Introducing some village people you might want to avoid: PETER HOSKIN reviews Resident Evil – Village
Resident Evil: Village (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £54.99)
Verdict: Gothic goodness
The internet has recently been losing its collective mind over one of the baddies in Resident Evil: Village.
She’s called Lady Dimitrescu, she’s Jane Russell in her pomp glamorous, she’s almost 10ft tall. And she’s a vampire.
People have been dressing up as her, drawing pictures… and worse.
But surprise! She’s not as prominent in the game as the advance marketing suggested.
Your character, Ethan Winters, who starred in the previous Resident Evil game and is now searching for his baby daughter, defangs her before the half-way point.
The internet has recently been losing its collective mind over one of the baddies in Resident Evil: Village. She’s called Lady Dimitrescu, she’s Jane Russell in her pomp glamorous, she’s almost 10ft tall. And she’s a vampire
It’s not the only surprise that Village serves up, which is quite something for the eighth game in a series.
It is still recognisably Resident Evil: figure out how to progress to the next area while conserving enough ammo and medicine to survive whichever brain-munching beastie attacks you next.
But it’s also the first Resident Evil to fully lean into the gothic horror of vampires and werewolves, of castles and crosses.
Its Eastern European setting is as campy and as trope-filled as your average Hammer Horror movie, yet it is brutal and melancholy at the same time.
Even the gameplay manages to split the difference between fast-paced action and slow-paced dread.
At least, that is, until Village approaches its conclusion. The further you advance, the more the game turns into a basic gun-fest.
Forget stakes and silver bullets — the monsters here just have to eat lead.
Subnautica: Below Zero (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Switch, £29.99)
Verdict: Take the plunge
Rating: 
There’s a moment in Subnautica: Below Zero, just as there was in the original Subnautica, when you plunge for the first time into the world beneath the waves, and it’s genuinely breathtaking.
Gone is the harsh perma-winter of a distant planet’s surface, replaced by an undersea-scape of shimmering creatures, neon flora, and twisting rock formations.
There’s a moment in Subnautica: Below Zero, just as there was in the original Subnautica, when you plunge for the first time into the world beneath the waves, and it’s genuinely breathtaking
Thanks also to the game’s chill soundtrack, it’s a place of wonder and peace.
Until it’s not. Your oxygen meter will start flashing. You need to find some food. And what is that awful, multi-jawed thing over there?
You’re forced to gather resources and craft the means of survival.
It can be stressful, yes. But also tremendously satisfying; building a place to call your own in the merciless ocean.
