to fumble with the co??ntroller, by drawing attention to the inherent clumsiness of playing a video game and likening it to the inherent clumsiness of being terrified. 

[caption id="attachment_369322" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

Feeling the controller is feeling the fear. It's feeling the limits on what the medium will allow. It's feeling wha?t the characters literally cannot do, feeling?? the exact wall that stands between them and survival.

But Leon Kennedy (at least by the beginning of Resident Evil 4) is a different kind of protagonist. He's an action hero. The opening minutes of RE4 establish that Leon's here to save the president's daughter, and he doesn't care how many zombies?? and zombie-adjacent locals he needs to roundhouse to do it. So why is his ?movement so weird?

Trouble in kickass paradise

Resident Evil 4 is an "a?ction game" in that its protagonist is an action star. When he's shipped off to Spain, he's confident in his abilities. He already shooed the zombies out of one police station, and he's been in Cool Guy School training alongside guys named stuff like "Jack Krauser" ever since. He's rolling into a new country with a shiny ne??w over-the-shoulder camera that communicates confidence and grace.

[caption id="attachment_368170" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Then he runs into danger and totally freezes. Leon is out of his element in RE4. He's more graceful than he was back in Raccoon City, but as he quickly and aptly notes, he's not dealing with the same zombies this time around. He's learned a cool roundhouse kick, and he moves like he's in his own skin, but caution automatically takes over when it's time t??o open fire. He can feel the controller. When he's established control over a situation, he can smoothly sprint ahead and start throwing kicks and punches, but usually he's frozen in place, firing his gun with shaky hesitation.

The Resident Evil games have always been good at communicating character beats through control schemes, and RE4 does that expertly. Leon is a lot m?ore comfortable here, and you can ??feel that comfort in the new level of control he has over his movement and his gunplay. But he's still scared, and you can still feel that fear when you feel what he can't do. The horror on display might be pretty schlocky, but it's genuinely effective at establishing tension.

Frightful future

I've played the Resident Evil 4 demo a few times. I like it a lot! But it is, at least in the small segment that I've actually experienced, a "good" action game in a way that the original simply wasn't. Leon Kennedy is right at home perfect-parrying his enemies, sprinting as he guns down cultists, and pulling off sick stunt?s without breaking a sweat. It feels surprisingly natural. In fact, I can barely feel the controller.?? I'm not sure if I love that.

[caption id="attachment_368981" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

To be clear, I don't doubt that the Resident Evil 4 remake can capture the majesty of the original game. The remakes of RE2 and RE3 are both phenomenal pieces of design, and they both dramatically overhaul their respective original games' control schemes. I'm sure the latest remake will be just fine. But when I hear people talk about the way it changes the game's controls, as though these changes are both necessary and unequivocally "better," I just feel a little sad. Resident Evil 4 might have good controls no??w, b??ut it also had great controls then.

The post Resident Evil 4 (2005)’s ‘bad’ controls were, and are, great appeared first on Destructoid.

More like "Alan Wii-ke"

Alan Wake (now on the Switch) is psychological horror game about coming to terms with who you are. Many have compared it to Silent Hill 2 for that reason and many others, but for me, the ways that ?it's about internal conflict have always felt more unintentional than that.

Throughout the game, the titular Mr. A. Wake is thrown into nightmare situations that are too bad to believe. Likewise, the game's Switch port is technically much, much worse than anyone would have expected.  When it comes to stuff like polygon count, pop-up, frame rate, and just a general sense of jank, this is one of the least polished-looking modern games from a AAA studio I've ever seen. It runs worse than the original 360 version did in 201??0. Heck, it even looks a little cruddier than Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Resident Evil 4 did on the Wii back then.

And I sort of love it for that?

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Maybe that's because the internal conflict that's always been key to Alan Wake for me isn't about it's tortured lead character. It's about how the game truly doesn't seem to know if it even wants to be a videogame or not. In my mind it's always been sort of a sister game to Deadly Premonition, another cult classic survival horror game about fighting the same shadowy zombie-type things over and over again in a little American town. The big different between the two is Deadly Premonition always had a reputati?on for being so bad-its-good.

Alan Wake, on the other hand, looked technically amazing when it first came out, and so it got rave reviews. That polished look never matched how clunky and laugh-out-loud hammy its story was. Much like with the recent derided re-release of GTA: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition, this worse-looking version of Alan Wake is a much better fit for how?? I've always felt about it.

