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.”)

Made in Heaven by Zhang Ke

Whaddaya Buyin’? Five Resident Evil Titles Discounted on Xbox Live

Welcome!  Got a fine selection on sale, stranger!  Marking Day 3 of Xbox Live’s Ultimate Game Sale, every Resident Evil title available for download through Games on Demand has seen a significant price cut.

Whether you’re just breaking into the series or have been looking for crazy deals on your horror favorites (Code: Veronica’s five-fucking-dollars?!), Xbox owners would do well to check out the sales below:

• Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD - Was: $19.99/Now: $4.99
• Resident Evil 4 HD - Was: $19.99/Now: $9.99
• Resident Evil 5 - Was: $19.99/Now: $9.99
• Resident Evil 6 - Was: $39.99/Now: $19.99
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Was: $39.99/Now: $19.99

Unfortunately, the closest Xbox fans can get to the key hunting, backtracking days of retro Resi is in Code: Veronica which, admittedly, has not aged gracefully; HD coat of paint and all.  Still, even if it sits dormant on your harddrive, it’s difficult to feel buyer’s remorse over $5.

The rest of the collection features more modern examples of RE and their gun-toting glory, including RE4 at just $10, one of the best and most influential games of the last decade (not owning it can be called a “constant mistake” or an “everlasting D’oh!”).  For the same price, you can grab its co-op clone, RE5 (still love it, but I call ‘em like I see ‘em)

And, yes, its poor performance means you’re able to snag the utterly reviled Resident Evil 6 at an all time low of $20 — if you’re asking me, it breaks into the top five of my series favorites; hell, the superior Mercenaries Mode — and the hundred hours I’ve sunk into it — is worth that cost alone.  Hmm, what’s that?  What about Operation Raccoon City?  Personally, I think free-to-play would be too high of an asking price on that clunker, but if you’ve got a strong constitution and a blinding love for everything Resident Evil…you should still stay away.  Far away.

All deals, forthcoming and currently standing, end on March 4th, so jump on them before the prices become unreasonable once more.  [Over, out, and done with.  The Res Evil sale ended the same day it started, but you can catch many more sales until the 4th.]

Pin-Up: Resident Evil by Ed Benes

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.

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.

Happy Holidays from The Red Herb!

May your materialistic wishes be granted tenfold this season.