Resident Evil 4 Remake and Diablo 4 lead the charge in October Prime Day deals on Xbox games. While it looks like Xbox is waiting until Black Friday for steep discounts on first-party games, its third-party studios are filling the gap this Prime Day with discounts on games ranging from Star Wars to One Piece and more. Bear in mind that these are for physical Xbox games, so if you have a Series S, you won’t be able to take advantage of these deals.
Some of the prices have fluctuated throughout the day as well, though we’ve included alternatives where they exist.
The best Halloween games look a bit different depending on what your scare tolerance is. There’s plenty of jumps, frights, zombies, and bloodshed if you’re into that sort of thing, with the likes of Resident Evil and System Shock. If you’d rather have a more cerebral experience, you might want to consider the video game equivalent of telling scary stories by the fire and, depending on the game, probably going to bed with the lights on. If scares aren’t really your thing, though, you’ve got plenty of choices for games that go heavy on atmosphere and leave the creepy stuff behind. Mostly.
We’ve included picks for all those tastes and more in our roundup of the best Halloween games.
Resident Evil 4 remake speedruns are already off to a strong start, despite the horror game being less than a month old
Resident Evil 4 remake speedruns are already off to a strong start, despite the horror game being less than a month old. One speedrunner, YouTuber spicee, recently set the record for completing the game’s hardest difficulty mode in under two hours, clocking in at 1:58:47 – and they’re just getting started (thanks, GamesRadar).
Some runs have shaved nearly 10 seconds off that time, but they weren’t specifically completed on Professional difficulty.
Spicee uploaded a video of their final run on YouTube, and unlike some runs, this category lets you use glitches. Spicee takes advantage of several bugs and shortcuts – though no mods and no Moushley – many of which involve changing framerates at the right time, but the most important strategy is just treating it like a survival game instead of an action game.
Spicee avoids almost every enemy, taking on only those you can’t avoid or ones who drop certain items. That’s particularly handy considering enemies on Professional difficulty take significantly more effort to defeat.
Of course, an encyclopedic understanding of Resident Evil 4’s maps, enemy behavior, and tips for quickly defeating bosses goes a long way in making the run smoother as well.
Impressive as spicee’s run is, they say there’s much more room for improvement and optimization, so expect even faster, more creative runs in the future.
Resident Evil 4 remake released at the end of March and smashed Capcom’s sales records and the series’ record of concurrent players on Steam.
Lily Gao releases first statement following the backlash to her Resident Evil 4 remake performance.
Following a wave of harassment for her performance as Ada Wong in the Resident Evil 4 remake, actress Lily Gao released a statement responding to the backlash on Tuesday.
“Being the first Asian actor to portray Ada in the Resident Evil video games is an honor, and I will forever be grateful to our producer and director for making the decision on authentic representation,” Gao said on Instagram. “It’s unfortunate that with the game’s release also came the all too familiar feeling of ‘I don’t belong’.”
Shortly after the Resident Evil 4 remake came out, Gao momentarily left Instagram due to an overwhelming amount of hateful comments on her posts. Much of the harassment came from people upset that this new version of Ada Wong wasn’t as flirtatious as past iterations of the character – a critique that Gao more-or-less addresses in her statement.
“While criticism is expected, it’s not the first time an actor of color faces racist and sexist harassment simply for participating,” Gao continues. “Inauthentic casting perpetuates an unhealthy image that further dehumanizes the community they seek to reflect. It is time we stop only capitalizing on the sexualized, eroticized, and mysterious Asian woman, and make space to honor every kind of Asian woman. My Ada is a survivor.”
Mousey memes have taken over the Resident Evil fandom.
A mouse has taken over Resident Evil 4, or rather ‘Moushley’ has – a pint-sized fuzzy version of the character Ashley. Yes, it’s weird (yet shockingly endearing).
Last week, Twitter user Agrimmora posted a cute bit of Resident Evil 4 remake fanart depicting Ashley as a mouse for some reason. It’s a bizarre notion, but they were clearly onto something – since pretty much every fan artist out there has drawn variants of ‘Moushley’ by this point. Somehow, she’s as ubiquitous as anything else in the Resident Evil 4 remake despite not being alluded to or anything like that with the game itself.
What if you booted up resident evil 4 remake and Ashley was just a tiny mouse, what would you do. pic.twitter.com/WNF0UNvKdQ
Lily Gao’s performance hasn’t gone over well with fans.
Lily Gao, best known for her role as Ada Wong in the Resident Evil 4 remake, has more-or-less left Instagram following a sudden wave of harassment.
Over the weekend, almost every post from Gao’s official Instagram account vanished – seemingly due to swarms of ghoulish people leaving mean-spirited and downright horrific comments regarding her performance as Ada in the Resident Evil 4 remake. Many of those now-deleted comments called her performance “awful” and that she “ruined the remake” even though, you know, Gao didn’t write the character or lines! Not that reasonable people think through harassment campaigns like this, mind you.
Because of recent harassment over her role as Ada Wong in Resident Evil 4 Remake! Lily Gao has now almost deleted all of her Instagram posts! pic.twitter.com/hl89tFxI2d
The consensus is that Gao’s performance is a bit flat and doesn’t stack up to prior iterations of Ada. Traditionally, the character is a femme fatale constantly spouting playful lines. However, the remake is a smidge more grounded, and Ada’s lines are much more to-the-point than before. Most people (like myself) prefer the older style, but again – that’s no excuse for harassing someone over social media.
