Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 7, Episode 7. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 7, Episode 6.
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Watching the final season of The Clone Wars, there’s a constant tug of war between gratitude we’re even getting a proper finale after all these years and frustration over how the show is choosing to spend its time. The opening Bad Batch storyline suffered from issues with pacing and repetition, and the current arc is faring even worse in that department. As wonderful as it is to see Ahsoka Tano back in action, the series seems to be doing little more than stalling for tie until the Siege of Mandalore kicks in.
After mostly redeeming itself in last week’s episode, the current arc again falls flat on its face as it attempts to further explore the dynamic between Ahsoka and the Martez sisters. Episode 5’s main flaw was a generally feeling of emptiness. It brought Ahsoka into Trace and Rafa’s orbit but accomplished little else. Episode 6 is where that relationship began to gain depth and meaning. Episode 7 isn’t entirely unsuccessful in building on that foundation, but it botches its key emotional scene and fails to actually advance the plot in a tangible way.
Here’s problem #1. The scene where Rafa finally lets down her guard and recounts her tragic past to Ahsoka should be the highlight of the episode. It’s certainly a revelatory look at her origins and why she’s so willing to screw over others to get ahead in the galaxy. The fact that her origin story ties back to the beginning of the series and Ahsoka’s own struggles with Ziro the Hutt is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the actual writing leaves a lot to be desired. Rafa’s dialogue is incredibly stilted and unnatural, more like she’s reciting a monologue from a novel than actually reflecting on her past. Actress Elizabeth Rodriguez brings as much energy as she can to this material, but there’s only so much anyone can do to make dialogue like that feel organic.
As for problem #2, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that our three heroes end this episode in literally the exact same place they start. All that struggle to break out of the Pyke prison and track down Trace’s ship wind sup being for naught. It would be one thing if there was enough character development to make that ill-fated journey seem worthwhile, but there isn’t. Beyond Rafa’s ill-conceived monologue and a scene reiterating that Ahsoka isn’t one to leave her friends behind, there’s really not a whole lot to chew on in “Dangerous Debt.” At most, we get a brief glimpse of Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian commandos, a brief tease to what will surely be a far more exciting conflict for Ahsoka.
That’s not to say there’s no excitement to be had during the short-lived jailbreak sequence. There’s certainly plenty of action along the way. And where the Bad Batch episodes were all about incredibly competent soldiers mowing down wave after wave of mechanical cannon fodder, there’s a novelty to the fact that these battle scenes are so chaotic and haphazard. The Martez sisters aren’t action heroes, and even Ahsoka is hamstrung by a lack of lightsaber and the need to disguise her Force powers. The result is that this episode is able to generate a certain element of danger and combine that with bits of comedy as Ahsoka does her best bumbling Clark Kent impression. None of this is enough to offset the episode’s glaring flaws or make it feel like anything other than a pointless detour, but it’s better than nothing.
Despite having a title that sounds like a fake Tracy Jordan 30 Rock movie, Coffee & Kareem — which pairs Ed Helms’ straight-laced cop with a foul-mouth 12-year-old — is a solid, raunchy action-comedy that serves as perfect tight 90-minute escapism.
Director Michael Dowse brings a lot of the faced-paced wit and gunfire that he delivered in Stuber, with actual better results than Stuber. In fact, Stuber and Coffee & Kareem have a ton in common. It just so happens that the formula works a bit better when someone’s screaming at Ed Helms and not Kumail Nanjiani.
Is Helms playing anything outside of his comfort zone here? Nope. He’s right at home, playing the type of character you’d expect him to. Have we seen abrasive, cussing tweens accuse adults of wanting to molest them before? Sure have. 2008’s Role Models springs to mind, first and foremost. But just because Coffee & Kareem has a few “stitched together” elements, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work overall. It’s smartly short, packing in a very simple story that’s filled with some pretty good jokes.
Helms plays Detroit cop/Hall & Oates fan James Coffee. Coffee’s dating a single working mom (Taraji P. Henson) whose son, Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh), hates his possible future stepdad so much that he makes a play to pay a local gangster to beat him up. Gardenhigh is a great find. This flick has super raunchy dialogue so it was imperative to find a child actor who can perfectly play Kareem and find that balance between annoying and funny. Without a good kid in the part, you run a serious risk of pushing the audience away from the (albeit, small) heart of the story.
Helms, while playing to the familiar, is still able to shine in key moments. One particular interrogation scene, midway through the film, springs to mind, as Coffee attempts to take advice from Kareem about how to intimidate others. Again, the movie doesn’t offer up anything particularly new, but it does have some gems buried within.
The small supporting cast — Betty Gilpin, RonReaco Lee, Andrew Bachelor, and David Alan Grier — also help liven up the tropes. As Coffee’s workplace “alpha” nemesis, Gilpin gets to stretch her comedic prowess like crazy, delivering a whirlwind of cackles. And the film’s villains have a very fun rapport that almost reminds one of Elmore Leonard’s knack for writing super-smart dumbasses.
After Coffee’s framed for murder and kidnapping, everyone involved gets targeted for death. Henson, for her part, was made for this type of part. As Kareem’s mom, Vanessa, she not only has to react with confounded fury when the man she’s seeing returns home with her son and there’s an Amber Alert out naming both of them, but also be able to elevate the “damsel in distress” cliche as a character who’s more than capable of carrying herself in a fight.
Coffee & Kareem may seem like a film where the title came first and then a story was spun out around the wordplay, but it actually works well and offers up some chaotic and crass comedy. Fortunately for all, Helms and Gardenhigh work really well together and their chemistry helps elevate the film above the semi-laughable logline.
Buying a monitor might seem like a frivolous purchase if you only have a laptop and primarily play your games on a 4K TV, but these desk-bound screens are more helpful than you would think. For one thing, looking at a monitor at a desk is much more ergonomic than hunching over your laptop on the couch. Not only that, you also get a ton more screen real estate to work with, which means you can have more windows open at the same time and you don’t have to squint to see everything on your screen.
