E3 2019 is winding down, with Thursday marking its final day. Even without Sony at the show, there has been a lot of games for PS4 fans to check out. But those at home looking to boot up their PS4 might find themselves running into issues. Sony has confirmed PSN is down.
Sony shared the news in a tweet on its PlayStation Support account, writing, "We're aware that some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN." The PSN status page further reaffirms this, listing all areas of PSN as impacted. That includes account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Now, the PlayStation Store, and more.
We're aware that some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN. Thank you for your patience as we investigate: https://t.co/s026QGzJZr
With these widespread issues, you may not be able to sign in on your PS4, which could mean you're locked out of not just online play, but also some of your games. There's no word on how long this may last.
When things do come back online, Sony's E3 sale is ongoing and offers some very nice deals on PS4 games and hardware.
Hot on the heels of Fortnite's 9.21 update, a new set of challenges is now available in Epic's hit battle royale game. As usual, this week's missions arrive in two categories: a small handful that are available to everyone, and some that are reserved for those who've purchased a Season 9 Battle Pass.
As has been the trend this season, most of Week 6's challenges are self-explanatory and can be completed fairly easily with a little persistence. On the free side, there are two multi-stage challenges. The first begins by asking you to land at Lucky Landing, while the second starts off with searching chests at a Hot Spot. The final free challenge is to deal 500 damage to opponents using SMGs.
Battle Pass owners have access to an additional four challenges to complete. These are likewise fairly straightforward. You'll need to deal damage to a vehicle driven by an opponent; use the new Storm Flip item in three different matches; eliminate three opponents either in The Block or Fatal Fields; and use two different vehicles in a single match. You can see the full list of this week's challenges below:
Fortnite Season 9, Week 6 Challenges
Free
Stage 1 of 5: Land at Lucky Landing -- 1 Battle Star
Deal damage with SMGs to opponents (500) -- 5 Battle Stars
Stage 1 of 3: Search chests at a Hot Spot (3) -- 3 Battle Stars
Premium
Deal damage to a vehicle driven by an opponent (200) -- 5 Battle Stars
Use a Storm Flip in different matches (3) -- 5 Battle Stars
Use different vehicles in a single match (2) -- 10 Battle Stars
Eliminate opponents in The Block or Fatal Fields (3) -- 10 Battle Stars
If you own a Season 9 Battle Pass and complete any four of this week's challenges, you'll earn 6,000 XP for your troubles. Each challenge will also reward you with Battle Stars, which will help level your Battle Pass up and, in turn, unlock more of this season's new skins and other cosmetic rewards. If you need help clearing any previous challenges from this season, you can find guides for the trickier ones in our complete Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup.
The aforementioned 9.21 update arrived on June 12 and added another new weapon to the game: the Proximity Grenade Launcher, which lobs bouncing explosives at opponents. It comes in Epic and Legendary varieties and can be found in chests, supply drops, vending machines, or from Loot Carriers. The update also kicked off a new, PvE limited-time mode called Horde Rush, which comes with its own assortment of challenges to complete. You can find the full patch notes for the update on Epic's website.
E3 2020 is on. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has followed tradition and put up a banner on the third and final day of E3 this year, inviting attendees back for next year's event. E3 2020 is set for June 9-11.
E3 has been a very different show this year. The absence of Sony led to a much different show floor than usual, and the event is still in flux as it welcomes in public attendees in addition to media and industry professionals. Some repeat attendees (including GameSpot staff) have noted that the show seemed less crowded this year. Those factors led to questions about what the future would hold, but now we know that the show will go on for at least one more year. Microsoft has already said it's planning a big showing for Halo Infinite next year.
The ESA also usually closes the show with a press release wrapping up the event and giving attendance numbers. If it follows suit this year, that may give a better idea of the perceived low attendance.
The SaGa series has been around since the late '80s, with the first game--Makai Tōshi Sa·Ga in Japan, The Final Fantasy Legend in the West--releasing in December 1989. Romancing SaGa 3 sits as the sixth installment (debuting in 1995), while SaGa: Scarlet Grace is the twelfth and most recent release (debuting in 2016). Unfortunately, both launched exclusively in Japan, marking this re-release as the first time both titles debut in the West. Check out the announcement trailer below.
No release date has been confirmed for either title, but Romancing SaGa 3 will launch on mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One; while SaGa: Scarlet Grace – Ambitions will launch on mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4.
The first trailer for Doctor Sleep is here. The movie is based on Stephen King's 2013 novel and is directed by Mike Flanagan, who previously helmed the Netflix adaptation of King's Gerald's Game, as well as the hit show The Haunting of Hill House.
King's novel is a sequel to his classic The Shining. In the new movie, Ewan McGregor plays the adult version of Danny Torrance, the telekinetic kid from that earlier book and movie. Torrance meets a young girl with similar powers to his and must protect her from a sinister cult who are targeting children with similar gifts. Flanagan has previously proved himself a master at balancing scares and a heartfelt drama, and this looks like no exception. There's also quite a few cool references to scenes and iconic moments from The Shining--check it out above.
Doctor Sleep also stars Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Fallout), Bruce Greenwood (Gerald's Game), Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil), and Jacob Tremblay (The Predator). Danny isn't the only character from The Shining to feature either--Carl Lumbly (Alias) plays Dick Hallorann, while Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes) appears as Wendy Torrance. The movie hits theaters on November 9, 2019.
In a recent interview with Bloody Disgusting, Flanagan spoke about the inevitable shadow that Stanley Kubrick's movie adaption of The Shining cast over Doctor Sleep. "I think you do have to acknowledge [it]," he said. "There is no version of the world where I am trying not to acknowledge one of the greatest films ever made. There's no upside in shying away from that reality.
"It's its own story and in a very specific way," he continued. "If you've read the book, you know exactly why it's so different but it's quite a tightrope that we're walking I think. I'm having a great time doing it. I'm just going to get the movie out and then turn off the internet for two weeks and see how it all goes."
Nintendo finally gave us our first glimpse at Animal Crossing for Switch--now officially christened Animal Crossing: New Horizons--during its E3 2019 Direct. We learned some further details during a subsequent Treehouse livestream demo, and since then, other tidbits about the game have emerged, including some welcome quality-of-life improvements it'll be making to the series.
Unlike previous Animal Crossing games, which had players moving into a preexisting village, New Horizons ships you off to a deserted island, where you can establish your village from scratch. You won't be alone, however; in an interview with IGN, director Aya Kyogoku revealed you'll arrive on the island alongside a couple of other random animals who've also chosen to embark on the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package. Before these other villagers settle down, however, they'll ask you if the spot they've chosen is okay, and if you don't like it, you can choose a different spot.
You'll also have a much greater degree of freedom when customizing your character's appearance this time around. In past games, your character's face was determined by the answers you gave before moving in to your village, and the kind of hairstyles you could have were locked by gender (although you could eventually unlock the opposite gender's hairstyles in New Leaf). As Kyogoku revealed to Polygon, you'll be able to freely choose your character's facial features and hairstyle, regardless of gender, and you can swap between those options at any point in the game. For the first time in the main series, you can also select your character's skin tone.
Those aren't the only big changes New Horizons is making. During the aforementioned Treehouse demo, we learned the game will feature couch co-op. At any point, you can pass a Joy-Con controller to a friend to let them take control of another character who lives in the village. Nintendo also said the game will support four players locally and up to eight players online.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches for Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2020. While it's still a way off, pre-orders for the game are now open. You can read more in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-order guide.
In Avengers: Endgame, Thor had a bit of a rough go toward the beginning of the movie, and in a recent video posted by Chris Hemsworth, we see one of the God of Thunder's saddest moments, covering Nine Inch Nails. Warning: Endgame spoilers ahead.
His beheading of Thanos early on didn't bring him any sense of justice, and he's now living on Earth with what's left of the Asgardians. Thor spends his days getting drunk and playing video games online, while yelling at children over a headset, like Noobmaster69.
Thor covering "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails (specifically covering Johnny Cash's rendition of the song) is a hilarious yet oddly depressing moment in the God of Thunder's life. And we're really hopeful that the full version of this video somehow makes it onto the special features for the Avengers: Endgame home release.
