Ahead of E3 2019, Game designer Goichi Suda, commonly known by the nickname Suda51, has been teasing potential news about No More Heroes on both Instagram and Twitter.
The prolific director simply says, "go to E3" in his post on social media, with an accompanying image of what looks like a star comprised of wavelengths. A cracked red star has featured throughout No More Heroes, most notably in the logo for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, so it doesn't take much to deduce what Suda51 is hinting at.
We reviewed Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, with reviewer Michael Higham scoring it a 6 and saying, "Slashing through waves of deformed bugs and hardened brutes has its moments, highlighted by a seamless co-op system that makes jumping into the action a breeze, and the minimalist story presentation will draw you into the journey. However, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes doesn't quite deliver on its potential, relying too heavily on repetitive encounters. This is not the return of No More Heroes you'd hoped for, but it at least shows signs of a series that still has life in it". Any potential sequel will hopefully improve upon Grasshopper Manufacture's last output.
CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 might be the most anticipated game heading into E3 2019. We already know there will be new gameplay on show at E3, and perhaps a release date will finally be confirmed. Whatever is coming, a supposed leak has now shed some light on what might be included in the Collector's edition of the game.
The leaked image is difficult to discern, but it also looks legit enough to be real and falls in line with a previous leak of the standard edition. What we can make out are a statue, an art book, the same compendium that appears in the standard edition, and plenty of other extra trinkets. You can try to decipher it all for yourself.
Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference takes place Sunday, June 9. It begins at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10). You can watch the event live here on GameSpot or follow our Xbox liveblog.
Ahead of Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference, eagle-eyed Xbox fans have noticed a slew of new games being added to Game Pass on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.
We reviewed Metro Exodus earlier this year, with reviewer Michael Higham giving it a score of 8 and saying, "You may miss the mystery and intrigue of the previous games, but Exodus puts together a charismatic crew of friends and family that you'll want to follow to the ends of the earth". Meanwhile, Alessandro Barbosa gave Hollow Knight a 9 back in 2017, concluding the review by saying, "Hollow Knight offers a surprisingly large and harrowing adventure, and it's a treat that every bit of it is just as divine as that last".
Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference takes place Sunday, June 9. It begins at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10). You can watch the event live here on GameSpot or follow our Xbox liveblog.
E3 is a busy time of year if you're a gaming fan who wants to stay on top of everything going on. Particularly in the days before the show floor opens, there are numerous press conferences and events to keep an eye on. The busiest day of E3 2019 so far is undoubtedly today, Sunday, June 9, because we get two major press conferences: Xbox and Bethesda. Here's everything going on today, including start times and how to watch the events live.
Microsoft's Xbox press conference is the first out of the gate on Sunday, with a press conference kicking off at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on Monday, June 10). We'll be hearing about a ton of Xbox One and PC games, including Halo Infinite and Gears 5, but there's a lot rumored to look forward to. There's the From Software/George RR Martin game that leaked, Elden Ring, as well as a next-gen Xbox console reveal. That's been rumored for some time, and Microsoft has been teasing the possibility over the last few days. We've also already heard a variety of Game Pass news today, including the leak of future Game Pass titles on the way.
The other big event today is Bethesda's press conference at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET (1:30 AM BST / 10:30 AM AET on June 10). Neither Starfield nor Elder Scrolls VI will be there, although Todd Howard did give an update on them just recently. Bethesda publishes plenty of other games that will presumably be given the spotlight, including the latest on Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and Fallout 76.
Following Bethesda, we'll also have a press conference from indie publisher Devolver Digital, which has been known to put on some wild shows in the past. We don't know what to expect, but Devolver is responsible for some excellent games. The show begins at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET (3 AM BST / 12 PM AET on June 10).
Check out today's lineup of events below, and head over to our full E3 schedule for a look at everything happening this week.
E3 Schedule For Sunday, June 9
Microsoft Xbox -- 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10)
Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference is still a few hours away, but ahead of the big event Microsoft has made Game Pass Ultimate available to everyone on Xbox One and PC. The service was previously only available to those in the Xbox Insider Program. Ultimate differs from the standard Game Pass by giving you Game Pass access on Xbox One and PC, as well as an Xbox Live Gold subscription for a single price. You can currently sign up on the Microsoft store and get the first month for only $1/£1.
