If you want some early Tango Gameworks horror, you can pick up 2014's The Evil Within for free through Epic Games Store right now. However, ?the offer won't be on forever, so you best pick up a copy b??????????????????????????efore it's too late.

According to the Epic Games website, you can get this Shinji Mikami title for exactly zero dollars until October 26. The deal only covers the base game, ho??wever. If you want the DLC as well, you'll have to fork over for them like some sort of pleb.

The Evil Within comes from the creator of the Resident Evil series. His resume features a host of other praised games, including Devil May Cry, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and, in a change from his usual horror outpourings, Hi-Fi Rush.

Oh, one more thing

Maybe you've already played Evil Within, but haven't got around to playing the 2017 sequel. Fear not, for that's also going to be free through Epic Games as of next week. Pretty much as ?the deal for the original ends, the one for the follow-up begins.? That's handy.

We're not far from Halloween now, so everything and anything related to horror is going to be coming out of the woodwork. This is probably not the best time of year for those who aren't into spooky games, but for those of us who are, it's like C??hristmas came early.

Oh, I almost forgot. To go alongside The Evil Within, you can also pick up a copy of Cosmonaut Studios' first-person story-driven puzzle game Eternal Threads. That should keep you busy un??til the? end of the month.

The post Grab The Evil Within for free ??on Epic Games Store while you can appeared first on Destructoid.

Not that Bethesda ever left the limelight, but the Starfield and Elder Scrolls studio is the talk of the town at ?the moment. That could be why there's a sale going on that allows you to purchase some games developed or published by the Maryland-based company.

Over the online store Fanatical (thanks, PCGamesN), you can get discounts on a selection of Bethesda-owned titles. The sale gives y?ou the opportunity to build a custom bundle out of a possible 14 games, choosing up to five releases for as little as $3.

While it's not a huge selection, there's a fair range to opt for. You could get classic Fallout combined with Rage or go for some of the modern Doom or Wolfenstein releases?. It also looks like many of them come with their respective DLCs and expansions as well, so it has t??hat extra appeal.

Only two games actually by Bethesda

Of course, given that Bethesda is a powerful publisher as well, you'll notice that the majority of these games haven't been developed by the studio itself. Still, it shows just how much sway the studio has in the AAA market, and you can still choose Morrowind and Oblivion for your bundle.

It also looks like the sale event at Fanatical is going to be?? going on for a while. At the time of writing, the countdown clock at the top of the page says there are just over 16 days and 18 hours until the deals end. That'll take us right into the middle of October. At that point, I imagine the Halloween sale events will start kicking in.

The post Bethesda sale lets you ‘build your own bundle’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Step into STEM

Bethesda made a strong single-player push this year with games like Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, Prey, and The Evil Within 2. The former recently got a trial, and now the latter has followed suit.

"In these first chapters you'll have the opportunity to explore some of?? the game's tight, nightmare-riddled, linear experiences, as well as the more open streets of Union," reads Bethesda's description.

You can nab the demo on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It's in the 30GB range.

Also pertinent to mention: The Evil Within 2 is half price ($30) currently on PC and consoles, so if you're on the fence and think the demo might be enough to sway you, you'll want to ?ac?t sooner than later.

The Evil Within 2 - Free Trial [Bethesda]

The post The Evil Within 2 now has a demo on PC, PS4, ??and Xbox One appeared first on Destructoid.

'Which one is it? Nazi Smashers?'

Three new trade paperbacks have been announced by publishers Titan Comics, each one a tie-in to a popular video game franchises Wolfenstein, Tekken and The Evil Within.

Wolfenstein - Volume 1 is a prequel to the recently released Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus, and sees 1960 Billy Blazkowicz laying a beatdown on The Reich in his own inimitable way.

Tekken - Blood Feud follows the heroes of the long-running Namco fi?ghting franchise as they p??repare to face an awesome force that may not be of this world. Meanwhile, Jin Kazama is forced to face the devil within him as he battles with the Angel force.

Finally, The Evil Within: The Interlude is a grim tale which bridges the gap between the two video games, as Detective Castellanos is ??once again forced to face the demons and? nightmares of his past.

All three TPBs go on sale on December 19, priced at $17 each. Hit the gallery below to che??ck out sample pages from these new titles.

The post Wolfenste??in, Tekken and The Evil Within graphic novels on the way appeared first on Destructoid.

