“Controls are now crisp and fluid like diarrhea I had one time.”
The original Resident Evil 2 came out in 1998. That’s one year before The Matrix was a thing. Let THAT sink in. 21 years ago. The new Resident Evil 2 Remake is developed by Capcom R&D Division 1 and published by Capcom. The first game defined a genre of horror games and the sequel cemented it. But some really old games don’t always hold up as well as they did back then, and a full, ground-up remake is necessary. So, how is this one?
GRAPHICS: 2/2
It has stunning updated visuals and state of the art usage of textures. These include but are not limited to:
A wet look on surfaces like tiles due to rain.
Flooding beautiful locks of hair sprouting from our protagonist’s head.
Lickers and their perfectly rendered lil’ buttholes.
Phenomenal facial animations and character models replace the old 90’s pixelated ones.
Instead of a camera that obscures and can’t be navigated, you can now enjoy the same over the shoulder camera you know and love today. With that, you really take in the atmosphere. Now this is how you remake a game! Everything has been re-imagined from the ground up!
STORY: 2/2
If you like stories about:
Zombies,
Big shadow corporations
Labs hidden away in sewers
Biological weapons
The usual sci-fi warning to us mere mortals as to what CAN go wrong the more we meddle with technology…
…then look no further! G-virus! Choose between 2 characters that experience the zombie outbreak via their distinctive perspectives and situations. Replay them to piece together more of what really happened in Raccoon City with 4 possible variations of the events!
AUDIO: 1/2
The music and sounds definitely enhance the horror and gameplay/ atmosphere. Some tunes come on just to warn when certain enemy variants come into play. The voice acting and dialogue has improved so much since the 1998 release! Despite Mr. X having a straight up banger song play when he pursued you. The game did feel like it could have used more in the soundtrack department, but all the sound effects, each squishy tissue on the zombies was perfect!
GAMEPLAY: 1/2
So long tank controls and shoddy camera! Hello controls that are now [SEE ARTICLE SUBHEADLINE]. Explore the police station, solve puzzles, and be strategic with ammo and healing items as this game is survival horror. I do however wish there were more updates like a dodge or roll to evade foes. One boss battle in particular bothered me that he could throw things through walls and I had no means of avoiding it. Props to Capcom for making a character like Mr X, he could have easily broken the game, but didn’t, he was an awesome balance to the game.
FUN: 2/2
Although a challenge and a bit of a learning curve, this game is fun! On my first playthrough, I was already ready to take on the final boss with just my knife alone! If I can survive the zombie apocalypse, so can you!
First day at new job as a cop, the city gets invaded with zombies. The Resident Evil 2 remake 1-Shot demo( What a mouthful!) came out Friday January 11th and boy do we have a lot to talk about before the full game release happening January 25th!
This is a ground up remake of the 1998 PS1 classic of the same name. The game starts instantly insisting you be able to read. Once you take control of rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy in the zombie ridden Raccoon City police station, right away the graphics are mind boggling! This game is visually stunning, liquid freedom will stream from your eyes.
The attention to detail builds the atmosphere making it very spooky, too spooky for me almost. Controls are fluid, the camera perfectly follows you, and a fantastic soundtrack accompanies the year’s first AAA horror game.
1-shot for those of you who don’t know means you have one chance to play the demo, not one bullet. Please learn from my mistakes. I thought I only had one bullet…. There is a timer that displays thirty minutes. Sadly you can only play up to a certain part. Spoilers: Lt. Marvin Branagh has you take a look at video footage. SPOILER WARNING IN ITALICS. Leon sees Claire and is excited she has made it, lastly you are told how to get to the courtroom to meetup with her.
What happens when you beat it?
The demo thanks you for playing and a trailer of what’s to come rolls. Hunk confirmed as well as the ever difficult tofu mode is back! Yes… You can play the game as a giant blob of soy goodness!
Fans of the Resident Evil series and newcomers alike will enjoy the challenges presented. The enemies are very meaty and take a few bullets to go down. You will eventually get the the ability to stab via the survival knife! In your travels you get to see potential puzzles, other environments to explore, secrets, and signature twisted imagery. That first guard who Leon helps was brutal to look at, those intestines look so real, we have those in our bodies and there it was in my escape from reality!
I truly thought I’d see the infamous Licker in the first long corridor with windows. But the true horror there was Tiffany whom I haven’t seen since high school shrieking about IT WORKS and Herbalife from outside.
I definitely recommend the Resident Evil 2 1-Shot demo (or as I like to call it 5 Nights At RPD) to hold you over until the release day! If you enjoyed previous Resident Evil games, Left 4 Dead, Outlast, and a plethora of others, download the demo today!