The service usually costs $15/£11 per month, and purchasing an Ultimate plan will automatically upgrade any existing Game Pass and Gold subscriptions. This is based on whatever you currently have--it simply stacks the number of months you have before transitioning. After you've upgraded, adding additional Game Pass or Gold time gives you a reduced conversation rate.
Earlier today, Microsoft announced the price for Game Pass on PC. While the current Game Pass service offers access to both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC games, this new service will be curated specifically for PC, offering a lower price point for those who aren't interested in the Xbox One side of things.
Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference takes place Sunday, June 9. It begins at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10). You can watch the event live here on GameSpot or follow our Xbox liveblog. With Microsoft teasing a next-gen Xbox "Scarlet" console, it should be an interesting show.
Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference doesn't start for another few hours, but several pieces of information have already emerged regarding its various on its subscription services. A page on the company's website, seemingly live before it was scheduled to go public, has revealed the price of Xbox Game Pass for PC.
A month's subscription will cost $5 / £4 / AU $5, the page says, while there is currently no option to subscribe for a year. That puts the monthly price for the PC subscription at approximately half that of the Xbox One version of Game Pass, which is $10 / £8 / AU $11.
Although it shares a name with the Xbox One version, Microsoft has stated the PC Game Pass library will be curated separately. The company calls it "a new experience that we are building together with the PC community." More details will be shared during Microsoft's E3 2019press conference, where we might also hear about a next-gen Xbox.
Beyond this, Microsoft has also expanded Game Pass Ultimate to everyone. Previously only available to a select group of testers, this is a premium subscription that combines Xbox Live Gold with the Xbox One and PC versions of Game Pass for one monthly fee of $15 in the US. You can transition your existing subscriptions into this, allowing you to stack existing months toward your new Ultimate subscription. The first month is available for $1.
When Game Pass for PC was announced last month, Microsoft said it will give subscribers access to a curated library of more than 100 PC games on Windows 10, representing publishers like Bethesda, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive, and Sega. The company also committed to including new releases from Xbox Game Studios on the PC version of Game Pass on the day of release, just like the Xbox One service. The library will add new games every month. Game Pass members can also permanently purchase the games at up to a 20% discount in the Microsoft Store, and 10% off DLC.
By Anonymous on Jun 09, 2019 05:17 pm At E3 2019 we went hands on with Wattson, the newest arrival in Apex Legends, as well as the L-Star, the new care package LMG to enter the arena. Check out our impressions of the new Legend from EA Play!
Marvel's Avengers is one of the most anticipated games of E3 2019, and while it's yet to be fully revealed, we've now learned one further detail about the game: it's coming to Google Stadia, in addition to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
The news was revealed by the game's official Twitter account. It tweeted an image of a large poster advertising the game at the LA Convention Center--the venue for E3--and on that poster, the four platforms can be seen. A notable omission, however, is Nintendo Switch, so it seems as if the Avengers game will not be coming to Nintendo's hybrid console.
Marvel's Avengers is the first chapter in a multi-game partnership between the comic book titan and Square Enix. The initial trailer confirmed that the world it is set in hasn't been too kind to superheroes--perhaps they've even been demonized. "They say the time of heroes is over," a narrator says in the original teaser trailer. "That if you're different, you're dangerous. But I know the truth. The world will always need heroes. We just need to reassemble."
Square Enix has said Avengers "is being designed for gamers worldwide and will be packed with all the characters, environments, and iconic moments that have thrilled longtime fans of the franchise." The game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics, the studio behind the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider.
FIFA 20's announcement and the subsequent reveal of the FIFA Street-style Volta mode has got fans excited for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC game, but EA has dampened the buzz for the Nintendo Switch version of the game by saying it lacks "any of the big new features."
In an interview with Eurogamer, EA confirmed the Switch port of FIFA 20 will be a legacy edition. Explaining what this means, executive producer Aaron McHardy said, "You're gonna get a fresh new look in Switch, with kits and player lists and all of that." However, he went on to say "you're not going to be getting Volta or any of the big new features."