Say Cheese to Friday the 13th fun

Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within 2 went live last night and the fanfare is decidedly on the low-end of the spectrum. But thus far user reviews are 93% positive on Steam as the survival horror FPS sequel loads up across the web. Sales are a bit more timid in comparison as the Bethesda-published game has not displaced the recently released Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

If you're a PC gamer looking to pick up the Steam copy of The Evil Within 2 during release week after chugging through v??arious reviews, you'll have a variety of options in dea?ls - though discounts aren't that significant now that the game is released.

The Evil Within 2 (PC/Steam Deals)

• WinGameStore — $47.00  (list price $60)
• GamesPlanet — ~$47.87  (list price $60) <- GBP to USD
• Green Man Gaming — $48.59  (list price $60) <- use code SUCHWOW10
• GamersGate — $50.39  (list price $60)
• DLGamer2 — $50.99  (list price $60)

Update: New fresh deal has arrived for The Evil Within as WinGameStore tops all others at 47% off. Honestly, if you're not a huge fan of the series we'd suggest checking back in 2-3 months as this game will likely hit 33% off before you know it - particularly on the console.

So far prices are similar across the board. You're either looking at 19%-20% off, or you're looking at 15%-16% off. In general everywhere else legitimate has The Evil Within 2 with a discount of about 15%, so GMG's deal is only bigger because of a stacking site-wide code they are running, while comparatively, GamesPlanet has the best rate due? to the current conversion advantage.

The download size is 25.5GB and when unpacked you'll need about 40GB of hard drive space. If you're someone w??ho uses an SSD with limited space (or someone with a slow-ass Internet connection), take this into account before you spring for the game.

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.

The post Roundup: The best PC deals for The Evil Within 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

Another Bethesda Switch port doesn't seem out of the question

We're getting pretty close to the release of The Evil Within 2 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, an?d PC. Now producer Shinji Mikami, who acted as director for the original game, has said he would like to eventually see the game on Switch.

Mikami spoke with GameSpot, saying, "I think a Switch version would be inte??resting. I'd like to try it if I had the chance." It's probably safe to say that no such port is in the works, but Mikami's interest provides a? glimmer of hope.

The Evil Within 2's publisher, Bethesda, is also in the process of porting a bunch of its games over. Doom, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and Skyrim are all making their way to the Nintendo Switch.

If those titles pe??rform well Mikami might get his wish. I'm sure we would all like a little portable injection of horror.&nb??sp;

The Evil Within dire????ctor wants to port the sequel to Switch [GameSpot]

The post The director of The Evil Within wants to see the game’s sequel on Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

As you'd hope and expect

I thought The Evil Within 2 had a strong first showing at E3. The imagery in the reveal trailer?? woke me the hell up ??(remember, Bethesda's presser was on a Sunday night), and I'm always down for contorted monstrosities in my spooky video games. "I need to keep better tabs on this," I remember thinking.

In the time since, we've seen a lot more of the sequel, whether it was that now-removed leaked footage, a photographer serial killer, and crafting systems. More recently, there was ??"the gruesome, giggling guardian," an uncomfortably fleshy, stitched-together pile of bodies with a buzzsaw hand.

I played through this early story sequence at PAX. It was.??.. all right! Too scripted to be even remotely scary, but tense, all t??he same. The sound and creature design did most of the heavy lifting.

From there, things started to open up and feel l??ess linear and tutorialized.

You're once again helping Sebastian survive a mind-melded nightma?re world, and ??in the sequence I played, that meant lurking around to try and pick off grotesque monster people one by one, getting inside a safe house for a breather, and scrounging for crafting supplies. The end goal may be to find your daughter, Lily, but as I wandered a hauntingly lit town, I kept getting distracted by far-off cries for attention that I can only assume are side missions. This is where the game began to feel overwhelming and unsafe. I had the freedom to go my own way and, potentially, walk right into something horrible.

I wish I had more to say about the demo, especially considering launch is only a month out. The shooting felt fine. I could take or leave the crafting (and I get why they felt the need to lean in that direction). There wasn't letterboxing. At certain points, I struggled to feel invested in Sebastian and his plight because the world was changing itself so frequently in that psychological-horror-set-piece sort of way that I felt disconnected from everything I was seeing. I hope that ?improves with time.

The Evil Within 2 di?dn't wow me at PAX, but, that's kind of to be expected. I? only got to play a little bit of the hand-holding early game, and just as things were starting to warm up, it was time to move on.