As time moves forward people are moved on. This week we honor a man who was at the forefront of the gaming industry. Rest in peace Mr. Ted Dabney, co-founder of Atari, who passed away after a battle with cancer at age 86. We must also express ou feelings for John Bain, aka TotalBiscuit, whom also died from cancer at age 33. The HardModeGamers, the Lucky Gamer Recap, and so much would potentially not exist without your contributions. Now this week’s Lucky Gamer Recap:
1. PGA touring with… not EA
It seems those eager for more golfing games may be in a bad place. EA has lost the license to PGA Tour. The news came as Canadian developer, HB Studios, announced the addition of the tour to its upcoming title The Golf Club 2019. Rory McIlroy took the helm of EA’s PGA Tour series after they ended their partnership with Tiger Woods. And that game didn’t do well critically or commercially. Now, EA has lost the license completely but both sides claim the split was amicable. Meanwhile HB Studios is boasting that this validates they have the number one golf game on the market. Cool brag guys.
2. Remember the Garbage Pail Kids?
Well, they’re getting a video game. That’s right the Garbage Pail Kids game was officially announced. Do you want to know more? Word, so it’s going to be a free-to-play card-battle RPG. There will be original characters as well as newer cards thrown in the mix. Developed by Jago Studios in collaboration with The Topps Company, the game is currently in Private beta. There is no official launch date but it is planned to be release on both iOS and Android markets. It seems like things from the 80’s really are making the strongest comeback ever. Shout out to Stranger Things and Hipsters for that one.
3. Japan Exclusive: Dock-less Switch!
In a surprising turn of events, Nintendo has announced a dock-less Switch bundle coming exclusively to Japan. As most of us know, Japan is super heavy on mobile gaming. This move makes perfect sense in the idea of providing what the consumer wants. On the flip side it is definitely pretty self destructive considering they own the #1 portable console on the market. However, as far as I’m concerned this is confirmation of a Pokemon Switch game coming out this fall. Why else would they be so willing to ditch a core component of their hybrid console? No dock means it’s just a portable game console.
4. And there may be a new challenger… maybe.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg John Kodera, the new Playstation bossman, said he wants the company to continue thinking about portable gaming. He stated very clearly they are not discussing hardware specifics yet but they were carrying out experiments in the department. Could the next Playstation console be a hybrid like the Nintendo Switch? Quite possibly because this is also the same interview that sent the internet into a frenzy. A statement about the PS4 nearing the end of it’s lifecycle made everyone panic. Until they realized he was speaking from a sales of product perspective. The Vita is already dead, with physical game support and free Playstation Plus games already seeing an end.
5. Resident Evil Switch is cloudy with a chance of bad.
The good news: Resident Evil 7 is coming to Nintendo Switch. The bad news: Resident Evil 7: Cloud Version is coming to Nintendo Switch. The game that originally released on all the platforms isn’t getting a port. Instead Capcom is releasing something called, Resident Evil 7: Cloud Version, here’s the explanation. This is going to be a streamed game, much like PlayStation Now. Its a small download at only 45MB but obviously needs a constant internet connection to work. As of right now this is only coming to Japan (update: released in Japan May 24th 2018) which makes sense. They have the internet capability to support this, much like they did before with Phantasy Star Online 2. It’ll be really tough for this to ever work in America, but one can dream.
6. Madden NFL 19.
I know the NFL is in really hot water lately because of all the racism protest and stuff but that doesn’t stop the money train from running. EA officially, to no one’s surprise, announced Madden NFL 19 releasing August 10, 2018. The cover athlete honor has blessed, or cursed depending who you ask, incredible Wide Receiver Terrell Owens. There will also be a Hall of Fame edition of the game available for $80. The special edition comes with three days of early access, 12 gold team fantasy packs, an elite legends player, and more. This will definitely have some presence at E3 so if interested for sure tune in.
7. School Shooting Game? Very Bad Idea.
It never make sense to me when people claim that real violence is a product of fictional violence. The reference material for fiction is real life. Such is the case with Active Shooter, a game released on STEAM earlier this week. The game has been under fire for literally being a game about mass shootings. You can play as a civilian, a SWAT officer, or the active shooter. Tons of people were triggered over this. I can absolutely see why, but I still feel like the timing was wrong, the concept not so much. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. It’s kind of silly for people to feel like if they don’t like something it has to disappear completely. Don’t get me wrong I think it was dumb as hell for this game to release with the school shooter being a playable character. I think it’s worst that the civilian is a character. Either way, I’m hoping to get an interview with the Dev team so we can discuss it in detail.