The good news is there’s a wide variety of budget monitors you can buy on the cheap and they’ll often fulfill your every need. Whether you’re looking for a basic task monitor or something higher-resolution, HDR-ready or even an ultrawide screen, there’s an affordable display out there for you. Like budget gaming monitors, the chance of running into a complete lemon is high, which is exactly why we’ve done the homework for you and found budget monitors that are guaranteed to be great and all cost under $500.
The Dell UltraSharp U2415 is a staple monitor in offices and homes all around the world. It’s not surprising considering that it’s one of the best all-around monitors with good brightness, contrast, and color. Best of all, every one of these screens are color calibrated at Dell’s factories so you’ll get the same picture if you decide to go for a multi-monitor setup.
The monitor’s Full HD (1,920 x 1,200) resolution looks sharp enough given its 24-inch screen size. That said, the 16:10 aspect ratio gives you just a little more vertical real estate so you can see your webpages, emails, documents or what have you at a glance.
If you’re looking for something truly cheap and still good, look no further than the Asus EyeCare VZ249HE. This $180 monitor features a decently sized 24-inch screen and a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution in a slim, slim-bezel design. Better yet it utilizes an IPS panel so you get wide viewing angles and great color reproduction too.
The EyeCare in this monitor’s name refers to the four levels of blue light reduction it features. Essentially you can set the monitor to produce increasing levels of warm light depending. Level 1 and 2 are good for viewing web pages and media in a well ambient lighting situation. Meanwhile, you’ll want to bump up to level 3 and 4 if you’re looking at documents all day or working in a dimly lit situation.
The Samsung 27-inch Space Monitor (SR75) is an incredible display that not only gives you a larger screen for a budget price but also an integrated monitor arm. The coolest thing about it is by far its space-saving design. Rather than utilizing a base with large feet, this display comes on a stand that clips to the back of your desk. Meanwhile, the monitor arm that lets you change how close it sits from you as well as its height.
The monitor itself is no slouch either. For starters, you’re getting a large 27-inch screen and a sharp QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. The IPS panel on this monitor also comes with a surprisingly fast 144Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time, which makes it a little more gaming-capable than the other displays on this list.
The Philips 272P7VUBNB is one of the few monitors that let you max out your screen resolution without breaking the bank. This 27-inch monitor features an IPS panel with a 4K resolution and the ability to produce 1.07 billion colors. It’s peak brightness only sits at 350-nits so it’s not a true HDR monitor – but we have an option below if that’s what you’re looking for.
One other thing that’s great about the Philips 272P7VUBNB is it comes with a built-in USB-C docking station. So if you have a laptop equipped with a USB-C port, you can plug in a single cable to carry the video signal, connect any USB peripherals you have connected to the monitor and power your laptop all at the same time. Note that the USB-C port can only supply up to 65W of power, so it can only recharge devices like Ultrabooks and Chromebooks.
If you’re looking for an extra splash of color and brightness, then check out the Monoprice Vivid Monitor. This monitor features a 27-inch IPS panel from LG that colors a wide range of colors including 100% of the sRGB and Adobe RGB spectrum as well as coverage for 97% of DCI-P3. With a peak brightness of 400-nits, this display is full HDR-ready.
The monitor’s 4K resolution is just the cherry on top of this affordable display. Just be ready to do a little color calibration as Monoprice usually skips this step to give users an incredible panel for an affordable price.
The LG UltraWide 34WL750-B sits right on the cusp of our self-imposed $500 budget but it’s all so worth it. This 34-inch ultrawide monitor sports a 21:9 monitor for the largest amount of screen real-estate on this list. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the monitor sports a sharp 3440 x 1440 resolution that gives you plenty of room to work and play.
It also happens to meet the HDR10 spec with a color depth of 1.07 billion and a peak brightness of 430-nits. You can also use this monitor as a USB-C hub for any laptops or smartphones you plug into it.
The Viotek LinQ Touch is the perfect portable monitor if you’re looking for a second screen you can tow along with your laptop. It might only weigh 1.7 pounds and measure less than a half-inch thick, but it’s a sizable 15.6-inch touchscreen you can take on the go.
The 15-inch IPS panel sports a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and you’ll be able to use all 10 of your fingers on its capacitive touchscreen. The monitor also comes with a pair of integrated speakers, FreeSync support, and a magnetic folding leather cover that doubles as a stand.
Disney has announced that an updated version of The Simpsons in its original 4:3 aspect ratio will be available on its Disney+ streaming service by the end of May.
When Disney released Disney+ with every available episode of The Simpsons, viewers soon discovered that the series was formatted in 16:9 widescreen. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it didn’t actively ruin certain visual gags that The Simpsons is known for.
Comedian Tristan Cooper tweeted a famous example of how the widescreen format removed a sight gag from one of the classic Simpsons episodes.
All the classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ are in cropped widescreen format — this means you miss out on tons of great visual jokes, like how Duff, Duff Lite and Duff Dry all come from the same tube. pic.twitter.com/cTy9adulFl
In November 2019, Disney announced that it would roll out a feature in 2020 that would allow users to choose a 4:3 viewing ratio for the first 19 seasons of The Simpsons, as well as some episodes from season 20.
The feature will now roll out at the end of May, which is a bit more specific though no actual date has been announced yet.
The Simpsons aired in a 4:3 aspect ratio since its premiere in 1989. In 2010, partway through the 20th season, The Simpsons switched to a widescreen format. Although the original aspect ratio was available when streaming The Simpsons on the FXX app, that option didn’t carry over to Disney+.
240Hz gaming monitors are the new hotness when it comes to ultra-competitive play, but until now they’ve been limited to TN panels with poor viewing angles and less-than-stellar color accuracy. But Asus has finally broken the mold with the TUFGaming VG279QM, which features an IPS panel with a 240Hz refresh rate – or 280Hz with built-in overclocking – along with HDR, G-Sync, and a fast response time to keep motion smooth.
