As we're heading into the thick of summer, this week's Nintendo Switch news is particularly light. We got a few more details on games that are to come, but few new releases and updates. But that doesn't mean we didn't see any interesting headlines.
Mario Kart 8 and Nintendo Labo's toy-cons are now compatible. Instead of all those bulky, plastic gaming accessories you'll never know what to do with after this generation, recycling is now an option. The Switch might also see more Monster Hunter titles outside of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, but they might not be the one you're looking for. Nintendo is also under new leadership in Europe. There are also plenty of deals to keep an eye on this week, so be sure to scroll down and take a peek.
Summer is here, and we're looking a loads of news for PS4 this week. This week was lighter than others in terms of new games, but we did see updates for competitive shooters Overwatch, Fortnite, and PS4's exclusive H1Z1, and more regarding cross-play on the platform.
Sony Interactive America president and CEO Shawn Layden spoke at a Gamelab conference in Spain about PlayStation's legacy. Eurogamer popped the will we see cross-play on PS4 question--the short answer is Sony is listening, but it's not a yes, and not a no. Don't get too excited for Playground mode in Fortnite just yet. As of right now, it's been shut down due to bugs and replaced with 50 versus 50 in the limited time mode. Life is Strange Season 2 got a release date for episode one, and it's teaser episode, The Adventures of Captain Spirit, is out now. As for deals to keep an eye on, there's a free game to play this weekend with PS Plus, and you can grab PS Now as a PS Plus bonus. Keep scrolling for more headlines and all the details.
Xbox One is headed into summer with a bang. Not only are three huge RPGs hitting Games Pass this coming month, but one of it's exclusive titles may have had a major leak.
Games Pass, or Xbox One's "Netflix of games," will see nine new titles in July, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Overwatch has a brand new hero, a space hamster in a death ball, Hammond. Gears 5 had a new character and gun teased this week, and Forza Horizon 4's full car list might have leaked. If you've been looking forward to Playground mode in Fortnite, don't get your hopes up quite yet. The limited time mode has been replaced with 50 versus 50 for the time being due to bugs. Rare wants to give the fans what they want, and Sea of Thieves has a new update. Today is the last day for June's Games with Gold titles, so grab them and the other deals while you still can. Keep scrolling down for the rest of this week's headlines, and all the deals available now.
We don't have much information on Respawn's Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, but here's what we do know. The game will star a young Jedi Padawan who escaped Order 66 after the events of Revenge of the Sith when, as Respawn CEO Vince Zampella puts it, the galaxy was at its darkest. As a Jedi apprentice, you will have access to a lightsaber. It's not much to go on, but it's enough to make an educated guess as to who and what we might see in Jedi Fallen Order.
By the events of Star Wars Rebels (5-1 years prior to A New Hope), the Rebellion is already on the rise and large populations of the galaxy are already turning away from the Empire. Hope is beginning to spread; not exactly the galaxy's darkest moment. Even in Solo, which takes place approximately eight years before Rebels, the first seeds of rebellion are beginning to sprout.
That leaves the six years between Revenge of the Sith and Solo. The Empire may still be young, but it's quickly sweeping across the galaxy, along with the Emperor's "humans above all" propaganda. Remnants of old Clone Wars' feuds still rage, and some worlds, like Geonosis, face planet-wide genocide. The Jedi Order has been hunted to near-extinction, and Force-sensitive children are either killed or raised as psychopathic agents of the Emperor. We think it's within this six-year period that Respawn's Jedi Fallen Order takes place.
So now that we have a more exact period of time to work with, here's who and what we want to see in Respawn's Star Wars game.
Ahsoka Tano's Early Years As A Rebel Informant
Ahsoka "Snips" Tano, the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, first appeared in 2008's Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film. She went on to become a main character in the The Clone Wars animated series, before reappearing in Star Wars Rebels and starring in her own novel.
Ahsoka is one of Star Wars' most well written characters, debuting as a naive 14-year-old teen, slowly growing to understand the galaxy at large through her adventures with Anakin and Obi-Wan, and choosing to leave the Jedi Order at 17 without becoming a Jedi Knight. She's nearly 20 in the Ahsoka Tano novel and closer to 30 by Rebels. She's one of the few Star Wars characters we've seen grow up. Jedi Fallen Order could earn some major points with fans by including Ahsoka, and it would really make us happy if Ashley Eckstein returned to voice her.
About 18 years prior to A New Hope, Ahsoka endures an Imperial occupation that inspires her to become an intelligence agent that redistributes the balance of power back to the people. We see Ahsoka again in Star Wars Rebels as the covert operative known as Fulcrum, but it's still unclear how she went from deciding to spy on the Empire to becoming one of the galaxy's best informants. Jedi Fallen Order could be the perfect way to catch us up to speed.
Ahsoka's early career as Fulcrum could be the creation of a Jedi "underground railroad" that shepherds Jedi who escaped Order 66 into seclusion. It would be a clever way for her to meet the protagonist. If Ahsoka/Fulcrum is a major part of Jedi Fallen Order, she could be the one talking into the protagonist's ear throughout the game and offering hints, tutorials, and mission objectives.
Ahsoka/Fulcrum could easily be the protagonist for Jedi Fallen Order too.
Imperial Inquisitors
Star Wars fans got their first good look at the Empire's Inquisitors in Star Wars Rebels. These Jedi hunters are the result of Vader turning ten Jedi to the dark side. Most beings with a talent for the Force were killed under the Empire's watch, but those who showed an aptitude for channeling their hate were allowed to live to hunt anyone who escaped the Order 66 purge.
A large part of being a Jedi after the events of Order 66 is being consumed by fear. If Respawn wants you to constantly worry about looking over your shoulder or keeping a low profile, introducing an Inquisitor who's hunting the protagonist could be an effective way to do it. The jaunty tune that summons Songbird in BioShock Infinite and echoing footsteps that signals the arrival of the SA-X in Metroid Fusion are still terrifying to this day. Both of those enemies hunted players relentlessly throughout their respected games. Even if the encounters were scripted, you still had no way of knowing when you'd be plunged into another life-or-death chase. Imagine that same unsettling unease permeating every fiber of Jedi Fallen Order.
Because Jedi Fallen Order most likely takes place so close to the end of Revenge of the Sith, it's unlikely we'd see all ten of the monstrous hunters that Vader groomed. However, the Jedi Temple guard who became the first Inquisitor would still prove a terrifying menace, especially if Respawn can get Jason Isaacs to voice him again. And even if we don't fight them all, it would still be absolutely horrifying to be sneaking through an Imperial facility only to stumble upon Vader cutting body parts off and out of the young Inquisitors during their lesson on the meaning of loss.
A True Display Of The Destructive Power Of The Force
The Force has been used by Jedi and Sith alike to perform spectacular feats throughout the Star Wars films. But these moments are nothing more than mere party tricks when compared to the destructive power Galen "Starkiller" Marek has at his disposal in The Force Unleashed. One of the most notable examples is when he uses the Force to rip an Imperial Star Destroyer out of the sky.
Despite their differing ideologies, both the Jedi and Sith preach control over the Force. The Jedi suppress emotion to temper themselves, while the Sith focus their powerful emotions as a conduit. The Force Unleashed showed players what the Force can do when its wielder abandons control. Instead of simply being pushed away, enemies are flung like ragdolls. Force lightning isn't just blocked by lightsabers, it can be infused into the blade. Massive shockwaves, called Force Repulse, destroy almost everything.
The Force connects everything, but that means it can be used to destroy everything too. Marek happened to be particularly adept at doing so, but we've seen Darth Vader and Kylo Ren perform similar feats. We have no idea how powerful the protagonist of Jedi Fallen Order is, but it could be pretty cool to play as a powerful Force user who hasn't mastered how to control the Force yet and brandishes it as a heavy club instead of wielding it like a scalpel.
Coruscant 1313
We only got a glimpse of one of Coruscant's deepest levels in the gameplay trailers for Star Wars: 1313 before the game was canceled. But what we saw offered a side of the city planet that's absent from the movies. Gone are the towering skyscrapers and brilliant lights. In the belly of Coruscant, it's dirty and violent and the only inhabitants are survivors and criminals. There's no law, and firefights are a common occurrence.
Not even a Jedi would dare call attention to themselves by using a lightsaber within such a hotspot of scum and villainy. Despite the risk of fighting without one, a lightsaber creates too much unwanted attention. Considering Coruscant is the center of the Galactic Empire, it's not a place Jedi Fallen Order's protagonist would want to stand out. Level 1313 is a great location to hide out from the authorities, but Palpatine and Vader are close enough to easily respond to rumors of a lightsaber user.
Visiting Coruscant 1313 would be a great mission for Jedi Fallen Order to test the player's ingenuity and creativity. Without the use of a lightsaber, players would need to rely on a blaster and fancy tech to get past enemies, circumnavigate obstacles, or survive deadly traps. Plus, the level would be a nice nod to the Star Wars bounty hunter game we never got to play.
A Nightmarish Darth Vader
The ending to Rogue One is one of the most terrifying scenes in any Star Wars movie. Watching Darth Vader effortlessly swat aside rebel fighters like they're nothing was a clear reminder that the Sith Lord is one of the most feared beings in the galaxy. He might have been evil in the original trilogy, but in Rogue One he was the rebellion's fear given physical form.
In Star Wars, Darth Vader is supposed to be the boogeyman. You never want him to be the one who's sent after you. Unfortunately, we have few examples of how scary Vader can be. He chokes people all the time, but we rarely see him inspire genuine fear in everyone around him. We want to see what it's like for Vader to be hunting his prey.
Vader has had more chances to prove how monstrous he is in Rebels, when his mere presence made Kanan and Ezra feel cold, and again when he fought his former apprentice Ahsoka Tano in one of the most heart-wrenching lightsaber duels in the franchise. It's the sort of face-off we'd like to see more of, especially given that Vader is a bone-chilling monster at this point.
If Jedi Fallen Order would rather go hot than cold, then the game could cover the immediate aftermath of Revenge of the Sith when Vader is wallowing in his sorrow over killing Padme. We imagine Vader would have been especially viscous during this part of his life, as he buries his pain for his dead wife under the bodies of his victims. Imagine facing a Vader like that in Jedi Fallen Order. He'd probably fight like a demented animal with nothing to lose.
A Broken Jedi Order
One of the best aspects of Star Wars The Force Unleashed was witnessing how the surviving Jedi coped with the destruction of their order. Rahm Kota resists the Empire through guerrilla tactics in a desperate bid to draw Darth Vader to him for a final showdown. Kazdan Paratus goes insane and builds a mock Jedi Temple with a council composed of discarded pieces of junk. Shaak Ti, much like her fellow council members Obi-Wan and Yoda, retreats into hiding on an unimportant planet.
The Force Unleashed is no longer canon, but these examples of the Jedi's decay is no less memorable. With a few exceptions, like Qui-Gon and Anakin, the Jedi Order seems mostly uniform in mind and spirit during the prequel trilogy. The Force Unleashed let you see the members of the Jedi Order as individuals who needed to survive on their own. It highlighted just how much the Jedi need to rely on others to survive, as opposed to the Sith who can endure on their own for centuries.
There are no true examples in Disney's recent Star Wars films of Jedi living on their own without friends, family, or any sort of support. Luke Skywalker, who's both broken and ashamed of his failure as a teacher in The Last Jedi, comes close. But he can return to a sister and friends if he wanted to. His exile is his choice, not one brought about by necessity.
To See The Weirder Aspects Of The Force
The Force has been able to pull off some pretty weird stuff in the Star Wars films, like creating ghosts, but that only scratches the surface of what it can do. A vast majority of the stranger parts of the Force come from holocrons, Sith sorcery, and locations where the Force pools together. With the exception of that last one, we haven't seen many of those examples in the films, as most have passed into noncanon.
We have seen a few of these examples reintroduced in The Clone Wars and Rebels though, and it could be cool to see Jedi Fallen Order expand on any one of them. The Clone Wars reintroduced us to The Ones: The Father, a god-like being with unprecedented control over the Force; The Son, the living embodiment of the dark side; and The Daughter, the living embodiment of the light. Perhaps Jedi Fallen Order could touch upon The Servant/The Mother, the mortal woman who became the monstrous Abeloth prior to the events of the prequel trilogy. An immortal shapeshifter with a mastery over both the light and dark sides of the Force, Abeloth's incessant need for companionship has put her into direct conflict with both the Jedi and Sith for centuries. Exploring her lore would make for an excellent collection of side quests.
Rebels reintroduced time travel into the Star Wars canon with the world between worlds, a mystical plane where every moment exists in tandem and Force users can both travel to and change any event from the past or future. The world between worlds has already been used to explain how Ahsoka Tano survived until the events of Return of the Jedi, and could be used as a scapegoat for Respawn to tell an original story. The world between worlds dismisses any inconsistencies in Star Wars lore by separating certain events and characters into different timelines. Even if Respawn chooses not to create a story separate from Disney's Star Wars Universe, we'd love to see the world between worlds used to pull off a time traveling mission similar to Titanfall 2's stellar "Effects and Cause" level.
To See How The Rebellion Came Together
The original creation of the Rebellion was a part of The Force Unleashed. Galen Marek's sacrifice made him a martyr to several freedom fighters, who united under Marek's old family crest. This origin was lost when The Force Unleashed became noncanon.
Even if Jedi Fallen Order primarily takes place during one of the galaxy's darkest moments, there's nothing to suggest the entire game stays in that specific sphere of time. Time skips could place later chapters closer to the events of A New Hope and the start of the Rebel Alliance. Both Rebels and Solo touch on how the Rebellion started as a system of rebel cells that eventually came together, but leaves out what exactly transpired to unite them. Jedi Fallen Order would be a great way for Respawn to tell that story.
No Skywalkers
Most of the canonical Star Wars stories revolve around a Skywalker or someone related to a Skywalker. But the Star Wars universe is vast, and there are plenty of other characters Jedi Fallen Order could focus on.
At the time of Jedi Fallen Order, Luke and Leia are the only Skywalkers. Anakin has been "killed" by Darth Vader. Although it could be a cute Easter egg to toss in a mission or two that puts the protagonist into contact with a young Luke or Leia, the game shouldn't. Leia's story begins in Star Wars Rebels and Luke's arc starts in A New Hope. Jedi Fallen Order shouldn't bend over backwards to show us a toddler Leia running around her palace, or a teenager Luke learning to pilot a speeder. We've got enough Skywalker stories and don't need another.
To Play As A Woman
When Disney erased most of the Star Wars Expanded Universe from the canon, the company wiped out pretty much every notable women who's been a Jedi. Across all three Star Wars trilogies, Rey is the only woman who's earned the title of Jedi and been a main character. Other women, like Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura, were present in the prequel trilogy but pushed to the background and given zero scenes to actually speak.
It's not like women can't be Jedi. Before the Expanded Universe was made noncanon, Han and Leia had twins, one of which was Jaina Solo. She would go on to be one of Luke's greatest students. Jaina's brother would fall in love with Tenel Ka Djo, a princess who rejected her royal title to focus on body building and training as a Jedi. Even losing one of her arms didn't stop her from becoming a formidable warrior, as she rejected a prosthetic arm and developed her own style of combat that incorporated kicks instead of Force pushes. Jedi Knight Etain Tur-Murkan fought for clone trooper rights during the later years of the Clone Wars, even giving her life to protect troopers during the Jedi Purge.
Many women could be reintroduced into Star Wars canon if Jedi Fallen Order were to tweak their backstories. Mara Jade would be perfect. Mara is a fiercely sarcastic and cunning Force-sensitive assassin who vows to avenge the Emperor by killing Luke Skywalker. Eventually she comes around to the light, becomes a Jedi Master, and marries Luke. Though it would make her about 10 years older than how she was originally written, Mara could be the protagonist of Jedi Fallen Order. She was introduced in the same book as Admiral Thrawn, who was recently given a slightly different backstory so he could be a regular antagonist in Rebels. No reason Mara can't undergo the same treatment.