The showing didn't convince me that I'll need the sequel day one, but it didn't push me away, either. It's hard to make any judgments other than "hope the story's compelling!" Most of my interest in the game has to do with what The Evil Within 2 seems to be building toward, not what I played.

The post The Evil Within 2 feels lik?e a more well-rounded game appeared first on Destructoid.

He says a digital library is preferable to a physical one

The past few years have seen a rise in PC gaming and digital distribution in Japan, partially due to the success of Dark Souls, as PC Gamer reported a few months ago. Seeing how well the Souls franchise performed on PC, along with visual novels and smaller Japanese games, has inspired bigger studios like Square Enix t??o embrace Steam and other digital distri??bution platforms.

Shinji Mikami is embracing it too. Citing not only PC sales in the west but also increasing interest in PC gaming in Japan, Mikami says he welcomes "the new world of Steam and digita??l sales." Part of his reasoning? Japanese houses? are small.

"I used to put all of my games in their physical boxes on my b??ookshelf to look at them. Now I have a digital collection, and that's better for Japanese people anyway because our houses are so small."

Mikami also mentioned God Hand as a game he specifically wants to bring to Steam and would "love to do again." Unfortunately, that would depend entirely on Capcom, who own the rights to it. God Hand flew under the radar after its PS2 release a decade ago, but its satisfying combos and campy mashup of action and comedy t?ropes made it a cult favorite.

The frustration of being unable to play newly released Japanese games on PC and hoping for future ports stills feels fresh. It's easy to take for granted the fact that games like Metal Gear Solid V and Resident Evil 7 are now being released for PC alongside consoles. Personally, I'd still love to see a Bloodborne port.

Speaking of all this, Mikami's latest The Evil Within is currently on sale on Steam for $4.99, so grab it while you can before The Evil Within 2 releases on October 13.

Shinji Mikami: 'I wel?come the new?? world of Steam and digital sales' [PC Gamer]

The post Shinji Mikami would like to see God Hand on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

May be a process of multiple takedowns and re-uploads

Here is over 30 minutes of Evil Within 2 gameplay from the demo playable at Gamescom 2017. Media were permitted to play this demo and write their impressions but apparently not allowed to upload any captured footage. Well, someone got it out anyway. The original YouTube video has been?? removed but has since been ?re-uploaded to Daily Motion.

I still haven't gott?en around to the first but this gruesome look is inspiring m?e to move that game up in priority on my back log.

The post Over 30 minutes of Evil Within 2 gameplay leaked appeared first on Destructoid.

Mikami is back

We've been expecting at least a couple new game reveals out of Bethesda's E3 2017 press event, and The Evil Within 2 is looking like a reasonably sure thing at this point. Over the weekend, r/PS4 readers?? encountered a reddit ad with th??e following text:

"From survival horror mastermind Shinji Mikami comes The Evil Within 2. Now?? available for preorder. 'The only way out is in.??'"

Another ad was also in circulation:

"Bethesda returns you to the nightmare in The Evil Within 2. Now available for preorder. How will you survive???"

This sequel has seemed more and more likely as the years have gone by, but hearing that Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, God Hand, Vanquish) is returning is a pleasant surprise.

The presser is tonight at 9:00pm Pacific because The Evil Within 2 isn't just a game, it's our reality.

The Evil W?ithin 2 conf??irmed; Mikami still directing [NeoGAF]

The post The Evil Within 2 spotted in online ad appeared first on Destructoid.

Just combine 'em and call it The Evil Raging Within

The headline says it all, check please.

Just kidding. In an interview with Finder.com.au, Bethesda Softworks vice president Pete Hines enthusiastically said that The Evil Within made enough money to justify a sequel. He also thinks that Rage performed similarly. To quickly temper the sudden expectation of a hungry Internet, he made sure to say that he didn't want to confirm or deny anything, but that he "[does] think both The Evil Within and Rage did well enough that we could make sequels.

I'd be down for both. I liked the first three-quarters of The Evil Within before it got all urban and dumb, and Rage was cool?? before it suddenly ended. Looking back, they both definitely suffer from lackluster ??back halves.

Bethesda's Pete Hines talks The Evil Within 2 and Rage 2 [Finder]

The post The Evil Withi?n and Rage sold enough to warrant? sequels appeared first on Destructoid.