Not all of FIFA 20's new features have been detailed thus far, but EA has explained a number of the gameplay changes it's making--particularly with regards to passing, shooting, and set pieces--in addition to revealing Volta.
That mode "takes football back to the streets with the authentic culture, creativity, and style of the small-sided game," EA says. It appears to be an exclusively small-sided match mode, meaning you'll play with teams of between three and five, as opposed to the regulation 11.
It contains a number of sub-modes, each of which is playable with male or female avatars. Volta World allows you to "build up your squad," for example, while Volta Story will see you take on the role of one player through a scripted narrative, similar to The Journey from previous editions of FIFA. Additionally, you can "take your favorite professional teams to the streets in Volta Kick-Off" or "play through Promotion and Relegation in the online Volta League." Match variants include 3v3 Rush, 4v4, 4v4 Rush, 5v5, and Professional Futsal, where "rush" indicates a game mode that excludes goalkeepers.
The Switch port of FIFA has always been a little pared back compared to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions, but this is the first time EA has described the Nintendo version as a Legacy edition. The publisher has attached "Legacy edition" to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions for a number of years now to indicate the game is largely unchanged, save for cosmetic tweaks such as the new season's kits.
Our FIFA 19 Nintendo Switch review awarded the port a 5/10. We called it "a playable, competent game of football encased in a package of outdated modes and lacking the controls and features you really want."
EA Access subscribers now have another big game to play for no extra cost, EA has announced. Battlefield V, DICE's hit shooter that only launched in November, is now part of the EA Access Vault on Xbox One.
In addition, the game will be free on EA Access for PS4 when that launches in July. The news comes shortly after Battlefield V was added to the Origin Access game collection. Origin Access is a very similar service to EA Access, except exclusive to PC.
EA Access costs $30 / £20 / AU $40 for year or $5 / £4 / AU $40 per month. A subscription grants you access to a vault of free EA titles, such as Titanfall 2, Star Wars: Battlefront II, and FIFA 18. Subscribers also get a 10% discount on all digital EA games, as well as their respective expansions and in-game purchases. Members can also take advantage of EA Access' Play First Trials, which typically give you 10 hours of early access to new EA titles prior to their official release.
EA Play, the publisher's pre-E3 conference, also brought news of new Battlefield V maps. The first map shown is called Marita, based on the village where the Battle of Greece began. It features a sloping mountain ridge and tight streets, with lots of hills and multi-story buildings for verticality. Allies are in control of the town, while the Axis tries to break their stronghold. Marita launches in July.
The second new map shown, Al Sundan, is the next one to arrive: It launches on June 27. It takes place in an African desert and is a large, wide map leaving plenty of room for air battles, and the Axis has established an air base. When you play in Conquest Mode it will have six flags, and campaign players will recognize the map from the mission Under No Flag. It's coming as part of Tides of War Chapter 4, which will also see two new close-quarters maps added.
Finally, the third map is Operation Underground, an underground battlefield similar to Metro from previous Battlefield games but entirely reimagined. That one is coming in October, between Chapters 4 and 5.
Beyond this, EA also further confirmed that Battlefield V is adding the Pacific Theater. This will include the Iwo Jima map and M1 Garand weapon, among other things still to be confirmed.
For a game about interplanetary exploration, Outer Wilds can often feel incredibly small. Flying from one planet to the next takes a matter of seconds, making it easy to ping pong around the game's singular solar system. The brevity of traveling through this handcrafted collection of areas to explore might seem strange at first--especially when the opening minutes of Outer Wilds place such a heavy emphasis on the importance of your mission to document the unknown. However, it doesn't take long for your expectations of Outer Wilds to be completely flipped on their head, giving way to captivating mysteries to solve and difficult questions surrounding mortality to confront. These questions lead you on unforgettable adventures in which each piece of the story you unearth feels as rewarding as the last.
You play as a citizen of a race of four-eyed, jolly-looking aliens, and you have been selected as the next of your kin to take to the stars. Nestled in the cozy forests of a small planet called Timber Hearth, you and your brethren contemplate the same questions that you've likely thought of before. Just where did we come from? Have there been others before us? And if so, where are they now? These questions drive you to explore the solar system you're in, risking your life in search of answers. Armed with nothing more than a spacesuit, a nifty language translator, and tools for surveying anything from distress signals to harmful invisible gases, you're left to take flight in your crudely constructed spaceship and venture off in any direction.
