As it has in the past, Microsoft will be conducting maintenance on Xbox Live in the early morning hours (US time) tomorrow. This will affect Xbox 360 games, including those being played on Xbox One through backwards compatibility.
Starting at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM BST on June 20, Microsoft will perform "scheduled maintenance that will affect Xbox 360 titles and services." This won't impact Xbox One games, but any 360 games being played on the system through backwards compatibility may run into issues. Specifically, Microsoft says that "you may be disconnected from Xbox Live one or more times."
It's not the first instance of this type of maintenance, and it should be a fairly minor issue depending where in the world you are. It's slated to last for only two hours, ending at around 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET / 11 AM BST, barring any unexpected issues.
It was a big year for the Sony PlayStation at E3 2017. Here are all the best games and most awaited coming to the system in the near and not-so-near future.
The sequel to the popular intergalactic first-person shooter will *finally* include a single-player campaign mode. Star Wars Battlefront II focuses on Iden Versio (Janina Gavankar), an Inferno Squad Commander for the Galactic Empire. The story is said to bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.
Photo credit: EA
Star Wars Battlefront II: With even more heroes!
The addition of a single-player campaign isn't the only feature that has fans excited. The game also includes heroes from all three Star Wars eras, such as Darth Maul, Han Solo and Rey.
Photo credit: EA
Spider-Man
Insomniac Games, makers of the popular Ratchet & Clank series, will be releasing the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man in 2018.
During E3 2017, the studio released a nearly nine-minute trailer that shows the web-slinging teenager chase down a helicopter.
Photo credit: Insomniac Games
Hey! That's Miles Morales.
The new trailer also hints that fan favorite Miles Morales will appear in the game.
Photo credit: Insomniac Games
Anthem
Announced at E3, Anthem is Bioware's new IP that follows exosuit-clad freelancers who explore an open world filled with hostile threats. From the gameplay footage, the newly-announced game--expected to launch in 2018--looks to compete with Bungie's Destiny.
Photo credit: Bioware
Assassin's Creed is going ancient
Available in October, Assassin's Creed Origins will take players back thousands of years to ancient Egypt. This time, you'll be playing as Bayek, a Medjay who must protect his people from the Templars.
Photo credit: Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed Collector's Edition
For superfans of the franchise, Ubisoft plans to sell a $799.99 Dawn of the Creed Legendary Collector's Edition that includes a "highly detailed 28.7 inch resin statue of Bayek, a protector of Egypt ... and his eagle, Senu," along with other fine amenities.
Photo credit: Ubisoft
Far Cry 5
Set in fictional Hope County, Montana, Far Cry 5 puts players in the role of a sheriff's deputy who must take down Joseph Seed, a preacher who established a cult to lead people to salvation.
The first-person shooter is scheduled for release on February 27, 2018.
Photo credit: Ubisoft
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
The Lost Legacy--a spinoff of the Uncharted series--will feature Uncharted 2's Chloe Frazer and Uncharted 4's Nadine Ross in this standalone adventure.
Releasing in August, The Lost Legacy is the first game in the series to not star Nathan Drake, who retired from treasure hunting in the fourth entry.
Photo credit: Naughty Dog
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Get ready for some epic anime battles in 2018. Dragon Ball FighterZ will feature massive attacks and 3-on-3 tag-team battles that made the Marvel vs. Capcom series so damn addicting.
Photo credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Shadow of the Colossus remake
Unveiled during Sony's E3 conference, Shadow of the Colossus will be remade and released on the PS4. This marks the second time that the 2005 classic will be re-released.
It has yet to be announced whether it will be a remastered version of the game, though.
Photo credit: Sony Computer Entertainment
God of War
First announced at Sony's 2016 E3 press conference, God of War marks the return of Kratos as he adapts to fatherhood in this PS4 exclusive. Fear not: Kratos still possesses his brutal hack-and-slash fighting style that made the previous installments so addicting.
Set for release in 2018, God of War will feature a new voice actor for Kratos.
Photo credit: Sony
Detroit: Become Human
Originally announced in 2013, Detroit: Become Human is an interactive thriller about an android uprising against humans.
Similar to Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, this narrative-driven game--starring Grey's Anatomy's Jesse Williams--will alter storylines depending on choices the player makes.
Photo credit: Quantic Dream
Call of Duty: WWII
Following 2016's sci-fi entry, Infinite War, the Call of Duty franchise is going back in time to World War II--the setting for the first three games in the series.
The game will be released on November 3.
Photo credit: Activision
Madden 18: Longshot
In this year's entry, the Madden NFL franchise will introduce a story mode called Longshot. Following in the footsteps of FIFA's The Journey, Longshot will star Devin Wade, a former college football star who is trying to make an NFL roster.
The story will star Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) as Wade's father, Cutter.
Photo credit: EA Sports
Destiny 2 (PS4 exclusive content)
Destiny 2 will feature similar gameplay to the 2014 original. PS4 owners will be able to get exclusive content, including Lake of Shadows (strike), City Apex (ship), Weapon Borealis (exotic weapon) and Retribution (PVP map).