Hunger kills

pic.twitter.com/roEOb9RtFa

— 面舵 (ao (@aotan01) July 19, 2015

Nothing worse than an empty stomach. Come on o??ver if you want some leftovers (partially pictured below).

who tryna come over for leftovers pic.twitter.com/7gWo1nQB82

— stefano chiodo (@dtoidsteven) July 20, 2015

The post In the end, the true Evil Within is jus?t an empty stomach appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming May 26

Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within has one more trick up its sleeve. The cool-down lap is said to feature a lengthy talk with a therapist before dimming the lights and taking a refreshing nap. When you wake up, the house will smell of fresh cinnamon buns which you'll eat in your quaint breakfast nook. Your cat affectionately rubs up against your leg before ju?mping onto your lap. Everything's good.

Just kidding! It's a bunch more ungodly monsters and terrifying nightmares! The last add-on is called The Executioner, and that doesn't bode well for anyone intent on staying alive. If bad?? times sound like a good time to you, try to stave off this new round of death on May 26.

The post The Evil Within’s last add-on is just as bloody as the rest appeared first on Destructoid.

Starring detective Juli Kidman

The Evil Within didn't live up to everything I thought it would be, but it's still a very unique survival horror title in a sea of action-oriented affairs. Today you can grab the second major bit of DLC, titled The Consequence, for $9.99 (or as part of the $19.99 Season Pass). It stars detective Juli Kidman, the partner of the core character Sebastian, and continues h??er story that runs concurrent to the main narrative.

This follows The Assignment, which launched last month, and precedes the third and final planned DLC, The Executioner. I wish that all of this was included in the core game a la Resident Evil 4, which offered the Assignment: Ada side story.

The post The Evil Within debuts ‘The Consequence’ DLC today appeared first on Destructoid.

There will be consequences

The next DLC episode of The Evil Within, The Consequence, picks up on April 21, 2015. Like The Assignment before it, Bethesda is starting us off with an extr??a brief teaser trailer.

Someho?w, the delivery of the sorta-out-of-context line "I'm not running this time" made me laugh out loud, which probably isn't the reaction developer Tango Gameworks was going fo??r.

And so long as I'm using laughter as a defense mechanism, I wish they had chosen a different name for the final DLC. Instead of calling it The Executioner, I would've gone with The Implication.

The post Uh, maybe don’t walk toward that ominous light in The Evil Within appeared first on Destructoid.

March 10

All that matters is finding Leslie, but it is still nice to see an actual trailer for The Evil Within's first DLC, The Assignment, after last week's ten seconds of nothing teaser.

There is a release date, too. March 10.

The two-part story focuses on detective Juli Kidman, Sebastian Castellanos’ partner, and runs concurrent to The Evil Within. It will be finished with the second DLC, The Consequence, which comes out later this spring. So $20 for the whole story ($10 each), or pay $20 for the game's "season pass," which includes a third DLC episode, The Executioner.

So like Resident Evil 4's Assignmen??t Ada and Separate Ways, but you have to pay another $20. Ain't the future grand.

The post T??he Evi?l Within Assignment DLC gets real trailer, release date appeared first on Destructoid.

Well, some of them

Oh, right -- there's a Season Pass for The Evil Within.

The thought of paying $19.99 for three DLC packs when the game itself was just on sale for nearly that price is unappealing, but that's the situation. Part one, The Assignment, releases early next year. It's about Castellanos' partner Juli Kidman, as is the follow-up DLC, The?? Consequence.

Bethesda has a short Q&A with developer Tango Gameworks' John Johanas about what's next for the story. "We definitely leave some of the mysteries open, but I feel we shed a lot of light on the lore of Ruvik, STEM, a??nd the characters while asking (and answering) a whole new set of questions regarding Juli and her mission," he says. Gonna have to scour the wiki, then.

The team was inspired by expansions "that give the player a new spin on gameplay, while still feeling connected to the main title," with examples like Pigsy's Perfect 10 for Enslaved and The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches for Dishonored cited.

DLC Takes Hold for The Evil Within Earl?y Next Year [Bethesda Blog]

The post The Evil Within’s first DLC has the answers we’re looking for appeared first on Destructoid.

Lost his head, but kept his cool

"This is insane," are some pretty appropriate famous last words, especially when you're inside a carnival of horrors. That should've been the case for?? this player, but he took a lickin' and kept on tickin'. That's perseverance at its finest.

That thing was just weighing him down, anyway.

The post You’re gonna lose your head over this The Evil Within glitch appeared first on Destructoid.