It's weirdly been a really cool year for Nine Inch Nails covers. Aside from Hemsworth's version of "Hurt," the latest season of Black Mirror had Miley Cyrus playing the character Ashley O, who covered the band's song "Head Like A Hole," as well as performing part of NIN's "Right Where It Belongs."
Avengers: Endgame crushed box office records, beating out Avatar in the US, and taking in $2.7 billion globally. While a home release hasn't been announced for the film yet, we do know that it will be coming to the Disney+ streaming service in December.
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser replied to IGN's question about industry crunch--whereby developers are often asked to work extreme hours in the lead-up to launch--by saying: "The crunch point is an interesting one. For us, one of our key tenets is that we bring smiles to people's faces, and we talk about that all the time. It's our vision. Or our mission, I should say. For us, that applies to our own employees. We need to make sure that our employees have good work-life balance.
"One of those examples is, we will not bring a game to market before it's ready. We just talked about one example [New Horizons' delay]. It's really important that we have that balance in our world. It's actually something we're proud of."
New Horizons was initially scheduled for a 2019 launch, but it will now be released on March 20, 2020. While it's still a way off, pre-orders for the game are now open. You can read more in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-order guide.
The game makes a few neat changes compared to previous titles in the series, including the addition of couch co-op. At any point, you can pass a Joy-Con controller to a friend to let them take control of another character who lives in the village. Nintendo also said the game will support four players locally and up to eight players online. For more, check out these welcome Animal Crossing: New Horizons gameplay changes or our look at why New Horizons is so different to past Animal Crossing games.
Epic's month-long Mega Sale ends after today, but the digital store announced it's extending one particular offer through the rest of 2019. During the Mega Sale, Epic began offering a free PC game to its users on a weekly basis (rather than biweekly, as it was doing before), and the store will continue giving one free game away every week through the rest of the year, starting with Enter the Gungeon.
Available for free starting today, Enter the Gungeon is a gunfight dungeon-crawler that takes place in the Gungeon, a "bullet-hell fortress" that's constantly evolving and upping its challenges. The "gungeoneers" are a group of misfits with deep regrets seeking a powerful treasure at the Gungeon's core: a legendary gun that can kill their past. The heroes must brave traps, chasms, and wave after wave of bullets to make their way through the dungeon, and a variety of wacky weapons are at your disposal, including guns that shoot lasers, cannonballs, rainbows, fish, darts, and more.
The game received a 7/10 in GameSpot's Enter the Gungeon review, in which critic Cassidee Moser took issue with its guns feeling similar and certain gameplay elements, but praised its finely tuned shooting mechanics, challenging enemies, and dynamic visuals. "Care has been placed in the smallest details, mixing retro-inspired pixelated artwork with more contemporary styles of visual feedback," wrote Moser.
As a reminder, you'll need a free Epic account to claim Enter the Gungeon, and once you do add the game to your account, it'll be yours to keep. Enter the Gungeon will be available until June 20, when it will be replaced by space adventure Rebel Galaxy.
The dungeon-crawler Torchlight 2 is coming to consoles with extra content this fall. The original game was a PC exclusive, but now it will come to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It's due on September 3 for $20.
Torchlight 2 was originally developed by Runic Games, and the port is being handled by Panic Button. These console ports feature an improved targeting system and revised console-friendly UI, and new pets. The Nintendo Switch version will let up to four dungeon divers play with their friends on a local wireless connection.
The original Torchlight was released on PC and Xbox 360, and helped scratch the Diablo itch for action-RPG fans. Torchlight 2 came in 2012, and went head-to-head against Diablo 3. Torchlight is a bit lighter in tone than Blizzard's series, though, and includes some mechanical differences.
"We've discovered that the core mechanics featured in Torchlight II translate really well onto consoles," says Panic Button's Andy Boggs. "It's a solid multiplayer experience with fast-paced action and an almost endless progression system. Our team has been working hard on the console version to make sure that the combat feels just as fun and satisfying as it did on PC."
BAFTA has given a special award to Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite and Gears of War, among other franchises. The company was given the award in a ceremony in LA, the host city of E3 2019, for its "impact on the global games industry."
As well as developing Fortnite and the first four Gears of War titles, Epic also counts among its achievements the Unreal Tournament series and the industry standard development tool Unreal Engine. More recently, the company opened its own storefront as a rival to Steam. It also announced in March that it's created a $100 million fund for developers that was made possible thanks to the success of Fortnite.
"We are delighted to honor Epic Games with a BAFTA special award," said BAFTA Games committee chair Dr Jo Twist, OBE. "Their impact on the global games industry and its evolution has been extraordinary and we are pleased to be recognizing that this evening. Epic Games have empowered and supported creativity in the industry for over 20 years and they continue to innovate on established industry practice and champion the creative community."
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said: "The team has worked so hard to make these things reality and create art and be recognized for it. I hope this is just the beginning of the quest. We're trying to create a whole new world around digital entertainment and I think we're just at the beginning of it."
This is not the first award BAFTA has handed to Epic--Fortnite won the Evolving Game category at this year's Game BAFTAs. The battle royale title has gone on to become one of the most successful games ever made, with over 250 million registered players. Epic continues to evolve the game, with its latest patch adding a proximity grenade launcher and a Horde Rush mode.
As it is unspoken that all great games must come to Switch eventually, so it has come to pass that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will arrive on Nintendo's console later this year. As announced during Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct presentation, this will be the complete version of the game, including both of its expansions: Hearts of Stone, and Blood and Wine. Pre-orders are available now for $60, with no release date yet more specific than later in 2019.
The physical edition of the game will come on a single, 32GB cartridge, with no additional downloads required. In order to get the game running smoothly on the Switch, however, it will run at 540p in handheld mode and up to 720p, with dynamic resolution enabled, on the big screen. We will have to see how that feels in practice, but a PR manager from developer CD Projeckt Red tweeted out a still from one of the game's most infamous scenes to show it off in action, and it looked serviceable, to say the least.
In addition to the cartridge the physical edition of the game will also ship with a map, a compendium, and stickers of Geralt's iconic wolf pendant, per Amazon's listing. As a definitive edition of a now-classic game, there are no pre-order bonuses announced at this time, so you can grab the full Witcher 3 experience from your preferred retailer.
Gears Tactics is not dead, according to publisher Microsoft, despite its E3 2019 no-show. The Xbox One and PC game was first unveiled at E3 2018 alongside Gears 5 and Gears Pop, but while those were shown off again at Xbox's press conference this time round, Tactics was not.
This prompted fears from some that the game was canceled or experiencing development struggles. However, the publisher has now reassured fans that the strategy title is still on the way.
Longtime series producer Rod Fergusson told Kotaku: "Last year we wanted to really talk about all three games [Gears 5, Pop, and Tactics] and show that Microsoft is tripling down on the Gears of War franchise, but now that we've had that we're really trying to make sure it's not always this three-pack … We'll talk about Gears Tactics later."
No release date has been revealed for Gears Tactics, while Gears 5 launches on September 10. Gears Pop, meanwhile, will come to iOS and Android in "late summer" this year.
Microsoft's E3 2019 conference focused heavily on Gears 5, which will receive a Terminator crossover in which you can play as the T-800 himself or Sarah Connor. Players will also have a couple of chances to try out Gears 5 ahead of its release. In July, The Coalition will launch a versus multiplayer test that includes a new competitive game type called Arcade. Then the following month, on August 19, you can test out Horde Mode.
However, it also contained some wacky moments none of us expected, and it gave rise to some stars we never thought would shine at a gaming expo. Let's take a look at some of the people--and animals--that have brightened up our E3.
The Koopa King thought he was the one to tell us about Nintendo's new games at E3 2019, but it turns out there was a mistake, and D Bowser promptly put Mario's longtime enemy in his place. Sorry, Bowser.
