Resident Evil PC games are playable again, after Capcom accidentally broke them
Whoops!
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Capcom has reversed the recent upgrade patches made to the PC versions of Resident Evil 2, 3 and 7, after many players found they were no longer able to play the games.
Capcom announced the reversal to theResident Evil 2 Remake,Resident Evil 3, andResident Evil 7updates in aSteam post. Now, both pre- and post-upgrade versions of the games will be available to play (thanks,Eurogamer).
The updates were originally introduced tocoincide with the releaseof the games’PS5andXbox Series Xnext-gen upgrades. The patches include several graphical improvements, added support for4Kresolutions and ray tracing, and improved framerates.
However, those enhancements raised the games' PC hardware requirements. Many players who had been running the titles on rigs touching the minimum specs found they were no longer able to after the upgrade, effectively finding themselves locked out of the games that they’d already purchased. AsPCGamesNhighlights, the update madeDirectX 12a requirement, too, which is only available on PCs runningWindows 10orWindows 11.
Capcom has now acknowledged the problems and reactivated the older versions of the titles. In thesteampost it said: “Due to overwhelming community response, we’ve reactivated the previous version[s] that does not include ray tracing and enhanced 3D audio. Both enhanced and previous versions will be made available going forward.”
How to reactivate the previous versions
If you were caught in the crossfire of graphical upgrades and have found you’re no longer able to play the Resident Evil titles on PC, you’re in luck. It’s not too tricky to roll back to the previous versions of the games, as Capcom has provided step-by-step instructions.
First, you’ll need to boot up Steam. Then simply follow the steps below:
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
That’s it. You now should be able to launch the game in its pre-upgrade state. If you ever want to update the game to its new version – after picking up on the best GPUs currently around, say – you can simply go back into the Betas menu, and select “None” from the dropdown menu.
Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.
Valve just single-handedly upgraded content creation for PC gamers – Steam’s Game Recording feature is now available to all
The future of PC gaming will be AI-driven - AMD confirms machine learning FSR 4 for 2025, launching in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Anker Nebula Mars 3 review: A powerful and truly portable projector