Design and Features
At $400, this display may not look too flashy, with a quarter-inch bezel around the edges and a mostly-unadorned stand. The stand has a cable routing hole in the middle, but it’s too small to easily fit cables through, which makes it kind of frustrating compared to more typical designs. The stand is, however, very adjustable, with customizable height, swivel, and tilt – you can even rotate it 90 degrees for a vertical orientation. On the back you’ll find one DisplayPort, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and a headphone jack – unimpressive, but not offensively bare. There are no USB ports, and the built-in speakers are, as you’d expect, not great.
But all that’s okay, because Asus nailed the important specs. The VG279QM is aimed at competitive, high-speed gaming, with a 1080p resolution and 240Hz refresh rate – overclockable to 280Hz through the on-screen menu, making this the fastest refresh rate monitor you can buy today. Asus warns that overclocking may introduce screen flickering or other issues, but it worked flawlessly for me, apart from an occasional black screen when disabling it (which I easily solved by turning the monitor off and on again). If 280Hz causes too many problems for you, there’s also a 270Hz overclock setting that’s more stable and still plenty fast.
That refresh rate would be impressive enough, but Asus is also using an IPS panel instead of the sub-par TN panels you usually see on high refresh rate displays. That means you get better viewing angles and better color reproduction, without the usual IPS drawbacks of slower refresh rates and response times. Asus puts a cherry on top with FreeSync support (that is certified G-Sync Compatible by Nvidia) and HDR400 (which, okay, can barely be considered HDR without local dimming, but it’s there). At 27 inches, 1080p is less sharp than I’d like, but it’s all in service of getting the highest refresh rates possible, so it’s forgivable for its target audience. I can’t decide whether I’d rather have a sharper 1080p image at 24 inches, or a more immersive experience at 27 inches.
You can adjust the panel’s settings via an on-screen display using a joystick-style controller on the back of the monitor. You get your typical brightness, contrast, and sharpness (which Asus calls VividPixel, for some reason), alongside presets for different types of gaming. Curiously, the default preset is named Racing, and it’s the most accurate of the bunch – Cinema uses far too cool a color temperature – so I recommend leaving it at the default, despite the confusing naming convention.
You’ll also find a few extra gaming features, like Shadow Boost (which lowers the contrast ratio but helps you see enemies in dark places), an on-screen crosshair, and a Sniper mode that zooms in so you can practice your faraway shots. Asus’ strobing backlight feature, which the company calls “ELMB Sync,” is unique in that it’s one of the only motion blur reduction features on the market that can be enabled alongside FreeSync and G-Sync – usually you have to pick one or the other. But it comes with its own drawbacks, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Performance
As with all monitors we review, I ran the VG279QM through a few of Lagom’s LCD test patterns to see how the panel performed. Gamma was a touch low on our test unit, hovering closer to 2.0 than the desired 2.2, and I found that black and white levels were just slightly crushed, meaning you might lose out on the darkest and brightest details in a given image. This is where that Shadow Boost feature can come in handy, as long as you don’t care about the loss in contrast ratio – which isn’t particularly great to begin with, due to IPS panels’ grey-ish blacks. Speaking of which, I also noticed some definite glow in the corners of the screen when it’s entirely black – again, typical of IPS panels, and well worth dealing with for the advantages IPS offers. But it’s still there, and still bothersome.
The rest of Lagom’s tests produced stellar results, though, with no visible banding in gradients, great viewing angles, and a fantastic response time. To test response time, Lagom uses a GIF that switches between two shades of grey – the slower your monitor shifts, the more flickering the GIF produces. With the default setting of Overdrive at 60, the VG279QM produced very little flickering, indicating a very low response time – a result backed up by Blur Buster’s UFO test, which showed almost no motion blur at 240Hz.
Note that Overdrive can naturally cause some “overshoot,” which manifests itself as visual artifacts around moving objects. At 240Hz, the default value of 60 was perfect, but if you’re gaming at lower refresh rates, you may need to lower the Overdrive setting to avoid those graphical glitches. At higher levels, the artifacting becomes too distracting for me to recommend. The same goes for the ELMB Sync setting, which seems to lock Overdrive at the highest setting. I wish Asus had left Overdrive user-configurable when ELMB is on, because with the right settings, this could be a killer combo. But thanks to the heavy artifacting, I recommend leaving ELMB Sync off. Feel free to give it a try, though.
Gaming
If you play highly competitive games, this monitor is a dream. Colorful, fast-paced titles like Overwatch look incredible with IPS colors and super-fast response times, and while 280Hz is a subtle improvement over 144Hz, it is noticeably smoother. Darting around the map feels effortless, and the complete lack of motion blur just makes each movement so smooth and precise that it’s hard to go back to displays with higher response times. Those kinds of butter-smooth framerates are tough to hit unless you have a pretty decent graphics card, though, even at 1080p. You may have to drop some graphical settings to get there, too, so make sure your PC is up to the task before dropping the cash to go all-in on refresh rate.
With more typical single-player games, like Battlefield V, the value add becomes a bit murkier. Sure, you still get the amazing colors of an IPS panel, not to mention the nearly blur-free response time. But you also have a lower contrast ratio than VA panels, barely-there HDR performance, and a lot of wasted refresh rate, since you’re highly unlikely to hit 240+ fps in high-fidelity titles. Couple that with the not-quite-sharp-enough 1080p resolution, and many gamers would probably do better with the1440p, 144Hz version of this monitor for a similar price – especially considering the advantages of higher resolution on the desktop. But unlike previous monitors in this space, the VG279QM acts as a pretty good all-arounder, without the larger sacrifices that 240Hz TN panels come with.
Still, there’s a place for those TN panels – if you really want 240Hz but don’t have the budget for Asus’ display, check out AOC’s AG251FZ2. At $279, it’s more affordable, albeit with a less impressive TN panel and a slightly smaller 25” size. But if you can swing the $400, trust me: the VG279QM is a big step up from its TN predecessors.
