In honor of the end of GOG.com's Big Summer Sale, we're giving away 500 PCgame codesfree from their catalog. The PC game codes will be a mystery code, redeemable on GOG's platform, and are DRM-free. (Scroll down to enter below.)
During a visit to Ubisoft Quebec, we had the opportunity to play the upcoming Assassin's Creed Odyssey for about five hours. It was a small slice of the huge open world of Ancient Greece, set in 431 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. We spent that time on the Delos Islands completing side quests, leading a rebellion, and engaging in many of the RPG elements that are new to the franchise. Dialogue options aren't the only thing that are new, as facing the consequences of your choices was very much part of the demo. You can read about our experience in an in-depth preview of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and how RPG elements seem to make it a better game.
In addition to getting our hands on an early build, we had the chance to talk with Assassin's Creed Odyssey's director Scott Phillips. The following interview digs into the inspiration for the new direction, what players can expect throughout the story, and how the team is working in the rich history of this time period.
For more on Assassin's Creed Odyssey, be sure to check out our breakdown of the six biggest changes for this entry. If you want to see more of the game in action, we have a bunch of gameplay videos that show off ship combat, dialogue sequences, and large-scale battles.
GameSpot: The first thing that struck me when playing the game is the heavier RPG elements. How was that decision made and what other games did you draw inspiration from? Where did that start?
Scott Phillips: It was early on, three years ago, we were coming to the end of Syndicate. When talking about what Assassin's Creed Odyssey should be, we asked where do we want Assassin's Creed to go, what does it need to evolve into? We talked with the Assassin's Creed Origins team to see what they were doing. We both had the same sort of idea of where the series should go--RPG choice, we wanted to push it forward. We knew Origins was doing some of those things, but for us, we had the time to really go even further to focus on the two characters, Alexios and Kassandra, to focus on choice within the stories and within the dialogue, to give you special abilities, to build your own play style.
In terms of inspiration, I play a lot of RPGs and I would say open-world is my favorite genre. The RPG is something [that] fits together super, super well. And I play everything that comes out; games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and obviously Assassin's Creed Origins. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout, those two are probably some of my favorite[s]. And if you look at those games, they give players a lot of options. For us, that was what we wanted to push Assassin's Creed as a franchise into: more choice for the player.
This is the first Assassin's Creed that's moved into branching dialogue and consequences for your choices. In the playable demo, decisions were made, side quests were completed, and two hours down the line, the consequences play out. The end product of the decision wasn't clear right away. How hard is it to keep it cohesive?
It's super hard, I've got to say. There's no other way to put it. We try to think of every consequence that can happen. We write all those, we move forward with structuring the quests and all of the quests that could be impacted in a way that'll work. Then we play it a lot and ask ourselves, what did we miss? What doesn't connect? What doesn't pay off well enough?
Something we had a while ago and tried was including a sort of the Telltale-style "your choice will have an impact" notification afterward. Ultimately we felt that the player is better off making those connections themselves and we didn't want to put too much in their face. We wanted the feeling of, "Oh, wow, that thing I did back then..." or when they talk to someone else and say, "Oh, I had no idea that those connections were made." We felt after play tests that it was the stronger way to go rather than being in the player's face with the decisions being made.
Male protagonist Alexios speaking with Socrates, one of the many ways Odyssey incorporates Greek history.
Assassin's Creed always told a contained story within history. But choices seem to play out in the larger, main narrative. Is there going to be bigger payoffs or consequences of larger scale, maybe multiple endings? How much can you change the world and how much will it be reflected in the world as the game goes on?
We have to make decisions about how big are we going to go with certain choices. Obviously, we want some to have massive changes to the story, but we have mid-scale changes and small changes. Some parts of side quests can impact the main quest: who appears, who's around you, who's dead, who's alive, who you're friends with, who hates you. Those sorts of things all sort of feed into both the main story, and all of the side stories, and in the world itself because the world is constantly changing. The mercenaries that are alive in your playthrough, I may never see in mine or maybe I killed them in my playthrough. The leaders can also be different. So, there's a lot of activity and change and when players talk to each other about what their experience was, or some great fight they had with this mercenary, or the choice they made in that quest, it's going to be a very different experience for each player.
I love the Mass Effect series, but with Paragon/Renegade, I know straight up if my decision is good or bad. But we've also had games like The Witcher 3 that just give you options, and who knows how they'll pay off in the end. From the slice we played, it seems Odyssey is going the latter route.
Making the game morally gray and not black-and-white was important to us. We didn't want it to be like past games where you're not forced to not kill civilians, as a simple example. The Creed doesn't exist for your player character in terms of restricting you from doing that. That's your choice. But we're going to impact the player, we're going to show you that it means something in the game world. And it's going to give you feedback, you're going to feel those choices you've made in small-scale and in these large-scale choices across the game.
Do you want to encourage players to do more side stuff, especially those who tend to mainline games? Do you kind of accept that they might be missing out on some really good story bits and narrative arcs?
Yeah, I think the easiest example is if you look at our E3 demo, you don't have to play any of that. That's all side content in the main game, and that's true throughout huge parts of the game. We want you to do that, we think you will enjoy it. And as balance between players that want to rush the game and players that want to complete every single piece is a challenge for us, because we want both play styles to be valid and work well. In an RPG, making sure that the player who does 100% of the content and that player who does only what they want, we want both to have a good experience. Balance for both player types is something that RPGs have struggled with quite a bit. I think we have a very good progression system, a very good way of balancing the game that makes it so everyone, no matter what they do, is going to have a great time.
Character relationships are a new thing, along with choice-based dialogue, of course. For example, I tried romancing Kyra but it didn't work out. How deep are relationships going to go and how impactful are those relationships?
It depends on the character. I would say Kyra is a mid-level romance to put it in a weird way. There are some side characters, and other characters where it's a shorter thing, but you can still recruit people to be on your ship crew. And with some of these romanceable characters, you can recruit them to be on your ship and with you for the rest of your journey, or you can never see them again. It's sort of your choice. There's also family relationships which you'll make decisions about, and will impact, ultimately, who's around or who's there for help as you get further in the game. You'll see a lot of variation based on the way you've played the game.
With choice-based dialogue, there are many directions it can go. But it's all contained in Greek mythology and the Ancient Greek historical time period. How do you balance between using history and creative freedom? Are we still going to have that rich, historical backdrop along with the story that you're trying to tell as well?
It's fun. It's always a back-and-forth of how far can we push it: when do we need to focus more on Greek history, when do we need to focus more on Assassin's Creed lore, and when do we need to just give the player something really cool to do? We're constantly making those choices. On a small scale, it's things like how buildings and structures look. We maintain historical accuracy, but some of our statues are way bigger than they would've been in this time period. Or the look of Sparta in our game is more grandiose than what Sparta actually was, because the Spartans, the Laconians, were very minimalistic. They focused solely on war; they didn't try to build big statues. But we wanted Sparta to be this awesome, amazing, epic-looking Greek location, and we had to push it forward.
Skyrim, Fallout, those two are probably some of my favorite[s]. And if you look at those games, they give players a lot of options. For us, that was what we wanted to push Assassin's Creed as a franchise into: more choice for the player.
When it comes to ships, there are simple things about how the triremes would have to be pulled out of the water to avoid getting waterlogged and sinking. Obviously, we're not going to do that. But we also need to make decisions about ramming, shooting javelins, and firing arrows; how far are we going to push it? Did they have catapults? Did catapults exist at that time? Well, sort of. It's always a fine line, and we're pushing and pulling, and trying to make sure that we're true to both the vision we want to have for a game in 2018 and what this period of time would've looked like.
When you meet with Socrates, you have discussions of philosophy. You meet with Hippocrates, who's the father of medicine. You talk to Herodotus, who's the father of modern history. You engage with these characters and develop details about what their thought processes were, and you affect it as well. But then you also argue with Socrates even as you have him as an ally. So, it's a constant battle between too little and too much. And I think we found a really good balance, especially with the mythology of Ancient Greece. It's a super deep, awesome mythology of legends and gods with the mixture of history. And it's also Assassin's Creed, which has a ton of characters with names from the first civilization that come from Ancient Greece, and they're coming from that sort of lore. We had a good backdrop to sort of mix the two. I don't want to spoil stuff, but there are a lot of really cool ways that pays off. If you really engage in the game, there's some really amazing stuff that ties it all together.
As for the modern day storyline, are any of the RPG elements going to play into the modern day storytelling?
So, there is definitely modern day gameplay with Layla Hassan, but I don't want to go into that just yet.
Origins was big in terms of scope, and this game seems big, too. How do you answer those worried about series fatigue? Even though there's a lot of new stuff, they might just not be in the mood for another huge open world.
