Summer Game Bang! - Resident Evil Refresh

Several titles from Capcom’s flagship horror series are receiving updates and upgrades to entice players to return for more flesh-eating fun. At Monday’s Capcom showcase it was revealed that Resident Evil 7, 2 (remake) and 3 (remake) were all receiving current gen upgrades for PlayStation 5 as well as Xbox series consoles. These updates were previously announced to be in the works for 2022 but during the showcase it was revealed that all of them are available right now for players to enjoy at no additional cost. This means if you are one of the many folks who owned these games on your PS4 or XB1 you are able to upgrade them all to the new gen console versions for free. These updates feature 4k resolution, ray tracing and higher frame rates.

Also part of the shows focus on the Resident Evil series were a small handful of updates coming this October to the last entry in the series, Village. The DLC chapter promised last Summer is finally on the horizon with Shadows of Rose, an all-new story chapter which (spoilers for Resident Evil 8) follows the 16 year time jump we saw at the end of Village. Ethan’s daughter Rose takes center-stage in this chapter as she struggles to come to terms with the powers bestowed upon her by her father.

Shadows of Rose looks to be a trippy other-worldly experience as Rose navigates what is described as the "consciousness of the Megamycete." This means plenty of nightmare scenarios that escape the boundaries of the real world. Footage from the DLC gave us floors and walls bubbling with black goo, a dark mirror vision of Rose to contend with and glowing scrawls of text on the walls from a disembodied guide named Michael. Weird stuff.

Finally, alongside Shadows of Rose Village itself will be receiving a 3rd person mode for the entirety of the game which is a first for this set of Resident Evil games headed up by protagonist Ethan Winters. It’s quite interesting to see Capcom put so much into this particular entry of the series to entice players to return. A 3rd person playthrough this October as well as a VR playthrough next year with PSVR2 seems like kind of a tall order to me, but I am very happy to see the Resident Evil franchise thriving as it is today.