It’s quite alright not to be a fan of an actor’s performance in any medium, be it film, television, or video games – but there’s no justification for targeting someone just doing their job. Before the Resident Evil 4 remake came out, Gao had loads of Instragam posts expressing her excitement to be involved with the project and even included behind-the-scenes photos of recording sessions. So it’s extra disappointing to see everyone lash out at her.
Resident Evil 4 remake sales are off to a strong start, as the enhanced survival horror game soars past a significant milestone
Resident Evil 4 remake sales are off to a strong start, as the enhanced survival horror game soars past a significant milestone only two days after launch. Capcom announced Leon’s grim trek through Spain sold more than 3 million copies during its release weekend. It also smashed the series’ record for concurrent players during the same period, with nearly 200,000 players suplexing cultists at one point.
For context, data Capcom shared in 2020 shows the original Resident Evil 4 on Nintendo Gamecube only sold 1.4 million copies in its lifetime, while the Wii version and PS2 version sold 2 million and 2.3 million, respectively.
“Resident Evil 4 is a remake of the original 2005 title,” Capcom said in its announcement. “In addition to reworking the story and modernizing the game feel, the 2023 release will provide both fans of the series and newcomers alike with a fresh gameplay experience, featuring highly immersive visuals. Along with securing high scores on online review sites, the title garnered praise and attention following the release of the Chainsaw Demo, in which players could enjoy the opening of the game, resulting in worldwide sales of the title surpassing 3 million units in the first two days after the game’s release.”
Resident Evil 4 remake’s sales push the series’ grand sales total to 135 million since the first game launched in 1996.
Leon’s journey isn’t over just yet. Mercenaries mode will launch as free DLC on April 7, 2023, and there’s strong evidence pointing to Ada Wong’s Separate Ways campaign coming to the game at a later date too.
The fan-favorite scenario might be coming to the remake eventually.
The Resident Evil 4 remake might be getting Separate Ways as DLC, according to one dataminer.
For those unfamiliar: Separate Ways is an unlockable campaign scenario within the original Resident Evil 4 that follows Ada Wong’s path through the story. It’s a fan favorite, and some are none too pleased that the Resident Evil 4 remake didn’t release with Separate Ways – fortunately, it’s likely only a matter of time.
Well-known Resident Evil dataminer Gosetsu has found evidence of something called “The Another Order” within the Resident Evil 4 remake game files on PC (thanks, Eurogamer). It’s likely an adaptation of Separate Ways, as “The Another Order” was the mode’s name in Japan when the original Resident Evil 4 came out in 2005.
Resident Evil Central shared the finding on Twitter, which you can check out below.
Thanks to Gosetsu from the RE Wiki Discord, they managed to datamine Resident Evil 4 Remake and find evidence that "The Another Order", otherwise known as "Separate Ways" exists in the files.
— Will | Resident Evil Central 👁️ (@ResiEvilCentral) March 25, 2023
Slight spoiler warning – there are also a couple of nods to Separate Ways in the Resident Evil 4 remake already. So it’s likely inevitable that the mode will arrive eventually, though Capcom hasn’t announced anything about it yet.
Thus far, the only confirmed bit of DLC is The Mercenaries – a battle mode that comes out on April 7, 2023. It’s also a free add-on, as long as you already own the Resident Evil 4 remake.
If you’re knee-deep in the Resident Evil 4 remake already, our questline and weapon guides should come in handy.
After months of silence, Capcom finally said when the Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries release date is, and it’ll be free, too
After months of silence, Capcom finally said when Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries is coming to the remake, and it’ll be free when it launches on April 7, 2023, too. Capcom announced the Resident Evil 4 remake DLC in a brief snippet at the end of the horror game’s launch trailer, but didn’t show any footage of the revamped Mercenaries.
Mercenaries was bundled in with the original Resident Evil 4 as an arcade-style mode where you picked a character from the base game and tried defeating as many enemies as possible in a set time. You could play as Leon, Ada, Jack, and even Hunk of Resident Evil 2 fame on maps inspired by the game’s village, castle, and island areas.
Resident Evil Village added its own spin on Mercenaries mode, with more abilities and a wider variety of playable characters, including Chris Redfield with a Resident Evil 5-inspired punch attack and the internet’s favorite vampire, Lady Dimitrescu.
The trailer blurb is Capcom’s only mention of Resident Evil 4 remake’s Mercenaries mode aside from a brief mention in the February State of Play, where the publisher said it would include multiplayer elements. It’s unclear what other changes the team might have in store or if additional playable characters might be included.
If you’re keen on seeing Leon in other unusual circumstances, you can purchase a Leon Kennedy skin in Fortnite now.
Leon and Ashley deal with happy villagers for a change.
We’re mere days away from the Resident Evil 4 remake’s release – I know, that’s not soon enough! Thankfully, Capcom gave us an incredible anime short based on the game to watch on repeat until launch.
On Monday, the first episode of Resident Evil 4 Anime PV Resident Evil Masterpiece Theater (yes, that is the full title) came out. It’s not an actual anime but rather a spoof of Resident Evil 4‘s story, characters, and locales. The episode is officially titled ‘Leon and the Mysterious Village’ – and features everyone’s favorite rookie cop turned government agent asking locals in Spain’s countryside where the president’s daughter might be – which doesn’t go well, naturally.
Check out the short teaser for yourself below.
Oh, Leon – he should know better than to ask monster people questions! Everyone knows that a good suplex here and there yields much better results.
In any event, the Resident Evil 4 remake comes out on Thursday, March 23, 2023, for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S. and PC. The demo is out now, and it contains a particularly brutal secret. Incredibly, fans have already begun modding the demo, and there are several hilarious skins already – some of which should carry over to the full game too.
