Resident Evil 6 and Left 4 Dead 2 Crossover! Valve and Capcom’s Undead Collide Exclusively for the PC

Did not see this one coming but, as evidenced above, Capcom and Valve have joined forces to provide exclusive content to PC players of both Left 4 Dead 2 and the upcoming Resident Evil 6 port.

On Capcom’s end, RE6’s PC version will have a remixed Mercenaries mode fittingly called “No Mercy” in which the four survivors of Left 4 Dead 2 — Coach, Ellis, Rochelle, and Nick — are featured as selectable characters replete with custom weapon loadouts.  Valve has also relinquished two iconic infected for players to get slaughtered by; the Witch and the Mini-Tank (a bite-sized, still assholey version of the big boy Tanks).  All this content will be made available as a free background download come April 5th.

On Valve’s side of the zombie spectrum, a small roster of RE6’s gruesome B.O.W.’s will run rampant in Left 4 Dead 2 thanks to the power of the Steam Workshop tool set.  The Lepotitsa, Napad, and Ogroman — some of the biggest, meanest sons of bitches RE6 owns (the Ogroman alone stands at two stories tall; expect some reduction there) — will invade as cameo Specials in L4D2 later this Spring.

“We’re huge Resident Evil fans,” said Valve’s senior writer, Chet Faliszek, “so when the opportunity arose to work directly with Capcom to combine L4D2 and RE6, we jumped at it.”

Well, thanks to Capcom and Valve, my console edition of RE6 has been outmoded into the ground, through the earth, and out the other side of the world.  Time to start a PC fund, folks (to which PC players resoundingly reply: “Duh.”)

Remember Me Lands a Summer Date

First time developer Dontnod’s sci-fi actioner, Remember Me, has gone and got itself dated.  The Capcom produced title will see a Western release June 4th and on June 7th for the European market for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

A dash of Arkham Asylum’s combat, a bit of Assassin’s Creed’s platforming, and a whole mess of Total Recall’s, well, everything, Remember Me follows Nilin, an amnesiac who awakens in 2084 Neo-Paris (don’t ask me to point it out on a map).  Nilin soon discovers her forgetful disposition may be a taste of her own medicine; in her former life, she was an expert at “memory remixing,” a skill that gave her access to others’ memories, allowing her free reign to manipulate and modify them at her whim.

It’s a rife concept that plays on the notion of literally rewriting people, effectively playing God.  Hopefully Remember Me’s meatier notions aren’t overshadowed by mindless action (both Total Recall’s suck in their own special ways, after all), but I’m willing to give Dontnod the benefit of the doubt considering how hard up the industry is for original IP’s, especially when studios are saving up their “Wow” shit for the soon-to-be next generation.

Burn this solid Remember Me trailer into your memory.

DmC UPDATE: Bloody Palace Mode and Vergil’s Downfall Hitting This Month

Having effectively driven a rail spike between the critics that dote over it (Hiya) and the jilted gaming public that’s shit on it (check out this hilarious disparity), Ninja Theory’s month-old DmC, regardless of the confusing hate/love surrounding it, is pumping out new content steadfast.

Beginning with the return of the beloved Bloody Palace — Devil May Cry’s horde mode before there was such a thing — players can look forward to a gauntlet of punishment befitting a true Son of Sparda as soon as next week.  The mode comes way of a title update filled with tweaks and fixes including, but not limited to, boss AI adjustment and increased enemy damage for some of the higher difficulties (yikes).  The 360 receives the update Tuesday and the PS3 scores it Wednesday.

The first dose of story DLC, Vergil’s Downfall, is also arriving sometime before February’s out.  As the name suggests, players take control of the other Son of Sparda in his own three to five hour quest.  Fans will be pleased to know Vergil’s mini-campaign wisely opts not to recycle levels or events from Dante’s story and instead offers up completely new environments for you to tear through.

Sadly, the main game’s dynamically choreographed cutscenes are replaced with motion-comic style animations that progress the story a la Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’s so-so DLC.  Guess a penny only stretches so far when it comes to reboots.  Vergil’s Downfall will set you back $7.99/720 Points to download or, better yet, free if you pre-ordered the game.  Give us a visit when we review the add-on in all its hack n’ slashing glory.

Resident Evil Rebooted?

Series producer and consistent Capcom cohort, Masachika Kawata, believes it time to reevaluate the Resident Evil franchise as a whole, and some of his musings include restarting the seventeen-year-old series from scratch, effectively rebooting it.

“It would still be Resident Evil,” says Kawata, and though he admits fans’ connections to veteran characters like Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are what makes the games work for some on a personal level, “We wouldn’t lose the essential nature of what makes it a good game just by changing the characters.”

You catch that, too?  I believe Mr. Kawata just subtlety hinted some fan favorite characters wouldn’t make the cut in this proposed reboot.  Before your blood rises to a boil, though, the elements Masachika says would be included just may be the fear-soaked booster shot of grueling terror missing from the games since Resi 4 traded in its scares for bullets back in 2005, kickstarting a much maligned industry trend in which survival horror titles would reconfigure their formulas to fit into the action-shooter genre.

“Moving forward,” said Kawata, “I can see us focusing even more on the horror aspect and fear in the series, and see us making something scarier than we have already.”

Kawata is adamant this reboot notion of his isn’t a direct response to the poor critical reception Resident Evil 6 garnered from media and the gaming public alike.  RE6 — for as much as I’m willing to forgive it (which is a lot) — at its barest boils down to a shooter playing dress-up as a horror game.  While reactions to the sixth installment is mixed (“mixed” being the kind term; “polarizing” hitting it closer to home), the general consensus is that it simply didn’t deliver on the trademark scares which cemented the classic Resident Evil entries into gamers’ minds so many years ago.

