{"id":38488,"date":"2020-04-11T14:38:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T21:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=38488"},"modified":"2020-04-11T14:38:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T21:38:22","slug":"april-video-game-remakes-final-fantasy-resident-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/features\/april-video-game-remakes-final-fantasy-resident-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"April’s Video Games Ain’t Fooling With Remakes of Final Fantasy, Resident Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So right now, the world\u2019s being impacted by, y’know<\/em>, that little-known pandemic that\u2019s leaving just about anything and everything subject to delays or cancellations, from tax day and the Olympics to the release of movies and video games. In such a state of uncertainty, it\u2019s possibly now more important than ever to have escapes from the real world that, well, don’t involve leaving the house.\u00a0 While the future of other heavy-hitter games slated to come out later this year has come into question, the excitement of April\u2019s big releases hasn\u2019t been impacted much at all, starting what should\u2019ve been the escalation of noteworthy titles getting released before the next-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles hit shelves later in the year. Yes, luckily, all this hasn\u2019t stopped players from being able to return to Midgar or Raccoon City this month, so let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Order Resident Evil 3 at Amazon<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Order the FF7 Remake at Amazon<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

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Resident Evil 3 — April 3<\/h3>\n

Remakes tend to get the attention they deserve if they\u2019re treated with care and, in some way, respect the original games from which they were developed. They\u2019re very rarely considered in the running for the best games of their given year, though, perhaps because they are remakes and aren\u2019t considered original pieces of work.\u00a0 Resident Evil 2<\/em> broke from that last year, transforming the classic survival horror game into a modernized, intense third-person shooting experience that raked in plenty of end-of-the-year accolades, and Capcom hopes to do the same thing again with Resident Evil 3<\/em>. \u00a0Remodeling series favorite Jill Valentine\u2019s story of tearing through Raccoon City, this iteration gives the character an aesthetic overhaul edges her closer to the appearance of a hardened, capable survivor, then tosses her in equally tense and vigorous third-person shooting horror layouts to those from the RE2<\/em> remake.<\/p>\n

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Final Fantasy VII: The Remake (Part 1?) — April 10<\/h3>\n

Well, it\u2019s finally here. Demand for some version of a remake of the legendary RPG Final Fantasy 7<\/em> \u2013 either a visual remastering or an actual gameplay overhaul with the narrative intact — has almost as long and storied of a history as the need for Half-Life 3<\/em>. Despite being teased over a decade and a half prior, in the PS2 era, the folks at Square Enix have been hesitant to follow through with what\u2019s clearly something a lot of people have wanted \u2026 likely because there\u2019s such a wide range of opinions about what people actually wanted. They\u2019ve thrown caution to the wind and went down the path of the \u201cfull remake\u201d: combat has been altered into a more fluid action-based design, character models and environment layouts have been drastically updated, and everything else has essentially been rebuilt from the ground up with very careful awareness of the familiar, nostalgic touches that fans love.\u00a0 That overhauling, unfortunately, also includes the story structure of Final Fantasy VII<\/em>, as it has been padded out with new content and sliced up into episodes, with this being only the first chunk of the known story expanded into several dozen hours.<\/p>\n

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Vampire: The Masquerade \u2013 Coteries of New York — April 15<\/h3>\n

In a time where \u201cchoice and consequence\u201d has become a buzz phrase revolving around contemporary action RPGs (Witcher, Mass Effect\/Dragon Age, Deux Ex<\/em>, now Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em>), the PC game Vampire: The Masquerade \u2013 Bloodlines<\/em> has maintained robust popularity with a niche, yet passionate fanbase. After the player creates their character in that one, choices made throughout the plot that\u2019s transpiring in its gothic take on Los Angeles heavily dictates the outcome. That game\u2019s responsiveness to divergent storytelling has become a model that RPG enthusiasts point to when others don\u2019t meet expectations, and luckily Bloodlines 2<\/em> is finally on the way some time in 2020 \u2026 hopefully.\u00a0 Until then, fans on the Xbox One will now be able to get a taste of the World of Darkness in Coteries of New York<\/em>, essentially a visual novel set in that world that\u2019s interested in the choices and diverging plot threads of its precursors.<\/p>\n

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\"gears<\/p>\n

Order Gears Tactics from Microsoft<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Order COD:MW2 at PS Store<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

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Gears Tactics — April 28<\/h3>\n

Funnily enough, the Final Fantasy<\/em> franchise taught me never to underestimate spinoffs with the word \u201ctactics\u201d in its title. If the gameplay\u2019s executed well enough, then a tactical game using familiar weapons, gear, and lore from an established franchise can be highly satisfying as an alternate way of enjoying the universe. Whether the intensity of an apocalyptic third-person cover shooter can be distilled in such an environment remains to be seen, but Gears Tactics<\/em> will be giving it the old college try.\u00a0 Similar in feel to the XCOM series of games, the turn-based gameplay transpires within a prequel to the first Gears of War<\/em> game, featuring the father of the most recent game\u2019s protagonist and COG soldier, Gabe Diaz. \u00a0A wide range of movement across the top-down combat spaces and a hefty amount of customization for the soldiers themselves aim to take Gears Tactics a step above their contemporaries..<\/p>\n

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered — March 31\/April 30<\/h3>\n

This is one of those times where little more than the title of this game really needs to be mentioned, both to emphasize why it\u2019s noteworthy and where its weaknesses lie. While the original Modern Warfare<\/em> may have put the franchise on the map as a household name, both due to its campaign and its rampant multiplayer experience, the refinements and improvements put into motion with the sequel, COD: Modern Warfare 2<\/em>, has frequently earned it accolades for being \u201cthe best shooter ever\u201d \u2026 some even saying it\u2019s the best game ever, period. While that\u2019s a topic for the hardcore fans of the franchise out there to suss out, there\u2019s no denying its legacy and the experiences many gamers had with the game, which Infinity Ward hopes to replicate with this remastered edition.\u00a0 As the title indicates, this only remakes the campaign and does not contain the multiplayer mode so beloved by its fanbase, though it does include a few extra goodies that unlock in other Call of Duty games if owned.\u00a0 It’s available now on PlayStation and for Xbox and PC at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

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A few other games of note are emerging in April, notably on the 24th<\/sup> with the multiplayer themed shooter Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/strong><\/em> and SquareEnix\u2019s graciously cross-platform remake of Trials of Mana<\/strong><\/em>, but one can understand why other games are distancing from\u00a0Resident Evil<\/em> and FF7<\/em>\u00a0in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So right now, the world\u2019s being impacted by, y’know, that little-known pandemic that\u2019s leaving just about anything and everything subject to delays or cancellations, from tax day and the Olympics to the release of movies and video games. In such a state of uncertainty, it\u2019s possibly now more important than ever to have escapes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":38493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[642,2240,2089,25],"class_list":["post-38488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-final-fantasy","tag-gears-of-war","tag-resident-evil","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38494,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38488\/revisions\/38494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}