Photo credit: Bungie
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
Set to be released in October, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus will focus on B.J. Blazkowicz--who apparently survived the events of the first game--as he tries to overthrow a Nazi regime in an alternate history version of 1961.
Photo credit: Bethesda
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Nearly 15 years after the original was released, Beyond Good and Evil 2 was finally announced at E3 2017.
Set in the 24th century, the second entry in the saga is a prequel that takes place in a distant solar system prior to Jade's birth. There's no release date set for the prequel.
Photo credit: Ubisoft
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
If Crash's cameo in Uncharted 4 wasn't enough for you, then you'll want to see this. The retro-gaming hero will return in a remastered PS4 exclusive compilation of the first three titles in the franchise: Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped.
The game is set for release in 2017.
Photo credit: Activision
Monster Hunter: World
One of the more surprising announcements during Sony's E3 keynote was the Monster Hunter World reveal. The action-RPG series started on the PlayStation 2, but this release looks to be a seismic shift in gameplay. According to the trailer, this Monster Hunter will introduce stealth action.
Photo credit: Capcom
Days Gone
This PS4 exclusive takes place two years after a pandemic turned millions of people into "freakers," an evolving zombie-like creature. In it, you play Deacon St. John, a former bounty hunter who prefers a dangerous life on his motorcycle.
Photo credit: SIE Bend Studio
StarChild
Developed by Playful, StarChild is a newly-announced PSVR game with very few details. The debut trailer shows that it's a sci-fi sidescrolling game that's very easy on the eyes.
Photo credit: Playful
Final Fantasy VX: Monsters of the Deep
Set to launch in September, Monsters of the Deep will be a new VR component for Final Fantasy XV. The new addition will focus primarily on fishing. We're still holding out hope for virtual Chocobo races, though!
Photo credit: Square Enix
Inpatient
Set 60 years before Until Dawn, this standalone prequel and PSVR exclusive is a psychological thriller. Based in the Blackwood Sanatorium, you'll play a patient suffering from amnesia.
Photo credit: Supermassive
NBA Live 18 exists!
After the NBA 2K franchise has secured a stranglehold on the basketball sim market, EA Sports is set to release NBA Live for the first time since 2015.
The early impressions were positive, but we'll have to wait until the end of the year for our final impressions.
Photo credit: EA Sports
Gran Turismo Sport
First announced in May 2016, Gran Turismo Sport--set for release this Fall--features 137 vehicles from 27 different manufacturers. The racing sim was delayed a year because Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi said they didn't want to compromise the quality of the game.
Photo credit: SIE
A Way Out
Developed by the team behind Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out is an action-adventure prison break game with a twist. The co-op title can only be played in either local or online split screen co-op between two players.
Photo credit: EA
Skyrim on PSVR
Fans of the Skyrim franchise rejoiced when Sony announced, at their E3 conference, that the popular game will be a PSVR exclusive.
Although no release date was announced, Skyrim does appear to support PlayStation Move.
A number of details about this year's annual WWE game, WWE 2K18, have been revealed today. That includes the release date, special editions, and identity of the game's cover star: Seth Rollins. You can check out the cover below.
Rollins' selection seems notable given how relatively new to the company he is. Recent years have seen more firmly entrenched wrestlers grace the cover, including The Rock, Stone Cold, Brock Lesnar, and John Cena. Rollins will serve not just as the cover star, but also do whatever this line from a press release means: "Rollins will personify WWE 2K18's worldwide marketing campaign--Be Like No One--which invites players to explore Rollins' identity, as well as those of several other WWE Superstars, while learning more about the game."
WWE 2K18 launches on October 17 for PS4 and Xbox One. In addition to the standard version of the game, two special editions will be available. For now, WWE and 2K are only really talking about the Deluxe edition, which consists of a copy of the game with special packaging, the season pass, pre-order bonus digital content, and Collector's edition digital content. The specifics of those last three items will be revealed later this summer, along with the details of the Collector's edition.
Pre-ordering either the Deluxe or Collector's edition will get you access to the game four days earlier, starting on October 13. The Deluxe edition will be sold both physically and digitally, while the Collector's edition--whatever it may consist of--is physical-only.
The much-anticipated Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on September 24, 2017. The return of the classic sci-fi franchise to the small screen was announced via a short teaser on Twitter--check it out below:
The opening episode of the 15-part first season will premiere on CBS, with all subsequent ones appearing on its All Access digital subscription service. The first trailer for the show was released last month--you can watch it here.
Star Trek: Discovery is set 10 years before the events of the original '60s series. It stars Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), James Frain (True Blood), Anthony Rapp (Dazed & Confused), and Doug Jones (Hellboy).
Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote the first two films in the current rebooted movie series, is showrunner. He replaced Hannibal's Bryan Fuller, who stepped down last year to focus on his current hit show American Gods.
The show was originally set to premiere earlier this year, but it was subsequently delayed. A CBS representative said at the time: "It's more important to do this right than to do it fast. There is also added flexibility presenting on CBS All Access, which isn't beholden to seasonal premieres or launch windows."