Keanu Reeves Is In Cyberpunk 2077
Keanu Reeves had already captured the internet's hearts for being an all-round Good Egg. So when he emerged on-stage at Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference, everyone understandably went wild. The actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the Matrix and John Wick franchises, is in Cyberpunk 2077. He plays a character named Johnny Silverhand, who is described by developer CD Projekt Red as a "legendary rocker boy" who gets his name from the fact that he has a robotic, silver arm. Silverhand is a "key" character in Cyberpunk 2077, so we may see a lot of him.
Reeves not only provided the voice and likeness of Silverhand, but he also performed full-body motion capture. This means Silverhand will look and act like Reeves. That's good news, because as behind-the-scenes John Wick training videos have shown, Reeves is a talented actor who commits to his craft to ensure the best possible result.
Ubisoft Brought An Adorable Dog On Stage
Ubisoft's E3 2019 press conference was as varied as ever, bringing us news on Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and more. But by far the most adorable moment was when actor John Bernthal (The Wolf of Wall Street, Daredevil, The Punisher) arrived on stage accompanied by his dog, Bam Bam. Bernthal was there to discuss his role in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, while Bam Bam was merely there to be A Good Boy. Watch the wholesome moment above.
Ikumi Nakamura Is The Internet's New Favorite Game Developer
The grey clouds of Activision's reduced E3 presence and Sony's no-show seemed ready to unleash a shower of disappointment on E3 2019. And then the Bethesda press conference happened. Tango Gameworks creative director Ikumi Nakamura took to the stage, and like a beam of light from the sun, she cut through the miasma to energize and uplift us all. Nakamura arrived on stage to announce Ghostwire: Tokyo, a new game from the studio behind The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2.
Nakamura casually strolled onto the stage with an enthusiastic, "Yayyyyyyy!" This was followed by, "Wow, wow, wow, so many people." Obviously, Nakamura was feeling overwhelmed by the size of the audience, but at the same time, she stayed cool, calm, and collected.
Nakamura's minor case of stage fright belies her experience in game design and development. Though she may not be a familiar name or face to the greater video game fanbase as a whole, she has been involved in the creation of some of the most beloved games of all time, including Okami and Bayonetta, and of course The Evil Within.
Over the course of a few minutes, Nakamura's earnestness and excitement won hearts and minds. She admitted her nervousness, said she'd give speaking English--which she is doing for our benefit--a solid shot, and then delivered a charismatic pitch for her new "spooooooky" game. People are vanishing in Tokyo, and we the player must find out why, unraveling conspiracies and delving into the occult along the way. She promised we'd meet spirits that were [ominous voice] "dangerous" and [playful voice] "peaceful."
Helen, Watch Dogs: Legion's Killer Grandmother
Ubisoft's E3 2019press conference had quite a few unexpected surprises--one of which we've of course been over already--but none seems to have hit as hard as an octogenarian with a mean streak. Helen, one of the showcased playable characters from Watch Dogs: Legion, has captured the hearts of the internet.
That's no small feat, because the pitch behind Legion is that anyone is a playable character. All of London's residents you find wandering around have their own stories, backgrounds, and habits, and you can hack into their lives and learn more about them to recruit them. Many of them have specialized skills like brawling or robotics expertise. Helen, according to the trailer, is a former assassin, and the wrinkles have made her no less deadly.
Defining the story through your choices is at the heart of pen-and-paper RPGs, and that makes it the center of CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077. That's nothing new for CD Projekt coming off the Witcher series, but what feels remarkable about what we've seen of Cyberpunk so far is the number of elements it mixes to make the story feel bespoke to the character you've created. None of the ideas CD Projekt uses to build out a flexible narrative are new--it uses dialogue trees, branching narratives, multiple paths through mission and combat encounters, and character stats. What's impressive, though, is how many variations Cyberpunk 2077 seems to offer players, and how often the choices you make will influence your gameplay and the story the game tells you.
CD Projekt RED showed a new demo of the game behind closed doors at E3 2019. This one focused on gameplay, walking through a mission with two different versions of V, the player character. Even still, there were plenty of conversations to work through and decisions to make that influenced the story, starting with character creation. At the start of the game, you set your character's gender (just male and female, it seems) and their proclivities. As previously detailed, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't include set classes; instead, it sports a "fluid class system" that allows you to choose a variety of different abilities and perks as you level up.
You'll define your character in a lot of other ways as well. There are three backstory options to choose from that fill out what your childhood was like, while also defining what kind of person you are by investing points in a variety of stats. There's Nomad, a Mad Max-like roaming gang existence; Street Kid, an urchin upbringing in the city; and Corporate, an origin among the straight-laced life.
All those elements (and a whole bunch more) influence your path through V's story in Night City. The demo showed a mission in which V headed to Pacifica, the southernmost of Night City's six distinct districts and which is mostly populated by immigrants from Haiti, to try to enlist the help of a gang called the Voodoo Boyz. Pacifica is pretty vastly different from the Night City we've previously seen. The district was initially planned as a beach-side resort area, and corporations poured money into creating m hotels and malls. Somewhere along the way, though, plans fell through. The money dried up, the corporations moved out, and Pacifica became a mostly abandoned locale where some of Night City's poorest live. There isn't even really a police presence in the district, making it unsafe even by Night City standards.
As developers explained, V has "biochip" stuck in their head and needs it removed. It contains the "secret to immortality," and something else--Johnny Silverhand. The "digital ghost" of the Cyberpunk 2020 character, played by Keanu Reeves in the game, was introduced during CD Projekt's appearance during Microsoft's E3 press conference. He resides in your head, and your relationship with him (and how you choose to shape it through your choices) will be a big part of the story.
Mercenary For Hire
Of course, help from the Voodoo Boyz doesn't come easy. When you enter Pacifica, you meet with Placid, a high-level Netrunner (or hacker to non-cyberpunks) who means to put you on a job in exchange for the gang's assistance. Your interactions with Placid includes lots of choices. You get standard dialogue options for your responses when speaking with him, while others open up based on context and the unique aspects of your character. For instance, if you choose the Street Kid backstory, your experience in gangs in your youth can give you insights into the inner turmoil of the group, which unlocks different responses. If you pumped points into Intelligence, V might recognize something technical in Placid's interactions with an underling that adds another response.
Things going on in the room with you also add response possibilities, as do perks you unlock--being a skilled Netrunner might let you talk shop with Placid. You'll also see all those options, whether they're available or not, on the screen when you choose your responses, so you know exactly what you're missing.
During their conversation about the job, there's a moment when Placid reaches out and grabs V's network link cable, a wire that slips out of V's wrist that directly links to their brain. It's how you "jack in" to networks and computers to get information, but using it carries a lot of danger--just as you can use it to access systems, systems can use it to access you. It's a significant invasion of your space and safety for Placid to touch the cable and try to jack V in without their consent. The moment showed a different kind of interactive conversation moment: the player could choose for V to recoil from Placid's reach, but a timer showed you only have a brief window to make that call.
Your actions and interactions also influence a stat called "Street Cred." As you increase your cred through completing missions and doing other such things, you'll gain access to more content, CD Projekt said. That might mean shopkeepers end up trusting you enough to offer you better, more illicit, or more illegal goods, or it might be new options in dialogue and new sidequests you wouldn't get access to if you hadn't built up a reputation.
Placid eventually dispatches you on a mission to figure out what another rival gang, the Animals, are doing in Pacifica. They've taken up residence in the Grand Imperial Mall, far from their usual territory, and he needs someone to go in and find out what they're up to. There are plenty of choices for how you deal with the enemies there, and CD Projekt explained that you could complete the entire game without killing anyone if you so choose. Choosing between going lethal or non-lethal won't necessarily have huge effects on the story, lead quest designer Pawel Sasko told GameSpot, but there are story moments where your choice to finish someone off or spare them will have lasting consequences.
Choosing A Side
After sneaking around and fighting (and killing) a whole bunch of gangsters, the mission ended with V discovering the secret of what's happening in the mall: a government agency called Netwatch is using a surveillance van to break into the Voodoo Boyz's network to hunt them all down. Your actual mission, which Placid didn't fully explain, is to take out the Netwatch agent in the mall. When you find and confront the agent, he introduces another twist--he says the Voodoo Boyz call in outside contractors like you because you're disposable, and if you link the Voodoo Boyz into Netwatch's network as instructed, they'll kill you.