With suggestions that other life existed in this solar system before you, you're tasked with finding evidence to support that claim. Dilapidated architecture from a forgotten age can be found on most planet surfaces, with translatable foreign texts allowing you to piece together the mystery of where these civilizations are today. Your exploration is restricted by a celestial ticking time bomb: The sun at the center of the solar system implodes after 22 minutes and sends you back to the same dreamy campsite on your home planet to start this Groundhog Day loop again. With each new run you can collect more pieces of Outer Wilds' narrative puzzle, slowly piecing together what might be causing the rapid decline of your neighborhood star, before embracing each inevitable death.
Death isn't detrimental in a traditional sense in Outer Wilds. In a way, it's beautiful. The somber tune that plays moments before the light disappears from the solar system signals your death, but it's also an indicator of how much you might have discovered in that one life. It's satisfying to have a productive run that unlocks multiple new threads for you to follow up on in your next attempt, pushing you to new planets to explore and narrative puzzles to solve. Other times it's just as poignant to accept an uneventful run and just embrace the gorgeous scenery around you. Sitting on top of a peak and watching the sun die out is oddly soothing after uneventful expeditions, letting you reflect on your misguided choices and realign yourself for the next journey.
Exploration and the knowledge you obtain with it is the only way to progress through Outer Wilds. As you come across clues and discoveries, they're recorded in a useful log aboard your ship. These clues are stitched together and color-coded to help guide you along the various dangling threads of the story. The game's open-ended structure lets you tackle whichever parts of the mystery you want to, in any order, before they inevitably start linking together to bring the bigger picture into focus. These links aren't clear directions towards the next piece of the puzzle, but instead are suggestive nudges that help you determine when it's safe to move on from one discovery to another. This helps make each of these discoveries feel earned while also avoiding potentially frustrating barriers to your progress.
Strong writing brings you into Outer Wilds' world, and unearthing even the smallest bits of this larger story is a rewarding undertaking. Its myriad of uncoverable dialogue records are charming while always maintaining a purpose, giving you small nuggets of information to ponder even in the most seemingly throwaway conversations. The preserved exchanges between children might describe a game they created to pass the time in dark and gloomy catacombs beneath a planet's surface, which contains a helpful clue for how to get to a hidden area. By contrast, you can also stumble upon the bleak distress signals that never reached their intended saviors or complex plans for alien contraptions that drove past civilizations to make alarmingly dangerous decisions. You grow attached to the recurring names in conversations and become invested in their stories, even when you know many of them don't have happy endings.
Without an explicit guide to point you in the direction of your next great find, each new discovery feels like a hard-earned reward. You'll slowly be able to piece together events taking place on other ends of the solar system, slowly letting your own theories make way for a clearer understanding of events that truly transpired before presenting even more questions. This loop of discovery drives you towards exploring every inch of every planet you can, each of which holds its own delightful little puzzles to solve.
Outer Wilds features just a handful of planets and other celestial objects that you're able to explore on foot, but no two are exactly alike. They each feature unique characteristics that present different challenges you need to overcome to simply explore them. The Hourglass Twins, for example, closely orbit the sun but stay dangerously close to one another, with the gravitational pull of one absorbing the sandy surface of the other and slowly unearthing new areas for you to explore over time. A fast-traveling comet known as the Interloper has an icy exterior that hides a labyrinth of caves underneath its crust, which can only be explored once it travels close enough to the sun for entrances to be melted open. An orbiting moon littered with erupting volcanoes that project volatile balls of lava into space makes simple surface exploration of Brittle Hollow treacherous. You have to uncover a way underneath the Hollow's crust to safely traverse it, discovering previous civilizations that grappled with the same dangers seemingly eons ago.
Figuring out how to safely traverse each planet is an engaging puzzle to solve, especially when it requires an understanding of their positions within the solar system and at what times they're best to tackle. Stumbling upon entrances to new areas by accident or observing mysterious behaviors when exploring a planet make each of these spaces more detailed and expansive than their small physical sizes suggest, and it's even more surprising when many of them contain large cities hidden underneath their crusts waiting to be picked apart. The mechanical and visual variety of each of these planets makes exploring each new one a tantalizing treat.