Disclosure: CBS is owned by GameSpot parent company CBS Corp.
Though it's not quite in time for a loving father's day gift, Dream Daddy is a wacky dating sim from Game Grumps. It's coming to PC through Steam on July 13.
You'll play as a lonely, single dad who just moved with his daughter to a new neighborhood in Maple Bay. To your surprise, every dad on your street is single and ready to mingle. Your heart will have to decide between seven different dads, like Mat, Craig, Hugo, Brian, Damien, or Joseph.
Customize your DILF, play through mini- and mirco-games along the way, and explore the multitude of endings with every smokin' daddy. Also, dad jokes for days. How many tickles does it take to tickle an octopus? Tentacles.
To make the journey even sweeter, the game will be voiced by the comedic game critics of Game Grumps and their friends. And all of that sweet, smooth daddy-coaxing writing is done by none other than Vernon Shaw and Leighton Gray.
Can't wait to schmooze your way into the arms of a dreamy daddy? Let us know how you feel in the comments below.
The Pixar sequel Cars 3 took the top slot at the US box office this weekend, with a solid gross of $53.5 million. DC's Wonder Woman continued its impressive run and took a comfortable second place in its third week.
Cars 3's weekend haul is below that of either of its predecessors, with 2006's Cars opening with $60.1 million, and 2011's Cars 2 making $66.1 million. However, as Box Office Mojo points out, the huge merchandising profit that the franchise makes for Disney means that this slightly lower take will be of little cause for concern.
Wonder Woman made $40.7 million, dropping only 29% from last week. That's the third smallest third week decline ever for a film with a budget of more than $100 million, and fourth-biggest third weekend for a superhero movie, behind The Avengers ($55 million), Spider-Man ($45 million), and The Dark Knight ($42 million).
Elsewhere in the chart, the hip-hop drama All Eyez on Me debuted with $27.05 million, while the critically maligned Tom Cruise thriller The Mummy dropped to fourth place. Rounding out the Top 5 was the British shark thriller 47 Meters Down, which was only projected to make $5 million, but instead earned more than double that amount.
Halo developer 343 Industries announced in advance of E3 that the "next major entry in the franchise" would not be at the show. Much to the disappointment of those still hoping for a surprise Halo 6 announcement, the game was indeed a no-show. And it sounds as if a reveal just isn't around the corner, either.
The latest blog post on the series' website confirms that the first official word about Halo 6--or whatever it might be called--is far from imminent. "For some people--like most who are still reading this blog--the Xbox media briefing was bandied about as much for what it didn't show, as what it did," it said. "Specifically, a new (or old-made-new) Halo title. For some folks, their despair stemmed from a lack of remastered fight-finishing. I know I know, we should have told you ahead of time to not expect anything like that.
"Others were hoping for a tease of things farther off to come. While there's little to nothing that can be said on that front, it's been made clear that we won't be talking about Halo's next major title for quite some time. And no, that doesn't mean Gamescom. Or PAX. Trust us, when we're ready to begin pulling back that proverbial curtain, you'll know. It won't be soon."
Microsoft has said previously that a new Halo first-person shooter will not be out in 2017. The "little something" that 343 teased Halo fans could look forward to at E3 didn't show up at Microsoft's briefing. Instead, it was revealed later in the week as a new Halo Wars 2 expansion, Awakening the Nightmare, which adds multiplayer content and a new campaign where you get to play as the Banished. You can see its debut trailer above.
From the character models to the feel of the dribbling, almost everything feels quite far removed from FIFA 18 on PS4 and Xbox One. It's probably closest to FIFA 15 or 16's gameplay in its on-pitch action--a little quicker both to respond and to move--and given I wasn't a huge fan of FIFA 18 at preview stage, that's probably a good thing.
Other than that, it feels fairly feature-rich and as competent a FIFA port as you could realistically expect on Switch. Until you detach the Joy-Cons to play in multiplayer, that is.
For many FIFA players, the primary--if not only--reason to buy FIFA on Switch ahead of the full PS4, Xbox One, or PC versions would be to have the ability to play on the move with friends. But playing with just one Joy-Con each makes it far too difficult to enjoyably do so. Fewer buttons than a standard controller (you lose out on two triggers, a d-pad, and a stick) means less flexibility on the pitch. On the standard control scheme, no adaptations are made to the original controls, so instead of, say, assigning a heavy touch to a double flick of the left stick in lieu of the the absent right, there simply appears to be no way of performing a heavy touch. This also applies to skill moves, accurate changes of player while defending, changing tactics on-the-fly, finesse shots, driven passes, and all types of chipped kicks.
Taking away functionality depending on your controller setup is incredibly frustrating, so here's hoping EA can implement an elegant solution in time for launch on September 29, 2017.
While FIFA 18 feels a little dated, then, it is still a lot of fun. However, if you plan to play on-the-go-multiplayer--the port's primary advantage over the PS4 and Xbox One editions--it might be best not to switch flanks from console.