Why am I being so hard on Alan Wake you ask? De?ar reader, you have to understand: The first words you hear after booting it up the are literally "Stephen King", and it doesn't let up from there. There are a few aspects of the game that seem more inspired by The Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks, but by and large, this is a game that desperately wishes it was either a movie, a book, or both by the world's most popular horror ?author. It features more references to King's work than I would ever want to count.

The premise itself is essentially a weird cover song of Misery, The Dark Half, with bits of other King novels like Christine peppered throughout. And that's OK! The problem is the complete lack of subtlety. T??he copying of King is so loud and strong that it makes the game more like a parody of the author more than anything else.

Spoilers: in the first couple of hours, the game features a cut scene that copies an iconic shot from Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining. Then, as if that weren't enough to take you out of the game and make you think about a much better thing you could be watching than the game you are currently watching, the narrator then blurts out something like "this guy is like Jack Nicholson from The Shining!" This probably wasn't supposed to be funny, but I still laughed out loud, a??nd a big part of me hopes that was the intention.

Games that try this hard to be like movies are now like the 3rd or 4th most dominant genre in the industry, way behind stuff like Minecraft, Genshin Impact, and even Mario Kart. That wasn't true when Alan Wake was first released though. Back in the 2010's, games that tried hard to be movies won all the awards and made a bulk of the money. It was a scary time f??or people like me who saw the move to make games more like films as a self-loathing near-suicidal down?grade.

And even if I did like movies more than games, and therefore wanted to see games turn into movies, games are just always worse than movies at being movies! Alan Wake i?s definitely no exception. It feels much more like a Junior High School theater adaptation of ?a Stephen King movie than a big budget film. It's cute and earnest, but if there was any reason to think it might someday replace the real deal, you'd probably want to see it put out to pasture.

So not only does this technically worse port of the game serve to humble Alan Wake a bit, it also give the whole thing a little of that dingy, broken and unsafe feeling you might get from one of Puppet Combo's Indie Horror titles. Underneath all the heavy-handed narration and obvious aspirations to be "more than a game", Alan Wake is actually a pretty f??un game, and having worse graphics doesn't change that.

The main mechanic that makes it stand out is the need shine a light on most enemies before you can damage them. It's dark as hell most of the time so you need the fl??ashlight for more than just self defense. When the game finally quits shoving heavy-handed narration, in-game collectable book pages that actually spoil the story for you(!), and uncanny valley packed cinemas, it's actually a really effective survival horror game, and the low-fi aesthetic doesn't hurt that one bit.

There're also a lot of little touches here that remind you that, in 2010, Alan Wake was actually a huge big budget game. The soundtrack is, in short, bananas;  featuring Roy Orbirson, Poe, and Nick Cave. It's extremely off-putting to see the game go from looking like a PS2 title to sounding like one of the greatest melancholy pop-songs of all time. The sound design and in-game TV show called Night Springs both also carried over perfectly from the 360 original, and both do so much to suddenly make the game's world feel real. The contrast between those roots in reality and the purely surreal, game world you're trapped in it when y??ou play m??akes both feel stronger by juxtaposition.

When it was first released, Alan Wake looked like something from the future, like they had someone make a game from 2022 in 2010. Now on Switch, it looks like a low budget game from 2010, unearthed for the first time 2022. It's seems to be actively rep??ulsive and hostile to people who loved it the first time around, but if you're someone like me who actually likes crappy looking games, you may enjoy this Switch port. So if you want to take the chance, saddle up for a down-port that you can sincerely love, and love to laugh at, nearly at the same time.

The post Alan Wake on the Switch runs like a Wii game appeared first on Destructoid.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Since the premature death of Silent Hills and the P.T. demo, we've seen a constant stream of supposed leaks and rumors about what will be the next Silent Hill game.  Plenty of people claim to have inside information, but this Wednesday, we'll hear it directly from the people who actually run the show.  Konami dropped word on Sunday that a Silent Hill Transmission will broadcast on October 19 and will feature "the latest updates for the Silent Hill series."

//twitter.com/Konami/status/1581754864702398464

It's anybody's guess what we'll see in the show, but I'd put my money on Konami pulling back the curtain on that recently uncovered Silent Hill: The Short Message product listing.  Could The Short Message be a new game or a remake of one of the previous games in the series?  Is it that Abandoned game we've all stopped making fun of?  I used the Silent Hill: Shattered Memories key art in the banner image because Sam Barlow mentioned a follow-up to that masterpiece in the past.  And Masahiro Ito seems to be aware of it.  I guess as long as Konami isn't revealing a ??new pachinko machine, it should be worth tuning in for.

