Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu 

If one video game series is synonymous with the Halloween season, it has to be “Resident Evil.” With over 25 years, 28 games, and a whole series of tie-in films: someone can spend all of October just in the world of this zombie franchise. 

Knowing their connections with the season, it is not surprising that “Resident Evil”’s publisher Capcom decided to hold a small showcase for the series on October 20. This acted as a series of updates for previously-announced titles, but it is always a joy to hear that these long-awaited games are finally coming to fruition. 

First up in the showcase was more footage of “Shadows of Rose,” a new expansion to “Resident Evil Village” which had been released in 2021. This addition acts as a follow-up to the main story of “Village,” following Rosemary Winters, the daughter of the game’s protagonist and the main catalyst for the story, after the events of the game. After the trailer for this expansion, Capcom announced that it would be included in the “Gold Edition” of “Resident Evil Village,” a new version of the game which comes with all expansions that were released for the game since its original release. This package will be released on October 28 for $50. 

Sharing the October 28 release date is “Resident Evil Re:Verse.” This multiplayer shooter has had a tepid and confusing release since 2021 with a variety of beta tests, alpha versions, and vague release periods. According to Capcom though, the full game will finally be released as a bonus with “Village: Gold Edition.” In essence, if you want to play “Re:Verse” on October 28, you need to own or already own “Village.” 

Finally, the biggest announcement out of the showcase was the new gameplay footage and trailers for the upcoming “Resident Evil 4.” While the game is a remake of the 2005 classic, this new version seems to be more like a reimagining. Based on the footage released thus far, it appears that the game’s story will be similar to the original but with different content and gameplay strategies. Nonetheless, seeing these classic gaming locations with an updated and polished look is an absolute sight to behold. So far, it seems like this remake will be an excellent translation of the original “Resident Evil 4” experience. Scheduled for a March 24, 2023 release the game is coming to the newest generation of consoles along with PC. 

Outside of new game announcements, a variety of new ports were announced. Firstly was that “Village” would soon be coming to Mac computers. While this is neat, the port getting the most attention, and scrutiny, was the newly-announced “Cloud Series” coming to the Nintendo Switch. Many people were excited to see the “Village,” “Biohazard,” and the remakes of “2” and “3” were finally getting put on the Switch; the fact that these releases would be Cloud-based is not a welcome sight. In recent times, the Nintendo Switch has shown that it does not handle Cloud-based games well, struggling with a wealth of latency and lagging issues. Even with this scrutiny, these ports are coming to the Switch on October 28. 

To sum up this showcase, October 28 is now set to be an absolute holiday for “Resident Evil” fans. With new experiences to explore and various new methods to play the series, horror fans have a lot to keep themselves occupied until the “Resident Evil 4” remake releases in March.