V had several options for responding to Mosley, the Netwatch agent, including asking him for more evidence or distrusting him outright thanks to the Street Kid backstory experience. You can choose to side with the government (or stay off its bad side) in this moment, or complete your mission for Placid, and that decision leads to vastly different outcomes.
In the end, V chose to trust Placid and did as instructed. But Mosley was right, and seconds after making the connection, the Voodoo Boyz remotely cooked the brains of everyone on the Netwatch network--including V.
The betrayal didn't entirely take, though. V woke up some eight hours later with the ghostly Johnny standing over them; it seems that biochip and the imaginary friend in V's head might have helped them survive an otherwise lethal brain-hacking situation. Leaving the mall, V surprised the Voodoo Boyz lookouts waiting outside, who expected everyone inside to be dead. The player chose to let the gangsters drive V back to Placid to confront him. A handful of dialogue choices presented themselves, including one that had V just straight-up punch Placid in the face.
The last scene of the demo found Brigitte, the Voodoo Boyz's real leader, making good on the promise to help despite the previous attempt to murder V. That would require heading into cyberspace to look for another Cyberpunk 2020 character who seems to be central to the game: Alt Cunningham. In the pen-and-paper sourcebooks, Cunningham developed a technology that could allow Netrunners to copy their brains into a fully digital form. Thanks to more murder and betrayal, Cunningham's physical body was killed, but she survived as the first fully digitized person, escaping into the internet. To figure out the biochip and Johnny's deal, it seems, V needs Cunningham's help. V had the option to discuss the situation with Johnny before deciding to hop into cyberspace, a Matrix code-like realm, further emphasizing that for much of the game, Johnny seems to be a confidant and something of a partner. The demo ended just before V could determine if Cunningham, missing for some 50 years, is still alive--or still human.
None of the story elements in the Cyberpunk 2077 demo were major innovations. Franchises like Deus Ex, Mass Effect, and The Witcher have used all of these ideas to great effect in telling their stories. But Cyberpunk seems to use all the tricks and ideas in choice-based narrative games that have come before to greatly increase the ways the game's story can feel uniquely yours, thanks to the V you create and your decisions along the way.
Of course, not every choice is monumental or triggering a significant change in the story; most probably don't really matter. But Cyberpunk's attention to detail in giving you so many options depending on different contexts looks like it'll go a long way to making it feel very responsive. All these things look like they'll go into helping players develop a V that will seem uniquely theirs. When the game finally launches on April 16, 2020, we'll see how successfully those elements work together.
The first impression of CD Projekt RED's closed-door demo of Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 2019 is that it's taken a lot of influence from similar titles, such as Deus Ex games. The hour-long session focused extensively on the kind of gameplay you'll take part in as you adventure through Night City, with a specific look at the choices available to you in combat and story situations. The big takeaway: you'll get lots of options for working through an area or dealing with combat depending on your playstyle and decisions.
Cyberpunk's RPG underpinnings mostly come through in its "fluid class system," which allows you to pick abilities and perks from a variety of areas to develop your own version of V, the game's main character. That means you don't have to be a specialized Net Runner (read: hacker) or Strong Solo (read: super-strong brawler) in particular; you can mix and match your abilities to fit your desired play style. The abilities you choose will give you a variety of options for dealing with combat, working your way through areas and missions, and interacting with other characters--similar to games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
CD Projekt's E3 demo showed one such mission and the options available to two different variants on V. After seeking out a gang called the Voodoo Boys for help dealing with V's "biochip" (which seems to contain a "digital ghost" version of Keanu Reeves' character, Johnny Silverhand, who exists only in V's head), V gets contracted to do a job for the gang. It entails venturing to the Grand Imperial Mall in the district of Pacifica, where a rival gang called the Animals have taken up residence. V's job: infiltrate the building, figure out what the Animals are up to, and shut it down.
One version of V sneaked in through the mall's loading dock, using cybernetic implants like an optical scanner to spot enemies and carefully move past them. Good thing, too--the Animals are known for bodybuilding and muscle-enhancement technology, and the weaker Netrunner V would have been handily pummeled if he'd been discovered. While you'll have a lot of firepower at your disposal, as we saw in last year's Cyberpunk demo, relying on stealth is an option as well.
A little further in, this version of V, who specialized as a Netrunner ran into a surveillance camera covering the hallway. A nearby network node offered an opportunity to hack in and take control of the camera by way of a quick hacking minigame--but slipping into the network offered its own problems.
Turns out, there's a Netrunner hiding out in the mall somewhere running counter-hacking on you, and that's no small thing. In Cyberpunk, hacking into people can be deadly; the only reason V survives this encounter is because of the help of the Voodoo Boys' Netrunner, Placid, who is linked to your character during the mission to provide tactical support. Despite the interference, being connected to the network gives you the opportunity to mess with a number of devices throughout the mall.
Still undiscovered, V continued into a gym area where a few Animals were distracted watching one of their pals with a robot in a boxing ring. V's "quick hack" skill allowed him to mess with the robot, ratcheting up its difficulty setting. That created a handy distraction as the bot brained his sparring partner, causing a handful of Animals to run over to see what was up. Just a little way further, the way was blocked by another Animal using a bench press station. Luckily, the Internet of Things is alive and well in the 2077--V quick-hacked the bench press to increase the weight, dispatching the poor enemy as the barbell choked him to death. That's why you don't lift without a spotter.
The quick hack ability has a lot of uses. V was able to commandeer a gun turret and switch off its friendly fire function, for instance. Quick hack looks very reminiscent of the remote hacking capabilities players get in the Watch Dogs franchise, with a lot of similar applications. He also carried a "nano wire," a physical hacking cable he could throw at enemies at close range to jack into their brains, cooking them alive or causing them to attack their friends if you've purchased the right malicious software. Even cooler, though, was the fact the nano wire doubled as a laser whip--something borrowed directly from the cyberpunk movie Johnny Mnemonic (which also starred Reeves).
Switching speeds, CD Projekt showed the same mission with a female version of V who specialized in overwhelming force. Sporting cybernetic implants like gorilla strength, this V didn't have the option to hack her way past the surveillance camera; instead, she ran to a nearby door and used brute strength to force it open. That created an alternate path into an elevator shaft, completely bypassing the Animals in the gym. The move gave off a very Deus Ex vibe, with alternate paths through areas accessible depending on your abilities and your playstyle.
That same access to alternative situations was true in the next room, where V faced the turret and nearby Animals. Instead of taking over the turret, this V simply ripped it off its moorings, turning it into a massive minigun and ravaging enemies with it. She also didn't have the aversion to melee combat that her weaker Netrunner counterpart did and set about punching Animals to death, as well as stabbing them with broken bottles and other handy implements. You'll also be able to wield things like swords, or deal with unaware enemies with stealthy takedowns--including environmental ones. At one point, V sneaked up behind an adversary standing next to a garbage chute, grabbed him by the neck, and bounced his head off a nearby wall before tossing him in, taking him out and disposing of his body in one move.
As with its many story choices, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't seem to be breaking new ground with its approach to gameplay choices and playstyle iterations. A lot of similar games in the genre offer a lot of similar variations. But Cyberpunk's balance of giving you lots of options that conform to your style, and making them all viable and interesting, makes it look pretty exciting. We only saw a small snapshot of what you'll be able to do in the game, it seems--you'll be able to play the whole game non-lethally, for instance, as well as mix and match a number of different abilities, too. All the different play styles and abilities look they're receiving equal love from CD Projekt, which should make playing Cyberpunk 2077 a pretty responsive and individual experience, regardless of how you want to tackle Night City.
Microsoft showcased a new Halo Infinite trailer, "Discover Hope," at E3 this year and confirmed the game will be a launch title for Project Scarlett in Holiday 2020. But there was no gameplay shown, and we really don't know a lot about what to expect from it. So when will we learn more about Microsoft's much-anticipated Xbox and PC game?
Probably not soon.
In a blog post, Halo Infinite studio head Chris Lee said 2020's E3 will be a "big moment" for Halo Infinite. You should expect Microsoft to keep quiet until then, which keeps in line with a recent comment about Halo Infinite going "dark."
