These days, we get a lot of stories about games adding ray tracing, but last week Capcom went the opposite direction, removing ray tracing from the PC versions of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes. It turns out this wasn’t an intentional move on Capcom’s part, as they would later provide an update, saying they were “aware of an ongoing issue with the raytracing option not appearing in the graphics menu and presets.” They promised a fix, but didn’t say when it would arrive.

　　Well, Capcom didn’t leave fans waiting too long. Today the official Resident Evil twitter account announced that a patch returning ray tracing to the Steam versions of Resident Evil 2 and 3 is now available. Capcom still hasn’t really explained why ray tracing went MIA. If it really was just a mistake, it was a pretty major thing to let slip, but stranger things have happened I suppose.

　　Rolled out last year, the “next-gen” updates for Resident Evil 2 and 3 provided some nice, if not overly-flashy, visual upgrades to a pair of excellent survival horror games. If you haven’t played either of the games, you owe it to yourself to give them a try. Here’s what I thought about Resident Evil 2…

　　“Resident Evil 2 is a polished, respectful remake of a survival horror classic that probably would have benefitted from a slightly more daring approach. Hints of a braver revamp are sprinkled throughout, but it doesn’t take the risks necessary to join the canon of truly great video game remakes. Make no mistake though, if you loved the original Resident Evil 2, you’ll likely love the remake, and new players who can tolerate a few old-school quirks ought to have a gruesome good time as well.”

　　And here are my thoughts on Resident Evil 3…

　　“Resident Evil 3 is the franchise’s best action-driven entries ever. A beautifully-balanced combination of white-knuckle mayhem and satisfying old-school tension, Resident Evil 3 is compulsively-munchable popcorn entertainment that, unfortunately, disappears all too quickly. If you’re looking for value, there are certainly meatier games out there, but few that will leave you licking your fingers as happily as this one.”

　　Resident Evil 2 and 3 can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch (via the cloud).