Technologies

I Played Resident Evil 9 Requiem at Summer Game Fest, and It’s Extremely Messed Up

The upcoming horror game was the most disgusting thing I played at Summer Game Fest.

During this year’s Summer Game Fest event, the kickoff showcase teased and then announced Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth installation in the mainline Resident Evil series. During the media-only Play Days events, members of the press were able to sit down to a guided presentation of the upcoming horror game. However, a very select few, myself included, got the opportunity to go hands-on with the demo and fight for our lives. Unlike the run-and-gun horror of Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s next entry in the franchise feels like it’s going for the slow and vulnerable terror of Resident Evil 7.

Resident Evil Requiem is set in Raccoon City in the wake of nuclear destruction wreaked by the US government trying to clean up the zombie plague after Resident Evil 3. The preview began with Grace Ashcroft, the new protagonist for RE9 seen in the reveal trailer, strapped upside down to a gurney and looking extremely haggard. She’s clearly been through a lot, which is evident from the various needles and medical equipment she’s hooked up to as well as the impressive graphics tech on display when showing off her character model. The sweat she’s soaked in, the details on her hair and face, were all very impressive.

As the opening cutscene continued, Grace was able to break a bottle to cut herself free and tip over the gurney before standing up and giving control to the player. The demo for the game, which is set in first person, has you begin to explore this dirty room and the very dark hallway connected to it. During the theater presentation an audible «nope» was shouted from one of the attendees at the thought of venturing forth.

This early section of the game is set in some kind of abandoned hospital wing as a storm rages outside, complete with unsettling thunder and flashes of lightning through the windows. The only light inside is a few sparse red bulbs which doesn’t help ease the tension. The first fork in the road leads to either a pitch black room or a long dark hallway. People were audibly squirming in their seats when I watched the presentation — it was very similar to seeing a scary movie in a theater with an engaged audience. Turning the light on in the hallway reveals an odd horse statue at the end of it that, due to the distance and its unnatural shape, almost felt like a minor jump scare.

It’s one thing to watch a theater presentation of someone walking down a spooky hallway, it’s another to have to be the person doing it yourself. And although I mostly knew the big set pieces of this experience from beforehand, it still raised my heart rate when I was the one having to poke around in the dark and hope I’m safe.

You then search through a couple rooms, and there’s a few items to be found like an empty, throwable bottle and, more importantly, a lighter. However, unlike the most recent Resident Evil Village, there wasn’t a gun to be found. It feels more like Capcom is channeling the terror of the helplessness you feel in the early section of Resident Evil 7, including its emphasis on puzzles. The end goal was a locked gate but we needed to find a fuse, which happened to be behind a screwed-shut panel a little behind us.

Backtracking to the pitch dark room, now with a tiny lighter to protect us, it was possible to explore the pitch dark room from the forked-path earlier. Opening the single door at the end of the room led to the biggest jump scare in the demo, and thus, the biggest screams during the theater presentation. A dead doctor immediately falls out of the door next to Grace where she remarks how he’s been «infected.» Thankfully he wasn’t a zombie at this point since, other than a bottle, I hadn’t been able to find anything resembling a weapon.

Then we got to the best part of the demo. Without the camera moving, a massive beast-like claw came into view and grabbed the corpse. The camera turns to follow the body and you see a huge animal and human hybrid monster scream and devour the body before getting far, far too close to the camera to show off its bloody teeth and horrible face. Another great example of just how good and gross RE9 looks. The audience screamed.

I’m very glad I saw the theater presentation before going hands-on since it gave me some tips on how to proceed and where to run and hide from the creature. However, I won’t go into detail on the creature’s weaknesses — you’ll have to wait to find out for yourself. Running away through the hallways (at a far too slow of a pace in comparison to my heart rate) and avoiding the monster gave me access to the room it emerged from. Here you can move an unfortunately noisy rolling cart in order to reach a screwdriver on top of a shelf. As you move the cart, the creature hears and walks by the adjacent window, upping the tension.