We've worked on the game for three years, and in terms of what we've done, we put in a huge amount of effort. We had a big team for that period of time. We focused on making this huge, huge game. I think fans will really see, when they play it, that what we brought is something new and fresh to Assassin's Creed with choice, with RPG elements. And I think it is and will be one of the favorite Assassin's Creed games.
E3 2018 has come and gone, and as promised, it featured a ton of announcements, trailers, and other exciting reveals. But while the show was dominated primarily by triple-A titles such as The Last of Us: Part II, Cyberpunk 2077, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, those certainly weren't the only interesting games we had an opportunity to see during the expo.
Amid the many press conferences, bombastic trailers, and lengthy gameplay demonstrations showcased during E3 were a number of clever, intriguing, and touching efforts from smaller and lesser-known studios that were easy to overlook in the general bustle of the show. Thanks to related events like Indie Mix, however, these titles got a chance to stand apart from the crowd and capture our attention with their unique ideas and distinctive styles.
Below, you can find gameplay videos of six interesting and unique indie games we got a chance to play during E3 2018, from the rougelike real-time strategy game Bad North to the bizarre What the Golf? and the emotional, cyberpunk-inspired narrative adventure Neo Cab. For a look at even more interesting titles you may not have heard of, be sure to check out our gallery of the 21 best games you may have missed from E3 2018.
Bad North
Bad North from developer Plausible Concept is a Viking-themed tactical game that blends together real-time strategy gameplay with rougelike elements. The title's charming art style belies its unforgiving nature, as any commander you lose during a skirmish is gone permanently. Bad North is slated to launch later this year for PC, consoles, and mobile.
Chasm
Bit Kid's Chasm is a sprawling side-scrolling adventure game set in a medieval fantasy world. Boasting a beautifully retro visual style and procedurally generated areas to explore, Chasm casts players in the role of a new recruit of the Guildean Kingdom, who embarks on a mission to discover why townspeople have begun disappearing. The game is coming later this year to PS4, PC, and Vita.
Darq
Darq is a psychological horror game about lucid dreaming. Developed by Unfold Games, the title follows the story of Lloyd, a young boy whose dream takes a dark turn. He must manipulate the logic of the dream world and use stealth to overcome obstacles, avoid horrific enemies, and survive the darkest corners of his subconscious. Darq will release for PC later this year, with a console release potentially following later.
Neo Cab
Neo Cab from developer Chance Agency is narrative game that casts players in the role of Lina, the last human driver in the cyberpunk-inspired city of Los Ojos. Lina's friend mysteriously vanishes, and it falls to players to maintain her driver rating--and livelihood--by deciding which passengers to pick up and how to interact with them while Lina searches for her friend's whereabouts. Neo Cab doesn't yet have a release date, but the game is in development for PC and Mac.
What the Golf?
Billed by developer Triband as a "golf game for people who hate golf," What the Golf? is a ridiculous, physics-based title that takes the basic idea behind the sport--hitting a ball into a hole--in a variety of outlandish directions. It begins like a standard game of golf, but soon players will find themselves smacking the ball into toasters, steering a car, and even putting a house. The game is coming later this summer to PC.
Where the Bees Make Honey
Where the Bees Make Honey is a beautiful isometric puzzle game reminiscent of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Players must guide Sunny, a young girl dressed like a bee, around diorama-like worlds, which can be rotated to gain a different perspective and discover unseen objects. The game spans four seasons, each of which has its own puzzles, while its story unfolds through cutscenes that punctuate every world. Where the Bees Make Honey will release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in early 2019.
Originally released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in October 2017, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus launches on Nintendo Switch on June 29. Switch has quite a few AAA ports already, including Skyrim and Doom 2016, but Wolfenstein II is a little different in that it's a direct sequel--and it's coming to a new platform before its predecessor does. For those who haven't played MachineGames' Wolfenstein series before, jumping in with The New Colossus might seem daunting.
During E3 2018, we spoke to Adam Creighton, studio head at developer Panic Button--which also did the Doom port--about Wolfenstein on Switch. Creighton specifically mentioned the excitement around getting a Wolfenstein game on a Nintendo console, saying that it will be some Switch owners' first experience with the series. But there are currently no plans to bring Wolfenstein: The New Order or its standalone prequel, The Old Blood, to Switch.
"That's a Bethesda discussion, honestly. It's [up to] them and Nintendo as to what would work for the platform," Creighton said. "I think it'll be interesting to see how [The New Colossus is] received right after it launches at the end of the month and what Bethesda does from there."
When asked to confirm that there were no plans for ports of those games, Creighton said, "Not currently. Not that I know of, but Bethesda may have other plans. And we on the Panic Button side are totally up for anything."
Creighton also confirmed that the DLC for The New Colossus is not included in the Switch port at this time. "Right now we're releasing the base game. Bethesda is going to look at what the reaction is in the market, what people want," he said.
For more on Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, check out our original review. In other Wolfenstein news, Bethesda announced Wolfenstein Youngblood, a standalone game starring series protagonist BJ Blazkowicz's twin daughters.
Like other battle royale games, Fortnite: Battle Royale offers a wide variety of ways that any match can play out. But come to the final circle of a round, and you likely know what to expect: Players building elaborate defenses and wielding shotguns and rocket launchers. It can get a bit tiresome, and Victory Royales can feel out of reach for those who aren't experts at building. Developer Epic Games is aware of all this, and it's looking to mix things up.
In a post on Fortnite's website, Epic explained that it plans to "continue to make changes to evolve the game to give players multiple ways to counter each other in combat, and create more strategies to win the game." It also specifically addresses the notion that building is the only way to win: "It's important to support a variety of late game strategies, that don't boil down to 'just build lol.' We strongly believe that the evolution of Fortnite supports a wide range of play styles and counterplay. Currently, the superiority of shotguns, rockets, and uncapped building are such a dominant play style in the final circle that most other strategies are being drowned out."
Epic said it's already made some changes to address these concerns and will continue to do so. Weapon balance is being looked at, as is the resource economy, which it said includes something like a cap on the number of resources you can hold. The "next few weeks" will see Epic continuing to look at changes it can make, and it says it wants to hear from players about what they want to see.
"You should be able to find Victory Royales through multiple strategies," it said. "Shotguns should be strong, but other weapons have room to grow. Not every encounter should have to end in a build-off. We want to empower you to showcase your skill, strategy, and tactics in all variety of ways."
The ability to build ramps, walls, and floors was initially the thing that most distinguished Fortnite from competitors like PUBG, but Epic has done an impressive job in expanding the game since launch last year. Just how much it's willing to deemphasize the need to build to win remains to be seen, but it's a positive sign to see that it's willing to address what can feel like a stale endgame experience.
Games Done Quick is back for another of its summer charity events, and that means a week of speedrunning awesome games is on its way. Starting this Sunday, June 24, Summer Games Done Quick will take place in Bloomington, MN. From then until Saturday, June 30, more than 100 speedrunners will compete around the clock, playing their favorite games.
The event kicks off at 12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT / 5:30 PM BST on Sunday. Summer Games Done Quick will then go non-stop until the following Saturday and into early Sunday morning.
Niantic has rolled out a big new update for Pokemon Go, which finally implements two commonly requested features--trading and friends lists--to the mobile game. On top of allowing players to send Pokemon and items to each other, the update introduces several new Alolan Pokemon, which can only be obtained through the gifting feature.
As its name suggests, the gifting feature allows players to give and receive special Gifts. These are collected by spinning PokeStop discs and can be sent to other players on your friends list (they can't be opened by the player who first obtained them). The Gifts include "a stash of helpful items," among them new 7 km Eggs, which will hatch into the Alolan form of a Kanto Pokemon.
At the moment, four Alolan Pokemon are available through the 7 km Eggs: Grimer, Vulpix, Sandshrew, and Meowth. Niantic has also confirmed that an additional two Alolan Pokemon--Diglett and Geodude--will begin appearing around the world during the weekend of Pokemon Go Fest, which takes place on July 14 and 15.
Alolan forms were first introduced in Pokemon Sun and Moon for 3DS. These have a different appearance and type than their Kanto counterparts; Alolan Vulpix, for example, is an Ice-type rather than a Fire-type. 18 Gen 1 Pokemon have Alolan forms; you can see the full list, along with their new types, below:
Rattata (Dark/Normal)
Raticate (Dark/Normal)
Raichu (Electric/Psychic)
Sandshrew (Ice/Steel)
Sandslash (Ice/Steel)
Vulpix (Ice)
Ninetales (Ice/Fairy)
Diglett (Ground/Steel)
Dugtrio (Ground/Steel)
Meowth (Dark)
Persian (Dark)
Geodude (Rock/Electric)
Graveler (Rock/Electric)
Golem (Rock/Electric)
Grimer (Poison/Dark)
Muk (Poison/Dark)
Exeggutor (Grass/Dragon)
Marowak (Fire/Ghost)
The first Alolan form to appear in Pokemon Go was Exeggutor, which was available for a brief period of time last month to coincide with the announcement of Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee. Following the new update, Alolan Exeggutor can once again be found in the wild, although it is much rarer than it was during its initial run.