"As for what's next, E3 2020 will be a big moment for Halo Infinite," Lee said. "Until we reach that destination in 2020, we'll continue to embrace the mystery and wonder of Halo and the endless opportunity and potential of this engine, this hardware and, most of all, this team."
Lee added that it has been "incredibly challenging" to develop Halo Infinite so he and the team were excited to finally share more of it at E3 this week.
Halo Infinite launches in Holiday 2020, but it's not clear if this means the full Halo Infinite release or only the start of the game's public beta. In his blog post, Lee re-affirmed that Microsoft still plans to launch a pre-release beta, or "flight," for Infinite.
"We still intend to support an early flighting program that will give you a way to play the game and provide feedback that will directly impact decisions we make for launch and into the future," he said.
You can sign up for Microsoft's Halo Insider program for a chance to get into the Halo Infinite beta. Halo Infinite will release on Project Scarlett, as well as all of the Xbox One family of consoles. It's also coming to PC.
To get the Set, all you need to do is play the Sea of Thieves Arena mode before 23:59 BST on Saturday. Alternatively, everyone who plays The Arena at E3 this week gets it.
We're proud to unveil the @Halo-inspired Spartan Ship Set, made in partnership with our friends at 343 Industries. Earn it by battling in The Arena on the E3 show floor OR by playing #SeaOfThieves at any time between now and 23:59 BST on Saturday! pic.twitter.com/GOrjvzmBzc
The set includes a Spartan Hull depicting Master Chief, as well as Spartan Sails that have the UNSC logo on them. The ship overall has a green tint fitting of Halo. Check out the video embedded above to see what the Set looks like in game.
Sea of Thieves appeared on GameSpot's E3 2019 stage show this week where the developers talked about the struggles and successes of the game's first year, as well as what's on tap for Year 2. Check out the video at the top of the page to see more.
Earlier this week at E3 2019 it was confirmed that indie developer House House's wacky and wonderful-looking Untitled Goose Game will launch on PC as a timed-exclusive for the Epic Games Store. As has been the case with previous games skipping Steam and other platforms for Epic, some people got upset about this. Now, House House has explained why it decided to go with Epic for the launch of Untitled Goose Game on PC.
Posting on Twitter, the studio reminded fans that it is a small, four-person team that has worked over the years on a "tight budget." As such, working Epic gives the Melbourne, Australia-based team a level of security it didn't have on its own.
"House House is a small independent studio that has been operating on a tight budget for years, so a partnership like this gives us a means to make games sustainably for the foreseeable future," it said. "In an industry like ours, this kind of stability is huge."
Untitled Goose Game will be released on other PC platforms in the future, after the Epic Games Store exclusivity period ends.
Untitled Goose Game has you controlling a goose who is a jerk. The game gives you a "to-do" list of tasks to complete, and you'll need to manipulate objects around the environment to figure out how to clear each objective. One, for instance, is to enter a garden, but the gate is closed. You need to pick up a nearby radio with your beak to get the groundskeeper's attention, then slip in when he opens the gate to investigate.
It is House House's second game, following the well-received title Push Me Pull You which is a co-op game where players share a worm-like body and are joined at the waist.
The next Wolfenstein game from, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, will feature microtransactions. Senior game designer Andreas Ojerfors confirmed this at E3 2019 in an interview with VG247. [Update: In a tweet sent from the official Wolfenstein account, it's been clarified that "you CAN NOT purchase weapon upgrades or ability upgrades with real money" in Youngblood. This disputes the previous indication we got about how microtransactions function in the game. Subsequent tweets say that real-money microtransactions are limited to cosmetics, including skins for your weapons and power suits.]
The Reich is spreading false rumors—you CAN NOT purchase weapon upgrades or ability upgrades with real money in #Wolfenstein: Youngblood. pic.twitter.com/tE1mKE6e7O
He explained that players can purchase "gold bars" with real money that can be used as shortcut kits to purchase things like skins and emotes, as well as weapon upgrades and attachments, apparently. These extras can acquired through gameplay, too.
"I've been playing through the game at work for the last two weeks and I haven't done any microtransactions," Ojefors said. "You don't really need to, but they are there if you want to, if you want to speed things up. But I never felt the need to do that. When I play the game it doesn't even cross my mind."
There is no word yet on specific price points or further details on Youngblood's microtransaction system.
The $30 Youngblood launches in July for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Presumably the microtransaction system will be available on all systems.
GameSpot had an opportunity to play Youngblood at E3 this week. For more, check out our impressions in the story linked below.
Update 2: While the press conferences of E3 have all concluded, that's not the end of publishers showing off stuff at E3 2019. The show has only just opened, and many developers are set to show off their new games on GameSpot's E3 Live Stage Show. Check out our schedule for the rest of the week, and come back to find out more about upcoming titles!
Update: Today's Nintendo Direct has now ended, and it did not disappoint: Nintendo revealed Witcher 3 for Nintendo Switch, the next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC characters, and information on a Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel. While that marks the final press conference-style event, there's still so much more to come. You can check our livestream schedule for all of the cool games and developers we'll be getting a look at over the course of this week. There's more going on beyond that, with games like Marvel's Avengers and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare set for further discussions.
The biggest showing was Microsoft on Sunday, where it revealed a next-gen Xbox console known as Scarlett. The system launches Holiday 2020 with Halo Infinite.
Below you'll find the full schedule for every press conference, including start times for a variety of timezones. (We also have schedule guides for the UK and Australia.) We'll be livestreaming every big event here on GameSpot, and then the show floor opens up from June 11-13, so you can look for more gameplay videos, hands-on impressions, and interviews in the days ahead.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer sat down with GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb for an extended, in-depth interview at E3 2019, and the executive shared a lot of interesting insight on the goings-on at Xbox. He had a lot to talk about, of course, as Sony did not attend the show, while Microsoft just announced a new console platform, Project Scarlett, and further detailed the new game-streaming service, xCloud.
In the 40-minute interview, Spencer also talked about competition with Sony and Nintendo, saying that while he wants Xbox to be No. 1, he thinks everyone can win at the same time and work together to lift gaming's overall profile. He said he doesn't see the business as a fight, but instead an opportunity to create things that people love. (He also noted that E3 suffers without Sony at the show, and indicated he would like to see it and Call of Duty publisher Activision return in the future.)
In regards to Project Scarlett vs. the PlayStation 4, Spencer said he wants Xbox to be No. 1, and he's "as competitive as anybody." But that doesn't mean he wants to see Sony suffer.
Regarding Project Scarlett, Spencer said raw power is "very important." He doesn't know how Project Scarlett's specs compare to the PS5. It's expected they will be similar, so at the end of the day, competition may come down to price and brand loyalty. Whatever the case, Spencer said Microsoft is "aiming for first place," and that being a leader in the console category is something that the Xbox team is committed to achieving.
Spencer also spoke about how Microsoft is not planning for Scarlett to be the company's final console. He said Microsoft doesn't know yet what form the next system will take, but Microsoft as a company is committed to making more hardware after Scarlett. He's also not committing to a schedule, saying there is no regular cadence for when new hardware launches will come out. The challenge for Microsoft is to think about what the next evolution of gaming will be, and then to design a console for that.
Additionally, Spencer said in the interview that Microsoft hasn't settled on a name for Project Scarlett as of yet. "I honestly don't know what the name is; we don't have a list of names," he said. Project Scarlett is rumored to be the overarching name of Microsoft's next-generation console strategy, comprising both a high-end system, codenamed Anaconda, and a lower-spec model reportedly codenamed Lockhart. Microsoft has only talked about the higher-end model so far.
And in regards to pricing for Project Scarlett, Spencer said Microsoft has a "window" that it's looking at, but nothing is locked down yet. One issue that could complicate the matter is President Trump's proposed 25% tariff for electronics made in China and shipped to the United States, Spencer said. Nintendo just recently moved production of the Nintendo Switch from China to Southeast Asia to avoid the potential tariffs.