Imagine playing as the young padawan Mara Jade who's slowly corrupted throughout the events of Jedi Fallen Order before becoming an agent to Palpatine in the final moments of the game. Reintroducing her back into the canon would add another level of tragedy to Kylo killing off most of Luke's new Jedi Order as well. Disney wouldn't need to confirm or deny it, but there would always be the lingering question of whether one of the Jedi that Kylo killed was Mara, someone Luke would have been particularly close to.
Explain What The Emperor Wanted With Maul
"Do not worry. I'm not going to kill you. I have other uses for you." These are the last words Palpatine says before maliciously electrocuting Maul in the final season of The Clone Wars animated series. We don't see Maul again until a brief cameo in Solo. He's seen again in Rebels, now free of the Emperor and filled with hatred for the man who was once his master.
According to the Ahsoka Tano novel, Maul fled from the public eye during the confusion of the Jedi purge. Where he went and what he did after that is still a mystery. Palpatine had plans for his former apprentice but it seems like Maul was able to escape before those plans bore fruit. It would be nice to learn what Palpatine had in mind and whether or not he enacted his machinations through someone else.
Viewers were pleasantly surprised when The Clone Wars revealed Maul survived his injuries in A Phantom Menace, and were ecstatic to see the former Sith warrior return in Rebels to engage an elderly Obi-Wan in a old western-style duel on Tatooine. Seeing Maul again, and possibly even facing him, in Jedi Fallen Order would be some stellar fan-service.
Those are the 11 characters, places, and themes we want to see in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Let us know if you've figured out how Jedi Fallen Order could allude to Knights of the Old Republic's Darth Revan, deduced how Respawn can give Jar Jar Binks the heroic death he rightly deserves, or thought of any other Star Wars characters or places that need to be in this game. Comment down below with what you want (or definitely don't want) to see.
Fortnite: Battle Royale is a household name at this point; whether you keep up with the world of games or pay no mind to the industry, you've likely heard the name Fortnite (or Fork Knife). Rarely do we see a game explode to this level of popularity, but developer Epic Games struck at the right time with its version of the last-person-standing game mode. Players scavenge a huge map for not only weapons and health items, but also raw materials to build structures. Fortnite finds inspiration from the likes of Minecraft and throws construction into the mix, so even if you get caught in the middle of a field, you're not a sitting duck as long as you have the necessary resources and wit to put a protective fort together.
Tens of millions of people have played Fortnite, and for good reason: it's a great game. It's a ton of fun to outlast and eliminate enemy squads with a group of friends or by yourself. In our Fortnite: Battle Royale review, we stated, "Although a few shortcomings in the map design eventually surface and fatigue in looting can set in, Fortnite rarely fails at challenging you in unexpected ways, resulting in something more than just another typical last-person-standing shooter."
Epic has been committed to adding new features to keep the game fresh and players interested. Seasons also include thematic shifts that lead into sweet-looking skins and changes to the actual map layout. Weekly challenges provide different objectives to complete aside from winning matches. We've even had The Avengers villain Thanos make a guest appearance as a playable character with a slew of unique abilities. However, there are still some aspects of the game that can be improved. With Epic so responsive to feedback, we compiled a list of changes we'd like to see come to Fortnite: Battle Royale.
What would you like to change about Fortnite? Are there additions, modes, or tweaks you'd want to see done to the game? Let us know in comments below.
Introduce A New Map
Ten months since its launch, Fornite: Battle Royale still only has one map. PUBG comparatively got its second map after only nine months. Epic has done an amazing job filling the current map with entertaining activities on a consistent basis, as well as imbuing it with narrative significance thanks to big community events. While I'd love to see more of this, I can't help but wish there was a new map to play on.
I'm hoping Epic takes a different approach from the biome-focused maps that PUBG has been introducing to the battle royale formula, and do something wacky. Maybe the next map will have us fighting on a giant island floating in the sky, or in some over-the-top The Running Man-esque arena. Whatever approach the studio ends up taking, it ought to introduce it sooner than later. | Matt Espineli, Associate Editor
Make Some Timed Modes Permanent
Teams of 20, 50v50, snipers only, and explosives only have been incredibly fun modes to play, especially because of how they change up the traditional battle royale formula. These have been nice changes of pace after getting your fill of Victory Royales, and perhaps Epic should considering keeping one or two of these modes around permanently. Part of the allure could definitely be tied to the fact that they're available for a limited time, but popping into a Blitz mode match works extremely well if you can't dedicate time for a full match or if you're itching for faster action. The rotation of modes is understandable, but keeping the best ones around makes sense. | Michael Higham, Associate Editor
Find A Way To Stop Challenges From Interfering With Regular Matches
Fortnite is far from the first game to introduce supplementary objectives to spice up gameplay, but it's likely the most popular to do so. But, as with those previous games to do it--Team Fortress 2 comes to mind--they continue to have an artificial impact on the way matches play out. And for as much as I enjoy having those challenges available to me to guide what I do in any match, I'm not crazy about the way they impact a given round.
Challenges in Fortnite task you with any number of things to do. Some of these are no different from what you'd do in a given match, like open chests in a certain area. Others require you to collect specific objects in certain locations, while others still ask you to deal damage or obtain kills with certain weapons. With any of these, it's basically tasking you with doing something you wouldn't necessarily choose to do. These challenges are done in public games where other players are simply trying to play and win.
Jump into a team-based match, as is my preference, and there's no guarantee that your teammates will actually care about winning--they might be more concerned with kicking a soccer ball into a goal. Even something as innocuous as racking up damage with a pistol can hurt your chances at a Victory Royale if someone opts to use a crappy handgun instead of the high-powered rifle they grabbed when they rushed to open a chest they needed.
One solution for all of this is to play solo or with friends, but that's simply not ideal. Instead, I'd like Epic to find some way to prevent players with a way to opt out of challenges. Whether that's a specific playlist for those looking for a more competitive experience or something else entirely, I'd like to play the game and have the satisfaction of doing well without having to wonder if it's only because my opponent was more concerned with finding a vending machine than attacking me. | Chris Pereira, News Editor
Changing Up The Weekly Challenges To Be More Varied
While challenges can interfere with the true goal of a victory royale, there's no doubt they've helped keep gameplay fresh. Weekly challenges have been a wonderful way to encourage players to use items and weapons they wouldn't use otherwise or approach matches in different ways. Over time however, challenges have started to be a little too same-y which has taken some of the magic away from these activities. It might be a tough ask, but perhaps situational challenges like getting a kill with less than 20 health, sniper kills from a five-story structure you built yourself, or getting multiple kills within a minute of landing are just some interesting ways to change things up. Admittedly, we'd want Fortnite to have new challenges that wouldn't encroach on how the game should be played, but we do want to see a bit more variety. | Michael Higham, Associate Editor
Have Bigger Challenges To Work Toward
Going off of the previous point about have varied weekly challenges, an intriguing idea could be to have larger, more time-consuming challenges to work toward. These could be timed to a month, or achievements that exist indefinitely. Maybe bigger challenges can simply consist of 20 victory royales within the span of a month, or racking up an accumulative kill count when there's only last 10 players left in a match. Of course, there would be incentives like battle stars and additional XP, or perhaps exclusive cosmetics for achieving the bigger tasks. These would also be conducive to team victory to get ahead of players that might ignore the overall match to complete the challenges. Season 4's Blockbuster and Carbide challenges were sort of a step in the right direction for establishing long-term objectives, and it'd be nice to see Epic take that a step further. | Michael Higham, Associate Editor
Take The Best From Save The World
Fortnite's Save The World mode has a lot of great ideas that could add tons of personality and new tactics to Battle Royale. I'd start by bringing in abilities as pickups such as Mantis Leap, War Cry, Teddy, Base, and Shockwave. These abilities would let lucky players leap higher, buff team damage, deploy a machine gun-wielding teddy turret, reinforce structures, and demolish structures. It's a system that would give more meaning to fortifications and counter shotgun rush tactics. They would also give more power to people who just want to build and support the team. The base game also has some hilarious ideas like monster chests that will chase players across the map if they don't pay attention to the warning signs. | Aaron Sampson, Senior Video Producer
Quality-Of-Life Adjustments
There are a couple of very important quality-of-life improvements I'd love to have. For starting players, a sandbox test range where they can practice is already inbound. I'd love the option to have a squad leader be able to eject the entire squad from the battle bus rather than individual deployments where teams can end up spread apart. Most importantly I really, really, really want macros and preset shapes that I can customize from the main menu. I'd like to be able to drop common structures such as a ramp plus wall with a single button press or chose to have my stairs always be double stairs. One of the reasons the skill gap can be so high at the end of matches is due to the number of buttons people have to press to build. By lowering the difficulty of building, players can have more fun. | Aaron Sampson, Senior Video Producer
Expand The Mobility That The Shopping Cart And Jet Pack Introduced
The shopping cart and jetpack introduced a new element to Fortnite that made the game more mobile and more entertaining. Those who have mastered these features have taken creativity in the game to a whole new level with fresh and dynamic ways to build and eliminate other players. I've seen players hop on carts, build a ramp, ride down, and eliminate players mid-flight. I've used the jetpack in various ways to creatively eliminate an opponent. These are situations and features that made the game even more fun than it already could be.
Expanding these new features to potentially include using the row boats on the lakes or hiding keys to cars and trucks in chests randomly across the map can expand the already creative world that is Fortnite. Imagine filling your squad up in a truck and driving down Dusty Divot, eliminating players left and right. Allowing players to utilize the row boats on Loot Lake could create mini Pirates of the Caribbean-esque battles with players fighting for the Victory Royale glory instead of the treasures of the Isle of Tortuga.
Although the idea of using the rowboats or the vehicles on the map might be far-fetched, the possibilities of expanding mobility are endless and the potential clips I'll see on my news feeds have me drooling with enthusiasm. | Nasser Al-Rayess, Intern
More Customization For Outfits
Fortnite does cosmetics extremely well. So many bright, colorful, and silly outfits make the game even more fun to play, and they neatly fit into the lighthearted nature of Fortnite. And because of the third-person perspective, you can always see your sweet fits. One thing that could make outfits more fun is customization options for individual outfits. The country-themed gear during the Winter Olympics was a neat addition, and Fortnite took the next step by offering customizable jerseys for the World Cup. More instances of tinkering with the smaller details of cosmetics seems like a minor thing, but it'd let players get creative with their avatars even further for an added touch of personalization. Adjusting color accents to clothes or choosing from text presets for outfits might be a sensible change. | Michael Higham, Associate Editor
Add Weapon Skins
Fortnite's weapons are varied and fun to use, but I do find myself wishing they looked flashier. Custom skins could be what the game's weapons need to get that extra dose of style. After all, games like PUBG and Destiny 2 have experienced massive success with their weapon skins. And for good reason; you can never have too much player-driven customization in a competitive multiplayer game, where giving players the freedom to visually express themselves is paramount. Fortnite is well-suited for weapon skins and a sensible next step for additional cosmetics that would help support the long-term interest of its player base. | Matt Espineli, Associate Editor
First-Person Mode, Maybe?
It would be great if Fortnite had a first-person-mode--much like PUBG's first-person update back in August last year. While more of a gimmick than anything else, the perspective's introduction to PUBG made for a fascinating addition to what was already a pretty tense game. Of course, Fortnite is more fast-paced in nature and it has building mechanics, but the limitation of sight that a first-person mode introduces could easily add a whole new layer of complexity to the game--if implemented correctly. The mode would admittedly divide the player base, and there would need to a separate playlist for it, but I'd love to have the option at least. | Matt Espineli, Associate Editor
With the rapid and tremendous success of Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, other developers plan to jump into the battle royale craze to find their next big hit. Bringing together dozens of players into an intense fight to determine who's number one, it's steadily become one of the hottest game modes in some time--with both PUBG and Fortnite having comfortable spots on Twitch's top streamed games. But as the sub-genre continues to make strides with online communities, with even celebrities joining in on the fun, many are wondering where the burgeoning game-mode can go from here.
In order to understand where the battle royale arms race is going next, it's important to start back from the beginning of the trend. To break down how we got to this point--from its early days as a player mod paying homage to popular films, to the juggernaut that it is today--here's our explainer on all thing battle royale, and what could be next for players.
What Is Battle Royale?
Battle Royale (2000) -- Takeshi Kitano explains 'BR' to the class.
To put it simply, battle royale is a large scale free-for-all deathmatch with the goal to be the last player alive. With only one life to live, you'll have to find any weapon you can--crowbars and frying pans included, depending on the game--while keeping focused as you stay one step ahead of the competition. Though most games that tackle the battle royale game type have their own gimmicks, the basic framework of a match is always the same: One big map, a large pool of players, randomized gear to find, and a slowly shrinking battle arena to force combatants into more tense confrontations. While players can expect some exciting encounters that can be satisfying in their own right, those are all moot if you don't reach the true goal. If you're not the last one standing, then you didn't win.
The origins and framework of the game type can be traced back to the cult-classic Japanese novel and film adaptation titled Battle Royale. Written by Koushun Takami, the story is set in a dystopian-future Japan where the government stages an annual 'Battle Royale' competition to keep the populace in check, while also stifling the growing unrest of the country's youth. A group of junior-high school students are transported to an abandoned island 10km in size, outfitted with bomb collars to prevent escape, and are forced to compete in a battle to the death with whatever items they can find. In order to push for more confrontations, forbidden zones gradually spring up across the island, forcing combatants closer together.
Despite the morbid premise, Battle Royale has a hyper-stylized approach to its portrayal of violence--often coupling schooltime drama with powderkeg situations out of a Quentin Tarantino film. Many of the film's more intense moments are a result of poor judgement, lack of equipment, or a general misplaced faith in the combatant's abilities--which usually make up the most common player deaths in battle royale games. Though the film was successful, even finding a passionate audience in the west, another novel and film series with a similar premise known as The Hunger Games found greater popularity. At the time of its release, many fans were inspired to implement their own take on the premise in their favorite games via player mods.
How Did Battle Royale Games Get Their Start?
PC gaming is where online multiplayer and unique game modes first found their footing, which would go on to influence countless other games--PC and console alike--in the coming years. On the surface, battle royale functions like a traditional game of multiplayer deathmatch, which found popularity within PC online multiplayer games during the '90s. With modding for PC games eventually becoming more accessible thanks to freely available developer tools and resourceful players, online communities were able to craft different types of experiences--even in titles that you would least expect. For instance, games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends started out as fan mods for Half-Life and WarCraft III--which were popular enough to warrant a response from the core developers themselves.
In an interview with GameSpot, Brendan Greene, the creator of PUBG, stated that player mods have had an immense impact on the state of gaming.
"The five biggest games in the last twenty years have come from mods," said Greene. "League [of Legends], CS: GO, Dota [2], they're all from mods, and I think it's because modding gives a freedom to take those risks and do something that people aren't asking for, but is something you want to play. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a battle royale game that I wanted to play, and I think that freedom to create whatever you want is an advantage that modding gives people."
Around the time of the release of The Hunger Games during the the early 2010s, Minecraft became a popular game with players of all ages for its then-unmatched creation tools and worldbuilding. Focusing on the exploration of a procedurally generated world where you can craft items, build houses, collect resources, and battle creatures that lurk around, its creator Markus 'Notch' Persson rapidly found success after videos and social media impressions of the game went viral. As Minecraft grew in scope, its creation tools expanded further--allowing the community to include their own unique assets and scenarios into the game. Latching onto the popularity of The Hunger Games films, an older subset of players eventually made competitive focused mods known as Hunger Games--now called Survival Games. Just like in the film, players were forced into a death-battle against others--which was a change of pace from the game's usually mellow vibe.