In addition to the new Alolan forms, two rare Pokemon--Lunatone and Solrock--have swapped regions to celebrate the Summer Solstice. A new Legendary, Regice, can also now be found in Raid Battles until July 19. The remaining two Legendary titans, Regirock and Registeel, will begin appearing in the game later this summer.
A new Legendary has begun appearing in Pokemon Go. Regice, one of the three Legendary titans originally from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, can now be found at Gyms around the world as a Raid Battle, where it will appear until July 19.
As usual, players will first have to team up with other Trainers and battle Regice before earning a chance to capture it. Like its name implies, Regice is an Ice-type, which means it's particularly vulnerable to Fire-, Rock-, Steel-, and Fighting-types. Despite its many weaknesses, it has high defensive stats, making it a formidable Pokemon to take down.
The remaining two Legendary titans, Regirock and Registeel, are also slated to arrive in Pokemon Go soon. Niantic hasn't announced when those two Legendaries will begin appearing in Raid Battles, but they'll follow Regice later this summer.
Regice arrives shortly after the end of Pokemon Go's latest in-game event, the Water Festival. As part of that event, another Gen 3 Legendary, Kyogre, returned to Raid Battles for a limited time. While that Pokemon may no longer be available, players still have an opportunity to complete the latest set of Field Research quests, which will lead to another encounter with the Legendary bird Articuno.
Alongside Regice, Niantic has begun rolling out the recently announced friends and trading features for Pokemon Go. As of this writing, however, only players between level 33 and 40 will be able to take advantage of the new functions, although Niantic says it is gradually opening them to other players as well.
Mega Man 11 is the first new main-series entry in eight years, but it feels like it's been much longer than that. Both Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 were very conscious retro throwbacks, with graphics and gameplay styled after the six original NES games. As a true step forward for the classic series, it comes after a 20-year dry spell. At E3 2018, we spoke with producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda about finally modernizing one of Capcom's most iconic franchises.
"When we were tackling Mega Man 11 and we were thinking about what kind of presentation do we want to make, I felt like having another retro game just didn't feel right," Tsuchiya said, via a translator. "It would severely limit the amount of stuff that we could do. Since there's been such a long lapse between the last game and this one, I felt like the best thing to do is to make the game appropriate to modern hardware, use as much of its potential as possible, and make a game that people would be able to look at and recognize that it's the next entry. It's a step forward in the Mega Man franchise."
Ultimately that meant designing a new look for the game, but finding a way to make it recognizable and a natural progression. Tsuchiya said they were very conscious of making it stray too far from the existing style, not wanting to "alienate pre-existing fans." Ultimately the team aimed to make a Mega Man "that looked like he was taken straight from a piece of artwork."
Part of the visual style, naturally, is the animation. But when it came time to animate Mega Man in this new generation, with a fully polygonal character, Capcom discovered it needed to tweak the frames in subtle ways so that it would feel like the classic games. The result is a gorgeous and vibrant new presentation that feels as if it controls with all the pixel-perfect responsiveness of one of its 8-bit counterparts, which was no accident.
"That was something that we took special care in working with the animation artists," said Tsuchiya. "With the modern hardware it's completely capable of making really smooth graphics and smooth animation, but what we quickly found was if it's too smooth then it affected the gameplay and the controls weren't as tight as we wanted it to be. We actually went back and took a look at the older games, and took a look at the animations that Mega Man had, such as him climbing up the ladder, and see which frames were the most important, which frames of Mega Man really heeded to the type of controls that you had. We took a look at that and made sure that all the gameplay components still felt really tight and almost nostalgic to the previous entries, while also still making sure that the visual style was modernized as well."
It's not without its new elements, though. The new Double Gear system gives Mega Man two abilities that can be toggled for short bursts: one that makes his shots extra-powerful, and another that slows time around him. I had thought this would be a crutch for beginners, but during a hands-on I had discovered it actually allowed much more depth. The additional options actually let stage design be built around the assumption that you have these new tools at your disposal. If anything, it adds new wrinkles to the challenge, rather than making it easier.
"I wanted to build something that would open up additional gameplay and options for veteran players, but at the same time also support new fans coming into the franchise for the first time as well," Tsuchiya said. "It was a challenge to try to come up with something that didn't overpower the core mechanics, and allowed those core mechanics to stay there, and would actually help to add something new to that. It was a process of discovery for us. It was a lot of work fine-tuning everything to make sure that it all meshed together well."
Thankfully, it appears Mega Man is in good hands. After a long hiatus the Blue Bomber is finally returning with a beautiful presentation and smart gameplay improvements. It only makes sense, coming from two long-time fans of the series. Asked for their favorite Mega Man games, the two gave strikingly different but altogether encouraging responses.
"Aside from the classic numbered series, the very first Mega Man Battle Network--that was something that really inspired me," said Tsuchiya. "The storyline, the setting, everything about it. I think it did a really good job of portraying the imagination of a child. I think that game really captured that really well. When I first saw it and I first tried it out, that was something that really impacted me in a big way."
"For me it would be the first Mega Man," added Oda. "For me, when I first played it, the core gameplay was so solid. I feel like the original gameplay was so tight and so complete to begin with that my responsibility was to make sure that I wouldn't detract from it so much as making sure that I would complement it."
Everyone knows you can find great PC gaming deals during the Steam's summer sale, but with so many games to choose from, it can be hard to make a decision on what to buy. We thought we'd make it a little easier by highlighting some of the best games available for less than the price of a latte. All of these games are on sale for $5 or less, so you can probably buy a few of them without breaking the bank. The sale ends July 5, so grab them before then.
Triple-A games famously cost many millions of dollars to make, but even they can eventually go down to below-$5 pricing during Steam summer sales. Right now you can buy Darksiders for $4 or Deus Ex: Human Revolution for $3. Even the 2016 sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is available for $5 right now on Steam. If large-scale destructive hijinks is your kind of thing, you can grab Just Cause 3 for $5 as well.
Loads of smaller indie games are available for just a few bucks right now as well, including the ultra-violent kill-fest Hotline Miami and the thoughtful puzzle platformer The Swapper. Other indie gems include Bastion, FTL, and Oxenfree, all on sale for just a few bucks. And if you haven't played the brilliant RPG Undertale yet, you can do so now for $5.
The highly-anticipated Resident Evil 2 remake rides a thin line between old and new. It instantly pulls you in with familiar characters and locales, but finds new ways to make you feel uneasy with its new interpretation of classic events you remember from the original. Whether or not you played Resident Evil 2 back it released, the upcoming remake is shaping up to be a satisfying jaunt through a horror classic well worth looking out for.
My time with the demo began in the main hall of the Raccoon City Police Department as Leon S. Kennedy--who's just as strong willed and naive as we remember. He's no longer the invincible superhero that latter entries transformed him into; he's desperate and vulnerable. These qualities should come as no surprise to fans of the original version, but the remake really leans into them, making your time spent as the rookie cop all the more tense and dire. And with higher-quality voice performances, Leon's circumstances feel grounded and believable.
It helps that the Resident Evil 4-style, third-person over-the-shoulder camera provides a far more intimate view than the original's fixed camera angles. The remake faithfully recreates the original RPD's narrow halls and pathways; its floor layout is nearly identical. The third-person perspective plays well with the labyrinthian police department, making exploration feel unsettling and claustrophobic; gone are the door-opening loading screens.
All throughout my plodding trek across the RPD, I rarely felt safe. An area would be recreated exactly as I remembered it, but then the game would completely mess with my expectations. For example, in the southwest corridor, I expected to fight the infamous Licker, but in its place was the body of an RPD officer whose mouth has been cut into a Glasgow smile. Despite having played the original countless times, new details like this ensured that I was always on my toes.
The feeling of desperation intensifies when you run into your first zombie. The empowering over-the-shoulder shooting featured in latter games has changed. When you aim, the cardinal markers on your reticle slowly move until they're closed in on the center, allowing you to fire a more precise shot. But when you move, the reticle resets and must take time to close in again. Shots take time to line up; you can't just instantly fire from the hip and expect to hit your target. It's a small change, but it completely alters your sense of control. Every bullet counts when you're cornered by a pack of zombies, forcing you to pick your shots wisely.
