Gaming: Resident Evil Switch-ing; Final Fantasy pre-ordering; more

Resident Evil is back in a big way this year, with Capcom’s current-gen remake of Resident Evil 2 lighting up sales charts for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Now the Switch is getting in on the zombie survival action, thanks to a trio of classics making their way back to Nintendo for a May release on the hybrid console.

Via Twitter, Capcom revealed that Resident Evil, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 all will go live this spring at the Nintendo eShop, making good on its announcement late last year that the Raccoon City saga would soon be getting a date with the big N.

Pre-orders go live for all three games on Feb. 28, with Capcom promising a separate physical release for the Resident Evil Origins collection, which will bundle the first two games (but apparently not RE4).

The re-release is a homecoming of sorts for all three games. The franchise got its start on the original PlayStation with Resident Evil back in 1996, but both Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 4 were developed as GameCube-first releases. The original Resident Evil itself, meanwhile, would go on to be re-released on a ton of additional platforms, including Nintendo’s DS portable.

Watch out for zombies starting May 21, when all three RE titles shamble their way onto the Nintendo eShop.

Resident Evil isn’t the only classic franchise finding new life on the Switch. Square Enix just announced that it’s opened Switch and Xbox One pre-orders for all of its HD-updated Final Fantasy games from the PS2 era, including the bundled Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, as well as Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.

There’s even a new trailer to go along with the FFX remake, with Square Enix pledging that Xbox One X owners will also enjoy a speedy 60 fps frame rate.

Square Enix also revealed that FFXII will pack in a handful of genuinely worthwhile quality-of-life enhancements that take the game even further than did The Zodiac Age — the HD remake PlayStation 4 owners were treated to back in 2017. Those include additional gambit sets for action-switching on the fly, a reset option for the license board (so you can remake character stats without having to start a whole new game), and an improved New Game + option that lets you start a second playthrough at level 90, while carrying over all the weapons, spells, and money you collected during your first play-through.

The FFX/X-2 remaster will be available at retail beginning April 16, while FFXII: The Zodiac Age goes on sale on April 30. You can pre-order both bundles now via the Square Enix store.

Finally, Fortnite. We don’t exactly know what’ll happen when Fortnite kicks off its Season 8 event cycle later this week — but thanks to a cryptic new Twitter hiss from Epic Games, at least we know it’ll involve snakes.

As you can see, snakes appear all but confirmed to rear their scaly heads in some form or fashion — but what about that “those who arrive on waves” bit? Is Epic teasing sea snakes here? Or will thar be pirates, perhaps?

It's still anyone's guess, but with the battle royale space now getting slightly more crowded thanks to the arrival of instant hit Apex Legends, there’s no better time than now for Epic to pull out all the stops. Previous seasons already have shown that Fortnite isn’t shy about getting a little weird, but we’ll just have to wait until Season 8 uncoils on Feb. 28 to see what’s really in store.