I'd prefer a little more evil

I grew up happily playing Shinji Mikami's games, and he's probably one of the most influential directors/producers that ever lived. I remember the first time I played Resident Evil, the day I bought Devil May Cry from EB Games, and the exact moment when my friend showed me God Hand.

All in all Mikami has worked on over 20 major games that have impacted the industry in some way. Even if The Evil Within&n??bsp;is one of the worst in the bunch, it's still in good company.

The Evil Within (PC [reviewed], PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: October 14, 2014
MSRP: $59.99

The Evil Within really doesn't waste any time. After a brief ??cutscene that sets up a psych-ward murder scene, detective Sebastian Caste?llanos is immediately thrust into a precarious situation involving a chainsaw madman and giant pools of blood.

It's definitely one of the best intros I've seen in some time, and the entire premise of "What is or isn't in your head, and what is reality?" is very easy to get on board with; it also facilitates some great pacing and setpiece changes. Don't expect much in the way of exposition or character development, as Evil falls in line with some of Mikami's cheesier work. You're going to see a lot of that permeating throughout t?he game, and into the core mechanics.

Although the game is billed as survival horror, it really feels more like the former than the latter. Ammo is scarce, your character is absolute shit at doing just about everything from punching to sprinting (seriously, sprinting is terrible in Evil Within, partially by design and partially by the fault of the mechanics), stealth is generally preferred, and enemies can slice you to bits rather easily. To deal with this, you'll use a hybrid stealth and action scheme, which is modeled most notably after one of Mikami's finest works -- Resident Evil 4.

For the most part, both mechanics blend rather well. There are a number of situations that function like challenge rooms from the Arkham series, allowing you to approach them with a combination of different strateg??ies. Once you get the agony crossbow, a harpoon gun of sorts, it opens up your options with a variety of elemental blasts, from freezing properties to stun-locking lightning traps. Stealth kills will become your best friend, as ammo conse?rvation actually matters for once.

In terms of its tone, The Evil Within isn't so much s??cary as it is gory and exciting. Rather than rely on real psychological tension, Mikami and company basically throw a lot of hanging guts, blood, chase scenes, and decapitations your way. This works for the most part especially given the conceit of the aforementioned imaginative realms, but only a few enemies give off a vibe of something you haven't seen before. In a sense, it's a loose collective ??of old-school action survival horror tropes, which has its own set of merits and flaws.

Speaking of old school, The Evil Within looks like it came from the last generation of gaming. Although the giant black bars plastered across the screen are allegedly a design choice, it's clear from the art style down to the animations that the game looks dated. If you can get past that fact as I did, you'll find a plethora of rich environments that have the signature of a seasoned developer. Going along with the dated look, Evil Within has a few obtuse mechanics as well.

There is little to no explanation for anything, and near the beginning of the roughly 15-hour adventure, the developers kind of leave you to fend for yourself. For example, there's a part in the game where, if you explore every nook and cranny, you may not have a checkpoint for over 15 minutes. After carefully making your way to the end of a path, there's a crank you? can interact with to open a door -- and as soon as you touch it, two enemies rise up from the ground at a point in the game where you barely have any defenses. You can "burn" bodies to kill latent corpses outright, but even though I saw them first and tried to burn them, I couldn't.

This is a stark contrast to the Souls series, where practically every mistake is your own fault. In Evil Within some areas just feel unfair, and the save system won't do you any favors -- especially if you get stuck in an area with low health and very little in the way of actual defenses. While I definitely welcome added difficulty in games, there were a few instances where I took a short break in frustration. It wasn't enough to deter me however, and I pressed on from one exciting moment to the next despite the occa??sional hangup.

On the topic of the somewhat clunky controls, I don't mind the legacy mentality, even in today's climate. (To be clear, The Evil Within doesn't have strict, tank-like movement.) Although there are plenty ?of titles that have updated systems and still maintain tension, ??I think there's a certain charm to be found in that older feel, and if a few other design choices were spruced up around it, the controls wouldn't be a problem on their own.

But while I did have fun with the majority of the game despite it?s flaws, it's important to note the problems with the PC build of the game. To be frank, the PC version is going to need a lot of work. Although you can use console commands to make it run at 60 frames per second, it's not consistently operating at that level, and there are some performance issues abound if you go that route.

I also had a few issues with the "developer splash screen" intro crashing on me (until I disabled it by adding +com_skipIntroVideo 1 to Steam's boot options), and your resolution options are limited with?out using the console. Even then, some resolutions are not fully supported, as information can be concealed off-screen. It's clear this was a quick console-port job, right down to the mouse lag in the menus. Having said that, the game is very much playable, and once it was running I had zero crashes in-game. Just don't expect it to be up to par with the majority of PC releases theses days.

