Resident Evil 4 Remake, The Callisto Protocol… Sony’s State of Play announcements

True to a now well-established habit, Sony unveiled last night in a State of Play pre-recorded a line-up of upcoming titles, including from third-party publishers. Like Capcom, which took the lion’s share of ads. Selected pieces.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

After offering solid remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, the Japanese publisher continues its momentum with the announcement (the formalization, shall we say, because the rumors were already well established) of Resident Evil 4 remake. Resident Evil 4, created by Shinji Mikami, established the new bases which guided, from 2005, the future of the successful saga (more than 125 million copies distributed worldwide) by introducing, for example, the choice of camera to the shoulder.

Here is the announcement trailer…

Resident Evil 4 offered players the opportunity to find Leon six years after his infernal experience in Raccoon City initiated in the second installment of the series. His determination had led him to be recruited as an agent under the direct orders of the President of the United States, and finds himself forced to save his kidnapped daughter. Following his trail to a remote European village, he soon found himself battling a slightly pissed off local population…

The game is expected on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) on March 24, 2023.

Resident Evil Village VR

Four years after a tremendous Resident Evil VII Biohazard, which operated a return to the roots of Survival Horror, Capcom released into the arena in 2021 the 8th opus of its indestructible franchise called Resident Evil Village. A solid, if imperfect, experience where the action often took precedence over the raw terror and the feeling of claustrophobia that RE 7 Biohazard had brilliantly instilled. We had also mentioned the Village episode here.

Still, Capcom also took advantage of the State of Play to announce a VR version of RE Village, intended for Sony’s upcoming VR headset, the release date of which has yet to be announced. The experience will offer new ways to interact with the world of RE Village, for example allowing players to perform intuitive actions, such as raising their arms to protect themselves from enemy attacks. The VR campaign also introduces other new gameplay elements, such as the ability for Ethan Winters to wield two weapons simultaneously.

We obviously don’t know at this stage if the result will live up to the announcement, but for having done RE 7 Biohazard entirely in VR, the result was really striking and ultra immersive.

street fighter 6

A series of fighting games with exceptional longevity and sold over 47 million copies, the saga of street fighter was born in 1987. But it is especially with Street Fighter II: the World Warrior, released in 1991, that the franchise has won its letters of nobility, becoming a global cultural phenomenon very firmly anchored in Pop culture. It has also logically been rinsed on almost all possible media, whether in the form of Anime, films, web-series, etc…

Last February, Capcom formalized Street Fighter VI, and unveiled new images last night, quite impressive by the way. True story mode called “World Tour” (we imagine that Capcom has probably seen the interest of the game’s excellent Konquest mode mortal kombat), game made more accessible for neophytes while obviously keeping its technicality so dear to the eyes of aficionados, real-time comments… The boat of announcements around the title is loaded, in addition to offering a splendid new chara design characters like the stainless Chun-Li and Ryu.

Developed with the RE Engine, the in-house game engine that is also the one behind the Resident Evil saga, Street Fighter VI is expected for 2023.

The Callisto Protocol

What is called returning to his first love… Glen Schofield, who was the CEO of the Visceral Games studio and creator of the formidable horror franchise dead space (adored by the way by a certain John Carpenter), left to co-found the Sledghammer studio while working on the license call of dutyhas since left office.

Going back to a studio dubbed Striking Distance Studios, it revealed in December 2020 what will be the studio’s first game. A horror game, then, by the name of The Callisto Protocol. Until then rather discreet, the game offered a first real trailer last night. A title that has the false air of dead space precisely, which we also recall for the form that it is the subject of a remake at EA and expected for next year.

Here is the trailer..

Located on Callisto, the dead moon of Jupiter, in the year 2320, The Callisto Protocol challenges players to break out of the high security prison of Black Iron and uncover the terrifying secrets of the United Jupiter Company. Players will have to scavenge their surroundings and adapt their tactics, using a mix of shooting and close quarters combat to survive a mysterious outbreak, which has thrown Callisto into chaos. Note that the actors Josh Duhamel and Karen Fukuhara (alias Kumiko in the series The Boys) lend their voices in the game.

Final Fantasy XVI

After a Final Fantasy XV mixed released in 2016, even if not devoid of quality (and which was also accompanied by the impressive CGI animated film Kingsglaive), Square Enix beats the recall of the troops with the next part of this indestructible video game saga, which has become a martingale for its publisher for a long time.

Unveiling for the very first time at the Sony Showcase in September 2020, Final Fantasy XVIddeveloped under the guidance of producer Naoki Yoshida and Hiroshi Takai as Game Director, the game got a new Gameplay trailer last night. The exact date of its release is not yet known, except for the period: summer 2023.