PC Gamer's favourite remake of the year is Capcom's sublime reimagining of survival horror classic Resident Evil 2. We'll be updating our GOTY 2019 hub with new awards and personal picks throughout December.

Wes: This is just primo Grade-A Videogame, right here. Capcom updated a classic, tightly designed game with smooth modern action and managed to retain the low-level anxiety and occasional bursts of terror that early Resident Evil excelled at. As Resident Evil got bigger and more bombastic, it lost what Resident Evil 2 did so well: Give you an explorable space small enough to keep in your brain as you explore. That's what makes it so pleasurable to crisscross the police station, opening up new paths between rooms and solving goofy puzzles. It remains a tight game, finishable in 10 hours, but with enough secrets and weapon choices to be fun a second time through.

The commitment to the original is really impressive, here. With such a vast leap in graphics technology, there must've been some temptation to make RE2 more serious and realistic; to make its police station a less absurd blend of practical spaces and absurd puzzle situations. But despite how serious Leon comes off in cutscenes, the fun, oh-so-videogame-y feel remains in the exploration and puzzle-solving. And the new graphics tech really does add a lot. The gore detail is genuinely grotesque, and the lighting kept me on edge even when I knew there shouldn't be any zombies around.

It's a shame Capcom didn't make Claire and Leon's campaigns more distinct, but that's the only weakness of this remake. For the most part, RE2 Remake is better because of how restrained Capcom was in adding to what already worked.

Andy K: This return to a smaller, more considered Resident Evil is the best the series has probably been since its PlayStation heyday. More than just a retread, Resident Evil 2 takes the essence of the 1998 original and transforms it into a fresh and excitingly modern game. The floppy, unpredictable physics of the zombies make for some brilliantly dynamic combat, with the shambling creeps tumbling down stairs when you shoot their legs off, or falling into each other creating a slapstick domino chain of undead. And the increased presence of Mr. X, the fedora-wearing giant, is a welcome change, with the sound of his distant, pounding footsteps creating a powerful sense of dread. I wouldn’t say Resident Evil 2 was scary, but it’s impossibly tense, especially when you’re low on health and ammo.

Tom: The police station is a deeply satisfying space to explore. The game tails off a bit after that big opening section, but it's a beautiful nest of interlocking corridors full of threats and secrets. Capcom has done a great job of modernising Resident Evil for 2019. The game has the over-the-shoulder Resident Evil 4 perspective, but uses it to create claustrophobic horror. Bullets are precious, the zombies are persistent, and the scares are legit.

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, and Capcom could have just released another 'remaster' with higher resolution backgrounds. Instead the devs dug deep to capture the essence of the original game and transform it to cater to modern tastes. I'm glad that Resi 3 is getting the same treatment. Resi 2 has set the bar for what a modern remake should do for a famous old property. I'm glad to see that it seems like the Final Fantasy VII remake is going down a similar route. I'd like to see a world with fewer remasters and more thoughtful remakes like this.

Resident Evil 2 Remake shifted 3 million copies during its launch week and has been a big part of a successful year for Capcom, and now it's hit a significant milestone: Resident Evil 2 Remake is now more popular, or has at least sold better, than the original Resident Evil 2. 

Since hitting 4 million sales in March, Resident Evil 2 Remake sales slowed down a bit, but by September it was just on the cusp of matching its progenitor, which boasts 4.96 million sales across its lifetime. Following the announcement of Resident Evil 3 Remake, Capcom noted that its predecessor, as of December, had already exceeded 5 million sales.

Rumours around the sequel, the reveal of Resistance and a tidal wave of sales have clearly had an effect, bumping up the total by several hundreds of thousands of copies over the last few months. That also puts the lifetime sales of the whole series at a whopping 94 million, so there's a decent chance we'll see it surpass 100 million next year.

Along with revealing Resident Evil 3 Remake, Capcom also announced that Resident Evil: Resistance, the 4v1 co-op spin-off, will be bundled with it, with both launching on April 3. 

Game companies are doing all sorts of fun and interesting things to mark the coming of Halloween. Destiny 2 is bringing back the Festival of the Lost, for instance, while Team Fortress 2 is now Scream Fortress 11, and Agent 47 is wearing a pumpkin on his head. There are some sales, too.

