After illicit news got out last week about the next entry to the Resident Evil franchise, Capcom has gone and formally announced the existence of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, the latest iteration “of horror” due for release on consoles, PCs and handheld devices later this year.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is being billed as a third-person team-based shooter, only this time set in the “dark and sinister” Resident Evil universe, and will include a reinterpretation of the events we all stumbled and shot our way through in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3.

Thanks to this ‘unique’ setting, the game will include a “triple threat battle” between Zombies, Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs) and players competing against each other in squad-based combat and a range of competitive online multiplayer modes, “creating a brand new style of gameplay and breaking the conventions of traditional team based shooters.”

Here’s a bit of the story blurb to set up the events of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City:

“It is September 1998 and the action centres once more on the ill-fated Raccoon City and the horrific consequences of the deadly T-virus outbreak from the Umbrella facility. With a cover up required, Umbrella orders an elite team into Raccoon City to destroy all evidence of the outbreak and eliminate any survivors.

“Hearing of this plan, the US Government dispatches its own special forces to uncover any evidence that exposes the cause of the viral infection and Umbrella’s actions. Players take on the role of an Umbrella Security Services soldier (U.S.S.), competing alone or in four player co-op in a battle against all the competing forces at play in Raccoon City.”

Naturally because of the game’s setting, you’ll be able to run around familiar Resident Evil locations such as the Raccoon City Police Department, and meet with your favourite characters including Leon S. Kennedy, who is apparently on your hit list as an elimination target!

Capcom hope to give players the chance to “rewrite the history of the Raccoon City outbreak” and “experience a retelling of classic moments from past titles.”

In addition, those who buy Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS will receive a demo for the previously announced Resident Evil Revelations (also for 3DS), packaged with the game, as Jill Valentine “explores the ship’s dark interior, killing any mysterious creatures that emerge from the shadows.”

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is currently in development at Capcom and the Vancouver-based studio, Slant 6 Games, and is scheduled for release this ‘Winter.’