Another game that also found a foothold in online multiplayer circles was a peculiar title known as DayZ, which started out as a custom mod for the tactical military shooter Arma II. DayZ creator Dean Hall wanted to make an online shooter and quasi-social experiment set within a bleak and relentless environment where resources were limited, and spontaneous alliances formed with others could fall apart at any moment. Also, there were zombies--lots of them. Eventually, DayZ was released as a standalone game, with Hall even joining the Arma devs at Bohemia Interactive soon after. As the open-world zombie shooter grew, its community began to experiment with new mods for the game. One such player in the online Arma community--going by the name PlayerUnknown--eventually released the DayZ Battle Royale mod in 2013. Not long after, other developers began to see potential in the budding popularity for the new free-for-all game mode.
H1Z1: From Zombies To Battle Royale
As the popularity of the Arma modding scene grew to include the City Life RPG and Invasion 1944 mods, the core games also saw increased success--with many players purchasing the game just so they could experience the community creations. Upon the release of Arma 3, PlayerUnknown--real name Brendan Greene--put out another mod that advanced his concept further, known as PlayerUnknown's Battle Royale. Soon after, he was approached by Sony Online Entertainment to work on a new title that would eventually become H1Z1. As a response to the massive success of DayZ, the developers created their own open-world zombie shooter focusing on survival against the odds. However, the developers wanted to include an official battle royale mode of Greene's design to complement the core game. Known as King of the Kill, 100 players would compete against each other to reach the top spot. The studio not only believed it would boost its player base, but also saw it as a potential esports hit.
Unfortunately, several setbacks kept the game in early access longer than expected. In 2015, Sony sold off the Sony Online Entertainment studio, which had both H1Z1 and a new EverQuest MMO in active development. While the MMO would later be shelved, the studio--rebranded as DayBreak Game Company--continued work on its online shooter. After a year of work as an independent studio, the developers split H1Z1 into two distinct modes, Just Survive and King of the Kill, which came in response to growing players trends in-game. While the original survival game with zombies--now known as H1Z1: Just Survive--had a following, the battle royale mode became more popular, prompting a pivot from the developers. These changes, along with other adjustments to the base game, resulted in some creative differences with Brendan Greene and the team, and the modder-turned-developer decided to part ways with DayBreak.
Today, H1Z1 still has an active community, even setting up several esports events for the top players to compete for cash prizes. Now out of early access and in open-beta on PS4, H1Z1 has been showing steady growth over the years, even featuring a number of experimental modes like Auto-Royale--a vehicle focused free-for-all--that switch up traditional gameplay. However, Brendan Greene's departure from DayBreak ended up paving the way for a game-changer in the battle royale sub-genre.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: The Rise Of PUBG
After Greene left DayBreak, he was approached by producer Chang-Han Kim from South Korean developer Bluehole to collaborate on a new game centering around the battle royale experience. In keeping with the formula he created for the Arma mod, and sticking with his online community name, they started work on the game which would eventually become PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Taking on the role of creative director for his first standalone title, Greene would work extensively with Bluehole on the game--which he believed would be the truest form of battle royale he had envisioned during his time making mods.
In the original version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a large group of players are brought to an 8x8km island known as Erangel--an abandoned Soviet Union military base--to fight it out and determine the last man standing. Players are transported to the island via cargo plane and can drop out and skydive to a spot of their choosing. Surrounding the players is an encroaching blue energy field, which gradually closed in around the island--forcing more players into conflict in the process. When the final player gets the last kill, they're greeted with the now infamous congratulatory message, "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner."
During the pre-launch periods, player count was estimated to have reached over 80,000 players, giving the game substantial momentum heading into its official release. With its growing fanbase, which began referring to the game as PUBG, Battlegrounds eventually launched on March 19, 2017 in early access on PC. It quickly reached the top spot of Steam's best-sellers list, and shortly after its launch, the developers also landed a timed console exclusive deal with Microsoft for Xbox One. In September 2017, after several million copies of the game were sold, Bluehole rebranded the core development team working on the game as PUBG Corporation, with Chang-Han Kim acting as CEO.
By the end of 2017, PUBG was a massive success, with a peak player count in December reaching over 3 million active users on Steam. Battlegrounds would go on to break several records on Steam, even taking in a higher monthly revenue than both Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive during its first month. As of March 2018, PUBG sold over 40 million copies across all platforms and even received a free-to-play mobile version. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was one of the most talked about titles of 2017--even earning Game of the Year nominations from several press outlets. During its first year, PUBG Corporation released two full maps for the game, with another map that's smaller in scale--the 4x4 map Savage--currently in beta. Moreover, the developers are also experimenting with a more traditional deathmatch mode offering more diversity in content, while also supporting the Xbox One release--which recently hit over 5 million players.
Seeing the success PUBG had, many other developers began to shift their focus to align with the popularity of the genre--even if it meant retooling their existing games into something entirely different.
The Rebirth Of Fortnite
Revealed in 2011, Epic Games' Fortnite was a passion project for many of its core developers, which included Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski. As a Horde-mode zombie-shooter with a focus on base building, Fortnite was primarily about surviving against increasingly challenging waves of enemies. With co-op play in mind, the original mode--now known as Save The World--took players across several maps leveling up their characters and acquiring new loot. Though the developers were excited about its potential, the development of the game was rather troubled, with the team having issues nailing the core gameplay and mechanics. After several years of retooling and refining its gameplay systems, Fortnite was released in early access on July 25, 2017 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
The timing of Fortnite's launch coincided with the growing popularity of PUBG, which the developers were also playing at the time. During a GDC 2018 talk about their unorthodox approach to launching the game, Ed Zobrist--head of publishing for Epic Games--stated that they quickly wanted to come up with an alternate mode to complement Fortnite's main campaign. By shifting Unreal Tournament's development team to focus on Fortnite: Battle Royale, they were able to release the new game mode on September 26, 2017--two months after the base game's early access launch. To offer the game to as many players as they could, the new mode was free-to-play, while the PVE content was only playable by purchasing the base package of the game for early access--which will eventually be available for free to all players once it leaves early access. This decision would go on to change Fortnite in a drastic way.
In Fortnite: Battle Royale, the general pace is quicker, and with a smaller map, engagements with other players are quite common. Featuring a more stylized design and aesthetic, the general feel and shooting mechanics are more arcade-like when compared to PUBG's realistic shooting-style, in keeping with its roots in military-style action games. Instead of a cargo plane, players are brought to the island by a flying party bus, with music thumping in the background as players descend onto the island. From here, players can get into the same sorts of engagement you'd expect from battle royale games. However, the big difference between Fortnite and PUBG is the inclusion of the building mechanic.
Just like in the Save The World mode, players can break down objects in the environment for resources to build structures, such as walls and staircases. This allows players to create defensive structures to shield themselves from attacks or reach places around the map that are impossible on-foot. While you can get through much of a game without having to build, the final battles within the top 20 showcase the speed and complexity of building. A basic understanding of structure creation, and the dexterity required to keep up with others, becomes a must for survival toward the end of matches.
Though Fortnite saw a massive influx of new players during its first few months, Battle Royale hit its stride during early 2018. In many ways, Fortnite is a more accessible game when compared to its direct competitor, PUBG. Not only in terms of aesthetics and content, which feature a more stylized and cartoony art style, but also in that it's a free-to-play game--which is in contrast to PUBG's $29.99 price tag. Fortnite's approach to microtransactions have also earned some praise. With the Battle Pass and V-Bucks (premium currency), you can gain access to skins and other cosmetics that don't impact gameplay. Over the course of leveling up and unlocking new tiers, you can upgrade certain skins--giving them them new looks in the process. You're never locked out of the core experience with Fortnite: Battle Royale. Though each season requires players to purchase a new pass to unlock the next set of challenges and unlockables, it's never forced upon players. Epic has also been quick to address feedback concerning aspects of the game, along with adding in a plethora of new content--making the game feel like it's in constant growth.
Currently, Fortnite: Battle Royale is one of the most popular games in the world, with many in-jokes and references invading real-life. Its mobile release also saw huge success, finding a dedicated audience of players that seek to take its style of battle royale on-the-go. Along with professional athletes performing victory dances and actions based on the game, famous rap artist Drake spent several hours playing with popular Twitch streamer N1nja, with the likes of Travis Scott and former MegaUpload owner KimDotCom joining in their game. And in another bizarre case, Epic collaborated with Marvel Entertainment to launch an Avengers: Infinity War tie-in event where players can pick up the Infinity Gauntlet and take control of Thanos himself. To say Fortnite has found new success with its pivot to battle royale would be a massive understatement. The grand majority of players in Fornite are there for the PvP mode, viewing it as the main game over the PvE mode--which is something that's tucked away behind a (temporary) paywall.
What was once a game that struggled to piece itself together over the years, it's now become a game that many seek to imitate. And because of the sudden and monumental success that Fortnite had with its pivot, it's now open season on the sub-genre, with other developers attempting to find their own fortune with the concept.
The Future of Battle Royale, And The New Competition
With the battle royale sub-genre offering players a chance to test their mettle against a large player pool, not many games can offer that same type of thrills and satisfaction when making a good run of it. But just in 2018, we've seen several games looking to chase the same hype surrounding the game mode, including The Darwin Project, S.O.S., Paladins: Battlegrounds, and Radical Heights--which recently saw the closing of developer Boss Key Productions. In a stranger case, the developers behind the loot-oriented action-RPG game Path of Exile included a free April Fools update featuring a new battle royale game mode, which ended up being surprise hit according to their developer blog. Though it only took a day for the creators to make, over 27,000 games were played in its first 31 hours online. Due to the surprise success, the developers are looking to implement the mode as a part of their seasonal content.
In May, Treyarch and Activision revealed the long-rumored battle royale mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 titled Blackout, which aims to celebrate the history of the sub-series while offering the largest-scale combat the franchise has seen yet. Shortly after, EA and DICE revealed Battlefield V, and at E3 2018, unveiled their own plans to take on the battle royale sub-genre. The developers shared their thoughts on the growing craze, stating that it would be a good fit for the Battlefield series. Whether any of the upcoming games will see the same monumental success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Fortnite remains to be seen, but still, there's definitely a drive from developers to experiment and create something a bit different with their existing games.
There's a solid chance that battle royale will likely be a normalized game mode for many online shooters moving forward. One thing is for certain--the landscape of the battle royale sub-genre will look very different by year's end. With so many battle royale games on the way, and with Fornite's spot becoming more secure by the day, other developers will seek to introduce another battle royale hit to shift the paradigm once again. For PUBG's Greene, he welcomes the coming changes and titles adopting the game type, while all adding in their own unique take on it.
"That's what I always thought of the mode when I first invented it, in that it could be that [basic] mode eventually like capture the flag or king of the hill--it's that type of game mode, and I think it's flexible enough to be that," said Greene. "It's great to see the genre grow in the way it has. There's [a lot of] new and interesting spins coming out, like The Darwin Project just released the Director Mode, so it's so great to see those different takes on a very simple concept."
For more on the future of the battle royale genre, be sure to check back with GameSpot to learn all about the newest games looking to jump into the fray.
Best Mobile Games of 2018 (So Far) For Android, iPhone, And iOS
Sometimes, the best kinds of games are the ones you can play away from your television or monitor, the kinds of games you can play on the couch horizontally while bingeing a television show, or while you're waiting for a friend. But we're not talking about your Nintendo 3DS or Switch here--sometimes you need something smaller, a game for when you're standing shoulder to shoulder on the bus to work, something portable enough you can play with one hand to help you kill your long commute time.
That's right: mobile games. Hey wait! Come back, it'll be good I promise! Despite the kinds of games you might be thinking of featuring birds, clans, candy, farms, or some monstrous hybrid of them all, there are actually a lot of great new games coming out to the App Store and the Google Play that are definitely worth checking out on your phone or tablet.
Mobile platforms have always been home to super interesting games that take risks, whether it be due to the unique form factor, control methods, or just because. But if you like blockbuster games, 2018 has been a good year, one where the most popular video games on consoles and PCs, Fortnite and PUBG, have mobile ports that are actually really playable and feature cross-play between platforms.
This article collects some of the best new mobile games the GameSpot staff have been enjoying this year. It's by no means a definitive list--there are a lot of games out there, and we're only halfway through the year. We'll be updating it as we discover more games we love.
If there's a game you've been spending tons of time playing on your phone this year, recommend it to us in the comments! We'll check it out and throw it in the list if we love it too.
PUBG Mobile (Free) iOS, Android
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds put battle royale-style games on the map when it exploded in popularity on PC, and surprisingly it's made the transition to mobile platforms quite nicely. Sure, you don't have anywhere near the same precision when it comes to aiming or positioning yourself during intense firefights, but the spirit of the game is still alive on phones. It's also impressive how few compromises were made for this version; map size, map features, player count, and all the weapons of the original game are all here. If you're out of the loop, PUBG plays closer to a tactical shooter than Fortnite, so if you still want to scratch that last-player-standing itch but want to focus on shooting rather than building towers and walls to protect yourself, this will be more of your jam. Of course, your mileage will vary with touch controls for shooters, but PUBG mobile is as good as it gets. | Michael Higham, Associate Editor
If you have any interest in roguelike games and haven't heard of Michael Brough, then you need to pay attention to this slide. Brough's games, 868-HACK, Imbroglio, and now Cinco Paus are single-screen grid-based roguelike that don't look like much at first glance. But scrape through the surface and you'll find really interesting and engaging experiments with the genre's signature mechanics.
Cinco Paus plays with the idea of the random item pickups you often find when playing a roguelike--the first time you get something, you typically have no idea what effects, good or bad, they might have on your run. In these games, you'll eventually get a grasp of what kinds of items you want to hang on to and which to avoid.
Not so in Cinco Paus. It's a dungeon crawler where you play a wizard with access to five magical wands that can be used once per level. Each has myriad effects, which are randomized in every new run and obscured until the activation conditions are met. But even once revealed, they're marked with unclear hieroglyphics, and did I mention this game is entirely in Portuguese with no way to change it? It's a continuously tense game of "what the hell is this going to do?"
Cinco Paus is deep, engaging, smart, and can played with one hand while you're standing on the train. | Edmond Tran, AU Editor/Senior Video Producer
Florence is a story about love told with the utmost care. A masterclass in the act of "show, don't tell'," Florence abandons conventional dialogue and uses unique albeit simple puzzle mechanics and interactive narrative elements to convey the highs and lows of an intimate relationship. The mundanities of brushing teeth or packing belongings may not seem exciting in the context of a video game, but there's something wonderful about stepping into someone else's shoes at a pivotal moment in their life and watching events unfold for better or worse.
Florence boasts beautiful artwork and a heart-wrenching story that strives to honestly retell the experiences of first love, family struggles, and the things you learn about yourself in your 20s. While this is Florence's story, the themes are highly relatable, and metaphorical mechanics such as pulling large speech bubbles into place to replicate the ease of having a conversation with a kindred spirit are cleverly executed to elicit empathy.
By the same token, the repetition of this mechanic later in the relationship in a rougher period when words don't come easily and pieces are more difficult to fit together is as painful as it is if you've ever found yourself in a similar situation. Florence's expert expression of its themes and characters well and truly tore my heart out and gave me plenty to think about as another 20-something plodding my way through life and love. It's an experience that should not be missed. | Jess McDonell, Host/Producer
Fortnite: Battle Royale's mobile edition is a surprisingly adept adaptation of the hugely popular PC and console game. It's the same map and the same 100-player battles, so the strategies you've learned translate nicely, though not perfectly. The game, of course, doesn't look as good, and it's not as easy to see movement in the distance on a smaller screen. You will also notice some performance issues at times. A nice addition, however, is an indicator that shows you the direction of gunfire, which helps when you have to play silently. That could be handy if you're playing on the bus or in a car with no headphones.
The controls take some getting used to, especially if you're coming from the high-precision PC version, but it won't take you long to get the hang of things. Also nice is that any purchases you've made on console or PC come with you on mobile. Additionally, Epic updates all versions of the game at the same time (mostly) so when a new item like the Port-a-Fort comes to console/PC, it's also released on mobile.
