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This is Not a Test – Capcom is Officially Remaking Resident Evil 2!

They’re doing it. They’re actually doing it.

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, longtime producer on the franchise, announced today via the official Res’ Evil Youtube Channel that Capcom has approved his pitch for a remake of 1998′s Resident Evil 2.

Despite Hirabayashi’s excitement (which quickly degraded into a not so sly Shia LaBoof meme), the...

Dinklebot is Dead – Nolan North Takes Over as Destiny’s Ghost

In the oddest bit of news to ever come out of Bungie’s co-op space-gun opera, the role of your floating AI companion Ghost, voiced by Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage since the game’s launch last year, has been recast.

Criticisms of Dinklage’s half-awake delivery date all the way back to Destiny’s Alpha. The (usually very good) actor puts as much emotion into the role as a 60-year-old high school teacher puts into roll call. His Ben Stein impression can be heard across every single on-disc mission. It wasn’t much of a surprise that Bungie deliberately forgot to write any dialogue for the Dinkster in either of the game’s expansions.

But Ghost is back for September’s massive expansion, The Taken King, but this time he’ll have the pipes of Mr. Nolan North (Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed) to voice him to life. North was initially brought in to lay vocals down for only the third expansion, but Bungie fell in love with the veteran’s performance, going as far as to re-record every line with him.

“They really wanted me to put my stamp on it. They let me bring what I wanted to the role,” North said to Game Informer. “You have to give it your own spin.” North isn’t kidding when he says he aims to make the character his own. The actor refused to hear anything his predecessor had already recorded to avoid affecting his take on Ghost.

And Nolan apparently hopes to take ownership over the character for a long time to come. “I’m hoping we’re doing this for years. If I get a chance to continue with the role, I think we can evolve Ghost as we move forward over the years. In the same way that the player learns about the game and the world, maybe the Ghost grows with them.”

Maybe, Nolanbot. Maybe.

Capcom Wants to Know What You Want From a Resident Evil 2 Remake [UPDATED]

Great goddamn G-Virus, people. It’s happened. Capcom is seriously considering a remake of one of the most beloved survival horror games of all time. Trouble is, they really don’t know how to go about reviving the 17 year-old classic. So they’re asking us.

Here’s what the Capcom’s R&D Team posted on the official RE Facebook today:

First off, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to all Resident Evil fans, for your passion, enthusiasm and continued support for the Resident Evil brand.

Enthusiasm for a Resident Evil 2 Remake is something we’ve been hearing from you over the years, and has drawn some recent attention in the media. [That bit’s probably in reference to this fan remake made using Unreal 4.]

However, as the team owns the RE brand, we’re not certain how we feel about this approach, and would like to ask your honest and frank opinion about the “Resident Evil 2 Remake” and what the brand identity is supposed to be about?

I can understand why Capcom is fractured on what direction the remake should take. Since 2005, the definition of a successful Resident Evil game has moved away from straight-laced survival horror and into more… shoot-stuff-in-the-face territory.

But the storied response to the post shows fans’ tastes are craving a return to old school horror. Over 10,000 comments later and the consensus is somewhere along the lines of a faithful remake – harnessing next-gen graphics, of course – that hedges close to the route 2002′s Resident Evil Remake took. Basically, a gorgeous retread that infuses just enough new to scare us all over again.

Resident Evil 2 is my favorite game of all time, bar none. I’m all in for a faithful remake rather than a shooter-y reboot, but I don’t necessarily want a prettied up version of a game from 1998. Despite its numbered title, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was intended as a spin-off to supplement RE2. I’d go fucking wild if Capcom stitched together both narratives into one giant Raccoon City Saga, especially if the story is tweaked to help the games flow into one meaningful arc.

Or, as I’ve pitched time and again, have the brilliant Scenario System – which sees you play through one set of events that affects your second playthrough – converted into a quasi co-op mode that has players tackling their stories simultaneously, sometimes overlapping to face certain challenges. Now that’s reaching for the S.T.A.R.S. (it’s okay, I vomited in my own mouth for you to pay for that pun).

Whatever it may become, I’m there, and it already sounds like a bunch of you will be right there alongside me. FFVII be damned. This is most exciting remake I can imagine.

