Resident Evil 6 (PC/PS3/Xbox 360 - October 2nd)
Here’s a cavalcade of images centering on the newly brewed C-Virus tearing apart our heroes’ world. Don the role of one of three protagonists, each with their own story and own partner, as their stories intersect and even unify.
An Outbreak of Resident Evil 6 Details Surface with a Trailer and an Earlier Release Date
The press embargo on any and all announcements made at last week’s Captivate expo in Rome has been lifted and now we can proudly say we have more of a goddamned idea as to what is going on in Resident Evil 6.
Burying the Ashley vs. Sherry hatchet, Sherry Birkin comes out on top, revealed as the mysterious girl that partners with the new merc character referred to as Jake Mueller…Oh, and the merc is actually the “colossal imbecile” Albert Wesker’s son! Your head isn’t spinning fast enough. Here, take this: Ada Wong returns and she’s the fucking bad guy of the whole show who evokes Chris’ bloodlust for revenge over fallen comrades (dude seriously hates losing partners).
Still not knocked off your feet, huh? Remember that November 20th release date? Begone. Resident Evil 6 is arriving earlier, being made available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 2nd. Now you’re floored. (If not, you must have amazing balance or hate the “Wesker’s son” thing — I can’t tell from my side of the screen wherein which I’m fanboying fairly loudly).
I’ll glaze over some knowledge that is sure to fly around the internet today starting with the multiplayer: co-op returns to the campaign, online and split-screen, in an improved form over RE5, allowing players to drop in and out of matches with ease, now without the restrictions of checkpoints or resetting a mission. The famed Mercenaries mode also makes a return, unlocked from the start. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an advanced version of the mode that picks and pulls features from the 3DS’ own Mercenaries 3D and Revelations’ Raid Mode. More multiplayer details are on the way.
And unfortunately for you Nintendo advocates, a Wii U version of the game is not currently in the works, but also not off the table. I’m confident Capcom wants to see some worthy sales figures before they spend energy on porting their huge blockbuster to a system that’s being reported around the industry as not quite as powerful as some claim.
That’s your RE6 lowdown for the moment. The more I hear, the more I’ll report. Until then…good God, I’m excited. The sixth installment is looking like the best mix of old and contemporary RE to grace consoles since, well, Revelations. Thanks to the October bump, we’ll get to test the game’s mettle sooner than we thought.
Raccoon City’s Spec Ops DLC Trailer, More Content Detailed
Despite receiving the cold shoulder critically, Slant Six’s take on the Resident Evil universe, Operation Raccoon City, has been holding its own commercially and winning over a slew of fans. Of the many complaints I can muster at this game, the campaign’s speedy run time is a bigger gripe, especially given the fact that nowhere in the narrative are we introduced to the varied personalities that make up the opposing Spec Ops force — otherwise known as the good guys.
In what’s planned as seven downloadable chapters that you can either take on solo or co-op, the Spec Ops team takes center stage as you guide them through a B Scenario of events where you’ll spend time meeting and helping different series’ heroes in their quest to survive Raccoon City going to shit. The above trailer already depicts cameos from the likes of Jill Valentine and Sherry Birkin, two characters downplayed (or missing) from the U.S.S.’s humdrum story.
The first previously announced mission hits your PSN and XBLA marketplace on April 10th for free, the following six paid-for DLC missions will start to be released sometime after that. Additionally, four new versus maps will be made available for purchase, but truly, more co-op is what I want out of this game. Plus a more involving story. I couldn’t get behind my squad of leather bandaged mercenaries no matter how many one-liners fell out of their mouths. The Spec Ops team holds promise yet as we’ve only briefly met them in the versus modes. RE’s a plump property to play with and there’s still time for Slant Six to win over detractors with this DLC (and, you know, several dozen patches).
“It’s challenging. A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into the game and obviously we’d like to see the review scores be a little better than they are right now. In the end, I think our position on it is that we read every review and we try to pull out all the constructive feedback that we can so we can learn a little about what people liked and what they didn’t. Then we look to what our internal goals were and what Capcom asked us to do and I think we accomplished what they wanted to do - we took the Resident Evil franchise in a different direction.”
Mike Kerr, Slant Six producer, speaking with Eurogamer about Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City’s considerably poor critical reception.
I’m working on my own impression, but as briefly as I can muster: ORC is a lopsided spinoff that meets every promising idea it has with broken, severely unpolished delivery. I wanted so badly to love a squad-based shooter within the RE universe, and there is genuine moments of fun to be had in portions of its multiplayer offering, yet the flaws deep seeded in this game are going to be too damning and too frustrating for most gamers to want to trench through.
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City concept art.
If there’s any activity on the Herb today, no science will be able to explain it because there’s no way in hell I won’t be busy burning up every hour playing ORC. If you’re taking to the zombie infested streets of 1998 on this glorious Tuesday, I salute you, valiant soul.
Can’t a man die instantly without raising suspicion, Chris?
Free DLC Mission Heading to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Resident Evil is going full blown multiplayer shooter next week with Raccoon City, and the nature of the game of course lends itself to costly DLC padding. But fans may be pleased to know that an entirely new mission that has you reversing roles and taking the mantle of the Spec Ops team is being offered up by developer Slant Six for the cost of nothing.
Throwing a few hundred rounds into the fray, the Spec Ops team has arrived in Raccoon to discover the source of the devastating T-virus. Capcom says you’ll have to fend off Umbrella’s Security Squad and whatever the hell else wants you dead in a harrowing chapter that has you see Ms. Jill Valentine’s first encounter with the iconic Nemesis from a fresh perspective.
Expect the free download on both XBLA and PSN April 11th.
Resident Evil Chronicles HD Collection Bringing Rail Shootin’ Horror to the PS3
As the shovelware fueled Wii begins to sink into the ether with Nintendo shifting focus to better, more expensive consoles, two of the very best spin-offs to branch out from Resident Evil are jumping ship to Sony’s platform.
Stitching together the rail shooters Umbrella Chronicles and its disproportionately superior sequel The Darkside Chronicles, the downloadable collection drops on PSN this June with HD gloss and a conversion to Move controls. Both titles in the pack will feature co-op zombie blazing as in the Wii originals, and you’ll be able to download the games individually at a later unspecified point.
If you’ve avoided the Chronicles games or forgot there’s a Wii behind all the cobwebs within your entertainment center, the rail shooters are fascinating reimagings of key events and storylines from the main series that, at best, add insights and supplement information from the canon or, at worst, provide mindless hours of fun pumping bullets into creatures of the night.
But if you had to choose between the two, go for the brilliant, sort of “soft remakes” of RE2 and Code: Veronica featured in Darkside Chronicles. It’ll be the best eight hours your trigger finger ever spent.
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