There's a deeper focus on exploration in the remake. Scattered throughout the environment are doors to unlock and puzzles to solve. Thanks to the more seamless navigation, the game feels more akin to Metroid. You're constantly investigating new pathways, gaining new items that might help you open up the way to your objective. There's more freedom overall to explore and discover secrets at your own pace and in varying orders--which is a welcome change of pace from the more constricted adventure game-like progression of the original.
I walked away pleasantly surprised from my time with Resident Evil 2 remake. As a massive fan of the original, I had reservations going into the demo. But after playing it, I can't wait to jump back in. There's something so special about the way it takes advantage of your knowledge of Resident Evil 2, pleasing you with its faithful renditions of well-known locations, while at the same time terrifying you with everything it does differently. This persisted all throughout my experience with the game, and I can't wait to see all the changes it makes once it finally releases early next year.
Niantic finally has fulfilled its long-held promise, and right before Pokemon Go Fest too. You can now trade Pokemon with your friends in Pokemon Go. But there's a catch--you have to be highly leveled to access the feature. [Update: The friends feature is now available to everyone, while you only need to have reached level 10 in order to begin trading.]
It's unclear how many players will eventually be able to use the trading feature, but for now, it's only accessible by players that are level 30 to 40. The Pokemon Go Twitter has been steadily updating the levels this is available for, so other players may be able to get their hands on the feature too. For right now, we're unsure where what the level range will be; as it changes, we'll update this story.
Attention! Friends, gifting, and trading are now live for those level 30 to 40 Trainers! Stay tuned as we will be gradually rolling out these features to other levels soon. pic.twitter.com/iHGsqrUMYM
For two long years, Pokemon Go players have been waiting for the trading feature. It operates hand in hand with the new friends feature. Like the majority of Nintendo's systems, Pokemon Go's friends system will require friend codes, and there are different levels of friendship too. The friendship levels have a lot to do with the balance of the trading system.
The trading feature itself isn't meant to be easy. Each trade with a friend will cost you both an equal amount of stardust. Stardust is earned by playing the game: hatching eggs, catching new Pokemon, and more. Since the game's launch, stardust has been used to power up different Pokemon. It's one of the few resources in-game that cannot be purchased with real money.
From our initial report on trading and friends, the higher level you have with a friend on your friends list, the less stardust a trade will cost. For example, a trade of Legendary Pokemon could cost two friends at the lowest level 1 million stardust. But, if those friends are at the highest level of friendship, that Legendary trade would only cost them 40,000 stardust.
One of the biggest surprises at E3 2018 was Remedy Entertainment's new PC, PS4, and Xbox One game, Control. Due to release next year, Remedy's latest project is an action-oriented game that focuses on environmental destructibility and supernatural powers, but it's the source of those powers and how they physically transform the game's setting that stood out the most. As discussed in an earlier article, the demo I saw was beautiful, haunting, and filled with strangely alluring touches that beg for explanation. During my interview with director Mikael Kasurinen, he compared Control's atmosphere to that of Annihilation, a book (and a Netflix film) that purposefully obscures cause-and-effect dynamics to keep you guessing.
Shortly after the demo, I also had the chance to speak with Sam Lake, the creative director at Remedy who's had a long and interesting career working on Max Payne, Alan Wake, and prior to Control, Quantum Break. I reviewed Quantum Break, and while I didn't fall in love with its story or the experimental TV-show structure, I did enjoy its combat mechanics and visual presentation. By all appearances, Control seems like an extension of the great work done in those two areas, but otherwise it seems like a very different beast. Given the opportunity to chat with Lake, I had to know: is there something fundamentally different about this project, and if so, what does that mean to him and the rest of the team? Like Kasurinen, Lake's answers didn't disappoint.
GameSpot: Judging by the demo I just saw, Control seems, in a positive way, unhinged. It doesn't seem like there are any creative barriers. Is that the case? How does that feel?
Lake: For this---and don't get this wrong because I'm really proud of what we achieved with Quantum Break--but intentionally from the beginning, with Quantum Break, we wanted mainstream appeal, a big blockbuster thing. Because, creatively, you want to keep things fresh and interesting and get excited about it. It's kind of a pendulum swing. And for [Control] we just said: 'You know what, let's just go with what excites us. Really, even if it's just really out there and weird, let's embrace it and go with it. We love pop culture, we love many different things, but so do gamers out there. Let's just trust that if we go on this journey that they'll come along.' And that excitement is contagious. So we didn't want to be boxed in in any way; we just wanted to go out there and go crazy, in some ways.
That was the starting point for this. Obviously inspiration always comes from many different directions, but one purposeful source of inspiration was the literary genre New Weird, which is kind of a subgenre of sci-fi in a way that deals with the unexplainable. Sometimes there are no answers, and sometimes we are dealing with forces that the human mind can't quite comprehend, or our modern science can't explain. We want to explore these kinds of ideas in [Control] and build a multi-layered, complex world. World building, as a starting point, was more important to us in this than in any previous game--create an interesting world that the players want to keep coming back to, want to explore, want to discover and piece together.
Once again, looking back to Quantum Break, it's a very linear experience. All of our games so far have been. We wanted to create a less linear experience, and you know, for a linear experience you kind of are holding the player's hand, like, "Come here, and this is the next thing and this is the next thing." Now it's hands off. We drop you in and you go and find what interests you. There is a story...and for the main character, a journey to find her place in this world. But at the same time there are many directions to go to and many discoveries to be made. You know, less hand-holding, less handing things to you on a platter; find it, search for it--what interests you--and you will be rewarded. Sometimes it's more challenging, but the funny thing that I feel with mystery and hidden things is that they drive you and motivate you. "There's something here, and I want to find out what it is." That kind of thing.
Could a player conceivably finish this game and not understand everything?
Yeah, I can see that happening, or, you have a theory and maybe you go online and you explain your theory and maybe there is someone else, who says, "[Well] I found these things, and my theory is this." People can debate about it, or somebody can say, "You didn't find this, go in and search for it and it will give you a slightly different picture."
But there is a predefined meaning in your head? I don't want you to say no if you don't want to, but…
It can't be random. I feel it's a good thing to resist the impulse to explain or over-explain everything. It's fine to leave things open for interpretation, but it can't be, "Yeah, anything goes" because then it loses its meaning. There has to be pieces [that fit] together.
What stood out to me was the notion of dream logic. Can you elaborate on how that drives the design of the world?
It can't be just convenient. There need to be rules underneath, and sometimes it can be slightly elusive or more emotion-based, which is where dream logic, I feel, is a good explanation for it. With this we were looking a lot into magical thinking, the primitive magical thinking where things are connected not by causality but by meaning. Somehow when it connects together it makes sense even though physics-wise, or what the science says, it shouldn't make sense. There is a sense of intuitive discovery in it, still. You know, archetypes and collective unconscious--these ideas are very much present in how the unexplainable and mystical works in this world.
Of course there's the action side of this game as well. You can see how some of the work done on Quantum Break translates to Control. How has it grown from there?
We tried to learn from every previous project, and a lot of ideas along the way, when working on one project...You come up with all kinds of ideas that maybe don't fit there, but feel like "this would be really cool to pursue." This project, all in all, and it might be funny to say it's much more player-driven because all games are, but coming from that very linear experience and making something non-linear, we purposefully wanted to go in gameplay-first. Gameplay is the focus of this one.
Yes, there is a story, but from that perspective we wanted to create a world and fiction that is very interwoven with the gameplay, and kind of enhances the gameplay and lifts the gameplay up, and frames the gameplay, and in some ways gives you [questions] like "why does it work this way?" But we wanted to create a deeper core action-gameplay system than we have done ever before. That goes into supernatural abilities that the player has and can unlock and discover in the world.
You saw Jesse had the mystical gun, and the idea there is that the Federal Bureau of Control looks for unexplainable phenomena. They go in and investigate and try to contain and control it. Sometimes they discover things that have been mystically altered, and the most powerful things they call "objects of power." You know, things that have been changed in some mysterious way. The gun that Jesse has is one. It's an ancient service weapon, and at the same time it's the Director's gun. We have, with the gun, the idea of a modern take on [the] King Arthur legend: whoever picks up this gun and is deemed worthy through a trial becomes the Director of this bureau. Jesse doesn't understand it, and the player early on doesn't really understand what's going on. But with that thing comes responsibility and power.
You can find different forms for this gun. It can do many things. You have supernatural abilities, your gun and different gun forms, and we are using our proprietary engine, Northlight, and we are pushing now the concept of dynamic destruction and physics as far as we can possibly go. The environment is a big part of the whole action gameplay thing because you are breaking your environment and then using all of the debris, because many of the abilities you have in one way or another deal with physics or telekinesis and things like that. You can use the environment as a tool and as a weapon against the enemies, and they have similar powers as well. At times, it goes to unexpected places and goes relatively crazy. We had this idea that we wanted to create...that the action part of it should be sandbox-y. There are many systems going on at the same time.