Purchasing Guide
The Asus TUF Gaming VG279QM is available on Amazon and Newegg with an MSRP of $400
HBO has announced that it will be making over 500 hours of its original programming available to stream for free to help “provide some entertainment relief for those doing their part to keep everyone safe and healthy in this time of social isolation.”
Starting Friday, April 3 for a “limited time” (the specific length of the free screening period hasn’t been announced) you’ll be able to stream some of the most iconic HBO series – like The Sopranos, Succession, Six Feet Under, The Wire, and Barry – on the HBO Go and HBO Now apps and websites for free, without a subscription. Additionally, HBO is making available a handful of films like Detective Pikachu, The Lego Movie 2, Crazy. Stupid, Love, and more.
Below is a selection of the content coming to HBO Go and HBO Now for free, including nine full series and ten documentary series:
Ballers (5 Seasons)
Barry (2 Seasons)
Silicon Valley (6 Seasons)
Six Feet Under (5 Seasons)
The Sopranos (7 Seasons)
Succession (2 Seasons)
True Blood (7 Seasons
Veep (7 Seasons)
The Wire (5 Seasons)
The Apollo
The Case Against Adnan Syed
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Jane Fonda in Five Acts
McMillion$
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
United Skates
We Are the Dream: The Kids of the MLK Oakland Oratorical Fest
If you’ve ever wanted to catch up on classic HBO shows like The Wire or The Sopranos, or more recent offerings like Barry and Succession, now would be a good time.
I broke down a bit of the difference in playing as either the Predator or the elite, human squad out in the field during my PAX West 2019 Predator: Hunting Grounds preview, but as a brief recap: Predator pits four humans on a set of various missions (find drugs, find bad men who probably sell drugs, kill men and their drugs) while racing against both the clock and AI enemies. All the while, the dreadlocked alien has one goal — kill this group of soldiers.
To steal from my coworker Tom Marks, Predator takes the smart approach that other recent asymmetric multiplayer games do — by giving the humans a mission other than killing the big bad, the added purpose makes every role feel vital even when you’re not the obviously very cool teched out alien. The missions, at least in the trial, are often samey and rather boring, moving you and your team from one pertinent location to the next while mowing down relatively simple AI enemies. But the hook of having something to do other than fear the Predator adds a nice cadence and purpose to matches that made the Predator’s hunt more unpredictable match to match.
And that unknowable fear is key to the experience — the Predator is out there in the jungle, somewhere, and I often scanned Illfonic’s lush jungles (which look beautiful from afar but don’t quite hold up when close up against a tree or decaying structure) fruitlessly hoping to catch a glimpse of my foe running amongst the trees. Illfonic has captured a really intriguing blend of constant dread and the player’s need to compartmentalize that dread until it can’t be helped. For my first few matches I was a skittish, unhelpful squadmate, and I’m sorry to all of the strangers I played with. I feared the Predator could be behind any tree, around the corner of any dilapidated building, and I often met my end because of that. An unseen batch of AI foes, or, more commonly, the Predator finding me because I strayed away from the group.
I quickly had to get the idea of the Predator’s might out of my head — it would eventually come to kill us, and that’s when I could worry about its superior strength. Instead, I focused on being a more present player, and a more active teammate, and I often saw more success because of it.
Hunting Grounds rewards teams working together. Any time myself or someone else strayed from the pack, it was almost always to our detriment. But even when playing with strangers, and omitting voice chat, we could still complete our mission, or even take down the Predator, by sticking together, pointing out trouble with a quick ping system, and responding quickly to call in all our firepower when the Predator appeared. Whereas fighting the human AI is a matter of getting the jump on them and using cover well, the Predator can move so quickly, and so unexpectedly, that it’s often about finding the ideal window to unleash hell on it.
And when playing as the Predator, how you respond to those firefights often determines the flow of a match in an instant. You can try to fight from afar, shooting down from the tree branches and using camouflage to avoid being spotted. Or, you can jump right into the fray, using melee attacks to swipe at foes while also opening yourself up to a lot more potential damage. Though trust me, few things have frightened me like being a human player inside a room as the Predator speeds in through the doorframe. There’s no way to win, then.
Finding balance is the key to winning as Predator, both in when to go full force on attacking or hang back in the shadows like a forest Batman, especially when you don’t know whether humans are packing grenade launchers or pistols. And all of your abilities are tied to a single energy gauge, so while firing off a few full-force blasts from your shoulder cannon could knock an enemy out, you might have no energy left to turn invisible and flee afterward. The Predator is, no doubt, a strong opponent to best, but at least with my time so far, it feels like there is enough in balance that defeating it feels achievable in every match, at least at first.
The biggest change from playing two matches of Hunting Grounds to playing a weekend of it was getting a chance to understand how progression works. With an overarching level tied to XP gained from both matches played as the Predator and humans, I unlocked “field lockers” — Predator’s version of loot boxes, that come with a host of weapon and character skins for customization. You’ll unlock more boxes as you level up, and can use currency to buy them as well, both in-game and real world. But for now, it seems these loot boxes are cosmetic only, and I obviously hope they stay that way.
But there is progression to characters as well. While I unfortunately didn’t get to play around with the different human characters, I was able to add perks and change loadouts for both humans and the Predator as I leveled up, with a clear bit of additional armament ready to be unlocked at higher levels. Keeping up with those upgrades is essential, as they can change how quickly a Predator’s energy reloads or improve the ability of muddy camouflage to hide from the Predator as a human. I noticed a marked improvement in my ability to handle the unexpected as I outfitted my character with more perks, and was eager to see what else I could unlock at higher levels and how it might make matches more varied, especially when so much can hinge on the more boring human AI enemies.
I’m glad Predator: Hunting Grounds had this trial weekend, because the entire weekend was saddled with disappointing queue times, with it sometimes taking over four minutes to kick me into a match. The first day of the trial I was being matched with only a single human squadmate as well, too, or even having to go it alone against the Predator. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t do too well in those first matches.