Whatever served as the catalyst (we’ll just call it “RE6’s Sales” for posterity’s sake), it would seem old school fans have the most to gain from Capcom’s scrutinizing of one of their most beloved — and most profitable — franchises.  Do you find yourself craving for a return to the days when opening an unlocked door sent a disquieting pang of anxiety through your gut?  Do miss it when combat was an exercise in controling the waves of panic surging through you because a wasted bullet was one bullet not staving off the dreaded, mocking “YOU DIED” screen?  Well, then, I’ll leave you with a ray of hope:

“It’s undeniable to say the series returning to its roots is important,” said Kawata, “And those roots are horror.”

Sources: IGN, Eurogamer

Resident Evil 6 PSA of the Day: Two New Mercs Stages!

This news almost slipped right past me to be perfectly honest.  Without so much as a press email and little to no fanfare on the obvious outlets (I get it, world; you fucking hate this game), this nugget of DLC unceremoniously plopped onto Xbox Live and PSN yesterday.

Priced at $1.99/160 MS, “Rooftop Mission” and “Creature Workshop” can be yours to add to your collection of Mercenaries stages.  The former map, straightforwardly named, gains the claim to being the smallest level created for the game, and is also one of the few locales you get to tangle with ravenous zombies instead of gun-toting J’avo.

“Creature Workshop,” on the other hand, is described as an “uneven battlefield surrounded by pipes” where part of the sadistic fun is finding just the right place to knock enemies off to their doom.  $2 bucks to rekindle my unseemly, almost unreasonable addiction to Mercenaries?  Not bad.

But my hope above all hopes for this game is that we’ll see some story DLC pad out the offering — this is in spite of the fact that the game’s stunted sales performance pretty much every single month after its October launch is the sort of disappointment that typically puts the kabosh on such plans.  Hopefully Capcom hasn’t exhausted the entire DLC budget on the multitude of hackneyed versus modes, especially when considering some of the very best DLC RE5 received came in the form of its short-but-sweet story expansions.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Storming Shelves This April

Plus: Why the Hell Isn’t it DLC?.

Unable to exist as separate DLC, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is actually a full-on retail disc (and digital download) releasing April 23rd (26th in Europe) which will include both the entirety of the original game and its expanded content at a discounted price of $39.99.  Reverse your frown — we’ll get to why in a tic.

Dark Arisen is equipped with a massive amount of new content, big and small; the biggest of which being the journey you’ll take to Bitterblack Isle and the underground realm lying beneath filled wall to wall with both insurmountable treasure and a Tolkien book’s worth of creatures bent on turning your party into a screaming lunch.  The fight isn’t one-sided, though, as players can now access over 100 new items, more weapons and armors, augmentations, and a brand new tier of character skills to add some tasteful hack to your slash.

More is better, but there’s more to it than that.  Several improvements to the game’s design are being implemented such as a reworked menu system and better fast travel (thankfully).  Already plugged away a shitload of hours into Dragon’s Dogma?  Your character(s) save file can not only be imported, but will also be updated with Dark Arisen’s tech fixes.  How convenient!

A helluva lot less convenient is having to re-purchase the game, as my original copy is outmoded a la Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  Dark Arisen would have made significantly more sense logically and financially as a downloadable expansion.  And Capcom agrees, at least according to Senior VP and Expert Apologist Chris Svensson.

“It would have been a preferred option from our standpoint, too,” explained Svenny.  “But unfortunately there were major technical limitations that couldn’t allow for a digital upgrade path.”  Basically, Dragon’s Dogma — an untested IP that I’m confident outperformed the company’s expectations — just wasn’t designed with the proper coding “hooks” to allow for a huge expansion (…allegedly).

Early adopters can look forward to a gift bag of in-game treats, however.  Your old DD save files will grant you 100,000 Rift Stones, the Gransys Armor Pack, and — wait for it — unlimited Ferrystones.  Svensson hopes this to be a “sufficient ‘thank you’” for the game’s supporters.  So, no room to bitch, right?  Ha.  Right.

Resident Evil Revelations Ports Its Scares to Consoles This May

Let’s bump this one up from whispered rumors to official announcement: the once 3DS bound spin-off, Resident Evil Revelations, is porting to consoles in the U.S. on May 21st (24th across the pond).

Polished and updated in HD, Revelations is making it to a whole host of systems with a $49.99 retail disc slated for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U — no word on how different the latter version will be given the Gamepad’s unique capabilities.  A digital copy of the title can also be found on the PC and PS3, though no price point was specified.

Aside from an upped visual presentation, console fans can expect some exclusive content by way of the co-op online Raid Mode which now includes added weapons and custom parts, and the playable return of everybody’s favorite Umbrella merc, Hunk.  The re-release also throws in a harder difficulty level and a ferocious new B.O.W. happy to slash your jugular for you.

I’m glad this spectacularly crafted, solidly tense entry has found new life outside of the handheld domain — though a $50 dollar price tag for a port is admittedly suspect, especially for avid RE fans like myself hopelessly obligated to re-buy this title for the inch and a half of extra features (and the justice of moving this bite-sized addition to a bigger screen).

With legitimate scares, a fun spin on the Mercenaries mode, and an interesting, character hopping narrative, it’s lucky Revelations is worth a re-purchase — and a no-brainer for fans that missed it the first time around.