It's not the best version of Fortnite, but for those who want to play whenever and wherever, the mobile edition is worth checking out. You can get Fortnite for free now on iOS; an Android version is coming later. The game requires iOS 11 and works on iPhone SE, 6S, 7, 8, and X, as well as iPad Mini 4, Air 2, and Pro. It won't work on anything older than those devices. | Eddie Makuch, Associate Editor
What do you do when you're killing time on public transport? Scroll through your social media feeds, message your friends, or read a few news articles here and there?
Well, what do you think you might do in the future when you're killing time on an intergalactic flight? Probably the same thing, right? But what happens when the delay between messages gets longer and longer, and the passage of time between Earth and wherever the hell you are becomes more disparate? Minutes might pass for you, but years might pass back home.
Killing Time At Lightspeed explores these ideas in a narrative told through fictional social media platforms and messaging programs. How will the relationship with your friends change over time, as the time that passes between each message becomes greater and greater? How can one message thread rapidly change the course of a person's life, and how will you be remembered by those you've left behind?
It's a fascinating concept and story made all the more resonant by using the mundane methods of communication we now take for granted. | Edmond Tran, AU Editor/Senior Video Producer
Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers, and I'll play anything he has a hand in. With his iOS games, he has a trend of taking a much-loved "traditional" game and then changing or adding one new mechanic that turns it completely on its head, making you think about it in a whole new light and making it that much more fun to play. I've spent way too much time playing Flipflop Solitare (solitaire where you can stack cards up and down) and Really Bad Chess (chess with completely randomized pieces).
This year, he released Pocket Run Pool, an arcade pool game that has all the satisfaction of using perfect geometry to line up shots, swiping to use your cue, and the amazing clack of pool balls. But the twist is that pool is now a game of score chasing, where each hole contains a different multiplier that rotates every time you sink a ball. And you HAVE to sink a ball each turn, or else you'll lose one of three lives.
It sounds pedestrian on paper, but it's brilliant in practice, and Pocket Run embodies that dangerous one-more-turn kind of loop that has sucked up a ton of my time trying to score a perfect game, making risky trick shots in order to try and get every ball in the "x10" pocket. There are perpetual PvP tournaments to participate in as well as weekly challenges and high-stakes modifier games. Whether you only play it for a minute or an hour at a time, Pocket Run is one of the best things I've downloaded to my phone this year. | Edmond Tran, AU Editor, Senior Video Producer
Okay, so this one is a bit of a cheat entry since it's not officially out yet, but I had a chance to play in the closed beta, had a damn good time with it, and am looking forward to playing more.
Most people are likely to have heard of the Persona series. But Shin Megami Tensei, the challenging, 30-year-old demon-fighting RPG that it's based on now has a mobile spinoff. But don't be skeptical! Liberation Dx2 is a free-to-play game but impressively features all the elements you would expect from a console version of Shin Megami Tensei: You've got the full roster of demons, a turn-based RPG battle system that relies on exploiting elemental weaknesses, the ability to Talk to demons to recruit them, a robust fusion system, and distinctly SMT narrative.
And there's more! There's a first-person dungeon-crawling mode, a variety of challenge dungeons, a PVP mode, and a mobile-friendly auto-quest feature for easy grinding--everyone's favorite part of SMT games. In my experience, you'll start to feel the limits of the free-to-play model once you start to fuse really high-level demons, but you don't necessarily need them to tackle one of the many activities available to you.
There's currently no official release date for the English version. You can get the Japanese version from the links below, and we'll update this article when we know more. | Edmond Tran, AU Editor/Senior Video Producer
Do you like Pokemon, but don't like wandering around outside or turn-based battles? Well then Pokemon Quest might be the game for you! Featuring charming voxel art, Quest is a breezy dungeon-crawler RPG where you befriend and build a team of three Pokemon in order to go on adventures, beat the living crap out of wild Pokemon in real time (with or without your orders to execute special moves), and collect loot. That loot can be used to buff your Pokemon as they level up and earn more equipment slots.
Collecting new Pokemon works slightly differently in this game too--you use ingredients you pick up during expeditions to cook meals at your home base, and certain combinations will attract certain kinds of Pokemon. It's a pleasant little game to distract you when you're on the go, or something you can even play as an idle clicker if that's your jam. It's not as deep as an actual Pokemon RPG, but there's something nice about seeing your cute little cub team completely mow down a horde of Oddish. | Edmond Tran, AU Editor/Senior Video Producer
Pokemon Go will likely never again reach the height of popularity it experienced during those first few weeks back in 2016, but if you haven't opened the app since then, you'll be surprised how much the game has improved.
With a revamped gym system, challenging multiplayer raids, legendary, rare, and shiny Pokemon everywhere, daily and weekly quests, regular special events and rewarding community days, and the just-added friends list and Pokemon trading features, Pokemon Go is more fun now than it's ever been.
Most of these features aren't perfect, but if even so, it's hard not to enjoy walking around outside and getting a little sun now and then. | Michael Rougeau, Senior Entertainment Editor
E3 2018 was packed with some fantastic games that immediately captured the attention of many. Whether it was CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, EA's blowout of Anthem and Battlefield V content, Sony's impressive demos for Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man, or the reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's massive roster--there was definitely a lot to take in, leaving little room to properly digest some of the more lesser-known games. We at GameSpot explored the E3 show floor and its surrounding events, playing a number of different games coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
In this gallery, we've compiled a list of some of the most interesting games from E3 2018 that didn't get enough attention, many of which are releasing sooner than you think. In addition to experiencing the likes of Annapurna Interactive's Ashen and Donut County, Avalanche Studios' Generation Zero, and the recently announced Killer Queen Black for Switch at E3 convention center, we also saw many games from the Indie Mix event. At these smaller events, many indie developers, like Double Fine Entertainment and Team17, show off their upcoming games.
In many cases, all you need to stand out is a creative idea and the skillset to see it through, and these games made their presence known alongside the most talked-about games of E3 2018. While many of these games possess that familiar indie charm, they each have their own particular hook to them. Some focus on quirky adventures that have retro-inspired aesthetics and gameplay, while others go for a more somber or action-oriented experience. Here are 21 games you may have missed out on during the gaming industry's big show.
For more info on some of the most noteworthy games of E3 2018, be sure to visit GameSpot's E3 hub page for all of our content on this year's show and to see what's coming up next in gaming.
Ashen (PC, Xbox One)
After playing through From Software's Soulsborne titles, I developed an incessant itch for more video games that promise challenging combat and use a stamina system to weigh the risks of attacking or defending. Ashen is just the scratch I needed.
In Ashen, players take on the role of a faceless warrior who's looking for a home but finds death instead. Dying isn't the end, though, as this hero is resurrected each time they're killed. Good thing too, because you'll face off against some fierce enemies and challenging bosses on your journey. The second-to-last boss crushed me almost immediately on my first attempt. I got him to half health in a follow-up fight that lasted nearly 10 minutes before he killed me again.
Ashen's story is focused on forging connections, both with NPCs and other players. Plenty of NPC humans dot the snaking map, each offering opportunities to pursue either professional or personal relationships. Several of these characters come with their own fascinating questlines, too. Players can also enter others' games, but it's always to assist, not to invade. Certain areas of Ashen's world can only be reached with a companion, so jolly cooperation is vital to discovering every hidden secret. | Jordan Ramee
Arca's Path (PC, and PS4)
There is a definite gap in the market for relaxing video games. There are some, of course--Rymdkapsel, Journey, and Monument Valley are three that come to mind for me--but they're still few and far between. Arca's Path aims to change that; it's a VR-only pseudo-platformer, and the main emotion it evoked inside me was pure relaxation.
No controller is used in Arca's Path outside of your own head; you simply stare at where you want your ball to roll to, and it moves in that direction. Simple obstacles such as ramps and narrow gaps stand in your way, but they're there more for visual variety than for any meaningful challenge. A zen soundtrack and beautiful shapes and colors make this slow-paced game as soothing as it is attractive, and I look forward to playing more. No release date has yet been announced, but we know it's coming to PSVR, Oculus Rift, and Steam VR. | Oscar Dayus
Donut County (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Donut County is a solo project from developer Ben Esposito, who worked on What Remains of Edith Finch and The Unfinished Swan. It has a different tone from some of his previous work--Donut County is full of smartly used internet humor and stars a cheeky, morally gray raccoon whose favorite app wreaks havoc on a town.
Thanks to this app, you're able to control a hole in the ground that grows as you get more to fall inside of it. You start small with grass and pebbles and work your way up to cars, buildings, and even mountains, all while solving puzzles so you can get everything in the area into the hole. Each level shows how different objects or characters ended up underground, and they're broken up by funny scenes of those characters arguing about the events in the present.
Playing as a hole sounds really silly, but in practice it's meditative and relaxing. It's essentially a game about cleaning up a bunch of garbage, at least from a gameplay standpoint, but thematically it's about consequence and becoming aware of how your actions affect other people. I played an hour of the Donut County at E3, and I can't wait to play it all the way through and see how everything comes together. | Kallie Plagge
The Endless Mission (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Developer E-Line Media entered the public eye with Never Alone, a contemplative puzzle-platformer inspired by Alaska Native culture. The studio's latest project, however, is something radically different. The Endless Mission is a sandbox creation game that bears more similarities to Media Molecule's enigmatic Dreams than to E-Line's previous effort, and its ambitious premise makes it one of the most intriguing games we got to see at E3.
Broadly speaking, The Endless Mission allows players to mash together elements of different genres to create new experiences. For instance, players can take the avatar from a 3D platformer and insert it into a racing game, then use that avatar to race on foot against the other vehicles. What's especially neat is that combining these disparate elements will cause other aspects of the game to change accordingly, so that regardless of which elements and genres you mash up, the game will still be playable. In the aforementioned example, adding an avatar to a racing game causes boxcars to appear around the course, which players can hop between to reach the finish line.
That's only one of the possible combinations afforded by The Endless Mission. The game puts a suite of different genres, elements, and other tools at players' disposal, with even more planned for the title as development progresses. Those who are so inclined will even be able to tinker with the code, although no coding experience is necessary to make use of its tools. The Endless Mission enters Early Access on Steam this fall, with a full release planned for next year. | Kevin Knezevic
Generation Zero (PC, Xbox One)
Avalanche Studios' Generation Zero wants you to feel outmatched and equally unnerved in its large open world. Set in an isolated region in rural Sweden during the late 1980s, you find many of the residents dead or missing, and the only things left are swarms of killer robots that lurk in the dense forests and fog. In this open-world survival game set during the early period of the robopocalypse, you and your group of survivors will have to scrape together resources from buildings and fallen enemies in order to stand a chance against the machines in the area.
The many items you'll find include weapons, clothing options, support items, and even scavenged robot parts that can boost your weapons' effectiveness. You'll initially encounter small runner bots, but over time, your group will come across bigger threats lurking throughout the world--which includes giant robot walkers that stand several stories tall. While you can play solo, the developers recommended playing through the game with friends, as many of the high-end challenges look to be quite overwhelming.
Coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2019, Generation Zero seems to be an open-world survival game of a different flavor, focusing more on mystery and the errieness of its setting, which is definitely a welcome change of pace. With an atmosphere that recalls moments from Black Mirror's Metal Head episode, exploring what's left of the land will be just as challenging as trying to survive in it. | Alessandro Fillari
GTFO (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
GTFO handles a lot like Rainbow Six Siege, albeit with a horrifying twist. Each member of the squad outfits themselves with both a primary and secondary firearm, as well as a custom tool and melee weapon. Then, the elevator drops your team off at the mission location, where you can practically feel the tension in the air. It's really dark and eerily quiet, except for the occasional gurgle reminding your squad that they're not alone.
GTFO never holds your hand as you and your team desperately try to escape its monster-infested corridors. The creatures hunt by sound, so running and gunning is a terrible idea. To keep the horde off your back, you'll have to be stealthy.
You'll still die a lot, though. Both health and ammo are incredibly scarce, and mistakes are swiftly punished. The custom tools, ranging from explosive trip wires to a glue gun that can slow down enemies or plug breached doors, offer plenty of creative ways of handling the threats in front of you, but solid teamwork is ultimately the best weapon in your arsenal. Be sure to grab three friends you can trust. | Jordan Ramee
Indivisible (PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One)
The next project from the studio behind Skullgirls is shaping up to be a lovely new take on the classic Metroidvania genre. Titled Indivisible, the game follows the story of Ajna. She and her father live just outside a quiet little town, but when mysterious powers awaken within her, she must embark on a journey to discover the truth behind them.
Indivisible combines Metroid-style exploration with the combat system of cult classic RPG Valkyrie Profile. The combination sounds simple on paper, but Lab Zero Games tackles the formula with skill and finesse. Battles sport the nuance and complexity of a fighting game; each character in your party features their own unique attack and abilities, which you need to control quickly and efficiently. During my brief hands-on time with the game, it was a lot to take in. But when I got a knack for how to input and link together combos, I was instantly enamored by the possibilities.
Before I played Indivisible, I had my eyes on it mostly because of its beautiful art style. But now that I've played it, I'm very excited to jump back in to explore its world and unlock the full potential of the devastating attack chains packed into its combat system. | Matt Espineli
KIDS (Mobile, PC)
Discussion of "games as art" has become trite to the point of comedy, but clearly some games are more overtly reminiscent of other art forms than others. KIDS, from Swiss developer Playables, wears its arthouse minimalism on its sleeve.
The monochromatic palette is striking, consisting of white silhouettes with black outlines on a white background. Interactivity is relatively subtle and minimalist as well. In one vignette, touching one of the figures may make them move. In another, it could make them point their finger at another anonymous figure. It feels like KIDS would be at home in as an interactive piece in a gallery space. The simple mechanics are used to illustrate different group dynamics: following a leader, shifting blame, being part of a mob. Every vignette shown so far ends the same way: the group plunges itself, lemming-like, into a pit.
A mobile release promises a tactile feeling to manipulating the mannequins, but the point comes across well enough on PC as well. This is bound to be the sort of game that inspires debate over "games versus experiences," given its linear interactivity and lack of a fail-state. Whatever it is, KIDS invites exploration and curiosity. | Steve Watts
Killer Queen Black (Switch)
Beneath its retro-style visuals and deceptively simple premise, Killer Queen Black is an intense and fast-paced game of strategy and coordination. A remake of the Killer Queen arcade game, Black has undergone a few notable changes in its move to Switch and PC, particularly in the number of players it supports (4v4 rather than 5v5 as in the arcade), but the competitive essence of the original remains very much intact.
Each contest in Killer Queen Black pits the two teams against each other with three ways to win. You can either collect enough orbs to fill up your team's hive, eliminate the opposing team's queen three times, or ride the snail that's slowly crawling along the bottom of the arena from one end of the screen to the other to secure a victory. On paper, each of the victory conditions sounds simple enough to complete, but it's much more difficult in practice with both teams vying to achieve the same goals.
As such, success in Killer Queen Black hinges upon planning and coordination between the entire team. For example, two players can act as decoys, collecting orbs while another tries to stealthily ride the snail to victory. Alternatively, players can take a more offensive approach and focus on eliminating the opposing queen, although that leaves open the possibility the other team could fill up their hive. With both local and online multiplayer support, Killer Queen Black looks like it'll make for a hectic party game when it releases early next year. | Kevin Knezevic
Knights And Bikes (PC)
Whether played solo or co-op, Knights and Bikes puts players in the role of two pre-teen girls, Nessa and Demelza, who are adventuring across a British isle during the 1980s. The only town on the island has seen better days, but the girls don't notice until the economic downturn begins to affect Nessa's family. They'll need to be brave to save the town. They'll need bikes too.