E3 is often where we get to see or hear about major games for the first time (this year featured Metroid Prime 4 and Anthem, for instance) or where we see more of a previously announced big-name game (like Super Mario Odyssey or God of War). But there's far more at E3 than just those huge games with major franchise or developer names attached to them. Many other games fly under the radar but are nonetheless well worth your attention. We've rounded up a small handful of these games for you below.
Semblance (PC)
Alex Newhouse | News Reporter
I'm always on board with a platformer that manages to find an innovative mechanic, since the platformer genre is so saturated with games. Semblance, a game that started as a South African developer's final university project, creates a world that's essentially made out of Play-Doh, and it lets you deform it to achieve your objectives.
Slamming into certain walls or floors compresses or warps them to allow you to reach higher places or avoid spikes and other obstacles. Further, even in my short E3 2017 demo, I was progressively introduced to more mechanics that involved this terrain deformation. At one point, using a certain device that resets deformation, I was able to create catapults to launch my character to high, hard-to-reach places. It also helps that it's a beautiful game, with a colorful, cartoony aesthetic that goes well with the Play-Doh world.
I hope that the final game makes good on the promise of this mechanic, because I had a great time with my short demo. It launches next year on PC; console releases have not been announced yet.
Kingsway (PC)
Chris Pereira | News Editor
The moment Kingsway begins, its novelty is apparent: It's an RPG in the mold of FTL that's played entirely through the guise of a classic, Windows 95-esque operating system. Quests are accessed through a desktop icon for your email, the overworld is navigated by clicking on the browser, your inventory is merely a folder, and so on. But what could have been a merely surface-level wrinkle to the traditional RPG formula is in fact a concept that pervades all aspects of the game. This includes more minor things: There is no music--that is, not without first opening a Winamp-esque program and hitting Play--and you can go into the system's settings to tweak your desktop wallpaper or an enable a mouse-trail effect.
But all of this also extends to the gameplay itself. Selecting a destination on the world map sends you on your journey, where you may randomly encounter enemies. These manifest themselves as pop-up windows that then move around the screen, making it challenging to select the button you want for Attacking, Defending, or other commands. The window's movement is dictated by the type of enemy you're facing, and other windows occasionally pop in and move across the screen (sometimes hiding under other windows) and have to be closed before they can poison or otherwise harm you. This all adds up to an experience that feels distinct in a sea of roguelikes, though your enjoyment to some extent may hinge on being old enough to remember the days of the spartan, utilitarian operating systems from the '90s.
Gorogoa (PC, mobile)
Miguel Concepcion | Editor
Gorogoa zeroes in on what makes visually intensive puzzle games so appealing. With every new batch of clues you're presented, you're temporarily left to ponder how these hints are connected. Yes, you'll be stumped, close to the edge of frustration, but the solutions are almost always a couple steps away. And it's these eureka moments that kept me going for as long as the demo allowed me at E3 2017.
Gorogoa's playing field is a 2-by-2 set of gorgeously illustrated tiles, constantly evolving as you solve each puzzle. It often feels like an evolution of hidden-object games where the screen changes as you slowly make progress. Deciphering the clues is a two-step process: you search for solutions hiding in plain sight in both the drawings' foregrounds and backgrounds while also figuring out how the characters and objects in the tiles might hint at possible answers and how they relate to their surroundings. Gorogoa's depth shines during the myriad moments when you have to do more than click on objects to advance through the game. Sometimes you have to zoom in on a tile or slide tiles on top of each another to make progress.
Along with the dopamine-hitting satisfaction of solving puzzles, Gorogoa's story--told through the visuals that morph as tile images change--is both intriguing and thought-provoking. One section plays out innocently enough: by sliding specific tiles on top of other tiles, you're helping a boy traverse his urban surroundings while he holds a bowl intended to carry objects. Yet it doesn't take long to discover that the setting isn't as idyllic as it seems. With the movement of each tile, Gorogoa's visual exposition reveals a darker side to its story, a side that I am eager to learn more about.
Seven: The Days Long Gone (PC)
Aiden Strawhun | Weekend News Editor
I'm generally not a fan of isometric titles. They just don't grab me in the way that really intense RPGs or obscenely weird Japanese games do. Seven: The Days Long Gone changed that just a bit. It's set in the post-apocalyptic world of the Vetrall Empire. You'll play as a thief who is possessed by an ancient daemon and trying to escape the prison island of Peh. Around you are two warring factions, the biomancers and the technomagi, and plenty of corruption to be stopped. As with many RPGs, the fate of the world is in your hands.
Where it separates itself is in its gameplay: take the free-running movement of Assassin's Creed and throw it into an isometric RPG like Diablo. It feels both familiar and new with this kind of gameplay, as it provides expertly designed layered level designs that coax you into exploring more. The art, the universe, and the music set the scene incredibly well, and it's definitely a game to get lost in. It's also by a handful of former Witcher developers, so if there's one thing you can count on, it's a phenomenally cohesive world.
The Artful Escape (Xbox One, PC)
Alex Newhouse
My personal award for the game with the most style goes to The Artful Escape, which was unveiled at the Microsoft press conference. It's an utterly gorgeous game, with a beautiful art style suffused with neon accents. Oh, your character is also a badass guitarist who shreds his way through levels.