Also in the extended chat, Spencer talked about how backwards compatibility is important going into the Project Scarlett generation. He said he wants to respect the purchases people have made on older platforms, and as such, Project Scarlett will support "thousands" of games from across four generations of Xbox systems. Not every older game may work on Project Scarlett, however, due to licensing deals and other business arrangements. However, Spencer said the new deals that Microsoft is making with developers and publishers today factor in backwards compatibility more than before. Publishers and developers now see the value in legacy content, Spencer said, and these matters are playing a role in new licensing deals.
Spencer also spoke about Xbox Game Pass, and he said it's creating a situation where developers may come to Xbox in particular because they know they can launch a game into a catalog that has millions of subscribers who are only a button press away from downloading their new game. At the same time, this could put a new challenge on some developers because they need to ensure their back-end infrastructure is capable of supporting potentially millions of people playing right away, Spencer said.
The Microsoft executive also touched on xCloud, which is the new Xbox game-streaming service launching in October. Spencer said it's probably still a number of years away from streaming becoming the most popular and prevalent way people play games. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, Spencer said playing games on local hardware in your home will be the best way to experience big new games such as Cyberpunk 2077 which Spencer specifically mentioned. However, for those who want to play games on the go on their phone or another device and are OK with comparably lower resolutions and frame rates, they'll be able to do that with xCloud.
Intriguingly, Spencer also mentioned that he sees a number of interesting possibilities emerging when Xbox streaming takes off, one of which involves users being able to rent their systems to act as streaming boxes for other people. It remains to be seen how this would work, but Spencer talked about a potential future scenario where people could theoretically let strangers "rent" their local box to stream from when the main user is away. Spencer said he's excited about the possibility of streaming to create additional value for consumers beyond the traditional means, and this is one potential example of that.
Lastly, Spencer talked about the ongoing relevance of E3. He said the show remains relevant and important to the gaming world. It's a time in the year when the whole world is watching gaming, and that's very important today when the industry is coming under criticism and judgment. One recent threat, Spencer said, was the World Health Organization's designation of Gaming Disorder as a recognized disease. He also said E3 is an important time of year to show the world that gaming is not just kids in a basement. And without juggernauts like Sony and Activision, E3 could take a hit in terms of prominence, Spencer said.
E32019 is packed with announcements for the coming year and beyond. Many of the biggest games won't be released until late summer or the fall at the earliest, and this year many more were slated for 2020. But if you're watching from home, you can still try some new games yourself before the week is out--and possibly even right now.
In recent years, many publishers have been leaning into the fan spectacle of E3 by preparing at least a few of their surprise announcements to go live during the week, or even during their press conference. From games you hadn't heard about before to ones that are surprisingly closer than you realized, here are all the games, DLC, and big free updates you can play during the games industry's biggest week.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Creator Mode (Free, Now Available)
An update to the massive open world game Assassin's Creed Odyssey makes it even bigger. A new Creator Mode application is available for PC, letting you create dialogue trees and mission objectives with a tool-set similar to the one the developers at Ubisoft used. Though the tools are only available through a PC app, the actual missions can be accessed on any platform.
Borderlands 2 DLC (Free, Now Available)
Though it had leaked beforehand, the announcement of free DLC for Borderlands 2 was still a treat at the Microsoft conference. Commander Lilith & The Fight for Sanctuary tells one more story in the Borderlands 2 world, setting the stage for Borderlands 3. And as it so happens, it's compatible with The Handsome Collection, which is included this month on both PlayStation Plus and Game Pass.
Cadence of Hyrule ($25, Releasing June 13)
Nintendo is lending its iconic Legend of Zelda characters and music to Crypt of the Necrodancer developer Brace Yourself, for a rhythmic Zelda spin-off called Cadence of Hyrule. It will launch on June 13, the last day of the E3 festivities, so you can unwind with some toe-tapping combat.
Contra Anniversary Collection ($20, Now Available)
The Contra Anniversary Collection was stealth-released during the Nintendo Direct presentation this year. It includes several classic games in the shooter series, including NES and Arcade versions of Contra, Super C, Contra 3: The Alien Wars, Hard Corps, and more.
Collection of Mana ($40, Now Available)
The Seiken Densetsu series is one of the most revered in RPG canon, and this collection of classic games includes one rare gem. The Collection of Mana compilation brings together Seiken for the Game Boy--previously released in America as Final Fantasy Adventure--along with Secret of Mana and the hard-to-find Trials of Mana. Meanwhile, an HD remake of Trials of Mana is on the way next year.
Fallout 76 Free Trial (Free, Now Available)
Fallout 76 released last year to a largely negative reception, but Bethesda isn't giving up on the game. The studio detailed some upcoming additions to the persistent online wasteland, and invited players who may be skeptical to try it for themselves for free this week.
Forza Horizon 4 Lego Speed Champions Expansion ($20, Releasing June 13)
Following in the footsteps of Forza Horizon 3's Hot Wheels expansion pack, the latest in the racing series is getting toy-ified. The Lego Speed Champions expansion for Forza Horizon 4 adds a garage full of Lego cars like the McLaren Senna, Ferrari F40 Competizione, and the 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally. Plus you can compete in Lego challenges and collect hidden bonus cubes.
Game Pass for PC ($10/month, Now Available)
After teasing its plans, Microsoft expanded Game Pass to PC with a large swath of newly included games and a bundle that includes the console and PC services together, along with Xbox Live Gold.If you're curious, you can try out the Ultimate version of the Game Pass subscription service for just $1 for the first month.
The Last Remnant Remastered ($20, Now Available)
The 2008 RPG The Last Remnant makes the jump from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to the portable Nintendo Switch. You can play this remastered version with enhanced graphics and game engine on the go.
Octopath Traveler PC ($60, Now Available)
If you missed out on the classically styled RPG from Square Enix on Nintendo Switch, it has now launched on PC. Octopath Traveler follows the stories of eight separate adventurers, each with their own unique set of skills, in a beautifully rendered style that modernizes the 16-bit RPG aesthetic found in games like Final Fantasy 6.
Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Phantom Sight ($30 Year 4 Pass, Now Available)
A new expansion for Rainbow Six Siege called Operation Phantom Sight, which is available now for Year 4 Pass holders. It adds two new Operators and various updates. Those without a Year 4 Pass will be able to unlock the Operators starting next week, on June 18.
Roller Champions Pre-Alpha (Free, Now Available)
Ubisoft's foray into esports is a stylized take on roller derby. But you don't have to wait to try it out. The company made a pre-alpha version available for PC this week, ending on June 14 so you can hit the rink and try Roller Champions for yourself.
State of Decay 2: Heartland ($10, Now Available)
The Xbox zombie survival management sim (whew) State of Decay 2 got its biggest expansion yet this week, titled Heartland. The trailer featured a pair of survivors both searching for someone--one for her missing father, and another for a legendary operative.
Sony is not attending E3 2019 this week, forgoing both its annual press conference and a presence on the show floor. Activision has also abandoned its spot on the show floor, and other companies have dropped out as well. Xbox boss Phil Spencer says E3 is just not the same without Sony and Activision, and he wants them back.
Appearing on GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb's livestream at E3, Spencer spoke about the ongoing relevance of E3, and he suggested that the show's profile is hurt by Sony and Activision not being there. "I wish Sony was here," Spencer said. "E3 is not as good when they're not here," Spencer said about Sony and Activision dropping out of the big annual gaming show.
E3 remains relevant and important to the gaming world, Spencer said. It's a time in the year when the whole world is watching gaming, and that's very important today when the industry is coming under criticism and judgment. One recent threat, Spencer said, was the World Health Organization's designation of Gaming Disorder as a recognized disease.
He said E3 is an important time of year to show the world that gaming is not just kids in a basement. And without juggernauts like Sony and Activision, E3 could take a hit in terms of prominence, Spencer said.
Spencer is on the board of directors at the Entertainment Software Association, the group that runs E3 every year, so he seemingly has a vested interest in seeing the show continue and flourish. Other board members include Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two, and Bethesda owner ZeniMax's CEO Robert Altman.