How technically difficult is it to piece that all together?
I'm not a tech guy; I'm always baffled and impressed. Clearly, as tech goes forward...that makes making games for me so interesting. Every single project, we can do something we couldn't have even considered before. And now we are focusing on these aspects and yeah, you can do pretty impressive things with it.
What are you most proud of with this project?
I tend to be a person who approaches these things from a story angle and from the perspective of mood. I think that we have a really strong identity when it comes to themes and tone and you know how the experience feels. It's a combination of story aspects and visuals and audio, all of these things coming together...To me it feels very unique. That was, and always is, our goal: to do our own thing, to do something that hasn't been seen before.
Who are some of the other major contributors at Remedy working on Control?
We came up with the concept and the world, the idea for this game, together with Mikael Kasurinen, who is our game director. He really is in charge of the project. With Mikael, we have been working together since Max Payne 2.
It's great; it's a team effort. There are so many important figures on the team like...the whole brutalist architecture and world building is Stuart Macdonald. One of our art directors, Janne Pulkkinen, is the technical art director, so all of the crazy visual effects and all of that comes from his brain and is realized. Anna Megill is the narrative lead now. I was concepting the story and the characters and then when we went into production I handed it to her and the narrative team. This is always a tricky thing because you don't want to leave anyone out, but I feel we have a lot of incredibly talented people.
Sam Lake, the writer and director behind games like Alan Wake and Quantum Break along with the upcoming Control, feels a kinship with Hideo Kojima. He expressed admiration for Kojima and games that allow for unique authorial voices in a recent interview with GameSpot.
"I love it, that we have auteurs and the possibility of just trusting your own vision and going with it," he said. "Kojima is brilliant, I feel. I still don't know what [Death Stranding] is really about, but I'm really interested to see where he's taking it. The more that there are creative visions, and strong visions, and opportunities for creative people to express themselves, the more benefit it is to the whole games industry. It's an opportunity to be inspired and try out new things."
In film, auteur theory refers to directors that control all aspects of a finished work, usually to the point of developing a recognizable style or connected themes. That's certainly true for both Lake and Kojima, who have taken their film influences into the video game realm.
Lake has established a style of stories with heady dream-like qualities and supernatural elements, which puts him in good company with the gonzo storytelling of Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima. Kojima's next game, as Lake referenced, is Death Stranding. It's become known for its bizarre trailers that leave viewers intrigued with the mystery, but possibly confused regarding what kind of game it actually is.
For more on the one of these two upcoming games that we do understand, check out our impressions of Control from E3 2018.
Fans of Netflix's Castlevania who have been holding their breath waiting for a new season can finally exhale. After the popular but short first season was released in 2017, show writer Warren Ellis has finally put fans at ease on Twitter by announcing that there will be a second season released before the year is out.
Fans were very relieved to hear an update because even though Netflix announced that a new season was on the way pretty quickly after the first season came out, it hasn't said much about it since. So far, we don't know too many details about the new season, but Ellis reports that it will be eight episodes long and that the animators are hard at work finishing things up.
FAQ: #CASTLEVANIA season 2 will be 8 episodes long, out sometime later this year. I don't have the release date yet - these things are decided by people other than me. Lots and lots of great animators are working incredibly hard on it. You'll have plenty of warning of the date. pic.twitter.com/9aZ6S1dD6z
— Wᴀʀʀᴇɴ Eʟʟɪs (@warrenellis) June 19, 2018
Castlevania follows the story of vampire Dracula as he takes revenge on the country that burned his beloved wife at the stake because of false accusations of witchcraft. He and his monster squad overrun the country and the famed demon hunter Trevor Belmont goes after him with the help of a magician and Dracula's own son.
The show's first season was very successful. It quickly became a favorite among fans and critics whose main complaint seemed to be that the season was too short. The new season will be just as short as the first one, but hopefully the creators are going for quality over quantity. There is no official release date yet, but it looks like fans won't have to wait to much longer for the new season to drop.
If you've been looking for a better way to play with your Switch vertically, this new accessory might be your answer. The Flip Grip lets you do just that, with the comfort of handheld mode.
Throw away your desktop stands. This small accessory is designed with classic games and vertically-oriented titles, like Ikaruga, in mind. Similar to the Switch Joy-Con grip, but instead of just holding your controllers, it cradles the entire system. While it isn't available yet, you can back it on Kickstarter for as little as $12. You can take a peek at the accessory below.
The Flip Grip is made from plastic; while the switch is in the grip, only the headphone jack, SD card slot, and game slot are exposed. It does cover several of the Switch's vents, but as the grip doesn't create an airtight seal around the system, the team claims there's still plenty of room for ventilation. You also will not be able to plug in the system while it's in the grip, so it can't run at full power and overheat.
The Flip Grip has already met and exceeded its Kickstarter goal, just one day after its launch. The Kickstarter will remain open until July 9. Backings start at $12 for one Flip Grip, and $24 for two.
When Preacher returns to AMC this Sunday, June 24, for its Season 3 premiere, viewers will finally begin the journey of the comics' best storyline: Angelville. But it won't really be the same. If you haven't watched Preacher Season 2 and don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now!
The main difference? Tulip is already dead. At the end of Season 2, Featherstone--who'd been masquerading as a neighbor named Jenny--shot her, and she unambiguously died. In any other show (besides Game of Thrones) that should have been the end of her. But this is Preacher, a show where Hitler is sympathetic, Jesus Christ has a disabled inbred descendant, and God is a pervert who spends most of his time in a canine gimp suit.
AMC hasn't been shy about the fact that Tulip is returning in Preacher Season 3. Actress Ruth Negga has been seen in promotional materials, and creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg spoke openly about her resurrection during a recent conference call with press. To be fair, it's hard to keep a main actress's return a secret, which is just one symptom of the major ways the show is different from the books in this plot line. If they had kept Tulip's death and resurrection within one arc, like the source material did, keeping it a surprise wouldn't have been an issue.
In the comics, Grandma has Tulip killed after Jesse and Tulip are brought to Angelville against their wills. At the end of the comics arc, God resurrects Tulip to send Jesse a message: He's still around, he's still all powerful, and he wants to be left alone. It's one of the coolest moments in the series, and as it occurs near the start of the comics, it sets the tone in a lot of ways. In addition to not being a surprise and happening much later in the story, the show version will simply play out differently, apparently giving Tulip more agency over her own resurrection.
"The comics just has a lot of like, Jesse saving Tulip, and a lot of Jesse telling Tulip to not do stuff because it's too dangerous, and that he's gonna do it. And that's stuff that just didn't feel like--it just felt like stuff that could be improved on, and stuff that allowed us to give each character more opportunities to be active and to be heroic and to make some decisions," Rogen said during the call. "Most of the changes come from that type of thinking. It's not like, 'How do we make the comic book better?' It's mostly just, 'How do we give these characters more agency? How do we give them more control over their actions?'"
The other characters at Angelville--including Grandma, Jody, and T.C.--are being fleshed out more as well. When Jesse and Cassidy arrive there with Tulip's body in the Season 3 premiere, they won't be greeted with outright hostility.
"When you see in the comic books this spooky house in the bayou somewhere, you don't ask a lot of questions," Rogen said. "But as soon as it's brought into the real world, you're like, 'What do these people do? What do they do all day? Do they have jobs? How does this work?' And as soon as we started having that conversation we realized that there was actually a lot of opportunity to build out the mythology of Angelville and what they actually do and what the purpose of it is."
That's where the souls trade explored in Season 2 came from, and Season 3 will introduce the L'Angell family's main rivals in the business. That line of thinking is also what led to the expanded roles and personalities for characters like Jody and T.C.
"On the same note, Jody, T.C., and Grandma, in the comics they're great characters, but in a show, there's just more face time and you just need to round out the characters more," Goldberg said. "And so those characters need more hopes and dreams of their own, and more goals and specific history."
In other words, they're more realistic, and less like cartoon villains. That doesn't mean they'll have no edge.
"We've had a lot of different characters on the show, but these people are psychopaths, and they are terrifying people, and it's just a really fun and really different thing to tackle," Goldberg said. "The actual characters that Garth created are so fun, and these are three of the best ones."
Rogen said in Season 3, Jesse's going to need Tulip's help more than ever, but they'll have to work together, rather than one or the other being totally helpless and needing saving. He said the biggest challenges for the show at this point are keeping it realistic enough that viewers care about the characters, and keeping it surprising at the same time.