Every aspect of this Secret of Mana-like RPG, from the gameplay to the story, is seen through the eyes of two adorable kids. Nessa splashes muddy puddles with a malicious glee, reimagining her rain boots as powerful weapons that send troublesome enemies scurrying away. Demelza attaches real value to the pieces of trash, squirming bugs, and random knick knacks she and Nessa collect, so she's very confused as to why the shopkeeper would prefer actual money when the girls try to buy a new bike.
I love how Knights and Bikes does such a phenomenal job at capturing what it's like to be a kid who's dealing with the injustices encountered while growing up. Although both Nessa and Demelza initially face their ever-more adult situation with ingenuity and wide-eyed-wonder, I immediately recognized the slow creep of reality beginning to warp their childlike innocence. It's a bittersweet part of life that all adults can remember to some extent. | Jordan Ramee
Ninjala (Switch)
Coming to Nintendo Switch, this game is going to find an audience with the same crowd that was enraptured by the colorful aesthetic of Splatoon 2. Ninjala is a goofy multiplayer-focused arena brawler where bubble gum-chewing ninjas fight it out in the streets of Tokyo with baseball bats. It's bizarre, hectic, absolutely absurd, and insanely fun.
Players choose one of eight different teenage ninjas, grab their weapon of choice, and head into the arena. Only the baseball bat was available when I played, but GungHo Online Entertainment promises a few of the other greyed-out options will be added by launch.
In the eight-person Battle Royale mode, players blow up the bubble gum they're chewing to various sizes before utilizing it to run up walls or float to the ground. Players need to reach inside the bubbles they blow to acquire their weapon. Doing so pops the bubble. The weapon's size depends on how large the bubble was before it popped. Players score points by attacking others and can earn extra points by charging up and delivering a massive knockout strike. Regardless of whether the attack connects or not, once you swing, your weapon is lost and you'll need to blow another bubble to get a replacement. To keep enemy ninjas from escaping while charging your attack, you can spit out your bubble gum to temporarily trap other players where they stand. Matches end in just a few minutes so it's easy to just jump into one more round. | Jordan Ramee
Ooblets (PC, Xbox One)
While Harvest Moon has continued ever-onward and Story of Seasons was a valiant attempt to rekindle the magic, it was Stardew Valley that really showcased the modern viability of the candy-coated farming life sim. Enter Ooblets, an adorable entry in the newly revitalized genre that blends in elements of Pokemon for good measure. It's an altogether sweet and endearing combination that will be hard to pass up.
While the loop of a farming sim is mercantile--buying seeds to sell crops to buy more seeds--Ooblets brings your plants to life as tiny companions with their own strengths and weaknesses. Other plant types make nourishment or special items for your fledgling creatures, and you can take them into battle. But this game is cute as a button in every aspect, so combat is handled through a dance competition. All of this is wrapped up in a charming art style and with cheeky writing. Ooblets is due on PC and Xbox One this year, and it's going to be a real life-eater--especially if it ever comes to Nintendo Switch. | Steve Watts
Pode (Switch)
Pode is a beautiful, soothing, adorable puzzle game about a rock helping an alien star find its way home. You can control both characters at once in single-player or play the whole game in co-op, helping the two characters interact in order to make your way through the gorgeous world.
"Pode" in Norwegian refers to the act of two plants joining together to become one; it's also a cute word used by Norwegian families when talking to or about their children. The two meanings tell you everything you need to know about this game's wholesome nature. It also contains an exquisite soundtrack from Journey and Assassin's Creed Syndicate composer Austin Wintory.
From what I played, Pode is shaping up to be a gorgeous and heartfelt experience, and I can't wait to play the full game on Nintendo Switch. | Oscar Dayus
Satisfactory (PC)
The next game from the creators of Goat Simulator is nothing like that wacky, over-the-top game. You play as an engineer who goes out into the world to find resources to create "Project Assembly," which is a machine with a "mysterious purpose." Satisfactory is a factory-building simulator presented from a first-person perspective, which is different in the building sim genre. The game bears visual similarities to No Man's Sky, but there is no procedural generation. There is just one big, big planet that is 30 square kilometers, and there is also multiplayer support and combat as well, which is new and unexpected for the building sim space. It's cool and exciting to see developers known for one thing do something completely unexpected. The game will launch with an alpha period, though no dates or details have been announced yet. | Eddie Makuch
Shadows: Awakening (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
At first glance, Shadows: Awakening can look like a traditional isometric single-player RPG, but it has some incredibly interesting gameplay dynamics that take it to the next level. You play as a demon who takes control of the souls of long-dead heroes. While you command those heroes to explore and battle in the land of the living, your demon who possesses them lives in the shadow world--you can instantly switch between the two parallel universes, something that's necessary to win certain battles, solve puzzles, and get the best loot.
Shadows: Awakening takes a lot of the fun and appeal of multiplayer online battle arena games and brings it to a single-player, story-driven RPG with real-time party combat. There are tons of characters to play, more than 120 skills with which to customize your party's abilities, and 70 locations to explore. The developers say they want to inspire adventure, encouraging players to explore both the land of the living and the shadow realm (and using the two together) to find the best loot and discover the secrets of the world they've created. It's an exciting prospect to see a party-based RPG of this scale with real-time combat, all in a single-player experience. | Patrick Faller
Strange Brigade (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Strange Brigade is a co-op third-person shooter from Sniper Elite developer Rebellion. Set in 1930s Egypt, it has you raiding tombs and mowing down supernatural creatures--ghouls, zombies, and more gruesome monsters--using both standard-issue guns and an array of more inventive abilities. Slain enemies drop blue soul-like orbs that you collect to power your magical amulet, which can be equipped with deadly flamethrower and electricity powers. There's also numerous traps to trigger, such as spinning blades and spike pits, to aid you in your fight.
Strange Brigade lacks the polish of a AAA title, but there's something satisfying about being able to fry a dozen enemies in one go, and the game's bright, vaguely steampunky aesthetic and irreverent script help it stand out. It's coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 28, and I can't wait to see more. | Oscar Dayus
Transference (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Transference is a new game from Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood's film company SpectreVision and Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft. A deeply unsettling game made for VR (but also playable on standard platforms), Transference tells the story of a father who uploads his consciousness and that of his wife and son to the cloud. Something goes wrong and the data gets corrupted. Things get weird from there. The game lets you play from each family member's perspective. What's most interesting is that you might start the game questioning one of the character's motivations and mindset, but when you play as the others, you begin to feel empathy for their situation. And this messes with your head in some surprising ways. Transference launches this fall for VR platforms, as well as Xbox One, PS4, and PC. | Eddie Makuch
Tunic (PC, Xbox One)
Tunic's appearance during Microsoft's Xbox press conference at E3 2018 tells you everything you need to know about this adorable adventure game. In a beautiful isometric world that evokes the best of The Legend of Zelda, you control a courageous fox on a grand adventure.
I was immediately drawn in by Tunic's astoundingly cute art style and graphics, not to mention its nostalgia-inducing soundtrack. But after playing it, I feel confident that it's going to deliver on the gameplay front as well. Tunic feels like classic Zelda, with a touch of things more modern, like the maneuverability of Hyper Light Drifter and the playfulness of Fez. Just look at the cryptic, unreadable text in the E3 trailer--whatever language that is, it's present within the game as well, and it makes actions as simple as picking up a sword feel fun and mysterious.
In development by Andrew Shouldice and presented by Finji, Tunic is set for an exclusive release on Xbox One and Windows PC. And it's one I can't wait to check out again. | Mike Rougeau
What The Golf? (PC)
Right from the beginning, you discover that What The Golf? isn't really about playing golf. In the opening level, where you line up a putt on the green, the character--not the ball--is immediately flung from their shooting position towards the goal. You move onto the next stage right after. Referred to as an "anti-golf game for people who hate golf" by its developers, What The Golf? is a bizarre yet oddly endearing take on the idea of golf, but heavily recontextualized throughout stages that take a very loose and sometimes very literal approach to what golfing is.
What The Golf? is, as strange as this sounds, a puzzle-golf game designed through the whimsical and stylized lense of Katamari Damacy. Whether driving a golf club down the fairway, guiding a soccer ball past a group of rowdy kids, or even relocating an entire house to another space, your goal is to simply get the object to the goal post. In stranger cases, you're controlling a mound of dirt and transporting it into a large hole in the shape of the number one--a literal hole in one--or controlling a character in a platforming game. And just when you think it couldn't get any weirder, it tosses in stages parodying other games like Super Mario Bros., Portal, and even Superhot--complete with time-bending gunplay.
Playing What The Golf? had me repeatedly scratching my head, but always in a good way. The stranger it got, the more I respected how far it went with its weirdness. Expected to release later this year on PC, this quirky and always bizarre puzzle-golfing game never ceased to surprise me with just how far off the deep end it went. | Alessandro Fillari
Where Cards Fall (Mobile, PC)
Where Cards Fall is an isometric puzzler that takes its title both figuratively and literally. The game ostensibly revolves around manipulating and resizing stacks of cards to create platforms that can be traversed, but beneath the surface, it tells the coming-of-age story of a high schooler coping with the pressures and uncertainty of adolescence.
While the aforementioned cards are primarily used to navigate through the game's levels, they aren't simply a means of solving puzzles; they also form the buildings that in-game characters live in. Splay a stack out long enough and it'll pop up into a house that you can enter. We only got a glimpse of this in our brief hands-on time with the game, but it's a novel concept that is expanded upon as players create different types of buildings and interact with their occupants.
The underlying gameplay in Where Cards Fall is also clever and satisfying. It begins simply enough, tasking you with moving a stack and expanding it until it's large enough to allow you to cross a gap, but it quickly introduces additional stacks that you must expand, jump on, and rearrange as you work your way through a level. Where Cards Fall doesn't yet have a release date, but the game is coming to iOS devices, PC via Steam, and Apple TV. | Kevin Knezevic
World War Z (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Licensed video games might not be as popular or as prevalent as they once were, but Saber Interactive's zombie game based on the Brad Pitt movie World War Z looks promising. The four-player co-op game is set in the universe of the film but does not follow the film's story. Instead, it tells an entirely new narrative featuring four survivors who must band together to survive waves of zombies in a variety of environments, including the New York City train line and lush jungles. I played a 20-minute demo of one of the chapters and found the shooting tight and responsive. Additionally, the brutal melee attacks--I had a firefighter's axe--are a good way to clear out zombies when you get surrounded. And it feels satisfying. World War Z is due out in early 2019 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. | Eddie Makuch
Rare's high-seas adventure experiment Sea of Thieves for PC and Xbox One has gone through several noteworthy changes since its launch. The game focuses on a pirate's life in a shared world, where players embark on missions, sail across the seas, find hidden treasure, and even take on the occasional Kraken lurking beneath the waters. While the game found a passionate audience, it received some notable criticisms for lack of content and a repetitive gameplay loop, which the developers have spent the last few months working to address in the many post-launch updates.
Sea of Thieves' executive producer Joe Neate, senior designer Shelley Preston, and design director Mike Chapman sat down with GameSpot during E3 2018 to talk about the online game's growth since its launch. With the upcoming Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores expansions coming later this year, each adding several new ships, items, and entirely new areas to explore, they spoke about the feedback they've received from fans, and just how far the game has come since release.
The fans have been very vocal about what they want to see in Sea of Thieves, which has grown a lot since its release last March. Can you talk about what the general response has been like for you all at Rare?
Joe Neate: Yeah, it's been pretty intense and amazing. It really has. We built up a lot of awareness and excitement around the game, we launched it and we had a lot of players come in and play--those first couple of weeks was quite the adventure. With Sea of Thieves, our goal at launch was to create a new IP, create a community around it, and make a new type of multiplayer game that's a different experience. And success for us meant landing all of that, which would give us the right to go and build on it more.
I just love that we've managed to make something that's different, and had a bold ambition--we've all been on this project since the start. To see it land and then to now have the opportunity to just go wild adding stuff and doubling down on the vision because we've got this amazing player base with us, and they want more of it. The goal at launch was to create the opportunity, basically, to go and invest on top of what we started with. We exceeded all of our expectations, in terms of player numbers and everything else.
So, yeah, we've now got that opportunity, and it's all about how big can we make it. To see how far can we take this game, and how many people can we make fall in love with it as we add new content and the new ways to play. It blows my mind, I want be back here in a year's time talking more about the stats and the things that we've done. It's the most rewarding game I've ever worked on in my career, and honestly it's the biggest opportunity I think I've had in my career in terms of the game and the possibilities right now.
Mike Chapman: We were actually just commenting before you walked into the room about how different it is now compared to how it was at launch. It's now much easier to talk about the game because people understand what it is now, in terms of what the heart of the game is. Sea of Thieves has this social connectivity with players in a shared world where they're coming across each other, and what's gonna happen is emergent and unpredictable. We kind of break it down into there's always different ways to play. Like the brigantine ship that you saw briefly in the E3 teaser trailer, that's perfectly designed for three players to have this big ship experience. And then things like new goals for everyone, especially for players who've hit the Pirate Legend status.
These sort of things enrich your adventures while you're out there. So you're heading towards an island and you play musical instruments, drink grog, you've now got the speaking trumpet and the drum that we added in the Hungering Deep. It's more things like that that's gonna enrich your adventures. So you may have seen in the trailer we've got skeleton ships coming to the world. You could team up with another crew to take them down, board their ships and take a gunpowder keg downstairs and use that to destroy the ship. All of that emergent gameplay is all there.
Like the Hungering Deep, all the new content that will release in this update will come in with time limited quests with specific rewards. The Hungering Deep came in with that quest line around Merrick, which introduced a storyline that allowed us to showcase the new content. We also added a drum and the speaking trumpet at the same time, and you use the drum to summon the megalodon at the end of that quest line. The speaking trumpet was a way to broadcast your voice across a far distance, so you could hail another ship at distance to ask them if they want to work together with you. That's now in the world as well. That was our approach with Cursed Sails, and it will be with Forsaken Shores. And Shelley, your team is working on that, aren't they?
Shelley Preston: Yeah, Forsaken Shores is coming out this September. This expansion has a new world area. There's three seas, which are the different areas in the Sea of Thieves world. They have different visual styles, but they're all kind of the same in terms of difficulty and challenge. So what we really wanted to do with the new area was for this expansion was for it to be visually striking, and a different, newer experience. We wanted it to have a major impact on gameplay as well, as it's about a perilous voyage.
Part of the shroud that surrounded the Sea of Thieves [map] will recede and there'll be a new area that you can get to, but you'll never start in that area. It's up to players to opt in to go on that voyage, and think about when you want to take on these more challenging, but more rewarding voyages. And then when you sail out there, it's all kind of fire and ash. It's like a volcanic kind of area. We really felt excited about this idea of making the world, the islands themselves almost are turning against you while you're questing. So it's not just about other players or AI threats. It's actually the world itself. You might start feeling tremors and you're like, "What's going on, guys? Are we safe? Do we think this is gonna subside?" And then you're looking up at the peak of the volcano and you see smoke signs that churn out of that volcano and still you're making that decision, "We're gonna just carry on.
We've just got this one more x to dig up." We've been prototyping these elements of what we can do to make this environment turn against you and we're really excited about it. Everything that we add into the game will live beyond the expansion releases. The gameplay that we've given players will just live beyond to just enrich Sea of Thieves all up.
Since the game has been released, what would you say were some of the biggest lessons you took away from the game's launch, and the reaction from the community?
JN: We sat down as soon as the launch craziness ended, like the first week or so, we managed to get on top of any scale and stability issues that we had. And then we literally sat in a room for about a week with loads of post-it notes. Mike, the design team, and everyone else were going through all of the forums, looking at all the feedback. Broadly, the response from the community was that this game is great, we love what you're doing, but give us more things to do. Yeah, threats in the world, all of that stuff. And then we just started deciding which order did we want to grow this in based on feedback, based on what we want to see see.