It's disappointing then that the rules governing simple movement and space flight in Outer Wilds are counter-intuitive to this curious poking and prodding of its world. Space flight in your ship and planetary surface exploration with your jetpack is strictly bound to the rules of physics. You need to wrestle with different gravitational magnitudes and directions as you navigate using thrusters that fire off in six directions, adding or subtracting to your motion in each associated direction.
The somber tune that plays moments before the light disappears from the solar system signals your death, but it's also an indicator of how much you might have discovered in that one life.
It takes time to learn when to start applying reverse thrust on an approach to a planet or how to delicately jet upwards on a planet's surface without accidentally breaking through the atmosphere and into space, but no matter how much you practice, these actions never feel completely natural. Small errors are punished with untimely, frustrating deaths. You can spend minutes waiting for the right time to navigate to a certain area, only to waste all of it over a mistake brought on by Outer Wilds' unintuitive control scheme. It's at odds with the rest of the game.
Outer Wilds' deeply captivating narrative and plentiful mysteries push you further into exploring its richly varied and stunning solar system. The time loop you're trapped in lets you craft bite-sized expeditions that all end up telling their own stories, irrespective of whether you make a monumental discovery or simply encounter a playful interaction. Having a tool to neatly document your discoveries helps you slowly piece together a tale filled with charming writing, and one that presents its own open-ended questions that add emotional heft to the numerous exchanges you parse through during your travels. By letting you chart your own course and piece together its mystery at your own pace, Outer Wilds makes each of its expeditions feel incredibly personal and absolutely unmissable.
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is an unexpected project from Respawn Entertainment. The studio is most known for its first-person shooters, including the Titanfall series and, more recently, Apex Legends. Jedi Fallen Order marks the studio's first foray into the third-person action adventure genre, which makes it all the more impressive that it's doing so with the Star Wars license. However, during E3 2019, director Stig Asmussen revealed that the project was not originally a Star Wars title--the license only became attached following the game's inception.
Speaking with GameSpot following the game's unveiling during EA Play, Asmussen said that the unnamed original project caught the attention of various people at EA, the parent company of Respawn Entertainment. And since the gameplay pillars the developers established for its first project worked conceptually with Star Wars, it was able to adapt.
"Before working on Star Wars we were working on a different game and it had basically the same pillars that we have in this game, which is thoughtful combat, agile exploration--you know, beyond human--and Metroidvania level design," he said.
"And that's something that when we were working on this other game and we demoed it, people [at] EA saw it and said, there's something in there that you could see easily see it turning into a Star Wars game. My background is melee action, so when they came to us and were like, 'We really like the game you're working out and we want to do at some point, but how would you guys feel about doing Star Wars?' we were like, great.
"And [a lot] of the core functionality that we were building for the other game, a lot of the fundamentals, were able to transition over. So we always start with, 'What is the game? How does it feel? How does it play? What are the mechanics?' before really figuring out the story. It just so happened this thing that we were working on translated really well."
E3 is underway, and it's already showcased some of the year's biggest games. Respawn Entertainment opened EA Play with a 15-minute gameplay demo of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Viewers got to watch as protagonist Cal Kestis, a survivor of Order 66, which empowered the Empire to massacre Jedis and their padawans, embarked on a mission to free Wookiees that were fighting for the resistance. On the face of it, what unfolded seemed like pretty standard fare for a Star Wars action game. Cal climbed and parkoured around environments, deflected blaster shots with his lightsaber, and used Force abilities to manhandle Stormtroopers.
However, there was much more going on beneath the surface and, it turns out, the demo without an accompanying breakdown didn't do the game much justice. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is surprisingly cut from the same cloth as From Software's Bloodborne and Dark Souls, though it's perhaps less coarse and rough and irritating. Director Stig Asmussen has used the phrase "thoughtful combat" often when describing how Jedi Fallen Order plays and, thus far, it's not been apparent what that means.
Having seen an extended version of the gameplay demo shown during EA Play, we sat down with Asmussen to discuss the game, its influences, and the particulars of the experience. We also talk about the origins of the project, the pressure of working on a property as beloved as Star Wars, and more.