"The biggest challenge with the show always is how do we take this world that is by all means off the wall insane, and tonally runs the gamut that few things I've ever worked on or seen run, and how you balance that with making it seem real enough that people actually care and are invested in the characters," Rogen said.
"What's nice is in a world that anything can happen in, you can make anything happen. But the audience does very quickly get used to that," he continued. "A lot of thought goes into how to, in something that people know is surprising and shocking at times, and subversive, and all those things--how do you maintain that tone?...But it's something I think [executive producer] Sam [Catlin] and the writers don't seem to ever struggle doing. I mean, I watch every episode, and I know what's going to happen, and there's still ten moments that completely shock me every time I watch the show."
One criticism that's been leveled at the past two seasons is that compared with the comics, the show can feel slow. The books were structured as a road trip, and they jumped frequently between settings and different plot lines. Some fan favorite characters only appeared briefly, and it's been the show's job to flesh those characters out and find ways for them to stick around. But Rogen and Goldberg said the pace will continue to increase as Preacher continues.
"Although the first few episodes are kind of more revolving around the house at Angelville, the show itself travels a lot this year, maybe even more than it did last year as far as how many different locations the show takes place in and how many different cities it takes place in and all that," Rogen said.
"For this show we really think that the pace should get crazier as we go along," Goldberg added. "So this season, more happens faster with more ramifications...There's just so much story to tell in the universe that we have to play in that we can introduce tons of characters every season, kill more than you might think, bring more back, and do whatever, because it's just a grand universe [comics creator] Garth [Ennis] created."
With the second season of Netflix's Luke Cage looming just over the horizon, it's time to take a closer look at one of the new villains appearing on the scene: John McIver, A.K.A. Bushmaster (Mustafa Shakir), an up-and-coming crime lord with his sights set on Harlem and a few tricks up his sleeve.
In the comics there have been a couple different incarnations of Bushmaster, but the McIver version is the first. Introduced in Iron Fist #15 back in 1977, McIver had a fairly standard villain upbringing: raised poor and forced into a life of crime from an early age that later became an all encompassing career. In his original stories, he went on to take over an organized crime syndicate named the Maggia, which got its start in Europe before working its way over to New York City. After his rise to power, he changed his name to John Bushmaster and finally just "Bushmaster," which, admittedly, sounds a lot cooler.
The bulk of Bushmaster's real bad blood isn't actually with Luke himself, but with Misty Knight, who went undercover to get some intel on the Maggia's activity. After blowing her cover and thoroughly besting Bushmaster in a fight, Misty went on to disrupt his plans to assassinate Danny Rand, earning her a permanent spot on Bushmaster's most wanted list. One thing led to another, and soon Bushmaster was obsessively trying to back Misty into a corner, even going as far as to kidnap people close to her (like, say, Claire Temple, for example) to try and force her friends (like, you know, Luke Cage) to give her up.
Around the same time as his attempts to finally off Misty for good, Bushmaster managed to con his way into having the same experimental procedure that turned Luke into Power Man, giving him his trademark invulnerability, performed on him. Unfortunately, the process backfired, sparking a continuous mutation in Bushmaster's body. Rather than simply gaining impenetrable skin, he slowly turned into solid, immobile metal.
This was actually how he met his end, rather than any big climactic defeat by either Luke or Misty's hands--his body just solidified entirely and then shattered, leaving only his skeleton behind. Maybe it's not the most intimidating way to die, by supervillain standards, but certainly pretty memorable.
From what we've seen in the trailers, it looks like Bushmaster already has his powers when he encounters Luke for the first time, and,while they might be killing him secretly, they don't seem to be actually physically turning him into a statue--at least in any way that we can see. More likely, we're going to learn something about Bushmaster's past in the same way we did with Luke in Season 1, though there's potential for a reveal that he actually chose to undergo the experimentation rather than being backed into the corner in prison like Luke was.
Alternatively, there's a brief scene in the season 2 trailer of Bushmaster performing what looks like some sort of ritual, so there's a chance that his powers might actually be spiritual or magical in nature for this incarnation. There isn't much magic in Bushmaster's comics history, but the second Bushmaster, John's brother Quincy, did undergo a serious bout of bionic augmentation to make him look more like a snake-human hybrid (basically the dress code for the Serpent Society, a gang he later joined) so there's certainly room for that sort of overt sci-fi/fantasy twist in Bushmaster's history and lore.
It's difficult to tell based on the information we have what Bushmaster's real stake in Harlem will be this time around--it looks like he's going to be going to war with not just Luke, but Mariah and Shades (making their return from Season 1) as well. Whether or not he'll have some sort of personal connection to Misty remains to be seen, but it's best not to rule that out, either. The chances are that Bushmaster's goals will be multifaceted--things in the Netflix Marvel Universe are rarely what they seem--so revenge against a woman who wronged him is definitely still on the table as well as power and control over the community.
Luke Cage Season 2 is available on Netflix as of today, June 22.
A new shared-world shooter is on the horizon. It's called Anthem, and it's set to release February 22, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Developed by BioWare, Anthem is a sci-fi action RPG that puts players in the role of Freelancers, soldiers who wear high-tech customizable suits called Javelins.
If you're ready to pre-order Anthem after its full E3 2018 reveal, you'll probably want to know about the pre-order bonuses, special editions, pricing, and availability. You've come to the right place. Below, we've gathered all the information you need to choose an edition and get the deal that's best for you.
Anthem Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-order Anthem, and you'll get a few digital bonuses, including VIP access to pre-launch demos, an in-game Founder's banner, and Legion of Dawn Ranger Javelin armor and weapon. Additionally, some retailers are offering deals with pre-orders of Anthem. Pre-order from Best Buy and you'll get $10 rewards certificate in addition to the other bonuses already listed.
Anthem Standard Edition
Here's where you can buy the standard edition now:
Amazon -- $60 -- (digital copy) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Best Buy -- $60 (includes $10 reward certificate) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
While it may have been leaked by a keychain before E3 2018, we already know Assassin's Creed Odyssey will take us to Ancient Greece. We're hoping it will have the grandeur of Assassin's Creed Origins' cities, but also more outside of them to justify the world's space. It will release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on October 5.
Looking to get your copy reserved now and get some cool Assassin's Creed Odyssey gear too? We've got you covered on navigating all of its numerous editions--from standard to collectors--and bonuses retailers are offering below.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-orders from the Ubisoft Store will include access to The Blind King mission.
Pre-orders from Best Buy will include a $10 rewards certificate.
Pre-orders from GameStop will include The Blind King mission and a helmet keychain.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Standard Edition
Amazon -- $60 ($48 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
This version includes only digital content. with this, you'll get some XP and currency boosts, a couple gear packs--the Kronos and Herald of Dusk featuring armor sets for Alexios and Kassandra--and the Capricornus naval pack." There is a digital and physical version of this.
Amazon -- $80 ($64 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
This version will include the title's deluxe content, season pass, and three days early access. Early access will begin October 2, 2018. There is a digital version and a physical version with a steelbook case.
Amazon -- $110 ($88 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
GameStop will offer its own exclusive Collectors Edition. The Kassandra Collectors Edition includes all the Deluxe and Gold Edition content--bonus content, early access and season pass--a steelbook case, and a 9-inch tall figurine of Kassandra.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Spartan and Pantheon Collectors Editions
This collectors edition will come in two different versions--Spartan and Pantheon. Each are nearly identical. The Spartan edition will include just the spartan statue, and the Pantheon Edition will include both the Spartan and Athenian statues to create the Pantheon diorama. Both will include the digital content of the Deluxe Edition and season pass, a steelbook case, 64-page artbook, a lithograph by Hugo Puzzuoli, a map, and soundtrack with select music pieces from the game. Both versions will be exclusively sold through Ubisoft.
For the the true collector, there are three different statues available exclusively from the Ubisoft store. There are two basic figurines of Alexios and Kassandra for $60 each. Alexios' figurine is 32 cm tall, and Kassandra's is 29 cm tall. Purchasing these Alexios and Kassandra figurines together will net you a 10 percent discount.
There is also a highly-detailed, premium statue for $750. The premium statue features Alexios on the head of Medusa in the Hero of Sparta armor and the broken spear of Leonidas. This massive statue stands at 68 cm tall.
EA has announced Battlefield V will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19. The series has hopped around between conflicts and time periods, but Battlefield V is bringing us back to World War II. It will have a single-player campaign that's divided into short stories--much like 2016's Battlefield 1--plus an array of multiplayer modes that include both fan favorites and new modes like Airborne. For more information, here's everything we know about Battlefield V.