The Silent Hill franchise has been in purgatory for about a decade following the release of Downpour and Book of Memories in 2012.  Hideo Kojima famously tried to take the reigns of the franchise in 2014 with Silent Hills, but following a well-publicized fallout with Konami, he left the company and the project behind to form his own studio.  There have been many rumors of Kojima creating a Silent Hill game over at Kojima Productions, but there's n??ot been anything concrete on that front.

Whatever it is, fans won't have to wait long. ??The Sil??ent Hill Transmission is set for October 19 at 2:00 pm Pacific.

The post Konami set to reveal the latest on the Silen??t Hill series this Wednesday appeared first on Destructoid.

Low-poly, highly scary

If you’re into low-poly, PS1-style games like I am, today’s Puppet Combo Direct stream was a dream. It’s a smorgasbord of games coming our way, both from the Godfather of lo-fi horror, Ben ??Cocuzza, and by way of his publishing label, Torture Star Video. All the titles look fantastic, but let’s go from the tip to the top.

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Stay Out of the House this July

It’s been listed on Steam for a hog’s age, but Stay Out of the House will finally be in the wider public’s hands in July. Part survival horror and part “stealth immersive sim,�?Stay Out of the House places you in the clutches of a deranged serial killer. You’ll need to keep o?ut of sight and find a way to escape his house.

Rather than a straight slasher game, Stay Out of the House has you avoid traps and “Th?e Butcher’s�?family as you try to escape. Sounds like classic Puppet Combo, but fortunately, we onl?y have a month to wait to find out what tricks he can throw at us.

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Night at the Gates of Hell comes to us from the creator of Bloodwash

For something completely different, Jordan King, the creator of Bloodwash, is bringing us the survival horror, Night at the Gates of Hell. With this gory little game, Jordan is challenging himself to present a classic Resident Evil experience in the first person with slow and menacing zombies. You play as David, who is attempting to escape the z??ombi??e infestation going on in his city and to find out the truth behind them.

Featuring lo-fi visuals, lots of gruesome imagery, and a �?0s disco soundtrack, Nights at the Gates of Hell is a love l?etter to Italian zombie flicks. There’s no solid release date for this one, but we can start looking for it around ??third quarter, 2022.

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A completed Power Drill Massacre is coming to Steam

Power Drill Massacre is something of a legendary title among Puppet Combo fans. It was originally released in 2015 in an incomplete state, but while it has sat like that all this time, what was presented captured the atten??tion of fans. It’s actually the first title by him that I played myself, and it definitely is a great representation of his style o??f slasher horror.

You play as a hapless car crash victim who goes looking for help in exactly the wrong place. She finds herself hunted by the Driller Killer who�?I probably? don’t need to explain his M.O.

The finished game has been expanded with new areas, expanded gameplay, and quality of life improvements. There are also new playable c??haracters, multiple endings, and new camera styles. Exciting stuff for anyone who experienced the original version. It'll also be launching on Steam for the first time. We’ll be waiting until Q4 2022 to see the rest of the Dr?iller Killer’s tale.

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Sleazy survival horror Deadly Night is coming in August

Billed as “the sleaziest low-poly slasher ever created,�?Deadly Night comes to us from Cubite Games, developers of NIGHT GUARD and La Compana. Deadly Night has hitchhiker Carol check into a motel that she may never check o?ut of. Hopefully, the ice machine works.

A trailer shows off some gruesome scenes and images of the killer that will be tracking you down. I am absolutely a sucker for gloomy parking lot aesthetic for some reason. That’s all it needed to show me and I am down. Looks like I’ll be down this August when it releases on Steam through Torture Sta?r Video.

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Horror favorite Bloodwash is coming to consoles

Speaking of gloomy parking lot aesthetic, one of my favorite horror titles from last year is coming to console. Bloodwash is the story of Sara, who absolutely has to get laundry done, and the only 24-hour laundromat is on the outskirts of town. Girl, we’ve all been there. Unfortunately for her, the te?rrifyingly named Womb Ripper has been on the prowl, and she’s looking awfully p??regnant.

It’s a pretty unique title that has you build the tension yourself by wasting time in a strip mall, learning of the horrible things that have gone on there. Bloodwash is a terrific example of the inventiveness found in the lo-fi horror sub-genre, so if you’re console-bound, ??definitely consider taking a look this summer.