By the end of the weekend, match load times were down, but I still waited a couple of minutes before getting kicked into a match, and had to back out to the menu a number of times as the Predator because I was not being matched with any opponents.
Of course, this being a test weekend, I’m glad Illfonic is taking the time to see how Predator works out in the wild. I think there’s a strong core in the matches — everything playing to its source material as being a Predator game still feels fun and worth diving into match after match. I do hope Illfonic can find a better balance to making the other objectives a bit more interesting, but outside of its technical issues, Predator shows plenty of promise by sticking to its franchise guns.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s senior news editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
Resident Evil 3 Remake returns you to Raccoon City at the start of the T-Virus outbreak that will eventually destroy it. Like Capcom’s reimagining of Resident Evil 2 before it, the game is full of secrets, collectibles, and wide-open areas that can be a bit confusing to navigate. There’s a ton of stuff to find in Resident Evil 3, and it’s easy to miss things–especially because the game is full of points of no return, where you’ll get pushed on in the story, unable to return to past areas.
That’s okay, though: We’ve played through Resident Evil 3 Remake a whole bunch of times at this point in order to scour every corner and find everything we can. Our complete walkthrough guide starts Jill’s journey in the middle of Raccoon City’s downtown. We’ve tried to be a spoiler-free as we can be with this walkthrough, focusing on pickups, collectibles, and strategies, but read on at your own risk if you’re hoping to have an uncorrupted experience. Note also that this walkthrough covers Assisted, Standard, and Hardcore difficulties. On Nightmare and Inferno difficulties, enemy and item locations get remixed for greater challenge.
Resident Evil 3 Remake Walkthrough Part 1: Downtown
Jill’s Apartment
Jill’s investigation into Umbrella is pretty extensive, but she hasn’t even scratched the surface.
We start with Jill waking up in her apartment. When you can look around, check Jill’s investigation board for Jill’s Report and Investigation Notesfiles. On the blue book to the left of the board is the Unsealed Envelopefile, and you’ll find the Message from a Colleaguefile on the table beside the pizza, which updates you on the status of another of Jill’s S.T.A.R.S. team members, Brad Vickers. Head to the bathroom to progress.
Escaping Through The City
You’ll meet up with Brad Vickers outside of your apartment and make your way through the city. Once you have a handgun, try to conserve ammo as best you can–you don’t need to fight the zombies and aren’t in good shape to do so anyway, so run away instead. Eventually, you’ll make for a parking garage, after receiving some orders from a helicopter above. Right after the helicopter gets in touch, you’ll run into a man hiding in a cargo container. Walk to the container to speak to him repeatedly, unlocking your first objective from the Records screen. Check the barrel beside the door you exit by for some handgun ammo.
The Subway
After talking with Victor, leave the subway car and check the bench to the left of the exit stairs. You’ll find the UBCS Ammo Crafting Guide file. At the top of the stairs, get the Tabloid Front Page file on the newsstand.
After talking with Carlos on the radio, head to the top of the stairs to find two green herbs and two bottles of gunpowder. Use your knife to smash the box with the yellow tape a little to your left to find a Red Herb as well. There’s also a locked case here you can’t open yet–you’ll need the Lockpick, which you won’t find until later.
Find the Kite Bros Railway monument puzzle through the gate and to the left. You’ll soon start finding Jewels you can plug into this thing to solve it. Use the typewriter to save your game and check the table for the UBCS Herb Guide file. To the right of the Typewriter is also an Item Box, letting you stash spare items for when you need it.
The Street By The Toy Shop
Take the stairs to street level and follow it to the left. Note that the Toy Uncle store is locked with a padlock and you can’t open it just now. Carlos will tell you that you need to head through the alley, which is on fire; check it and you’ll see a fire hydrant you could use to put out the flames, with the right tool. Backtrack a bit and zombies will smash their way through the fence you previously passed, opening a staircase down. Use Jill’s Dodge maneuver to get past them or clear them out, but if you can, save the red barrel for later. Head down, where you’ll have to deal with more zombies; shoot the sparking generator on the right side to electrocute them, briefly stunning them so you can get by or shoot them.
Ahead is the Donut Shop; you’ll find handgun ammo beside the car to the left of the door, as well as gunpowder inside the shop on the table with the two bodies. Look to the right of the microwave in the corner behind the counter to find a Charlie Doll bobblehead; there are 20 of these hidden in the game, and you collect them by shooting them.
Look for the Toy Uncle Charlie Doll hidden on the shelf in the back of the Donut Shop.
The back room of the Donut Shop is a safe room where you can save, which is a good spot to note for later. Inside the room is also a Fancy Box; examine it to find a Red Jewel inside. That goes in the Kite Bros Monument back in the subway, so drop it in the Item Box here to use later.
You can leave the Donut Shop by the other door to enter another area, but first, leave the way you came. Back in the courtyard by the stairs, turn left to find a staircase up to a fire escape. Take the one to the left to enter an art storage room.
Inside, check to the left of the safe to find the Drugstore Owner’s Journal file, which gives a hint about where to find the code to open the nearby safe. The safe code is left 9, right 1, left 8; inside, you’ll find the Handgun Dot Sight upgrade.
Watch out for the zombie in this room as you continue toward the far door. Before you exit, check up on the shelf for a Charlie Doll. Just outside, look left of the door for some handgun ammo.
Check the shelves near the front of the art storage room on your way toward the back door for this Charlie Doll.
The Street By The Subway Office
Follow the walkway to the stairs that lead you down to the street level. Here you can head to the Drugstore, which includes a number of useful items, but will also put you on track to fight several zombies. The front counter of the store has a green herb, and on the shelves further in you’ll find high-quality gunpowder. At the back of the store near the poster of the Aqua Cure Queen, look left for handgun bullets.