If you're already sold on the game and are ready to place your pre-order, you may be wondering which version to get and where to get it. To help ease the decision-making pain, we've gathered all the information you need into one place. Read on for the goods.
Pre-Order Bonus
Pre-order Battlefield V at most retailers, and you'll receive a number of incentives and goodies. Here's what you get.
Early Access to the Battlefield V Beta
Paratrooper Outfit: Choose one of eight Special Soldier Sets to customize your troops.
Special Assignments: Earn rewards and get an edge over the competition by completing Special Assignments.
Immediate Access to Five Battlefield 1 Weapons: Ready for use in Battlefield 1, unlock five of the Great War's most modern weapons and bridge the technological gap between the two world wars.
Battlefield V Standard Edition
The standard edition of Battlefield V just comes with the core game itself, but if you pre-order it, you'll also get the bonuses mentioned above. Here's where you can pre-order the standard edition right now. Note that Newegg has it for $50 and that Best Buy is offering a $10 reward certificate with your pre-order.
Amazon -- Unavailable at the time of writing -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Best Buy -- $60 (comes with $10 rewards) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
The Deluxe Edition of Battlefield V retails for $80, but it includes some extra goodies you won't get from the standard edition. In addition to the core game and the pre-order bonuses, it also comes with the following:
3 Days Early Access to the Base Game: Lead your Company in all-out multiplayer with new experiences like the massive Grand Operations and the timeless Conquest mode. Play untold War Stories in the single player campaign--or squad up with friends in the cooperative Combined Arms.
Five Sets of Paratrooper Outfits: Customize your soldiers with five Special Soldier Sets containing stunning weapon skins, camo patterns, head gear, and face paint for British Special Air Service and German Airborne troops. Choose these five Sets from eight available when deploying into Battlefield V.
Special Assignments: Battlefield V Deluxe Edition includes Special Assignments for the British Special Air Service and Special Assignments for the German Fallschirmjäger troops. In addition, Battlefield V Deluxe Edition includes Starter Assignments--test your skills on the battlefield and gain rewards.
20 Weekly Items with Airlift: Battlefield V Deluxe Edition lets you receive vital supplies with 20 weekly Airlifts, each containing one customization item.
Here's where you can buy Battlefield V Deluxe Edition. Once again, Newegg offers $10 off the price and Best Buy offers a $10 reward certificate for pre-ordering.
Amazon -- Unavailable at the time of writing -- PS4 | Xbox One
Best Buy -- $80 (comes with $10 rewards) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Activision has revealed this year's installment of the annual Call of Duty franchise. It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and it's coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 12. While it won't feature a traditional campaign like previous installments, it will come with single-player missions, plus loads of multiplayer content--including a battle royale-style mode--plus, of course, Zombies.
If you're ready to lock in your pre-order for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, you've come to the right place. Below, you'll find all the information you need about pre-order bonuses, what editions are available, and which retailers are offering per-orders for what prices.
Pre-Order Bonus
Pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and you'll receive access to a beta Activision plans to run in August. That's all the info we have about the beta so far. Keep an eye out for details in the coming months.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Standard Edition
Activision hasn't announced any special editions for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, so at least for now your only pre-order option is for the standard edition.
In the meantime, here's where you can pre-order the game and for how much. Note that Newegg is offering it for $10 less than everyone else (unless you're an Amazon Prime member). Also note that digital copies from Battle.net, Microsoft Store, and Sony Store all come with 1,100 Call of Duty Points.
Amazon -- $60 ($48 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
This edition is exclusive to GameStop. It comes with the game, the Black Ops Pass (which may or may not include all DLC eventually released), Steelbook, Pop Socket, 10 Specialist Patches, 3 Zombies Inspired Collectible Art Cards, 1,100 Call of Duty Points, and a Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E.) Calling Card.
From the new trailer, we know that the hero will begin in city of Heliodor. The hero is then sent to jail by King Carnelian, who seems to have a grudge against the luminaries. We also got a good taste of what's to come with the the localized version of the title on PS4 and PC. The Switch version is expected to launch in the West eventually, but the 3DS version will remain a Japanese exclusive.
If you're looking to reserve your copy now, there are a few different options. There's the standard edition and "Edition of Light" on PS4 and PC, and a PS4 exclusive collector's edition called the "Edition of Lost Time." We've got all the details below on bonuses and where you can reserve your before launch.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-orders from Square Enix will include an exclusive Dragon Quest XI lanyard. Pre-orders from the PlayStation Store will include a "The Legend Reborn" PS4 theme. Steam Pre-orders will include a PC wallpaper set.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Day One "Edition of Light"
The Edition of Light is a limited-time offer of the standard edition of the title. It will have a supplicant to replenish magic points, a healer to heal your characters, and three skill seeds for some extra experience.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age "Edition of Lost Time"
The Edition of Lost Time will include the digital content of the Edition of Light, a 128-page hardback Companion Compendium featuring concept art and Akira Toriyama's early designs, a two-disc music selection featuring pieces from the game, a cloth map, and a pep pop and 15 more seeds of skill to boost your characters.
Developer Bungie has finally revealed Destiny 2's big year-two expansion. It's called Forsaken, and it launches on September 4. Just like The Taken King for the original Destiny, Forsaken is a standalone expansion you'll have to buy separately even if you purchased Destiny 2's expansion pass. In fact, you can even buy a new "annual pass" to pre-order three additional content releases that will come out after Destiny 2: Forsaken.
Forsaken's story will bring players back to the Reef to fight off a group of powerful enemies who broke out of prison. The expansion also introduces a number of changes to Destiny 2, including a new mode called Gambit, as well as major changes to weapons, mods, and Masterworks. The idea is to keep players coming back once they've reached the endgame.
If you're ready to pre-order Destiny 2: Forsaken, you'll probably want to know what your options are. We've gathered all the info you need below.
Warning
Before diving into any of this, you should know that in order to play any of these versions of Destiny 2: Forsaken, you'll already need to own Destiny 2 and Expansions I and II. The core game and expansions are not included in any of the packages below.
Destiny 2: Forsaken Pre-Order Bonus
With that out of the way, if you pre-order Destiny 2: Forsaken at participating retailers, you'll receive Cayde's Exotic Stash. It contains the following items.
Ace of Spades Last Hand Exotic Ornament
Queen of Hearts Exotic Ship
Standoff Exotic Emote
Shades of Cayde-6 Armor Shaders
Destiny 2: Forsaken Standard Edition
The standard edition comes with the Forsaken expansion and nothing else. Here's where you can pre-order the standard edition right now.
This purchase does not include the Forsaken expansion. Instead, it offers standalone access to everything included in the annual pass. That means you get bonus rewards, as well as three "premium content releases" expected to arrive in winter 2018, spring 2019, and summer 2019.
The digital deluxe edition comes with the game, the annual pass, and the Awoken Legend Set, which includes Wrath Majestic Legendary Bow Ornament, Dirge Paladin Emblem, and Vestian Ghost Shell.
For anyone wondering when we'll get to return to the wasteland after 2015's Fallout 4, Bethesda has answered that question with a teaser trailer for the next entry: Fallout 76. The game has been confirmed for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It appeared during Bethesda's presentation at E3 2018, where we learned a ton--including the fact that it's an online, multiplayer-enabled game. We also got a release date: November 14, 2018.
The game puts you in the shoes of a person who resided in Vault 76. Base-building returns from Fallout 4, and players can hunt down items that will allow them to fire nuclear missiles at areas of the map. The game is said to be four times bigger than its predecessor. We've got a complete roundup of all the Fallout 76 details.
Whether you're a diehard fan of the series or you want to see what all the hype is about, you might be ready to lock in your Fallout 76 pre-order. If so, we have all the information you need below.
Pre-order bonus
A pre-launch beta for Fallout 76 has been announced. The only way to get access is by pre-ordering, so if you're eager to play it ahead of launch, you'll definitely want to take a look at the links below. A beta release date has not yet been announced, but the beta will be available on Xbox One first.
Standard Edition
Suggested retail price: $60
The standard edition of Fallout 76 comes with just the base game but is already available to pre-order.
Amazon: $60 ($48 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Best Buy: $60 (with $10 reward) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
One step above the standard edition is the Deluxe edition, also known as the Tricentennial edition. You get the base game along with a variety of in-game bonus items. That includes the following goodies:
Tricentennial Power Armor Customization for the T-51, T-45, T-60, and X-01 Power Armors
Tricentennial Weapon Customization for the 10MM Pistol, Hatchet, and Laser Rifle
Spectacularly Handsome Vault Boy Mascot Head
Patriotic Uncle Sam Outfit
Celebratory Vault Boy Saluting Emote
First-Class Tricentennial Workshop Posters
Tricentennial Commemorative Photo Frame
Provided you're interested in those bonuses, you can pre-order this version from select retailers through the links below.