Skeleton ships was one of the biggest things actually because for years now we've been saying to our community every sail on the horizon is another player and explaining why we didn't wanna do AI ships because we wanted every encounter to be emergent. But we've seen that...well, there's a few things that feed into it in terms of players' love for ship combat, and we love to drive different interactions between players. So ship combat is cool between players, but like in Hungering Deep, we love to see different crews team up and then go take down stuff together. With the AI ships coming into the world, it gives people that combat, the ship combat they can have with AI and stuff. They can have that experience more frequently and it doesn't necessarily impact the balance of the shared world. It's also something where we can encourage players to crew up, almost to form alliances with each other and then go and take down these fearsome skeleton ships in the world.
So it's all been about driving what we love about the game, that social interaction where you're encountering strangers and doing stuff together. It scratches that itch from the community. That was probably one of the biggest lessons for us. The E3 trailer was the first time our community would have seen that, and there's gonna be a lot of happy people. But of course they're gonna go and pick up Mike's forum post that he wrote ages ago explaining why we would never do it. We're listening, and we will change.
SP: I think that's a great example of that. We were adamant that we didn't want to add AI ships for all those reasons. But the most powerful things are our players, responding to that feedback, and making sure as long as it's right for Sea of Thieves, it enriches that experiences for everybody. So we're gonna listen to that feedback.
MC: It's a mix of giving players what they want, putting that Sea of Thieves spin on it, but also surprising them. It's the fact that a lot of players would ask, "I would really like an expanded world. I want more regions to explore." We haven't just given them that, we've actually gone and made the visuals a core part of the gameplay and added in a whole region with volcanoes that's geologically unstable. We want to surprise players, and there's things we do in the game that won't be expected and I think both of those aspects are at a healthy mix right now.
JN: And what's great is that because we're live, we're updating it, and we're adding new stuff, we're actually learning something new every time. After the Hungering Deep, one of the things I think we learned the most is that positive social interaction is great, and players love it when you give them reasons to engage in it. Because it was quite risky for us to go, look, the only way to take down this megalodon is if you find another crew in the world and communicate that to them. Whether it's through the speaking trumpet or the flat system we put in, you had to go and do this thing together.
But to see what it did to our player base, seeing everyone partying together on a beach after they'd taken the thing down--taking selfies and making friends--it was an amazing experience seeing how well our player base reacted to that. Again, it makes us want to double down on that and do more of that because it's so cool. It's so unique to Sea of Thieves. I think in most multiplayer games it's all about competition. And in this we want to drive much more interesting or varied, I guess, encounters. That's when it's most special. When you have an unexpected encounter with other players you meet new people and you have positive social interaction.
Do you have a favorite moment from your own time playing Sea of Thieves, where you just saw the many systems and the dynamic nature of the game come to life?
SP: There've been many, but my recent one was when I played the Hungering Deep, and we made it so that you needed to work together with another crew and I've had friendly and unfriendly encounters with other crews throughout playing Sea of Thieves, but turning up and seeing all these ships that are kind of waiting and there's this new hub of social activity--we made friends with a couple of crews who wanted to go and do the voyage with us.
And there was just this beautiful moment where I was on my ship with my crew and then I've turned around, looked out the back, the sun was setting and there were these two other galleons just following us on the waves and we were all going to do something together and it's like these are people that I don't know. These are people I've never played with before and this game has brought us together and we're about to go and have this amazing encounter. That was really cool.
MC: Yeah, I'd say anything to do with the speaking trumpet. And since we've added this tool we've seen so many cool videos of people rickrolling other ships, like the Rick Astley song. And there's people pretending to be, like they work at Wendy's, like, "Can I take your order, please?" People pretending to be air hostesses, like telling them where the exits are. I think that's the fun part of having players in a shared world. We've added this tool to the world and I think just the variety of encounters and the opportunities for humor and how you can bring players together and then form friendships. Just from adding that on the surface is a really simple tool, but in our shared world it comes to life.
JN: For me, it's the amount of people I've met. All I've seen on Twitter or wherever else who are like, "Me and my husband, or me and my wife, play this together and one of them doesn't play games normally or hasn't done for ages, but they've been enticed back in." It's bringing multiplayer to new players. People are playing with their sons. A lot of people in Xbox actually. A lot of our leadership team and execs have been playing with their kids and it's the first game they can really do that with apart with maybe like Minecraft and stuff. So just seeing that we created a different type of multiplayer game that took some risks in the progression system and in what we wanted to do and what our focus was. It wasn't for everyone and not everybody resonated with some of the decisions we made, but we purposely did that so that we could bring multiplayer to a new audience. A new experience and make this fun, welcoming game that broke down barriers.
And to continually get that feedback from new players or people that just came to this because it is that type of experience. The photos of literally husband and wife set up in the front room with two TVs and two sofas and the big thread on Twitter of everyone adding their photos to it and stuff, showing the kind of setups that they had made so they could game together. That, for me, is one of the most rewarding things. Again, because we took risks 'cause we wanted to do something different in multiplayer space.
And to just constantly get that feedback that that's landed with so many people is amazing. That's one of the things that I think that speaks to me the most and what makes me most passionate, as well as basically everything funny--like the Rick Astley thing. Anything like that is what we send around online through social media, we love that. We never thought of doing that. Player creativity is amazing. There's so many things like that, and that's what gets us going. It puts a spring in our step each morning.
By Anonymous on Jun 30, 2018 06:30 am David Haller made his heartbreaking heel turn by the end of Legion Season 2 so what will happen next? Ryan and Greg reveal their predictions, theories and wishes for Legion Season 3. Fingers crossed for Professor X.
In 2017, Nintendo soared back into the limelight with the Switch--the fastest selling console in US history. Incredible exclusives like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey proved Nintendo still remembered the strengths of its franchises and the importance of taking risks. For an overview of all the Switch games we reviewed last year, head over to our Switch review page.
Already, Nintendo is using 2018 to build upon the company's successes and produce more fantastic-looking follow-ups to fan-favorite franchises, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Kirby Star Allies. A number of new IPs, like Octopath Traveler, round out Switch's library of exclusives for 2018 library. You won't find these titles anywhere else.
There are tons of exciting exclusives for Switch this year. Below is a full list of the biggest ones, and for more information on each game, click through to the slides ahead to find out what each game is and its release date.
We've compiled every one we know of so far here, and will continue to update this gallery with new games as they get announced. Be sure to check back often as we update this gallery with more exclusives. And if you're curious about other platforms, you can check out our features on PS4 exclusives, Xbox One exclusives, and PC exclusives. In the meantime, which exclusives are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below.
Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2
When Nintendo revealed Bayonetta 3 at The Game Awards, the company also confirmed a popular rumor: Bayonetta 2 and the original Bayonetta were on their way to Switch. The sequel headlines the physical packaging of the game, but every copy of Bayonetta 2 includes a download code for the original.
We gave the original Bayonetta an 8/10. Check out our Bayonetta review.
We loved the follow-up even more, giving it a perfect 10/10. Check out our Bayonetta 2 review.
Developer: PlatinumGames | Release Date: February 16
Kirby Star Allies
Kirby made his debut on Switch in Kirby Star Allies. This title provides a multiplayer twist on traditional Kirby action, allowing four players to party up and tackle platforming stages and boss battles together. Like Kirby, his allies use powers absorbed from lesser enemies.
Developer: HAL Laboratory | Release Date: March 16
Nintendo Labo
Nintendo Labo is a series of kits that include cardboard cut-outs and other materials that are assembled in combination with the Switch and its Joy-Cons to be played with special game software and vice versa. The series' first two kits--the Variety Kit and the Robot Kit--released in April.
We gave the Nintendo Labo and its first two kits a 7/10. Check out our Nintendo Labo review.
Developer: Nintendo | Release Date: April 20
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze
Continuing the tradition of updated Wii U games that get Switch ports like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Pokken Tournament DX, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze launched on Switch in May. The game adds a new playable character, Funky Kong, who introduces his own unique twist on the original's platforming gameplay.
Developer: Retro Studios, Monster Games | Release Date: May 4
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
The revamped version of Hyrule Warriors comes to Switch with all of the maps, missions, characters, and DLC from both the original Wii U release and the expanded 3DS version. Even Yuga and Ravio from A Link Between Worlds joined this Dynasty Warriors-style game. Both Link and Zelda get new Breath of the Wild-themed costumes as well.
The Bit.Trip games from developer Choice Provisions rank among some of the best throwback experiences of the past decade. Nintendo Switch owners have exclusive access to the series' newest game, Runner3, which continues the tradition of linking rhythmic timing and platforming, while also promising plenty of new tricks to stump returning players.
Developer: Choice Provisions | Release Date: May 22
Pokemon Quest
The original 151 Pokedex returns in Pokemon Quest, a free-to-play spin-off to Nintendo's popular pocket monster franchise. The game differentiates itself with its blocky art-style. Gameplay for Quest is separated into four parts: catching Pokemon, training your team, managing your base camp, and adventuring into the unknown in story missions.
Mario Tennis Aces from developer Camelot--the team behind the GBA game Golden Sun as well as numerous other Mario sports titles--launched on Switch this past spring. Mario's newest run at tennis includes a challenging story, three tournaments, and new special abilities.
Our review of the game is still in progress, but we're currently giving it an 8/10. Check out our Mario Tennis Aces review.
Developer: Camelot | Release Date: June 22
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
The incredibly adorable puzzler, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is finally coming to Switch. It includes an added Super Mario Odyssey-themed level modeled after that game's New Donk City location. You can also play with a friend--each using one joy-con--where one controls Toad and the other can shoot turnips to attack enemies.
Square Enix and developer Acquire are in the home stretch of development on Octopath Traveler, a retro RPG that mixes 2D and 3D graphics in an effort to bridge the gap between 16-bit and HD. A second demo for the game is currently available if you can't quite wait until July to play.
Developer: Square Enix, Acquire | Release Date: July 13
Code Of Princess EX
Originally for 3DS, Code of Princess is coming to Nintendo Switch in July. This hack and slash game features a few RPG elements you can explore with its cast of over 50 playable characters. There are two multiplayer modes as well: co-op missions and a Versus mode.
Super Mario Party marks the 11th time Mario and his friends have gotten together to beat each other up, steal from one another, and willingly participate in a diverse assortment of tiny death traps. Or as they like to call it: a party. Like the Mario Party titles that released for Wii and Wii U, Super Mario Party will feature mini games and challenges that utilize both traditional button controls and motion controls.
Super Smash Bros. is finally coming to Nintendo Switch, and you won't have to wait all that long for it: it's coming this holiday season. Every fighter from every previous Smash Bros. game is coming to duke it out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and a few newcomers like Daisy, Ridley, and Inkling are joining them.
Light Fingers is a turn-based multiplayer board game where your goal is to gather loot and progress across the board, all while your opponents play cards and manipulate mechanical obstacles in an effort to trip you up. The game is coming to Switch sometime this year.
Developer: Numizmatic | Release Date: TBA 2018
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
The third game in the No More Heroes series from infamous developer, Goichi "SUDA 51" Suda, is scheduled to land on Switch later this year. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a revenge tale against frontman Travis, who finds himself confronted by Badman, father of Travis' first assassination target, Bad Girl. Before they get into a scuffle, both characters are drawn into a video game system. From within, they will have to confront a handful of fictional video games, supposedly inspired by real-world hits like Hotline Miami.
The latest game from the team behind Mega Man Zero, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, and Azure Striker Gunvolt is coming exclusively to Switch this year. Dragon Marked for Death looks like another action-packed 2D side-scroller with intricate sprites, but Inti Creates is experimenting by adding in four-player local co-op and progression systems that give the game an action-RPG feel.
Developer: Inti Creates | Release Date: TBA 2018
The World Ends With You - Final Remix
The hi-res version of Square Enix's The World Ends with You is coming to Switch, along with a "sizable" new story scenario. This anime-inspired game is set in modern day Tokyo and created by the same team behind Kingdom Hearts III. The Final Remix version was announced during January's Nintendo Direct Mini, and is due sometime this year.
The first half of 2018 has been packed with tons of fantastic games. Much like last year, there are several well worth your time to play. Big-budget games, like God of War, Far Cry 5, and Dragon Ball FighterZ, floored us with their attention to detail and quality mechanics. On the other hand, smaller indie experiences continued to turn our heads; Iconoclasts and Celeste were some of the early standouts of this year, but a wealth of other unique experiences have released since then, like Yoku's Island Express and Minit.
Around this time of year in 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nier: Automata, Persona 5, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard were some of the most fantastic experiences. However, this year seems to be meeting the high standard set by those games, and in a wide variety of genres.
With so many games coming out every month, it can be tough keeping track of the best ones. To ensure you're aware of this year's finest, we've gathered them all here for your convenience. Ahead are games exemplary enough to be considered some of the best of this year so far. By the end of the year, a number of these could become candidates for 2018's Game of the Year awards.
Which games do you think will be good enough to be included in our Game of the Year awards? Let us know in the comments below.