It has the most novel double-jump mechanic I've seen in quite some time; you can tap the A button to shred on your guitar, which slows your descent and lets you float, thus covering more distance than otherwise. And the one "enemy" I encountered tasked me with matching colors in a Simon Says-like way. But, in keeping with the aesthetic, every button press sends the character into an incredible guitar solo. It's awesome, and I'm completely enraptured by the style of it all.
I'm not completely convinced that the game will be deep enough to be fun to play; I'll have to see a lot more than just the 15-minute demo I played. But not much is cooler than a game with a guitar-wielding adventurer who rocks his way through levels. The Artful Escape an Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive, and there's no release date yet.
Songbringer (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Chris Pereira
Songbringer mixes the classic isometric Zelda formula with procedural generation. While I can't speak to what other possible world configurations might play like, the one I did check out provided me with a glimpse of an interesting, sci-fi world that felt more open-ended than I anticipated. Songbringer provides you with freedom to (mostly) go wherever you want, and the way in which any playthrough might unfold can be radically different, as items are obtainable in any order and dungeons can be tackled in the sequence you choose.
And while the world is procedurally generated, this is done by first inputting a six-letter seed. This means you can share the seed you use with a friend, allowing you to share the same experience or compete to finish the game first. Much of the game's appeal appears to lie in repeated playthroughs to see how differently things can go. But even my brief time with the game showed that a single run may take you through a visually impressive world filled with exploration, puzzles, and secrets.
Starlink: Battle For Atlus (PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
Oscar Dayus | Staff Writer
If I were eight years old again, I think I would love Starlink. Its swapping and changing of spaceship parts and guns and shields and heroes would've thrilled young me, a boy who grew up playing with toy rockets and cars whenever he wasn't playing video games.
As a toys-to-life game, its hook is simple. Plugged into your controller is a physical space fighter vehicle, on which you can attach modifications like different weapons, wing types, and playable character figurines. Switching these in and out is reflected immediately in-game, where you'll see your gatling gun disappear and your flamethrower appear in its place, for example. The tactile nature and immediate feedback this offers is satisfying--so it's a shame the game it's wrapped in is so generic. Then again, if eight-year-old me was ploughing a fighter ship into space, I don't think I'd care whether or not the stars looked distinct.
Strange Brigade (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Eddie Makuch | Associate Editor, Australia
The next game from Sniper Elite and Zombie Army Trilogy developer Rebellion Developments, Strange Brigade is weird and wonderful. Set in the 1930s around Egypt, the shooter supports 1-4 players working together to fight off hordes of enemies, including fantastical ones like mummies. You start by choosing one of four characters, and each has its own unique set of weapons and attributes. Putting a team together that makes the most of each player's abilities adds an element of strategy.
You progress through areas of bright, colorful, and varied environments as you take down minion enemies before the big bosses come out. Even with a team of four, you will be greatly outnumbered by enemies, so you need to make use of environmental elements such as traps. You trigger the traps by shooting orbs near them, and some of the traps include Indiana Jones-style spikes that shoot out of the floor and flames that cook your foes to a crisp.
Key to Strange Brigade's combat is your super-ability, which comes in the form of an amulet. You can activate this by filling up a meter, which only rises when you're attacking enemies. So you must continually engage in combat, so hanging back and taking it easy won't work. This makes for fast and frenetic gameplay. I played local co-op with another GameSpot editor and teamwork was absolutely a part of our success.
We only played a couple of matches, but we tried all the characters, and also got a glimpse of Strange Brigade's light puzzle-solving elements, too. Also of note is the game's delightful over-the-top tone that reminds you Strange Brigade never takes itself too seriously--and that's great. Strange Brigade is "coming soon" to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
When it was announced in 2015 that Sony and Marvel had signed to a deal to allow Spider-Man to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony already had several Spider-Man spinoffs in development. The first of these will be next year's Venom, and fans have been wondering if the movie will be part of the MCU. It now seems that even those involved with the films can't agree on this.
Firstly, Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently stated that Venom would not be part of the MCU. In an interview with French movie site Allo Cine, he said (via CBM): "For now, there is no plan for Venom in the MCU. It's a Sony project."
While this might be disappointing for fans, it's not surprising that Marvel doesn't want to confuse its very tightly-controlled universe by having other studios produce movies set within it.
However, a subsequent joint interview with both Feige and former Sony boss and Homecoming co-producer Amy Pascal tells another story. Pascal states that Venom is indeed part of the same world as Homecoming--to Feige's apparent surprise. Check out the clip below, via @tomhupdates:
[BREAKING NEWS] Amy Pascal confirm Black Cat and Vanom movie will pass in the same universe of "Spider-Man: Homecoming pic.twitter.com/qfAKOulqwE
Venom begins production later this year and will star Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. In Marvel's comic books, Brock is a photographer and rival to Peter Parker, who becomes a host for the parasite Venom and sets about to destroy him. It will be directed by Ruben Fleischer, who previously helmed the horror comedy Zombieland.