Explaining why it didn't come to E3 this year, Sony said it wanted to "innovate, think differently, and experiment with new ways to delight gamers." Ahead of the show, it's shared the first details about its next-generation PlayStation 5. It also showcased Death Stranding, revealing both an extended trailer and its release date. But beyond that, it's unclear when we'll next get details about other big first-party PS4 games, such as The Last of Us 2.
Reports have suggested that two new Nintendo Switch models are on the way. Officially, Nintendo has not addressed the possibility, though it did say it would not announce the new systems during E3. That proved to be true, but a new report from The Wall Street Journal published this week during E3 2019 reveals some new details these rumored new Switch models. Specifically, the report states that Nintendo has decided to move production of the new consoles to Southeast Asia instead of China over concerns about potential United States tariffs on electronics made in China.
As we reported previously, President Trump's proposed import tax rate of 25 percent would impact video game consoles, as well as smartphones and computers. In theory, this could lead to price increases on game consoles--from Nintendo, as well as Microsoft and Sony--as companies pass on the cost to consumers. (The alternative would be to absorb the cost themselves.)
Should the 25 percent tariff go into effect for Switch consoles shipped into the United States, that would impact how much money Nintendo--and other companies--make on console sales. Nintendo has been the outlier in this area, however, as the company maintained from day one of Switch sales in 2017 that it makes money on each console sold.
If the 25 percent tariff goes into effect, that could cut into the Switch's profit profile, which is likely why Nintendo has elected to move production of the console outside of China.
According to WSJ's report, Nintendo has already moved production of the existing Switch model, as well as the two new rumored ones, to Southeast Asia. Regarding the new systems, one is said to have a similar form factor to the existing model but feature better components, with the other expected to have a different look and lower specs that make it less expensive. Given the systems are now reportedly in production, they could release soon, WSJ said.
Nintendo declined to comment on the report when approached by WSJ.
35 years have passed since Ghostbusters debuted. There's a new 4K & Blu-ray SteelBook release out, and Wizard World recently held a Ghostbusters Fan Fest right on Sony's Los Angeles lot to celebrate. A lot has happened since 1984, but original co-writer and co-star Dan Aykroyd still remembers the origins, and we got the chance to reminisce with him recently.
Credit for Ghostbusters as a whole goes to Aykroyd, who originally conceived of the franchise. Aykroyd's first take involved a universe-protecting, ghost-catching crew--a futuristic, more fantastical Men in Black (sort of), with potential stars Eddie Murphy and John Belushi (sadly, Belushi died in early 1982). The idea was handed to eventual director Ivan Reitman (hot after work on Meatballs and Stripes), who brought the story to present day New York from Aykroyd's concept involving travel between parallel dimensions.
Aykroyd no longer knows where the initial script is. Living in Canada, Aykroyd stated he had multiple barns to sort through. There's a chance it's in there somewhere. For now, all Aykroyd has is memory. "My structure was different, definitely. Mr. Stay Puft, I think, made an earlier appearance, but my script was definitely really darker than the movie became," he said. "But, you see, it didn't have Bill Murray in it. It didn't have Ramis. It didn't have all the great input. That came afterwards."
With the idea whittled down, Reitman and eventual co-star Harold Ramis headed to Aykroyd's property in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts to begin brainstorming. "You sit at the desk in the living room, and you're looking out at this 100-mile view of the ocean, and the mainland of Massachusetts, the Elizabeth Islands… I just knew we couldn't get any work done sitting upstairs because of the view in the place," Aykroyd said. So they chose alternate surroundings.
"We sat down in the basement for two weeks, down in a bunker, in a green bunker, with the Third Reich green walls, and sat there with mist and moisture coming through the concrete, and we wouldn't leave… I had these hospital beds, and these screens. It looked like a ward," Aykroyd recalled. "Four hours in the morning, and then a little lunch break, you'd go up and see the sunlight, like moles, then back down again, for another four hours."
Details set, the trio moved to Los Angeles to hammer out the script, which included, according to Aykroyd, intentional allusions to Reagan-era economics as the Ghostbusters' small business grapples with government intrusiveness on the part of the EPA's Walter Peck (William Atherton). In 2019, you have to wonder if Peck had a point--no one really knows what effects the Busters' ghost containment system might have, and the team freely admits to wearing unlicensed nuclear accelerators on their backs. "It's ironic, the EPA is supposed to do such good work, and they were the villains in the movie," Aykroyd mused. "Now, some people feel the EPA are absolute villains, according to some of the assessments of their performance now, but I don't know, we'll see. It will all come out in the air we breathe, and the water we drink."
Columbia Pictures needed a summer tentpole for 1984, leaving Reitman and crew less than a year to put together the finished film. That time crunch (asking a lot not only of Reitman's team but also the just-established effects house Boss Film Studios, headed by Star Wars veteran Richard Edlund) didn't make the process easy, but Ghostbusters came from a creative spark.
Not Your Average Neighborhood Ghosts
For most people, thinking of spirits and ghosts summons to mind something more akin to the misty, floating public library ghost in Ghostbusters' first encounter. In Ghostbusters, though, it's primarily Stay-Puft, Slimer (Onionhead at the time), and terror dogs--creatures far from the traditional image of haunting spooks. "What we were trying to do was more comedy monsters," Aykroyd said. "We were trying to just lean it more towards the graphic and the comedy, but also nodding to the real thing, which is what the library ghost was."
Included on the new 35th Anniversary 4K & Blu-ray release, a number of scenes present a "what if" scenario. Some deleted items were seen previous (Aykroyd and co-star Bill Murray playing homeless men bickering about boxing), but also long-awaited scenes in Fort Detmerring (in the finished movie, montage clips borrowed snippets of this footage for Aykroyd's sensual encounter with a ghost). "A good thing could have happened to Ray Stantz there," Aykroyd explained of the scene where a beautiful female ghost hovers over a bed, followed by a shot of his belt unbuckling, cutting to Aykroyd crossing his eyes in pleasure.
The rest plays out as Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) investigate the disturbance, prior to the above encounter. It's a clearly unfinished sequence, as is another with a possessed Rick Moranis shocking some Central Park thugs. The effects for that shock were not completed.
What else had potential? "Well, always more with Mr. Stay Puft, and always more with the building in New York. We could have always had more of that. We were working with some constraints there, in terms of the technical limitations at the time," Aykroyd recalled.
Turns out that didn't matter. In spite of competition from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (which released two weeks prior) and Gremlins (which released the same day), Ghostbusters ran the charts seven straight weeks, with a haul of $225 million in 1984 dollars. Theatrical re-releases further ballooned that tally. And the film's legacy is undeniable.
1980s pop culture was already on fire by the time of Ghostbusters. Imagine coming so soon after The Blues Brothers, two Star Wars sequels, Rambo: First Blood, and the advent of Indiana Jones. "I think that, at that time, we were all in our, either late 20s, or our early 30s," said Aykroyd. "Everybody was firing on all 16 cylinders. You had Eddie [Murphy], you had [John] Landis, you had myself, you had the writers, you had the studio behind us. It was a great fit of gung-ho time for movie-making... There wasn't a process of going through hundreds of rewrites, and hundreds of executive committees. Decisions got made fast, and great pictures got made."
Ghostbusters' 35th anniversary 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook edition, which includes both original films and never-before-seen bonus footage, is out now.
Microsoft has shared some new details on Halo Infinite. Appearing on the Inside Xbox livestream, Halo FPS director Chris Lee started off by confirming that the "Discover Hope" segment that Microsoft showed at E3 2019 was in fact the game's opening sequence from the campaign. He also confirmed that it was not CG, but rather it was captured in-engine.
Halo Infinite runs on the brand-new Slipspace engine, which Lee said Microsoft has "heavily" invested in. It's clearly very important, as Lee said it serves as the foundation for the "next 10 years of Halo experiences." It's the "most powerful" toolset that Microsoft has ever made for Halo. He added that Microsoft's ambition for Halo Infinite could not be achieved or realized with the company's previous engines.
The Pilot
Halo Infinite is a launch title for Project Scarlett in Holiday 2020, but the game is also coming to Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X. Additionally, it'll launch on PC alongside the other versions, Lee confirmed.
Lee teased that Halo Infinite will make use of the "power of Scarlett," though he did not share any specifics on how the game will utilize the system's beefier specs.