Trying to leave the room causes the monster to reappear at the only exit. Stealth comes into play more here as I had to shut my lighter and hide under a table before sneaking past the monster and out the door. With the screwdriver in hand I made my way back to the locked fuse panel. Unfortunately the monster smashes through a wall and appears right before me. If you get grabbed (which I did a few times) the beast will pick Grace up and take a massive bite out of her shoulder. You can only withstand one of these before the second attack will kill you. Luckily this hospital had a single health pick up to help you sustain a couple maulings.

During the theater presentation, after kiting around the enemy again, the developer paused the game and went into the settings. They proceeded to the display options, as the crowd began to murmur about what was happening.

Then came the big reveal: The developer switched the camera position from first- person to third-person. The audience roared in cheers. We were then told the game can be played in either point of view for the whole game and switched on the fly. The remainder of the presentation was in third-person.

There wasn’t much left to the demo after this point. You’re able to collect the fuse and then open the gate and escape just before the monster reaches you. Overall, this sequence was plenty scary when I watched it first, but was even more tense as I played it myself.

It was a really fantastic demo and had a few clever puzzles for the player to deal with. If you’re able to fully explore the limited space, you’ll uncover clues and hints to aid you on your escape. I personally really enjoyed the cinematic and terrifying way they introduced the beast. It was a fairly limited demo, but it definitely built a ton of anticipation for the game. Capcom seems to be set to put out another solid entry in the franchise once again.

Resident Evil Requiem is scheduled to release on February 27, 2026 for Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5 and PC.

Technologies

How to Get Verizon’s New Internet Plan for Just $25 Per Month

Technologies

This $20K Humanoid Robot Promises to Tidy Your Home. But There Are Strings Attached

The new Neo robot from 1X is designed to do chores. It’ll need help from you — and from folks behind the curtain.

It stands 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs about as much as a golden retriever and costs near the price of a brand-new budget car.

This is Neo, the humanoid robot. It’s billed as a personal assistant you can talk to and eventually rely on to take care of everyday tasks, such as loading the dishwasher and folding laundry.

Neo doesn’t work cheap. It’ll cost you $20,000. And even then, you’ll still have to train this new home bot, and possibly need a remote assist as well.

If that sounds enticing, preorders are now open (for a mere $200 down). You’ll be signing up as an early adopter for what Neo’s maker, a California-based company called 1X, is calling a «consumer-ready humanoid.» That’s opposed to other humanoids under development from the likes of Tesla and Figure, which are, for the moment at least, more focused on factory environments.

Neo is a whole order of magnitude different from robot vacuums like those from Roomba, Eufy and Ecovacs, and embodies a long-running sci-fi fantasy of robot maids and butlers doing chores and picking up after us. If this is the future, read on for more of what’s in store.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What the Neo robot can do around the house

The pitch from 1X is that Neo can do all manner of household chores: fold laundry, run a vacuum, tidy shelves, bring in the groceries. It can open doors, climb stairs and even act as a home entertainment system.

Neo appears to move smoothly, with a soft, almost human-like gait, thanks to 1X’s tendon-driven motor system that gives it gentle motion and impressive strength. The company says it can lift up to 154 pounds and carry 55 pounds, but it is quieter than a refrigerator. It’s covered in soft materials and neutral colors, making it look less intimidating than metallic prototypes from other companies.

The company says Neo has a 4-hour runtime. Its hands are IP68-rated, meaning they’re submersible in water. It can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G. For conversation, it has a built-in LLM, the same sort of AI technology that powers ChatGPT and Gemini.

The primary way to control the Neo robot will be by speaking to it, just as if it were a person in your home.

Still, Neo’s usefulness today depends heavily on how you define useful. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern got an up-close look at Neo at 1X’s headquarters and found that, at least for now, it’s largely teleoperated, meaning a human often operates it remotely using a virtual-reality headset and controllers.

«I didn’t see Neo do anything autonomously, although the company did share a video of Neo opening a door on its own,» Stern wrote last week.

1X CEO Bernt Børnich told her that Neo will do most things autonomously in 2026, though he also acknowledged that the quality «may lag at first.»