If you like old-school third-person action games with horror elements, I'd recommend picking up The Evil Within on a console, possib??ly at a price cut. It will definitely scratch the itch of someone who has been pining for a return to the older days of gaming, but everyone else who has come to expect that certain layer of polish likely won't be amused.

The post Review: The Evil Within appeared first on Destructoid.

I'll tell you

[Update: We ended up buying our ?own copy at release.]

A few people have been asking about a review for The Evil Within, so I figured I'd clarify the situation a bit, even if the embargo is tomorrow. Over the past week or so, Bethesda has been fairly sparing with giving out copies. A number of my peers were unable to procure the ??PC version, and in other cases (ours included), any version at all.

There is at least one review up from an outlet that was able to get an early copy through other means, and is thus not bound by the embargo. As always, I suggest not pre-ordering a game/paying for it in full unti??l you read some impressions on it. Whether it's a testament from a trusted friend, content producer, or reviewer, it's always good to get the big picture before you plunk down your hard-earned cash.

If necessary tomorrow we will buy a copy of the game and try to get a review out as soon as we can. I've always believed in being open about the review process, but this isn't really a new thing for Destructoi??d. It was done before me when Jim Sterling was heading up the program, and before him with Aaron Linde.

The post Where’s our review of The Evil Within? appeared first on Destructoid.

Not keen on most of the others either

The first 30 seconds of this new The Evil Within tr??ailer declares that the game's enemies are "demented, vicious, and deadly." Most of them look all three parts, but the ones with the smiley-face masks have really locked in the whole "demented" part.

The Evil Within often gives you the choice of fight or flight. When these guys show up, I'm opting for the latter -- right back to the safety of my own b??ed where this nightmare fuel can't hurt me.

The post Nope, n?ope, nope! Go away smiley-masked dud??es in The Evil Within appeared first on Destructoid.

Still seems high

Last week, Bethesda shed some light on what it considered the recommended requirements to be to play The Evil Within&nbsp;on PC. After so??me chatter from the Internet about them being ridiculously high, Bethesda clarified by posting minimum requirements.

According to a post on BethBlog, The Evil Within will require Windows 7 or 8.1, a GTX 460 or an equivalent 1 GB VRAM card, an i7 or an equivalent 4-plus core processor, 4 GB RAM, and 50 GB HDD space. Take note that this is to be able to "still hav??e a great experience with the game," but not at 1080p and needing to turn off some features.

The biggest change is the drop from 4 GB of video RAM to 1 GB. However, it's interesting that Bethesda continues to insist that an i7 is necessary. Judging by this, PC players will still need a fairly respectable rig to run The Evil Within.

Update on The Evil Within's PC Requirements [BethBlog]

The post The Evil Within’s minimum requirements on PC aren’t a whole lot better appeared first on Destructoid.

Especially the white one

Oooh, a building outline! Terrifying!

You'll get a scary-ass building etched onto your PS4 if you're nabbing a Japanese Psycho Break (The Evil Within here in the west) limited edition release. It comes in Jet Black or Glacier White, and is now available for reservation at the Sony store.

The pack??age comes with the sys??tem, the game in a steel book case, and a soundtrack CD. 

To be fair, I don't know what I would have go?ne with for the design. Boogers? A Resident ??Evil-y looking guy in a brown vest? 

The Evil Within ??Gets Limited Edition PlayStation ?4 Consoles In Japan [Siliconera]

The post These limited edition The Evil Within PS4s don’t look very scary appeared first on Destructoid.

50 GB on PC, 40 GB on consoles

The Evil Within players might experience something slightly terrifying before ever booting up the game -- the amount of hard drive space that Shinji Mikami's latest cr?eation takes up. Bethesda ju?st released the system requirements for PC and consoles, and they're doozies.

On PC, 50 GB of hard drive space will be needed to install The Evil Within (although Bethesda notes that it'll only take up 4????1 GB once the install is complete). Xbox One and PS4 need 40 GB available. Xbox 360 and PS3 only require 7 GB, but there's a mandatory install to the console's HDD -- no just letting the disc spin.

Diving a bit deeper into the PC requirements, recommended specs are 64-bit Windows 7 or Windows 8, i7 with four plus cores, 4 GB RAM, and the equivalent of a GeForce GTX 670 with 4 GB VRAM. All that plus a penchant for being scared are all you'll need to play The Evil Within.