Also in the interview, Lee spoke briefly about the new "Pilot" character from the Halo Infinite story trailer. He confirmed that the Pilot is a new character in the Halo universe. At the start of the trailer, the Pilot thinks he's going to die. He's recording a message to his family. When things seem the bleakest, he finds Master Chief floating in space. Everything changes, with Master Chief coming back online presumably to save the world yet again.
Lee said Halo Infinite will spend a lot of time "carefully" explaining who the Pilot is and what he means to the story. The Pilot will feature more in the Halo Infinite campaign, but Lee didn't say anything more about the character.
Master Chief's new design
Finally, Lee spoke about Halo Infinite's art direction. He said the game will embrace the "full legacy of Halo." Specifically for Master Chief's new suit design, Lee said it's mainly inspired by his look in Halo 3, with some flourishes based on Halo 4 and Halo 5, as as well as the Halo Legends films. Overall, Lee said Microsoft is aiming to make Master Chief look "distinct, new, and special."
We may be in the midst of E3 2019, but that hasn't stopped Epic from rolling out another update for Fortnite. Patch 9.21 is now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices, and it introduces another new weapon to the popular battle royale game, as well as a new pair of limited-time modes. Here's what it does along with the full patch notes.
This week's new weapon is the Proximity Grenade Launcher, which fires an "arcing, bouncing, explosive projectile" that will detonate when near another player. The gun comes in Epic and Legendary varieties and can be found in chests, supply drops, vending machines, or from Loot Carriers. It also uses rocket ammo and can hold two rounds.
In addition to the Proximity Grenade Launcher, Epic has made some balance tweaks to an assortment of existing weapons and items in the game. The Storm Flip, which was added as part of last week's update, now deals flat damage rather than being based on the current storm phase, Epic has decreased the availability of the Mounted Turret and common variants of the Heavy Assault Rifle.
Beyond that, the developer is adding two new limited-time modes to the rotation this week. The first is the low gravity One Shot Duos mode. Here, all players have only 50 health, the only weapons that will spawn are snipers, and the only available healing items are bandages. The second mode, Horde Rush, drops four-player squads on the island and has them defending areas against waves of Fortnite Fiends.
Like other special LTMs, Horde Rush comes with its own assortment of challenges to complete. These will be available for the duration of the event and will reward you with XP when completed. If you manage to finish all seven tasks before the mode leaves the rotation, you'll also earn a special wrap for your troubles. You can see the full list of Horde Rush challenges in the screenshot above.
This week's update has also added some new items to Fortnite Creative and Save the World. You can see all of the changes for Fortnite: Battle Royale below, while the full patch notes can be found on Epic's website.
Fortnite: Battle Royale Update 9.21 Patch Notes
Limited-Time Mode Rotation
One Shot Duos
Low Gravity. Every player has 50 health. Sniper weapons are the only weapon, Bandages are the only healing item. Jump high and aim well!
Horde Rush
Fortnite Fiends are back on the island and angrier than ever! Fight alongside your teammates to rack up your score by finding hidden score multipliers, opening special loot chests, and eliminating as many monsters as you can. Traverse across the map, survive all of the Defend locations and take down the Final Boss to win!
Mode Details
Four player Squad mode divided up into multiple stages.
Prepare to defend an area by searching for weapons & items, scavenging materials, and building defenses.
Rack up points by fighting Fiends, collecting score multipliers, and destroying Fiend Spawners.
Recover from the battle and search for more equipment.
Travel across the map to the next defense point.
Respawning is enabled until the last stage when players have to destroy a Boss Fiend and his horde of minions.
Keep an eye out for special loot chests, which contain powerful weapons & provide a scoring bonus.
Weapons & Items
Proximity Grenade Launcher
Fires an arcing, bouncing, explosive projectile that explodes when in proximity of an opponent.
Available in Epic and Legendary Rarities.
Found from Chests, Loot Carriers, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
Semi-Automatic.
Uses Rocket Ammo.
Holds 2 Explosive Rounds.
Rate of Fire: 0.65 shots per second.
Player Proximity Radius: 250 units (about half the width of a tile).
Explosion Radius: 300 units (about 60% of the width of a tile).
Explosion damage:
Player: 67/70
Environmental: 131/138
Reload Speed: 2.8s/3s
Projectiles explode automatically after 10s or if it has nearly come to a stop.
Shield Potion
Increased the availability from Chest loot from 11.3% to 12.09%
Small Shield Potion
Increased the availability from Chest loot from 16.95% to 18.13%
With items being added and removed, we've noticed that Shield Potions and Small Shields have been less available in Chests. So we've increased the chance to find Shields from Chests to compensate for that.
Shotguns
Increased the overall chance to find from Floor loot from 8.50% to 9.77%
After seeing the community's feedback about Shotgun availability, we've increased the Shotgun availability from Floor Loot to make finding them in the early phases of the game easier.
Infantry Rifle Epic and Legendary variants
Increased the availability from Floor loot from .067% to .105%
Increased the availability from Chest loot from .414% to .645%
Heavy Assault Rifle Common variant
Decreased the availability from Floor loot from 2.04% to 1.715%
Decreased the availability from Chest loot from 12.47% to 10.46%
Mounted Turret
Decreased the availability from floor loot from .59% to .46%
Storm Flip
Adjusted Storm Flip to cause flat damage instead of being based on which Storm Phase is currently active.
Causes 5 damage every second.
We noticed with scaling damage that players held onto their Storm Flip later into matches, creating undesirable effects. This change gives players more value in using it earlier in matches.
Reduced the availability from Chests from 3.39% to 1.69%
Reduced the availability from Floor loot from 3.32% to 1.66%
Added back into the Arena and Tournament playlists.
We have visual effect changes coming in v9.30 that will help improve readability.
Audio
Bug Fixes
Audio was sounding muffled due to a filter optimization issue.
During Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct, the company announced that the new Animal Crossing game has been delayed to March 2020. Though the news is a bummer, we did learn what the game's official name is--Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We also learned that fan favorite Isabelle isn't leaving the franchise behind.
Polygon spoke with game director Aya Kyogoku on the show floor at this year's E3. As Kyogoku explains it, the Shih Tzu could make an appearance in the game depending on how the island develops. "At first on the deserted island, you have Tom Nook, Timmy and Tommy, and a few other animals that have moved to the island through Getaway Package with you," Kyogoku told Polygon. "Depending on the population, the development level of the island will change, so you may start to see more new characters added to the island."
Though Kyogoku didn't give specifics on how Isabelle will show up, she did reassure fans that the Leslie Knope-type is always willing to lend a helping hand. "One thing that I could definitely say about Isabelle is that as the island develops a little more and it needs a little bit more support then Isabelle might see some sort of use on the island."
Pre-orders for the life sim are now live ahead of the game's new March 20, 2020 release date. In case you missed it, check out Animal Crossing: New Horizons' latest trailer below.
We got another look at Fire Emblem: Three Houses during Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct with a new trailer. Directly afterward during the company's Treehouse Live, we saw even more gameplay from the upcoming tactical RPG, including the way permadeath works--or doesn't.
A tweet from the official Nintendo America Twitter account went into detail about a new ability called Divine Pulse. If you use the ability, you're able to go back a few moves or to the very beginning of the match if things don't play out in your favor. The ability is limited though, and there's no confirmation on how many times it can be used, what the requirements are for use, or how to replenish charges after use. It's an interesting take on the franchise's typical permadeath feature and quite similar to Mila's Turnwheel from the 3DS' Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 12, 2019
The sixteenth mainline Fire Emblem game and the first on home consoles since 2007's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Fire Emblem: Three Houses takes you to a continent called Fódlan, where the Church of Seiros exists at the center of it all. Similar to previous Fire Emblem entries, your customizable character is an advisor. However, you're a professor at the Officer's Academy this time around, with your warriors--who are divided into three houses based on their respective nation--as your students.
Pre-orders for the tactical RPG are now up and there are a few different versions to purchase from a few different retailers, each with their own unique bonuses. Fire Emblem: Three Houses will launch on July 26 for Nintendo Switch.
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