The company’s FAQ says that for any chore request Neo doesn’t know how to accomplish, «you can schedule a 1X Expert to guide it» to help the robot «learn while getting the job done.»

What you need to know about Neo and privacy

Part of what early adopters are signing up for is to let Neo learn from their environment so that future versions can operate more independently.

That learning process raises privacy and trust questions. The robot uses a mix of visual, audio and contextual intelligence — meaning it can see, hear and remember interactions with users throughout their homes.

«If you buy this product, it is because you’re OK with that social contract,» Børnich told the Journal. «It’s less about Neo instantly doing your chores and more about you helping Neo learn to do them safely and effectively.»

Neo’s reliance on human operation behind the scenes prompted a response from John Carmack, a computer industry luminary known for his work with VR systems and the lead programmer of classic video games including Doom and Quake.

«Companies selling the dream of autonomous household humanoid robots today would be better off embracing reality and selling ‘remote operated household help’,» he wrote in a post on the X social network (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

1X says it’s taking steps to protect your privacy: Neo listens only when it recognizes it’s being addressed, and its cameras will blur out humans. You can restrict Neo from entering or viewing specific areas of your home, and the robot will never be teleoperated without owner approval, the company says.

But inviting an AI-equipped humanoid to observe your home life isn’t a small step.

The first units will ship to customers in the US in 2026. There is a $499 monthly subscription alternative to the $20,000 full-purchase price, though that will be available at an unspecified later date. A broader international rollout is promised for 2027.

Neo’s got a long road ahead of it to live up to the expectations set by Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons way back when. But this is no Hanna-Barbera cartoon. What we’re seeing now is a much more tangible harbinger of change.

Technologies

I Wish Nintendo’s New Switch 2 Zelda Game Was an Actual Zelda Game

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has great graphics, a great story and Zelda is actually in it. But the gameplay makes me wish for another true Zelda title instead.

I’ve never been a Hyrule Warriors fan. Keep that in mind when I say that Nintendo’s new Switch 2-exclusive Zelda-universe game has impressed me in several ways, but the gameplay isn’t one of them. Still, this Zelda spinoff has succeeded in showing off the Switch 2’s graphics power. Now can we have a true Switch 2 exclusive Zelda game next?

The upgraded graphics in Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild has made the Switch 2 a great way to play recent Zelda games, which had stretched the Switch’s capabilities to the limit before. And they’re both well worth revisiting, because they’re engrossing, enchanting, weird, epic wonders. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, another in the Koei-Tecmo developed spinoff series of Zelda-themed games, is a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom. It’s the story of Zelda traveling back in time to ancient Hyrule, and the origins of Ganondorf’s evil. I’m here for that, but a lot of hack and slash battles are in my way.

A handful of hours in, I can say that the production values are wonderful. The voices and characters and worlds feel authentically Zelda. I feel like I’m getting a new chapter in the story I’d already been following. The Switch 2’s graphics show off smooth animation, too, even when battles can span hundreds of enemies.

But the game’s central style, which is endless slashing fights through hordes of enemies, gets boring for me. That’s what Hyrule Warriors is about, but the game so far feels more repetitive than strategic. And I just keep button-mashing to get to the next story chapter. For anyone who’s played Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, expect more of the same, for the most part.

I do like that the big map includes parts in the depths and in the sky, mirroring the tri-level appeal of Tears of the Kingdom. But Age of Calamity isn’t a free-wandering game. Missions open up around the map, each one opening a contained map to battle through. Along the way, you unlock an impressive roster of Hyrule characters you can control.

As a Switch 2 exclusive to tempt Nintendo fans to make the console upgrade, it feels like a half success. I admire the production values, and I want to keep playing just to see where the story goes. But as a purchase, it’s a distant third to Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World.

Hyrule Warriors fans, you probably know what you’re probably in for, and will likely get this game regardless. Serious Zelda fans, you may enjoy it just for the story elements alone.

As for me? I think I’ll play some more, but I’m already sort of tuning the game out a bit. I want more exploration, more puzzles, more curiosity. This game’s not about that. But it does show me how good a true next-gen Zelda could be on the Switch 2, whenever Nintendo decides to make that happen.