GameSpot: How did you arrive to this format for the game? Star Wars could be anything and, often, it's an RPG. What was it about like the action genre that made it right for Fallen Order?
Stig Asmussen: It's a good question. Actually, before working on Star Wars we were working on a different game and it had basically the same pillars that we have in this game, which is thoughtful combat, agile exploration--you know, beyond human--and Metroidvania level design. And that's something that when we were working on this other game and we demoed it, people [at] EA saw it and said, there's something in there that you could see easily see it turning into a Star Wars game. My background is melee action, so when they came to us and were like, "We really like the game you're working out and we want to do at some point, but how would you guys feel about doing Star Wars?" we were like, great. And [a lot] of the core functionality that we were building for the other game, a lot of the fundamentals, were able to transition over. So we always start with, "What is the game? How does it feel? How does it play? What are the mechanics?" before really figuring out the story. It just so happened this thing that we were working on translated really well.
That's a really interesting origin for the project. On the one hand, as a creator, you're working on something brand new and you can make it whatever you want. But then you're also presented with Star Wars--one of the most beloved properties of all time. How did you weigh up doing something new or doing something that people know and love, which comes with a lot of pressure?
Well I've always wanted to work on Star Wars. When I first came to Respawn, Vince [Zampella] and I talked about it because it's something that he always wanted to do [too]. We had a close relationship with EA at the time so we pitched an idea. They were interested and we were interested but not everything aligned at the time. So when it came time to make the decision and what we are going to move forward with, we brought it to the team: "Hey, we can work on this thing that we've got or we can try this other opportunity with Star Wars." The entire team at that point, which is about 12 people, was like thumbs up, let's do Star Wars. I mean Force powers and lightsabers are like milk and cookies for us.
Many games lead with story when they're teasing. They bring out the recognizable things to hook people, and while Jedi Fallen Order has a little of that, it feels like this it's also leading with gameplay mechanics and systems.
Absolutely. But we've been working really closely with Lucasfilm and they've been great. They're like, "We love the game you're making, let's try to figure out how to solve the things [that] are Star Wars." So that's always a conversation that we're having, but our designers design very freely when they're laying out levels. I mean, they have a rough idea of what we're trying to do with the story, but really what we try to encourage them to do is come up with something that's fun and within the metrics of what our game is. In a lot of cases, our metrics of our game kind of break what Star Wars is, so then we have to sit down with Lucasfilm and have that conversation, have that brainstorming session where we figure out how to make it work for Star Wars.
So one of the things that you've mentioned repeatedly is "thoughtful combat." What does that mean to you and what should it mean to someone thinking about playing the game?
You're not just going in and mindlessly hacking down enemies. Every enemy has a weakness, maybe several weaknesses. Every enemy has a way to exploit the hero as well. And there's synergies between the different enemy types, so they act in different ways depending on how you combine them. So every time you walk into a battle, you really have to weigh how you're going to go in and take the guys out. We obviously want to have a power fantasy in the game, so as you're getting stronger, your abilities are getting greater. Enemies you found early on aren't going to be as much of a challenge, but we'll be introducing new enemies that will challenge you. And once you take those and you combine that with the fact that now you have several different types of entities together, and then you have your new Force abilities that you're picking up along the way, new skills that you're learning, the lightsaber--we're encouraging the player to do more than just press a button.
What was the seed for that kind of combat? You came from God of War, which has depth and nuance but is mostly played as a button masher.
Well, God of War is great because yeah, you can mash in the game, but there also wasn't a steep curve for skilled players because you can unlock an insane amount of moves in that game and you can change the combos in different ways. When we started this new combat system, we were looking at Wind Waker. We wanted to have kind of a Metroidvania style, which Wind Waker has a little bit of in there as your abilities unlock gates across the whole map.
And we were also looking at Bloodborne and Dark Souls, and immediately I was like, "I want the game to have Z-targeting." You can turn it on and off, and it plays really well in the free mode as well. But it was really kind of like, we don't want to be as whimsical and quite as accessible as Wind Waker but Zelda does have like enemies that you kind of unlock in different ways. So we wanted to have that. That's where we started thinking about "thoughtful." You have to learn how to use the different abilities, you know?