God of War, Yakuza 6 and some other less important stuff.
It’s been a long time coming but the worst part of the pre-E3 drought is here. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. It was a great release week for PS4 so it can’t be the worst. The worst is when there are no good releases and news is as dry as last week. Either way this week sucked pretty bad too. But as always I did my best to bring some glorious, or at least interesting, news for my fellow Lucky Gamers:
1. To play alone or not to play alone?
I would never have thought that the day would come where I would be questioning how much longer single player games have left. Sure on one hand we have the incredible single player adventures like God of War or Yakuza. But on the other, we have the recent rumor that this years Call of Duty may arrive with no single player campaign. That is crazy. Absolutely unexpected. The rumor is this years Call of Duty ran out of development time to perfect the single player campaign and it was scrapped. Of course, this could all be hype train boarding because all parties involved have declined to comment. If Call of Duty goes campaign free, it may set the example that single player is dead. At least for triple A titles. Is that something we are ready for? My answer: No.
2. The Anthem Story.
Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story was so poorly received that EA and Bioware haven’t been able to shake the nightmares. Now on the rumors of an industry shaking decision, Bioware has go on record to say that they are focusing heavily on the story for the upcoming Anthem. Anthem was shown off last year and immediately touted as a Destiny clone. In a world dominated by Battle Royale it may have become apparent that a Destiny clone might not be enough. Anthem was set to launch this year but was recently delayed to 2019. Let’s just hope they don’t butcher the story before launch because “there wasn’t enough time”.
3. Battle Royale!?
Let’s sum up the interesting Battle Royale news category real briefly this week. First off congratulations to Epic for Fortnite mobile bringing in over $25 million in its first month. That’s a lot of money. Like a lot of money. So much so that it brings us to point two. Dice is currently prototyping a Battle Royale mode for Battlefield V. Reports say that they are testing mechanics and gameplay styles in engine but it most likely will not be ready for launch. Rumors also claim Treyarch is doing the same for Black Ops 4. And while the big guys are playing catch up the other little big name on the scene is innovating to compete. PUBG just added a new underground cave system to the map. The cave had various exit ways and an entire underground system of its own.
4. Switch delay Switch Hooray!
Bad news out the way first. Dark Souls Remastered for Switch has been delayed. The Dark Souls amiibo has also been delayed and Bandai Namco did not provide any clear reason. The delay only effects the Switch version with the remaster still releasing for all other platforms on May 25th. Good news, NBA Playgrounds 2 will be launching this summer. Season mode, over 200 players, and a championship online mode are just a few of the new improvements to the game. And random over speculation of possible great news, new Wave Racer incoming. I’m talking about the game series, not the musician. In a brief interview at BAFTA, series producer Takahashi said it may be one of the games they are working on bringing back.
5. One long awaited, one hardly expected.
This console generation has seen the long over due return of traditional horror games. Great experiences like Resident Evil 7 and Outlast have given the genre new life. Canceled projects like Silent Hills have shown us how crazy things can really get. Now Agony, a kickstarter horror game, will be released on May 29th on PS4, Xbox One, and PC will be aiming to further darken your underwear. The other genre this console generation has has a massive impact on is Open World. With damn near every game exploring the idea of open world for better or worse. Still not enough and so we have the announcement of Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass. Not much was shown about the game besides the announcement trailer but I’m sure we’ll see more at E3.
6. It’s never too late for training.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself after playing a game for a whole year, “man this game could really use a training or practice mode”, don’t give up. That’s what I’m guessing happened over at Ubisoft. Some noob kept getting wrecked in For Honor and finally someone was like “Fine Steve! We’ll put a training mode in so you can ‘git good’ and stop crying”. So now a whole year later, For Honor will have a training mode. Dreams do come true. And if that was enough class in a game how about Disgaea 1 making a comeback on Nintendo Switch and PS4. No exact date was given yet but it will be coming sometime this year with collector’s editions available for preorder now.
7. Classic gaming in a possible modern classic?
That was an awful title mechanic. Either way stick with me and see where it goes. First, Kingdom Hearts 3 finally gave us a little more information about itself. The game will feature mini games inspired by classic LCD gaming from days of old. Days of old being a quick reference to 1980’s games and old Mickey Mouse animated shorts. Supposedly still slated to release this year it won’t be much longer before you can have Sora reliving our gaming past on his current gaming tech. I really don’t expect this game to still be coming out this year but boy would that be a pleasant surprise.
