Capcom Makes Older PC Versions of Resident Evil Games Available Following Player Issues

Japanese publisher Capcom has reinstated older versions of Resident Evil 2, 3 and 7 for PC players, following backlash over the performance of these titles with ray tracing and enhanced 3D audio enabled.

The increase in graphical requirements caused by the new additions, designed to bring the games up-to-date, irked players rather than enthralling them, with performance suffering and mods being rendered unusable.

In response, swift updates have been issued which allow those playing on Steam to revert their game to an older version without the new features if they wish.

As It Turns Out, the True Horror Lay in the Performance of the Updated Games On Older Hardware

The updates were tweeted about by Capcom’s Dev 1 Twitter account, which stated: “Due to overwhelming response from the Steam community, we've reactivated the previous version that does not include ray tracing and enhanced 3D audio.”

The tweet then linked to a patch notes document for Resident Evil 2, which instructs players how to change their game to the older version and also promises that: “both enhanced and previous versions will be made available going forward”.

The Steam store pages of all three games have also had a notice added to them, which advises players to check the corresponding news page for details regarding the changes.

Reaction to the update from Resident Evil players has been very positive, with YouTuber Suzi Hunter responding to the Capcom tweet by saying: “Thanks a lot, this means a lot for real. So much work has gone into the modding scene for the games.”

Users on ResetEra shared similar sentiments, with Cort saying: “the rollout for the update seemed to be poorly planned for PC users, but at least they seemed to have corrected it” and GeoGonzo adding: “This always felt like the way to go. Many other games do it exactly like this, by simply keeping a beta branch of the game available forever. It takes almost no effort and solves every issue.”

In order to effect the change, players will need to head to the ‘Betas’ subsection of the properties menu for the game in their Steam library, but we recommend consulting the instructions in the patch notes to ensure that you get the correct outcome.

Make sure to follow us for more Resident Evil updates, with PlayStation’s recent State of Play showcase having dropped a new trailer for the remake of Resident Evil 4, which is set to arrive in 2023.