Amazon: $80 ($64 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Those willing to spend more can get a much grander package. In addition to a copy of Fallout 76 itself, the Power Edition gets you a ton of extras, the centerpiece of which is a T-51 Power Armor helmet. This is actually wearable and is equipped with a voice modulator speaker and a working headlamp. This comes with a West Tek canvas carrying bag.
Also included is a map showing Fallout 76's world. This measures 21 inches by 21 inches and glows in the dark. Additionally, there are 24 figurines based on in-game models (covering likes like creatures and vault dwellers), a steelbook, and bonus in-game items (outlined with the Deluxe edition).
FIFA 19 is coming to Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch on September 28. The title marks the first game in the franchise to hold the official Champions League license since the 2007 spin-off UEFA Champions League 2006-2007, giving FIFA a near monopoly over the world's major soccer licenses.
Whether that news has you looking to get into the franchise for the first time, or you're a long-time fan who buys the newest edition each year, you might be wondering what editions of FIFA 19 are available, how much they cost, and where to pre-order. We have you covered below.
FIFA 19 Standard Edition
Suggested Retail Price: $60
This is the standard version of the game. Pre-ordering the Standard Edition nets you five Jumbo Premium Gold Packs (one per week for five weeks), Cristiano Ronaldo as a loan item for seven FUT matches, and Special Edition FUT kits designed by FIFA soundtrack artists.
The Champions Edition costs $20 more than the standard edition, but it gets you everything in the Standard Edition, plus a number of extras. Buying the Champions Edition bumps your FIFA Ultimate Team Jumbo Premium Gold Packs up to 20 (one per week for 20 weeks), nets you a UEFA Champions League Gold Player Pick (choose one of five 80 to 83 rated gold players from qualified teams), and adds Neymar Jr. loan items for seven FUT matches.
Like with the Standard Edition, pre-ordering from Best Buy gets you a $10 reward certificate redeemable at Best Buy. And regardless of where you pre-order the Champions Edition, you'll get access to the game three days early (September 25).
The Ultimate Edition is the most expensive version of FIFA 19 but it offers the largest collection of loot. With the Ultimate Edition, players get everything from the Champions Edition, but their FIFA Ultimate Team Jumbo Premium Gold Packs is upped to 40 (two per week for 20 weeks).
Like the Champions Edition, if you pre-order the Ultimate Edition, you get access to the game three days early (September 25). The Ultimate Edition is not available for Nintendo Switch.
Playground's latest open-world racing title Forza Horizon 4 was revealed at E3 2018's Xbox briefing. This time around the game will be set in Britain. This one will have a shared open-world, and dynamic seasons. Forza Horizon 4 will release on October 2 for Xbox One and PC.
Looking to reserve your copy? There are three versions--Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. Right now, physical listings for the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions are not yet available. We've got all the links to where you can reserve yours below. When more details on pre-order bonuses come out, we'll have them here too.
Forza Horizon 4 Pre-Order Bonuses
GameStop pre-orders will include the 2017 Aston Martin DB11 and crew neck t-shirt.
Sanhok is the smallest map to come to PUBG. At 4km x 4km, it's only a fourth the size of the two previous battlefields. Despite its smaller size, the map still features 100 players. The blue zone on Sanhok also behaves differently. It checks how many players are left before adjusting both the wait and travel time. The circle size itself doesn't change, but the zone will ensure no players get a major advantage.
Sanhok features six major locations. Underground caves hide archaeological sites and massive amounts of loot. They can be reached by boat or via parachuting through the open top. Ruins offer claustrophobic close quarters combat for any players willing to be sneaky. Snipers will enjoy posting up at the Paradise Resort, but the building's corridors offer opportunities for shredding enemies with shotguns and SMGs. The Training Center, Quarry, and Docks are all open battlefields that hide less valuable weapons and items.
The SCAR-L is being replaced by a new weapon on Sanhok: the QBZ95. This assault rifle takes 5.56 rounds and holds 30 shots a magazine. You'll want to find a silencer for the QBZ as this gun is loud. It has a fast fire rate though, so it tears through the competition.
PUBG on PC will now have two separate matchmaking playlists. The first, Battle Royale, will contain the old Erangel and Miramar maps. For anyone who wants something a little smaller, they can play on Sanhok in the Mini Royale playlist. Players can also select both playlists at once if they want to randomly drop into any of the three maps.
Plenty of improvements to the UI and sound are also in PUBG's new update. There are quite a few bug fixes as well:
Fixed an issue where characters got stuck in certain areas of Erangel and Miramar
Removed a few objects from Erangel and Miramar which obstructed movement
Fixed an issue where certain plants in Miramar were floating above the ground
Fixed an issue where the sound when using an adrenaline syringe was longer than the associated animation
Fixed an issue preventing the Mirado from taking damage from grenades.
Fixed an issue where players inside vehicles didn't take damage from unarmed melee attacks
Fixed an issue where grenade status effects (flash, burning) would sometimes not disappear after their intended duration.
Fixed an issue with pistol recoil animations not being played correctly in ADS after exiting a vehicle.
Fixed an issue where parts of the sidecar's wheel were missing when the tire was destroyed.
Improved the vaulting interaction between some objects and windows.
Fixed an issue when spectating or watching replays where parts of weapons would disappear in certain situations (only weapons with high scope-mounting positions).
Fixed an issue where dropping a weapon immediately after firing abruptly stopped the sound effect.
Five years after its reveal at E3 2013, Kingdom Hearts 3 finally has a release date and it's open for pre-orders now too. We know that this will be the closing chapter to the overarching saga of the core titles and will take us through several beloved Disney worlds such as Toy Story, Hercules, and Monsters Inc. Kingdom Hearts 3 is set to release on January 29, 2019 on Xbox One and PS4.
Looking to get your hands on some special Kingdom Hearts 3 swag? Look no further, as we've listed all the retailers offering pre-orders below. As bonuses are revealed, we'll list them here too.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Pre-Order Bonuses
Best Buy is offering a $10 rewards certificate with every pre-order of the title. No other pre-order bonuses have been announced at this time.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Standard Edition
Amazon -- $60 ($48 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One
The Deluxe Edition will include a steelbook case, artbook, and collectible pin featuring Sora with the Kingdom Hearts 3 logo. It will not come with any digital content.
Amazon -- $80 ($64 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One
For $150 more, this Deluxe Edition will come with everything from the base Deluxe Edition and three Bring figures of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. All three figures appear to be in their Toy Story world garbs as each appear to be more toy-like than collectible premium statues. This bundle will be available exclusively from the Square Enix store.
A limited-edition PS4 Pro bundle with every Kingdom Hearts remake and Kingdom Hearts 3 has been announced. The bundle includes all three PS4 bundle games Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix, 2.5 HD Remix, and 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue. Currently, it is not available for pre-order, but when it goes live, we'll update you with every retailer that has one available.
Right now, you can get you hands on the all-in-one game bundle from the PlayStation Store for $100. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix, 2.5 Remix, and 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will be available immediately, and Kingdom Hearts 3 will download upon release.
It may not be a surprise, but it's official: Madden NFL 19 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on August 10. This year's installment features improvements to the graphics and animation, thanks to Real Player Motion Technology. Players will also have better tools for building their roster and new ways to train and develop the players. You can find more details here.
Whether you buy the new edition each year or you're looking to get into the franchise for the first time in 2018, you might be wondering what editions are available, how much they cost, and where to pre-order Madden NFL 19. We have you covered below.
Madden NFL 19 Standard Edition
Suggested retail price: $60
This is the standard version of the game. Pre-ordering it from Best Buy gets you a $10 reward certificate, but Newegg has it for $10 off. The cover athlete hasn't been revealed at the time of this writing.
Where to buy the Standard Edition:
Best Buy - PS4 / Xbox One: $60 ($10 reward certificate with pre-order)
The Hall of Fame Edition has 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, wide receiver, Terrell Owens on the cover. It costs $20 more than the standard edition, but it gets you the core game, plus a number of extras. It also lets you choose between Owens or four other NFL legends (Brian Urlacher, Rod Woodson, Dan Marino, and Terrell Davis) to add to your team. Additionally, you get 12 Gold Team Fantasy Packs, one Elite Madden 19 cover athlete (TBA), and two All-Madden Uniforms.
As above, pre-ordering from Best Buy gets you a $10 reward certificate redeemable at Best Buy, but Newegg gives you $10 off the price from the start. And if you pre-order it anywhere, you get access to the game three days early (August 7).
Where to buy the Hall of Fame Edition:
Best Buy - PS4 / Xbox One - $80 ($10 reward certificate with pre-order)
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