The Evil Within 2 is the sequel to the 2014 surprise horror hit from Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame. Developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda, the game continues the tragic story of detective Sebastian Castellanos trying to save his daughter. Released on October 13th 2017 (which was also a Friday the 13th), Evil Within 2 promises to take players through horrifying domains with terrifying enemies while trying to tell a sci-fi horror story worthy of paying attention to. Does it have what it takes to compete with the heavy hitters of the new era?
GRAPHICS: 1/2
At first glance The Evil Within 2 looks absolutely amazing, however after playing for a few hours the beauty begins to fade away. On numerous occasions the game was plagued by frame rate drops and inconsistent textures. The transition between cutscene and gameplay is extremely fluid but cutscenes and gameplay are hardly anything to be blown away by at all. A lot of the environments are bland and uninteresting which really damage the game’s ability to be scary. The enemy character models look fairly menacing but the constant reliance on jump scares make the designs so much less interesting. Overall the game doesn’t look bad but it sure doesn’t hold its own against some of the other heavy hitters from this year.
STORY: 1/2
The story of detective Sebastian Castellanos is as tragic as tragic stories can possibly get. Quite literally every turn of this man’s life is a wobbly staircase ready to collapse beneath him whether he’s climbing up or down. The big problem is with so many constant failures happening throughout the plot it gets really hard to connect with the lead character and ever really feel bad for him. It’s even harder to connect with Sebastian for anyone who may have skipped the first entry in this potentially growing series. On top of a lack of a true connection with the protagonist, the story itself becomes very convoluted very quickly. The development team seems to have been conflicted on how linear they wanted the game to be vs how much open world freedom they wanted to allow the players. It was really hard to not only get interested in the plot but also figure it out in the beginning of the game. As the story progresses, if you can get hooked into the plot, the twist become quite interesting and entertaining. It’s tough to say, but you really have dive deep into the story to enjoy it, (because you can say that about any story ever) but that is really the case, otherwise the content is just ridiculous. The world may never know if The Evil Within 2 has a poorly written story or a poorly presented story. Just kidding, of course it will.
AUDIO: 0/2
This was probably the most disappointing part of the entire game. The Audio was bad. The game lacked a major sense of horror which can easily be tied in part to the lack of ambient horror. When playing in surround sound the sound effects are unable to convert a home into the environment on screen. The only prominent sounds are footsteps and the awful gurgling of the enemy creatures. Speaking the script and voice acting really dropped the ball. It’s so bad it’s hard to know for sure which to blame. The players character seems to have fallen in love with asking the questions “What is going on?” and “Who/what was that?” It felt like every single time a change of environment occurred he needed to spit out one of those lines. And the lines are delivered poorly. So poorly. And the dialogue between characters is even worst. The only times it was noticeably decent were during text guided conversation trees that revealed more information. That’s right. Bad Audio.
GAMEPLAY: 2/2
Ever play Resident Evil 4? Nothing more needs be said. Seriously, the gameplay mechanics are incredible. If any player who plays first person shooters with tactical control mapping, it’ll feel right at home. Those who don’t will need to do a little adjusting but it will make sense once committed to muscle memory. The targeting system is extremely fluid. The aim assist felt amazing and was nearly impossible to not want to use and just enjoy the game. Playing with it turned off (AKA correctly) still felt incredibly responsive, when frames weren’t dropping of course. Character weight and movement felt good. None of his pacing felt too fast or too lost despite how silly his light job animation looks. Navigating the menu options makes a ton of sense and opening any menu slows the time in the game to a near stop. The development team definitely locked the doors right when it came to how this game plays.
FUN 1/2
It’s important to note that Shinji Mikami did not direct this sequel. As a horror game the goal is to provide an adrenaline rush created from the constant rush of fear. The Evil Within 2 did not deliver on that promise. It did however provide a very good action sci-fi adventure with a few jump scares and grotesque images. In respect to the game it was very fun to play when time allowed for a good committed hunkering down. It was hard to ever feel a true rush of excitement getting ready to plug back in. That however didn’t take away from the fact that once plugged in there were few things that sounded more fun then sneaking up for a face stab or blasting the heads off of the oncoming deformed threat. The pacing is rather slow and the enemies are absolutely some of the toughest but once things fall under control (or as close to it as possible) fun flies directly into the brain and lights a fire. One major element that felt like it was missing or not included enough was explosions. Things blowing up in video games always a plus.