Spider-Man: Homecoming, meanwhile, hits theaters on July 7--check out the latest trailer here. Star Tom Holland last week revealed that Homecoming would be the first part of a trilogy. "There is still a lot of room for Peter Parker and Spider-Man, especially, to grow in the next two movies," he said. "He's definitely not the finished article by the end of Homecoming and I really look forward to exploring the different ways he can grow up. It's going to be an exciting couple of movies."
Intel's 7th generation of high-end desktop processors (HEDT), known as the Basin Falls platform, is set to compete with AMD's Ryzen CPUs and upcoming Threadripper platform. These new Intel CPUs opt for a new socket and chipset--socket LGA 2066 on motherboards with X299 chipsets. As AMD looks to release several SKUs of Threadripper on top of the abundance of cost-effective Ryzen CPUs, Intel is coming out with a total of nine SKUs for its new platform; five under the Core i9 family, three as Core i7, and one as Core i5, which range from quad-core to 18-core multithreaded CPUs. All these new Intel CPUs are also branded as the X-series.
We were able to get our hands on the Core i9-7900X--the 10-core 20-thread Skylake-X CPU--for evaluation. It's priced at $1000, which is about $700 cheaper than Intel's previous 10-core 20-thread offering in the Core i7-6950X. As you can tell, HEDTs don't come cheap since they're meant to perform high level operations like video encoding and image rendering, even several of these operations at the same time. They're not intended for gaming alone and are frequently targeted at "prosumers" who typically stream, game, and produce video content often simultaneously.
The following chart outlines all the known specifications of Intel's new CPUs:
Intel 7th-Generation Basin Falls CPU Line
CPU Name
Threads / Cores
Base Clock (GHz)
Boost Clock (GHz)
L3 Cache
TDP
Price
Core i9-7980XE
18 / 36
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
$1999
Core i9-7960X
16 / 32
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
$1699
Core i9-7940X
14 / 28
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
$1399
Core i9-7920X
12 / 24
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
$1199
Core i9-7900X
10 / 20
3.3
4.3 (4.5)
13.75 MB
140W
$999
Core i7-7820X
8 / 16
3.6
4.3 (4.5)
11 MB
140W
$599
Core i7-7800X
6 / 12
3.5
4.0
8.25 MB
140W
$389
Core i7-7740X
4 / 8
4.3
4.5
8 MB
112W
$339
Core i5-7640X
4 / 4
4.0
4.2
6 MB
112W
$242
An additional detail to note is that the i9-7900X, i7-7820X, and i7-7800X CPUs all support quad-channel memory. The i7-7740 and i5-7640X Kaby Lake-X CPUs only support dual-channel memory, however.
Pre-orders are now open for the i9-7900X down to the i5-7640X, which are all set to release on June 26. The rest of the Core-i9 CPUs, which don't have final specifications, are slated to release sometime later this year.
Technical Details
Though i9-7900X's cores have a stock clock speed of 3.3 GHz, it can reach up to 4.3 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 2.0 and 4.5 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0. With these technologies, the two best performing cores will receive the biggest boost while the more taxing workloads can be directed to those cores. Each CPU in the X-series comes unlocked which means you won't be bound by boost clocks and can overclock to your heart's desire, given the right cooling and voltage circumstances.
The 7900X is built with the 14nm FinFET manufacturing process technology, which is currently the most advanced for the desktop processor market. It also sports the new Skylake-X microarchitecture, which handles more instructions per clock than previous geneations. It also trades L3 cache size for a larger, more efficient mid-level cache (MLC) compared to the last-generation Broadwell-E architecture. The 7900X supports 44 PCI-e 3.0 lanes, most of the Skylake-X CPUs so far.
Methodology
We're in the midst of benchmarking this CPU and we'll be comparing it to Intel's previous 10-core 20-thread offering in the Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E CPU. As for an AMD comparison, the 8-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 1800X is most powerful from CPU currently on the market to compete against Intel since Threadripper isn't out yet. Take note that the R7 1800X is half the retail price ($500) of the i9-7900X ($1000).
We're equipped with Gigabyte X299 Gaming 9 motherboard, which received a BIOS update on June 16 to help optimize the performance of turbo boost technology. Our X299 system features 16GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR4-2666 RAM in dual-channel, and all systems use the Nvidia GTX 1080 reference graphics card to help keep specs consistent across systems.
Performance
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 is a 3D image rendering benchmark that really makes the most of CPU cores, and for now, these results give small taste of the Core i9-7900X's capabilities. It shows to be about 15.9% faster over the 6950X when we ran the multi-core test, and about 12.5% faster using the single-core test. In this regard, Skylake-X proves to be a substantial improvement over the previous Broadwell-E architecture. The 7900X is also faster than the R7 1800X by about 33.2% in the multi-core run and 17.4% faster in the single-core run. It shouldn't be a surprise since the 1800X is an 8-core 16-thread CPU at half the price.
