Technologies

Resident Evil 4 Remake Takes the Horror Level of the Original Up a Notch

It’s scary good.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is a significant improvement over the original game, but not in the ways Resident Evil fans might expect.

With its over-the-shoulder camera and precision aiming, Resident Evil 4 revolutionized not only survival horror but the shooter genre as a whole when it was released in 2005. With this remake, developer Capcom included a slew of enhancements and optimizations that make this once revolutionary game even better.

Buy Resident Evil 4 Remake

$60 at Target

With its previous remakes of Resident Evil, Capcom mainly focused improvements on three areas: controls, presentation and mechanics. This time around, the control and presentation advancements are a little less dramatic, mainly because Capcom is updating a newer video game.

Improvements to presentation in RE4 Remake focus mostly on mood. One issue I and many other Resident Evil fans had with the original RE4 was simple: It wasn’t that scary. This remake, however, addresses that. Capcom ups the fear factor with several improvements to the mood and setting, from the horrific-looking monsters to nerve-wracking areas where Leon’s flashlight is the only light source. These enhancements make RE4 Remake a wonderfully horrific experience for any Resident Evil fan.

The biggest advancements in RE4 Remake are in the game’s mechanics. Capcom has fixed the «Ashley problem.» For those unfamiliar with RE4, Leon from Resident Evil 2 returns to the series. He’s on a mission to rescue Ashley, the president’s daughter, from a cult in rural Spain. After he finds her, Ashley becomes his partner, adding an escort mechanic to the game. In the original, Ashley was controlled by AI and there were many frustrating moments when she’d get in the way of Leon’s shots or be quickly snapped up by enemies, leading to a game-over screen.

In RE4 Remake, Leon can now order Ashley to stay further behind him so she rarely gets caught in the crossfire. She also does a good job of avoiding enemies, making it less likely for her to get abducted. The improvements to Ashley transformed a character who was disdained by fans of the game into someone who’s both charming and endearing.

Capcom also beefed up the backstory and motivations of other characters in RE4 Remake. New documents and files from the villagers and others make them more sympathetic. In turn, the bosses who took advantage of those people feel even more evil than originally depicted. These compelling characters made for a more emotional playing experience, unlike the original, where they came off as campy and hokey.

Dr. Salvador is back and creepy as ever.

Screenshot by Oscar Gonzalez/CNET

I had developed a distaste for the original RE4 because it led the series down a path that took horror out of the franchise. The remake revitalized my fondness for the game, taking me back to 2005, when I first played the original. Back then, seeing a game play so differently from the older Resident Evil titles was mind-blowing. Now this remake creating a true horror vibe with interesting characters is giving me a lot of that same joy.

RE4 Remake comes out on Friday for $60 on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Oct. 22, #1586

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Oct. 22, No. 1,586.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle features some letters I don’t often guess, but it’s not terribly difficult. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with T.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to an action displaying spectacular skill and daring.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is STUNT.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Oct. 21, No. 1,585 was DETOX.

Recent Wordle answers

Oct. 17, No. 1,581: GROSS
Oct. 18, No. 1,582: HAVEN
Oct. 19, No. 1,583: IDEAL
Oct. 20, No. 1,584: LIMBO

Quick tips for Wordle

#1: Check our list ranking the popularity of all the letters in the alphabet and choose your starter words accordingly. (TRAIN, STERN and AUDIO are good.)

#2: Don’t forget that letters can be used more than once.

#3: Many words are similar. You don’t want to use up multiple guesses that don’t advance your cause. So if the puzzle is STA_E, don’t guess STARE, STATE and STALE. Guess something that uses that R, T and L, like TWIRL.