The recent resurgence of the Horror genre in media and pop culture has led to some lackluster products and content. The Evil Within 2 doesn’t fall directly into that category but it definitely falls close. The audio is definitely the largest component of any horror product so to allow that to fail is to allow the product to fail. Mix an extremely complex plot with poor voicing and prepare to catch the aftermath. The good news is, as with most Bethesda games, the game did what it was supposed to do as a game. It provided options, fun, and great game mechanics. The Evil Within 2 could have been a lot more but in a world with so much who takes the blame for the bad mixing.
Introducing the “Lucky Gamer” weekly recap. Every week I’m going to look at the 7 coolest gaming related news articles that should make you feel lucky to be a gamer. So put the control down for a second, crack open a bag of cotton candy, and bask in the glory of our lucky charms. Or do none of those things and just read this on your phone as you wish you could leave work.
1. Resident Evil Revelations 1 & 2 coming to a Nintendo Switch near you! (You know cause you probably haven’t been able to buy one yet.)
Capcom stated a few weeks back that they were pleasantly surprised by the performance of Street Fighter on Switch but I doubt this is completely a result of that. Regardless, it’s exciting to say that the 2012 surprise hit and the 2015 sequel will both be playable on the Nintendo Switch at some point before the end of 2017. No specific date was given so maybe it was a direct response to the success of Street Fighter, but either way, bravo Capcom. Now kindly, where is Deep Down?
2. Ark: Survival Evolved full release delayed.
Now I know at this moment you’re probably saying to yourself, “how does a game being delayed make me a lucky gamer?” and honestly, I have no clue. But this right here felt like an important piece of information to share with my fellow gamers. The big old official release of this amazing game most gamers have already been playing for two years has been delayed. Delayed to when you may ask? Well thats what this article is here for, to share knowledge and give you the information that matters. Ark’s full release has moved from August 8th to August 29th.
3. Persona 5 Anime TV Series coming in 2018.
Persona 5 is an amazing game. For some people it may be to cumbersome to really be able to dive in and enjoy it in all its glory. For those people this news should be incredible exciting because if its anything like the last time Atlus converted a Persona game into an anime this will be great. It will be all of the amazing plot without all of the high school life simulation gameplay. There you have ya baby, go watch the anime instead of playing the game.
4. Metroid: Samus Returns “Fusion Mode” is an Amibo Exclusive?
Nintendo announced that four different amiibo will work for the upcoming 3DS Metroid game and each contain it’s own extra content. That extra content can only be accessed by using the little NFC enabled toys. This is pretty scary but considering we all felt that way about Online Passes at first and they are still around it’s no biggie. Oh wait they are not? Eh, doesn’t matter, it’s Nintendo. They can do no wrong. Here’s a quick list: New Squishy unlocks Fusion Mode, New Samus Aran unlocks Metroid 2 art gallery, Zero Suit Samus unlocks sound test mode, and classic Samus unlocks a missile tank and concept art. Yea, nothing wrong here.
5. Playstation Plus & Games With Gold August freebies announced.
Sure it’s mandatory now so it doesn’t feel quite as great to get free games with the purchase of PS Plus or Xbox Gold but, wait… no it actually does. Actually it feels even better because I was going to play online anyway so this is totally a bonus. Anyway first lets rattle off the PS Plus bonuses, well you know because I’m the Playstation guy. As of August 2nd you’ll be able to download Just Cause 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry for your PS4, Super Motherload and Snakeball for your PS3, & Downwell and Level 22 for your PS Vita (Hard Tip: Downwell works on PS4 and Level 22 works on PS4 & PS3.) One on the big green machine, Xbox gamers get to download Slime Rancher, Bayonetta, Trials Fusion, & Red Faction: Armageddon, playable on 360 and the One. Have fun and don’t forget to download them before the end of the month!
6. FIFA 18 to have multiple versions of historic players.
Some times playing only one game from a specific genre spoils and leaves you confused. This is announcement is a prime example. Baseball games are the only sport genre games I play. In Baseball games this has been a thing for a really long time. Either way the excitement should be real for any long time FIFA fans who want to play as legendary players from back in their day. Tread carefully and prepare for angry internet people as there will only be up to 3 unique versions of certain legendary players. Actually scratch that, I can’t really imagine why there would be more.
7. WNBA Teams and Players will be playable in NBA Live 18!?
Women’s basketball. Enough said. No I’m kidding this is actually pretty cool. This will be the first non fighting sport game that has female athletes. Huge statement for females all around the globe. Ladies we love you. Sincerely, Hard Mode Gamers. P.S. We are still hoping to get some females on the team so shoot an email over and let us begin negotiations. And shout to EA for making this a thing, hope it does well for their sales.
Thats all for this week folks, but feel free to leave some of your favorite pieces of news in the comments below. Have a great weekend.