We knew it couldn't be as punishing as Dark Souls, especially since it's Star Wars. We needed to find something that was more accessible. So, yeah, those were our touchstone.
In Metroidvanias the growth of power and fulfillment of the power fantasy is a lot slower. And people coming into Star Wars may want to feel like a badass Jedi straight away, right? It doesn't seem like that slow progression would play nicely with the Jedi fantasy.
Right. Well, it can because of the way our character is built in the story. He's unfinished and he's unpolished. But, at the end of the day, he's got a lightsaber and that's a pretty devastating weapon. And that's another thing that kind of goes with "thoughtful combat." When you swing a lightsaber, for it to feel right, a lot of enemies need to go down with one hit, so you have to figure out how to open up an enemy. And once the player does that, then the power fantasy starts to take hold.
Games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne have this process of an uphill struggle and then you're rewarded for overcoming the challenges. That's a key part of feedback and satisfaction in the games. How are you treating death in Jedi Fallen Order?
That's an interesting question. We certainly can't be as punishing as Bloodborne because I think that we have to be fair to the fans and respect the fans of Star Wars. Those games are awesome, but we have a much wider audience. We love those parts of those games, so we have to figure out a way. We're in the process of playtesting right now and thinking about how difficult the system [is]. I can't really answer that question because it's still something that like we're trying. We have something that works and it works for a certain group, but we need to find a final solution.
There's a moment when Cal sits down and seems to meditate. Is that the equivalent of a bonfire or lantern?
Yeah, that's a save point. We have those scattered throughout the game. He goes in and he meditates. And in there you can also access your skill tree.
And the blue and white bar on screen. Are those Force powers and guarding/resistance?
Right. So the blue bar is your Force power. Every time you use a Force ability it gets spent. You build it back up by swinging at enemies, so you have to be offensive.
That's the Bloodborne inspiration then.
But the white bar is your block and enemies have the same thing as well. They've got health and they've got a block bar. So if you go in and start wailing on an enemy and they're just blocking all the time, you can break their guard.
And there were moments that had a parry-style look, like Sekiro.
Yeah, it's actually funny when I first played Sekiro, I was like, "It's almost the same control scheme that we have." It's very similar. Like I jumped in and said this feels like our game but it's hard as f**k. Yeah, the parry has a window that is somewhat tight, but I think a lot of people will get it. That's also how you deflect shots, like blaster shots. If you just hold [the button down] Cal will bounce them in different directions, but you can reflect back to your enemy by hitting [parry].
So returning a blaster shot is the skill-based part of a reflect ability that is otherwise quite accessible to pull off.
Yep. And any time an enemy is swinging there's a window where if you hit it, you'll be able to topple them.
How did it feel to play Sekiro and see ideas that were so similar? That seems to happen a lot, with people coming up with similar ideas despite being completely secluded from each other.
I came into and work and said, "People are going to say we stole Sekiro's stuff and put it in this game." But we didn't! I think the other similarity is you can jump in that game so that makes it a much more agile and faster than the other [From Software games]. Our game has a lot of speed to it.
How much platforming and puzzle-solving do you want in the game? That's the kind of thing that engages video game fans, but may be a snag for just random Star Wars fans.
They won't be arbitrary. We use puzzles as kind of a pace breaker. We had some pretty tricky ones in the God of War games, but for this game we're not doing things that are tricky, but they're still clever. The three main pillars are exploration, level design, which includes problem solving, and combat. And I would say the lion's share of it is probably combat. Even within combat, it can feel like a puzzle.
You have a lot of weight on you. You're handling Star Wars, so there's that. You've got God of War 3 to your name, so there's an expectation of quality. And then it's a game from Respawn, a studio that always hits a high bar.
Don't wanna screw that up!
How do you deal with that pressure and expectation?
Yeah. A lot of it is just leaning on my team and the incredible support we give each other. We all know we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, so to speak, and I kind of feed off of that. You kind of have to. The other thing too is you just can't worry about it all the time. You know, if I make a mistake, if we make a mistake on this, then we learn from it and we're going to the next thing. But we can't be afraid to fail. So we've taken some risks; I think calculated [ones]. Hopefully it works out.