And then there is Capcom, which is currently running a Resident Evil "Escape For Halloween" game, playable in your browser. It seems that you were kidnapped on the way to a Halloween party—oh no!—and then dropped into the deadly Umbrella Project maze, and now you have to make your way out in what is essentially a digital "Choose Your Own Adventure" game.

Your reward for busting out is a retweet from the official Capcom Dev 1 Twitter account, acknowledging your accomplishment and sharing it with the world. The catch is that it's infuriatingly difficult to do, because as far as I can tell there's no rhyme or reason to any of it. Do you destroy the security camera, try to sneak past, or make a run for it? There's nothing to hint at which path is the correct one to take (that I can figure out, anyway), and some of the outcomes are apparently randomized: One time I tried to sneak past a trap and it blew me to bits, so the second time around I shot it—and it blew me to bits.

I'll be honest, I don't think I have the patience to make it to this year's Halloween party. On my best run I made it six steps in, which according to USgamer is two-thirds of the way to the end. If this was Control, or maybe Bard's Tale 4, I might consider trying to power my way through, but I'm just not enough of a Resident Evil fan to keep it up. You win, Capcom.

I didn't want your dumb retweet anyway.

New mods for Resident Evil 2 Remake just keep coming. We only recently enjoyed the mods that make Mr. X adorably tiny, and transform him into Pennywise from It. Now here's one that swaps Leon for Barry Burton from the original Resident Evil (and the under-rated Revelations 2). Time to break out the beer and nachos.

It leaves the voice files as they are, so you won't be able to hear any of Barry's dad jokes about sandwiches and locks, but you will be able to see his classic low-res hair texture in all the cutscenes. It's the work of modder DarknessRvaltier, who also has mods that let you play as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine if you're in the mood for a STARS reunion.

They also have a mod in the works that will let you play as Cassie Cage from Mortal Kombat. What a gift to modding this game has been.

Thanks to modders, Resident Evil 2 Remake's Mr. X has been turned into everything from IT's Pennywise to Thomas the Tank Engine, but I think I've now found my personal fave. Raz0r's Ultimate Trainer lets you fiddle around with all manner of things, but most importantly it lets you change the size of enemies, including Mr. X. 

Is he not an adorable homunculus? What he lacks in size, however, he makes up for in tenacity. Unfortunately, his minuscule arms simply don't have enough reach, leaving him endlessly pounding the air. If he catches up to you, though, you're in trouble—he's just as strong as his full-size counterpart. This mini Mr. X also suggests the existence of a massive Mr. X, which is a bit troubling.

Beyond mucking around with enemy sizes, the trainer also lets you adjust player and enemy speeds, edit your inventory, walk through walls and kill enemies with one hit. You can swap characters, too, though the feature is disabled during Ada and Sherry's segments. Starting a new file when you swap characters is also recommended, as using old save files can apparently cause some issues. 

For instructions on how to use the trainer's features, check out the mod description or watch the video below. 

Mr. X sure gets a lot of makeovers. Resident Evil 2's lumbering monster has been given yet another horrifying new look, this time turning him into Pennywise the clown from the IT remakes. Check out the mod in action above.

Modder Marcos RC is responsible for this grinning nightmare, who looks right at home in his new job. Judging by the smile on his face, he's having a superb time. Though like Mr. X and Pennywise from the movies, he loses a lot of his menace when he gets close to you and starts throwing punches. 

You can download the Pennywise mod from Marcos RC's Patreon (it's available to everyone), though I think this is one that I'll be skipping to save myself from the inevitable nightmares.

I'm still more scared of Thomas the Tank Engine, though. 

Cheers, Game Informer.

Nowadays, if there's a successful and moddable third-person action game, you can rest assured that eventually Nier: Automata's 2B will be modded into it. It happened recently with Sekiro, it's happened in Monster Hunter: World, and now (thank god!) you can play as 2B in Resident Evil 2 Remake.

The work of modder TXYI, the '2B Claire' mod does what the name implies: it replaces Claire with 2B. None of the movesets have changed—it doesn't change up the gameplay at all—but I can hardly imagine her moveset slotting nicely into the corridor-laden world of Resident Evil.

The mod replaces the Noir DLC costume, and comes with the warning that using FluffyQuak's mod manager is "highly recommended". Thanks to DSOGaming for the heads up. 

Here's a few more screenshots courtesy of mod uploader zhongyingjie.