Back outside, head left from the Drugstore entrance, and you can get around a black car. You’ll find a zombie crawling out from under the car, along with a wood box you can destroy to find a green herb inside.
Kite Bros Subway Office
Now head to the other side of the street to enter the Kite Bros Railway building. Be careful as you enter; you’ll find a zombie around the corner down the first hallway. After you’ve dispatched it, turn right to find a Fire Hose on the ground. You’ll need the hose to get past the flaming alleyway back near the start of this area.
Enter the room beside the hose to find some lockers, which contain gunpowder and a hand grenade you’ll want for later (as well as a padlocked locker you can’t open yet). On the table nearby you’ll find the Subway Employee’s Memo file. It’ll give a hint as to how to get the shotgun out of the nearby gun locker. You’ll need the Bolt Cutters to cut the chain holding it shut.
Leave this room and enter the one at the end of the hallway next. On a chair near the control panel, you’ll find the Kite Bros Railway Manual file. Look under the desk beside the control panel to find a Charlie Doll. You can’t do anything else here just yet.
The Charlie Doll in the Kite Bros Subway Office control room is hanging out with the donuts.
Instead of backtracking through the Donut Shop, go back through the storage room containing the Drugstore owner’s safe. From here, run down the path to the right, which will take you out on a rooftop. You’ll face some zombies here, but you can easily dispatch them by shooting the explosive red barrel in the corner behind them. Once you’re clear, check one of the bodies near the edge of the building for gunpowder. You can now lower a ladder on the edge of the rooftop that’ll lead back down to where you started, out front of the toy shop.
Garage
Head to the alley and use the Fire Hose on the fire hydrant to open the way forward. Up the stairs and inside the garage, grab the Bolt Cutters off the wall. You can use them on the door nearby, but you can’t unlock the padlocked locker yet.
You’ll need to go through the chained doorway in this room to advance, but this is a good opportunity to go open some locked doors in the rest of the downtown area before advancing. First, head back to the Kite Bros Subway Office and retrieve the shotgun from the weapons locker. You’ll want the shotgun for the next section, so this is a worthy detour.
While you’re here, open the chained door in the fence next to the Kite Bros Subway Office. It’ll give you access to an alley containing a few zombies, some handgun ammo, and a case with shotgun ammo.
You’ll also want to visit the Grocery Store across from the Toy Store, which you can open with the Bolt Cutters. Inside is high grade gunpowder, a first aid spray, and a Fancy Box, which contains the Blue Jewel. With two jewel, it’s worth heading back to the subway entrance and plugging them into the Kite Bros Monument; the first will get you a grenade, and the second will unlock the Tactical Shotgun upgrade.
Make sure you take the time to solve this puzzle before returning to the Subway after restoring power. If you wait too long, you won’t be able to access Downtown to find the jewels anymore.
Back in the Garage, go through the chained doorway, grab the shotgun shells off the table on the left and check the body to find the Training Log file. Go up the stairs to get outside, then hang a right at the fork to find handgun bullets and the UBCS Suicide Note file near a body on the ground. Back the other way, grab the Electrician’s Note file off the wall, which tells you about shooting generators to zap zombies. There’s a generator just ahead you can use on two zombie dogs that attack you.
Continue toward the Power Substation. Go past the door in the fence to find a crate you can break behind a car, with a green herb inside.
Power Substation
You’ll face three zombies inside the power substation. At the top of the stairs, grab the red herb and then enter the next room, where you’ll find the Fax from Substation Chief file on your left, which explains how to turn the power back on. Beside the typewriter and the item box, you’ll find the Hip Pouch on top of a step ladder, which will expand your inventory. Look on top the cabinet beside the door out of this room to find a Charlie Doll as well.
Check the shelf in the Power Substation’s room with the typewriter and monitors. It’s across from the door you use to head further into the substation.
Through the next door, you’ll find two green herbs at the bottom of the stairs, and the Green Herbs: They Work! and Substation Internal Memo files, which will give you clues about how to proceed. At the end of the hall is a body holding a case; inside is the Lockpick. Head around the corner to the right from the body to find handgun ammo inside a crate you can destroy. Use the lockpick on the door to enter the rest of the substation.
The next area is a maze infested with spider-like creatures known as Drain Deimos, and you’ll need to navigate it to find and turn on four power breakers. They’re not too tough to find–three are in the extreme corners of the area, while the fourth is down a side hallway between the furthest two. Keep your map handy to help navigate.
When you first enter the maze, you’ll get jumped by a Drain Deimos. As the green herb file mentioned, you’ll need to use a green herb to get rid of the maggots it injects into your body. If you let them fester, they’ll eventually result in an instant death. There are more herbs scattered around the maze, and they’ll get marked on your map if you see them but don’t take them, in case you need them later.
Make your way down the first hallway to its end and turn left to find the first breaker. You’re vulnerable while turning it on, so make sure to check your surroundings to avoid getting attacked by more Drain Deimos. The shotgun makes short work of them, whereas the pistol will take multiple shots to put them down.
After activating the first breaker, take the nearby ladder to find the Chad’s Notes file about the poor guy with the maggot problem. You’ll also find another herb up here. Cross to the other side of the maze and drop down. Make your way to the back corners for the next two breakers, then check the side hallway nearby the furthest one for the last breaker. When you’ve got them all, you’re clear to make your way back out, but expect increased Drain Deimos resistance. Keep an eye on your map to avoid getting lost.
Once you’ve restored power in the control room, leave and head back down the stairs. Use thelockpick on the locker to find handgun ammo before leaving the building.
Dealing With Nemesis
Once the power is restored, you’ll be pursued by the Nemesis until you make your way back to the subway. Make sure you have everything you need from this area before you go there, though.
You’ll want to fight the Nemesis at least once before you get to the Kite Bros Subway Office. Knocking the Nemesis down here will get him to drop the Handgun Extended Magazine upgrade. If you progress too far through this area, though, you’ll miss your chance. Your best bet is to toss a grenade at him right away, then make your escape. Note that you can knock him down again if you need to, but he won’t drop anything else until later, so try to save your ammo.