The Red Strings Club -- 9/10 (Platforms: PC)
"From the game's opening piano chords, The Red String Club's futuristic exploration of themes regarding human emotion, strong writing, and exciting situations create an experience that is deeply gratifying. The cast of relatable, three-dimensional characters elevate the stakes of every bullet fired, secret divulged and cocktail poured. They are flawed and dangerous, but also convey admirable human characteristics that feel inspirational. The Red Strings Club is a tense adventure about a cast of characters that endanger themselves for goals that aren't necessarily guaranteed, a rewarding journey into the human soul, and a game that pushes the limits of what a point-and-click adventure can do." [Read the full review]
-- David Rayfield
Iconoclasts -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4, Vita, PC)
"When Iconoclasts' end credits begin to roll, it's bittersweet to see the journey come to a close. After solving every puzzle and witnessing the finale of its poignant narrative, you can't help but reflect on the growth of its characters and your impact onto the world. The game will shock and surprise you with how gripping its story is, and it's likely to do so again in subsequent playthroughs of New Game+ with your expanded knowledge of character histories and events. Iconoclasts may be a callback to the style and mechanics of old-school games, but it's also a sincere and compelling adventure that anyone with respect for fantastic storytelling and 2D-action can enjoy." [Read the full review]
-- Matt Espineli, Associate Editor
The Inpatient -- 8/10 (Platforms: PSVR)
"The Inpatient doesn't just do right by Until Dawn, but stands right alongside it as one of the strongest horror experiences on PlayStation 4. It's a game far less concerned with pushing you towards what's lurking down every corridor than feeding you the worst ideas of what could be." [Read the full review]
-- Justin Clark
Celeste -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
"It's a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I'd been on the same journey as Madeline. Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain." [Read the full review]
-- Oscar Dayus, Staff Writer
Monster Hunter World -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One)
"Ever since the title was first announced last year, it was clear that Capcom was gunning for something grander than Monster Hunter Generations. It has succeeded, and this is likely the biggest and best that the franchise has ever been. It's not just the comparative depth of the narrative; it also boasts almost seamless integration between combat systems that were previously incomprehensible for amateurs. The Monster Hunter formula has definitely honed its claws, and all the above factors play their part in making Monster Hunter World a meaningful evolution for the series at large." [Read the full review]
-- Ginny Woo
Subnautica -- 9/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Subnautica's story, scares, and beautifully rendered underwater setting make it one of the most fascinating survival games around. You will always have to grind away to a certain extent to gather necessary resources, but the overall experience is both accessible and refined. Subnautica may not make you eager to get back to the beach this summer, but right now there is no better virtual way to experience the beauty, and the terror, of the deep blue sea." [Read the full review]
-- Brett Todd
Shadow of the Colossus -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4)
"Shadow of the Colossus is a tremendous journey, and one well worth taking and retaking. The visual overhaul is stunning, thoroughly enhancing every facet of Wander and Agro's excellent adventure. Galloping through the tranquil world is always breathtaking; felling a monumental colossus is always humbling. Shadow of the Colossus is a beautiful reconstruction of an already exceptional title. It continues to be a modern classic and is an extraordinary game that everyone must experience." [Read the full review]
-- Edmond Tran, Editor and Senior Producer
Dragon Ball FighterZ (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"FighterZ is complex and distinct enough to be enjoyed by fighting game competitors, but there's no question that it's been designed to tap into the hearts of Dragon Ball's most dedicated fans, and no doubt those same qualities will win people over who've never given the series a chance. Where past games attempted to get there through huge character rosters and deliberately predictable trips down memory lane, FighterZ has bottled the essence of what makes the series' characters, animation, and sense of humor so beloved and reconfigured it into something new: a Dragon Ball fighting game that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre." [Read the full review]
-- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
EA Sports UFC 3 -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One)
"EA Sports UFC 3 is a tense, exciting, and dynamic recreation of the stand and bang aspect of mixed martial arts. There's a fluidity to the way it moves, and a satisfying feel and unpredictability to the way fights can unfold that demands your engagement. The grappling still needs plenty of work, and one would hope this is something EA Canada addresses in the next iteration; yet these shortcomings become easier to overlook because of the accomplishment of its redefined striking. When it comes to the art of combat, few sports titles do it better." [Read the full review]
-- Richard Wakeling
Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology -- 8/10 (Platforms: 3DS)
"With all the time juggling, the brain-teasing mechanic of the White Chronicle doesn't overshadow Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology's story. Its politically charged tale complements Stocke's personal journey as he follows his orders and makes sense of his powers. The White Chronicles' close connection to the plot only makes temporal manipulation all the more engrossing, regardless if you're working your way to the game's best conclusion or hitting every node in the timeline. This feature maintains its grip for much of the game's 60-hour journey in spite of its combat shortcomings. Had this been a straight port of the DS version, it would still warrant the attention of RPG enthusiasts who missed Radiant Historia the first time around. With its upgrades and considerable bonuses--particularly the Sub-History--even those who think they got their fill by beating the original game should check out this definitive edition." [Read the full review]
-- Miguel Concepcion
Kingdom Come: Deliverance -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"Even with these issues in mind, anyone who can appreciate the down-and-dirty nature of history should play Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It's an impressive and unflinching look at the medieval era that transports you inside the compelling story of a real person caught in the middle of a civil war. As such, this is one of those rare, memorable games that stays with you long after you stop playing. While quirks and bugs can certainly be frustrating, none of these issues interfere much with the unique and captivating nature of the overall experience." [Read the full review]
-- Brett Todd
Moss -- 8/10 (Platforms: PSVR)
"It's a testament to just how well Moss understands PlayStation VR and works with the device instead of trying to bend it to a will it was never designed for. Moss wouldn't feel right without it at all, and its many strengths are married to the interactions that only full immersion can manufacture. Unsurprisingly, then, Moss is easily one of PlayStation VR's best titles to date, even if it's a little too eager to get you in and out of its world." [Read the full review]
-- Alessandro Barbosa
Into The Breach -- 9/10 (Platforms: PC)
"There is so much strategic joy in seeing the potential destruction a swarm of giant monsters is about to unleash on a city, then quickly staging and executing elaborate counter maneuvers to ruin the party. Into The Breach's focus on foresight makes its turn-based encounters an action-packed, risk-free puzzle, and the remarkable diversity of playstyles afforded by unique units keeps each new run interesting. It's a pleasure to see what kind of life-threatening predicaments await for you to creatively resolve in every new turn, every new battle, and every new campaign. Into The Breach is a pristine and pragmatic tactical gem with dynamic conflicts that will inspire you to jump back in again, and again, and again." [Read the full review]
-- Edmond Tran, Editor and Senior Producer
Kirby: Star Allies -- 8/10 (Platforms: Switch)
"Star Allies is yet another Kirby game, but it's up there with some of the best. It's an artistic showcase, and a great opportunity for co-op platforming. The one real complaint you can levy at it is that it gates off its more challenging aspects, but the fact that they are present to begin with will please anyone who's grown weary of the series' painless platforming." [Read the full review]
-- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
Surviving Mars -- 8/10 (Platforms: Xbox One, PC)
"Surviving Mars, above else, is about hope. So many strategy games hold to their gameplay, eschewing any overarching themes or messages. But, as corny as it sounds, for those who believe in the majesty of spaceflight, for those who are keen to marvel at how pernicious our plucky little species can be, Surviving Mars is SimCity with soul. It shows the challenges that come along with planetary migration, but it also shows that they are solvable. With the right planning, drive, and ingenuity, we can do great things together." [Read the full review]
-- Daniel Starkey
Attack On Titan 2 -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
"Despite its slow start, Attack on Titan 2 offers exciting gameplay along with a deep and intriguing plot that, melodrama aside, tugs on the heart strings. It's well-paced and offers some impressive spaces to move through. The unique combination of the movement and combat mechanics combines with a gripping story to make Attack on Titan 2 one of the more surprising releases of the year." [Read the full review]
-- James Swinbanks
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kindgom -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, PC)
"Ni No Kuni 2 is a robust game that offers ample ways to spend your time, and even if they aren't all up to the same level of quality, it's easy to appreciate how they collectively contribute to the bigger picture. It's chock full of excellent battles and surprising moments that make for a far more memorable experience than you initially expect and leaves you impressed by your own accomplishments. If you didn't play the first game, don't let this one pass you by too." [Read the full review]
-- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
MLB The Show 18 -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4)
"Sony's flagship baseball franchise has never been better. With its best-in-class controls and visuals, and impeccable attention to detail for the small stuff, MLB The Show 18 is worth catching for any baseball fan." [Read the full review]
-- Eddie Makuch, Editor
Minit -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"Minit's lives might only last 60 seconds, but its extremely well-thought-out world design and engrossing loop of progress make it a curse-filled adventure that is worth dying the world over for. Its throwback to classic visuals aren't done for aesthetic alone, as none of its gameplay systems scream antiquity. It's a slickly presented adventure that continually manages to surprise you with every new area you uncover or item you procure, pushing you to pick away at its seams to uncover every drop of what it has to offer. With a delightful ending and more promised after its first run of credits, Minit is far more than just a collection of seconds." [Read the full review]
-- Alessandro Barbosa
Far Cry 5 -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"Despite some brief irritations and missed opportunities with its narrative, spending time in the world of Hope County remains absolutely delightful. Far Cry 5 boasts a wonderfully harmonious flow to its adventure, with its smart changes to exploration, discovery, and progression distinctly bolstering the enjoyment of creatively engaging and experimenting with its spectacular open world." [Read the full review]
-- Edmond Tran, Editor and Senior Producer
God of War -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4)
"In many ways God of War is what the series has always been. It's a spectacular action game with epic set pieces, big-budget production values, and hard-hitting combat that grows more feverish and impressive as you progress. What may surprise you is how mature its storytelling has become. Like Kratos, God of War recalls the past while acknowledging the need to improve. Everything new it does is for the better, and everything it holds onto benefits as a result. Kratos is no longer a predictable brute. God of War is no longer an old-fashioned action series. With this reboot, it confidently walks a new path that will hopefully lead to more exciting adventures to come." [Read the full review]
-- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4)
"Yakuza 6 reins in its scope, but doubles down on what has made the series great. It's a unique and fascinating representation of the modern Japanese experience, worth playing even if you're a newcomer. The narrative is dramatic and sincere, and the game's endearing characters--coming from all walks of life--are interesting studies. The world is dense and rewarding to exist in, the dynamic combat system stays exciting even after you've kicked the crap out of five thousand enemies, and perhaps most importantly, Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life serves as a fulfilling conclusion to the turbulent, decade-long saga of its beloved icon, Kazuma Kiryu."[Read the full review]
-- Edmond Tran, Editor and Senior Producer
The Alliance Alive -- 8/10 (Platforms: 3DS)
"There's a lot to love about The Alliance Alive: a well-paced story in an interesting world, a meaty mashup of unique combat elements, and a fantastic soundtrack that keeps you pumped and eager to explore. If you can put up with a bit of a learning curve, you'll find a great portable adventure well worth dusting off your 3DS for." [Read the full review]
-- Heidi Kemps
Frostpunk -- 9/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Frostpunk is among the best overall takes on the survival city builder to date. Its theming and consistency create a powerful narrative through line that binds your actions around the struggle to hold onto humanity in uncertain times. Hope is a qualified good, but you may not always be strong enough (or clever enough) to shelter that flame from the cold." [Read the full review]
-- Daniel Starkey
Total War: Thrones of Britannia -- 8/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Thrones of Britannia is an exciting experience despite the cuts to integral components of the Total War series, such as city planning hinging on military needs, specific building customization, and expanded intrigue options. But this has given Creative Assembly room to focus on enhancing parts of the strategy experience that aren't quite as impenetrable to newcomers, and to allow the series to return to some of the beloved parts of previous historical games to balance out its newer, slimmer form. While there are minor issues with AI, and pacing suffers when you've comfortably gotten the upper hand, this is still a worthy and engaging contribution to the Total War stable that has successfully taken its cues from history's winners and losers alike." [Read the full review]
-- Ginny Woo
Battletech -- 8/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Battletech is a game that selfishly takes its time to be meticulous in every respect, and pushing through the density and idiosyncrasies of its many, slow-moving parts can be tough. But if you have the will to decipher it, albeit, at a deliberate and punishingly plodding pace, you can find yourself completely engrossed in its kinetic clashes. Battletech's intricate components ultimately foster a fascinating wealth of nuanced systems that build a uniquely strenuous, detailed, and thoroughly rewarding tactical strategy game." [Read the full review]
-- Edmond Tran, Editor and Senior Producer
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire -- 8/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Deadfire is dense, and it isn't a small game, easily dwarfing its predecessor in terms of scale. There's a lot to do, and it's easier than ever to get lost in the little stories you find, without following the arcs that the game has specially set out for you. Still, it's worth taking your time. The richness of Deadfire takes a while to appreciate, and like the brined sailors that call it home, you'll be left with an indelible attachment to these islands when you do finally step away." [Read the full review]
-- Daniel Starkey
Far: Lone Sails -- 8/10 (Platforms: PC)
"Lone Sails is a transfixing, lovely experience, one that takes recurring indie game tropes and does something unique and fun with them. It's short enough that you could play through it in a single two or three-hour session, but it will likely stick with you for a long time. I can see myself going back in a few months just to revisit the ship, like checking in on an old friend." [Read the full review]
-- James O'Connor
Yoku's Island Express -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
"Yoku's Island Express takes two unlikely genres and combines them into one playful, natural experience. The game's audio and visual design is simply joyous and the large game world seamlessly combines its pinball puzzles with some brilliant level designs. While traversing the large map does get frustrating at times, Yoku's Island Express' main quest never drags, and with its slate of fun abilities, quirky supporting characters and a generous amount of optional content, Yoku's Island Express is a unique journey that's refreshing and just straight up fun." [Read the full review]
-- Alexander Pan
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
"Whether playing through the story mode alone or against hardened opponents online, Cross Tag Battle is an absolute joy with a surplus of possibilities within its wide roster and versatile fighting system. Even with all the ridiculousness of the overarching plot, I reveled in the charm of my favorite characters and embraced the many moments of fan service. It's a masterful unification of styles and mechanics from four different universes that compels you to dig deeper and dedicate the time to getting the most out of the beloved members of this cast." [Read the full review]
-- Michael Higham, Associate Editor
Onrush -- 9/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"When it comes to crumpling metal and high speed thrills, not all of Onrush's game modes are on equal footing in terms of consistent excitement. Yet its foundations are so strong, and so unique, that it's easy to lose hours upon hours barreling around these disparate tracks. The question of longevity will, of course, depend on post-release support, with new classes, game modes, and tracks potentially on the horizon. Considering you need 12 players to fill a full room, it would be a shame if Onrush doesn't find the kind of audience that will give it the lifespan it deserves. Part of this will depend on how Codemasters iterates on the game from here on out, but they've shown a proficiency in knowing how arcade racing games click, and Onrush is such a bold, refreshing twist on the genre that there should be little hesitation in putting your faith in them to succeed." [Read the full review]
-- Richard Wakeling
Unravel Two -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"With its charming yarnlings and a newfound style of platforming, Unravel Two remains welcoming even at its most foreboding. Sure, a forest fire breaks out in one of the latter stages, but even then, the race to keep ahead of the blaze is fun and frantic instead of stressful. In almost every moment you're given ample time and space to breathe and take in the stunning photorealistic world from the viewpoint of the tiniest creatures. It's a game with boisterous birds, chases through meadows, and most importantly a cheerful partnership with a companion who's always got your back. With only six chapters that run roughly 30 minutes apiece, Unravel Two doesn't last long, but it's a game where the time you have is meaningful, memorable, and downright pleasant from beginning to end." [Read the full review]
-- Justin Clark
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit -- 8/10 (Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC)
"Life is Strange gained a huge cult following, and whether you're a veteran or a newcomer, Captain Spirit captures a lot of the original game's appeal. Regardless of how you classify The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit--whether it's a standalone adventure, a demo, or a prologue--it's a beautiful game, and one that leaves you all the more excited about Life is Strange 2." [Read the full review]
Some games are like the ugly duckling--they float when placed on water. No wait, that's not what I meant.
Some games are like the ugly duckling because they start off as the underdog, the one that everyone mocks, the one that nobody likes. And then they emerge into a beautiful winged bird, capable of flight faster than the speed of sound and able to dazzle anyone who walks by. Okay, maybe this metaphor got a little stretched…
Point is, many games might not get off on the strongest footing, but some of them eventually recover from their shaky starts to become decent or even excellent experiences. In this gallery we're going to run down some of those games that started poorly, as well as some solid games that have only gotten better with time.
After the game's servers were shut down in 2012 and a PS3 version was canceled, Square Enix eventually decided to replace the MMO with a completely reworked version of the game called Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which launched for PC in 2013. Thankfully, A Realm Reborn improved on pretty much every area of the original Final Fantasy XIV, from crafting to traversal, from its combat to its open world. That PS3 version finally made it out and was joined by a PS4 edition, which we thought was even better than the PC version. In addition, a bunch of free content updates and more extensive DLC packs have continually improved the game: Heavensward added 40 hours of excellent new story content, while Stormblood--released in June--introduced a whole new undersea world along with another 50 hours of campaign content. In short, Final Fantasy XIV is a completely different beast to the one that disappointed fans the world over in 2010--it's never been so good, and it's definitely worth another look if you were put off all the way back in 2010.
No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky was possibly a victim of its own hype machine--it was a cool concept executed fairly well, but it left some disappointed. Its world may have been vast, but much of it was empty or repetitive, and few solid threads to follow meant that players often felt lost or dismayed to carry on exploring.
In addition, there's a whole storyline that many players might have missed. A mysterious force known as Atlas offers a purpose, a sprinkling of story that helps direct you in an otherwise directionless world. If you didn't pursue Atlas first time round, it might be worth going back just to see how it pans out.
No Man's Sky is coming to Xbox One this year alongside a new update that, according to Hello, will be "an important next step in a journey for No Man's Sky," so it may be worth revisiting.
Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege actually launched with a positive critical reception in December 2015--it was soon after launch that the criticism began to rain down. Players complained of broken matchmaking, connectivity issues and lag, and multiple imbalances in the meta, to name just a few problems.
For months many of these issues remained, and despite player numbers staying consistently high (a testament to the excellent game underneath), matchmaking times and other issues did not improve.
Now, however, Siege is almost a different game. Following months of patches, hotfixes, balance changes, and more, Siege is finally in the state it should have been when it launched, and it's passed 20 million players with more than 2.3 million playing every day. Matchmaking is seamless, balance is much improved, and bugs are much, much rarer. The shooter has also received an extensive program of free DLC, helping the operator dynamics stay fresh and keeping players on their toes. Free maps and skins, plus new, unlockable characters, have continually offered reasons to return to Siege.