We look forward to analyzing more results as we complete our testing of the Core i9-7900X, which will include the following benchmarks:
POV-RAY 3.7
Blender
GeekBench 3.0
PC Mark 8
3D Mark 11
X264
Star Swarm Stress Test
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Bioshock Infinite
Full Review Forthcoming
There are plenty of benchmarks to perform and results to analyze in order to properly evaluate this new processor. So, we will be bringing out our full review of the Core i9-7900X later this week. Stay tuned.
David Cage's latest game, Detroit: Become Human, was shown off for the first time in over a year at E3 2017. Sony's E3 2017 press conference gave us another look at Detroit's futuristic world in which Androids serve humanity, only to rise up and resist upon gaining sentience. Detroit's story touches on suppression, terrorism, slavery, and exploitation--serious, real-world issues that are rarely discussed in the bright lights of the video game world.
At E3, we got the chance to speak to Cage about these issues, and how they affected his thoughts while writing and developing Detroit. We also spoke about storytelling in games, about he wants the player to be the co-star, co-writer, and co-director, and about creating content most people will never see. Take a look at our full chat below.
GameSpot: How do your decisions in Detroit affect its story on a grander scale, rather than just on a moment-to-moment basis? Are your choices mere illusions or can you actually change the whole direction of the story? How much power do you have to shape the story into separate arcs?
David Cage: So that was a very important thing for us when we started working on this, was to say, "We don't want to do smoke and mirrors with this, we want to go the hard way." Let's create assets that maybe 10% of people will see. And let's embrace this idea that usually you reject because we're not going to create scenes for the 10% of people who make that choice. But we said, "We should," because that's the heart, the DNA of the experience that we wanted to create. So the tree structure is very complex: in each scene, in each arc, we added another layer of complexity which is that the arc of one character--we have three playable characters--can have an impact on the arcs of the other characters. So you can imagine the complexity of the tree structure.
There are entire branches you may never see. There are some scenes that you may see or miss or you may see differently. There are some characters that you may see only once or become your friend and accompany you until the end. And of course the three characters can die, which won't lead to a 'game over' situation, the game will carry on with the remaining characters. I won't tell you that you can tell any story and that there are a zillion stories that you can tell, there is a narrative space that we create, that the player can really travel a lot within this narrative space and tell their own version of the story. And for us the goal is that two players comparing their story playing Detroit will realize how different they are. They may talk about things that the other doesn't even know what they're talking about.
If I wanted to see everything in Detroit, how many times would I need to play it through?
That's gonna take you a while. Honestly, it's impossible for us to say how many versions of the story there are because it really depends what you take into account and the tree structures are so complex that I don't really have an answer. But it's not this kind of game where you get three different endings and that's it--there are many paths, many ways of playing the story, of traveling through this tree structure, leading to many different endings, but the goal for us was to give the feeling to the player that they are in control of their destiny, that they are telling their own story. The co-writer, the co-director, the co-actor. I created the space, but they decide what they want to do in it.
What does Detroit offer people who loved your past games, such as Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, and how does it grab people who didn't like your past games so much?
Detroit is a very special game for us, it's probably everything I learnt in 20 years doing this job into one game. So I hope it's going to be the essence of what I learned, and I hope it's going to be a good thing. The reaction here at E3 has been pretty insane, seeing how excited the fans are, so all the people who love my work will find what they love: emotion in games, the strong narrative and the branching narrative and all this stuff, it's all there, just on a bigger scale. More spectacular, more branching, more everything.
It's all there, just on a bigger scale. More spectacular, more branching, more everything.
[For] people who didn't like my games so much in the past, I think it's an interesting experience. We try to do things a little bit differently in Detroit. We have bigger areas. We have much more exploration. We probably found a better compromise between what players are used to and what we want to do. Let me give you a concrete example [of that].
We always try to have a sense of cinematography with our cameras. Not during cutscenes, but during gameplay sequences. Having the feeling that it's filmed by a director, even when you're in control of the character. It's great for people who like that, but for gamers, sometimes [they're] like, "Oh, I want to move my camera and I can't," so we've developed this system where if you don't touch the right stick, the camera is managed and you have a sense of cinematography, but at any point, once you just move the right stick and you control the camera and you can look around. It's these kinds of--not compromises, because I don't like this word--but these kinds of choices that we made in the design to make sure more people will want to play and enjoy the experience, because I think it's action-adventure, it's nothing else than that. It's also really funny to see how many QTEs there are these days in action games and if you look at the demo we presented, there are none. It's a trend. I think the industry makes a step in our direction. Maybe we make a step in the direction of the industry.
There's a lot of turmoil in the world right now, for example with the recent attacks in London and, before that, Paris. Has that changed your thoughts and your attitude about this game, given the scene you've shown off at E3 is, essentially, an attack?
Yeah, absolutely. The events in Paris happened while I was writing the script and it happened very close to the studio. We are very close to the Bataclan, very close to the supermarket that was attacked, and my kids, they were at school, very near the supermarket where this thing took place and they were locked in school, so I was at home, watching TV about what was going on, calling my kids, no answer, and you can imagine what goes through your mind when that happens.
