Homeworld and Resident Evil bring back the ’90s for this week in gaming

By Will Fulton Published February 23, 2015

this week in gaming feb 27 dragon ball xenoverse — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Break out the Hi-C and Dunkaroos, because gamers from the ’90s have a lot to look forward to in this week’s new game releases. Resident Evil Revelations 2 brings back characters from the original survival horror games in a new, episodic adventure. Interstellar real time strategy classic Homeworld has been remastered so you can relive your Babylon 5 fantasies in stunning new HD. Indie whale brawler Starwhal comes to consoles so you can gather your friends together for some friendly couch-based competition. Finally, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the closest experience yet to jumping inside the TV and taking control of your saturday morning anime.

What will you be playing this week?

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Resident Evil Revelations 2 – Episode 1

PS3/PS4/Windows/X360/XB1 (February 24/25)
Set between the events of Residents Evil 5 and 6, Resident Evil 2 protagonist Claire Redfield returns to lead this four-part episodic adventure. Barry Burton is also back, along with his daughter Moira, who serves as a supporting character, kidnapped along with Claire and taken to a mysterious and monster-infested island prison.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Second Trailer ESRB

In true survival horror fashion, caution will be required to make it out alive. While Claire packs the muscle, Moira, controlled by a second player or AI, is crucial in helping you find keys, secrets, and scarce ammunition.

Homeworld: Remastered

Windows (February 25)
Originally released in 1999, the original Homeworld was the first fully 3D real time strategy game. Take command of space ships ranging from nimble fighters up to devastating dreadnoughts. This remastered collection combines Homeworld and Homeworld 2 into an epic, galaxy-spanning space opera.

Homeworld Remastered 4K Cinematics Trailer

The Remastered edition spruces up the classic game’s visuals with updated textures, new visual effects, remade cinematics, and support for HD resolutions. Multiplayer for both games has also been combined into a single experience for ease of online play.

Starwhal

PS3/PS4 (February 24)
Psychedelic narwhals flop through the void of space, viciously attempting to spear one another’s exposed, beating hearts before the same is done to them. Originally released for PC in 2014, this fast and fun competitive game is easy to learn, hard to master, and perfect for playing on the couch with your friends.

Starwhal: Just the Tip - Gameplay

The game’s full, original title was Starwhal: Just The Tip, but the latter part was dropped in a likely effort to avoid alienating larger audiences from what is an otherwise silly game for all ages.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

PS3/PS4/Windows/X360/XB1 (February 24)
Featuring virtually any character you can think of from long-running anime series Dragon Ball Z, Xenoverse is the 3D brawler that many fans have been waiting for. Fully destructible environments will let players feel the visceral satisfaction of blasting Frieza clear through a mountain with a fully-charged Kamehameha.

Dragon Ball Z Xenoverse - Gameplay Trailer

The game features an original story that’s heavy with alternate timeline shenanigans, freeing it up to throw canon to the wind and settle fanboy debates about who would beat whom. Players can create and customize an original character from the game’s various races, putting themselves into the Dragon Ball saga.

What else is coming:

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires (PS3,PS4,Vita,Windows,X360, XB1/Feb. 24) –– Like Empires add-ons for previous entries in the series, this expansion adds new systems for strategic and tactical army management to the large-scale brawler.
Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty (Linux, Mac, Win/Feb. 25) — The classic, late-90s platformer Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee has been remade from the ground up so new players can experience this quirky story of an enslaved race claiming their freedom.
Limbo (PS4/Feb. 24) — A breakout platforming hit on Xbox Live Arcade in 2010, Limbo was held up alongside games like Braid as heralding the indie game revolution we seem to be living in now.
There Came an Echo (Win/Feb. 24) — Take control over a squadron of elite operatives in this real-time strategy game featuring an innovative and robust system of voice commands. Star Trek actor and general geek celebrity Wil Wheaton leads the cast.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

Resident Evil Village DLC, Exoprimal, and more headline Capcom Showcase

Ethan Winter's daughter Rosemary sits sadly on a bus in Resident Evil Village Shadow of Rose.