To get away more effectively, utilize Jill’s dodge move as much as possible to avoid the Nemesis’s attacks and get around it. You’ll need to run for it–the Nemesis mostly won’t follow you through low doorways, so your goal is to get inside as quickly as you can. This alley also has a generator you can shoot when the Nemesis is nearby, which will briefly stun it, allowing you to unload on its black mechanical heart for extra damage. The generator’s electricity can hurt you as well, though, so be careful.
Hustle back to the garage, where you can save and lockpick another locker, which has a first aid spray inside.
Back outside in the alley, you’ll find that more zombies have filled in the street, and the Nemesis will be along shortly. Your goal is to get to the Kite Bros building on the other side of downtown. You can reach it either by taking the ladder up to the rooftop (a risky endeavor given how long it takes to climb) or through the Donut Shop at the bottom of the hill.
First, though, enter the Toy Store using the lockpick. Inside is a Fancy Box that contains a Green Jewel, which you can slot into the Kite Bros monument back in the subway. You’ll also find the Your Charlie Doll file on the Charlie poster. Look for a Charle Doll among the Mega Man action figures on display.
The Charlie Doll in the Toy Uncle store is right out in the open among the many, many old-school Mega Man action figures.
The Donut Shop is not safe from the Nemesis–it will follow you inside. Note that there’s a safe room here, as well as a locker you can open with the lockpick to get a hand grenade.
If you haven’t fought the Nemesis for the Handgun Extended Magazine upgrade, do so now. Once you complete your work in the Subway Office, you’ll lose your chance to get it.
Back To The Subway Office
Continue through the Donut Shop and sprint across the street to the Kite Bros subway office. Inside, check the room near where you got the firehose and the shotgun to find a locker you can lockpick to get yourself another first aid spray.
Inside the control room, look to the right of the control panel for a locked case to open with the lockpick, which gives you shotgun shells.
On the control panel, you need to solve a puzzle around programming the route the subway will take to reach the Fox Park station. Check the board to see the route you need to take, avoiding closed tracks. The letter switches designate which station to go to, while the numbers designate which tracks to take. The correct path is FA-02, RA-03, SA-02.
Plot a safe course for the subway train with the Subway Office puzzle, avoiding blocked tracks along the way.
As you leave the subway office, you’ll face a new kind of zombie with a whipping tentacle protruding from its head. Stay well back to avoid the tentacle; you’ll notice the zombie shields its head, making it tough to get an effective shot. Hit it in the knees to get the shield to open (and to slow it down), then shoot it in the face to finish it off.
Mercifully, the Nemesis should have vacated the area as you leave, giving you a chance to head back through the Donut Shop, as well as to save.
Outside, you’ll face the Nemesis again after a short cutscene. This is your second opportunity to knock down the Nemesis for another item: the Handgun Moderator upgrade. You have to down the Nemesis to get this upgrade before you return to the Subway or you’ll miss your chance at it.
Make your way up the stairs and, if you haven’t already, enter the Toy Store and get the stuff inside. Then continue past the cars to the wrought-iron alley doorway. You’ll face a couple zombies here, but if you’ve got shotgun ammo, you can knock them out quickly with that.
At the end of the alley, duck around to the right to get into the subway, avoiding the nearby mutated zombie. Make sure you’ve found and picked up everything you want before heading into the subway, because you can’t return.
The Subway
Inside the subway, put the last jewel in the Kite Bros Monument. Three jewels unlocks another Hip Pouch, expanding your inventory. You can also open a case with your lockpick at the top of the stairs, which contains more shotgun shells.
After the cutscene, run down the hallway, but note the Nemesis will be on you almost immediately. Keep moving until you pass a generator, which you can shoot to stun the Nemesis if you need to. Up ahead, you’ll see a yellow vent cover on the wall. You’ll need to interact with it three times to open it, which can leave you vulnerable to attack. Beside it are two explosive barrels; lead the Nemesis over and blow them up to stun it again and give you time to make your escape. This will also cause him to drop an item case with shotgun shells, if you need them.
Once you drop out of the vent, continue to the end of the hall and through the door to escape.
Keep fighting through Raccoon City with our Resident Evil 3 Remake walkthrough in Part 2: The Sewers.
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Our complete Resident Evil 3 Remake continues, taking you out of Downtown Raccoon City and into the sewers below. The Nemesis is on your tale, but we’ve marked every ammunition pickup, health item, weapon upgrade, and inventory expansion you can find to make the fight a little easier–as well as the collectibles you can snag along the way. Read on for all the information you need to survive Raccoon City, the T-Virus, and the Nemesis.
Note: This walkthrough covers Resident Evil 3 Remake for the Assisted, Standard, and Hardcore difficulties; on Nightmare and Inferno difficulty, enemy encounters and item locations are remixed.
Resident Evil 3 Remake Walkthrough Part 2: Sewers, Demolition Site, And Gun Shop
The Sewers
Open the door immediately on your left to find a safe room. Inside is the Sewer Map, a red herb, and two lockers that contain handgun ammo and shotgun ammo. Once you’re done gathering what you need, head back out.
Follow the hallway to its end, where you’ll hit a door with an electronic lock. The Increased Sewer Security file is on the wall beside it. The file discusses a Battery Pack you need to find in order to proceed. Go down into the waterway and slide down the ramp. You’ll find a hand grenade in the trash on the right side of the path forward. (You can ignore the ladder here for now, since the doors at its top are locked.)
The Hunter Gamma is tough to kill if you shoot its skin, but the inside of its mouth is highly vulnerable. Grenade launcher flame rounds are even more effective, though.
Keep going to the fork and take a left toward the office. You’ll run into some kind of gross fish monster–a Hunter Gamma. When it opens its mouth to come after you, shoot into it to hurt it; don’t bother trying to shoot it when its mouth is closed, because you won’t do much damage. Stay well back, because the creature can take you out immediately if it gets you in its mouth.