This feature originally ran in issue 332 of PC Gamer magazine. If you'd like to read more great features like this, consider subscribing. 

Drive north from Capcom's headquarters in downtown Osaka, along the Tosabori River, and in about 20 minutes you'll see a unique red-bricked building with a domed roof. This is the Osaka City Central Public Hall, one of the city's most beloved buildings and part of the inspiration for the Raccoon City Police Department in Resident Evil 2. This iconic setting, which fans count among the series' best, was confidently reimagined in the 2019 remake, and this is the story of how it was designed.

Enter the Central Public Hall, which was built in 1918 and is an important cultural centre for the city, and you'll find polished floors, towering pillars, ornate detailing, and a vast church-like ceiling—the same kind of grand architecture Leon and Claire see when they escape the zombie-ravaged streets of Raccoon City and enter the RPD's impressive main hall. All that's missing are the blood splatters and groans of distant zombies. 

Capcom's long-awaited Resident Evil 2 remake is a masterclass in updating an old game for a new audience. It retains the spirit of the PlayStation original, released in 1998, but uses modern technology to make it feel genuinely new and exciting. An important part of the remake's success is the newly realised RPD building—a setting that's just recognisable enough to feel like the same place, but much more evocative and atmospheric. 

"Our goal was retaining the feel of the original building, but also to increase the sense of scale and realism," says Resident Evil 2 remake director Kazunori Kadoi. "I was confident players would respond well to this, and I didn’t feel any particular pressure to live up to the original game."

Although the original main hall was a flat pre-rendered image, and the new one is fully rendered in 3D, they both create the same feeling of dread and mystery—that this might not be the safe haven the characters were expecting after all.

Kadoi explains that the architecture of the station, both in the original and the remake, was inspired by the Gothic revival style. Popularised in the west in the 1700s, this architectural movement was an attempt to revive medieval Gothic architecture—particularly in religious buildings. And there's a definite cathedral-like feel to the RPD main hall, which could easily double as a place of worship if you inserted a few rows of pews.

Culture shock

There's also an uncanny quality to the station that I think comes from Raccoon City, an American city, being viewed through a Japanese lens. If the station had been designed by a western studio—one that is perhaps more familiar with the kind of bland government building police departments usually operate out of—it might not have been quite so idiosyncratic and memorable. I mean, how many police stations do you know with a giant marble statue of a goddess behind the reception desk? 

This statue is something Kadoi felt was important to bring back, as well as the eerie stuffed animals found in the office of the corrupt Chief Irons. The statue is noticeably bigger in the remake, dramatically lit by moonlight streaming through glass windows in the ceiling. "I wanted to carry the statue and the taxidermy animals over to the new police station,” he says. "But at the same time I wanted to make changes that would make the gameplay more fun, and make the station feel more like a believable space."

Kadoi explains that, because of advances in graphics technology and player expectation, videogame settings have to be more believable today. When I first played Resident Evil 2 as a teenager, I never questioned the fact that the RPD was headquartered in an elaborate old building filled with arcane puzzles. But these days, Kadoi says, people question this stuff more, which led to additional backstory being written for the station. 

"The building in the centre of town wasn't always a police station," reads a tourism pamphlet you can pick up in a waiting room. "In fact, it used to be an art museum. Various features like the unusual clock tower and the goddess statue in the main hall remind us of a bygone era." This idea is also reinforced by the oil paintings, old statues, and other artefacts you find littered around the station—often in storage rooms with dust sheets draped over them. Wherever you look there are clues to the building's past.

"The RPD main hall has some weird gimmicks, like hidden passages that wouldn’t be conceivable in a normal police station," says Kadoi. "So I think positioning them as part of a more attraction-oriented space such as a museum or gallery makes that more convincing and believable within the game world." Of course, a lock-and-key system based around playing card suits is still weird, even for an old building like this, but it's a little less distracting thanks to this added touch of world-building.

Another important design element for the new station was, despite the shift to an over-the-shoulder camera, keeping the same feeling of suspense created by the original’s fixed camera angles. "Creating a sense of space you can't see into was part of the fixed camera angle system in the original game," says Kadoi. "But in the remake we used blind corners and darkness to set up a similar feeling, as well as directional audio to give you a sense that there is something out there, but you can’t see where it is yet."