It’s a nice slate of games to look forward to throughout the year. Unfortunately, I want them now. If my ceaseless gushing hasn’t tipped you off, I’m a big fan of the sub-genre and of Puppet Combo in particular. I’m feeling deficient in lo-fi, cheap scares, ?so I’ll be keeping an eye on all these upcoming?? titles.

The post A full Power Drill Massacre and more are coming this year from Puppet?? Combo appeared first on Destructoid.

"If you thought su??mmer camp was horrifying already??, you ain't seen nothing yet"

[Update: Supermassive and 2K have officially announced The Quarry for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It's going to be in Until Dawn fans' wheelhouse.]

There's been a lot of movement at Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology studio Supermassive Games lately. Apart from five new trademarks that give a bit of insight into the future of the latter series, there was also a recent listing for something called The Quarry. Tomorrow, during 2K's reveal event, we'll see what's up. For now, though, there's a teaser! And a tweet from actor David Arquette about his involvement in the game.

//twitte?r.com/SuperMGames/status/1504125344231604224

The teaser for this new "horror experience" is pretty ominous, as shaken-up camp counselors tell a police officer about "something" jumping out in front of their car, and are ?then told that they're not going to "make it" to the?? quarry �?"not tonight."

Publisher 2K will show off The Quarry at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on March 17, with a countdown currently doing its thing. I'm already intrigued by the summer camp setup.

While we broadly know what to expect from the Dark Picture Anthology going forward, The Quarry is an interesting prospect �?how will Supermassive differentiate it from the? horror adventures created under Bandai Namco? Or will it be more of that cinematic formula? Hey, I'm not complaining. I like even the weakest of these games; the cheese is fun.

Apart from Arquette, there are also "Hey, I'm in this!" tweets from Lance Henriksen, Ted Raimi, Ethan Suplee, and Zach Tinker. Who else?

Between The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology �?which has trademarks out for The Craven Man, O Death, Directive 8020, Intercession, and Winterfold, to say nothing of the fully announced The Devil in Me �?Supermassive sure has its future mapped out.

Even if the quality isn't as consistent as I'd like, no one else is really going for it like this in the genre, and they'??ve clearly got the pipeline, so I'm down for more.

I don't trust that moon, though.

The post Supermassive ?is sending us to a spooky summer camp in The Quarry appeared first on Destructoid.

Just like we'd expect, but it's nice to know for sure

Shortly after announcing that Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7 will be getting shiny new PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions this year (as well as some equivalent "upgrade patches" on PC), Capcom has confirmed that players' current save data will transfer. You'll be able to carry your PS4 and Xbox One save data forward, and Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition's DLC will "transfer over" as well, according to the publisher.

//twitter.com/RE_Games/status/1503776384870760448

This sounds so straightforward when it's laid out like th??at �?arguably to the point of asking "wait, how is this even a story?" �?but there are no guarantees. Things can get needlessly messy when shifting from one generation of consoles to the next.

What this (probably) means for trophies

Among PlayStation players, there's already hope about cashing in on "easy" platinum trophies. With past games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Death Stranding Director's Cut, player??s who carried their PS4 data forward onto PS5 wer??e able to automatically unlock their trophies again once they booted up the PS5 version since the PS4 and PS5 lists are separate. It's a strangely fun sensation �?like, "Hey, you earned this." Capcom hasn't specifically spoken about the trophy situation on PS5, but that'd make sense.

Until now, I didn't realize people were out here tracking "auto-pop" trophies. It's neat!

Glancing around on Twitter, I saw some folks express a deep desire to not have to go back and complete all of the Resident Evil 7 DLC trophies again on PS5, as the Banned Footage stuff �?especially the unforgiving Ethan Must Die mode �?can be a nightmare. I got the base-game platinum, but never that one. Now now, not ever. I don't have it in me.

[caption id="attachment_312491" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{After running through RE7 so many times, I've still got the Baker's wacky basement layout (mostly) memorized.}[/caption]

As for the current-gen-ification of RE2, RE3, and RE7 in general, I'm stoked. Any excuse to re-run these games is good enough for me, especially in the case of Resident Evil 2, which I've still got some trophies to check off. It's literally a yearly tradition? for some of us.

Which of these games are you most eager to revisit? Rem??inder: they're free upgrades.

The post You can carry your RE2, RE3, and?? RE7 save data over to the PS5 and Xbox Seri?es X/S versions appeared first on Destructoid.