I have one guy in my team who was in the Bataclan when it happened, so I was writing scenes and I'm very clear and very honest and very sincere and ... I was totally comfortable with the story I wanted to tell, because I think it's a very positive story in telling something very important and meaningful, but at the same time, I didn't want any ambiguity in my story.
There are a couple of scenes that I cut, because I felt [they] could be misinterpreted and could be understood in a way that wouldn't be right. I cut them away and it made me think about the story I was telling and how I was telling it and, at first, I was really scared, because I thought, "Wait a second, we're dealing with very sensitive issues here. This is so important and so serious for real people in the real world, how can we create a game that would even resonate with this kind of thing?"
Do we always have to talk about zombies and aliens and stuff, or can we talk also about the real things?
Your first reaction is to step back and way, "Whoah, what am I doing?" But then, the second reaction is to say, "Wait a second, that's important. That's meaningful." It's definitely sensitive and sensible. I'm going to need to be careful, but at the same time it's very interesting to be able to talk about such important things in the game. As long as you feel respectful and careful about what you're saying and how you say it, why wouldn't games be qualified to talk about real-world issues? Do we always have to talk about zombies and aliens and stuff, or can we talk also about the real things?
My take was this is a creative opportunity to see if a game can talk about these things or not, so don't see [the scene shown off on-stage] as, "Oh, this is the [entire] game." Each scene is different and the meaning is absolutely not binary. Don't take away from this scene that it's going to be, "[Do] you want to be violent or pacifist?" because that's not what the game is about. The game is much more complex than that and you show all the complexity and the repercussions of your choices, on opinion, on media, on your people, and being violent is not the wrong thing or the right thing. It's not about being right or wrong, it's really questioning what would you do if you had to fight for your rights and it's one of many questions in the game.
Do you think more games should tackle those sorts of issues in real-world politics?
I don't know. What I feel is that games are a respectable medium and that there is nothing they shouldn't talk about. It's a fantastic medium, because you put the player in the shoes of the character and you confront them in a very unique way, that is totally different from feelings, or TV series, or theater or literature, because you are in control. What I do with Detroit is ask the player questions. I don't give the answers. I don't say, "This is right, this is wrong, you should think this, you should think that." No. I just ask the question and I let the player answer by themselves and face the consequences of their choices in the story. This is what makes Detroit very unique and exciting to me.
What date are you targeting for release?
We've not announced a date, but it's going to be next year.
You might soon be able to catch legendary creatures in Pokemon Go. In the coming weeks, the mobile game will add a new Raid Battle feature that allows you to team up with friends to simultaneously fight powerful Pokemon at Gyms. Those that take part in raids frequently--and succeed more often than not--will be invited to enter exclusive Raids that "can" yield legendary Pokemon.
Up to 20 people can take part in Raids, though you'll only be able to play one per day before you have to pay up. After you defeat a Raid Pokemon, you'll get a chance to catch it, along with the reward of a Golden Raspberry.
Gyms themselves are getting revamped, meanwhile. Pokemon you leave in Gyms now need to be periodically revisited and fed berries by you or your teammates in order to keep their motivation up. Let their motivation fall to 0 and they'll return to you, leaving the Gym vulnerable to attack.
The Prestige system of Gyms has been scrapped, with all Gyms allowing a maximum of six defenders going forward, and you'll also earn bronze, silver, and gold badges at each Gym you fight at. These badges will give you greater and greater rewards with each rising tier. Lastly, every Pokemon Gym will also include a PokeStop, with the aim of evening the playing field for fans who might not have strong enough monsters to mount a challenge.
Developer Niantic said the update incorporating these changes will be rolling out in stages over the coming weeks. Regarding whether PvP battles and trading would be on the way soon, Niantic's senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura said:
"We're definitely looking into it. We're a small team, we're doing one thing at a time. Whether those will be our next thing or not, we still can't really talk about it."
"We recently noticed that a few legendary Pokemon got into a few accounts when they shouldn't have," the company said at the time. "To preserve the game's integrity and as a measure of fairness, we have rectified the situation and revoked the legendary Pokemon from the Trainers' accounts."
Until now, no release window had ever been mentioned for the PS4 exclusive, and its E3 2017 story trailer also did not confirm a date, as some thought it might. However, Cage told GameSpot at E3 that "it's going to be next year."
Elsewhere in our interview, Cage discusses a bunch of different topics, from how he wants the player to be Detroit's co-writer, co-director, and co-star to how real-world issues, including terrorism, affected the game's story. Take a look at the full interview here. For our impressions of Become Human, check out our video roundup of the best PS4 games at Sony's booth.
The huge success of the X-men spinoff Deadpool was one of 2016's biggest box office surprises, and the sequel is due next year. Production has started on Deadpool 2, and star Ryan Reynolds marked the occasion by tweeting an image from the set, with a suitably vulgar caption. It shows the Merc with a Mouth posing in front of the X-Mansion--check it out below:
In related news, an adult animated Deadpool show is on the way. The currently untitled series will be overseen by Atlanta star and creator Donald Glover with his brother Stephen. The pair will both act as showrunners, producers, and writers. It is being developed for FXX, the sister channel to FX, and the 10-part first season will premiere next year.
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