Following livestreams from Sony, Microsoft, and Geoff Keighley, Capcom decided to get in on the video game showcase fun. During its June 13 showcase, Capcom revealed the Shadows of Rose DLC for Resident Evil Village and provided some new looks at its other upcoming games like Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak and Exoprimal.
Capcom Showcase | 6.13.2022
The biggest announcement of the show by far was Resident Evil Village's long-awaited DLC. It stars Ethan Winter's daughter Rosemary, plays out from a third-person perspective, and is fittingly titled Shadows of Rose. It will be released on October 28 alongside the multiplayer Resident Evil Re:Verse and an update for Resident Evil Village that adds new content to Mercenaries mode and a third-person mode to Village's main campaign.
While that was the biggest reveal from the show, we also got a look at plenty of other Capcom games. The showcase started by giving us another look at Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak and revealing a demo for the expansion that launches on June 14. Capcom then reminded players of the release windows for Street Fighter 6, Capcom Fighting Collection, and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium but didn't reveal much in the way of new info for them. After that, Exoprimal got a brand-new trailer featuring its evil AI, Leviathan. Capcom showed how Exoprimal's PvPvDinosaur matches play out and the Exosuit classes players can choose from, then teased that a Closed Network Test will be held prior to the game's launch.
We also learned that a 10th anniversary Dragon's Dogma stream will be held on June 16 before getting another look at Resident Evil 4's remake. Capcom showed an extended version of the State of Play trailer before showing some new gameplay featuring improved visuals. It looks much more in line with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3's graphics. The show concluded by revealing that PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of those remakes and Resident Evil VII launch today, June 13.
It was an underwhelming showcase overall, but painted an extremely clear picture of what we can expect from this lauded Japanese publisher over the next year.

Gaming

3 Resident Evil games are getting free next-gen upgrades

Jill Valentine shoots a zombie in the next-gen version of Resident Evil 3.

Capcom announced that Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and its remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are getting upgrades for PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X later this year. Players who already own these games on PS4 or Xbox One can upgrade for free.
Capcom hasn't detailed the technical specifications for each of the ports yet, but it did tease some of the features that it is adding. Capcom will implement ray-tracing, higher frame rates, and 3D audio into all versions of the game. The PS5 versions of these games will also utilize the DualSense controller's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Gameplay footage hasn't been released yet, but Capcom shared a few screenshots showcasing the visual upgrade (click to enlarge).

Capcom also plans to bring these new visual features over the PC ports of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard via a patch in the future. The patch will be free to all who own the games. We do not know what these ports will be priced at for new players on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
All three of these games already looked incredible thanks to Capcom's propriety RE Engine, which was used to develop them, but these upgrades should make them all look on par with 2021's Resident Evil Village. In particular, Resident Evil 7's potential glow-up is the most exciting as that game was released in 2017.
All three of these Resident Evil games are currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One and will come to PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S later this year.

Gaming

From Splatterhouse to Resident Evil, horror games found the fun in fear

Resident Evil Village House Beneviento doll.

Horror is one of the most popular gaming genres out there today. Scary games are an especially big hit with the streaming generation, who love to watch their favorite content creators freak out. However, we wouldn't have those countless jump scare reaction videos featuring the Resident Evil 2 remake's Mr. X without years of fear-filled trial and error. Throughout the past few decades, there have been many trendsetters that built upon innovators of the past. That trend continues even now with games like Resident Evil 7, with its clear P.T. inspiration.

And it all started back in the 1970s.
Come on up to the house
The world of video game horror spans many different subgenres birthed throughout the years. Many see the 1972 title Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey as the earliest fear-filled gaming experience -- if you even consider a screen overlay a horror game. There were other very early attempts at the genre throughout the '70s and early '80s including various text-based games, pixel-filled movie adaptations for the Atari and NES like Friday the 13th and Halloween, and of course, legendary IPs like Castlevania and Ghosts ‘n Goblins. But no game perfectly translated the feeling of a horror movie to the virtual playground until Splatterhouse.