Do you see a future beyond this for the story of Cal? Is this the first chapter of a series?
I don't know that we've really decided what's next, but he certainly is a character that we can take to different places.
It was kind of interesting because Steam had a big sale on Star Wars games right when the deal was official. It was a pretty small team then and everybody downloaded [them] and played these different Star Wars games. Of course we played them growing up, but over the years what you remember about them might not have been exactly the way it was. In spirit, a lot of that stuff ended up informing us on things that we're doing in the game.
What do you want people's biggest takeaway from what they've seen so far to be? There's so many people coming at this for different reasons and latching onto different things. What do you want them to be thinking about when they're looking at Jedi Fallen Order?
That's a good question. I mean, the thing that I don't want to be misrepresented here is that this is a linear game. You just saw a large chunk of linear gameplay that we would call a Star Wars spectacle, a wow moment. [Editor's note: Asmussen is referring to an extended gameplay video featuring an AT-AT that was shown behind closed doors.] That is one of a handful of things like that that you'll find in the game that are very scripted and linear. But most of the game is through player choice and agency for where they want to go based on the abilities that they have. I would want to make sure that everybody has a good impression of what the moment core game experience is.
Final question: Have you played the new God of War and if so what do you think of it?
It's fantastic. It's fantastic.
Did Cory Barlog show or mention it to you before you left?
Well, before I left Sony, I knew what the idea was. I thought that Kratos being a dad was going to be a tough sell. But Cory was very earnest about it and you could see that he had a passion and he knew what he wanted to do with it. And it totally worked. It's awesome.
Just before football season kicks off, you can count on a new Madden game to roll through. This year, we're getting Madden NFL 20 along with a number of new features and gameplay tweaks, and you can get your hands on the game a bit early through its upcoming closed beta test. It'll run from June 14 12 PM ET to June 16 at midnight ET, which covers the weekend after E3 2019, but only for a select few folks.
EA has outlined how to get into the closed beta. Those who attend EA Play have a chance to get a beta code at the Madden booth on-site. Between June 10 and June 14, EA will give out codes via stream/social media and you'll have to follow the official Madden Twitch or Twitter account (@EAMaddenNFL). Developers will also participate in giving codes away via MUTHEAD (Madden Ultimate Team) and Reddit. EA says to check your email associated with your EA account for additional chances to get beta codes, especially those who competed in the Madden Championship Series.
The closed beta is for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users, and codes are redeemable through each platforms normal process. The closed beta will not include the new Face of the Franchise or MUT modes, but will let you play normal games as either the Chiefs, Rams, Patriots, or Saints.
Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, spoke at Ghostbusters Fan Fest on Saturday about his upcoming 2020 sequel, which follows the world his father helped create in 1984. The first teaser for the movie was revealed back in January, but it will still be a little while before filming begins.
Speaking to a crowd at the director panel at the convention, Jason Reitman explained that the 2020 Ghostbuters sequel will start shooting in five weeks, as long as everything goes to plan. Originally, the story for the movie revolved around a 12-year-old girl with a proton pack. But since then, the idea has grown and revolves around a family. How does this family fit into the world? "You don't know their connection, and they don't know their connection either," Reitman explained. There have been reports the movie is casting four teens to lead the film: two boys, two girls.
He said he's excited about the possibility of making all kinds of Ghostbusters movies. And while the stars of the original film--Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Murray--have all read the script, he would not confirm if they are in fact coming back. The other star of the movie, Harold Ramis, passed away in 2014.
However, during an interview with Parade Magazine, Weaver herself confirmed she will be in the movie, along with Murray and Aykroyd. "It's going to be crazy working with the guys again," she exclaimed. Sony has yet to comment on the remarks.
Next year's movie will not be connected to the 2016 reboot, which angered one of the stars, but aside from Reitman being the son of the original director, he's a fan of the movie. "I love everything about it. The iconography. The music. The tone," Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember being on set and seeing them try out the card catalog gag for the first time when the library ghost makes them come flying out. I remember the day they killed Stay Puft and I brought home a hardened piece of foam that just sat on a shelf for years. I was scared there was a terror dog underneath my bed before people knew what a terror dog was."
The third movie in the original Ghostbusters universe hits theaters on July 10, 2020.
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