The System Requirements Within [BethBlog]

The post Make ?sure to set aside a whole lot of hard drive space for The Evil Within appeared first on Destructoid.

EU release date moved up to October 14

As someone living in the UK, it's super frustrating to see notifications pop up on a console or Steam showing my North American friends playing new releases when I usually have to wait a few more days to get my hands on the same game. Well, Bethesda is being nice to us Europeans and releasing The Evil Within on October 14, the same? date of the North American re??lease. 

This includes all platforms, both physical and digital in Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and India. If you're in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, you'll still have a couple more days to wait for The Evil Within but I'm really happy by this move.

As I mentioned earlier, it's annoying to see my friends playing the latest games while I'm stuck waiting for the preferred retailer release date -- especially when it's a ??PC game. 

The post Rejoice, Europeans as ??you get to exper??ience The Evil Within early appeared first on Destructoid.

Tough call

I tend to prefer alternate game cover art over the "real" thing and The Evil Within is no exception. Publisher Bethesda has three covers for us to vote on? and whichever piece wins will be used on the inside sleeve for the launch edition o??f the action-horror game. So vote!

"Asylum" has the most support by a wide margin and I get the appeal. It reminds me of the slick PAL box art for another of Shinji Mikami games, Resident Evil 4. But I'm leaning? toward the more abstract "Piercing Eye" and "Twisted" covers, personally.

At any rate, all three are far p??rettier than the actual cov?er.

'The Evil Within' Your Game Ca??se – You Decide! [Bethesda Blog]

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The evil contained within slightly less evil than anticipated

So Japan gets the ability to cattle prod moaning, ass-up anime girls and the rest of the world doesn't (quite). Meanwhile, we get a gross out Evil Within, while in Japan it has been edited down. I assume the same people mad about not hear??ing the anime girls moan while you abuse them are exactly as mad about this Orwellian compromise of creative integrity.

"If we were to make it the same way as the foreign version, it’d be rated CERO Z [18 and up] and we felt that it’d be best to release it the way the creators make it," Tetsu Takahashi told Siliconera. "However, that would limit the sales and advertising, so we’d lose the opportunity to reach out to as many customers pos?sible."

So the Evil Within will be edited down to a CERO D in Japan. However, the abolition of a previous rule that disallowed CERO Z DLC for CERO D games means the "Gore Mode DLC" can add that?? objectionable content right back to the CERO ?D release. Loopholes! 

"Speaking with Mikami [Shinji] about how having The Evil Within be rated CERO D won’t have an effect on the game itself, it has become possible to make it that way," Takahashi said. "Again, this new game is also getting a vast amount of pre-orders, so th??at also strengthened our resolve."

The Evil Within Edited In J??apan, Gore Mode DLC Let’s Players Get The Western Version [Siliconera]

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Blood, blood, gallons of the stuff

What are some of the pleasant activities you picture when you think of going to a gaming conventio??n? Getting a first glimpse at a game that ?few have seen before? Collecting enough swag to double your luggage size? Donating blood?

The last one may be atypical, but if you feel like doing some good in the name of videogames, QuakeCon's one place you can do it. Bethesda's announced this morning that it's partnering with The American Red Cross to hold "The Good Within Blood Drive" -- an allusion to the upcoming The Evil Within.

Anyone interested that's at least 17 years of age can sign up in the convention's Topaz room on July 18 or 19 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. While donors might walk away with slightly less of them intact, they'll receive an official The Evil Within chill pack for their generous gesture. That, and a warm, fuzz?y feeling in their heart.

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Expected around Halloween

The Evil Within is staying hidden in the shadows a little bit longer than anticipated. Howe??ver, there aren't any surprise jump scares here; we know exactly when to expect it.

Originally slated for a August 26 release, Bethesda announced today that it's being pushed back to October 21 in North America, October 23 in Australia, and October 24 in Europe. According to the publisher, "Shinji Mikami and his team at Tango Gameworks have asked for additional time to further balance and refine the game in order to deliver the polished, terrifying pure survival horror experience they set ??out to create."

Although The Evil Within hasn't impressed me thus far, maybe a few months of refinement w?ill right the ship. If nothing else, Halloween's that perfect time of year when everything just seems a little more scary.

The post Oh, the horror! The Evil W??ithin delayed two months appeared first on Destructoid.