Siege has now started holding huge, free, limited-time events in addition to its standard quarterly DLC drops, and Ubisoft says it wants to continue supporting the game until it reaches 100 Operators, a feat that at the current rate would take some seven years. Rainbow Six Siege is here to stay, and the gaming landscape is better for it.
Friday The 13th
Let's not beat around the bush: Friday the 13th was a hot mess when it launched in May. Even excusing the multitude of bugs and an all-around less-than-beautiful appearance, the horror game was pretty much unplayable. Assuming you could even find a match, doing so would take upwards of 10 minutes, leading our critic to award the game a 4/10 in our Friday the 13th review.
While many of its problems remain, it is now just about possible to find a match. And when you do, Friday the 13th is a lot of fun: playing a match with a bunch of friends, when you're invested in you and your buddies escaping from the hell you find themselves in, the game can be a simultaneously terrifying and hilarious experience. There's nothing funnier than your friends screaming, after all.
Rocket League launched with… no problems at all. Or at least, no one really had any problems with it. It was a solid, fun multiplayer game with a great hook (football with cars is one hell of an elevator pitch). These days, however, it's a completely different beast.
Like many, I played Rocket League a decent amount after it launched as a PS Plus freebie in July 2015. After deciding it was indeed a solid, fun multiplayer game, I put it down and probably went back to my backwards one-dimensional games like FIFA or Cars 3: Driven to Win. (One of these is a joke; I bet you can't guess which.)
However, the developer continued to support and fix Mass Effect: Andromeda since launch, meaning it is now--finally--in an acceptable state. Underneath the aesthetic issues, of course, was a decent game, and with many of those problems now sorted, the experience is much improved. I's by no means perfect, of course, but it also has some of the best worlds and combat seen in the entire Mass Effect series, and it's certainly worthy of another look.
Grand Theft Auto Online
When Grand Theft Auto V first launched in 2013, it wasn't exactly lacking in stuff to do. Its huge, dense open-world and ensemble cast of characters meant it was packed with places to go, people to see, and activities to engage in. Because of that and some unfortunate server problems at launch, not everyone properly dug into GTA Online. You may, like me, have booted it up once, failed to connect, and then got distracted by the single-player mode's diverse offering and never bothered to go back. But GTA Online today is a very different entity to the one GTA V launched with five years ago.
The Heists update, released in 2015, gave the multiplayer mode more structure and set piece missions for players to work towards. Like their single-player equivalents, they are complex, multi-part missions that involve intense planning and teamwork to pull off, and they contain some of the most satisfying co-op gameplay you can have online. In addition, the GTA community continues to give fellow players more and more things to do in the form of races, deathmatches, and more via the Content Creator--and that's on top of the new stuff Rockstar itself is continually adding in.
Warframe came out in 2013 and was largely dismissed by players and critics alike. They deemed it a competent but ultimately bland experience. However, developer Digital Extremes has continued to work on the free-to-play game in order to address the issues it had five years ago. Now, the shooter-RPG has changed significantly.
Digital Extremes updates the game frequently, adding new content and expansions and reworking what was already there. An open-world DLC pack was added for free in 2017, bringing a day-night cycle, new mini-games, additional enemies, and more. Before that, the company redesigned Warframe's movement system and even small details like UI elements. In April, the game received a new game mode and plenty of new items to equip your character with.
Warframe is a game that's progressed beyond what was there at launch into a deep and varied experience, and it's worth trying again.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Ghost Recon: Wildlands' initial reception might have been modest, but that hasn't stopped Ubisoft from supporting its game heavily in the months since its launch. Like with Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft committed to continuing to work on its game once it was out the door with both paid and free DLC. To start with, that added content included minor updates and improvements as well as new story missions and characters, such as the ones seen in the Narco Road and Fallen Ghosts expansions.
Since then, however, Wildlands has added an entirely new PvP portion, named Ghost War. That included eight maps and 12 classes at launch, but more of each have been added since the free mode was introduced in 2017. There have also been free add-ons centered around the Predator and Splinter Cell.
Ubisoft has already also announced it will continue to support Wildlands for at least another year. The coming months will bring "major" content drops, including modes, weapons, and more. Wildlands, like Siege, is always changing and improving, and there's never been a better time to dive in.
Hearthstone: Heroes Of Warcraft
Like many of Blizzard's games, Hearthstone has incredible staying power. Of course that's partly because it--like many of Blizzard's games--is excellent. It blends accessible card game mechanics with the developer's trademark ability to cram personality into every sinew of its titles. Crucially, Hearthstone contains enough depth to keep players interested to this day, around five years since it first launched in beta and over four years since its public release. Oh, and it's free-to-play.
Not only all that, but Blizzard is still releasing new content for the TCG. The company recently released a new expansion, named The Witchwood, which introduced another 135 cards to the game. A new mode launched shortly after that, and another two expansions are coming this year, which combined with some rotations of active cards will shake up the game's meta in a big way. Single-player modes such as Dungeon Run have helped keep the attention of some players who aren't huge fans of PvP, and it's that breadth of appeal that has helped Blizzard's card game remain relevant for so long. Hearthstone, like many of Blizzard's games, will be around for a while, and we can't wait to see what's next.
Final Fantasy 15
Final Fantasy XV was another game that launched to a positive reception, but a lot has changed since it came out in 2016. To start with, the game is now available on PC, and it even has a Pocket Edition on mobile. To coincide with the PC launch, Square Enix released a new, up-to-date version of the game called the Royal Edition. Why did it do this, you ask? Because like with Final Fantasy XIV, the company poured resources into support for XV long after its launch.
A total of four expansions came out in the months following launch, each adding content in their own way. Episode Gladiolus added a spin-off portion in which you control the character's quest to become a stronger guardian for Noctis, and Episode Ignis follows a similar thread for that character. Episode Prompto, meanwhile, turns the game into a third-person shooter, while Comrades introduced an entirely new multiplayer portion (which also allowed you to play with AI if you prefer).
Dota 2 was arguably one of the first titles to get the games-as-a-service model right, while simultaneously acting as a prime example of a great free-to-play game. It's also one of the best MOBAs ever made. It's pretty good, then.
With this sequel Valve went far beyond what was achieved with the original Defense of the Ancients--a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos--and that's partly down to how well the developer has supported Dota 2 since its launch in 2013.
Frequent patches have brought new maps, an updated UI, a new engine, and even Rick and Morty crossover content. Of course, additional characters have continued to arrive, suitably shaking up the meta each time, as have additional modes. A co-op campaign was added in May 2017, for example, while the game's Battle Pass subscription service has even introduced a Battle Royale mode just recently. In short, this is a game that is still growing and improving after five years. It's showing no signs of slowing down, and if you have the spare time required to learn its ins and outs, Dota 2 is definitely worth trying.
In 2017, Microsoft managed to enhance its latest and a few pre-existing games with upgraded visuals thanks to the release of Xbox One X. However, the publisher's roster of exclusives last year was small.
There were a few noticeable standouts, like Everspace and Cuphead, but Microsoft just couldn't compete against Sony and Nintendo's larger libraries. Fortunately, Microsoft kicked off this year with a solid array of exclusive triple-A and independent games.
We expected to see titles like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, but Microsoft managed to surprise us with sequels to fan favorite franchises, like Forza Horizon 4, and phenomenal new experiences, like Full Metal Furies. And that's only the beginning. Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference revealed the company has plenty of exclusives on the way. With so many great-looking games coming to the console that you won't find anywhere else, we've compiled a list of all the exclusive games coming to Xbox One in the coming months.
Make sure to check back often, as we'll continue to update our entries with specific dates and info when new announcements are made. If you're curious about other platforms, you can check out our features on PS4 exclusives, PC exclusives, and Switch exclusives.
It's worth noting that there are a few games in this feature that are also on PC. Given Microsoft's Play Anywhere program and the company's hand in both console and PC gaming, these games have been included.
Which Xbox One games are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments below.
Full Metal Furies
This action adventure places an emphasis on teamwork. You and three friends each take control of one of four different heroes and adventure into a world filled with deadly enemies, vicious traps, and mind-boggling puzzles. You might want to grab a fifth person to keep track of all the clues and puzzles with pen and paper. For Full Metal Furies, you'll need it. Trust us.
Developer: Cellar Door Games | Release Date: January 17
Deep Rock Galactic
Deep Rock Galactic is a first-person cooperative sci-fi shooter where up to four players explore procedurally generated, destructible environments to complete in a variety of missions. As a team of Dwarven space miners, you work together to blow up cave walls and mow down enemies.
Developer: Ghost Ship Games | Release Date: February 28 (Early Access)
Pit People
Pit People is an action-RPG developed by indie game developer The Behemoth. It released in Early Access last year, and officially launched this past March. The game continues the wacky humor of The Behemoth's previous titles and unites Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, and BattleBlock Theater into one shared universe.
Sea of Thieves is the first original, non-Kinect game by iconic developer Rare in years. It's a first-person multiplayer action-adventure game that allows you to live out the life of a pirate with your friends. You work together to navigate the sea by ship while hunting down treasure and fending off competing players.
State of Decay 2 is a multiplayer zombie survival game featuring an open-world environment and co-op gameplay with up to three other players. Unlike the original, the game allows you to control anyone in your crew of survivors, who each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Forza's popular spin-off returns for another installment in Forza Horizon 4. The open world racing game is doubling down on the weather effects this time around and implementing drastic changes to each track depending on whether the race occurs in the spring, summer, fall, or winter. The game will feature 450 licensed cars.
Developer: Playground Games | Release Date: September 28 (Ultimate Edition), October 2 (Deluxe and Standard Editions)
Black Desert Online
The incredibly popular PC MMORPG Black Desert Online is making its way onto Xbox One this year as a timed-exclusive. Thanks to the power of the Xbox One X, the upcoming console port can be played in 4K.
Ashen is an action-RPG where you play a wanderer in search of a place to settle. However, the game's hostile world is filled with malicious scavengers and deadly creatures who ensure you won't stay in one place for long. Ashen challenges you to explore, create settlements, and seek out other adventurers to improve your chances of survival.
Darwin Project is a free-to-play third-person competitive battle royale with an emphasis on survival. In order to win, you must endure extreme weather conditions, while tracking opponents and setting up traps.
Developer: Scavenger Studio | Release Date: TBA 2018
The Last Night
The Last Night is a 2.5D cinematic platformer where you play as Charlie, a lower-class citizen in a society where computers and machinery have taken over menial work. You explore the city, talk with its various inhabitants, and discover its secrets.
Update 5: Playground mode will not launch in Fortnite this week after all. Epic announced that it now won't launch until next week, with additional details to be shared on Monday, July 2. In a tweet, it said, "We're still unable to resolve issues preventing the launch of the Playground LTM. We are holding the release until next week to continue hammering away this weekend. We're sorry we haven't been able to get you in the LTM, and we know waiting is the worst."
Update 4: Fortnite's Playground mode is still unavailable a day after it was set to return. Epic says progress is being made but it's trying to avoid rushing into pushing it up. "We're continuing testing on our matchmaking improvements and are still aiming to open the Playground LTM as soon as we're confident in our improvements," it said on Reddit. "Once we have confirmed that our testing was successful we will begin gradually rolling servers out to all regions and platforms until it's available to all players."
Subsequently, Epic said on Twitter that it's "continuing to test improvements that are needed to enable the Playground LTM." We haven't gotten any further word on where things stand with Playground, but the other new limited-time mode added alongside this update--Final Fight Teams of 12--has been removed in response to player feedback. In its place, 50v50 has returned to the game with some changes. And with all of this happening, Epic is teasing that the mysterious rocket could launch on Saturday.
Update 3: The latest news from Epic doesn't change the expected return of Fortnite's Playground mode, but it also doesn't sound as if its release is imminent. An update to the same Reddit post states: "We're continuing to test improvements made to our matchmaking services for the Playground LTM. We want to get you out there and let you unleash your creativity but also want to ensure a positive experience once we enable this game mode again. We'll give you more updates and a timeline as soon as we have one." Whether the mode does end up coming back online today remains to be seen.
Update 2: Epic has provided another update on the status of Fortnite: Battle Royale's new Playground mode. In another Reddit post, it stated, "Yesterday we launched the Playground LTM. So many of you rushed in to create and play that our matchmaking service fell over. We've since separated the Playground matchmaker from the one that affects the default modes and made large improvements to assist with the number of players. We plan to push these changes and improvements live later today to bring the Playground LTM back online. We'll give you more updates and a timeline as soon as we have one."
We'll report back as more details are shared, but that means we can expect to get into Playground mode today, June 28, presumably during US time. For now, you can check out the new Week 9 challenges that are now live.
Update: Following its launch, Playground mode remains unavailable in Fortnite. The launch of the 4.5 update saw some serious technical issues plague Battle Royale, preventing matchmaking from working across all modes for a period of time. Those have since been resolved, but Epic quickly removed Playground from the rotation and has yet to say exactly when it will be back.
The company's latest statement came on Wednesday evening US time. In a post on the Fortnite Reddit, it said, "We know you want to get back out to the Playground LTM. We've got multiple teams working to get this mode back into your hands so you can let your imaginations run wild. We want to inform you that the Playground LTM will remain closed for repairs for the night. We'll have more information available [Thursday]." We'll report back with any details about when Playground will come back. The original story follows.
Fortnite's latest update, v4.5, is now available on all platforms. On top of introducing a new weapon and other features to both Battle Royale and Save the World, it marks the start of the game's latest limited-time mode, Playground--although as of this writing, the mode has been temporarily taken offline.
Unlike previous limited-time modes, Playground is intended to be a "low-pressure environment" that acts much like a private server. It allows players to explore the map, devise strategies, and play around freely with up to three friends without the risk of being eliminated by other players.
Each round in Playground lasts for one hour, and the storm circle won't begin closing in on the map until 55 minutes into the match. Friendly fire is enabled, although players will respawn immediately unless eliminated by the storm. There's also considerably more loot to find. 100 Llamas will spawn across the map, and players will receive 10 times the normal amount of any resources gathered during the match.
Playground isn't the only limited-time mode available in Fortnite this week. Final Fight Teams of 12 is also now underway in Battle Royale. This mode unfolds like a standard game of Battle Royale; however, the storm circles stop closing partway through a match. Once the circles have finished closing, a Final Countdown timer will begin, with the remaining teams competing to have the most surviving players when the time expires.
Epic hasn't announced an end date for either Playground or Final Fight Teams of 12. Fortnite's limited-time modes are typically only available for about a week, although it remains to be seen if Playground will remain in the rotation a little longer than usual to make up for its downtime. You can read more details about each mode--courtesy of the patch notes on the official Fortnite website--below.
Epic still hasn't provided a time table for when Playground mode will be enabled again. The mode was taken offline due to a matchmaking issue that cropped up following the rollout of update 4.5. That issue has since been resolved, but Epic says it is "continuing work" to bring Playground back online. The developer will provide further updates on Fortnite's status website.
Fortnite Update 4.5 Patch Notes
Playground
Summary
Playground is a low-pressure environment where friends can let their creativity run wild. Build massive structures. Practice with the weapons and items. Fight against your friends. Have fun!
Mode Details
You'll have one hour to create, play and train as you wish. Hop in and try out version 1 of Playground!
Drop into the Battle Royale map with a squad of friends for an hour
Friendly Fire is on
Players respawn on elimination unless downed by the storm
The storm doesn't start closing in for 55m, and takes 5 minutes to close in
Resources gathered grant 10x the normal rate.
100 Llamas will be spawned on the map
Chests & Ammo Boxes spawn 100% of the time
Final Fight Teams of 12
Summary
Make it to the final circle and then fight for the Victory Royale!
Mode Details
Final Fight plays similar to standard Battle Royale, but instead of the storm circles closing all the way in, they stop part way through the match.
When the circles have finished closing in, the Final Countdown timer will begin.
The remaining teams will battle it out until the timer expires.
The team with the most players remaining at the end of the timer wins!
In the event of a tie, the two (or more) teams tied for the lead win the match.
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