Office
The Office is a safe room, and inside, you’ll get the grenade launcher, and find the Research Assistant’s Notes file and the Gun Shop Kendo file, which will teach you how to craft grenades for the launcher. Grab the Explosive B on your way out.
Head back to the fork and take the right path. You’ll face more Hunter Gammas, but you should be able to drop each with a single flame round from your grenade launcher. Check your map to find a fork in the path, hidden by a big poopy waterfall. Take that path to find a wooden crate containing a green herb, and the Sewer Worker’s Notes file nearby.
Head back to the fork and take the pathway to the end. Check the right wall before the ladder to find some grenade launcher flame rounds. Up the ladder will lead you into the Lab.
Lab
Just inside the Lab, check the table to your right to find the Battery Pack that’ll open doors for you. It requires two inventory slots, so make sure you have enough space. Continue around the corner to find the A Love Letter? file, which gives you some information on the Hunter Gammas–they’re susceptible to flames in addition to having a weak point in their open mouths. It’s okay, we taught you that already.
Along the wall, you’ll also find a green herb, high-grade gunpowder, and two lockers. The unlocked one contains gunpowder; the other locker can be opened with your lockpick to reveal some Explosive A.
Return to the ramp you first slid down. You’ll be accosted by a couple more Hunter Gammas along the way, but always one at a time. Clear them out and take the ladder to the left of the ramp. Use the Battery Pack to open the electronically locked door, then kill the Hunter Gamma that jumps out ahead of you. Hang a left to unlatch the iron door so you can reclaim the Battery Pack to take it with you, then use it to open the door to the Security Room. Inside, you’ll find a Hip Pouch and gunpowder on the desk. Be sure to take the Battery Pack with you when you leave.
The path ahead will take you back to the start of the area, so you can return to the first safe room and save before using the battery pack to exit the area. After you pass through the battery pack door and start up the stairs, turn around to find a Charlie Doll up on the wall behind you.
Check behind you as you exit through the final door opened with the Battery Pack to spot this Charlie Doll.
Demolition Site
Run from the Nemesis, dodging the zombies, until you get inside. Use the safe room just head to save and check inside for Explosive A, which you can use to craft explosive rounds to use against the creature. Head up the escalator when you’re ready, dodge past the zombies, and climb the stairs to the top. This isn’t an especially hard escape.
Keep moving until you hit a typewriter as you climb a series of ladders, and check beside it for the Notice of Demolition Delay file.
Rooftop
Now you’ll face the Nemesis for real. Try to keep objects between you and it, especially when it sprays flame at you. After a big gout of fire, the Nemesis will pause briefly and the flamethrower will open up, revealing several yellow vents. That’s a good time to hit the creature with an explosive round from your grenade launcher to do a big blast of damage.
The Nemesis will also shoot flames into the air that’ll rain down near you, so keep moving as much as possible and keep distance between. Also, note that when you try to line up a grenade launcher shot, the Nemesis will often dodge quickly to one side or another, so you’ll need to stun it to avoid wasting ammo.
Stay clear of the Nemesis and his flamethrower and aim for the tank on his back. He’s quick and will often dodge your grenade launcher rounds, so try to stun him with the generator before laying into him.
The creature will chase you around the roof, so try to use objects to your advantage, including generators, to slow it down and put space between you. When you stun it, shoot the big cylindrical fuel tank on its back until you can destroy it. If you need more ammo or health items, run around the edges of the area, as you’ll find a bunch of pickups scattered around. Use your map to help zero in on anything you missed.
Once the tank is destroyed, the Nemesis will pursue you more aggressively. Dodge clear when it slams its flamethrower on the ground to avoid the explosion; do the same when the Nemesis lowers its shoulder to charge at you. Keep hammering it with the shotgun or the grenade launcher every opening you get to finish it off.
Back Downtown
Follow the pathway through the destroyed cars, climbing up onto the fire engine to advance, grabbing handgun ammo off the car hood to your left as you pass. When you jump off its ladder, turn right to head down to the Raccoon City Police Department parking garage–a familiar locale if you played Resident Evil 2 Remake. Check in front of the car for a case that hides some high-grade gunpowder. Back up on the street, make for the Gun Shop.
Gun Shop
Turn left to find Explosive B and the Semi-Automatic Barrel upgrade for the shotgun on the shelves. In front of the entry door is a green herb on top of a crate, and to the left, near the shooting targets, are some handgun bullets. Finally, there’s gunpowder in the back corner, and a key to the padlock door hanging on the wall. Use the typewriter and Item Box before you head out.
Head to the padlocked door and open it up, then dispatch the zombie on the ground ahead of you before it gets up. Grab the red herb next to it, then kill the mutated zombie that comes around the corner. Use the door to enter the house just beyond. Before venturing further in, look on the shadowy counter beside the archway forward to find a Charlie Doll.
This Charlie Doll is secreted in the shadows right when you enter the house at the end of the alley behind Gun Shop Kendo.
Head up the stairs to the bedroom, where you’ll find the Raccoon Times Reader’s Column file. Use the lockpick on the locked case to find explosive rounds inside, then leave the house.
Back To Carlos
Though it’s counter-intuitive, you don’t need to use Jill’s quick dodge ability to avoid too many of the Nemesis’s rockets; for the most part, he’s not especially accurate and you can generally juke the rockets while maintaining your top speed as you run. Be careful not to get hung up on zombies or to let the Nemesis close the gap on you during your escape; watch for generators if you need something to hold him up for a bit. When you hit the power station, dodge past the Nemesis to get to the next area.
Keep running for it until you get to the stairs to the Toy Shop, then double back down the stairs and slip off to the side to avoid getting crushed. When the Nemesis shows up here, you can down him with explosives to get an item drop. Keep moving back down the alley toward the subway station, then follow Carlos when he shows up.