How disappointing

All too often, survival horror titles perform poorly in some areas, but it's so?mehow acceptable because that's the trade-off for being su?rvival horror. If the experience is tense and scary, it seems like everything else is forgivable. That's a very important "if" however, because if it doesn't deliver on the horror front, you're suddenly left with a game that just performs poorly.

After having almost two hours of hands-on time with The Evil Within, it's perilously close to falling ??into thi??s category.

As a disclaimer of sorts, I was thrust into two levels at varying points of the story. Chapter 4 and Chapter 8 were the two sections shown, and both were ineffective at providing any scares, any true adrenaline-pumping moments, or really anything even noteworthy. For what it's worth, maybe I was missing the conte?xt of the previous parts?? of the game that might give others an overarching sense of fear. As isolated incidents, they were just dull.

It's a shame because The Evil Within does a fairly decent job at cultivating an atmosphere that lends itself to a survival horror game. The gritty filter over th??e visuals and the methodical? music set up the pins. Nothing ever knocked them down.

Chapter 4 takes place in a hospice, and was an odd environment to get our first taste of the game. The level's set up to be somewhat open-ended, and the game did a poor job of giving ??direction as to what the current objective was and where it was necessary to go. After some wandering about and eventually putting a bullet in the head of an evil doctor, it funneled me back outside to three zombies wandering around a burning pile of wreckage. It was here that I died thrice, only to be returned to the start of the demo each and every time.

An annoyingly unpredictable checkpoint system would be a continuing theme of both slices of the demo we were shown. At one point in Chapter 8, there's a set piece that requires you shoot a not-so-obvious button before being pulled into two giant blades. Speaking with others attending the event, dying here negated approximately 20 minutes ??of progress; I was lucky enough to twitch to it my first time.

Going back to the scene in Chapter 4 with the undead around the fire, despite being entirely avoidable (to my immense ire upon finding out), it served as a good training grounds to how The Evil Within's combat works. Gunplay is typically the way to go, as melee attacks will just slow enemies down. However, there are some bigger weapons scattered about, such as hatchets, that will finish them off. Ad??ditionally, using a match to set fire to the body is the only way to ensure that they won't get back up. Being a survival horror game, there are limited resources, making the inclusion of a stealth kill incredibly valuable, as it uses nothing.

Trying to pick off th?ese three zombies one-by-one proved to be incredib??ly frustrating. There was no clear indicator of what made enemies detect you. Sometimes I'd crouch in the shadows and bushes, patiently waiting for one to turn around on his path when it'd see me out of nowhere and come lumbering toward me. Other times, I'd be brazenly attacking one in front of another, but it wouldn't react at all.

To compound issues, at no point did anything control well. Running around was a chore, especially navigating the game's many hallways and doors. Shooting was unimpressive, as the aiming reticule never felt like it moved fluidly. It's never fun to wrestle with a game's controls, but it can be overlooked under the right circumstances. The Evil Within didn't fit this criteria.

By the time I progressed through the level and was mysteriously dropped into a sewer full of blood, I had gotten a feel for the tricks up The Evil Within's sleeve. It's one-?third jump scares, one-third paranormal uneasiness, and one-third disturbing visuals. But, it's zero parts scary. As some monster lady summoned about 15 zombies in the area w??ith all the grace of PlayStation 2 graphics, I was not at all concerned about the supposedly terrifying prospect of being that outnumbered, but entirely dreading fighting that many enemies using that shoddy combat system.

Chapter 8 fared a bit better because it had the benefit of multiple paths to take, but each one necessary to the completion of the level. Enemies came in smaller numbers, and everything was just generally more manageable. However, an apparition named Ruvik would appear on occasion, and if she touched you, she'd knock you down to just a sliver of health. I generally just ignored her when she showed up, as I thought these bits were scripted. It turns out these?? were random encounters. Another person told me that she spawned when he was in a tiny room with another enemy, unfairly leading to an inevitable death -- a death that set him back 15 minutes. It's bad enough replaying extended sections of a game; having to do that when it's not fun is just downright miserable.

We're at a point where I honestly don't know what can be done to salvage The Evil Within. It's commonly known that at preview events, publishers try to put their best foot forward and show the most impressive parts of their game. If this is the best that The Evil Within has to offer, I can't see how it doesn't flatline. Maybe the benefit of being told the story in its entirety can be the saving grace, but that's a puncher's chance. Otherwise, it's lo?oking like it'll be entirely forgettable.

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