Light source

One of the most dramatic differences between the 1998 and 2019 police stations is the use of lighting. For the most part, the original station is brightly lit. But in the remake, many of its corridors and rooms have been plunged into darkness, forcing you to use a flashlight. This makes it a much scarier place to explore, particularly when you're turning one of those blind corners in the dark. For this aspect of the station's design, Kadoi tells me that the two key words for the artists were "darkness" and "wetness". 

"We wanted to create that feeling of something glistening in the dark," he says. "This gives players a sense of a hidden presence waiting for them out of sight." This curious visual philosophy is felt all over the station, whether it’s a corridor partly flooded by a leaking water pipe, or the gruesome glistening effect when your flashlight catches a pool of crimson-coloured congealed blood. These effects are also a showcase for the impressively natural lighting effects that Capcom's in-house RE Engine is capable of. 

Playing the game, there is a sense that the building has been designed with a survival horror videogame firmly in mind. There are more blind corners and narrow, winding corridors than would make sense in a real building. But it doesn't dampen the authenticity of the setting, thanks to the fidelity of the visuals and the cinematic use of light and shadow. 

A less obvious, but still important, design element was evoking the game's late '90s setting. Overall it's quite subtle with its references to the time period, even taming Leon's 'curtains' hairstyle, making him look less like a member of a boy band. But there are a few clues scattered around that remind you of when the action takes place. "The most obvious example is the computers," says Kadoi. "They are the kind of bulky beige monitors that were common at the time. There are some other small period-accurate props scattered throughout the station that tie into the setting too."

Fan favourite

There are a lot of reasons why the RPD building is a great setting. The way it's built around a central hub, which helps you build a mental map as you play. The gorgeous architecture and moody, atmospheric lighting. The nostalgia hit you get if you played the original. The tension-breaking moments of calm, suddenly interrupted by an unexpected zombie tumbling through a window. The way it subverts your expectations, such as when zombies appear in the main hall, your precious safe haven, in the B scenario. And, of course, the looming presence of the Tyrant. 

I ask Kadoi why he thinks the police station is such a beloved setting among Resident Evil fans—and what makes it unique. “Police stations are places we see a lot in movies and TV, so they feel real to us,” he says. "But they weren't used as often in games at the time Resident Evil 2 was released, which made it quite a novelty. But mainly I think it’s the idea that police officers, whose job it is to protect citizens, have transformed into zombies. There's something very impactful and ironic about that."

A new piece of DLC for Resident Evil 2 unlocks everything you can earn in the game. For $5/£4, you can dispense with all the usual gameplay hoops and start running around as a giant chunk of tofu brandishing a pistol with infinite ammo.

The All In-game Rewards Unlock is available now on Steam, and it does just what it says: it unlocks every in-game reward, including the 4th Survivor and the Tofu Survivor modes, new costumes and models, and some top-tier weapons.

These weapons include infinite-ammo versions of the LE-5 submachine gun, ATM-4 rocket launcher, and Samurai Edge handgun, plus an unbreakable combat knife. Ammo scarcity being what it is in Resident Evil 2, having a gun that never goes dry changes things up quite a bit.

Again, all the items included in the DLC are in-game rewards, meaning that you can acquire every one of by playing the game, and without spending an additional penny. But hey, a few of them are pretty tricky to do and some people have more spare cash than spare time.

However, there are also plenty of Resident Evil 2 mods if you'd like to mix things up a bit without opening up your pocketbook.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

I have a problem: I buy almost every new game that comes out. I play games way too much. Sometimes I buy games and then don't play them. My friend—who streams videogames professionally—tells me there isn't a single game in his Steam library that I haven’t played for at least ten hours. My love of PC games is a Problem. So for my new year's resolution, I decided enough was enough—for the entirety of 2019, I will not buy a new videogame. 

After three full months of 2019, and a lot of hand-wringing over whether or not I should break my resolution for Baba is You, this is what I’ve learned.

Not playing new releases gives you FOMO, but playing similar, older games reduces it

You know how every time a megablockbuster movie comes out in theaters, a cheap direct-to-DVD ripoff with a similar name shows up in department stores? And then your grandma got you “Transmorphers 2: The Fallen Arise” because she heard you liked those movies and you were like “thanks, grandma” and you tucked it away in your DVD collection?

I started doing the same thing with this year's popular game releases. Except the knockoff games I’m playing aren’t knockoffs, and they preceded the new releases, and they’re actually good. So, maybe not much like that.