UPDATE

This comes way of Mr. Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, longtime producer on the Resident Evil series:

Hello RE fans! This is H again!

Right after the RE HD Remaster project was finished, I actually started putting together my ideas for this “RE2 Project”. So, I just brushed it up and went to see my boss to present the basic concept of the project already…

Yeaaaah. I think this dream’s coming true, folks… My emotions can only be described as somewhere between “raging joy” and “screaming boner.”

Trademark Filing Outs “Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps” 

Something (resident) evil, this way comes.

Capcom is once again tapping into their survival horror wellspring if a recent trademark submission is any indicator. Originally filed simply as ‘Umbrella Corps’ with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (or, Never Heard of It for short), another filing was spotted by DualShockers.

The second filing, put in toward the Japanese Patent and Trademark Office, reveals the full title of Capcom’s mysterious game/thing as ‘Biohazard: Umbrella Corps’ – what we’d call Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps due to, funny enough, trademark enforcement protecting a hardcore band Westerners are way past caring about.

Until Capcom is ready to let the genetically altered cat out of the bag themselves, we’ll have to sate our curiosity on the thrills of copyright law. But what’s in a name?

The series has never been shy on slapping a number on main releases, so it’s not very likely this is Resident Evil 7. The mixed success stew that is the spin-off seems a better possibility. The last title to use Umbrella in its christening was the lightgun experiment Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, but that title’s sequel saw fit to carry the Chronicles name as more of a series denotation.

2012′s half-cocked co-op shooter Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, on the other hand, focused exclusively on a squad of Umbrella mercenaries blasting apart the titular town’s B.O.W.s. Despite getting a well deserved meat-check from every gaming publication on the map, that offshoot fared well in terms of sales (but still doomed to a second life lining Gamestop $4.99 bins nationwide).

Could Umbrella Corps be the bargain bin successor we’ve all been absolutely, desperately clamoring for? Or has Capcom finally listened to my countless emails demanding a beat ‘em up in the RE universe starring Barry Burton where you attack zombies beard first? Fingers crossed.

Gearbox Boss Says Duke Nukem Will Return (Eventually)

Duke Nukem Forever was a fucking travesty. After 14 years in development – in which time it was announced and unannounced for a plethora of different consoles – the once 3D Realms owned IP finally saw new life in 2011 once Texan dev and industry darling Gearbox Software acquired the franchise.

But too many cooks cluttering the kitchen, dated code, and archaic design turned the high-profile Duke into the butt of a joke no one found remotely funny (or very playable). It wasn’t a stretch to figure that Duke was dead after that very loud misfire.

Gearbox’s CEO and face man, Randy Pitchford, says that’s not all to the story, though. “I did not acquire the franchise merely so we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever,” said Pitchford to a Develop Conference crowd today. “That was the toll to pay to give Duke a chance.”

Randy went on to reveal that Gearbox has actually tooled around with concepts for what’s to be a brand new Duke Nukem entry. Stickler is, Gearbox is too busy to dive into development themselves. Between the upcoming Battleborn, a promising merger of FPS and MOBA of all things, and sparking the fire that’s to become the third Borderlands, revisiting Mr. Nukem would be spreading the studio thin.

“I think the faster way is that a correct developer can become interested and we can work with them,” said Pitchford. “I think it’s a challenging problem. But, I’ll tell you one thing. When it does happen, there’s no doubt that the whole industry will turn its head and look.“

He’s talking about a similar working relationship to the one that brought Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to life, in which 2K Australia took over devin’ while Gearbox oversaw the project (unfortunately, the Down Under developer was shuttered a few months back, putting them out of the running for new Duke).

Randy seems excited to give Duke a proper revitalization, even acknowledging DNF was far from that, but, uh, should Duke come back? Duke Nukem is a byproduct of an era where action heroes gnawed on cigars while pumping seemingly endless rounds of machine-gun fire into their one-dimensional foes before spitting out a quip so hammy you could hear it ‘oink.’

As the years go by,  Duke’s name holds less and less weight, and the virtual disaster that was Duke Nukem Forever all but killed any shred of fondness fans had for the franchise. Not saying there can’t be a great new Duke Nukem game. Right minds, right time kinda thing. But, goddamn, how likely is that to happen again?