All the positive launch buzz for Resident Evil 2 had me jonesing for a third-person-shooter-slash-survival-horror-type-experience, so I played The Evil Within 2. I’d ignored it at release, but I’m really glad I revisited it—its Resident Evil 4-esque survival mechanics play really well with its quasi-open world. 

All of the incredible reviews of Devil May Cry 5 have reignited my desire to slash and shoot demons, so I reinstalled Ninja Theory’s underrated DmC. Though I have to assume it doesn’t play as smoothly as Devil May Cry 5 (I can’t remember the last time I saw so many reviewers and players gushing over the feel of an action game), DmC is still stylish as hell and has charm to spare.

I’m still completely out of the loop in regards to what makes Mr. X so cool or why Nero is even more fun to control than Dante or whatever, but, hey, it scratches the itch—I get the general flavor of the type of game all the hype has given me a craving for, and that’s enough to prevent me from impulse-buying the latest and greatest games.

That’s also because I learned:

If I wait a week or so, my desire to spend money on a new game almost entirely disappears

I used to look forward to Tuesday nights. I’d eagerly sit by my desktop, waiting for Steam to unlock whatever new game I’d pre-ordered months before because I am gullible. The dopamine would kick in as the download commenced: a new game! Something bright, and shiny, and exciting that I haven’t grown tired of yet! Surely, this will be the experience that will bring a heretofore unexperienced joy into my life, and remind me why I love videogames!

Then I play the damn thing, and inevitably it’s, like, fine. Most of the time, it would turn out I was more excited about the anticipation than I was the actual game.

I was worried this anticipation would cause me to impulse-buy the Resident Evil 2 remake the day it came out. I was worried I’d impulse buy it the day after release, too. And two days after. Three days after release, I wasn’t sure I needed to play it right this second. Seven days after, I didn’t even think about it anymore.

Replaying older games can show how you have (or haven’t) changed

When I initially played Thief 2 a decade ago, I took great joy in meticulously knocking out every guard and disabling every robot. The point of the game, to my mind, was to take a hostile environment and slowly chip away at its defenses until I could sprint around the map at full speed without risking detection.

Today, the current American political situation has convinced me that individual action is meaningless in the face of a massive, cruel, and indifferent economic infrastructure. Today, I play Thief 2 by avoiding every enemy rather than taking them out. Today, I derive joy from the tension of hiding in a shadowy corner mere inches away from a patrolling guard, praying he doesn’t notice me. Thief 2’s levels are an intricate clockwork of moving parts. I used to enjoy smashing the gears; now I have more fun sliding between them.

Also, it turns out that most of the games I bought, played for a little while, and then abandoned because they weren’t for me? They’re still not for me. Nioh is still not quite Dark Souls-y enough for me; I’m still a little too stupid for Ironclad Tactics. It’s comforting, at least, to know that some things remain consistent no matter how long it’s been since I first played them.

There are tons of great free games out there 

Thank you, Apex Legends. You are not only the best battle royale ever, but you have finally helped the world realize that Titanfall 1 and 2 are some of the best FPS games ever, and that anyone who didn’t buy them sucks.

Thank you, Gwent, for your super weird mechanics and fantastic art. (Yeah. That’s right. I play Gwent and not MtG. I’m that kinda pervert.)

Thank you, Thief 2/The Dark Mod community and your seemingly endless stream of high-quality fan missions with charmingly amateur VO.

Thank you, Dota Auto Chess. Probably. I haven’t played it. It sounds complicated. But I could.

It’s been said before, but you can have a hell of a lot of fun on a PC without spending a dime. Even ignoring my current obsessions, I haven’t even dipped a toe into Path of Exile, Warframe, H1Z1, or Brawlhalla. If my new year’s resolution is going to be difficult, it certainly won’t be due to a lack of cool stuff to play.

Which is a good thing, because...

I still play a lot of videogames, even though I hoped I wouldn’t 

I am not a well-rounded human being. I don’t read as much as I should. I don’t have any interesting hobbies. I watch a lot of TV, I mindlessly browse the internet, and I play a ton of videogames.

When I made this resolution, I thought I might cook more. I thought I’d learn to play guitar. I thought I might start writing a novel.

Instead, I have put thirty more hours into Battletech.

So, you know. The resolution is going great so far, other than all the existential terror I’m experiencing. But I'm saving a lot of money.